The coastline of Paradip Port, Odisha, stretched wide and calm under the evening sun. Waves lapped gently at the shore as Lavish carefully threaded a fishing line through his rod. Sameer sat beside him, chewing on sugarcane and tossing scraps to a stray dog nearby.
"Why do you always take this so seriously?" Sameer asked, watching Lavish tie a flawless knot.
"Fishing isn't just about catching something," Lavish replied, adjusting his bait. "It's about patience and knowing the sea."
"Yeah, well, you and your ocean obsession," Sameer teased, throwing a pebble into the water.
Lavish smiled faintly but didn't respond. The sea had always fascinated him. His elder brother, Arjun, often joked that Lavish would one day become a marine scientist instead of finishing school. Arjun worked in the merchant navy and was currently stuck near the Black Sea due to delays caused by rising tensions in the region. Lavish looked up to him, and Arjun often shared stories about strange things he had seen
"Arjun says there's a whole world underwater we don't know about," Lavish said, breaking the silence.
"He's right," Sameer replied, sitting up. "But that doesn't mean we should poke around in it."
Lavish laughed softly. "You're scared of fish, Sameer. Admit it."
"Scared? No way!" Sameer retorted. "I just don't like the idea of getting eaten by something we can't even see."
The two boys laughed, the sound carrying over the waves. Their lives were simple, but their curiosity about the ocean often led them to explore Paradip's quieter shores, far from the busy port.
That evening, as the sun dipped below the horizon, Lavish noticed something unusual floating in the water.
"Sameer, look!" he said, pointing to a dark shape bobbing up and down with the waves.
"What is it this time?" Sameer asked, squinting.
"I don't know. It looks…big."
The boys waded into the shallow water to get a closer look. What they found sent chills down their spines.
It was a fish, but not like any they'd seen before. Its long, snake-like body shimmered faintly, and its enormous jaw was filled with needle-like teeth. Its lifeless eyes stared into nothingness.
"Is that…?" Sameer stammered.
"I think it's a gulper eel," Lavish whispered, his voice trembling.
The gulper eel, also known as the pelican eel, is a deep-sea creature rarely seen by humans. Its massive, gaping mouth could swallow prey much larger than itself. Lavish had read about it in one of Arjun's marine biology books, but seeing it in real life was something else entirely.
"It's dead," Sameer said, stepping back.
"But how did it get here?" Lavish asked. "They live in the deepest parts of the ocean. This doesn't make sense."
Before they could think further, a foul smell hit them, sharp and overwhelming.
"We shouldn't be here," Sameer said, pulling at Lavish's arm. "Let's go!"
Reluctantly, Lavish followed, but he couldn't shake the feeling that this was no ordinary discovery.
The Next Morning
The news spread quickly. By sunrise, the strange fish had washed ashore, and the beach was packed with curious onlookers. Local fishermen whispered among themselves, some calling it a bad omen.
The Odisha Marine Fisheries Department sent a team to the scene, led by Dr. Ramesh Verma, a marine biologist specializing in deep-sea creatures. He was accompanied by Inspector Anjali Sen from the Paradip Coastal Police, who was tasked with maintaining order.
"This is definitely a gulper eel," Dr. Verma confirmed, examining the creature. "But finding it here, so far from its natural habitat, is highly unusual."
"What could have brought it here?" Inspector Sen asked.
"I don't know," Dr. Verma replied. "But we need to take it to the Central Marine Research Institute in Visakhapatnam for further analysis."
The fish was carefully loaded onto a transport vehicle, while rumors about its origin spread like wildfire.
While Paradip grappled with its strange discovery, a similar event unfolded on the coast of Numazu, Japan, in the Shizuoka Prefecture. Fishermen found another gulper eel, nearly identical to the one in India, washed up on their shores.
Dr. Hiroshi Takeda, a renowned oceanographer from the University of Tokyo, was called in to investigate.
"These creatures live at depths of 3,000 to 6,000 meters," Dr. Takeda explained to reporters. "For two to wash ashore in such different locations within days of each other…this isn't normal."
Japanese coast guards also reported unusual activity: strange disturbances in ocean currents, unexplained temperature drops, and a faint but persistent hum detected by sonar equipment.
By evening, Lavish and Sameer were scrolling through their phones, watching videos of the Japanese discovery.
"Look at this!" Sameer said, showing Lavish a clip of the Japanese gulper eel.
Lavish's heart sank. It was the same fish.
"This can't be a coincidence," he said, his voice barely above a whisper.
"What are you talking about?" Sameer asked.
"Two gulper eels, found dead in shallow waters on opposite sides of the world," Lavish said. "And the currents…the water temperature changes…it's all connected."
As night fell, Lavish sat on his bed, staring at the ceiling. His mind raced with questions. What was happening in the ocean? Brother wherever you are please come home.
Meanwhile, in the labs of Visakhapatnam and Tokyo, scientists studying the eels began to notice something even more alarming—traces of microscopic, unknown organisms embedded in the fish's skin. Organisms that didn't match anything in their databases.
Something was moving beneath the waves, something humanity wasn't prepared for.