Hourglass → Ace; Nancy Drew [1]

v. the secret of the sapphire ring

THE SECRET OF THE SAPPHIRE RING
CHAPTER FIVE

Olivia recognized the mop of blonde hair from afar as she made her way down the street that Ace had sent his location from. She squinted her eyes under the soft sunlight to make sure it was really him she was walking toward. Once the man walked away from the door of the house he was visiting, Olivia was certain the navy blue jacket with red and yellow stripes was Ace's. What felt like relief washed over her, like a mountain of stress had been lifted from her chest because they were finally one step closer to the mystery of Olivia's connection to the Aglaeca.

She could hardly sleep last night, and not because her mind was plagued with another nightmare; because she couldn't stop thinking about the sapphire ring. It ran around her mind as though her brain was a race track, refusing to let any sleep into her already tired body. Her dubious thoughts and worries about whether the ring was what they thought it was or if it even existed.

Suddenly, her vision blurred and she halted in her tracks. Stumbling back, she tried to catch onto something to balance herself as the entire world around her began to spin. Her heartbeat sped and she squeezed her eyes shut tightly, trying to force the unusual feeling away, to no avail. Everything kept getting blurrier until all she saw was white. She clasped onto her chest, trying to stabilize her hitched breaths but when a black line came into sight she paused her staggered movements. It flickered several times, almost like a TV screen that glitched, and each time, the line seemed to double.

As she squinted her eyes to focus, it became clearer– the shape of an animal. "A fox," she whispered, furrowing her eyebrows to try to deepen her focus, but the black lines in the shape of the animal only began to fade into white.

Olivia gasped, her chest aching as though something had hammered into with full force. Soon the white that had filled her vision dissolved into the unclear green of trees and grey and black of the softly-humming cars that were driving past her.

"Are you okay?" she squeezed her eyes tightly when she felt two large hands grip tightly onto her arms to keep her upright. She peeled her eyes open to see Ace's thick hair. His eyes were unclear and she could see his lips moving, but couldn't hear or comprehend the words coming out of his mouth through the intense ringing in her ears.

After squeezing her eyes a few more times, Olivia's eyesight became clearer and the harsh siren-like noise in her head was only faint. As her heart's pace began to slow down to a normal rate, she glanced around, trying to make sense of her surroundings and find her balance.

"Liv," Ace's voice echoed once again, and she snapped her head forward. Her eyes widened and she took a step back when she realized he was inches away from her face.

"What?" she groaned and pressed her hand against her forehead, trying to push the pounding pain away.

"What was that?" His arms were still extended out, as though he was worried Olivia would fall over.