"I've been a search and rescue diver for 12 years" Creepypasta | Scary Stories from Reddit Nosleep

i've been involved with water search and rescue for 12 years now i've seen a lot of upsetting and even unexplained things in my time but those pale in comparison to what i saw recently water search and rescue is often a depressing job when someone gets lost in a forest they can still be found alive days later but when we get a call it's almost always body recovery people don't last long in the water i can't tell you exactly where but i live in a northern territory known for its water sports fishing kayaking diving whatever it is our waters probably have a solid reputation for it despite that this area isn't some kind of resort the waters here are cold and oftentimes vicious search and rescue operations here can be grueling and not many stick with it there are a few older guys who have been doing it longer than me but i'm one of the most experienced around like i said before this job is more body recovery than anything especially here we save more live moose from the water than live humans and when we get a call about a missing child well we'd be better off just giving our condolences that's how the waters are here our small town has one of the highest drowning rates in the country but we look anyway and usually we find a body i've considered quitting many times in my career most people quit after their first recovery in training we try to emphasize just how much water can distort a corpse but nothing can prepare you for the harsh reality it's not uncommon for us to find bodies bloated beyond recognition sometimes they barely even seem human a lot of divers don't last long after seeing something like that but i continue to do it after all these years i figured if i didn't no one would however the things i saw last week made me reconsider that decision i got the call around 11am a father had taken his 10 year old son fly fishing at one point the father managed to stab a hook all the way through his finger he went back up to his truck to get his first aid kit the boy was gone when he returned a few minutes later when i first heard the story i hung my head in silence for a moment it had been raining heavily for almost a month now and the waters were running faster than ever to make things worse it was unusually cold for this season a number of people had gone missing in recent weeks many of them had yet to be found i had a little hope of finding the boy alive me and a couple of other divers were at the site where the boy went missing within an hour and a large search and rescue team located a few towns over and was headed our way we talked with the father and even searched the forest for a bit hoping that mia just wandered off but eventually we realized that we would have to begin searching the river the moment i got in the water i knew the boy was gone the current was worse than it had ever been and even i had difficulty navigating the icy river we looked for hours in the surrounding areas and even expanded our search once the larger team had arrived the boy was nowhere to be found i was surprised i hadn't expected to find him alive but i had at least anticipated finding a body however there was no trace of him the sun got low and the air grew colder we were considering calling it off as nightfall approached and resuming the search the next day when i discovered something there's a lot of creek beds around the river many of them have dried up as a result of encroaching vegetation or man-made efforts to divert the water we usually don't pay any attention to them however with all the recent rain i noticed that one of the larger creek beds had begun flowing again a surprising amount of water crashed through it easily enough to carry a young boy the creek ran directly across the bend in the river connecting it at two points i followed it and realized that the boy could be located outside of our initial search area as i approached where the creek reconnected with the main river i felt a sinking feeling in my gut there's a place in the river where not even search and rescue divers are supposed to go it's known as bad water this area lies on one half of the river and runs about 100 yards it's near a densely vegetated area so we don't often have to worry about people swimming there but a lot of disappearances occur in the surrounding waters despite that i've been warned not to dive there since i began doing search and rescue supposedly the undercurrent is so strong that even the most experienced swimmer could be swept away in an instant don't go near bad water it was a mantra of the older divers the creek ended exactly in the center of the bad water region as a result i stopped and chewed my lip thoughtfully if i went back and reported this to the other divers they would tell me to let it go they wouldn't let me dive there but deep down i felt like the boy's body must be tangled up in some weeds nearby if only i could find it i hated the idea of that kid being stuck down there slowly bloating and rotting away while his parents sat at home wondering where their boy had gone bad water didn't seem to be that bad i'd seen rougher waters before but i knew looks could be deceiving just below the surface it could be flowing faster than i ever imagined and i'd be swept away in an instant besides i wasn't supposed to dive alone i almost turned back but something made me stay i stared into the river for a moment thinking about the boy then i put on my gear and dropped into the icy waters the first thing i noticed was that the current actually seemed pretty weak as a matter of fact it was weaker than the rest of the river the water was extremely deep there and i could see only blackness below me as i dove i kicked deeper and deeper thinking that the current might pick up lower down but the opposite seemed to be true the water was almost completely still i went even deeper until finally green shapes began to materialize in front of me i thought i'd finally reached a bed of weeds but as i kicked lower the truth came into full view i felt vomit come up at the sight an odd and dangerous sensation when you're wearing a scuba mask countless arms stuck out from the ground below i thought i'd come upon a trove of bodies but the disgusting reality became even more apparent only a moment later the arms grew directly into the ground they even had roots that spread out from the base it was as if someone had cut off hundreds of arms at the shoulder and planted them there they were green and i watched as they clutched the water around them they varied in size and seemingly age grotesque baby hands sprouted near the bottom and they opened and closed their fists hungrily it was then that i saw the boy his eyes stared sightlessly ahead as those grotesque arms pulled his body downward it seemed as if they had gotten a hold of him the arms yanked to him burying him into the surrounding sediment they pushed and writhed and squirmed until he was securely buried up to the chest i stared at it in mesmerized horror that was when the other bodies came into focus there must have been at least four of them all in varying stages of decay some were bloated beyond recognition only bulky white masses that protruded loosely from the riverbed i once again felt vomit rising in my throat and swallowed it back down the hands were feeding off the bodies using them as fertilizer the moment i clamored out of the water i tore my mask off and wretched i couldn't stop thinking about those disgusting bodies those grabbing hands they were like some sort of carnivorous plant yet they were so humanoid i vomited again at the thought i frantically ran back to our base camp and pulled one of the other divers aside moose was the most experienced person on our team he'd been diving for over 20 years ever since moving here i told him about what i saw when i finished he stared at me in cold silence i told you to never go near bad water he said with iciness in his voice that's what you're concerned about i was incredulous he placed a hand on my shoulder and squeezed it tightly don't tell anyone else about this if the others find out you went into bad water he trailed off and thought for a moment well he won't be any good he shook his head like a disappointed father but what about those things i tried to keep my voice down hoping no one would hear us how many people have died because of those things shut up moose said we have an agreement there's a reason they only grow in bad water don't mess this up i started to say something but the words caught my throat he was keeping something from me he sighed and i saw something like sadness behind his eyes sometimes you have to decide between lesser and greater evils even the best possible decisions can still keep you up at night he went silent for a moment and only stared at me don't tell anybody about this maybe one day you'll understand he walked away after that and called off the day's search despite what i told him we continued to search for the next two days by the third day we called it off completely and gave our condolences to the family i don't know what is happening moose has been acting different towards me ever since there's an iciness to him but every now and then he'll shoot me a knowing glance like we're in on some secret together i've noticed the other older divers acting strangely too what did he mean by agreement what were those armed things i'm considering quitting and moving away from here i can't live with the knowledge that those things are down there slowly feeding off the body of a young boy among countless others i wanted to just forget about the things i saw but no matter how hard i try i can't erase them from my mind i'd like to think that i'm a good man but there comes a point where sheer terror outweighs one's sense of decency no matter how good you are i think i've reached that point i wasn't planning on writing this but more things have happened and i found something horrible there's no other way to explain it i don't know how much longer i can remain here i can't sleep anymore and i just keep dreaming about those things i saw i've been plagued by nightmares about them for the past two nights it always seems so real at first i'm asleep in my bed and suddenly those arms are rising up from the darkness around me pinning me down and covering my mouth i struggle they're so strong i especially remember the smell it's like old grass clippings and rotten fish mixed together the next thing i know i'm awake wretching with tears streaming down my face however even those horrible dreams are nothing compared to what has happened in the past two days especially compared to what i saw last night i don't know what to make of it i've packed my bags i think i might leave soon i need to get away from this place a couple of days ago not long after my initial post i received a call about a body found near the river i felt a cold sensation in my gut and when i got there i realized that it had been found where the boy disappeared i approached the bank to see moose and two others standing over a body their backs were to me and i could hear one of them speaking angrily he was practically shouting it was clyde one of the more experienced sar divers as i got closer i saw that the other was ryan i felt chills run down my spine all three of the senior divers were in one place i recalled the things moose said to me last week as well as the knowing glances i'd seen the three share something was up do you think it was him clyde asked let's not jump to conclusions moose said i heard voices by the river last night ryan said suddenly the other two went silent and stared at him the lures clyde asked his voice hushed and i could barely make it out ryan nodded almost definitely that breaks the agreement though clyde said he's not supposed to use those anymore well he is for whatever reason ryan returned to moose any ideas on what's going on moose started to respond when a twig snapped beneath my weight the three older men whirled around to look at me the iciness was still in moose's eyes but i also noted a twinge of fear about time you got here clyde said from beside him seemingly unaware that i had been listening there for a while we got bad news he stepped aside so i could see the body more clearly my blood ran cold the moment i laid my eyes on it i was already reeling from the conversation i had just overheard and the sight of the body only compounded that confusion it was michael one of the new search and rescue divers he laid on his back in full scuba gear minus a mask i moved forward and knelt beside the body michael was new to search and rescue and he had actually recently attended a few classes i taught tears stung my eyes as i stared down at him what happened as if in response to my silent question moose spoke up for some reason he was diving in the river we think he got swept up in a strong current and hid his face on a rock knocking his air regulator off and causing him to drown we haven't found the regulator or his mask anywhere i continued to stare down at the dead man in front of me why was he in the water i asked the three men exchanged glances we don't know clyde said we think he may have been looking for the boy we never recovered i knew they were lying michael was one of the most straight-edged divers i'd ever met he would never break a minor safety regulation let alone go diving alone in rough waters it just didn't add up additionally there was another reason their claim didn't make sense michael had been out of town visiting his family on the day the boy went missing why would he come back if he wasn't even there for the initial search he wouldn't even know where to look i knew not to argue though i didn't want them to know i suspected anything clyde and ryan were unaware i'd been to bad water assuming moose kept a secret from what i could tell he had they acted as they always had toward me just then an ambulance pulled off the others left me alone with michael's body while they talked to the diver as i looked down at the body i realized something was off there weren't any contusions on his face if the current had actually dashed him against a rock there should be at least a bruise but there was nothing his face was completely unmarred at that moment i noticed something strange the bruise peeked out from the neck on his dive suit i pulled the rubber down to reveal a splotchy blue and black mark that circled his neck it looked like he had been strangled my thoughts immediately turned to those strange hand things i'd seen at bad water but if that's what killed him then why did they let him go was there a warning a deep sense of dread settled into my stomach just then and it's only got worse ever since after the ambulance took michael's body away i returned home feeling drained i couldn't bring myself to do anything that day only sat in cold silence i slept fitfully that night plagued by the nightmares i mentioned earlier most of yesterday passed in the same cold silence as the day before i felt numb the conversation that i overheard between the older divers kept playing over and over in my head what did they mean by lures who was this him that they kept referring to i recalled what ryan had said about hearing voices near the river that must be the lures they'd been talking about as i sat there my numbness faded and was replaced by anger michael was dead and it had something to do with moose and his secrets it probably had something to do with those lures too i grabbed my coat and headed out the door i was going to see what ryan had meant when he said he heard voices i wish i hadn't gone i should have just stayed home and let it go there are some things in the world that should just remain unseen i wandered the riverbanks for 30 minutes hearing nothing but the sounds of nocturnal animals i was about to head back when i heard something just out of earshot sounded like someone's voice the sound grew louder as i headed up the bank until i could finally make out what it was saying help please i can't swim instincts took over and i began to sprint in the direction of the voice i eventually lost track of where i was and stumbled blindly through the underbrush barely even using my flashlight and relying on my hearing finally the voice came from the water right next to me sounded like a child i was about to wade into the river when something stopped me in my tracks i listened to the voice carefully help please i can't swim it was the exact same words over and over again as if it was being played on loop the tone was exactly the same every time it didn't sound right they were yelling but it didn't sound like someone who was actually scared there was no urgency in their voice my heart pounding in my chest i shined my flashlight along the river that was when i saw it a face pressed out of the mud of a riverbank like the hands i'd seen it was seaweed green and roots grew from its edges and into the surrounding earth it was like someone had constructed a human head out of algae or moss the mouth opened and closed repeating the same call for help over and over again while the rest of the face remained flat and motionless my whole body shook as i stared at the thing just beyond it in the water i saw two of those hands reaching out from the shallows grasping for anything and everything a cold realization came upon me michael must have heard that thing's call for help and immediately suited up only to dive in and find himself dragged under by the groping hands this is what ryan had meant by lures i felt sick to my stomach as i watched the eerie face continue to yell the cries grew quieter and more spaced out until the face became completely silent then without warning it retreated into the earth burying itself in a thin layer of mud i shuddered to think about that thing just beneath the surface then i realized there could be more who knew how many more of them were lurking just below me i sprinted back to my car disgust driving me more than fear when i got home i sat up all night thinking about what i saw i managed to sleep for a couple of hours just before sunrise but was awoken by the nightmares once again i don't know what to do anymore there are twisted things happening here and even if i did have the power to stop them i don't think i want to face this darkness alone it feels like some great puzzle and i'm missing the one or two pieces i need to bring everything together i've packed the bare necessities into bags which now sit by my front door i think i'm going to leave the problem is i don't know where i would go i don't have any family outside of town and i don't exactly have a fortune in my savings account still some part of me feels obligated to stay both out of curiosity and because i owe it to michael not just michael i owe it to the countless people who have fallen victim to those things in the river isn't that why i took this job in the first place despite all the things that have happened i've decided to stay here and to be honest i fully intended on leaving as soon as possible after my last post but that changed when i went to michael's funeral it was a grueling experience he was only 22 years old his girlfriend cried the entire time and i couldn't help but feel guilty when i saw his young friends carrying his casket to its final resting place his death never should have happened i had another nightmare last night this one was the worst one yet just like last time those hands reached up from the darkness and grabbed me covering my mouth and pinning my arms to my bed that sickening fishy smell turned my stomach and my eyes began to water as i struggled against them then two more hands rose up and held my eyes open i watched a [ __ ] as a face protruded from the ceiling above me it was like the one i had seen at the water all green and mossy tears began to stream down my face as i recognized the features it was michael why did you do this he said cold black fluid dripping from his mouth i tried to respond but couldn't over the hands that were clasped over my face why why why why michael went on and on his voice becoming raspier with every query i laid there for what felt like hours while he stared down at me and asked why i had done this to him i woke up in a cold sweat and could have sworn that disgusting smell still permeated my room i began to think that this was all my fault i should have heeded the warnings about bad water i don't think i was the first to go there but i was the first to see the truth of it and come back alive bad water isn't just well known amongst the divers there's a variety of local legends about that part of the river and when i think back i recall hearing something about hands that drag people to the water's depths growing up kids would spread rumors and folktales about bad water in the river as a whole as i got older i assumed they were just stories the grown-ups made up to keep us away from the dangerous rapids i began digging into the history of our town legends go back as far as anyone can remember and even the natives told stories about the river treating it with certain fear and reverence i found an eerily familiar description of native myth about the river it was in the library's archives as part of a local university's professor's thesis regarding metaphorical folklore the myth tells the tale of a young man who lived by the river he had everything he ever wanted a beautiful wife a son bountiful harvest and a warm place to sleep however that all changed when he was overcome by a terrible sickness that same sickness spread to his wife and child he recovered but his family did not and he was left alone he still had a warm bed at night and healthy crops but he fell into a deep depression unsure of what to do with himself he would wander the river's edge for hours silently hoping that one day he would fall in and be swept away from his troubles one day while pacing the riverbank he heard his wife and child crying out to him frantic he searched everywhere for the source of the voices they began to tell him that they were living happily in the river now his family urged him to dive in and join them so that he too could live happily without a second thought he jumped in only to drowned cold and alone the person who examined that myth believed it to be a warning against desiring things that we've lost and getting caught up in the past i know now this isn't true the myth is a true story and warns people against the dangers of those things that live in the river through further digging i found that there's actually a lot of native lore about the river many of them are similar to the story i told you about but there are others that make this whole situation seem a lot more complex many of them referenced some kind of god or spirit that the natives worshipped there are a few different translations but the most common one i've seen is king moss some stories refer to him as a personification of the river itself while others describe him as a spirit with whom the people struggled however one common theme is the existence of a sort of pact made between king moss and the locals some stories made it sound like they sacrificed people to him in order to quell his rage while others described a situation in which he was to be left alone in exchange for not actively hurting humans i can't help but be reminded of the agreement that moose and the others mentioned could they be referring to a pact similar to this one i don't know about this whole king moss myth but after all that i've seen i'm almost willing to believe anything after that i got the idea to plot out the disappearances and deaths that have occurred in the past few decades what i found was pretty typical most reports were evenly distributed around the most dangerous parts of the river as well as the areas where most people tended to gather however i noticed an unnerving trend reports in which there was no body recovered occurred almost exclusively in the areas around bad water as far back as the reports go in those areas the body was only recovered about 15 percent of the time this was commonly attributed to the strong current there which supposedly carried them too far to be found but now i know the truth the hands got those people and dragged them down to feed however while doing this i noticed something even more intriguing i was using a couple of different maps to plot out the disappearances when i realized that there were inconsistencies between the two curious i looked at a few more maps and saw even more inconsistencies they were all relatively similar aside from a few changes due to creeks drying up and urbanization however there was one area deep in the forest west of bad water that didn't seem to match up on any of the maps some of them indicated nothing but forest there while others showed a small lake a few of the older maps even depicted a cave system i used google earth to look at the area but something strange occurred the picture was incredibly pixelated everything around it was clear but it became blurry as soon as i toggled over the area where the maps were inconsistent it was still somewhat visible but i had difficulty discerning anything other than tree coverage i'm surprised that i'd never been there before i've spent a lot of time wandering the forest and i somehow never managed to stumble into that place i'm going to check it out soon i think that this secret goes deeper than moose and his crew there's more to this and i'm determined to figure it out wish me luck and if i don't come back well just wish me luck i messed up after discovering that strange area on the maps i decided to go there i packed everything i thought i'd need hiking gear my camera to record my findings emergency flares and a gun i wasn't going to let myself get caught off guard by that point i was determined to get to the bottom of the town's strange mystery i headed out at about noon i decided that it was best to do my exploring in broad daylight i wanted nothing to do with those things that came out near the river at night the lures as clyde called them speaking of which there have been three disappearances in the past couple of nights i have no doubt that it's the work of those eerie faces the other sar divers have been searching relentlessly but i've called out sick every day i want nothing to do with moose and his crew until i figure out what's going on i felt a little guilty about it but i'm hoping that my investigation will save more lives in the long run i headed towards that strange area i had discovered choosing to move through the dense part of the forest in order to avoid running into anyone the hike was surprisingly long and arduous i could hardly find my footing after all the rain we'd had within 15 minutes i was soaked to the bone covered in mud and had nearly broken my camera twice the trip was incredibly long longer than i had expected it seemed as if i was circling around the area without ever getting closer i scrutinized my phone closely i had been using it to guide me but somehow i kept getting off course my destination should have been directly to my east just over a mile away i turned in that direction and headed straight but when i looked down at my phone i realized that i had somehow veered north i was a little closer to my destination but grew more distant with every step in the wrong direction i don't know how to explain it i just kept veering off course without intending to this persisted for several hours and i feared the sun would set before i even got there but i grew closer little by little until finally i reached my destination the sight of it bewildered me the soaring rock structure stood in the center of a large clearing the structure is hard to explain imagine cutting off the top 500 feet of a mountain's peak and then just plopping it down in the center of a field that's what it looked like an unconnected stone structure that rose to a jagged pointy tip it gave the distinct impression of a pyramid though lacking the smoothness and straight angles that one would expect a fissure in the front appeared to lead into a passageway strangely a small river ran out of the cave's mouth it only appeared to be about 10 yards wide and it meandered across the clearing until it diverged in the woods the water was crystal clear and it flowed surprisingly fast i followed it until i reached the mouth of the cave i looked inside to find only darkness the passage going back as far as i could see it seemed to be relatively straight with no tunnels branching off i entered the cave and noticed that the air immediately grew colder it must have dropped at least 10 degrees from the outside i shivered and zipped up my jacket the river continued as far as the passage did and i followed it as i delved deeper into the strange mountain i noticed that there were no stalagtites or stalagmites in the cave while it lacked any smoothness or markings that would indicate a man-made tunnel it also didn't seem to be natural the whole place had a strange air about it i continued deeper until i was sure that i must have been in the heart of the structure at that moment i noticed an eerie bluish light in the distance it grew closer and brighter until i almost didn't need my flashlight the passage grew narrower until i was just barely tiptoeing around the edge of the river the light brightened until i suddenly found myself in an enormous round cavern the walls were covered in thousands upon thousands of small glowing green insects glow worms i had heard of caves like this in new zealand but didn't think they existed here however what drew my attention sat the center of the cavern my breath caught in my throat when i saw it and my hand immediately went to my gun the river dwindled until it ended in a clear circular pool in the center of that pool rose an enormous stone throne that seemed carved directly from the floor of the cave it was adorned with beads reflective stones and precious metals normally i would have found it beautiful but the beauty was ruined by what sat atop it i can only describe it as a figure it must have been at least 14 feet tall and sat straight almost regal on top of the throne its hands rested on the arms of the seat and a stone crown sat upon its head dark green moss comprised the body much like the face i'd seen by the river black stones sat where the eyes should have been and they stared sightlessly down the length of the tunnel i'd come through i shivered at the thought of that thing watching me the whole time i had been approaching it there was no doubt that thing was what the natives had referred to as king moss that's when i noticed the smell it was disgusting and i couldn't believe i hadn't noticed it earlier it was exactly like the smell in my dreams the gut-wrenching combination of grass clippings and rotten flesh i nearly vomited and tried to focus on breathing through my mouth that wasn't much better though i could taste it in the air it coated my tongue and throat making it impossible to ignore i covered my mouth and nose with one hand and pulled out my camera with the other this must be the source of all the weird stuff going on this is what the native myths had talked about and i was going to make sure everyone knew about it i turned the camera on and pointed it at the green figure and nothing the image was too blurry to discern anything there was just a mess of black and green shapes smudged across the screen i rubbed the lens on my shirt and turned it back to the throne only to find the same as before i couldn't get it to display properly i was moving to wipe the lens again when i heard a voice behind me it won't work i whirled around to find moose standing right there he glared at me with a weary look in his eyes he has a way of staying hidden moose said nodding to the enthroned figure camera won't work not even film hell it's a miracle he even found this place most people would get lost i slowly began to reach for my gun he noticed the motion and threw his hands up in surrender whoa now i mean you no harm yeah right i responded moose voters brow listen you can keep your hand on that gun all you like you can even point it at me if it makes you feel better just hear me out and promise not to shoot me for no reason i kept my hand resting on the gun at my hip but nodded you won't believe me when i say this but i've been trying to protect you most sat on the cold stone floor looking tired his normally clean shaven face sported a shaggy beard and dark circles ringed his eyes [ __ ] just like how you tried to protect all those people down to bad water most remained silent for a moment and his eyes took on a distant look you have no idea how much i wish i could have i stared at him for a moment he seemed genuinely sad there wasn't any malice to him he was just a weary old man i kept my hand near my gun but decided to hear him out what is all this moose why couldn't you save them he nodded to the throne once again do you know what that is king moss the name sat heavy on my tongue i felt as if i had just spoken something terrible into existence he chuckled i see you've done your reading yes that's what the natives referred to as king moss but do you know what he is i reluctantly shook my head there creatures that existed long before humans on this earth and then there are beings that existed long before even them he stared at king moss there was neither fear nor reverence in his eyes just weary acceptance he existed before almost anything else on here he was ancient when the first fish took steps on land even more so when the first settlers made their way to this place maybe he's a god maybe he's just another creature like us all i know is that he has powers beyond fathom you can't kill him moose shook his head that thing over there isn't him i mean it's certainly a part of him maybe something correlating to a head but cutting off the head won't kill something like him he's the river he's the ground water he's the plant life in the water he's everything his influence extends beyond even the river there's no stopping him we can only abide by the pact i remembered the agreement i'd read about in the native myths as well as the one i'd heard the older divers referencing and what exactly is the pact i'm not entirely sure of the reasoning behind it but king moss seems to be a lethargic sort of creature he doesn't like being challenged even if his challengers don't stand a chance he just likes to sit in silence and eat nearly a thousand years ago he came to an agreement with the natives he would mitigate his power relegating it to certain parts of the river and only feed on those who fell in in exchange the people wouldn't attack him and would let him eat in silence one rule of the pact is that only a certain few people would be allowed to know of king moss's existence these people were to guard his secret and ensure the covenant remained unbroken they were the protectors the role was passed down generation to generation and once the natives left it was passed down to the settlers clyde and ryan are the protectors now just like their fathers and grandfathers before them i had trouble processing all that he had told me this went back so much further than i could have imagined what about you i asked i knew moose had moved here when he was in his thirties he couldn't have inherited the role of protector like clyde and ryan not long after i moved here i was hunting out in the forest nearby a sudden storm appeared one like i had never seen before i couldn't even see through the driving rain i stumbled through the forest looking for any kind of shelter and came upon this place that's when i saw him he glared at the green effigy in disgust i told ryan about it the next day that night he and clyde planned on killing me but then that thing spoke to them it wanted me to serve as protector apparently something about me caught its eye he suddenly looked at me you broke the pact when you came back from bad water alive i didn't tell clyde or ryan i saw you because i knew they'd kill you but king moss knew and he became angry that's why he started using the lures again it was a warning what can we do i asked moose looked at me inside you really don't get it do you what it took a while for me to realize it too he gestured to the throne he can talk to us it's like a voice in our heads but not exactly words i can't really explain it i glanced at the creature on the throne and shuddered at the thought of it speaking in my head okay so he knows he went to bad water and he could have told ryan and clyde at any time the cold chill ran down my spine as i began to realize what he was implying so why didn't he those two aren't opposed to killing anyone who threatens the pact hell they proved that just the other day with michael michael i'm sure you think it was those hands that got him maybe the lures drew him in that's what the others implied to me though i doubt it he had overheard us talking about the little boy who went missing a few nights ago needless to say some of the things he heard were incriminating i have no doubt that ryan or clyde killed him and made it look like a drowning if he had been taken away by bad water then his remains never would have been found they killed him i was bewildered i knew that something dark was happening and that the older divers were intentionally ignoring the threat the bad water posed but i couldn't believe that they'd actually go out of their way to kill another diver yes moose said and they would kill you too if they knew you'd seen bad water so the question is why didn't king moss tell them about you i remember what he told me about when he began working to protect the pact how clyde and ryan had tried to kill him but king moss had stopped them he wants me i said moose nodded he wants you to protect the pact he smiled riley to himself i think he has a thing for divers suddenly i felt like the giant green figure on the throne was staring at me it hadn't moved but still it seemed like i was being watched that thing wanted me i clenched my fist i would never work for it help me kill it i said to moose or at least help me get away moose shook his head i can't yes you can but they're still good in you you don't understand he stood up and stared at me with the look of utter defeat on his face i literally can't he began to take his shirt off confused by his actions i gripped my gun tightly however my grip fell when i saw what was beneath his clothes a green mask sat in the center of his chest seaweed colored veins branched off in every direction and faded into a skin it pulsed like a second heart and my stomach turned as i watched his skin stretch over it what the this is his mark moose said it's how he shows that i belong to him it's how he keeps me in line i can't act in opposition to his will it burns if i do and it'll kill me if i act blatantly against him it's been aching ever since i found out you went to bad water and i can't even leave town it'll kill me if i go too far i backed away from moose things had just gotten so much weirder i pulled out my gun and pointed it at him go ahead i don't care anymore my hand shook as i put my finger on the trigger i stared at him for what felt like an eternity before finally letting my hand drop to my side i couldn't do it i'm going to leave now the word sounded hollow i was badly shaken by that point moose struggled go ahead you can't escape though this will all end one way or another i ran out of the cave and once out i kept running stumbled through the forest in a mad dash it's a miracle i didn't trip and kill myself i ran until i got to my car and sped home i'm going to try to leave tonight i have the bare necessities packed i don't care where i go anything is better than this i don't know what king moss has in store for me if he's as powerful as moose claims then he might have ways of keeping me from leaving i don't know god i'm scared [Music] this will be my last post it's all become too much i'm sorry after making my last post i quickly grabbed my bags and threw them in the car i was going to leave i didn't really have anywhere to go with no relatives a few friends and a dwindling bank account there wasn't much for me outside of town but anything was better than what i'd seen in the cave i wouldn't mind drifting or sleeping in my car i was sure i could find a job somewhere just anywhere other than here i immediately hopped in the driver's seat and headed south i maintained a straight course having no destination in mind i wanted to get away as quickly as possible however as i approached the city limits i began to feel a dull ache in my chest the town grew further and further away but the ache grew as the distance increased it felt as if something heavy were pressing down on my heart and lungs my breath became labored and the pain even spread to my arms for a moment i thought i was having a heart attack but then i remembered the thing that had been in moose's chest i pulled over to the side of the road by that point it was more than just an ache it felt as if someone had hit me in the chest with a sledgehammer and my whole body burned with a horrible pulsing pain i could barely breathe and my legs shook beneath me i yanked up my shirt and looked at my chest the skin in the middle was raised and greenish and dark veins radiated out from it i watched as it pulsated slightly just barely enough to notice that thing was the source of the ache my breath caught in my throat and i began to cry i don't know how long i did so i must have stood by the side of the road for at least 30 minutes just a shaking sobbing mess it was all so overwhelming the sudden appearance of that thing in my chest combined with the mind-numbing pain that i was feeling after a while i managed to regain my composure and climbed back in the car determined to get away from this thing but the pain grew and grew until my vision began to go black i kept going despite barely being able to see however after a while my vision went completely i couldn't even drive anymore i got out and began walking determined just to keep blindly moving south but it wasn't long before my legs gave out and i laid on the hard asphalt in a pitiful state the pain was too much and i crawled back to my car and turned around heading back to town as i did so the ache lessened until it finally disappeared at that moment i knew that i belonged to him there was no denying it i don't know when it happened perhaps it started when i went into that cave or perhaps it hadn't been happening slowly all along it really doesn't matter in the end over a week has passed since then i've spent most of that time alternating between being a sobbing mess and in a catatonic state it's all just too much i sit in my house now writing this it hurts to do so acting against him even writing about him incites the pain but his hold on me isn't as strong as the others not yet at least i write this because i feel that i must the truth must be set free though i feel there is little that can be done about it i have come to a certain realization in the past few days i can feel myself growing closer to him becoming one with his mind perhaps the pact wasn't so bad all along but i know that he won't be satisfied with the pact moose was wrong about it all though surely he must feel the truth now the king isn't lazy he was merely resting and the pact was a method of easy sustenance until it was time for him to rise that time is now i can feel his cold rage and his terrible hunger i fear for what comes next in this town and the surrounding areas i have no idea how far his influence stretches but if moose was telling the truth he might be unstoppable as he wakes i can feel him becoming more sentient within my own mind it's it's strange like a second thought process that constantly underlies the first i fear it will overtake me soon i don't intend to let that happen i will not let myself become a mindless servant to this monstrous creature the thing on my chest is beginning to look more and more like the one on moose's i tried to cut it out but it wouldn't let me the knife stopped inches from my skin and no amount of effort could force my arms any further he's part of me forever now i feel there's nothing i can do to remove myself from him it won't be long before we are one and the same i have my gun with me i intend to use it on myself to whomever hears this i know that everything i have written is the absolute truth as i know it do not search for me similarly do not search for this town only horrors await you here whether you will be devoured by them or you will unleash them upon the greater world i want neither of these things to occur just know that he exists know that other things like him exist in our world and be wary live with that knowledge let it sit deep within your gut never forget it do not let things end as i have [Music] [Music] you

Channel: The Dark Somnium

Views: 152,157

Rating: 4.902061 out of 5

Keywords: search and rescue, search and rescue stories, search and rescue creepypasta, search and rescue officer, search and rescue reddit, creepypasta, scary stories, horror stories, creepypasta stories, creepy pasta, creepypasta reading, creepy stories, nosleep, creepy story, the dark somnium, scary stories from reddit nosleep, creepy pasta stories, dark somnium, scary creepypasta, creepypastas, nosleep story, creepypasta story, creepypasta narration, nosleep stories, scary story

Id: eBcUgvoGEzI

Length: 49min 53sec (2993 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 12 2020