R/Nosleep (Get Spooked)

I Was Gone For Hours

By u/Darkheroxx

I'm a homebody, I could stay in my room browsing through the internet for hours and I'll be perfectly content with life. My friends Tom and Brittany on the other hand are always up to something. I joke that they have enough energy to spend that they don't need me around, but they find a way to drag me out of my hole. We've been friends ever since we were kids and whenever they force me to tag along on their hikes, despite my constant groaning, I'm always happy to be with them.

My friends would usually fight with me whenever they bring up an activity that required me to go outside, but I bring my foot down when it comes to...water. When I was a kid I almost drowned at the beach, my tiny body got caught up in the waves and my Mom wasn't able to get to me. Thank God a group of teenagers were close by and one of them was able to get me to safety. Ever since then I just stayed away from water. So when Tom had brought up the idea of kayaking, it was no one's surprise to hear my answer was a hard no.

A couple of days passed as my phone was being barraged, this time with text messages assuring me that "It'll be so much fun!" and "It would be lame without you around!" It was the day before the trip when I caved in, not because my friends were constantly begging me but they had invited my crush. I know, it sounds extremely lame but I really liked this girl that Brittany knew, so I very reluctantly grew a pair and agreed to go kayaking.

The next morning we all packed into Brittany's car and made the hour trek to the river. When we got there we were able to rent some kayaks, usually there would be some that could have two people in them, but to my dismay there were only the singles...great. I looked at the river while putting on my life vest, preparing myself to not drown. The water didn't seem that deep so I thought that maybe things would be okay.

Brittany, Tom and my crush were experienced and were able to get on their kayaks with ease, I on the other hand struggled for a few minutes so I lagged behind a bit. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing, but the kayak was steady and I copied the others as they were moving ahead of me. They must not have noticed that I was getting further behind and I was cursing to myself that I was actually doing something like this. After a few minutes I seemed to be getting the hang of it so it wasn't all bad, though it really sucked not being with the rest of my group.

The waters were calm so I was able to move around with ease and my disdain turned into cockiness as I thought I was doing so well for my first time. I looked ahead to see that there was a turn ahead, my friends were out of sight so I paddled a bit faster to catch up. My heart sank when I took the left turn to see a long stretch of empty water. The river went on and on with no signs of another soul. There was no way that they had just disappeared, I was only a few minutes behind...right?

That's when I noticed how quiet it was, there was no sound of any people, no rustling of the leaves from the wind, and the water beneath me was dead silent. I looked down at the river, the water once a beautiful shade of blue was now a dark and murky green. There were no ripples upon the water's surface and I realized that the kayak was stopped dead in its tracks. I thought that perhaps I was just overthinking things and my group was just further off than I thought. But as I looked forward to the long stretch of empty water I wasn't sure what else to think.

I gripped my paddle and forced myself forward, that was all I could do. I paddled through the murky water, there was a resistance as if I was moving them through a thick sludge. A few minutes passed and my arms were already aching but I had to catch up to my friends. Was I even going anywhere? I looked around, all the trees looked the same and there were no identifiable marks for me to even know if I was moving at all.

"Fuck, Fuck!" I cursed to myself as I frantically tried to push myself forward, the water felt thicker and heavier as I moved the paddle through it. I pushed and I pushed as hard as I could until suddenly the right side of the paddle was...stuck in the water. I slowly looked down, I couldn't see anything beneath the cloudy green water and the right side of my paddle was completely submerged. My arms were already out of strength, I tried my best to yank the paddle out of the water but it wouldn't budge.

I heard a noise that broke through the absolute silence I was trapped in, a very light tapping coming from underneath me. Thump....Thump....thumpthumpthumpthump. The noise was drumming underneath the entirety of my kayak then I felt my body jolt as I began to sink. No...the kayak wasn't sinking, something was pulling me down into the depths. The paddle was pulled away from my grip and I saw...hands...bloated, gray hands reaching from the water and onto the edges of my kayak.

I let out a scream as I watched the hands gripping onto the kayak and pulling me into the water. I had nowhere to go and there was nothing else I could do. It all happened in seconds but it felt like an eternity as I slowly turned and my body began to crash into the river. My face crashed through the water. My eyes stung and my skin burned, the water was so freezing cold. I looked around and realized that I wasn't alone after all, I was surrounded by bodies of all ages...all sizes...bloated bodies of men and women...all of them were reaching out towards me.

I felt something grab onto my ankle and in my horror I saw small child-like hands gripping onto me. I looked into the dead and cloudy eyes of what looked like a young girl, her face twisted into a visage of agony as she began to climb up my leg. Then another set of hands...then another...despite me wearing a life vest I was being pulled further and further down. I finally lost it, I kicked my legs and waved my arms in an attempt to pull myself back up but now their arms were wrapped around my waist.

I lost my breath and I looked up to see the bubbles float upwards towards my escape. My ears began to pop as I sank deeper and deeper, my body felt so cold and my chest ached as water began to flow into me. I saw a young girl, a teenage boy, an older woman and a middle aged man gripping onto my torso and I noticed that not only were they pulling me down...they were using me to swim back up. I watched as their bodies began to float upwards and my vision began to fade to black as dropped deeper into this watery hell.

Next thing I knew I was face up floating on the river, looking up towards that damn cloudy sky. I felt sick and when I moved an inch water began to pour out of my throat. I heard someone calling my name and I saw my friends on a small speed boat shouting at me. I was pulled out of the water and was immediately sped towards a hospital. A few hours later after I was checked out by a doctor, Tom explained that I had gone missing and when they turned around they saw my kayak floating...completely empty. They spent hours looking for me up and down the river but they couldn't find a trace of me. They reached the end and even called the police...but they couldn't find me until those last moments.

I didn't tell them what had happened to me...what I think happened to me because quite frankly they wouldn't believe it. It's been a couple of weeks since then and I think I might rethink that though. I thought that I was going crazy...I thought that I really..truly lost it until I started having dreams. Since that day I've been having nightmares of the river...and I feel myself drowning, then when I wake up I'm completely drenched in cold water. Just the other night after I jumped out of bed and sat in a corner...thinking that I had finally snapped...I saw people staring back at me from across my bedroom...a young girl, a teenage boy, an older woman and a middle aged man. Their bodies were bloated and decayed, dripping river water on the floor.