Somewhere in the Sea

Chapter 01

It was a normal day in the village by the sea near Gwadar. The weather was the usual sunny and windy as Allah Wasaya started his boat and headed off to the sea. The ocean showed its fierce anger as the boat powered on. Allah Wasaya threw the net and waited for the waters to do its work. He lit a cigarette and looked around. He had moved ahead of his fellows and was quite far in the deep ocean. He smiled and thought that today he might get more fish than the rest and greedily laughed. The sun was shining brightly and all he could hear was the sound of the water crashing by his boat and the flocks of seagulls moving by.

Suddenly everything went quiet as if he had gone deaf. The weather changed drastically and got cloudy. The mist enveloped the boat and he could not see anything. He turned on the flashlight to check around for the other boats but he was so far away that they could not be seen. Allah Wasaya breathed deeply and thought "What is going on? There was no prediction of clouds today and what's with this mist?"

As he was thinking about what to do next, he saw a light coming towards him. He thanked God that his friends had come to save him but it was no ordinary light. As it came closer, he saw it was a beautiful woman with waist length black hair, red lips, fair radiant skin, large eyes and the light was coming from the seashell locket she was wearing. She was walking on the water towards him, singing in the most beautiful voice he had ever heard:

"Dilgeer garzama labela taana" (You have captured my heart and I wander aimlessly without you)

"Khabar main wakhla, raasha janana" (My love come back and see the state I am in)

He wanted to run away but he was so captivated by her beauty that he could not move. A hauntingly seductive music ensnared his senses and he gaped at her blankly. The woman walked up to the edge of the boat and put her hand on his face and said:

"Tarso ba garzay ta bela mana" (How long will you wander without me?)

And he nodded with an open mouth and bewitched eyes. She began to descend in the water beckoning him to come down with her. He moved on to the edge and looked down. Her head was visible above the surface and her hair was floating by her side, beckoning him to come closer. He moved in closer when suddenly the face of that woman changed. Her beautiful face morphed into a hideous monster, her eyes became slit-like, her skin became pale and green, her hair turned into a large seaweed infested heap, her lips became dark as she opened her mouth to expose her row of large teeth. The poor man didn't even have time to react, she sank her teeth into his neck and pulled him beneath the surface.

The weather changed back to the usual sunny day. The fishermen nearby were also puzzled by this sudden change. They were ready to go back when they saw Allah Wasaya's empty boat. They shouted out his name to see if he had dived underwater but he didn't respond. The boat was in perfect order and he was nowhere to be found.