Chapter Text
It's currently a race against time, and a fucking fish monster god something! . Simon is pushing the SM-13 to go as fast as it possibly could. He just got the transfer from the SM-8, and wastes no time navigating out of the cave system where Ava should be waiting outside.
His freedom is within reach, he dares and lets hope fill his being as he hears Ava though the speaker. "Simon! I need to you get right next to my sub now. " Simon looks at the speaker, then towards the porthole. He doesn't know where she is to him, he hadn't gotten any coordinates. It should be fine if he takes a picture-
The screen lights up. Simon hesitates before turning around. He's still sitting down. It shouldn't have gone off...
A vein-like substance was creeping up and grew on the button, forcing it to take pictures non-stop. Simon glances at it before turning to the screen again. That works. He thinks before forcing the implications of what it means down. He can't afford to sit any longer.
Using the pictures as a reference, he pushes forwards again and begins to turn in a way that will get him just right against her sub. It wasn't perfect, but he hoped it would be good enough.
"I'm right next to you." Simon looks at the speaker again. There's nothing said for a half a minute and he he feels his heart stop. She's going to actually get him out right?
Something lightly jostled the sub, and he hears the sound of metal screeching. Simon wants to throw up, he shouldn't have let his hopes up. The monster is here and it's going to-
"The sub attached successfully. Preparing for ascent. You still there, Simon?" He gapes. It was just Ava attaching them. Once again, hope flares within him.
He feels the sub shake before seeing the gauge slowly rise. "I'm... I'm fine." He chokes out. Finally, after all this time. He relaxes in the chair and closes his eyes. He just needs a second to breathe and calm down. He's going to be out of this torture chamber, and he will be a free man.
Fast beeping makes his body jolt as he rips his eyes open. Somethings behind them. Somethings behind them and it's approaching fast. He hadn't had enough time to yell before the whole sub jerks and Simon thrown to the side.
He hears Ava swear over the speaker, and begins to... reassure him? "Simon, we still have you. We're halfway out. Shit, can you go a little faster please?!" She abandons all attempt to steady her voice as she yells frantically, assuming to whoever is pulling them up.
Simon! You can't! The Light is too much for them! They don't deserve it, we deserve it!
Simon struggles to pick himself up, and almost falls again when he hears It. That thing . "Ava?" he weakly calls out. "Did you hear that too?" He sits on the floor, preparing for another hit.
"What hell is that?!" She hisses out. Simon glances up towards the gauge. Less than halfway up. He was so close...
YOU WILL NOT ESCAPE US. YOU WILL SEE. YOU WILL SEE WHAT IT IS TO TRULY KNOW THE LIGHT. SIMON. COME. BACK.
The subs violently shudders. Simon places his hands firmly against the floor for stability. His mind is foggy, the adrenaline, his fear, more than likely dehydration as well, cloud his mind. Too much. But the voice cuts though it all like a hot knife cutting butter. The warm, melted butter clings to the knife though, leaving a permanent mark within the butter, and taking out a piece.
"Simon, Simon, are you still with me?" He groans in response "We're almost up, okay? We will be up and that... Thing will be left in the ocean. We got you Simon. I got you."
Simon really knows shes just after the information, everything transfered is worth more than him. But he allows himself believe for just a moment, that someone may actually care about him, even if just a little bit.
He lets his body rest on the side of the sub, looking up towards the lights. "Okay" He replies is a quiet voice. "Okay." His voice cracks on that one, afraid almost.
He feels something crawling up his arm. Gasping from the sudden feeling, Simon tears his hands off and instantly feels something warm beginning to rise up. The blood.
Blood was slowly filling the sub. He scrambles up, the back of his pants and legs bloodied. "It's flooding in here!" He cries out. When he looks back up to the speaker, more veins and a fleshy substance was growing all over the walls. He's going to die in here, when he's already so close to getting out. Of course.
YOU
WILL
NOT
LEAVE
UNSCATHED.
Simon trembles as the voice speaks. His head is pounding as he feels his legs become weaker. The blood has risen past his ankles, if he were to collapse now, he would become soaked and let a greater chance of the veins crawling up him.
He looks at the gauge... Three more notches. Only three more until they rise out of the ocean, then just two more until they reach the station.
The sub violently jerks back, as Simon lands face first in the blood. He couldn't tell if he swallowed some, or if it was his own blood. "What was that? Am I still attached?" Frantically, he rolls over and sits up. Should he risk standing back up? Only to be thrown back into the blood? Or sit in the blood that seems to be alive?
The blood hasn't risen past his chest, but if he were to sit...
"Ava?! Are you still there?" He hasn't heard from her in a minute. Maybe she's dead, the blood took her, the monster tore her off, she droped Simon- "Ava, please!"
"Were up!" And the sounds of the ocean suddenly stop. Simon faintly hears the waves underneath his sub, getting quieter as the subs rise. Grabbing the chair for support, he hoists himself up with hope blazing within him.
He can't tell if the blood is draining from his sub, but at the moment he doesn't care. A scream leaves his throat, an emotional, angry yet alleviating scream. Hes out.
"Fuck you! Fuck you! You didn't kill me, I survived! I fucking survived." He yells out in victor. He kicks the blood. It doesn't do anything, but he kicks it again, like doing such rubs in his victory in the face of whatever was hunting him. Then he grabs the pendant handing from his wrist, and gently kisses it, ignoring the blood that clung to it.
The lights suddenly shut off, and he is reminded of when he first got pulled up. He breathes for a moment, waiting for anything, any indication that something is happening. Lound banging against the front of the sub startles him, and then he remembers the camera. Looking back fearfully, he noticed the screen stopped lighting up but the button is still being pushed.
He hears voices, not the eldritch, amalgamation of voices he heard. No, muffled voices one would hear from the otherside of a wall. Some of it was yelling at first, but seemed to die down. It's hard to make out was is being said, shouting? Simon can pick Ava's voice out from it however.
The speaker crackles, "Simon, you need to open the porthole. We can't access you from anywhere else." Ava voices cuts through.
Using his memory, and feeling around the control panel, he finds and twists the switch. Light starts to enter the sub, not much, but enough so that Simon can see.
Flesh had begun to form around the edges of the porthole outside, Simon doesn't want to think what the rest of the sub looks like.
He spots Ava, who seems to be yelling at someone. He thinks he can see her pointing at him, but between the crack and blood dripping down the window, he couldn't tell.
"Why aren't I out yet?"
"We are trying Simon, the porthole is the only way left we can get you out but we need tools to get it off-"
"Just break the window, please just anything that gets me out!"
"And get shards all over you? Do you want to get cut up and let the-"
"I'm not waiting anymore!"
Simon bangs on the window, then looks at the fire extinguisher. "I'm not fucking waiting!" He sloshes through the blood and rips the fire extinguisher off the wall. Running as fast as he can, dispite the resistance from the blood, he uses all his strength to hurl it towards the window.
The window shatters , and Simon practically crawls over the control panel and throws himself out.
He lands with a crunch from the shards. Everything hurts, maybe it was one too many times getting thrown about for Simon.
Ava yells for him, he couldn't make out if out of anger or worry. Things were starting to blur together, voices become muddled, and vision becoming darker.
He hasn't slept for a while, he thinks.