Adrift → Ace; Nancy Drew [2]

ix. the mystery of the ancient padlock

THE MYSTERY OF THE ANCIENT PADLOCK
CHAPTER NINE

It was a wonderful thing to feel. Just feel. The heat spreading all over your face when you're angry, or when you're so happy you can't hide the smile curling onto your lips. Or the twang in your heart as if an elastic band had been snapped at the sensitive muscle sitting within your ribcage when you're sad. Ace had been feeling the latter often, recently. Yet, no matter how much pain his chest suffered, he would still choose it over not feeling at all. Especially when he knew that the pain he was feeling was because someone else couldn't feel anything at all.

It wasn't Olivia's fault that she couldn't feel, Ace was aware. But the way she had been making him feel was something he wouldn't wish on his worst enemy. It was a wonderful thing to feel, and it took Ace until the girl he loved couldn't feel a thing for him to realize that.

"Hi," the voice that usually always made the corners of his lips curl upward sounded from behind him. But when Ace looked back to greet Olivia, he couldn't even muster a smile. "What's going on over there?" She nodded her head toward Agent Park and Nancy who walked around the Historical Society like a pair of lunatics with headphones on their ears and radios in their hands.

"Oh, yeah... they're listening for Charity," Ace stated, and when Olivia only returned a dumb gaze, he sighed and continued to explain. "In the last two weeks, the Historical Society has shown signs of a haunting. And with each haunting caught on the cameras, there's a supernatural glitch hiding an audio frequency. I deciphered said audio frequency and found a distinctly female voice on the recording saying "die". We think it's Charity because it started on the day Temperance came to town." Monotonous was an understatement in describing Ace's tone, but of course, Olivia took no notice. Ace wished she'd take notice.

"Fun," Olivia said, although she didn't think it seemed fun. "I was just at The Claw. Bess, George, and Nick were helping Nick's friend, Eve, figure out whether she killed her boyfriend Anthony or not."

"Why aren't you helping them then?"

"Because I didn't want to," she said simply with a shrug. Ace almost rolled his eyes at how obliviously rude she was but he refrained, reminding himself that it wasn't her fault.

Olivia grimaced when Nancy's loud voice boomed through the room. "Hey Ace," Nancy yelled, unaware of her volume because of the black headphones on her ears. "Every time I think I hear Charity, another voice will shout-" She paused and removed the headphones when Ace signaled with his hand for her to be quiet. "Every time I think I hear Charity, another voice shouts over her so we need a way to amplify the signal. Like a totem, something that she touched the day she died," she said more quietly.

"How about the cage that the Copperhead was locked in?" Olivia suggested, and the others nodded in agreement. Park and Nancy led the way but Olivia slowed her pace so she could match Ace's. "Hey, can we talk?" she said hushedly.