18.98: An ONC 2023 Thriller

Chapter 7

THE PRESENT

Liv used a magnetic pen to drag a ball through a wooden maze inset into a table at the kitschy little restaurant Graham swore had the best pizza in the county. Half listening to him talk about hikes he and Helina used to take along with a recent ex-girlfriend of his named Alissa or Alicia or Alice, she solved the maze, unsolved it, solved it again.

"Uh-huh," she said a few times at what seemed like appropriate moments. "Sounds fun."

Sometime between the pizza arriving and them settling the bill, Liv realized she'd signed herself up for a five-mile hike in the Washington wilderness.

"It's winter," she told him.

"That's the best time to hike in the rainforest. Why would you want to go when it's warm and dry and not raining?"

"The answer to that seems too obvious to state out loud."

Undeterred, and despite the look of wide-eyed horror she was giving him, he continued his insistence that this hike was a positive activity for her to undergo. "You've never seen anything so majestic as these old growth trees reaching into the sky, their trunks carpeted with moss and lichen. Besides, we should go to some of the places Helina loved most. Maybe we'll find her car, or a clue of some kind. I don't think we'll figure everything out from her computer."

"It's too early to say that," she said, still hoping to avoid his resplendent romp in the cold, damp dreariness. "I've only had a day to look at all her stuff."

"You ever hear of forest bathing? Get into nature, breathe clean air. It does wonders for the nervous system."

"So does a fireplace and a hot toddy."

His pro-hike speech paused while he scarfed down the last slice of pizza. "I have this feeling that we'll connect to Helina in the natural world. Is that dumb?"

Swirling waves and a turbulent sky.

Liv wiped grease from her fingers. "Where is this rainforest anyways. Is it far?"

Graham frowned. "You really weren't listening, were you."

"I'm paying attention now."

"Three hours, give or take. It's on the Olympic peninsula. Near the coast."

The end of terra firma. A door leading to an unimaginable world.

"The coast?" Liv had played around all day with this question: should she tell Graham about Helina's drawing or not? Obviously, the best course of action was to show it to him. It was a potential clue, after all, and one he was capable of drawing his own conclusions from. And yet, she hesitated. Graham's conclusions wouldn't necessarily work in Liv's favor.

He wiped his beard with a napkin, studying Liv. What was she to him? She'd thought about that as much as she had Helina's drawing. He believed Liv was capable of something. Solving his sister's disappearance, opening portals to ghost realms, saving Helina from spirits and himself from despair. Liv seemed to represent hope to him.

What a disaster this was going to be.

"I'm going to do a deep dive tonight," she told him. "If I don't turn up anything, we can go bathe amongst the trees." For whatever good that would do. Helina wasn't a wood nymph. She hadn't sprouted delicate, sparkling wings or taken up residence in an amanita mushroom.

The rainforest was a dead end... but it might be near a junction.

Satisfied with her response, Graham flashed Liv a smile and waved their waitress over to take his credit card.