"What are you doing."

I look up to see Kora on the house's ocean facing balcony.

"Looking into the waves was almost as calming as being in them," I yell across the waves at her, breaking into giggles. My hair is getting knotted in the calm waves as I swim farther into the wide-open ocean, letting my mind wander. The redness of my hair creating a muddy purple in the blueness of the ocean and I can't help but laugh. My entire left was event after event of being made fun of because of my hair, and here, in this water, it almost looks normal. If, that is, what you call normal. After being cooped up in the house all day, finally being out in the sun swimming is such a relief, even if it is a little dangerous. I didn't think Kora would be back so early from her meeting but here we are, me enjoying myself and Kora being overly cautious again, it reminds me why I fell in love in the first place.

"Sabrina it's dangerous out there and we have to get going, we're going to be late," I hear Kora yell from the shore.

"Aw five more minutes Koko please, I never get time off from work please please please," I beg, wanting to stay in the water as long as possible. I love the way it rushes behind me as I swim and the feeling as it rushes over my body, yes I even love the pruney fingers I'm left with.

"Beans please, The Council won't like you being late especially after you've just won that outstanding work award" Kora pleads.

Ah, The Council. They're the heads of The Library. They make the rules, assign the assignments, oversee studies, basically a separate culty government if you ask me, they're always staring with those creepy eyes of theirs.

They gave me this prestigious award for "outstanding work" and as much as I appreciate the attention and honour, I'm now expected to be the best of the best, shortly after receiving the award I was promoted, I'm one of the elite now. In my line of work, every day is a mystery. Our goal is to learn, explore, but most importantly protect. We venture out every day to discover and research mystical things that shouldn't exist in our world, we record them, take samples, write logs, and try and understand them. Then, we bring it back to The Library, debrief, do some paperwork, then all the findings get logged and archived.

Except, sometimes we find something bad, a malevolent anomaly, or maybe something just happens to go wrong, we do deal with the unknown here. When something like this happens we must do whatever it takes to protect the people of the earth, our own people, and The Library.

My only question is: where do those things come from? I bet those council bastards know.

"Hey! are you even listening to me!" I hear Kora yell over the waves and wind. "Alright" I give in, how could I not. Even from out here I could see her eyes sparkle a warm hazel in the reflected light of the water, her skin a glowing smooth sepia.

"God I am so in love with her" I whisper, letting the waves absorb my passion. I look back down as I swim back to shore, I feel Kora's eyes on my the entire swim. I drag myself onto the sand and take one last look at the ocean before looking at Kora.

"Like what you see," I wink at her as I give a little twirl, my hair dripping water down my back and onto the sand. After I stop spinning I make eye contact with her and we both burst out with all-consuming laughter

"Come up here and dry off silly girl," Kora says through giggles. I walk towards the door while wringing the water out of my hair. I meet Kora at the door and she wraps a bright blue towel around me"Don't want you dripping all over the wood floors now do we." She smiles and takes my hand, leading me into the house. I walk up the stairs into our bedroom and open the closet.