This time, her target was a sunken wooden ship whose wreckage lay silently at the bottom of the ocean. As Tess descended to the depths, the ghostly outline of the ship materialized, making its dark shadow real.
When she reached the wreck, Tess was amazed at the marine life that had made the wreck their home. Shoals of fish swarmed around the skeletal frame, penetrating the empty windows and doorways. Seaweed swayed gently in the underwater currents, adding an eerie grace to the scene.
Tess lingered on the exterior, gazing at the remains of intricate carvings and the mossy hull. The play of the sun's rays penetrating the water cast an unearthly glow on the wreck, creating a fascinating dance of shadows on the ocean floor.
With a sense of curiosity that fueled her underwater exploration, Tess swam closer to the ship. The entrance beckoned, and after a moment of hesitation, she decided to go inside. As she crossed the threshold, the ambient light dimmed and the underwater world turned into an intimate and secluded space. Only a few small openings in the ship's hull let in light from the surface, leaving the interior of the ship barely illuminated.
Inside the sunken ship, Tess traveled through skeletal corridors, her movements unhindered by the weightlessness of the water. The remnants of the ship's former glory were frozen in time - forgotten booty, traces of the former crew, and fragments of the life that once flowed aboard. Now it is only a skeleton of the past. The ship sank probably half a century ago or even further...
The silence of the underwater environment amplified the creaks and groans of the ship's time-worn structure, adding an eerie atmosphere to her underwater journey. As Tess delved deeper into the heart of the ship, she discovered rooms and flooded compartments, each revealing a piece of the ship's mysterious past. It was a silent, ghostly journey through the sunken memories of a maritime era that had succumbed to the inexorable embrace of the sea. The staircase ended in one of the ship's compartments, the light illuminating the deck where fish swam and seaweed stretched like a green carpet.
Now Tess was walking alone along its corridors, which used to be the crews' quarters, where people were making noise, where land life used to be bustling for people in the middle of the endless ocean. She could feel the pressure of everything around her, the pressure of the water and the feeling of old... graves, graves for history and life, for those who could not breathe water, only the darkness of water awaited. Fortunately, Tess had a supply of air and reliable equipment with her.
She swam into the captain's cabin, the dark room lit by an old carved wood window, the water blue behind it. Tess looked around carefully for anything interesting, the old furniture damaged by time and water responded to the water pressure with a shrill creaking sound. The chair where the captain had once sat writing down his charts and counting treasure was now lying quietly in front of the table, and the table itself was broken in half as if it had been hit by a large rock. But something made the frail girl worry, the wood creaked, the creak seemed to echo the words of the sunken ship, she did not know his language, but she felt his words in her head.
- Perish... leave... leave...
- Leave... yourself... us... here...
She shuddered, releasing a burst of bubbles from her regulator, the air escaping quickly upward, but being trapped by the ship's ceiling. It was as if someone had grabbed her arm. She turned back, peering into the darkness, but there was no one behind her.
The ship was searching for her, wanting to know her answer, as if she were a ghost of the past, she could feel the wooden monster's eyes on her. She inhaled a new portion of air from the scuba tank...
Eventually, after taking a long look at the interior of the wreck, Tess swam back toward the light, rising from the depths to the open ocean above. Her path was through the ship's innards, a path she knew, but...
Leave... yourself... here...
Leave... here...
Realizing the imminent danger, Tess felt an adrenaline rush. The once-familiar passageways had become treacherous as the ship succumbed to the underwater forces that had been working against it for decades. The wreckage began to shift and the ship's structure, long compromised by corrosion, began to fall apart. In the dimly lit interior, Tess desperately made her way through the narrow passageways, her path blocked by floating planks and the drifting remains of the former ship. The underwater currents, now stirred up by the ship's disintegration, added an extra layer of difficulty to Tess's escape.
The ship shuddered, the old wood creaking, forcing the girl to hold her ground. The ship shook, the planks shuddering and creaking with the fury of the ocean before the corridor in front of her collapsed. She cried out in surprise, a wall of planks in front of her, the road she had come on destroyed. She barely calmed herself down as she made her way back to the lower deck, all the decks were connected, so it was too early to give up hope. Tess tried to swim fast, afraid she would not have time to swim out. The long corridors seemed like a labyrinth to her, the darkness around her was broken by small glimpses of light from the surface.
It was as if Tess realized that the ship did not want to let her leave its domain. She glanced back at the red marker on her air, the arrow nearing the end, marking her end. A small glimmer of light from the side led her to the stairs to the upper deck, just a little more and she would be free... Before she could reach the exit, a long black shadow from the blue waters jumped towards her, making her run back into the depths of the ship in fear. The shark had come out of nowhere, waiting to take its prey into its teeth. Tess swam away in fright and hit the wall, pain surged down her back, and she only whimpered as she let out a few bursts of air from the regulator.
She tried to calm herself from the unexpected attack, to inhale a few gulps of air from the cylinder.
But it was empty.
She felt an unpleasant vacuum instead before glancing at the cylinder behind her. A hand lifted the regulator indicator to her face before her eyes widened in surprise.
The red mark, the air was running out, but how? A few seconds ago, there had been plenty of air, but now the arrow was steadily approaching the end. She looked at the cylinder, from which her air was escaping one by one, and the impact on the deck broke it. She was desperate, there was a bloodthirsty shark in front of her, and her last air was running out right before her eyes, she would soon drown here.
Her mind analyzed the situation for a few seconds, looking for some kind of plan of action, before an unpleasant vacuum felt in her chest. One last glance at the gauge... blank. The air was gone. Her eyes opened in complete panic, she was in trouble now. But the cylinder in her hands gave her an idea.
She swam toward the exit again, looking carefully around her, searching for the silhouette of an animal. A blue shadow circled around before a dark arrow flew at her. White teeth, in its mouth, searched for prey. She saw the jaw open even more, revealing rows of teeth in her direction, but her hands instinctively threw a steel cylinder in front of her. The shark freaked out as the steel problem was in its mouth, its teeth gnawing at the steel, the creaking and pressure of the metal was a horrible sight. The shark lamented the gift it had received, swimming away.
Tess was pleased and even laughed a little, but...
She made a mistake...
As she smiled, water found its way into her mouth. Quickly, the joy was replaced by fear, her lungs caught fire again, forcing her to only shudder in pain and clutch at her throat. There was only water and long seaweed around, no one to help him. Every second the pain was getting worse, her lungs were squeezing to try to swallow air, but only met with resistance from his hand. Finally, her lungs gave up and she took a deep breath of water. A sudden, intense burning sensation in her throat and chest engulfed her, and for a moment she was as if mesmerized, silent and puffing out her cheeks, holding the water she had inhaled. Unbeknownst to her, some tension had built up in her lungs, and she instinctively blew bubbles to release it. She calmed herself down, but it didn't last long, her body reminded her of itself again with pain in her chest, and her strength to hold her breath was getting less with each passing second.
She could no longer control herself and began to slowly swallow water down her throat. Her mind was racing for a way out, but she realized that she could not escape... Exhausted.
She was lying on the deck of the ship, looking up, there was air above, but it was far away. She had already swallowed some water... she felt her chest getting heavier, probably it was all the water in her lungs, all her thoughts were confused.
However, she felt another squeeze from her body, causing her to gasp for air again as she swallowed more water, her eyes watering as even more water filled her lungs while her body struggled to expel the water back out.
She whimpered, thinking...
Her mind was a mess...
...Stay here...drown here...
I...will...drown...I...will...be...alone...
Only...the...water...feels...good...
Her mind gone, Tess calmly, without fear or pain, opened her mouth and lips, and the water accepted her defeat and rushed inside her body, exploring her insides. She did not even resist. Her body gave up and she began to swallow the water into her lungs, she became heavier, but she didn't care. But her body became lighter, her body slowly went limp, she inhaled air with her empty chest, but there was only water instead.
The salty sea water plunged down Tessie's throat and quickly entered her lungs. Her eyes flew open at the intrusion, the salty taste and pain flooding in, releasing her from the pain and fear. Her body instinctively began to cough, pushing out as much water as possible before taking another deep breath.
Her eyes blurred and her body twitched weakly as she looked up at the surface above her head with one last effort. Her chest and body twitched in small convulsions for several seconds. Her eyes snapped open as her hand clutched at her chest a few more times, her stomach throbbing rapidly and furiously as her body tried to push the water out before her eyes rolled back in her head with one last strong gurgle, her body shuddering, trembling, and then going completely still. Her face turned a dark purple hue, locking in a terrified expression before her face and eyes became expressionless and her body lay limply on the floor, her stomach still slowly sucking in and out of water.
...
The ship motionlessly accepted her into its family. Her drowned body lay on its deck, her eyes staring into nothing. Tess lay still, no movement, no breath, no fear, just empty red eyes watching her new friend.
...
Leave... her... here.
...
Fish... not man... don't... touch.
...
Leave her alone.
...
Tess? Stupid... human...
...
…
Tess could see nothing, only the ship's wood roared with anger.
...
She was taken back. By who?
Tess woke up later, unable to remember anything... She was watched by...
