Page 62 of Call of the Fathoms

She half expected to see a massive beast looming in the darkness before her. But there was nothing. Just the beam of her light and some stray white particles.

“Nothing,” she whispered, her voice shaking around the word. “It’s all in your head, Alexia. Keep swimming.”

But she kept the light on this time. She needed more light to reassure herself that she was, in fact, still alone. Even if she couldn’t see all that far ahead of her.

It was only a few more kicks of her legs before she swore there was a current touching her back. Like a creature had swum very close to her spine.

“All in your head,” she repeated, but she swam harder. The light on her wrist was a beacon to follow, steady and true.

Until she felt the touch again. This time it tangled around her waist, like an arm had wrapped around her. She reacted, her arms reaching for whatever it was and punching at the creature. It released her, but she swore there was a sticky feeling as it left.

Frantically she looked around, turning her head and light in every direction, but there wasn’t anything here. She was alone. She was...

Tentacles and a snapping beak rushed at her. There were more arms than she could count, all of them flaring wide as the squid wrapped itself around her head. All she could see was the strange underbelly, so close now that she could actually see it was bright red. Her light fractured through the thin skin and illuminated the jaws that gnashed near her face.

She grabbed onto it, trying desperately to get it off her head. She’d seen squid before, but never this size. It was nearly five feet in length, she guessed, and the body was so thick it was hard to wrap her arms around.

Eyes. Squid had eyes. She just had to find the damn eyes and then she could push on them as hard as she could. Her hands skated over smooth, slick skin before she felt the bulbous nodes. Pushing hard, she screamed as it shoved off her head and sent her spinning away from it.

Breathing hard, she splayed her arms wide to stop herself. She had to be ready for when that thing came back. And it would come back. Squid liked to hunt, didn’t they? She couldn’t remember from her training as panic set in. It was so dark. Whipping her head around, she tried to anticipate where it would come from, but she couldn’t fucking see.

Tentacles latched around her outstretched arm. She jerked at the limb, only for another to grab her other arm. The first one’s beak connected with her wetsuit, biting through the neoprene and sinking into her flesh.

She shrieked, bubbles erupting from around the seal edges of the mask. Her light spun wildly as she arched her neck in pain, and then she saw them.

So, so many of them.

She was surrounded by a hundred squid. All of their ghostly bodies flashing in the sea. There was no light at these depths, which meant all she could do was stare at the haunting images of them tangling above her.

Another latched onto her right thigh, biting deep. She screamed again, writhing to get out of their grip, but they were so incredibly strong. One biting her arm, the other her leg, they were all latched onto her with impossible strength.

Wisps of her blood darkened the water. It looked black in this light, flashing red as it got close enough to her light. Strangely,she could hear them. Bumping into each other as they all rushed forward, fighting against themselves before moving as one as they shifted and moved like a pack. They were hunting together, she realized.

Humboldt squid. She’d heard of them before. Her mind fractured, trying to get away from the pain that was seemingly unending. They bit into her again and again, the bites digging beyond her skin and severing through tendons and muscle.

She should have stayed with him, she thought. Alexia had let her anger get the better of her again, and now she was going to pay the ultimate price. She’d never thought she would die being feasted upon by squid, but she supposed it might be fitting after everything she had done with Tau. Maybe this was just the ocean finally getting back at her for everything.

A flash of thick, rubbery bodies. They moved as one, revealing a glimpse of yellow in the distance. She was already weak, and it seemed like the tentacles wrapped around her arm were going to break it now. She wasn’t even sure which arm.

Cold water had rushed into her suit. Her heart beat was slowing down considerably until she could hear it like drums in her ears.

That flash of yellow came again, so bright it blasted through the ghostly squids, revealing their red colorings in bright orange as the light moved closer. Many of the squid gave up. They all turned as one, their long tentacles flaring as they hovered near enough to watch what was happening.

With a single tail flick, Fortis rose through them, approaching her with an expression of pure rage on his face. Of course, he was angry at her. He was always angry at her. No matter what she did, it was never the right thing to do.

Breathing out, she watched more bubbles erupt around her face. Had the squid that had attached her face broken herbreathing apparatus? It couldn’t have done anything too bad. There was still air.

The squid wrapped around her suddenly fled. Perhaps they realized there was a much larger predator in the water barreling toward them. Fortis hit her hard enough to steal the breath from her lungs and pain flared white hot. She couldn’t see anything, couldn’t focus beyond the misery that rioted now that he had her.

Adrenaline depleted, all she could do was remain limp in his arms as the salt water burned through her suit and all the wounds decorating her skin.

He said nothing, just propelled them at a speed that was shocking. She’d thought she’d seen him swim quickly before, but he had never moved like this.

Her heart thudded strangely in her chest. All wrong. It was slowing down, she thought, or maybe it had never sped up in the first place. She had a feeling it wasn’t right since the first moment those squids had attacked her.

Looking down at her arm, she struggled to lift it so she could see her oxygen levels. That was the most important thing. She was underwater. She had to breathe.

But the squids must have bitten through something important, or perhaps they fucked with something on the back of her breathing unit when that first one attacked her.

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