Chapter 3
The heavy, damp air uncomfortable, pressing down on my chest as I slowly drifted back toward a consciousness that I wasn’t entirely sure I wanted to regain.
My head throbbed with a faint headache, that synchronized with the distant, steady sound of water dripping against cold stone, making every thought feel like it was being dragged through thick, heavy mud.
"Urrgh...."
I groaned into the dim light of my surroundings, the sound of my own voice echoing strangely off the unseen walls of whatever place I had been dumped into while I was out cold.
At first, I just lay there with my cheek pressed against a hard surface, staring up at a jagged ceiling while feeling an overwhelming sense of exhaustion that made my very bones feel as heavy as lead.
"What on earth happened..." I muttered to myself, my voice coming out as a dry, raspy whisper that barely carried through the humid and stagnant air of my surroundings.
The silence that followed was heavy and oppressive, but the mont the fog in my brain began to clear, the mories of the ocean, the overturned boat, and those glowing eyes ca rushing back to .
’ I’m still alive?!’
My eyes shot open the instant the full weight of my situation hit , and my heart began to hamr against my ribs.
"Hah!!"
I yelled in pure, unadulterated fright because the very first thing my eyes focused on was a bleached, hollow-eyed skull sitting just inches away from my face on the rocky ground.
The sight of those empty sockets staring back at sent a jolt of pure adrenaline through my system, snapping wide awake.
I hurriedly scampered backwards on my hands and knees, desperate to put distance between myself and those scaring remains, but my retreat was cut short almost imdiately by another horrifying realization.
I jolted in fresh fear when my back collided with a solid, uneven wall that didn’t feel like smooth stone, and as I turned my head to see what I had bumped into, I realized I had backed myself up against a literal mountain of skeletons.
The pile was a horrific mix of ivory-white bones and remains that still looked disturbingly fresh, evidenced by the dark, sticky bloodstains that coated so of the ribcages and limbs of the recently deceased.
"Where the fuck am I?!" I blurted out, my eyes glancing about frantically.
The area I found myself in seed to be so kind of massive underwater cave that had been fortunate enough to trap a large air pocket against its high, jagged ceiling.
The space was divided into two distinct sections, half of the cave was composed of a rugged, rocky land mass where the bones were piled, while the other half was a deep, dark pool of water.
I didn’t need to taste the air to know that the pool was definitely connected to the sea, acting as the only entrance and exit to this damp, terrifying tomb hidden beneath the waves.
’The dark bitch brought back to her nest...’ I thought to myself, my face turning a ghostly shade of pale as the realization of my predicant finally settled into my stomach like a stone in a pond.
I was no longer just a man drifting at sea, but a captured snack, stored away in a pantry for whenever the resident predator decided she was hungry enough to finish the job she started.
Just as that thought crossed my mind, the surface of the pool began to ripple, the dark water breaking as sothing started to rise from the depths to greet its new guest.
"Oh? You’re up so soon? Well, that’s a surprise," a voice called out from the pool, its lodic yet chilling tone causing my nerves to shiver even more than the cold air of the cave.
I swallowed down my saliva in one scared, painful gulp, watching with wide eyes as a figure’s head fully erged from the center of the pool of water, her hair clinging to her pale skin.
At first glance, she had a strikingly pretty face that might have been beautiful under different circumstances, but that illusion was shattered the mont she opened her mouth to speak.
She revealed a nightmare of a maw filled with more than one row of serrated, needle-like teeth that bore a striking, terrifying resemblance to those of a great white shark.
The figure was none other than the rmaid who had kidnapped , and her luminous eyes were currently filled with a sense of wicked amusent, as if she truly enjoyed watching panic in the face of my own inevitable demise.
I looked at the mountain of bones behind , then at the rows of teeth waiting in the water, and a strange sense of resignation began to wash over as I realized there was no escape.
"On second thought, I think I would’ve preferred to be eaten in my sleep...." I muttered under my breath, a helpless, broken smile tugging at the corners of my mouth as I looked at her.
The rmaid paused mid-motion, her head tilting slightly to the side as her expression of amusent shifted into one of genuine, wide-eyed confusion at my words.
"W-Wait... Co again?" she asked, her voice losing so of its predatory edge as she stared at with visible surprise, her translucent webbed hands gripping the edge of the rocks.
"Umm, I said I would’ve preferred to be eaten in my sleep?" I replied, my eyes blinking as I tried to maintain so level of composure despite the fact that I was shivering uncontrollably in the damp air.
"If it’s not too much trouble, why don’t I just knock myself out against the wall first so you can finish off quickly and get it over with, alright?" I forced a smile onto myself, which no doubt looked incredibly pitiful and desperate given the circumstances I was in.
Well, what else could I really do at this point, since my fate was practically sealed the mont she dragged down into the darkness of the ocean?
There was no point in pretending I had any cards left to play, as escape was near impossible because there was no way I was going to get past a supernaturally strong predator in her own ho ground.
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