The Dark Somnium - A Cave Divers Worst Nightmare | Scary Stories from the Internet | Creepypasta

Episode Date: February 8, 2023

This creepypasta scary story is from reddit, posted by CodingWoodsman, make sure to check out the original story and support the author!  "A cave divers worst nightmare" https://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/qj8iy9/a_cave_divers_worst_nightmare/--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/darksomnium/message Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Never leave the line. Something we heard the diving instructor say countless times in our cave diving class. If you can't see the line that leads back out of the cave, then you're in trouble. My brother had become obsessed with cave diving. What had been a casual hobby had turned into a burning passion for him, and because I was his diving buddy, it didn't take long before I found myself in the cave diving certification class. The first time going scuba diving was wonderful.

I never had imagined there was an entire, intricate world beneath the waves. I could have simply done open water diving for the rest of my life and been content, but that was not what my brother was like. He was always pushing to try the new, exciting challenge, and this had gotten us into some trouble more than once. That was when I should have known to pump the brakes when he started talking about cave diving. There's no doubt in my mind that cave diving could be a wonderful, peaceful experience if done right, But the combination of my brother's ego and the deceptively dangerous pitfalls involved with cave diving should have sent me running for the hills.

My brother had spent quite a bit of time searching the different caves to dive around where we lived. He kept saying the word siphon over and over, and finally I asked him what it was. Most people cave dive in springs, where the water flows outward and the current will push you towards the entrance. A siphon, however, is when the water flows into the cave, pulling you away from the entrance. It seemed like the ultimate test which was irresistible to my brother, who was in a constant state of having something to prove. That was why, before completing our certification, we had taken off for an underwater cave in Pennsylvania.

My brother argued that we had more than enough training, being certified in advanced open water. For some reason, I went along with it. We were headed to the entrance of an underwater system referred to as conky hole. My brother had mentioned that it had been part of an old Native American legend, back when the Lanapi tribe still lived in these parts. He said that a young man, after being rejected by his love, dove into the hole, and only a pool of blood came out the other side, miles away where the underwater cave system flowed out into a bay.

At the time, I had laughed and rolled my eyes. a long car ride, we had reached the dive site. I was surprised at how deserted it was. It was just a small pond in the middle of Pennsylvania. There was a bed and breakfast in the distance and a Christmas tree farm, but other than that, it was quiet. That's it? I said. I was expecting something bigger. There's an entrance somewhere in there. There was a fire in his eyes, which was infectious. I was starting to see the appeal of going exploring, but I wondered if we really were prepared. It was well known that only those with proper cave diving certification are allowed to go diving into caves. We were not yet certified. My brother kept saying that because we were

certified for advanced open water diving, we should be fine. I was starting to have second thoughts as we approached this murky pond. We suited up and began the dive. The water was a bit cold, but I quickly adjusted and became acclimated to my new surroundings. As I started to look around, my first thought was that there was nothing that interesting, and maybe our trip had been a waste of time. The pond wasn't that big, not more than 50 feet in diameter, and it seemed to be mostly shallow. But as my eyes darted around towards the bottom, I saw what looked like a small fissure. My brother had seen it too, and he immediately started swimming for the entrance. I followed.

Being relatively new, we both had a single tank setup, which only afforded us about 45 minutes of air. The rule was to use a third to explore, a third to get out, and a third just in case of emergencies. That was why we had only agreed to be in there for 15 minutes before turning back. We swam closer to the fissure, and I was expecting it to be more pronounced. It was only a small crack, just big enough to squeeze through. These are known as restrictions, and have been known to be the end of many a cave diver. Get stuck in an underwater squeeze, and you'll run out of air. especially from all the panic breathing which drains your tank. These restrictions were just the type of thing my brother loved,

and he immediately began to wiggle his way into the fissure. He began to kick up mud that pervaded the bottom of the pond. It was becoming difficult to see, but after a brief struggle, his body disappeared through the fissure. I was next. I must admit that squeezing my way through sharp rock surfaces with sensitive gear that my life depends on was not my idea of a good time. I figured, if I can make it through this part, then it might be worth

it. I started wiggling my way in. The rock face on either side was surprisingly sharp. I shimmied on and noticed a turn. I had to rotate my body around to be able to bend through. I kept forcing my way deeper into the fissure, and sure enough, after a time, I broke free into a large chamber. The only light was very faint and coming from the tunnel I had just passed through. Only a meter into the chamber turned to complete darkness. I could see my brother there shining his light around. It was truly a wonder to behold. In all directions going out, there was blackness, and who's to say how far it went?

I immediately understood why people did this. I shined my light around the entrance and along the wall. There was mud interspersed with striking orange rock. It felt like being on another planet. The light eventually tapered off into the blackness. My brother tied off a line to the rock face, and after making sure it was secure, started frog kicking along the wall. Together, we started down what seemed to be a large tunnel, though we could only see one side.

Occasionally, a critter would swim or crawl by, and this gave me a sense of ease. At least we weren't the only things down here. Something was able to survive. We moved deeper into the cave, frog kicking, careful not to kick up too much debris, but Neither of us was very good at it. Nonetheless, we pressed forward into a large chamber, deeper, farther from the entrance, farther from air. Almost all at once, the mucky, orange rocks turned into a purplish hue, as if we had entered

what seemed like another biome. Stalactites by the hundreds eerily coated the ceiling, and I gazed with wonder as my light passed over them, only for them to once again fall back into the infinite darkness in which they dwelt. I was surprised to see the occasional, smaller, pale crustacean walking by. It seemed like a place so inhospitable to life, yet here it was. My brother seemed eager to see what was around the next corner. We were getting deeper, and I looked at my dive computer. We still had several minutes left of air, but my brother's kicking made me nervous. He had started flutter kicking to get himself deeper. It was starting to kick up all types of debris. As the cave system

went deeper, I could see that it branched off into several directions. My brother tied off the line he had been laying as we'd been instructed, but before I could catch up to him, to signal to frog kick in, he was already off again. I love diving, but my brother has this nasty habit of turning fun things into competitions. This wasn't the first time that I felt as though he was acting dangerously during a dive. I was going to really give it to him when we got out. He continued unrelentingly towards what. looked like the next restriction.

He positioned his body and began to shimmy his way into this crack. This was the part that always made me nervous. Many cave divers preferred to use a side mount rig or a rebreather called a sidewander to be able to fit into tighter spaces. Being relatively new to this, we had tanks mounted on our backs. This made it more difficult to pass through restrictions. What would happen if he got stuck and I couldn't pull him out? Through restrictions while cave diving is very dangerous, yet it allows you to explore a place

that may never have been visited by humans in the entire history of Earth. This enticed me. It was truly the last frontier on this planet. He continued to shimmy deeper, and soon his fins fell into darkness. I hovered there in the water for a moment. It can be much more difficult to back out of a restriction than going forward. The last thing you want to do is create a traffic jam underwater with limited air. Still, as I tread there alone in the underwater chamber, which seemed so isolated, so far removed

from the rest of humanity, so far removed from all the comforts and distractions of the daily minutiae that present the illusion that being alive in this world is somehow normal, I began into the restriction. The last thing I wanted to do was have an existential crisis alone in an underwater chamber. The rocks were sharp and abraised my suit. I carefully continued to shuffle deeper into the squeeze. It was tight. At one point I could only wiggle my leg a matter of inches up and down.

I wasn't getting used to passing these restrictions. On the other side, I saw my brother again, shining the light around. He had already tied off another line and started swimming out into the chamber. I looked at my dive computer. We were deeper now, and we would have to turn back soon. We continued on through what seemed like an endless maze. It seemed to be a large tunnel carved by an underwater stream over millennia. There were massive boulders that we began to weave through.

It was magnificent. The water in this chamber was pristine and had yet to be mucked up by our kicking. Yet as I looked around, I noticed that the silt we were kicking up seemed to be drifting. It seemed to have entered a small current. I knew it was time to call the dive, but in the distance we both saw something large, but very faint as our lights didn't reach that far. I was just as mesmerized by the object in the distance as my brother, and we kept drifting forward. It was then that my brother ran out of line.

He swam to the bottom and tied off the line and looked to me, wondering whether or not I would tie a new line off. I shook my head and tapped my computer, signaling to him that we didn't have time to go deeper. His head pivoted back to the object, and he strained to see, stretching his light hand as far as it could go. He looked back at me and signaled to continue forward. forward, and without any confirmation, he swam out. Never leave the line. I scrambled to tie off my bright orange line to a small outcrop at the floor as fast as I could. What an imbecile!

I finished tying off a sloppy bow-tie knot and took off after him. My light found him still kicking toward the object. Thank God I could still see him. I kicked harder to catch up. Then all at once he stopped dead. His body began to slowly sink to the bottom as he remained perfectly still. That was when I finally got close enough to see what it was. Through the darkness, the large object was still hard to make out.

The borders were hard to discern, but over the next couple of seconds, my brain put the pieces together and I lurched backwards, as if overtaken by some old mammalian defense mechanism. There was some kind of crustacean, or at least the lifeless shell of one that had multed. What was truly horrifying was the size of the shell. It must have been the size of a car. It looked to have horridly long antennae, and there seemed to be scant remains of what must have been an enormous claw. It looked like some kind of freakishly large cross between a giant prawn and a lobster,

only long and streamlined so as to fit through the restrictions as we did. I shuddered as I wondered whether or not this cave system had been dug out by some horrid monster, and whether or not we had intruded upon its layer. Who knows what types of prehistoric creatures lay in the depths of the earth? It was hard to make out its shape as it was just the discarded shell, and it seemed to only be a piece. My brother swam closer, and I followed. Hovering over it, we looked at each other. I thumbed the dive, the dive signed ahead to the surface.

To my relief, he nodded, and we began to swim back. Suddenly, I felt the line go slack. The only thing this could mean is that my knot had come undone. My brother noticed this, and we looked at each other once more, this time in horror. I tried to remain calm to think of what to do. My brother started desperately flutter kicking his way back towards where we'd come from, but as I looked around with my light, there were a hundred different ways to go. Still, we had tied another line off relatively close.

We just had to remain calm and work our way back. I was happy that I still had two-thirds of my oxygen left. My brother was moving fast, and I was having a tough time keeping up. The harder I kicked, the more carbon dioxide was building up in my body. I knew that I should slow down and breathe, but my brother was swimming faster still. He seemed to be desperately looking for the other line. I could feel my head start to swim, and I knew that if I kept pushing myself, I would pass out. I slowed down and kept my light on my brother's fins as they became fainter and fainter.

I tried yelling out through the regulator, but it was too late. He was out of sight. There I was drifting helplessly. My line dangled there, limp in the water. I remember what the cave diving instructor said. It is panic that kills people. I had to remain calm. I floated there for several seconds, just calming myself down.

My breath started normalizing, and I started to gather my wits. I had to swim towards where I thought my line had come from. The thing was that, given the slight current, where my line had come from, might not be right. Still, I had a little choice. I kicked back in the direction I came from, straining my eyes for a sign of my brother. I continued onward, checking my dive computer. I still had time. My light traced all of the walls, and I tried to make a mental note of any anomaly, anything

that stood out, but everything seemed the same. I continued out into the blackness. I could feel myself starting to panic again. I just had to find the other line. My heart soared as I noticed the other line from a distance. I swam toward it and gently held it. Had my brother found it, he may be causing it to move, yet the line remained limp. I searched all around, but he was nowhere.

I knew I was going to have to make a decision soon, whether to look for him or leave him and get help. Something inside me told me that if I went and got help, it would turn into a body recovery. It's all well and good when death takes someone you don't know, but at the prospect of losing someone you have known your whole life and care deeply about, it becomes very real. I knew I had to go back and look for him. I knew that I had to use my reserve air to search for him, even though it would likely mean that I would die too.

Still, leaving your brother to die isn't a choice you can make. I reeled in my line and went to tie it off again, when I noticed another line that had been tied off some meters away. I hadn't noticed it before, as it was blocked by a rock on the way in, I quickly swam over and inspected it. The first thing that stood out to me was how old it was. It looked like it had been laid decades ago. I didn't have time to think too much about it.

The line let off into the blackness, and I could only wonder where it went. Then the line moved in the tiniest amount. I grasped it gingerly with my hands. Sure enough, there was something on the line. I started to swim along its trail, making sure to search all around me for my brother. Eventually, the line led to a hole in the bottom of the chamber. As I approached, I could feel the current start to pick up. and I realized this was a sump. Water was pouring into this hole, and if I wasn't careful, it would

take me in. That was when I noticed something poking out onto the lip of the hole. It was my brother's hand. He was there and hanging on desperately, trying to get out of the hole. My instincts told me to reach out for him, but I knew that I would share his fate, and we would both perish. I was his only hope. I had to use my head. My heart was pounding, and I had started breathing faster. No I don't doubt this would be using up much more air than I could afford. Still, if I was able to free him, we would both likely get out of this unscathed. Maybe he would even have finally had his fill of thrill-seeking. I reeled in my line and tied it off thoroughly to a nearby rock.

I made sure that it was tight. I then began inching toward the hole backwards, keeping my hands on both the old line and the new one. My brother's hand remained clenched like his life depended on it, because it did. I continued to back up over his hand. I could feel my legs being pulled into the hole with a much greater force than anticipated. Just as I expected, my brother's other hand swung around my thigh and latched on. The moment had come.

I began to pull. It was working. Together we had started to ascend out. Just then, I felt the old vine break. All in a second, both me and my brother were hanging from my one hand. I let go of the old vine and started to pull my way up with the old vine. and started to pull my way up with both hands. It was working.

I continued to inch out, little by little. I was hyper-focused just looking at my hands. I was so fixated I didn't notice that something else had entered the chamber. I didn't notice until it was too late. To my horror, the line went slack again. My eyes darted up in disbelief, barely visible in the darkness was a gigantic white claw. I only saw it for a split second as my brother and I went tumbling down the hole. The current was strong, and we were pulled along into a larger, wider chamber.

The current in this tunnel was even stronger, and we tumbled along like debris caught in a river. There was no way out now, even if we managed to stop. It would be impossible to fight a current this strong. I tried to look at my dive computer, but I was spinning around uncontrollably. Occasionally I would be thrust into a wall. On the third or fourth time, the light strapped to my hand struck a rock, and the light It went dead. Together, almost all at once, we were swept out of the tunnel and into a free fall.

It was hard to say how far we fell, and it felt like hundreds of feet, but in reality it was probably more like 40. Upon landing, the water crashed on top of me and pushed me down further. I kicked out and started swimming to the surface in the direction I hoped it was. It was hard to tell in the complete darkness. Breaking the surface was a great feeling. I treaded there for a moment before I carefully withdrew my backup light from a secure pocket. I turned on my light and looked around.

I never knew such large chambers could exist under the surface of the earth. It must have been the size of a gymnasium. I saw a pile of rocks in a far corner and swam for them. At least I could rest while I thought about what to do. I swam for the rocks, having no idea how deep the water was below me. I tried not to think of the creatures that could be lurking below my feet. Thoughts began to race through my head as I climbed out of the water. Was that really a claw that I saw?

How did it know to cut the line? If the claw was that big, how big was the creature it belonged to? How could a creature of that size live in such a place? I swept the water with my light, hoping to see any sign of my brother. I was alone. I finally looked at my dive computer. I was surprised to see that it still had a third of the tank left. There was no way I would be able to get back out the way I came.

but at least I was in a large chamber with breathable air. You never know how much oxygen is in these isolated chambers underground, but I still felt fine, and I figured it was better to save the oxygen in the tank for when I would need it. Though I knew my chances were slim, it was hard not to fixate on the fact that I was trapped and likely dead. All I could do was distract myself and try to break the problem down. I still had yet to see any signs of my brother. I scanned the water's surface with the light.

I knew I couldn't wait much longer. I had to go in and look for him. And what if he was trapped in running out of air? I was almost certain he had tumbled down the drop into this chamber. I shined the light near the base of the waterfall. There was nothing except the constant rush of water. I put my mask back on and walked with my fins back to the water's edge and waded in. I broke the surface and started scanning around with my light.

The chamber was enormous above the surface. but below it, it was even more vast. For as far as my light could see were rooms within rooms, thresholds which split off into what looked like a hundred other passages. Indeed, were it not for the horrifying trip to get here, this would have been a cave diver's paradise. This was an entire unexplored world, something coveted by cave divers alike. There were several large pillars of rocks underneath the base of the waterfall.

I explored this area further. though keeping a cautious distance, my brother was nowhere to be found. It was starting to feel hopeless, but I just concentrated on the task at hand. I had to find my brother as fast as I could, without panicking or overexerting myself. As time went on, it became more difficult to stave off the panic. I was breathing too fast, and I knew that I was going to run out of air soon. I knew that if I wanted to make a real play to escape this place, I would need every second I had left. My only hope was to find a way out with the oxygen I had.

And if that failed, well, my eyes frantically darted around, sweeping the different cave formations and tunnel entrances. Something caught my eye leading into one of the tunnels. A bunch of debris and silt had been kicked up, and it seemed to lead into the tunnel. It was only some 30 feet away, and though I knew this may be the last foray into the water I may have, I knew that it was my best hope. I kicked over and started into the tunnel. Visibility was poor and the tunnel broke off into many different directions, but the trail was clear. I simply had to follow the trail of silt that had been kicked up by what I was praying for was my brother. I came out into a large chamber with the floor and ceiling covered by stalactites and stalagmites.

I remember learning that if an underwater cave had these, then at some point it had been a dry cave. This did little to mitigate the panic that was creeping up more and more. I had abandoned the cave diving rules at this point. I had forgotten about running line altogether. I supposed it was irrelevant where my corpse would end up. I started to lose control of my breathing. It was getting faster and faster as it truly started to sink in how doomed I was. I stopped myself and sank to the bottom of the cave floor.

Just breathe. I thought to myself. The diving instructors couldn't have made it more clear to me, During the hours upon hours of training I had in my life, if you panic, it's over. I stood there at the bottom and took a moment to simply calm down. Afterwards, I regained my composure and opened my eyes. Sometimes it is when we aren't looking for something that we find it. If I hadn't stopped looking, I certainly wouldn't have noticed it glimmering there.

It was my brother's light. One of the rules of cave diving is to have at least three lights. If your first one dies, you have a backup. If you drop your second, you have a third. Many cave divers take four lights. Knowing my brother, he hopefully had two, but, seeing as how I didn't see one on him when we went tumbling into the sump, it was possible that this was his second and last light. Were that the case, it was likely that he was feeling around blind.

The thought of my brother, panicking on his last breath, spurned me, and I set out again with figure. The trail of debris had subsided, and at this point I was flying blind. I had no idea where he might be in this maze. I knew I was nearing my limit, and if I wanted to make it back to the chamber with air, I would have to turn back. I chose to continue. The likelihood that I would be found in the coming days was slim at best, and I knew it.

On the other hand, what if my brother was stuck or worse? After choosing to continue, around the next corner, I shined my light around and saw my brother kicking towards me. But what was the biggest feeling of relief I had ever felt in my life? turned to fear as I noticed he was shrieking through his regulator. He grabbed me and pulled me back the way I'd come. I then looked beyond him and my heart sank. I was overwhelmed with the impulse to flee and did so as fast as I could because my brother

was being followed by two giant creatures that somewhat looked like prawns. They must have been as long as a car and they were gaining fast. My mammalian instincts took over at this point. It was more reflex than anything else. We kicked hard away from those creatures. A shiver ran up my spine as I thought of their long, pale, lobster-like bodies crawling along the walls of the cave, almost like a centipede. I knew that if they caught us, we would be eaten alive.

Suddenly, the prospect of running out of air seemed almost trivial, as if it would have been a natural conclusion to our lives. There was nothing horrid or brutal about it. I wasn't going to die in that hellhole, and neither was my brother. We would fight. He was ahead of me, but being guided by my light, but being guided by my light, as it was clear he had lost his. We rounded the corner into the room full of stalactites and back out into the larger chamber.

I dared not look behind me. I pointed my light around the corner, but there down the tunnel were three more of the creatures. Their horrible, pale bodies clod towards us. A terrible, loud shriek came out from behind us. We were cut off. Our only hope was to dive deeper. The next stretch was the time that seemed to last forever. It was simple.

There was one goal, stay away from the creatures, around another corner, and into a vertical shaft. It got smaller, and as it did, I could start to feel a current pulling us deeper. We came to a restriction, and I flashed my light back and saw the creatures tearing toward us. This was it. My brother and I started desperately squeezing ourselves into the restriction, forcing our way in as fast as we could. It felt like getting out of the water with a shark nipping at your heels.

Sure enough, as if things couldn't get worse, we both became wedged. My brother pointed to his tank, and I knew what he meant. We had to ditch the tanks to fit. Together, we unclasped, and I was surprised to see that it worked. He managed to pull his through, but mine became wedged in between the restriction. I ripped at it, but soon the creatures were on it, though the hole was too small for them to squeeze through. To our horror, they started digging. It suddenly became clear these creatures had built this layer. My brother signaled for me to let it go, and we would buddy breathe, sharing what was left of his tank.

We let go and began drifting together in the current. It seemed even stronger than before. We continued buddy breathing, even though I could see the tank was almost empty. Breathing started to become more difficult as we exchanged glances. He took a long, deep breath and handed me the regulator, indicating I do. the same. Together we tumbled down this underwater chamber on our last breath. The tank had run out. We ditched it to the bottom of the floor. At least, maybe in the next couple hundred years, this cave system might be mapped out and we might be found. At least our fates might be known.

It was strange, but there was some comfort in this. Everything started to become cloudy as the carbon dioxide started to build up in our bodies. My brain started to desperately cry out for air after only about 30 seconds. A headache started to creep in. The current carried us around another corner and I couldn't believe what I saw. It was light. It was a light at the end of the tunnel. I thought about where I was in some underground chamber below the earth, below the surface, soon about to be drowned. How could I have guessed what they said about seeing a light at the end of the tunnel would be so literal, though as I tumbled closer, the details became clearer. It looked so real. That was when I know.

noticed the ceiling had changed. There were air bubbles around the top. Then there was a larger pocket. Then there it was. The surface. Together we swam up and breath. How foolish it is to not appreciate something so wonderful as air. We filled our lungs as the current brought us the rest of the way and dumped us out of the

cave system altogether into a large body of water. The sun was shining over what seemed to be a large, desolate lake. I can't remember if my brother started it or if I did. did, but once we were out of the water, we both started laughing hysterically. Neither of us took our eyes off the water out of fear that those monsters would have somehow wiggled their way out of their underwater layer. It is often said that the Earth has been mapped, but I can tell you from my own experience that there is still much we do not know about our planet.

There are still many forgotten nooks and crannies that lay in the depths, and maybe they're better left alone.