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The original was posted on /r/nosleep by /u/OkShow7411 on 2023-07-02 02:05:18+00:00.
I shuddered as I climbed into my wetsuit, the chilly ocean breeze sending a shiver down my spine. We were a rescue team of divers, tasked with finding a sunken fishing boat and the bodies of the fishermen lost at sea. It was a grim mission, but one that needed to be done.
I took a deep breath and descended into the ocean, the murky water enveloping me. My team and I had spent weeks training for this mission, but nothing could have prepared us for what we were about to face.
As we descended deeper into the ocean, the pressure increased and the visibility decreased. We were in a deep patch of the ocean, miles away from civilization. It was just us and the sound of our own breathing in the darkness.
We finally reached the sunken boat, and my heart sank at the sight. The boat was torn apart, the hull crushed under the weight of the ocean. It was a miracle anyone had survived at all within the first few hours, but now they were surely dead.
We swam around the wreckage, searching for any signs of life. But as we searched, a feeling of unease crept up on me. The water around us was eerily still, and the only sound was the creaking of the damaged boat.
Suddenly, I saw movement out of the corner of my eye. I turned to see a massive creature looming in the distance. It was unlike anything I had ever seen before, with tentacles writhing and twisting in the water. It was an ungodly eldritch leviathan, and it was coming straight for us.
It lashed out a tentacle and wrapped around my leg, as I struggled to free myself, but the creature's grip was too strong. I watched in horror as my teammates were devoured one by one, their screams silenced by the water. I knew I had to act fast before it was too late. I reached for my dive knife and thrust straight into the abomination's eye, causing it to release its grip on me.
I swam as fast as I could, my heart pounding in my chest. But the creature was relentless, its massive form chasing after me. I could feel it on the back of my neck, and I knew I was running out of time.
As I broke the surface, I took out my mouthpiece and gasped for air, my lungs burning. I looked back down at the water, and saw the creature retreating back into the depths from which it came. I realized the longer none of my teammates surfaced that I was the only survivor of the rescue team, but I knew that I had to report what had happened. I made my way back to land, my mind still reeling from the encounter. I couldn't believe what I had seen - a creature straight out of a horror story.
As I reported what happened, the authorities didn't believe me at first. But as more divers went into the ocean to investigate, they too encountered the ungodly horror, most not making it back. It was a monster that shouldn't exist, but it did.
The area was declared off-limits, and warnings were posted about the dangers of the deep ocean. But the memory of the creature haunted me for years to come. I couldn't shake the feeling that there were things lurking in the ocean that we couldn't even begin to comprehend.
As for the sunken boat and the lost fishermen, they were never recovered. The eldritch leviathan had claimed them as its own, and it was a reminder that there were forces in the world that we could never hope to control or understand.