Chasing Adrenaline

01 | Prologue

-Thrill seeker-

Noun. A person who enjoys taking part in extreme sports and other activities involving physical risk.

To some people, thrill seekers are foolish. Just simple adrenaline junkies who go about live as if it's just one big unrealistic adventure. People who doesn't take responsibility and instead waste their time following the adrenaline rush, and consequently wasting opportunities that could help them further in their live. Or at least that's what my father has been telling me almost my entire life.

You see, my mother used to be a thrill seeker, always living in the moment and chasing adrenaline. When she and my dad met, they fell in love immediately. My dad didn't care back then about the fact that my mother loved adrenaline. In fact, that made him love her even more. They got married when they both turned 21 and two years later they had my twin brothers. Life was great and then a year later, they got the surprise of another baby. Me.

Dad was of course the happiest of them both, seeing as he always wanted a baby girl. Nine months later I was born and we lived happily as a family. We used to go on so many adventures. Driving across the country just to go to a theme park. Or swimming in the ocean, not caring about the dangers that lies beneath the surface.

Everything was going great. But you know what they say, all good things must come to an end.

It was two weeks before my 7th birthday, that my life drastically changed. My dad, twin brothers and I were busy helping out at my brothers' school. The school was holding a fun day for the school and all the second graders were in charge of providing different activities. We were waiting for mom to show up and help out, but she called dad and said that there were massive waves at the beach that day and she would be a bit late.

Dad, being used to mom suddenly cancelling plans for some adrenaline, just laughed and wished her good luck. He knew that mom loved to surf and even more so, to surf on big waves. He, himself joined her a couple of times, when the waves were decent, but never anything extreme.

Luke and Zack, my two brothers, were a bit disappointed that mom couldn't make it, but even they knew that there was no changing her mind.

But if only dad had at least tried to convince mom not to go on that day, maybe things would have been a lot more different.

Dad got a call 14:05. He was in the middle of a food fight that started between him and some of the other parents. It was a fun tradition that the school held every year, to get the parents more involved. I still remember standing on the side of the field were all the activities were held. Luke was running around with one of his friends and Zack was helping me tie my shoes.

I remember seeing dad pick up the phone, still laughing at all the food being thrown around when suddenly, his face just dropped. It was like all the blood just drained from his face. For a few minutes he just stood in the middle of the field with his hand over his mouth and an extremely shocked face.

I may have been little, but I immediately knew something was terribly wrong and I somehow knew it had to do with mom. After the call ended, dad didn't even bother to say goodbye to everyone. He just rushed to me and Zack and told us to get Luke; grab our things and meet him at the car as quickly as possible.

Five minutes later, we were all in the car, rushing to the beach. Each passing second felt excruciatingly slow and with each minute, more dread filled me.

We arrived at the beach at 14:27. Police cars and ambulances were everywhere. One entire part of the beach was taped off and people were standing in groups, staring at the entire scene with shock and curiosity, although I doubt it was the good kind.

Dad parked the car and jumped out, running to the taped section of sand. Luke, Zack and I got out the car and followed the same route dad did. Zack and Luke stood on either side of me and held my hand, just like mom learned us. She said that the world can be very dangerous for a girl like me and that it was up to my two brothers to protect. But I always knew she said that, so that Luke and Zack can feel like superheroes.

As we neared the scene, I saw a lot of paramedics and police officers. Some paramedics were on the ground, performing CPR on people while others were running to the water and helping the sea rescue team to drag the rescued patients away from the sea and to safety.

Zack spotted dad at the far end of all the madness and quickly walked towards him. Dad was on the ground hunched over and shaking. I at first thought that he was cold, but as we walked closer I saw a paramedic and two police officers stand near him.

And when we finally reached dad, my entire world stopped. In front of me lying on the sand, was mom. At least that's what I thought. She had severe bite marks all over her body, making her almost unrecognizable. Her entire body was blue and filled with bruises. It didn't take me long to realize that she was attacked by a shark.

I looked over at dad and for the first time in my life, I saw him cry. His whole body was shaking uncontrollably and tears were just rushing down his face. One of the police officers came and led us away, just as the paramedic pulled a white blanket over mom.

Luke and Zack both had tears streaming down their face but held a brave face and never let go of my hands as we followed the officer to our car. I was in too much shock to comprehend what was happening.

At 14:49 dad came to the car and thanked the officer who was watching over us. The officer smiled an apologetic smile and bid him farewell.

We drove home in complete silence, with the occasional sniffs coming from my brothers. When we arrived home dad told us to go wait for him in the living room, and so we did.

We all sat on the big three seater couch and waited for dad. Ten minutes later he came and crouched in front of us. I could see that his eyes were bloodshot red from all the crying.

"I know you all three already know that mommy isn't with us anymore," he said in a teary and soft voice. "But I want you to know that she loved you all very much and that she will always be with us in our hearts. It's just the four of us now, but we are strong right? And were going to be alright. Okay?"

Both Zack and Luke nodded their heads and cried softly. That's when everything really kicked in and I realized that mom isn't here anymore. And that I will never hear her voice or feel her hugs ever again. That she's gone.

I remember jumping of the couch and running to my room, crying. I hid in my closet and hugged my favourite teddy bear, whilst sobbing and crying to the point where it felt like I couldnt breathe.

Later that evening dad came in with a cup of hot chocolate and sat beside me in my closet. He gave me the hot chocolate and held me close, comforting me although it did nothing.

Mom's funeral was six days later. All our family members and friends were there. It was the second worst day of my life, because wherever I looked, people were giving me apologetic looks and trying to comfort me. It didn't work.

Mom's death had caught the attention of a lot of newspapers and for weeks after we were being chased by reporters, wanting to have an interview with us. Three weeks later, dad had enough and decided to move to another state. He made all the arrangements and two days later we were on our way to our new home.

The first few weeks, dad made us go to therapy, but it didn't really last long. It got easier after a while and things went back to the new normal. Dad however started getting more protective.

It started out small, at first he would just tell me not to go play on any dangerous things at the playground, like the monkey bars. But as the years past it got worse. Dad stopped doing stuff in general and instead focused more on his work.

I was never allowed to go anywhere unless one of my brothers were with me. If I wanted to do something fun like for instance go to the amusement park, my dad would first do thorough research about every ride and then only allow me to go on the extremely safe ones. Or as todays teens call it, the kiddies ride.

Slowly my life became boring and uneventful. The only excitement I had was when the two friends that I had made, Shelly and Ava, would come over and we'd have a girls night. My life became dull and slowly my dad lost his fun.

I became just another character in life. Living a routine and boring life, away from adrenaline. And away from mom.