Near the coast of Bengal, there was a small seaside village called Chandradeep. It was a beautiful place—lined with coconut trees, soft golden sand, and endless blue water. But the villagers always repeated one warning:
"Never go near the sea after sunset."
Four friends from Kolkata — Arnab, Riya, Sagnik, and Meera — came to the village during their holidays. They had heard that the sunsets there were breathtaking. On their first evening, they went to the beach to watch the sun disappear into the horizon.
The waves were calm, but the air felt strangely cold. An old fisherman nearby looked at them and said quietly,
"Don't stay after dark. The sea wakes up at night."
They laughed, thinking it was just an old village superstition.
That night, around 10:30 p.m., they returned to the beach to sit and talk. The shore was silent except for the steady sound of waves and the faint glow of a distant lighthouse.
Suddenly, Meera noticed something far out in the water.
A shadow.
It looked like someone standing on the surface of the sea.
"Do you see that?" she whispered.
The figure slowly began moving toward the shore. The waves started growing larger, rising and crashing harder than before.
"Let's leave," Riya said nervously.
But Sagnik, curious, switched on his phone's flashlight and pointed it toward the water.
The light revealed a girl.
She wore an old white dress. Her hair was wet and clung to her pale face. Her eyes were unnaturally dark.
In a soft, hollow voice she asked,
"Have you… seen my boat?"
A chill ran down their spines. They suddenly remembered the fisherman's story—years ago, during a terrible storm, a fisherman's daughter had taken a boat out to sea and never returned. Her body was never found.
The girl stepped closer.
Beneath her feet was not water… but something darker, like moving shadows.
The wind howled. The sea roared.
"Run!" Arnab shouted.
They ran as fast as they could toward the village, not daring to look back.
The next morning, they told the old fisherman everything. He listened silently and then said,
"You are lucky. Not everyone returns."
Later, they went back to the beach in daylight. Everything seemed normal.
But on the sand, they saw something that froze them in place.
Wet footprints.
They began at the sea… and ended exactly where the four friends had been sitting the night before.
The final footprint stopped right behind Arnab.
From that day on, they never went near the sea at night again.
But in Chandradeep, people still say that on stormy nights, a voice echoes through the crashing waves—
"Where… is my boat?"