Chapter 1 ~ Shorelines and Secrets
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Third
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Perspective
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The waves crashed gently onto shore. The seagulls swept through the sky and dove into the salty water. Some were successful and had a fish in their beak. Others weren't so lucky.
'This is the life.'
(Y/n) thought to herself, staring at the morning view from her balcony.
Her lips held a lovesick smile. She may have looked insane, but there was no one here to judge her. There was a fatigue in her eyes. Her mother had called her worried last night. Afraid that the loss of contact from people was driving her insane.
That's nonsense of course. (Y/n) has the animals to talk to. Not to mention her parents, brother, and the employees of the stores she went to on the weekends.
In hindsight, this was all (Y/n) needed. Isolation from humanity, time and space to work on her passion, and a nice cup of coffee.
Taking a sip from the hot beverage, (Y/n) stared off at the rising sun. The view always impressed. The beauty couldn't be altered in any way to make it better. Though, she had to admit, watching the sun go down is much prettier.
To think all of this passion has been all brought and mixed together from her ridiculous childish imagination. It almost makes the pain she faced worth it.
Though, she'll never forget the causes of her sudden trembling and panic attacks. Or how she unwillingly cries in the middle of doing any basic thing.
She in turn, will always appreciate her service companion, and all the people who supported her. Despite everyone who called her crazy, they probably weren't happy now like she is.
The mug was soon empty of the beverage that woke her up like a stab of adrenaline. Coffee was one of her only weaknesses when it came to not staying healthy. Every weekend though, she treated herself to something nice and sweet. She does a lot of physical work being a marine biologist that studied in the field rather than behind a glass cage in some crappy facility that altered animal's behaviors.
(Y/n) is proud of her work however and has been credited numerous times for her dangerous take on her studies. Whenever she was asked about fear of dying though, her answer was always the same.
"I'd rather die by the creatures I love than the ones who've shunned me away. I'll die doing the things I love. I wouldn't trade it for anything."
It might've sounded ridiculous, but she knew when the time came, she must accept the inevitable. However, that time wasn't now, and shouldn't be for a while.
Her value of life was one of her core values and beliefs. But she also knew the rules of creation and destruction. It's what makes nature so uncontrollable. And when there is no control, there is beauty and fear. There is an adrenaline that makes life full of excitement and she's been using her time to its full extent. Though, she wasn't reckless. (Has a tendency of making bad decisions though.)
(Y/n) rose from her seat when her cup was empty and the sun was finally up. It's full blooming of light gracing the water. If she really wanted to, she could stare at this masterpiece of pure nature until it faded. But life calls for other rulings.
Entering her cabin, she felt a cool breeze grace her warm (s/c) skin. She shuddered, adapting to the difference between the temperatures of outside and her home. (Y/n) went to her sink and washed her mug. Once it was cleaned, she put it back into the cupboard for later use.
Her next trip was to the bathroom. She brushed her teeth, washed her face and applied sunscreen. (Y/n) sometimes applied makeup, but not all the time. She'd really only do it on nights she felt relaxed and comfortable. She'd sit at shore during high tide with a glass of wine, just looking and feeling beautiful with the nature around her.
Her next mission was to feed her loving companion, Anchor. He is a brave and courageous Labrador that takes care of (Y/n) when she can't. A chocolatey brown with piercing dark blue eyes. He loves the ocean as much as (Y/n) does. The two swim every day. Though, Anchor still hasn't learnt that he can't give turtles kisses.
(Y/n) tells Anchor to sit as she puts his food into his metal bowl that has an anchor embedded on. He sat patiently, just staring with an excitement he could only express with a lick of his lips and a wag of his tail.
(Y/n) then placed his bowl in its stand and with a small hand motion, she allowed him to go eat. While waiting for Anchor to finish eating, she snacked on an energy bar. Once Anchor was done, she set down a clean bowl of water and made her way to her room to change.
She chose a bikini to wear as undergarments and a sweatshirt and shorts. (Y/n) then grabbed her notebook and mechanical pencil before heading back to her bedside table. She grabbed a bandana and tied it in her hair to keep it out of her face, of course with the exception of a few loose strands.
Once she was happy about the way she looked, she went out to the front door, Anchor traveling behind her. (Y/n)'s first stop was shore. She's always made certain no animals have washed up or no trash is on shore.
She found some trash. It made her sad how people trashed the ocean. How would they like it if someone went into their house and threw a bunch of trash everywhere. They wouldn't like it very much. (Y/n) now had an idea of what she'll be doing today.
But first, she needed to check out the cove on the other side of the island. Sometimes people came in and chilled there. Though she didn't mind much, this was still private waters and she tried her best to lay down the rules to people. When people didn't listen, she knew of a government facility nearby on a close island, so she threatened them by saying she was friends with them and wouldn't hesitate to call if they refused to leave. That was only half the truth though. Her parents were friends with a man named Agent William Fowler who worked at the facility and pretty much half owned it.
It was an open to ocean facility. (Y/n) didn't exactly understand how it worked, but she also had a problem with facilities, so she refused to investigate. It took about 30 minutes to arrive at the cove.
The cove was bluer than the sky on a sunny day. It was calm and the only animals she's really seen while swimming were dolphins and turtles. Of course there were actual fish as well, but those were everywhere. The cove's water was clear as well. You could see almost all the way down to the bottom. Though it's more sandy, so it's hard to see the bottom unless you're down there.
(Y/n) had done the measurements herself during her original summer vacations here. It started with a shore but had a sudden drop about 7 feet in. The drop itself was about 8 feet deep and continued to go down. It went to about 50 feet deep but closed up at the entrance of the cove that made it hard for sharks to get in. (The bigger ones at least. She's found a mako swimming around one or twice.)
This was probably the safest part of her island. This is usually where she swam with the dolphins and examined the turtles. (Y/n) loved interacting with them. It always seemed like they understood her and she loved it.
(Y/n) felt her phone begin to buzz in her shorts pocket. Pulling out her phone, she saw it was her parents calling. It was probably her mom, being worried again. (Y/n)'s dad only really checked in once or twice a week to make sure she didn't need help or money.
"Hello?" (Y/n) answered, sitting on the dock at the cove. She stared off into the distance, enjoying the sky. It didn't hold the sun, for the sun rises on the other side of the island while it rests on this side. She had her feet dipped in the water so she could feel the fishes brush against her toes time to time.
"Hello my daughter. It is pleasing to hear your voice." The stern voice of (Y/n)'s father traveled to her ears.
"I could say the same about you. But if this is what it usually is, I don't need anything and I'll be over this weekend as per usual." (Y/n) answered an unasked question. Her father chuckled through the phone.
"That's actually not why I called. A friend of mine is going to be in the area today, so I just wanted to tell you that if there's a boat with a shell on it, it's them."
"You mean the sign of the facility? What are they doing?" (Y/n) asked, sounding upset and defensive. Her toes curled in the water with anger and frustration. The ripples that were once made by her steady drifting feet, now disappeared, for no movements were being made.
"They're checking something out. Lost equipment I think. Just stay clear of their boat please?"
"I can do that."
"Thank you, (Y/n). And on another note... do you need anything?"
"No, father, I promise I'm fine. I love you."
"I love you too." A soft hum came from the phone then halted as the call was now over. (Y/n) sighed and rubbed her temples. She left the cove and went back to shore, grabbing her paddle board and a trash bag.
Anchor had been following and was now whimpering and whining, trying to knock (Y/n) over. She suddenly dropped the bag and her phone and dropped onto her knees, crying and panicking. Anchor licked and comforted.
(Y/n) couldn't think straight enough to know why she was even crying. She just knew that once this attack was over, she was going out and hopefully seeing what those facility workers were doing.
Maybe 10 minutes later, she had calmed down and began to collect trash. First she collected it on the shore and then she got on her board and paddled out, collecting any and all trash. It put a smile to her face when the ocean returned to its natural beauty. Free of garbage and such.
The further she got out, the more she kept her eyes open. Soon, she came across the boat. She tried to act normal and continued to collect the trash, glad to see that no one on the ship was throwing anything in.
(Y/n) played it cool, waiting for someone to notice her. She heard loud talking and a sudden change in the waves as something seemed to plunge down into the water. Something big. (Y/n) brushed it off as an anchor or something though, cause she didn't see anything.
"Miko! You made me drop my journal!" A boy shouted in anger to whoever this Miko was. (Y/n) saw the journal in the water and went over and picked it up.
Looking up, she saw two teens at the edge of the boat. She felt a little calm, but weirded out that there would be teens on this boat.
"Is this one of yours?" She called up. The boy gave a thumbs up and then there was an adult leaning over the edges.
"Oh uh! (Y/n)! Nice to Uh- see you again." Agent Fowler said, sounding awkward and surprised. (Y/n) now felt nervous. If there's one thing that scared her most, it was confrontation with people, especially those older than her. "We'll send a ladder down!"
(Y/n) felt nervous, but was ready to get out of the water due to the unusual waves, a part of her wondering if it was a whale or a shark. When the ladder came down, she saw one of the kids had climbed down, a different boy.
The one who dropped the journal had brown spiked up hair with red glasses. This was a tall boy with dark hair and just a dark palette of features, excluding his skin. (Y/n) passed up her paddle and then the board. She climbed up holding her halfway full bag of trash.
Fowler approaches her, followed by the boy and the girl who she had first seen. The girl had a punk-ish look to her, which (Y/n) kind of liked, especially since it made her stand out compared to her comrades.
"What are you doing all the way out here? Your island is a few miles away?" Fowler asked, clearly nervous and confused.
"I-I come out this far all the time. I-I clean up as f-far out as I can." (Y/n) explained, using her routine to cover up the excuse of her purposefully finding them. "Why are you o-out here? D-don't you only handle animals in the facility?"
"Well yes and no. We have an open water facility and one of the creatures stole some equipment and dragged it out here. Now we need to find it." He explained and (Y/n) nodded.
"I could h-help." She replied, mentally cursing herself for stuttering so much.
"Oh no, it's no problem. We haven't even tracked it's exact location yet." Fowler quickly explained, so fast it sounded fake.
"Uh. Agent Fowler? Who even is this?" The dark haired male asked the military retired agent.
"Kids. This is (Y/n) (L/n). She is a marine biologist who lives on the island over there. She—"
"Wait! You're THE (Y/n) (L/n)?!" The boy with the glasses asked. (Y/n) nodded. "Wow! I'm such a huge fan of your work! You manage to keep your moral values in place and find out so much about the marine life!" He fanboys.
(Y/n) smiled slightly and nodded to him. Miko and the dark haired boy paused before coming to the same conclusion.
"Oh! I remember you! My biology teacher said he was friends with your brother." Miko exclaimed to (Y/n).
"Mr. Rodriguez?" She asked, Miko nodded. (Y/n) then remembered why she was up here. "I b-beh-believe this is yours."
(Y/n) handed the journal that fell over to the boy with the spiked hair. He took it from (Y/n) grasp and smiled, still seeming excited.
"Uh, I'm Raf, this is Miko and that's Jack!" He introduced, sounding a little nervous. (Y/n) nodded politely, now registering names to faces. She turned her attention back to Fowler, though she didn't much keep eye contact.
"S-so why have you brought children out here? Are they yours or...?"
"Oh no. They are interns at the facility." Fowler quickly interjected after the questions. (Y/n) nodded.
"Interns at a government facility. Th-that must be fun." (Y/n) commented, more just to be polite. "W-well then if every-ever-everything is alright here, I'll be going."
"Do you need a ride back?" Miko quickly offered, earning another polite smile from (Y/n).
"N-no thank you. I still have to clean up. Th-thank you for the offer though." She denied, getting her board and paddle back from Jack.
(Y/n) carefully went back down the ladder and made her way around as she usually did. She was still very suspicious as to why they were out there. Dragged out material didn't seem like a very good excuse, but she couldn't do anything about it.
After a few hours of going around the island and collecting trash, she soon started to head back. (Y/n) was tired and more than ready to eat and go to bed. She had missed lunch and it was a few hours away from dinner. She'd have to have a late lunch then dinner later.
It threw off her schedule, but she didn't care. She wanted to investigate. (Y/n) felt like something was off. Not exactly wrong, just... strange.
When (Y/n) made it back to shore, she found Anchor waiting for her, asleep. She smiled brightly, happy her companion was still there and hadn't run off. Not that there was a problem with him running around on his own, just that it was sweet that he'd wait.
(Y/n) tried her best to sneak over to her dog, cringing whenever the sand decided to crunch under her weight. She was soon next to Anchor and held the board over him. His tail began to wag as the water dripped on him. Anchor usually loved the rain, but wasn't very happy to see that it was just his owner pulling a trick on him.
Anchor barked at (Y/n), upset that it wasn't actually raining. This prompted (Y/n) to laugh. Anchor's tail wagged happily at her laugh though and licked her salt water covered thigh.
"Come on Anchor. Let's go inside. I need to eat and you deserve a treat." She said with a gentle smile, gently booping Anchor on the snout. Anchor sneezed and trotted ahead happily. (Y/n) smiled, feeling a lot more comfortable than she had felt on the Facility's boat. The kids she met were sweet though.
(Y/n) decided to enjoy the rest of her day, just relaxing. She made and ate a late lunch, swam in the cove with Anchor and some turtles, ate a quick snack to regain some of her energy, giving Anchor a treat, then soon going inside and eating dinner.
(Y/n) ended her day watching the sun set with Anchor. They just stood on the beach, watching the sun sink from the sky. She smiled love stricken, admiring life and nature in its calling. He wagged his tail, the happiness radiating off his human onto him making him a happy doggo.
Though the view was beautiful, a shape that emerged from the water strikes (Y/n)'s curiosity. Tonight she ignored it though, for it was now the time of the hunt and she didn't want to become prey. And for all she knew. It was just one of her mind's "mermaid" charades.
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