Startling Revelations & Strange Creatures

40 minutes past Charu & Yuvaan’s stay underwater:

Underwater, Charu and Yuvaan were both communicating through hand gestures.

Charu gestured that she was going ahead to which Yuvaan gave a thumbs-up sign as he was examining a particular rock on the lake-bed.

Charu had noticed something luminous and started approaching it. She couldn’t make out if it was an object or some living organism. She was almost within a hand’s reach, still, she couldn’t figure out what it was. She held out her hand and as soon as she touched it, she got sucked in with such tremendous pressure by an unknown source and lost consciousness.

Meanwhile, Yuvaan had lost interest in the rock and had started following Charu. Though his eyes were right on Charu, the lightning speed with which Charu got sucked in, gave him the impression that she vanished; just like that!

Yuvaan explored the area where Charu vanished but he didn’t find anything unusual. After desperately searching for some time, he had returned to the surface.

‘Welcome to our humble abode, Charu aka Sheryl Varghese,’ a voice called out.

Charu slowly opened her eyes and shrieked with fright. If not for her recently acquired habituation with spooky, mysterious encounters and discoveries, she would have swooned right away at the sight that beheld her!

It was luminous blue all over, in the water and the bed was all luminous green. There were several people seated out in sofas, chairs; Some were standing, and some made themselves comfortable on the waterbed. They were in the water, but none seemed to require any source of oxygen. They all seemed so casual and comfortable. But all these elements weren’t what made Charu shriek; There were people, but not people she didn’t knew. There was her Dad, her Granny, Uncle Vincent, Abhay, Yuvaan, her Granny’s nurse, Abhay’s constables, the executive at the Museum, Martha, Ruth & finally Charu herself! To add to the chaos, the same people were in multiples; From her first glance, she could vaguely make out a couple of her 'Dads' & 'Grannies', 3 'Nurses', 4 'Uncle Vincents'. 'Abhays', 'Yuvaans' seemed to be the crowd favorites as they were plenty of them. But the 'Charus' were the clear winners as they were an overwhelming majority.

Charu then realized that her body was engulfed in some sort of transparent bubble which allowed her to breathe naturally.

‘What is this weird thing going on? Can someone explain to me anything that could make sense?’ pleaded Charu hysterically.

A particular 'Charu' who seemed to be the leader of the abnormal Doppelgangers stepped forward and said, ‘Oh, we thought you’d be more comfortable amongst the people you know.’ ‘You see, we were afraid if you were strong enough to behold our actual forms, hence we have transformed into the human forms you can relate to.’

‘Oh, Please. I’d be more comfortable even if your actual forms are scarier than all the ghosts, I’ve seen in all the horror movies during my lifetime. This weird act of yours is making it hard for me to envisage any further communication,’ said Charu folding her hands.

‘As you wish, my Lady. But, please let us know if you change your mind,’ said the leader Charu and signaled something to everyone.

Instantly, all the human forms started disintegrating and, in their places, emerged smoky, jelly-like creatures in random shapes. Even the sofas and chairs had taken up these shapes.

Charu though aghast at this weird scene unfolding before she didn’t get frightened by their appearance.

‘Good to see that you are strong enough as you proclaimed,’ Charu heard this voice loudly inside her head.

‘What? Are you speaking inside my head?’ she cried out loud.

‘If you prefer to communicate with us in our actual forms, this would be the mode of communication’, the voice again ringed loudly inside her head. ‘Just let us know if the volume is too high or low, we can adjust.’

‘Oh God, you are way too loud. Please stop ringing inside my head. I’ll go nuts,’ begged Charu. ‘Let’s do one thing. The rest can remain as they are, you please take the form of the Museum Executive. That’s the best option, I see in these circumstances.’

The leader assumed the human form of the Museum executive and flashed a smile at Charu.

‘Now that we have come to some sort of understanding of communicating, let me begin to explain some very important things to you. First and foremost, we wish you no harm. You are safe from us. Fix that thing clearly in your mind,’ said the leader.

‘Look, Mr… Whatever your name is… I have a couple of friends on the surface who would be very worried about me. I am sure, whatever you guys are you’d be concerned about the secrecy about your existence. If I don’t communicate to my friends that I am safe, they might bring in more personnel searching for me which eventually could lead to you folks,’ said Charu.

The leader laughed and said, ‘Really, Charu! Do you really believe in your theory? OK, OK. Never mind, you’ll come to know all about us gradually. But, in our further scheme of things, it might be better to keep our affairs confined to as limited a party as possible.’

The leader gestured to one of his members, who came near him and transformed into a mobile phone in his hand. 

‘Here’s your mobile phone. Call them up and ask them to come to the exact place where you disappeared. Ask them to catch hold of the luminous thing that they see out there; once they do that, we’ll suck them in!’ 

Meanwhile, on the boat

‘What do you mean, ‘She vanished’? Are you out of your mind?’ asked Abhay furiously.

‘I am telling you the truth, Abhay sir…’ mumbled Yuvaan still unable to come to terms with what he had witnessed.

‘Abhay…It’s just ‘ABHAY’…’ cried out Abhay. ‘No ‘Sir’, please.’ He felt offended with Yuvaan addressing him as ‘Sir’, even though Charu wasn’t around. The ‘Sir’ somehow pricked him as if he was being placed in a ‘Strict Senior’ category whilst Yuvaan and Charu were in the ‘Jovial Juniors’ category.

‘I am not sure what happened down under but what you are telling isn’t making any sense to me, Yuvaan. I think we’ll need backup. Let me call up my team,’ said Abhay and picked up his phone.

He was about to dial when the phone started ringing.

‘What the hell! Charu’s calling…’ muttered Abhay under his breath.

‘Seriously. You got to be kidding me. Her phone is here with me!’ exclaimed Yuvaan.

Abhay answered the call and Charu started to explain things as coolly as possible though it was evident to Yuvaan from Abhay’s multi-dimensional animated expressions that they were onto something weird.

‘Gear up, Yuvaan. Looks like we are onto some ‘Friendly-Alien’ stuff, ‘commanded Abhay breathing heavily.

Underwater

Following a similar process, both Abhay and Yuvaan were sucked into the strange creatures’ world.

Both were rid of their equipment and had their own bubbles surrounding their bodies.

‘Charu…’ they both cried out simultaneously.

The leader as if aware of their bonding said, ‘The bubbles won’t burst. You may get into a group hug if you want.’

Charu immediately hugged them both warmly even though Abhay was preferring a ‘Duo’ hug over a ‘Trio’ hug.

‘Now, folks. If your team bonding session’s over, let me tell you that we wish you folks, no harm. Fix that point in your ever-suspecting human brains,’ said the leader.

‘Sure, please go on. Can we please sit somewhere, while we listen,’ requested Charu?

Even before the leader could gesture to his members, one of them transformed into a Huge plush sofa. (Same as the one in Yuvaan’s home)

‘I’ll share with you only the details that are needed to accomplish our mission. As they say in your corporate world, it will be a collaborative effort.’

‘We are the Mermitans and hail from the planet, ‘Antrina’ that’s still unknown and hidden from you folks. There are two types of organisms in our planet, ‘Mermitans’ & ‘Zygotes’ who both co-existed peacefully for many centuries. Mermitans live in the water and Zygotes stay on the land. Both of us have the ability to transform into any form (living and non-living) that we observe and grasp the whole intelligence, strength, etc., of that object or person. There are other powers that we possess, but that’s for later. Now, one important point you must pay attention to is that we, ’Mermitans’ cannot stay out of the water and ‘Zygotes’ cannot stand water. The only exceptions to this are the Kings from both sides. The group members from both sides select a King and pass on some part of their energies to their Kings making him the only exception from their group to overcome this weakness. Some of us had to come to Earth upon the summons of our Goddess Athena who had reincarnated in a human form - 'Sheryl Varghese'. Why she summoned us is something you’ll come to know later if required.'

'There is a cave in the mountain nearby the Lake. In that cave, Sheryl using her divine powers had pulled in a mound of minerals from our planet. She then acquired the divine sword, ‘Khopesh’ from Egypt. Using her powers, she suspended the mound in the air with the sword in it. One fine day, she recited the holy verses and pulled the sword out of the mound creating a divine gateway between Earth and our planet invisible to anyone else. We were summoned through that gateway. It took some time but once our purpose on Earth was served, we gathered to exit; We,’ Mermitans’ in the lake near the cave and the ‘Zygotes’ in the cave.

Sheryl came in dressed up in her divine attire to bid us farewell. All she had to do was to recite the divine verses and plunge the ‘Khopesh’ back in the mound to open up the gateway. She recited the verses and plunged the sword in the mound but alas, instead of the gateway opening, the mound burst into two pieces; one half fell in the cave and the other fell in the lake. While we all were contemplating what went wrong, a divine voice echoed in the cave – ‘Sheryl, my child. You only had my powers till the time you got married. Once married, you can no longer use the divine powers. There is a reason for all this happening. Mermitans & Zygotes… My children, you will be stuck here on Earth for quite some time. But have patience and Sheryl will get you home.’ It was our Goddess Athena who spoke.'

Charu who was listening with rapt attention interrupted, 'Oh, No! So, Sheryl got married post your arrival on Earth. I bet, she wasn't aware she'd lose her powers upon marrying. But, she died and you folks are still here. Then, how did Goddess Athena promise that Sheryl will get you home? How will that be possible?'

'Goddesses don't lie. As Sheryl promised, she has been reborn in your form. You are the Great Grand Daughter of the Great Sheryl Varghese and you are destined to make us reach our destination,' said the leader aka King Mermitan.

'But, it can't be. I don't belong to the Varghese family. My mother and Granny hail from a different family altogether,' cried out Charu.

King Mermitan held Charu's hands, 'The Oomen family raised and safeguarded you from evil persons who were bent on destroying the Varghese race.' 'Do you want to see how your actual mother looked like?'

One of the mermitans transformed into the shape of an extremely beautiful lady. The face reminded Charu of something vaguely familiar in recent times; 'The Abstract painting of the woman on the cover of the book', 'The half-finished idol in the kitchen in UG4'.