It was a warm night in San Francisco and a particularly beautiful one at that. As usual, the Castro was wide awake but louder as it was June and the LGBTQ+ community of SF had a habit of going out every night during Pride month. From her window, Nora could hear people laughing, singing and talking loudly, keeping her from sleeping. She groaned and turned around in her bed to take a look at the time. The LED screen of her alarm clock showed 3:19 P.M. Nora sighed and turned again to face the ceiling. She closed her eyes and took several deep breaths, hoping that would help her fall asleep. As she started to drift, her phone ringed, and she opened her eyes suddenly. She sat up, a disappointed and angry look on her face.

"Goddamnit, do people not know it's impolite to call at 3:00 P.M?", she muttered, taking her phone in her hand sloppily. She had had a rough and exhausting day at work, all she wanted to do was get some sleep. All the sleep she could have. She didn't even bother looking at the caller ID and answered the phone. "Whoever you are you better have a good fucking reason to bother me this late." She spat, not even thinking about how offensive she could be.

"Uhm...hi?" She recognized the voice instantly and let out a sigh.

"Oh. Victor. Sorry. I had a terrible day and I've been trying to sleep for about four hours now. What time is it where you are?"

"It's alright, kid. And we're in the middle of the afternoon."

"Well, that explains the late night call...", she said to herself. "What do you want?"

"Well, I just wanted to know what you had planned for the next month. I stumbled across this new job and I thought you might wanna join me and my partner for this one."

Nora sighed. Sully only came to her for hunts regarding ancient civilizations and pirates, as those precise topics in history were the ones she liked the most and knew the most about. She even did a documentary about ancient Egypt for History channel.

"I'd love to...but I'm already onto something and I've been making huge progress so...maybe next time, huh ?"

Usually, she never refused to go on treasure hunts with Victor. She loved it more than anything else in the world. It made her feel alive, and real. The thrill of finding something that would have an impact on the way we knew history was one of her favorite feelings. But, as she told the older man, she was already working on something. Something that mattered a lot to her. When Sully answered, she could hear the disappointment in his voice, and it made her feel a little guilty. But she wanted to find something of her own for once.

The two said goodbye over the phone, and she hung up, putting her phone back on the nightstand. Now she definitely would not be able to fall asleep. She got out of bed and headed for the bathroom. There, she turned the light on and stared at her reflection in the mirror. There were huge dark circles under her eyes, her shoulder-length brown hair was messy and she looked like she was high on heroin or some other kind of hard drug. She reached for the pills that were on the side of the sink and swallowed two of them. She then glanced at the bottle. The label read "Prozac". She let out a long sigh when she saw it and put the bottle away quickly before going back to her bed. The pills she had just taken wouldn't do anything for her sleep, but they made her feel better. At least that's what she had told herself.

The next morning, Nora was irritable. She had slept for about an hour and felt like shit. She took a flask full of whiskey with her at work, hoping it would make her feel slightly better. Nora worked as a freelance journalist but found a more stable job at the museum, where she worked as a guide. Not that being a freelance journalist didn't pay well, but it only did when someone hired her or bought her articles. Which was not the case lately. Once she got to the museum, she changed into her work clothes, took a sip from her flask and headed for her first tour of the day: a group of kids. God, it's going to be an awfully long day.

A few tours after, she finally had her first real break. An hour and a half to eat and study the clues she gathered for her next big discovery. Nora was tracking down a treasure related to the legendary female pirate Anne Bonny, one of her favorite historical character. When she was little, her father told her a story saying that Anne Bonny and her pirate girlfriend Mary Read had their own little treasure: a chest they stole from one captain Hudson, and that held gems, gold coins, and secret letters.

She started to look for it a few years before but stopped abruptly when she had a...disagreement with her partner, Andrew. But after Sully told her the entire story of how Nathan found the treasure of Henry Avery and found out about the real death of the 12 founders of Libertalia, she thought to herself that she couldn't let go. She had worked on it for 3 years straight before giving up, and now she wouldn't let anyone else get to it before she did.

Like every day, she read all the letters and the legal papers regarding Anne Bonny and Mary Read. She had bought most of these letters to collectors and treasure hunters she contacted thanks to Sully. There was one letter that got her attention more than the others, it was the last one Bonny wrote to Read. In it, Anne confessed her love and loyalty to Mary one last time, promising she would keep on doing what they did before they got arrested and honor her memory. She also talked about their treasure chest, saying she would protect and cherish it until her last breath.

But the most interesting part came at the end of the letter. Bonny signed with her initials, and next to those were words in an old version of Spanish, at least that was what Nora deducted. She had spent weeks, days and hours trying to translate them, being able to figure out almost every word, except for one. But that was it, that day she managed to get all the words approximately right. The sentence said: "Pieces of our love rest where land is only hanging by a thread".

"Okay... now what the hell is that supposed to mean?" She murmured, an annoyed tone in her voice.

She was getting tired of all these riddles. They had already led her all over the Carribean the first time she searched, and she didn't find anything there, except for other clues and more riddles and dead ends. She sighed, letting her head rest on the pile of papers lying on the table. She closed her dark green eyes and took a deep breath. I am never gonna find this stupid treasure chest because I suck and I'm a mess, she thought as she was starting to fall asleep. But the sound of someone clearing their throat loudly behind her had her waking up in a startle.

"Holy crap!" She nearly screamed, turning around to face the mysterious someone. It was one of her colleagues, Daniel. He was looking at her with a slight smirk. "You almost gave me a heart attack! Don't you ever do something like that again or I swear I'll crush you." She said with a threatening tone.

"Yeah sure, I believe you." He chuckled. Daniel was much taller than Nora and worked out every single day. He was a big pile of muscles, and even with all the training in the world, Nora could never crush him. Or even hurt him, for that matter. "Anyway, I just came by to tell you your break had been shortened by 30 minutes. There is a hell of a lot of people in there today and the boss wants us at full capacity so...I'm sorry but your little nap time's over." He said with a small smile before heading back to the museum's hall.

Nora sighed and rubbed her eyes. She was starting to think she had seriously pissed some God off as They/He/She seemed to always find a reason to keep her away from sleeping. She slowly took all of her papers and put them back into her bag, making sure the one with the very important - and very annoying - riddle was on top. She took one last sip from her whiskey flask and headed back to the hall. There, she was immediately given the responsibility of a new tour. God, she was tired of this job and of the tours and of people constantly asking stupid questions she had just answered a few minutes earlier. All she wanted to do was quit and sleep. Forever, if possible.

When she got back to the place she shared with her older sister, Marnie, and her girlfriend, Nora threw her bag on the floor and let herself fall on the couch, letting out a groan. Her sister was behind the kitchen isle and glanced at her quickly.

"Rough day?" She asked nicely.

"That's a bit of an understatement." She answered, sounding extremely tired. "I can't do this anymore." She sat up on the couch and looked at her sister. "I quitted today. Please don't be mad."

"What!? Nora you...you need a job. I need you to have a job to pay rent, Olivia and I can't pay it on our own! We need you to have a steady income to help us. I mean, we have to pay back our loan for the bar and the one for the car...you better find something real quick if you want to stay here." Marnie clearly sounded annoyed and angry at her little sister.

Marnie and her girlfriend of 7 years, Olivia, had bought a bar in the neighborhood a few years before, making their dream come true. Business was going great but they didn't make enough money to pay back their two loans and pay the entire rent. Olivia worked as a preschool teacher, which didn't pay that much, so Marnie offered her sister the spare bedroom when she left New York, but only if she promised to pay half the rent every month. Nora gladly accepted the deal as her career was at an all-time high, but one year later things weren't so great. She couldn't find anyone to buy her articles or to hire her, her depression was taking every will to do things away from her and she was slowly turning into a walking mess. She sighed at her sister's words. She had heard the drill too many times before from her other sister, Rose, when she lived at her apartment in New York.

"I know, I'm sorry...what if I told you I may be onto something that could get me a lot of money?"

"What are you talking about?" Her sister asked when she saw the grin on Nora's face. She knew exactly what that meant. "Nora...no. You're not going out there looking for some treasure that doesn't exist. Not again. Not after last time. Do I need to remind you what happened?"

"Marnie, this time, I swear I'm close to finding it and -" She was cut off by her sister, who was talking louder than her.

"You almost died three times when you were last looking for it, you're not going back! Who talked you into this anyway? Is it Victor? Nathan? Or Andrew? Is Andrew talking to you again? Did he find you? It better not be Andrew 'cause I swear Nora if it's him I'm gonna lock you in your room, find him and crush his skull with a rock." Marnie said fast, not allowing her younger sibling to cut her off.

"Jesus Marnie let me talk for a second will ya?" Nora sighed, visibly annoyed that her sister jumped to conclusions without letting her explain. "No one talked me into this. Not Victor, not Nathan, and certainly not Andrew. I can assure you I'm not working with this psycho ever again. It was my initiative. I truly want to find Anne Bonny's treasure. And if I do, it's going to be just me. Alone."

"That's even worse. At least when Victor and Nathan are around they can keep an eye on you, but alone...you'll get yourself killed somehow. I'm all for you getting a shitload of money but I don't want you to get back to treasure hunting. Find some legal way to do it or something but...please, I'm begging you, don't go."

Nora noticed the tone of her sister's voice. She was genuinely concerned about the idea of Nora going treasure hunting again. But she couldn't help it. She was bored and broke, and close to Anne Bonny's treasure. So she was going to find it.

"...Fine, I'm not going." She lied but was so convincing her sister believed it.

She hugged Marnie and headed to her bedroom, extremely tired. She immediately reached for her laptop, turned it on and started looking for answers concerning her riddle. She was not going to give up that easily, even when that meant disappointing her family again.