Your Darkest Fear

Fear of Sharks - Galeophobia

"This is Action 10 News reporting live from Titusville with the sole survivor, Summer Wilcox. She has already been questioned and released by the police for her version of the events surrounding the deaths of six people at this suburban home. Summer, what can you tell us about what happened here today. Where were you when the people started dying? Did you see it happen?" I stare at her blankly as everything that happened to us hit me all at once. I fall to my knees while the reporter is shoving a microphone in my face. 

A bystander comes over and lifts me up and pushes the reporter back "Give her some space please. I'm sure that when she is ready to talk, she will let everyone know what happened." He carries me to a car and opens the door to sit me down on the front seat.

Before he can close the door and leave there are a hundred flashes going off in my face. He gets a shirt from the back seat and puts it over my head. "This is just for right now till I can get you away from everyone. You can relax, I'm not a reporter or kidnapper but I work for NOAA. You know the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. I have been doing a study on the erratic behavior of normally docile sharks."

I shiver at the mention of sharks and huddle even further into the seat. He gently pulls the shirt off of my head and throws it back into the backseat. I look out the window and see that we are on the bridge heading out to Merritt Island. I knew that there was a research facility out by Cape Canaveral Space Center that studied the local marine life. It was a big deal a few years ago when they were building it because it brought high paying jobs to the area. My dad and uncle worked on the building and observation platforms around the coastline.

He's on the phone with someone telling them about what he knew of the incident. He has most of it all wrong but I don't want to talk about it right now. My phone starts vibrating and I know that it's friends and family calling to find out what happened. I just can't believe they're all gone and if I hadn't of freaked out, I would be too.

Bobbie was making fun of me that someone at the age of 26 wouldn't go in a salt water pool. He had just got bought the pool and had it installed with a dark blue and black tile. It made the deep end so dark that I couldn't see the bottom. At one point he had tried to throw me in and I had grabbed the diving board railing and hung on for dear life. He gave up after a couple of minutes of tug of war and let me drop to the ground. I tried telling them that I thought that I had seen something in the water. They all started laughing and joking around that I saw a shark.

 I close my eyes so tight that I can see white spots behind my eye lids as tears slid down my face. My mind shuts down again as the images of what was about to happen start to resurface. The man hears my sobs and hangs up the phone. "Sorry about talking about that in front of you. My bosses wanted to know what I had seen, which wasn't much since that cop wouldn't let me in. Told me that it was police business and that if they needed the water tested for anything they would give me a call. Sorry, it's an ongoing thing with the local police. By the way my name is Dr. Matt Bruner and I specialize in thresher sharks and nurse sharks. Well any shark really but I like those kinds." 

"It's okay Dr. Bruner, I know that I need to talk about what happened but it is just that I can't. I want to but it was so shocking watching it happen and too frozen with fear to help anyone. It also happened so fast, to me it seemed like forever and everything was moving in slow motion. But they were all gone in a flash. Oh god, it hurts so bad." I sink further into the seat almost becoming one piece. The pain is too much to handle knowing that my husband, sister, and friends are all gone. We drive for a few more minutes before we stop at a gate. Dr. Bruner punches in a code and shows his badge to the camera. The gate opens and I can see the ocean behind the buildings and head down a steep curvy road to the parking lot.