p id="docs-internal-guid-cee595a2-7fff-e0f3-8da1-a3e578d96131" dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 12pt; margin-bottom: 12pt;"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Blue. The colour blue was everywhere, flooding Ryan's senses as he looked around him, tail fin flicking as it kept him afloat in the water. /span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 12pt; margin-bottom: 12pt;"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Rays of sun beamed around him, turning sand and shells in the deep stretch of land beneath his person into mimics of glitter and stained glass, cutting through the blue in rainbows./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 12pt; margin-bottom: 12pt;"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"It was breathtaking, almost too pretty to really be California's coastline in a way./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 12pt; margin-bottom: 12pt;"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Speaking of which, though he knew he swam out with the tide, he didn't know how far it had gotten him and if there was some stray boat he hadn't accounted for out on the water...well, that would be a problem./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 12pt; margin-bottom: 12pt;"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Breaking the surface gently up to his nose so no one could really see him (and possibly testing out whether he could do that thing hippos do by blowing air out of his nostrils to cause a stream of water to jet in front of him, which, spoiler alert, worked a charm and caused a bubble of nervous laughter to leave him), he was rather surprised to see that he was at least a mile out from where he'd left shore, LA's buildings looking like hazy figures in the distance and the shoreline just a faded strip of gold on a mountain of grey./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 12pt; margin-bottom: 12pt;"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Had it really only taken him a few minutes to swim out that far? He could hardly believe it. If he wasn't so startled by it, it almost felt as natural as breathing. Like basketball and speaking Spanish. It was…amazing./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 12pt; margin-bottom: 12pt;"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"The experience under the water when he pulled himself back down into the depths also didn't disappoint. It wasn't like he /hadn't/ gone swimming before in his life. He grew up here, he could swim since he started breathing air. But swimming as something new, with a tail and fins and no need to hold his breath or feel his lungs burning in his chest, was akin to nirvana./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 12pt; margin-bottom: 12pt;"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"He could also see better than he ever had on land, his vision having not become blurry once despite his antics. It was almost as if he had waterproof contact lenses on, everything bright and sharp and just...new. Some animals like certain fish and other ones like cats had a third eyelid to keep stuff out of their eyes. Maybe he had something like that too?/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 12pt; margin-bottom: 12pt;"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"(So many questions. At this point, some library would be expecting a visit from him if this whole Hawaii thing didn't work out, a long one.)/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 12pt; margin-bottom: 12pt;"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"He also wasn't expecting another feeling to wash over him for a moment. Loneliness. The ocean, despite being so vast and beautiful, was lonely. No one for miles and miles. It would've been nice to share this with someone, now that he reflected on it. Have someone to hold his hand and guide him somehow from somewhere. /span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 12pt; margin-bottom: 12pt;"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Sorta like how he and Shane guided eachother in their haunted locations./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 12pt; margin-bottom: 12pt;"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Despite the current animosity towards him, Ryan rather missed Shane right now. He would honestly pay good money to see the look on the skeptic's face if he flip-flopped out of the water at his feet. He didn't know how he would even react, but this was Shane after all./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 12pt; margin-bottom: 12pt;"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"He hadn't meant to let his mind wander on the topic of Shane as he started swimming in some unseen line somewhere, more feeling the pull of where he had to go than really knowing, but a sudden bizarre image his brain concocted of Shane with a mermaid tail clumsily flopping around like a stunned fish made him nearly choke, bubbles syphoning out his nose and gills at being startled. /span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 12pt; margin-bottom: 12pt;"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Note to self: Do not let Shane near that pool, no matter what. Ever./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 12pt; margin-bottom: 12pt;"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Shaking the image and the very whisper of Shane out of his head for now, he swam for a little while longer, twisting and turning with the waves till he felt the ever-curious need to pop his head out again. This time, he bravely let his head go all the way up and thankfully, he couldn't see land anymore. Just water. Water as far as the eye could see, stained in the orange, pinks, blues and purples of early sunset. Seemed he'd been swimming all afternoon./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 12pt; margin-bottom: 12pt;"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"It was oddly calming for him, as it was terrifying. /span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 12pt; margin-bottom: 12pt;"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"How far was he from shore? He'd left his phone in stopwatch mode on in the rocks when he dived, unwilling to risk it being broken or worse, waterlogged and stop working completely. Did it have even enough battery to last for the time he would be gone for?/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 12pt; margin-bottom: 12pt;"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"He had no idea and despite that, he felt nothing but calm. Like the panic and flakiness he'd been experiencing since getting back from Hawaii had been washed away somehow./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 12pt; margin-bottom: 12pt;"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"So instead of turning back, like some would have done, Ryan aimed himself in the direction that was tugging at his chest like a rope being pulled and dove back under./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 12pt; margin-bottom: 12pt;"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Rays of sun beamed around him, turning sand and shells in the deep stretch of land beneath his person into mimics of glitter and stained glass, cutting through the blue in rainbows./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 12pt; margin-bottom: 12pt;"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"It was breathtaking, almost too pretty to really be California's coastline in a way./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 12pt; margin-bottom: 12pt;"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Speaking of which, though he knew he swam out with the tide, he didn't know how far it had gotten him and if there was some stray boat he hadn't accounted for out on the water...well, that would be a problem./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 12pt; margin-bottom: 12pt;"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Breaking the surface gently up to his nose so no one could really see him (and possibly testing out whether he could do that thing hippos do by blowing air out of his nostrils to cause a stream of water to jet in front of him, which, spoiler alert, worked a charm and caused a bubble of nervous laughter to leave him), he was rather surprised to see that he was at least a mile out from where he'd left shore, LA's buildings looking like hazy figures in the distance and the shoreline just a faded strip of gold on a mountain of grey./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 12pt; margin-bottom: 12pt;"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Had it really only taken him a few minutes to swim out that far? He could hardly believe it. If he wasn't so startled by it, it almost felt as natural as breathing. Like basketball and speaking Spanish. It was…amazing./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 12pt; margin-bottom: 12pt;"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"The experience under the water when he pulled himself back down into the depths also didn't disappoint. It wasn't like he /hadn't/ gone swimming before in his life. He grew up here, he could swim since he started breathing air. But swimming as something new, with a tail and fins and no need to hold his breath or feel his lungs burning in his chest, was akin to nirvana./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 12pt; margin-bottom: 12pt;"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"He could also see better than he ever had on land, his vision having not become blurry once despite his antics. It was almost as if he had waterproof contact lenses on, everything bright and sharp and just...new. Some animals like certain fish and other ones like cats had a third eyelid to keep stuff out of their eyes. Maybe he had something like that too?/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 12pt; margin-bottom: 12pt;"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"(So many questions. At this point, some library would be expecting a visit from him if this whole Hawaii thing didn't work out, a long one.)/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 12pt; margin-bottom: 12pt;"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"He also wasn't expecting another feeling to wash over him for a moment. Loneliness. The ocean, despite being so vast and beautiful, was lonely. No one for miles and miles. It would've been nice to share this with someone, now that he reflected on it. Have someone to hold his hand and guide him somehow from somewhere. /span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 12pt; margin-bottom: 12pt;"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Sorta like how he and Shane guided eachother in their haunted locations./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 12pt; margin-bottom: 12pt;"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Despite the current animosity towards him, Ryan rather missed Shane right now. He would honestly pay good money to see the look on the skeptic's face if he flip-flopped out of the water at his feet. He didn't know how he would even react, but this was Shane after all./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 12pt; margin-bottom: 12pt;"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"He hadn't meant to let his mind wander on the topic of Shane as he started swimming in some unseen line somewhere, more feeling the pull of where he had to go than really knowing, but a sudden bizarre image his brain concocted of Shane with a mermaid tail clumsily flopping around like a stunned fish made him nearly choke, bubbles syphoning out his nose and gills at being startled. /span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 12pt; margin-bottom: 12pt;"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Note to self: Do not let Shane near that pool, no matter what. Ever./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 12pt; margin-bottom: 12pt;"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Shaking the image and the very whisper of Shane out of his head for now, he swam for a little while longer, twisting and turning with the waves till he felt the ever-curious need to pop his head out again. This time, he bravely let his head go all the way up and thankfully, he couldn't see land anymore. Just water. Water as far as the eye could see, stained in the orange, pinks, blues and purples of early sunset. Seemed he'd been swimming all afternoon./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 12pt; margin-bottom: 12pt;"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"It was oddly calming for him, as it was terrifying. /span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 12pt; margin-bottom: 12pt;"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"How far was he from shore? He'd left his phone in stopwatch mode on in the rocks when he dived, unwilling to risk it being broken or worse, waterlogged and stop working completely. Did it have even enough battery to last for the time he would be gone for?/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 12pt; margin-bottom: 12pt;"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"He had no idea and despite that, he felt nothing but calm. Like the panic and flakiness he'd been experiencing since getting back from Hawaii had been washed away somehow./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 12pt; margin-bottom: 12pt;"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"So instead of turning back, like some would have done, Ryan aimed himself in the direction that was tugging at his chest like a rope being pulled and dove back under./span/p