Khomor

It is a rainy day. Danish is on a mission aboard a ship with his crew, trying to uncover secrets of Taranta Trench. Although the crew has a captain Danish himself knows how to sail the ship. As he writes down his observation, his phone suddenly rings. It is his mother, Naira.

"Hello darling, how are you?" Naira asks, sounding as if she already knows her son is not okay. He isn't fine, but she still asks with hope.

"I am good", replies Danish. Suddenly, thunder crashes.

"No, you are not Danish. There must be a storm near you."

"Yes I feel it too, mother!"

"Come back Danish! Your wife is expecting a baby boy, we need you, we need you here."

"My country needs me as well, Mama! You know I am on a secret mission."

Naira cuts the phone call. Danish placed the phone in pocket. Danish ordered the captain to turn the ship to safe harbor.

"Captain? Take the ship to safe area before we lose our life."

"Trench Depth?" – Captain shouted.

"Sir, it is 10,000!"

"Trench Depth?" – Captain shouted.

"Sir, it is 10,911 meters, sir!"

"Radio signal?" – Captain shouted.

"The ship signal is catching up water and finally down."

"Depth 10,994" – Captain shouted.

More thunder crashes & lightning flashes as the rain pours harder. The network breaks, and the phone line goes dead.

An officer rushes in "Mr Danish there is a storm ahead we should turn back!"

Danish shouts " I think its too late"

Danish looks out the window & notices a huge black shadow approaching them.

The ship shakes violently & water starts flooding inside.

"Help" shouts Danish crew

"Save us!"

He takes all of the crew members out of ship on tubes where help is reaching soon. Suddenly a large piece of debris falls on Danish's head. Everything goes dark

Danish slowly stirs awake. His vision is heavily blurred, rendering his surroundings completely unrecognizable.

"Thank God I'm alive," he mutters to himself. "I must be in a hospital."

But this is no hospital. There are no concrete walls, no ceiling, no standard fixtures, and no medical equipment. Instead, a strange shape looms directly above him, entirely beyond his comprehension.

Suddenly, a sharp, piercing chime cuts through the silence, startling him. The sound emanates directly from the object overhead—it is a colossal bell.

A biting chill sets in. It is an exceptionally cold night, and beneath his palms and bare feet, he feels the coarse texture of sand.

Footsteps approach. He can hear them drawing near. A moment later, cold hands grip his feet.

The hands pull and hoist him upward, dragging him along. Who are they? Where are they taking me? Their grip feels unnaturally cold and slippery against his skin.

He finds himself being moved through a landscape surrounded by four massive sand dunes under the glow of a crisp, full moon. They are escorting him away from the dunes toward an unknown destination.

Danish strains his eyes to look up. High above, the sky is filled with stars and a moon—no, moons. There are two of them. No, this can't be right, he thinks, trying to rationalize it. I must still be semi-conscious. That’s why I’m seeing double.

Before he can process it, he is roughly thrown into a prison cell. The fading echo of footsteps signals his captors' departure.

"Why am I locked up?" Danish demands aloud. "You've made a mistake! Oh, my head is throbbing..."

As his mind clears further, he takes in his surroundings. He is locked inside a massive subterranean prison. In reality, it is a vast cave cage, its singular exit secured by heavy iron bars.

Looking around, he notices other captives sharing his confinement—four people in total: three men and one woman. Three of the men are elderly; one appears to be in his eighties, while the other two look to be in their sixties. The woman is younger, likely in her forties. At twenty-some years old, Danish is by far the youngest.

All four prisoners stare blankly at him.

"Look, another one!" cries one of the men whose name is Andrew .

"Oh, there is hope! They’ve come to rescue us!" Says the lady

"No, they haven't," the oldest man rasps, cutting her off. "He's just another captive like the rest of us. He'll rot here with us."

A heavy silence blankets the cage.

"W-What on earth are you talking about?" Danish stammers, his voice shaking. "Where am I? Who are you people?"

"Haven't you seen them yet?" the woman asks.

"Seen who?" Danish replies. "The men who dragged me here?"

"Yes."

"No—no, I didn't get a good look."

"Ha!" she scoffs. "Well, then you're in for quite a surprise."

"A surprise? What kind of surprise?"

"My friend, you have landed on an alien planet. Welcome."

Danish stares at her. "What do I look like to you, a fool? I'm sick, and I need to get back to my family. My wife is expecting a baby boy."

"Then perhaps your son will come looking for you one day," the woman retorts coldly, "assuming he ever finds out you're still alive."

"Stop it! No—no—no, I am in no mood for jokes!" Danish snaps.

"It's no joke, you moron!" she fires back.

"Enough," the old man commands. "Just go and look out through the bars. You'll see them clearly enough in the moonlight."

"See who?" Danish asks, his heart hammering.

"Just go look, you idiot," the woman urges.

Danish pushes himself up, only to realize his legs are too weak to support his weight. Leaning heavily against the damp cave wall for balance, he edges closer to the iron gate and peers out into the darkness.

His jaw drops in sheer horror. The words catch in his throat, choked out by a wave of raw terror and disbelief. The sight before him is profoundly disturbing.

Two guards are actively patrolling the perimeter of the cavern, holding massive arrows in their hands. But it isn't their weaponry that paralyzes Danish. It is their physical appearance.

The creatures tower over the height of an average human. Though they possess a humanoid structure , their extremities closely resemble those of a frog—complete with webbed hands and feet. A singular, antenna-like horn protrudes from the top of their heads, and their damp, translucent green skin is covered in dark speckles that glisten under the lunar light.

"What in the world are those things?!" Danish shrieks.