Hourglass → Ace; Nancy Drew [1]

xviii. the location of buried bones

THE LOCATION OF BURIED BONES
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Hands slammed onto the wooden coffee table, placing the crumbled yellowing map flat on the surface. Nancy spread her hands over the thick piece of paper, from center to the edges to straighten it out. She let out a loud huff as she tried to decode the lines on the map, only breaking her gaze when she heard quiet thumps of knees hitting the ground beside her.

Olivia pressed her upper abdomen against the edge of the table as she leaned over it, taking in the strange lines. She recognized the four curvy thin lines that connected before forming a channel into the North Atlantic Ocean, right off west of Horseshoe Bay. What she couldn't recognize or comprehend, however, was the mass of lines that filled the entire page.

Olivia frowned and leaned even forward, but almost let out a strained whimper as the wood met deeply with her sore ribs. She held her breath and pulled away slightly, trying to stop herself from distracting the others. "What do they mean?" Olivia croaked, looking between Ace who sat directly beside her, and Nancy who was across the small table.

"It's not like any map I've ever seen," Nancy mumbled, tracing her finger over one of the slightly smudged lines.

"I have." Everyone's heads snapped toward George, whose eyebrows were perked in mild enthusiasm. She shuffled from the position she was in until she was propped up by her heels, almost nonchalant and calm while Olivia stared at her in impatience and anticipation. "They're ley lines."

"Ley lines?" Ace frowned, still looking at the map before him.

"Ley lines." George motioned for her friends to lean forward to get a better view as she explained. "They're basically latitudinal and longitudinal lines along with monuments and landforms. This archaeologist discovered them in the early 1900s when he noticed ancient monuments around the world were aligned." As she spoke, she hadn't even recognized the knitted eyebrows and shocked eyes that stared at her.

"How... exactly do you know all of this?" Bess asked slowly, trying not to come off as judgemental.

Olivia's eyes tried to follow each person that spoke, but she felt their voices slowly fading as her heartbeat became more prominent. She squeezed her eyes tightly, trying to regain her focus, but only found it hard to see through blurred vision once she peeled her eyelids open.

"My mom's a Medium," George's faded voice brushed past Olivia's ears. "I knew this stuff before I knew how to add and subtract."

"Liv? What's wrong?" She almost jumped out of her skin at the whisper from beside her, warm breath hitting her cheek. Her muscles strained as she tried to turn to face Ace, the rough collar of her hoodie scraping tightly and uncomfortably against her neck. She could barely lift her head to look Ace in the eyes– it felt as though her head was stuck in place. It was too heavy to even tilt upward the slightest bit. When her vision finally fell onto the blonde man, she saw him looking down at her with wide, concerned eyes as he took in her appearance.