Hourglass → Ace; Nancy Drew [1]

viii. the shallow whispers of death

THE SHALLOW WHISPERS OF DEATH
CHAPTER EIGHT

The menacing wind whistled in Olivia's ears like baleful spirits, raising goosebumps on every surface of her body. She stood still, paralyzed in a darkness she felt trapped within. Her shoulders were tight and her elbows pressed into her sides, making herself as small as possible as she trembled uncontrollably. She whimpered uncontrollably with every crashing wave she heard, her fear only growing with the sounds. With every howl of the wind or crash of seawater upon rocks and shore, Olivia flinched stiffly, shivering in the cold with nothing but the terrorizing noises surrounding her.

Liquid beaded on her cheeks and above her lip, a combination of sweat and tears that poured out of her tightly shut eyes continuously. What frightened her most was that she had no knowledge of where she was, or how she had gotten here; why her skin felt like ice and she could barely pass air through her lungs. She was mortified, shaking uncontrollably with an unbearable pounding in her head and her heart– so loud that it overshadowed the wailing wind and the aggressive crashing sound of liquid hitting solid.

But then, with quivering lips and tense muscles, Olivia peeled her eyelids open. Even through the immense blur of her tears, the sight before her was terrifying enough to make her heart stop. The deep mist hanging over the high-tide sea, the eerie pitch-black sky...

And as she lowered her head, the petrifying height of the bluffs.

Olivia let out a loud, horrified sob as she threw herself backward. She sniveled at the scraping of rocks against the back of her bare thighs, leaving a small trail of blood on the dark grey ground as she shuffled backward. As desperately as she tried to bite back the heart-wrenching sobs and gasps that built in her through like a thick lump, they flew out uncontrollably. No matter how far she scrambled away from the edge of the bluffs, the rapid beating of her heart in her chest remained loud and painful, striking against her ribcage violently. She could barely control her breaths as they burst in and out.

She didn't stop the rushed movements of her hands and feet as she hurried back across the ground until her back was met with a painful slam. A breathy gasp erupted from her mouth and her heart ran to clutch her chest when she realized it was only the woody trunk of a tree.

With a trembling hand, she reached into the pocket of her night robe. Through the pool of tears in her eyes, she frantically typed in her phone's passcode, her breaths only quickening when she realized it was four in the morning. With a loud sob, she dialed the only person she could think of.

The rings were tormenting, each one long and slow. It beeped endlessly, teasing Olivia and her shallow breaths and shaking limbs. She pulled her legs to her chest and buried her face in her knees, crying out in agony. Then the beeping stopped. She drew the phone up to her ear and let out a shaky whimper.

"Ace?"

𖤐

Wood crackled with each step of his heavy boots on the forest ground. With his phone in his left hand to illuminate the darkness before him, he searched through narrow eyes for any sign of Olivia. Her voice played in his head like a song on repeat– the pure terror as she whimpered his name from the other end of the line made his chest clench and grip tighten around his phone. He shook his head, frustrated with himself, guilty for not having messaged her right after he and his friends had gone to The Claw to find Lucy Sable's bones spayed across the floor. If he hadn't been so stubborn, so petty that he didn't feel the need to reach out to her after their argument, Olivia wouldn't have taken her ring off thinking that the Aglaeca was defeated. Yet, here he was, searching for her at five in the morning with nothing but his phone's flashlight and her shaky voice playing through his head.