Water || Kate & Jude
Kate had hit a block in her research, having ideas of what she believed happened to Lara Watson, but needing her resources to back it up. It was the downfall to being a researcher and not a hunter, she supposed. There was no need to get an inkling of an idea and then run out to fight the great fight. There was no one to call and compare thoughts with, no weapons to begin cleaning or oils to begin collecting. All there was was reading. And more reading. And occasionally, she got to use a bookmark. If she was lucky.
But she'd hit a cold wall after a few hours of shuffling through books that weighed more than the upper half of her torso, smelling of dust and mildew and faintly of the incense and herbs that'd been burned in their presence for decades, maybe a century. And while research was one of her favorite things on the planet, oxygen was sometimes delightful, too.
She slid into her bathing suit, a two piece patterned in sunny florals, and covered it up with a pair of shorts and a Bon Jovi t-shirt, pulling her hair up into a ponytail before slipping into her sandals and hitting the road in her beat up car. She had plans to start saving for a better car, maybe even a shiny one. Some day. Some day it would happen.
She was beginning to gain familiarity with the area, knowing where to get good coffee, and where to avoid at all costs. She knew when to turn right and when to go straight, but the lake (really more like a lake) took her a good minute to locate - she hadn't even known if there had been one in the area.
Low and behold, however, she found herself a nice pool of clear water surrounded by tightly gathered woods, the trees forming solid walls around the outskirts of the little pool, looking like something out of a woodsy, mystical fairy tale. She parked and got out, pulling off her shirt and shorts and tossing them into the back seat of her car, heading toward the water and wincing when it chilled her toes.
She was glad there was no one around to see her as she inched into the cold pool, sand and pebbles soft and smooth under her feet, save for the occasional rough rock that forced her to step a little lighter. Her feet arched on her toes as she took in a deep breath and dove under the surface, body shocking into a chill that was equal parts alarming and comforting, feeling refreshing as she pushed forward through the water, breaking the surface in reverse of her motions ten seconds before and taking in a deep breath as she shook out her hair.