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- [00:00]
A
Hey, welcome back to the podcast. I really hope you enjoy this episode and if you'd like to hear more stories like these with a different background sound, please check the description to check out my other two podcasts and if you want to get rid of all of the ads, you can subscribe for just $2.99 a month. Last thing, I really appreciate you being here and I'd really love if you would follow the podcast and come back again soon. Thank you so much. I hope you enjoy. I have thought about this event at least once a day and even though it's been a few years and some details are fuzzy, it still gives me the chills. A group of us were sitting around chilling one January night when one of us thought it would be fun to have a bonfire using the brown and dried out Christmas tree as the kindling. We were bored, so we all jumped at the chance of doing something, even if it was potentially illegal. Another of my friends made the comment, it's only illegal if we get caught. And with that logic, we set out to find a location to bid the Christmas season goodbye. My friend, who we'll call Sheila, knew of a place we could head to and would likely not get caught by any police interference. The only stipulation was that we had to wait for the COVID of nightfall. What she failed to mention was that this area was a swamp with wooden walking paths weaving through the trees and water for patrons during the day. Driving up and not seeing any lights, this didn't look like a place that would be open during the night. Yet here we are. Once we arrived and had set up our tree to be burned, another of our friends thought it would be fun to walk the darkened trails. No flashlights, just the small amount of moonlight that we had. We all looked into the forest, uneasy, but agreed to the adventure. Using the headlights of our cars, we saw two entrances leading into the forest. Naturally, we thought we would enter in one side and come out the other. Making our way towards the part, Sheila and I hung back so we could conspire to pull a prank. There was one guy in our group who she had a crush on and the two would often flirt and banter with one another and she learned that he was quite the scaredy cat. The prank was for me to slink off towards the exit to the path, meet them halfway and jump out and scare the wits out of him. Of course, this was too good of a chance to pass up, so as they headed down through the entrance of the path, I snuck off going through the exit. The Swamp was alive with the sound of toads croaking, insects buzzing, creatures chattering and scurrying. And a couple of times I heard the splash of water as a toad plopped into the water as I had gotten near. The blackness of the night didn't bother me, as I was much too excited about scaring the crap out of Sheila's crush. The look on his face, the squeals of his screaming. It was going to be awesome. Eventually I kept walking and walking, but wasn't finding the group. Surely they should have met them by now. But where are they? I stopped for a moment, straining my ears to see if I could hear them coming towards me. But all I was met with were the sounds of the swamp and then silence. I stopped. Was it possible that they were quiet so they could scare me? Sure. But all of them being that quiet. Do you know the sounds someone makes when they're swimming slowly through the water? A sort of light sloshing noise? That was the sound I was hearing coming from in front of me. I froze, straining my ears towards the sloshing, noticing that it didn't sound like a frog or a fish, but what it sounded like, I had no idea. There was a thud against the wooden path, rocking it slightly, then slapping noises that sounded like wet flippers hitting the ground. I would be curious afterwards, but with my heart hammering in my chest and my knees about to give out from underneath me, I turned around and took off as fast as I was able out of the swamp and away from whatever it was that was back there. When I emerged from the forest, my group of friends were out there waiting for me. Apparently, after not seeing me for a while, they grew concerned. So concerned that Sheila had given away the prank about to be pulled, and they hurried back, not knowing what had become of me. They were about to walk the path I had taken to find me when I suddenly appeared. It wasn't until later that we discovered that the two paths we had seen led in two different directions. Something that would have been nice to know beforehand. As for what was in that swamp, I have no idea. And none of my friends believed me, thinking that it was just a frog or something. Over the years, I tend to think that maybe they were right and I just imagined it, but that it's crunch
- [05:27]
B
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- [05:53]
C
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- [06:16]
D
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- [06:47]
A
I didn't remove the fact that this was one of the most terrifying experiences of my life. The following took place when I was in grade 10 attending high school in Oshawa, Ontario, just under an hour east from Toronto. I am 30 years old now and I have only mentioned this to a handful of people. It isn't the scariest story ever, but it definitely gave me and my friends at the time the creeps. Let's begin during lunch hour. I never liked eating. Eating in the cafeteria. Too crowded, and I didn't like people watching me eat. I'm not too sure why now, but my friends felt the same way. So we either would go to one of our houses for lunch or we'd discover someplace outside near our school where we could sit, eat lunch, throw a baseball around after, etc. We stumbled upon this creek behind some backyards with a few big rocks that could be used as a makeshift scene seating area. It was secluded enough that we thought it would be a cool place to eat our lunch and hang out for an hour. FYI, we were not trespassing in anyone's backyards. They were all fenced off and the creek was accessible to anyone walking by, including myself. There were four of us. We ate lunch, joked around, and started playing catch with a baseball in the mitts that we brought with us. I stood further into the creek, so near a bunch of tall trees that I think turned into a forest. If you keep going, my friend threw the baseball. I missed catching it and it rolled to the base of a tree a few feet behind me I walked over to retrieve the ball and sitting upright on the other side of the tree was what I think was a female with long straight black hair facing the opposite direction, not moving at all whatsoever. I noticed her right before I picked up the ball and my stomach dropped. I knew to play it cool so she wouldn't react and scare me even more than I already was. So I picked up the ball and speed walked out of there and said to my friends, guys, let's go, we're going to be late. They were all saying how we had time and that we were going to be early, etc etc etc. But I looked at them with my eyes wide open as if trying to communicate with my eyes and again I said let's go. Confused, my friends followed me out of there and as we were walking away I periodically looked behind us to see if we were being followed. When we were at a distance far enough, I felt it was safe. I told them what I saw. They all believed me because they knew I wouldn't just randomly make up that to ruin our lunch break and not to mention how much I hated going back to school early after lunch being curious dumb teenage boys. However, we did return to that creek a few days later and the person sitting behind the tree was not there. In my 30s I have never had anything as unsettling as this happen to me before and I still remember it as if it happened yesterday. Like I said, I have only told this story a handful of times and it still gives me the chills to this day. This happened When I was 15 years old, it was about five years ago and I was living at home. It was just me and my mom and we lived in a small apartment in a medium sized city and my mom was always working and never home so there was not much adult supervision at home and I would spend most of my nights on Facebook. So one night I was settling in for another dinner of Mac and cheese and watching YouTube when my phone buzzed. I didn't have many friends at the time and the only person who really messaged me was my mom, but she was at work so I knew it would not be her. I paused my YouTube video and put down my Mac and cheese and picked up the phone. I looked at my phone and saw that I had a Facebook message. I clicked on it to read it and I did not recognize the person sending it. All it said was hi Amy. I didn't think anything of it and I was in the middle of my dinner so I just put my phone back down another Couple minutes later, I heard my phone vibrate again. It was from the same person and this time it said, how are you doing, Amy? This time I replied and I'm fine. Who is this? There was no response, so I finished eating my dinner and watched a few more videos and went to bed. The next night was pretty much the same routine and I was home by myself, eating dinner and watching YouTube. I got a message on Facebook and this time it said, are you enjoying your macaroni and cheese? This time I was caught off guard and was starting to get upset. I answered back, who is this? Almost instantly, another message came in that said, I'm watching you and I know you're alone. Now I was getting scared, but in the back of my mind I was thinking it could have been one of my friends playing a joke on me. They knew that I ate Mac and cheese almost every night for dinner, so it could have just been somebody guessing and it was just a coincidence that I was eating Mac and cheese again. It didn't help that this was late fall, so it got dark very early and being home alone was already a little unsettling to begin with. My mom had warned me to be careful online ever since I started using Facebook. About a year earlier, she had told me about how people could get catfished or how your identity could get stolen. I had not had any bad experiences online up to this point, so I figured she was just being an overprotective parent. I'm watching you and I'll be watching you when you go to sleep tonight, was the next message I read. I turned off my phone and finished my nightly routine and went to bed, but not before I blocked that person from my account. I got up early the next day and I could hardly keep my eyes open from not getting very much sleep. I walked to my high school, which was about a 20 minute walk from my apartment. Everything went fine at school. It was a normal usual day at school, but I struggled to get through it because of how tired I was. But I dragged along the day the best I could. After school, I stopped at a fast food place for about a half an hour before walking the rest of the way home. While I was walking home, I thought I noticed this same car drive past about four or five times. It was already getting dark, so I wasn't sure if it was the same car. When I was just getting to the parking lot in my apartment complex, a car drove by and someone yelled out the window, enjoy your Mac and cheese, Amy. When I turned to look, the car was turning at the corner and all I could see were the brake lights and no description of it. I could only think of one person who would want to mess with me. I had broken up with my boyfriend a month earlier and he lived in a town about 45 minutes away. It was a really bad breakup because I had caught him cheating, but he swore it was a mistake and he only wanted to be with me. I didn't take him back and all of his friends told me he was not over it. I can only guess that it was him stalking me on Facebook and in the car. I ended up deleting my Facebook for almost a year and I never noticed any any more cars following me. I live with my mom and dad here in Escambia county here in Florida. One evening, me and my mom are just sitting around watching TV when we hear some shouting coming from the street outside. At first my mom just shakes her head and makes some comment about the neighbors being noisy again and we just carry on watching the show. But as this shouting gets louder and we start to hear this revving engine sound, she turns down the TV a little and we start to listen in to what it was. It sounded like the shouting was coming from right outside our house by that point. So I got up to take a peek around the TV room curtains to see what it was. In the street outside is a kid in his underwear who's just facing down a truck. He's shouting at the driver, who is shouting back, and from what I could make out, the argument is over the truck driver wanting the kid to do something and the kid refusing. I could tell from the way that the kid was addressing the driver that it was some kind of family argument, a gut feeling that was confirmed when the kid eventually called the driver dad at one point. The argument peaks in intensity at one point and the two people are just screaming at each other with the driver kind of leaning out of the driver's side window, when all of a sudden the driver leans in, revs the truck engine, and legit tries to run the kid over in the middle of the street. Luckily, the kid reacted just in time, dodging the truck and running into one of our neighbor's front yards as it sped past him. My mom, who was also watching by that point, gasps and says oh my gosh. And we watch as the truck does a U turn in the street, preparing to make another pass on the kid. But the kid isn't about to let that happen and runs across some yards in the direction of our house, banging on the front door and Screaming for help. We just reacted, running to the front door and letting the kid inside as the truck screamed past again, the driver shouting out the window as it came to a stop. We slammed the door closed and my mom runs to call the cops as I try to comfort the kid even though he's basically in his underwear and I am in no mood to be hugging a half naked teenager no matter how panicked he is. The kid's dad starts banging on our front door now, shouting about how he knew his son was in there and for him to come out so that he could face the music or whatever, trying to ignore all the commotion. I remember asking what had happened to cause such an intense family argument and you will seriously not believe what the kid said next. He tells me straight up, basically no matter how much his dad wants him to, he will not take a bath. Ranting about how he's a grown up and he can do what he wants and he won't just do what people tell him to do. How he's perfectly capable of looking after himself and he doesn't need anyone to be keeping tabs on his personal hygiene. It's only then that I start to notice just how bad this kid smells, how his breath smelled awful and his skin was greasy looking. He obviously hadn't bathed in quite a while. And although there's obviously no excuses for trying to run someone over for something like that, I started to understand why his dad had gotten so frustrated. Now this whole time the dad is banging on the door saying he's not going to leave until his son comes out. But my mom had come back to tell us that the cops were on their way and that everything was going to be okay. But as she's talking to the kid, she had pretty much the same reaction as me. And there's a moment where she stops talking for a second and her nostrils flare from where she started to get an idea of how bad the kid smelled. And again with the same air of indignation, the kid tells my mom that no one is going to be the one to tell him to take a bath. How he's a grown man, he wasn't, and how he can make his own decisions. My mom's face when he was telling her this was just a picture. Like me, she could literally not believe what she was hearing, nor could she believe the kind of situation that we had gotten ourselves involved with. Eventually the cops showed up and tried to talk to the dad as he was screaming profanities at our front door. We watch from the window as he Gets into a seriously heated argument with them to the point that they wrestle him to the ground before they detained him. This gave an opportunity to talk to the cops ourselves. And as crazy as the whole situation was, we had to tell them the truth of the matter, that the dad had actually tried to run his kid over, which was basically attempted murder. Naturally, the cops agreed and they arrested the guy. But not before asking him if he had in fact tried to run his kid over. The guy responded, he's my son, my son. I'll raise him how I want. If he doesn't do what I tell him, I' ma whip him. Basically confirming that he had tried to hit him with his truck. He was slurring his words the whole time. And it hit me at one point that the guy was pretty drunk from the way he was shouting and slurring at the cops. Definitely not a wise move on his part. That was all the cops needed, apparently. So they put him in the back of their patrol car and took him to jail. That was most definitely one of the craziest things that's ever, ever happened to me. And I suppose it doesn't help the whole Florida man thing that a guy might try to run over his kid for not taking a bath. I suppose, given the behavior of his kid, that this might be more like a Florida men story or like a Florida family story. But I promise not everyone here is totally crazy. No matter how much the media makes it out that we're all just nuts. But saying that since I moved out of state for college, it's definitely something that I've noticed about living further up the east coast. Sure, there's crazy people everywhere, but the concentration of crazies in Florida is definitely higher than most other places. I'm just glad the situation that night got resolved. And as weird as it was, the outcome was consistent. Considerably more preferable to just watching a half naked kid get murdered by his own father. I would much rather just smell some body odor than watch someone die, that's for certain. The following story occurred in 2001. During this time, I remember it being cold and we finally decided to pack up our Christmas decorations. My sister and I were two rowdy teenagers living in a single parent household. Our father had passed away a few years back, so our mother took on the full responsibility of raising us by herself. My mom worked as a flight attendant, which made her time with us very limited. However, we understood why everyone was struggling to cope with this new life. In the middle of dinner one night, our mom mentions to us that she's going away for a few days for work related reasons. My sister Cleo sighs in disappointment and places her fork on her plate. I quickly pinch her arm and remind her to have a better attitude about everything. Cleo is my younger sister. At times she can be very disconnected from reality. She didn't understand that she wasn't the only person that had to say sacrifice things. After my quick scolding, Cleo readjusts herself at the dinner table and apologizes. Mom smiles and continues to explain. Since she was leaving for a period of three days, our mom felt more comfortable with us staying at our aunt's house until she got back. Cleo and I look at each other in astonishment. You know how everyone has that one family member's house that you dread going to? Well, in this situation, that person was our Aunt Kathy. Was she kind? Yes, but her lifestyle would be considered a little unorthodox to most. Aunt Kathy was known for hosting outlandish events and always had at least two boyfriends. She had a son named Chase who passed away last year. During our childhood, our aunt would host parties and gatherings at her house and Chase would stay in his room the entire time. She insisted that he was an introvert, but every time I visited that house I felt a strange and unexplainable feeling. Despite all of those things, I swallow my pride and nod in agreement. As my mother finishes explaining all of the details, I could tell that Cleo was very annoyed that we had to leave. She tried to convince our mom that we could watch over ourselves, but Cleo had broken that trust by inviting a boy over numerous times. Thanks a lot Cleo. The next day we pack a bag and wait on the front porch for our aunt to come get us. Mom had already left early in the morning for work. After about 15 minutes minutes, Aunt Kathy begins to pull in the driveway. I still remember that car. It was a silver 1999 Toyota Camry. We place our bags into the trunk and sit in the back seat. Aunt Kathy shouts our names in excitement and starts a conversation. We discuss school, our mom, and of course boys. But whenever we would mention our cousin Chase, her response was short or she would smile through the rearview mirror. After a semi long car ride, we arrive at the house. Green shrubs were lined across the lawn along with a barbecue grill. As we walk to the door, I look up and discover someone staring down at me through a window. The curtains jerk shut immediately after. I couldn't tell who it was, but I assumed it was one of her boyfriends. As we walk inside I notice that all of the lights are off. Although it was daytime, it seemed eerily quiet and a dark hue shadowed the house. I guess this was oblivious to Cleo because she headed straight into the living room to watch tv. Aunt Kathy asks to speak with me briefly in the kitchen. The look on her face alone made me interested in what she had to tell me. She whispers to me and explains that she had been distraught since the passing of her son. I hug her in consolation as she sobs on my shoulder. I understood completely how she felt. Losing someone that close to you is heartbreaking. Aunt Kathy begins to tell me that sometimes it feels like he is still here. Especially when she wakes up in the middle of the night. My heart dropped to my stomach. Even though I knew I had to ask her the following question, I wasn't prepared for the answer. I asked my aunt about the person in the window upstairs. As we were entering the house, she raises her head from my shoulder and looks at me in confusion. She had no idea what I was talking about. Aunt Kathy explained that she had been living by herself ever since Chase died. At that moment, I tried to convince myself that I didn't see anything in the window. Everything happened pretty quickly. Aunt Kathy insisted that it could have been her cat, but as the day continued, I realized how illogical that idea was. I think I know the difference between a cat and a human. During our entire stay at the house, nothing happened. As the last day approached, the idea of something eerie going on had diminished almost completely. Cleo and I hug Aunt Kathy goodbye and get into the jeep with our mom. Before we drive off, I notice two things. Aunt Kathy standing in the doorway waving goodbye and the same figure I saw three days before standing in the window. It seemed to be more of a silhouette and was black in color with soulless eyes. I turn to Cleo and tell her to look up, but when she does, the figure disappeared. We never visited that house again. Back in 2015, I was lucky enough to win a two day yacht tour that was being raffled off by a local boat rental shop. This was a short cruise with meals provided and a captain to charter us around. I never win anything. So when I entered the contest, I really didn't think I had any chance of winning. I was imagining thousands of entries and only two entries were chosen. I was actually shocked when I was notified I won. Two people were chosen and you could bring a guest over the age of 21. I of course brought my partner and the other person who won brought his wife. The other couple, Robert and Carol were funny, outgoing older folks. Definitely not the worst company to have for almost two days. We met with the captain, his first mate and the owner of the store on the dock at 2pm and were due to set sail at 3:30. We went over a few safety courses, took a tour of the boat and they showed us our very tiny rooms. I don't know why I was envisioning the kind of yacht that Jeff Bezos has. It was very much not that the yacht was nice enough, a little older and smaller, but definitely a lot nicer than the one I have, which is a non existent yacht. So no complaints from me. I'm only mentioning this because I think the age of the boat is the reason for what happens next. We set sail on time and started getting out into the open sea. It felt like we were 1,000 miles away from the shore by 6pm and the sun was getting lower in the sky. The view was breathtaking from the top of the boat. Nothing in sight all around us except a cargo ship way off into the distance. The water was a dark blue as the setting sun made its way past the perfectly straight line of water that looked like the edge of the earth. There was a table, a few chairs to sit in, shade in some spots and complimentary champagne. Dinner would be in half an hour so we and the other couple shared some champagne and stories before dinner, wondering how we got so lucky to end up there. Or so we thought. Dinner had come and gone and everything was going great. Around nine my partner and I headed to the tiny room to start getting ready for some sleep. The boat was going to anchor down in the morning and we wanted to take a swim for some exercise to start the day so we needed some rest. We were out by 11pm then woke up again at 1am to a loud banging, an alarm going off and a red light illuminating our room. I wish that what I am describing was just a nightmare. It was in fact not. We scrambled out of bed barely dressed, terrified and half asleep. My girlfriend ran to open our cabin door and as soon as she did the first mate and the other couple were wide eyed in the tiny hallway putting on life jackets and handing us some. There was a smell of smoke in the air and I thought at that moment that this was an overreaction. There is no way this is happening and if it is, it isn't that bad, right? Wrong. We booked it out of the hallway to the deck of the boat to notice that one half of the boat was on fire and realized the boat was sinking. The only Light we had was from the fire in the stars. Anything outside a 50 foot radius was completely black. An abyss. The water was glowing orange around the boat as the small waves peaked and made kissing sounds, only to be overshadowed by the roaring of the fire and the occasional pop and crack from parts of the boat melting in the flames. The the normal calm the sound of waves usually brings was slowly becoming the worst sound I could ever hear. We were surrounded by complete darkness and would be for the next few hours. The captain was preparing the emergency raft. It was inflatable and just required a pull on a string. With a strong pull, the raft was quickly inflating to become a 4 foot by 6 foot foot, bright yellow, A flimsy vessel that would keep us afloat until help came. They threw it off to the side of the boat near a small set of stairs that dipped into the water. A small rope held the raft close to the stairs. Meanwhile, all I could do was stand in shock with tears running down my face. All I could think about was my dogs. Still not sure that this was as bad as it seems. We still have to be close to land. Boats put out an sos. I'm getting on the life raft so I don't burn alive or drown. The captain and the first mate were talking quietly to each other. That caused me to panic some. What are they saying to each other that they can't say to us? They begin looking back and forth between the raft and the fire. At this point I am able to figure out that the series of events that are unfolding are not ones that are working out in our favor. I hear the first mate curse loudly and by this time we are all looking over to them to find out what we need to do. Why are we not moving into the raft yet? The fire is growing and smoke is filling the air. Maybe 10 seconds passed before the captain shouts, everyone onto the raft one at a time. I was waiting for him to say women and children first because this felt like it was straight out of the Titanic. The first mate got into the raft and reached his hand up to Carol while Robert held her hand to help her down the small set of metal stairs. Robert was next and they both sat down on the raft. Then I climbed down the stairs followed by my partner. The captain launched an oar. Yes, one oar into the raft, untied the rope and hopped in. He gave us a push off the side of the boat as best he could. We didn't get very far with that, but the first mate had been trying to use the singular oar to paddle us away from the flames and smoke. The first few minutes while trying to get a distance, nobody said anything. Robert was comforting Carol and I was just staring off at the boat, anticipating a huge explosion like in the movies. However, that never happened. The boat just burned and burned and after about 20 minutes the fire was diminishing due to the water that was quickly sinking the boat. This seemed like an actual nightmare and I didn't even know at that point that it was only going to get worse.
- [35:37]
E
My dad taught me a lot, including how easy it is to forget to cancel things. So I downloaded Experian, my bff Big Financial Friend. Experian could help me cancel my unused subscriptions and lower my bills, saving me hundreds a year. Get started with the Experian app today. Your big financial friends here to help you save smarter. Results will vary. Not all bills or subscriptions eligible Savings not guaranteed $631 a year average savings with one negotiations and one cancellations paid membership connected payment account required. See experian.com for details.
- [36:05]
A
Experian Ayer had been out for only a few minutes and the only way any of us could see one another was by the dim light of the moon. Of course, the moon was not even close to full that night. It barely lit up anything. You could maybe see a foot in front of you. Anything past that was just black, never ending darkness. The first mate made his way around, securing our life jackets tightly. I appreciated the concern, but I told him I would be fine without a life jacket. The captain had been digging around in a box that was built into the side of the raft. He pulled out what looked like an extra piece of the raft's material and a bright orange flare gun. He maneuvered slowly to the empty side of the boat, lifted up the side, and that's when we heard the gurgling of air leaving the raft and hitting the water. There is no way there's a hole in this raft. He tried a few times to pull the side up out of the water and each time the weight of his body and inability to get any leverage to use force to keep the underside up and out of the water long enough to try to patch the rift. The first mate tried to assist, but it all seemed like a waste of effort. Finally, in desperation, they peeled a clear seal off the side of the extra wrapped material, pulled up the side as hard as they could, and reached all the way over to slap the patch on. Unfortunately, this was not a success. They were unable to patch the rip in the side of the life rafts, the only thing keeping us out of the pitch black ocean, was slowly sinking. After a few minutes of exchanging cuss words, tight tugs, and a few words of encouragement, it was time to get real about the situation that was happening. We were about to become stranded in the ocean, just floating there with miles of nothingness around us, above us and below us. After all, we were close to the southern end of the Mariana Trench, which is known to be the deepest part of the ocean. This gives me chills to think about. Miles away from the next sign of human life. The raft was losing its air and the inflated sides were becoming soft to the touch, squishing easily under the pressure pressure of my hand. The flare gun went off. It was a silent star shooting way up into the sky. And then a pop, like a firework. The light was so bright from the flare, I could see regret and fear in the older couple's eyes. I knew at this point that we had about 30 minutes until the raft was just a piece of flat yellow rubber and nylon. Nothing much was said in those last few minutes other than we learned we were almost 100 miles off the coast of where we departed, and nobody, another boat or the Coast Guard had responded to our sos. Luckily, we knew that the area of the ocean we were in was considered a high traffic area for cargo and importing ships, so it was unlikely that we would never be found. It was probably just going to take a while. To be found still in the dead of night, floating helplessly amongst the creatures of the sea for even just one minute is one minute too long. It wasn't much longer before we were all submerged and watching water take over the flat raft as it sank a foot, 2ft, 3ft, and by 4ft it was a pale, dark yellow mass losing its brightness to the sea. It was barely visible, but I had to watch it to see just how far it would go until it disappeared. That was a mistake, because when I tell you that that freaked me out more than anything. I mean it. We all stayed close, close to each other, just floating in the small waves. I don't know if I purposely tried to scare myself, but all I could imagine was the sea creature swimming below us. No matter how deep, I knew at every moment, there was likely something there. I am an avid fan of Shark Week, so I knew that sharks become more active at night, dusk and dawn. We were just at the whim of the ocean waves. I didn't care that I was tired or hungry. I could only envision myself at any second being dragged Deep into the ocean by a shark to drown to death, still barely alive when it let go of me. But too far down to float up fast enough to get a gasp of life saving oxygen. Or even worse than this happening to me. Happening to the love of my life who remained brave and stoic during this whole ordeal. If I had to watch something bad happen to her, I would rather it just be me. Four hours and two flares had gone by when I could see the sky start to lighten up. The sun was rising. For some reason the thought of daylight was comforting. I was still still going to be floating around. But I could see now dawn was here and I could see if there were any threats around us. Or if boats were passing by that were able to see the wreckage of our flare signals. Help could see us. It wouldn't be long now until I am on dry land again.
- [42:01]
C
Wrong.
- [42:03]
A
The sun was getting higher into the sky. Despite everything, it was beautiful. The pinks and oranges from the ocean that was no longer black but blue. I decided to do a360 and turn around to see everything around us. That's when it happened. My biggest fear of free floating. Something bumped my submerged legs. Something big. I screamed a blood curdling scream and the only words I could get out of my mouth were big. My leg. Shark. At that moment I had no idea if it was really a shark. I just assumed the worst. Because obviously after this whole adventure the worst happens to me and what else would I expect? Shark week comes in handy again. I remember to try not to panic and that they are attracted to shiny jewelry. I decided to take out my earrings and I tossed them into the open water away from us. The idea was that the shark would go after my earrings. It sounds dumb when I say it out loud now, but I would have tried anything. I just sat there and tried not to kick my legs. But also tried not to lay on my back and float. Trying not to resemble a fat seal. We were all just darting our eyes and bodies around to look for any signs it was still around. All of a sudden Robert let out a yelp. He too had been bumped. A quick splash at the top of the surface about five feet away revealed a large finger. We were still unable to tell if it was a shark by the fin or a dolphin. But I don't know much about dolphins. I didn't know if they lurked around the way this thing was. I guess the earrings didn't work. I don't know why I thought that was such a genius plan. We all came in closer to each other hoping to give the image that we looked bigger to the fish. I would be lying to say that each time someone accidentally kicked me while trying to keep afloat that I didn't freak out. But I did, and each time scared me more. Some time had passed and there was no sight of fins breaking the surface or any large dark masses swimming below us. I don't think we would be able to really tell since we were basically eye level with the water, but everything seemed calm for the time being. We were all hungry, complaining of hunger and thirst A while later I figured at this point it must have been 10am already in the blazing sun. My girlfriend was sunburnt. Her face was beet red and her lips dry and cracked from exposure, dehydration and and salt water. I eventually pulled off my shirt and used it to provide some shade for her. I was shirtless underneath my life jacket. Whoever rescued us was in for a treat. The thought of not being rescued before we perished to the bottom of the ocean crossed my mind and I was starting to spiral. Everyone was trying to remain positive, but not me. I guess I was the only one who witnessed every single mishap that led us up to that moment. Screw toxic positivity, screw good vibes only we are in a serious situation and despite being surrounded by never ending water, none of us had a single drop since at least nine hours ago. Is nobody else concerned about dehydration? I knew I was getting snippy with people who didn't deserve it and have their own way of dealing with things, but I was having trouble seeing the bright side. All of a sudden, a loud horn filled the air. It was like music to my ears. Help was close. Behind Carol was a red cargo ship in the distance, maybe half a mile away. The captain shot the last flare and the cargo ship's horn rang twice. They saw us. They were coming. The mood shifted and all the fears of Megalodons and third degree sunburns were gone. There was a collective sigh of relief. Immediately I started planning my move for when we got to land. I was gonna hit up a drive through, slam a gallon of Pedialyte, take a Xanax and hold onto my partner and our dogs and vow to never set foot on a boat again. The cargo ship threw over some floating devices and we held on as a Coast Guard helicopter flew in from the other side of the boat. The wind from the helicopter sprayed saltwater in our eyes and shot droplets at my face that felt like tiny bee stings. They lowered A man down to the water and he attached each person to what I believe was a stretcher, one at a time, and reeled us up to the chopper. When we all made it inside of the helicopter and before we began the flight back to land, we hovered above our wreckage site. It was some ways off from where we were picked up. I looked down and thought about the odds of all this happening. And the moment I dropped the raffle ticket into the bucket a few months ago and I was filled with regret. I was checking the remnants of the wreckage when I noticed a large black mass under the water. Then I noticed another, a smaller mass, then two more. The wreckage was swarming with sharks. The Coast Guard was looking out the side with me and made a comment. This area is notorious for shark activity. You all are lucky to have made it out alive and with all limbs intact. There were quite a few sharks swimming near the area we picked you up. The chopper was loud and hurting my ears as we took a hard swoop left. I just laid my head back and looked at my partner who was applying Neosporin to her lips. And the others from the boat removing their life jackets so they could use a stethoscope to listen to their heart or lungs or whatever. I didn't really respond to the Coast Guard guy about the sharks. I couldn't bring myself to comment on it. I just started to unbuckle my life vest and asked if they had a shirt I could borrow.
- [50:19]
C
It's. It's. Close your eyes, exhale, feel your body relax and let go of whatever you're carrying today. Well, I'm letting go of the worry that I wouldn't get my new contacts in time for this class. I got them delivered free from 1-800-contacts. Oh my gosh. They're so fast. And breathe. Oh, sorry. I almost couldn't breathe when I saw the discount they gave me on my first order. Oh, sorry. Namaste.
- [60:26]
E
Visit 1-800-contacts.com today to save on your first order.
- [60:30]
A
1-800-contacts packages by Expedia. You were made to occasionally take the hard route to the top of the Eiffel Tower. We were made to easily bundle your trip Expedia made to travel flight inclusive packages are atoll protected.