Adrift → Ace; Nancy Drew [2]

viii. the truth of the lost girl

THE TRUTH OF THE LOST GIRL
CHAPTER EIGHT

Beading eyes stared at Olivia like they were ready to pounce. She watched them through narrow eyes as they sat before her with daggers in their eyes, animals ready to attack. They wanted something from her, though she wasn't sure what.

"You know, if dealing with the kids is too hard for you, I can give you something else to do." Nick broke Olivia out of the unintentional staring contest she was having with the five little kids on the floor. They had been waiting for at least ten minutes for Olivia to entertain them or speak to them, but all she had done the entire time was glare at them. When Olivia continued to stare at them coldly, Nick chuckled and nudged her arm with his elbow. "Come on, help me hang these up on the walls."

"The kids' artwork?" Olivia looked into the box in Nick's arms as they walked toward the back of the Youth Center where a few other decorations had been hung. "They're kind of ugly, no?" she took a glimpse at the pieces of white paper with badly drawn animals. "And unicorns don't exist." She pointed to the drawing at the top.

"Shh, don't say that in front of them," Nick whispered, glancing over his shoulder to make sure no one heard Olivia although truthfully, he was trying to hold back a laugh. He handed Olivia a ball of glue tack and a pile of drawings before he started to stick some on the walls himself. "You know, I actually don't mind you like this."

"What do you mean?" Olivia asked, reaching up to stick a picture on the light blue wall, just a couple of inches away from where Nick had hung his last one.

The man shrugged and kept his attention on the wall. "You were really afraid before... with everything going on, you know? Don't get me wrong, you were always brave. But now... you're more sure of yourself." He looked at her and smiled. "And I don't think that's a bad thing." He pulled away from the wall and patted the four drawings he stuck to the wall to make sure they were secure.

"Even if I do turn out to be soulless?"

"Yeah, even if," he assured. Olivia's eyes were glued to him as he walked away toward the kids. She opened her mouth to say something to him, but her attention was torn away when she saw Bess walking toward her.

"Hey, so Ace and Nancy have gone to Bertram Bobbsey's locker with Mr. Drew to see about the soul splitter," Bess announced in a hushed voice so Nick wouldn't hear, "so now you and I are gonna go to Nancy's to meet Geroge to start preparing for the ritual."

"I'm gonna stay behind. I need to finish some things up. But I'll meet you at Nancy's after," Olivia declared, and Bess nodded in response before turning around and walking out of the Youth Center.

Walking toward the table at the center of the hall, Olivia unzipped her bag and carefully drew out the fragile relic. She placed it on the table, giving it one last wave of her own hand to quadruple-check that the Abacus did not work on her. When, once again, the black and white beads did not move, Olivia straightened her back and scanned her eyes around the room to spot Nick in the crowd of kids. He was the only one out of their friend group that hadn't coddled her about being different– that hadn't treated her differently because she had changed.

"Hey, Nick," she called out, and five little heads darted to Olivia before Nick's did. Once she had his attention, she waved him over.

"One sec, guys," Nick said to the children he had been entertaining for the past few minutes. He jogged over to Olivia with raised, expectant eyebrows. "What's up? What's this? New toy for the kids?" He pointed to the relic.

"What? No... it's a relic from the Historical Society."

He raised his eyebrows in a mixture of impressed and concerned. "Does Bess know you have this?" he asked, bending forward to get a closer look at it.

"I'm going to put it back," she promised and Nick nodded in response. "Look, I need a favor. Can you wave your hand over this? Like this..." she demonstrated the simple movement with her own hand.

"Uh, sure," Nick said, deciding not to question it. He lowered his hand to the table and hovered it over the abacus. His brows knitted together when clattering sounds filled the room as the white and black beads began to move up and down radically. "What the-"

Olivia nodded to herself as the realization settled on her. She picked the abacus off the table and placed it back into her bag. "Thanks," she said and picked her bag up to leave.

"Wait, wait, hold on. What was that?"

"An Egyptian God named Anubis crafted and used this to determine a people's destiny– whether they were to go to Heaven or Hell. It didn't work when I tried it so I needed to see if it worked on anyone else to know whether it was a myth or not," Olivia explained as though it was common knowledge. "And clearly, it works."

"So what exactly does that mean?" Nick asked, pointing toward the Abacus that showed a majority of white beads. He wasn't sure if he wanted to know his own destiny, but he was certain that he wanted to know what it meant for Olivia considering it didn't work on her.

"It means that you're going to Heaven and I don't have a soul," she said simply before turning around and trotting out of the center without another word.

𖤐

The age-old wooden door creaked loudly when Olivia pushed it open. Stepping foot into the Historical Society, she looked through the foyer and the open doors against its walls. She made her way toward the lounge area when she spotted George huddled on the couch with Bess, Nancy, and Ace surrounding her protectively. On the desk behind them was the soul splitter and some crushed material and a wooden bowl of mixed ingredients.

"I assume this means it worked?" Olivia questioned, eyeing her friends and the preparations around them.

"It did. I'm free," George cooed gratefully, looking specifically at Bess whose eyes were glassed over with tears and whose lips were curved upward in a wan smile. Olivia assumed Bess had had to say goodbye to Odette. "Thank you, guys, for everything."

"Don't mention it," Nancy smiled and patted George's shoulder reassuringly.

"Yeah, at least one of you is back to normal now," Ace said as he shot Olivia a cold glance before returning his gaze to his other friends.

"Ace," Bess sighed.

"No, he's right," Olivia interjected, stopping Bess from defending her. "You guys were right to think I lost my soul because I did. The night of the car crash– I don't think I actually survived."

"What are you saying, Liv?" Nancy frowned.

"I died that night, and somehow I came back to life," Olivia said, looking between her friends who now surrounded her protectively, anxiously. "I don't know how, or why."

"Are you sure?" Nancy stepped forward, her blue eyes piercing into Olivia's.

Olivia nodded. "I died that night, and when I was brought to life I lost my soul. Ace was right." She looked at Ace as she said the last part, noticing how he clenched his jaw and looked away at Olivia's words. He felt guilty for being right and sad that his suspicions had turned out to be true.

"How- how can you be so sure?" Ace's voice came out shaky and he could barely hold eye contact with Olivia. How could he at the possibility that she had been dead for minutes or hours while he had no idea?

"I know you guys don't trust me, but trust me on this," Olivia stated firmly. She moved her head slowly from left to right to take in everyone's gazes and try to figure out what they were thinking. It was hard for her to tell what they were feeling without their words.

"I, um... I gotta go," Ace muttered with an uneven breath as he picked his coat up from the back of a chair and rushed toward the door.