Hourglass → Ace; Nancy Drew [1]

iv. the missing irvine heirloom

THE MISSING IRVINE HEIRLOOM
CHAPTER FOUR

A pang of pain struck Olivia's chest and she squeezed her eyes tightly, forcing the tears back in. She couldn't wrap her head around any of it. That supernatural entities are real, that one was after basically all the employees of The Claw. That the same one killed her aunt, and now Olivia was being haunted by it too– maybe not physically, but the Aglaeca was horrifying enough mentally.

Olivia flinched at the sound of knocking, and she dropped her head back in exasperation. "Hey, you okay? You've been in there a while..." Ace's quiet voice sounded through the door.

Olivia sniffled and cleared her throat before she spoke. "Can't I pee in peace?"

"If it's taking you this long I'd get that checked out..." he said in complete seriousness, his voice firm with concern. Olivia rolled her eyes and stood up, before pulling the door open slowly. The blank expression on his face turned into a soft frown as he took in her appearance. "You look upset."

"Yeah? What gave that away?"

"I mean, your eye makeup's kinda messed up-" he paused once he saw Olivia's eyebrows raised and jaw clench in warning. "I mean, it's not that bad- you still look nice though," he quickly corrected himself, stuffing his hands in his jeans' front pocket. "Anyway, look I'm sorry we crowded you out there. We just don't wanna die, you know?" Ace leaned against the doorframe as he stared down at Olivia. She pursed her lips and nodded in understanding. Her eyes were glued to the floor momentarily as she tried to settle her previous thoughts. Ace frowned again and lowered his head slightly to try and grasp her attention. "You sure you're alright?"

"I'm fine." She avoided his eyes and looked over his shoulder for his friends. "Where are the others?"

"They went to look for Hannah Gruen to find the Sea Shanty that the mirror talks about." When Olivia scrunched up her face in confusion, Ace sighed and stood up straighter as if to get into deeper focus. She almost let out a laugh at his stoned-like behavior, but she forced herself to choke it back. "We think that Aglaeca was a person before she died."

"Yeah, that's pretty much how every ghost in every horror movie works," she replied sarcastically while arching an unamused eyebrow. "Anyways, what's this Sea Shanty?"

"We found this mirror the other day that talks about it; we think her life story's hidden in that."

"So you think by figuring out her problems you guys are free?" Ace nodded in response and Olivia let out a heavy breath, trying to soak all the information in. He and his friends appeared to be so used to this, almost unbothered, while Olivia could hardly stop her head from spinning at the very thought that supernatural creatures were real.

"It's okay. You don't have to understand all of this right away," Ace mentioned after noticing the deep frown and her downward-curved lips. "Right now we have to focus on your visions. Nancy said to look at any pictures you might have of your aunt."