Home / Leviathan: Ten Thousand Meters Down / Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

All Chapters of Leviathan: Ten Thousand Meters Down: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

10 Chapters

Chapter 1

The day Xena Thompson came home, my seven-year-old son, Harry, and I were waiting for her at the entrance to the naval base.The car door opened.Harry ran toward her with a bouquet of flowers, shouting excitedly, "Mom!"Xena stepped onto the concrete. She did not take the flowers or hug her son. Instead, she lowered her head and stared intently at a puddle beside her feet.A light rain had fallen that morning, and the puddle reflected the gray sky. She stood motionless at its edge, seemingly unaware that mud and water were soaking the soles of her shoes.The base personnel who had brought her home gently called her name, and only then did Xena slowly raise her head.She looked at me, her lips cracked and pale. "What's today's date?"I froze for a moment. "October 27th. Why?"A hoarse gasp escaped her throat. "The night of the full moon. Six days left."I had no idea what she meant.When I pressed her for an explanation, she had already pushed open the front door and walked i

Chapter 2

I pressed her to tell me what Leviathan actually looked like. Xena's face instantly turned from pale to ashen. "Don't ask!""Was it some kind of unknown deep-sea creature?""I said shut up!"She suddenly grabbed the wrench from the floor and slammed it into the metal sink. The shrill clang echoed through the room.From the spare bedroom, Harry cried out for me.At the sound of our son's cries, Xena's hand froze in midair. She neither apologized nor looked at me. Instead, she turned and strode into the master bedroom, locking the door behind her.Both the aerospace and deep-diving programs had protocols for psychological trauma. I assumed she was suffering from a stress disorder triggered by prolonged confinement in an enclosed environment.However, that evening, Xena left the house alone.Half an hour later, she returned dragging two enormous burlap sacks stuffed full of fresh seaweed.Barefoot, she paced through the house, shoving the slimy, foul-smelling seaweed into the kit

Chapter 3

I twisted the faucet shut, and the freezing water from the showerhead stopped instantly. I yanked a bath towel off the rack, wrapped it around Harry's soaked body, and lifted him out of the tub.The bathroom door flew open, and Xena rushed inside. She was still clutching the fishbone needle in a death grip.When she saw the seaweed that had been pulled out of the floor drain and tossed aside, she shuddered violently, as if someone had just lashed her with a whip.She dropped the needle and lunged forward, shoving me out of the way. Roughly tearing the towel off Harry, she began stripping away his wet pajamas.The icy sensation jolted Harry awake, and he burst into terrified sobs. Xena ignored him completely. Her hands frantically searched his freezing skin. She turned him over and stared intently at his back and neck.There were no blisters. No strange growths had appeared on his skin.Xena collapsed onto the waterlogged tiles, gasping for breath.Then, as if possessed, she scra

Chapter 4

Today was the seventh day.That afternoon, I left Harry in the care of a colleague from the naval base and went alone to Arthur's retirement residence.I knocked on his door for a long time. Someone was inside, but nobody would answer.Standing outside, I leaned toward the peephole and said one sentence, "Professor, it's the seventh day."The lock clicked.Arthur opened the door. His hair had turned completely white, and his face was paler than paper. He ushered me inside, then grabbed my arm in a death grip before I could say a word."Tonight, when the moon is full, no matter whose voice you hear in your house imitating the sound of ocean waves… Don't open your eyes. Under any circumstances."I asked him why.Arthur drew the curtains and switched on an old computer sitting on his desk. He opened a black-and-white surveillance video with no sound.It was footage from the first case.The screen showed an ordinary bedroom: the partner of a submersible crew member lay sleeping p

Chapter 5

I stared at Xena's deathly pale face in the darkness. I watched her pretend to be in pain, pretending to protect me. Suddenly, I could not stop myself from laughing.The sound was horribly out of place in the deathly silent bedroom.My laughter startled Xena. The hand gripping the fishbone needle trembled, and its tip scratched a faint line of blood across my neck.I felt no pain. All I could feel was how utterly absurd the whole situation was."Xena, I know what you're trying to do." I stared straight into her eyes, exposing her deception one word at a time. "That fishbone needle isn't meant to kill me outright. It's meant to paralyze my nerves."You want to stab me with it so I lose the ability to fight back. Then, you'll make me watch helplessly as seawater appears out of nowhere and drowns me. You're going to use my body as a vessel for that monster at the bottom of the ocean."Xena's expression changed instantly.The last trace of sanity in her eyes vanished, along with the

Chapter 6

I charged toward the bedroom doorway and slammed into Xena, knocking her aside. Then I shouted at my son, who stood motionless in a daze."Harry! Look at me! When you were five and started learning to swim, you swallowed water and got scared. Who was in the pool holding your stomach to keep you afloat? Who told you that as long as Dad was there, you would never sink?"Harry's vacant eyes flickered. For a moment, it seemed as though he was breaking free from the enchanted, sleepwalking state that had taken hold of him.He looked at me, then glanced at Xena, whose face had turned a livid gray."Dad."Harry suddenly burst into tears and threw himself into my arms. He wrapped his arms tightly around my waist and buried his face in my clothes."I don't want to go to the bottom of the sea! I don't want a monster for a dad!"At the sight of this, Xena dropped all pretense. She turned around and locked the master bedroom door again, cutting off our escape route. She raised the fishbon

Chapter 7

The front door shook violently under the repeated blows. The dull, heavy impacts echoed through the house, thick with the stench of the sea.At the sound of the police, a look of sheer terror flashed across Xena's eyes. She yanked the fishbone needle out of my shoulder. Instead of attacking me again, she spun around and rushed toward Harry, who was huddled in the corner.She wrapped an arm around our son's neck and dragged him up out of the floodwater.The fishbone needle, still stained with my blood, pressed hard against Harry's vulnerable carotid artery."Back off! Tell those cops outside to get the hell out!" Xena screamed at me hysterically.Harry was so terrified that he could not even cry. He could only stare at me in desperation.Fighting through the paralysis that had numbed half my body, I clamped my right hand over the wound in my shoulder. Gritting my teeth, I struggled to my feet with the help of the wall. The black seawater had already risen above my calves."Xen

Chapter 8

Leviathan controlled my neck and slowly turned my head. He looked at Harry, who was asleep with his head resting beside the hospital bed. Manipulating my facial muscles, he pulled my lips into an unnaturally stiff smile.The movement of the bed startled Harry awake. He rubbed his eyes and looked up at me."Dad, you're awake!"Harry was about to throw himself into my arms when he suddenly froze. He stared at my face and took several small steps backward.A child's instincts were often the sharpest when it came to danger. Harry sensed that something completely unfamiliar was hiding inside my body.The hospital room door burst open.Arthur rushed in with two police officers. He immediately pulled Harry behind him and stared intently at me as I sat on the bed.My consciousness was trapped deep inside my brain, surrounded by endless darkness. It felt as though I had been plunged ten thousand meters beneath the ocean. The terrifying water pressure crushed in from every direction, thre

Chapter 9

Harry stood outside the glass. Tears still glistened in his eyes as he looked at me. However, he did not beg the police to open the door. He wiped his face with one hand, then suddenly shouted a question."Dad, do you remember when you taught me to scuba dive when I was five?"The isolation chamber fell silent for a moment.Inside my mind, Leviathan frantically searched through my memories. He found a surface-level memory of me taking Harry to a swimming pool.Immediately, he took control of my mouth and smiled as he answered, "Of course, I remember. You were so brave back then. You learned really quickly."The moment Harry heard those words, he burst into tears.Pointing at me through the glass, he exposed the lie in a loud, trembling voice."You're lying! I've been afraid of water my whole life! I won't even put my head under the water when I take a bath! You never taught me to scuba dive!"The smile on Leviathan's face froze. He clearly had not expected a human memory to con

Chapter 10

With my mouth, Leviathan mercilessly taunted the woman standing outside the glass wall."Good luck? You humans are so ridiculously stupid. There is no such thing as good luck beneath the sea. All seven of those people, including you, were nothing more than tools I used to incubate new vessels."And you personally delivered the perfect vessel straight into my hands."The look of wild joy on Xena's face froze instantly. She stared blankly at me inside the laboratory, apparently unable to understand what he meant."That's impossible. You promised me that if I sacrificed him, I'd never have to fear the deep sea again."Leviathan burst into laughter. "Of course, you won't be afraid anymore. Because soon, you'll become one of the people in those tanks outside. You'll become an empty shell without a mind of your own, floating in seawater forever."Xena finally understood what she had done.She realized that she had lost everything. Not only had she failed to cure her condition, but she

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