The Grasp of the Abyss

The darkness swallowed them whole.

One moment, Daniel and Mira were darting through the vast expanse of the ocean, their bodies slicing through the water with desperate speed. The next, the abyss itself stirred—an ancient, slumbering force that had been waiting, biding its time, before pulling them into its relentless grasp.

Daniel's instincts screamed for him to flee. Every fiber of his being urged him to escape, yet the water around them had grown impossibly heavy, as if an unseen force pressed down from every direction. It was no longer merely the pressure of deep water; it was as if the ocean itself had thickened, trapping them in a suffocating embrace.

Mira struggled beside him, her eyes wide and frantic as she darted glances at the impenetrable darkness below. "Daniel—!" she cried, her voice barely audible over the sound of their rapid movements and the distant, eerie echoes of the deep.

And then, it spoke.