Thalassophobia

“Hey! Hey, wake up!”

Vince slowly opened his eyes to find his friend Jeremy gently shaking him.

“Stop,” Vince tried to say with a raised voice, but his throat was so dry it barely came out as a whisper. “I’m awake. What’s wrong.”

“I don’t want to alarm you, but the raft is leaking. We’re losing air.”

“What?” Vince was suddenly very awake, and his dry throat completely forgotten. “No! No, it can’t be!”

“It is, and I can’t find the leak.”

“No, no, this can’t be happening.” Vince started climbing around the small raft looking for the leak.

“Stop, Vince! You’re making it lose air even faster! Stay still.”

“Stay still?” Vince was panicking. “How can you be calm right now? We’re about to sink just like the boat!”

“I’m calm because I need to be. Stop. Think. The raft still has some air. If we stay still, hopefully we can stay floating for a couple of hours. The boat went down last night, so there has to be people out looking for us by now.”

“Okay. Yes, okay,” Vince said as he tried to slow his breathing. “Stay calm. They’ll find us.”

“Right now, though, we’re going to throw out everything except our thinnest blanket. We need to be as light as possible, but we’ll still need protection from the sun.”

“We hardly have anything. What do we get rid of?” asked Vince.

“The extra blankets, shoes, clothes… everything but the one blanket and two lifejackets.”

“Clothes? Seriously?”

“I don’t know! I’m just guessing here! Wet clothes weigh a lot,” said Jeremy, trying to explain his reasoning.

“That actually makes sense. Okay, everything out.”

The two men tossed the blankets over the side of the raft and proceeded to undress, trying to move as little as possible. Once everything was out of the raft, both men laid down flat in the middle of the raft, wearing nothing but underwear and lifejackets, and covered themselves with the last remaining blanket. They needed whatever shelter they could get from the scorching sun. It was still morning, and already the heat was almost unbearable.

“Jeremy, did I mention I’m afraid of the water?”

“Many, many times.”

“Not just afraid. Terrified. I don’t even like being in this raft. What am I going to do if this sinks?”

“I don’t know. Don’t think about it right now.”

“Wow, thanks for the advice,” said Vince. “I’m trying not to, but it’s kind of hard.”

“Why did you come on the boat if you hate the water so much?” asked Jeremy.

“I didn’t want to be a baby, and honestly, what were the chances the damn boat would sink?”

The two men were silent for a while, listening to the sound of the waves. In other circumstances, the noise would probably be relaxing.

“Vince?”

“Yeah?”

“Vince, my foot’s wet.”

“What?” Vince asked in a panic. He sat upright just in time to see the slow trickle of water near their feet turn into a flood as the side of the raft collapsed, spilling freezing cold water onto the two men. “No, no, no! Oh my god! What do we do?”

“Stay calm, save your energy, and let the lifejacket do the work.”

“That’s it? We’re going to die!” Vince screamed as he started hyperventilating.

“Vince! Stay calm. Breathe.”

The raft was completely submerged now and was starting to slowly sink down into the dark water below them.

“Jeremy! I can’t see what’s under us! What’s under us?”

“Just water. Take deep breaths, Vince.”

“No, no! There’s not just water! We don’t know what’s down there!” Vince was splashing around, completely panicked.

“Deep breaths, Vince. Lean back and look at the sky. Let the lifejacket support you,” Jeremy said in as calm a voice as he could manage.

“My feet! Something’s going to get my feet and pull me under! Oh my god, it’s so black down there!”

“VINCE! Stop! Right now!”

Jeremy’s sudden yelling caused Vince to stop splashing for a moment. Vince looked over at Jeremy as he tried to slow his breathing.

“Vince, I need you to listen to me very, very carefully right now. Do not panic, do not move, and do not make a sound. Do you understand?”

Vince nodded his head in understanding.

“Okay, now, Vince, when you are in the ocean, splashing and kicking will attract unwanted attention. Do you understand?”

Vince nodded again.

“Keeping that in mind, I am about to tell you something you are not going to like, but you need to hear.”

“Okay,” said Vince

“In the water to my right, there is a shark.”

“Oh my god, oh my god. We’re going to die!”

“Vince. Stop. We’re going to be fine. It’s still at least 30 yards away, but we need to stop moving, okay?”

Vince was crying from fear but managed a quick nod.

“Try to float on your back, keep you legs up, and do not, under any circumstances, start kicking or splashing,” Jeremy directed. “It has no interest in us if we don’t give it a reason.”

Jeremy watched Vince to make sure he was following directions. Vince was crying and having trouble breathing, but he was listening.

“Okay,” Jeremy said calmly. “We’re just going to float here and pretend like we’re in a pool. Nothing to worry about.”

He looked over at Vince and saw his eyes were squeezed shut and his breathing was rapid. Jeremy looked the other way and found the shark had moved closer. Much closer. He swore he could make out the shape of it just below the surface. Becoming panicked himself, he looked back up at the sky and remained silent.

The two men floated in silence for what seemed like hours, although it was probably more like twenty minutes. Jeremy finally started looking around, searching for any sign of the shark. When he found nothing, he felt safe enough to talk again.

“Vince?”

“Yeah?”

“I think it’s gone.”

Vince remained silent.

“Did you know that sharks don’t hunt people? Shark attacks are pretty rare, and most of the time it’s because they thought a person looked like something else.” Jeremy was going over these random things he’d heard about sharks in hopes of keeping Vince calm, and maybe a little for his own peace of mind as well.

“I still hate the ocean, and just so you know, I’m too scared to even move right now,” said Vince.

“It’s okay to be scared, but just remember, there’s nothing to worry about. We’re going to be fine.”

If the two men hadn’t been staring at the sky, they might have noticed the enormous black shadow slowly growing in size beneath them.

“I don’t know why so many people hate the ocean,” Jeremy said, right as multiple giant tentacles burst out of the water and pulled the two men down into the darkness.