Florida Water - Ep1

FICTIONAL MURDER MYSTERY SERIES

Location, ‘Fox Lake Park’ in Mims, Florida. It’s about 3 P.M. on a Saturday in August. The Florida Water is calm as I sit on a wooden bench watching a gator float peacefully on the lake. His reptile eyes are staring straight at me, looking into my soul. I feel like he’s talking to me? Maybe he’s reminding me that still waters run deep, and that there are secrets in the water, secrets people don’t want me to find.

I grew up here. Things are so different now since I was a kid, the water is so different now… Being a Floridian, I was always around some sort of body of water. As a child, I loved Florida. I loved the water that Florida had to offer. Beaches, lakes, pools, water parks, and the rain. Yes, I even liked the rain. I’ve gotten some of my best ideas while it was raining. Florida was paradise. Until it wasn’t.

I was seventeen when my perspective of the joyful Florida water started to change. I had a boyfriend, a new boyfriend, Will. We were together two weeks to be exact. Even though it was only two weeks, it was lustful and fast. First teenage love at its finest. We met in biology class. We mostly made out and went to the beach. I watched him surf, while I soaked up the sun. “Your dream date.” I know. It was cute.

One day, Will and I were at the beach. Seemed like a normal day… Will came in early from his surf because he got a cut on his foot from the coral reef. From my memory. It wasn’t a huge cut. There was a good amount of blood, but the bleeding stopped shortly after he cleaned it up and put a bandaid on it. I didn’t think twice about it. We put a bandaid on his boo-boo and it was suppose to heal. It did not heal. It did the opposite, it killed him. A flesh-eating bacteria parasite killed my boyfriend. The ocean entered his bleeding wound and now he is dead. After the beach, he dropped me off at my family’s house and he kissed me goodbye. That was the last time I saw Will.

The next morning my mom came to my room and told me that Will passed away. Just like that. My first boyfriend died and water murdered him. The infection was so bad, it killed all of his insides, especially his brain. His ecosystem had no chance for survival. I was devastated.

Rare case they said. Yeah at the time it was rare. Now, it’s common. All types of body of water in Florida are infected. A flesh-eating, parasite infestation. People are frightened to go to some beaches, and I don’t blame them. A lot of beaches and lakes look like ghost towns. Empty. Hazard signs. Not welcoming at all. Florida isn’t doing well. And the crazy part is, it’s mostly effecting the east side. The west side of Florida is fine. This has made such a big divide between economical classes. The rich claimed the west and wants nothing to do with the east. The mayor wants to build a wall between the east and the west.

And you thought Florida was in the headlines a lot back then, you should see the headlines now. And what has become of Florida. You see something is happening to the mind’s of the Florida residents. Florida is scary right now. More homicides have been happening, more unusual homicides, yes, unusual for Florida. And a lot has to do with the water.

People are either dying because of the water or accidentally becoming psychopaths. It’s doing something to the brain. See what happens is, if the infected water goes up your nose or in your ear. The parasite attacks the brain where empathy is stored. You can be innocent one day and a psychopath the next. The state of Florida is lacking empathy, in more ways than one.

This case has been a full circle for me. I’m in my thirties now and still have a strong memory of the past. I witnessed the downfall. My job is important to me. Being a homocide detective on the east side is dangerous, but purposeful. I know I can solve this, because I know deep down inside there must be a reasoning for this. A human or humans are to blame and I know it.

I’m still looking at the lake, thinking it’s going to whisper all the answers to me. The gator begins to move with the shift of the sun. “Later gator,” I say out loud to it. They can survive any climate, they always have. He finally goes under the mysterious water, I watch the ripples he just made grow wider and wider. Cause and effect. Gators are good at hiding and so are people. This isn’t just an average pollution or eco imbalance problem. Someone is behind this. Why is it just affecting the East side of Florida? The answer is swimming, waiting for me to catch it.

The Florida death poll rises everyday, as the prisons and mental hospitals on the east get overpopulated. Floridemic, it’s a Florida pandemic. And it’s getting bad. What happened within the last fifteen years or more? What happened to the sunshine state?

Detective Richards - On the case.