The sky was heavy with sorrow. Thick grey clouds rolled across the late afternoon, casting a shadow of mourning over a small riverside village in West Bengal.

The villagers walked in silence behind the coffin, carried gently along the dirt path that led to the old river pier — a place that had once been the playground of Aarav, the young man who had drowned just days earlier.

The funeral horn wailed like a soul being summoned, mingled with the weeping of Aarav’s grieving mother. No one spoke. The air was heavy with loss.

The coffin was placed on a large wooden boat.

Old Rajan, the boatman — who had once watched little Aarav splash in the river as a child — wiped a tear from his weathered cheek, stepped aboard, and began rowing across to the burial ground on the opposite bank.

But then… something strange happened.

Just a few meters from shore, the boat began to tremble.

Old Rajan paused, looking around.
There was no wind.
No waves.
But the water beneath his feet felt icy cold — unnaturally so.

Suddenly, the boat rocked harder.
Water rose quickly, soaking into the sides, pulling the boat downward.

Rajan panicked. He tried to row back — but the oars were impossibly heavy, as though something below was dragging them back toward the middle of the river.

His breathing turned ragged. His hands trembled.
And then — he turned around.

And froze.

Behind the coffin stood a shadow.

A dripping figure, hair soaked and matted, water dripping down from a still body.
Eyes lifeless.
It was Aarav — the young man who had drowned.

He stared straight at the old boatman, his pale lips moving without sound.

But Rajan heard it.
Clearly.

“I… don’t want to leave this place…”

The boatman felt his blood freeze.
His limbs were paralyzed, as though buried in the winter river itself.

He let go of the oars. His entire body shook.

Then—
A scream pierced the air from the riverbank:

“The boat is sinking!!!”

Villagers ran to the water’s edge — but when they arrived,
the boat had quietly reached the shore.

The coffin lay still.
Untouched.

Only Old Rajan collapsed onto his knees, pointing at the water’s surface where the shadow had vanished, his lips trembling:

“He… he’s still here…”