Long Post- Monster!Ghost/Human!Soap - Blood and gore (not too graphic a description, but it's there) - May get spicy later - Caves -Thalassophobia warning
Soap is part of a recon team sent to investigate a strange cave system that was found when a sinkhole opened up, swallowing an old church and a few patrons who were attending the service that day. The team is sent to find any survivors and bring them out. What they aren't counting on when they arrive is the apparent violence that went down inside the cave system unrelated to the collapse. There doesn't appear to be any survivors that any of them can see, but they keep looking. Traveling further into the caves, the carnage only grows. It seems that some of them tried to flee whatever was chasing them, unsuccessful as they were.
Johnny doesn't want to say it, but he is starting to feel uneasy. they're trekking through waist-high, blood filled water and continue to pass by what look to be bits of people floating by. Gaz seems unnerved too, for what it's worth at least. He can't see Roach or their captain, but he's certain they're feeling the same.
And then they come to a large chamber, where the parts seem to be floating out from. It's large enough that their torches do next to nothing to illuminate inside of it. The water seems to be getting deeper. Soap stops. The water is up to his chest now, but in shining the light he can't see the bottom in front of him. A drop off. No telling how deep it goes. Roach makes to pass him and Soap holds his arm out, stopping him dead in his tracks. He gestures with his torch and Roach has the same chilling realisation.
They stand there for a moment, contemplating what to do as they whisper amongst themselves. The whispers, quiet as they are, seem to echo around the chamber. Something they realise much too late as they hear a harsh screech come from somewhere within, followed by a loud splash. They exchange glances, and Price gives the order to turn back. Given what they've found and then what they heard, there's no way there are any survivors. Turning back to the tunnel opening, they begin to move as silently as they can in water as deep as they're in. Soap sticks to the back, keeping an eye out to ensure his team gets out safely. It's a decision he has made a million times before and one he'd continue to make millions of times again. His team is his family, and he'll do anything to protect them.
Even if that means he's the one that's taken. Something wraps around his ankle, pulling him swiftly down into the water before he can even cry out. The others continue on, not seeming to even realise his absence. He's pulled backward through the tunnel at a speed he didn't think possible. He tries to escape, kicking at the thing around his ankle as hard as he can, but the water slows his movements. He remembers his knife, fumbling a bit through the panic as he pulls it out. He curls up to reach his ankle, slashing at the thing around it… and a hand lets him go. There are a series of clicks and whistles that sound to be all around him at once, and as he surfaces to take a deep breath of air, he realises he's surrounded by darkness. Darkness his torch can't break through. Deep water all around him. He's in the chamber. In the chamber where the creature seems to live. In the chamber where all the people from the church were slaughtered.
He can't even begin to think of which direction to swim in to get back to his team. Can't tell where there's a place for him to swim to so he can rest before finding his way out.
He's so incredibly lost and out of his depth. He's scared. He already had thalassophobia, but this is taking things to a whole new level, and now he's trapped in here with some.. thing that has human-like hands and tried to drown him. Something that wants to rip him apart. Something that's probably angry because he stabbed it with…
Fuck! His knife!! He must have dropped it when trying to swim away, or maybe it's still in the thing's hand. His guns are waterlogged, his grenades would work, but using those right now? In the cave system? He doesn't think he'd survive if he were to accidentally cause an explosion that collapsed an unstable tunnel or caused a rain of stalactites. His comms are dead, not even static reaching his earpiece and not a sound when he tries pressing buttons. He's practically defenseless.
Picking a random direction that he thinks is the one he was dragged from, Soap starts to swim as silently as he can. It takes a moment, but he sees what looks like an island ahead. A mound of sedimentary rock sticking up from the water with a gentle incline. Reaching it, he pulls himself out of the water and onto the hard surface. He's never felt so happy to feel the scrape of rough rock beneath his gloved hands. Once he's out of the water, he lets himself collapse for a second. Resting. Breathing.
Soon though, he's up on his feet, walking up the side of the mound to get as far away from the water as he can. In doing so, he comes across a small alcove carved into a wall that seems to reach upward forever. An alcove with bits of clothing strewn about it. An alcove with old looking pictures pasted to the walls somehow, pictures of a family. Pictures of a soldier. Pictures of that soldier with his unit. A picture of him and a few others dressed in caving gear.
Caving gear. Soap pats the pouches lining his belt, looking for the one that contains the pitons he brought just in case. Finding them, he pulls one out. It'll have to do for a weapon, especially when he finds himself in what appears to be this thing's nest. As if on cue, he hears a splash and a wet thunk. The sound of bare wet feet and hands against stone. A low droning noise that tapers off into a soft chitter.
Soap can feel his heartbeat pick up and tries to keep his breathing quiet and steady. He slowly walks backward, away from the sound of the creature coming closer. Walking backward, however, leads him to not see where he's going. Walking backward causes him to trip over a stalagmite and fall back, head slamming into the hard rock below with a crack. His vision swims as he pats the ground around him with a pained groan.
He doesn't even hear as the creature scurries toward him, but as his vision focuses again, he can see it hovering above him in the dim light of his torch. He wants to move away, wants to scream and lash out to get it away from him, but all he manages is a slight shift and a pained whimper. The creature, as his vision focuses more, looks much too human. Humanoid, but very much changed. Still, he can tell that whatever he's become, this is the same man that's in the photos pasted to the walls of the alcove. His eyes are different, milky and glazed over where he's been in the dark so long. His skin is pale and almost translucent. His blonde hair stringy and missing in places. Tendrils grow from his face, waving out in front of him as he sniffs at the air. They remind him of the catfish Price caught during one of their "team-building" fishing trips. His hands end in pointed nails, clammy and pale as the rest of him. On his ribs there appear to be slits, gills, maybe? A paddle-like tail slaps the ground behind him as he tilts his head. When he opens his mouth to let out a quiet chirp, Soap can see that his teeth are sharp, perfect for tearing apart flesh.
Soap is scared. *Terrified.* But the thing doesn't attack him. He simply turns and stalks into the alcove for a moment before coming back out and staring in his direction again. He goes back in once more, and then comes out again, this time coming back to Soap and nudging him before going back. Does he want him to follow? Soap gets up, slow as he is to do so, and makes his way to the alcove.
The creature is waiting at the opening, and as he senses Soap draw near, heads inside. Soap follows him in, and watches as he pulls some of the clothing scrap away to reveal a small child. One of the survivors. She's still alive, but bruised and beaten up. The creature had rescued her. Kept her safe. Dragged Soap here for her. Soap looks at the creature, confused. If he was keeping her alive, if he brought Soap to her, why did he kill the others??
His answer comes in the form of the creature quickly moving to put himself between Soap and the alcove entrance. He stands on his legs, making himself bigger by spreading his legs and arms. Soap can hear something shifting around on the rock outside. Can hear low squeaks and clicks. The creature in front of him lets out a low growling drone, tail flicking. He's not the only one of his kind here. There's more than one. This creature wasn't the one that slaughtered all of those people, the others were. This little girl is likely the only survivor.