Chapter 1

  Pathological Liar

  I went back to the room to notice the customer standing up fiddling with the conditioner.

  “Don’t do that” I told him as I sat down.

  “Don’t do what?” He said as he too sat down

  “Never mind”

  My crystal ball… where is it?

  “Where’d you put my ball at?”

  “I didn’t touch anything”

  What is wrong with this dude…

  “Did someone come in here then?”

  “Yeah… it was the same dude who opened the door for me when I entered”

  Alex? Why has he done this?

  “What shoes did the person have on?”

  “Black”

  The most common color shoes for someone wearing all black are either white or black. Not impressive that he got it right. He could’ve seen them, though such a random question and the fact that they didn’t even last a second in the same room makes me doubt that.

  Something about this just feels wrong, and with that said just what exactly is going on here?

  Chapter 2

  Lying to a liar

  Sometimes customers tend to lie in order to see if I am truly a psychic. However not once has someone ever lied to me about something so little. Why would he steal my crystal ball?

  The man was just sitting there, he didn't say anything. He doesn’t look like he was lying. Maybe Alex did take it?

  “So what are you here for?” I asked

  “I’ve been told that you’re a psychic, so I wanted some help when it came to talking to the dead”

  “Okay, who’s the person that’s passed?” I decided to keep a close eye on him.

  “My father, he said something about a buried treasure” He didn’t get uncomfortable with me staring at him, nor did he seem to be lying.

  “So you want me to help with a treasure hunt” Maybe I can get some money from the reward, or jewelry…

  “Yeah, he left a map, but I don’t really get it. I want him to help me out”

  The man gave me the map. From a first glance it was hard to understand, however I’m sure one can just deduce certain things.

  The map was slightly ripped and it had wiggly dotted lines leading to an X. The top left corner of the map showed something that was in the shape of a banana, next to it was a time, 9:00. That’s 15 minutes from now. Next to it showed a box with a question mark, maybe that’s the item we’re supposed to find there.

  The banana could be a fruit shop that closes at 9?

  “Well let’s head out” I stood up from my seat and opened the door.

  “Where are we going?”

  “Your father has told me where the first step is at”

  “You don’t have to hold my hand or something?”

  “Uhm… I can sense your father, wouldn’t like me touching your hands…” I stopped myself for a second, this man has a hand missing “I meant he wouldn’t want me touching your hand…”

  Awkward.

  I know a fruit shop that closes at 9. While making our way over to the shop we passed by a moon.

  “Hey look at the moon”

  It was a store, maybe it was the moon instead of a banana? The shop seemed to have been closed and it wasn’t 9 yet.

  “Ignore it” I told him

  We made it to the shop, do we enter it? The shop wasn’t closed yet, but maybe the clue was inside.

  “Hey what’s your name?” I asked him.

  “Olive… Grand” Weird name.

  “Mine’s Liam Lewis.”

  “It’s nice to meet you” he pulled his left hand towards me and I shook it. Now isn’t the time to think about touching hands, I need to act friendly so that way I can get a chunk of the reward. Maybe it’s millions.

  If I was to have a million dollars what would I buy? Most would say “make my family retire” however I wouldn’t do that. Maybe I’d just retire myself and just live a normal life, I’d like to say I can control my money, but barely any would be able to when you have a million dollars to spend.

  What if the reward was a car? How would we share it? Maybe he can get the weekends while I get the weekdays. If it’s a house then we’d split the house with a white line like those comedy family shows after half of the family disagrees with the other.

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  “You, look outside and see what happens when the time hits 9, in the meantime I’ll check the inside” Grand nodded.

  Now isn’t the time to think about the rewards. First I need to solve this or else I won’t even get the reward.

  I opened the door and entered the shop, it was run by an old lady named Ms. Grant. I don’t know her first name.

  “Olives 50% off Mr. Lewis!” She knows I’m not a big fan of olives

  The shop is quite small, I doubt it’d be well hidden… wait, now that I think about it, how long has it been since he died? The page seemed slightly ripped so it wasn’t recently.

  The time hit 9 and I couldn’t find much, so I decided to head outside to see what Grand saw.

  “See anything?”

  “No”

  Well great. My millions of dollars are gone.

  “How long has it been since your father died?”

  “Recently”

  How come I couldn’t find anything? How come the paper was ripped?

  “Let’s head back” I had my head down in complete disappointment, knowing that my reward was likely to never see the light of day.

  “Moon”

  “Are you…” I was about to batter the guy for calling out the moon again, but… “You are a genius!” I shook the guy back and forward.

  He looked confused, but that didn’t matter. The moon had neon lights, it was off when we first saw it, but now it’s turned on. Most likely those lights turned on at 9. The moon was the answer.

  My reward that was pushed back by the darkness, has grown legs and has made their way towards me.

  “Don’t worry little one, I’ll be your savior” I muttered to myself

  Before we entered there was a guy that seemed to be in the way. I looked past him and noticed why he was standing there.

  “Olive… what’s your age?”

  “20”

  That’s a problem…

  “You wait here”

  Olive nodded, seeming to have understood why.

  I handed over my ID and made my way inside.

  The reason as to why Olive couldn’t enter was due to the fact that this place was a strip club.

  Woman twerking wasn’t really my cup of tea, I never really found these types of places interesting.

  Clearly someone’s father found these types of things interesting.

  I made my way over toward the bar. Where do I even start to look? Maybe the ladies? If so, who's more of Papa Grand’s type?

  Maybe her? The lady was blond, had a slim body and was dressed in all red.

  I made my way over towards her.

  “Excuse me…”

  “Nope” she pulled her hand out.

  She wants me to pay? All I want is a quick chat.

  “Fine” I handed her over 5 bucks to which she seemed to have not been happy with the amount.

  “More”

  I gave her an extra 20 to which she signaled me to follow her and led me to a room. If I had to pay 25 for each person then the reward wouldn’t even be enough to help me pay out this debt I’m about to get into.

  “Sit down big boy”

  Okay… this isn’t exactly the plan.

  “I’m just here for a chat”

  “That isn’t how it works…” she winks at me and begins to get on top of me “I do the show and you watch, no words must be said by the audience”

  “Can you get off?”

  “Is it already getting uncomfortable down there?”

  She began showing off every part of her body, I can see why his father enjoyed this as much as he did.

  “This is great, but…”

  She pushed her finger into my lips.

  “No talking remember? Since it’s you I’ll let you touch for free”

  This is good and bad… However I’ll let this opportunity pass, for the sake of the treasure hunt.

  “Listen I’ll pay you an extra 20 if you let me talk to you”

  “Fine” I handed her the 20 and she took it.

  “Do you know someone by the last name Grant?”

  “How am I supposed to remember everyone who’s talked to me? I also never tend to ask for their names”

  Great… What’s the point of me being here if it’s likely that nobody would even remember him.

  “Let’s end it here” I stood up and made my way out of the room, she seemed to be quite frustrated. It’s not you it’s me, is something I would’ve said.

  If talking to the ladies is not going to get me the answer that I want then I should probably just start looking for a random object that represents the thing I’m trying to find. A little bit of hide and seek, I was actually a master of hiding, my mother was more of the seeker. Which means I don’t really have that much experience in the seeking department.

  For starters I decided to look for a high ground, I doubt the father would make it extremely hidden as then it’d be nearly impossible to find it.

  This should do. I was standing on a tall platform with a walkway which led to what seemed to be backstage. If needed, I might have to check there too.

  “Hey you’re gonna dance or what?” One of the ladies began throwing some money up to the platform.

  This platform didn’t have a pole so I thought it wasn’t that… but-

  “Don’t worry, I’m just playing with you” she laughed and climbed up the platform with me.

  She was wearing all green, she wasn’t showing much and seemed to have quite the personality.

  “Lost something?”

  “Yeah”

  “What is it?” How do I explain this to her?

  I reached into my pockets, however I couldn’t find the map. Where did I leave it?

  “Lost something again?” She chuckled a bit.

  “Well I’m not sure how, but I just lost another thing”

  Did Olive take it? I don’t remember giving the map to him though.

  “Want me to help you find it?”

  “No I’m okay, I have to go.”

  The lady seemed to be quite surprised, but so was I. Where did my map go?

  “Hey wait up!”

  I didn’t pay much attention to her, she has a job to do so I doubt she can exit while chasing after a customer.

  I exited the building… Where was he? I grew quite anxious.

  Was I lied to? What were the chances of him lying about all of this? 40% or maybe 50%

  My treasure was fake, I was pranked.

  A sudden door slam hit and the lady that was trying to tell me to wait up exited the building.

  “Looking for this?” She waved a piece of paper, it had someone’s phone number.

  How did she know?

  “Those kids tend to play pranks on some people, they make you do a scavenger hunt and usually have you look like a fool in this place”

  So she knew…

  “Here, I also wrote my number on the back”

  “Do you usually do this?”

  “Not at all, you just seemed different” she smiled.

  I took the paper and made my way back to the bar.

  The moment I made it inside the bar Alex rushed over to me.

  “I thought you left me”

  “Nope, I was helping a client”

  “I didn’t even see you leave”

  “Yeah” I entered my room and sat down.

  I should’ve told him if he had stolen my ball. I closed my eyes for a bit and remembered how he was messing with the air conditioner.

  He did change it, but maybe he did that in order to avoid getting caught hiding something near here.

  Near the conditioner was a poster, however behind that poster was a hidden spot.

  I pulled the poster and it revealed my hidden spot, inside there was my crystal. How exactly did he find this? The finding of my crystal ball must have caused something as I soon figured out yet another weird occurrence. When I asked for his name he stuttered a bit, he said Olive Grand. Olives were 50% off shown in the window of the store. Ms. Grant’s name is also oddly close to Olive’s last name… He lied about his name too.

  He was the one to mention the moon too. It all fits.

  “Damn!” I was upset, I knocked my chair over and began calling the number that was shown on the paper.

  The phone rang and soon they answered. It was a video call, in that call was a dude I was unaware of and next to him was Olive…

  “Chill a bit dude” the guy said

  He could tell I was pissed.

  “Where are you?” I asked

  “We found the treasure man.” He laughed as he passed the phone over to Olive.

  “So you just lie to people and make them go on a treasure hunt for no reason?”

  “Kinda, I mean it was fun. If it’d make you happy we actually do have a treasure” he tilted the phone sideways.

  He showed a small treasure box filled with what seemed to be cocaine.

  “Isn’t this cool dude” he laughed

  “That was the treasure? Not only do you lie about this whole hunt, you lie about your name and your right arm”

  He looked surprised.

  “Woah dude how did you know?”

  “The name was simple, however just now when you turned your camera sideways. You were holding it with one hand, to be more specific your right hand. You tried to show off the treasure with it being to the left hand side of you, yet judging by the way you were holding it it’d be uncomfortable to hold it with your left hand and it’d also be impossible to do that without me being able to see your hand extended outwards in order to hold the phone”

  “It’s not impossible”

  “Right, although what’s the point of holding it even more uncomfortable just to not show your holding your phone with your left hand, you slipt up and now are trying to hide it”

  “Fine” he laughed a bit, he was amused.

  “I’m gonna end the call now”

  As soon as I was about to hang up Olive stopped me.

  “How about you come by and get yourself some of the treasure? I could tell you wanted it man”

  “I wanted it when I thought it was money”

  “Is that a no then?”

  Was that a no?…

  3 hours later…

  It was not a no.

  Soon I found myself in my room with a bag.

  Chapter 3

  Treasure

  Why did I take it? I’ve never taken cocaine nor am I interested in it. Maybe I just wanted something for my hard work.

  What I did, did I even do anything that required hard amounts of work? What would qualify as hard work? Maybe a physically demanding job. If so then what I did wasn’t hard work, maybe it’s something tedious like hours of just working in the office. But I didn’t even do the task for more than an hour.

  If what I did wasn’t hard work then maybe I just like the thought of getting a reward. If the end reward didn’t exactly live up to expectations then would someone not take it? The comparison between cocaine and huge cash amounts isn’t that different, nowadays one can make a living from selling this type of stuff.

  Only problem was that I didn’t have an illegal amount, I purposely got an amount that wouldn’t get me into any legal problems.

  It’s not for the money, it’s not for my hard work, it’s definitely not because I want to try some. So in the end my motive is as simple as feeling accomplished, I was lied to and felt like a fool, figuring out that they’d have lied about everything made me feel better. The only thing I was missing was a prize.

  “I won’t need this then” I muttered to myself as I put the bag into one of my drawers near my computer.

  “I won’t throw you away” as long as I don’t have anyone being nosy then I should be fine.

  Chapter 4

  Bucket List

  I got a call from Maria, it’s the weekend and she said we had a time limit to complete certain things.

  My guess… I’m not sure, she’s my girlfriend, yet I can’t ever get a good read on her. It feels like she’s the one who can get a good read on me.

  I arrived at her apartment to which she was already waiting at the front door.

  “Hello” she jumped into the car

  I didn’t even have time to get out and greet her.

  “Take a look of this”

  She shoved a piece of paper onto my face, I took the paper from her hands and took a look.

  “Ride a huge roller coaster, visit a zoo and feed some animals (maybe also ride one), go from bar to bar drinking from what the last person ordered, skydive, go hiking, go to a planetarium, solve an escape room”

  “That’s a lot…”

  “Better get to checking them off” she smiled.

  I didn’t waste a second, I started the car and got onto the road.

  “Which one’s first?”

  “You’ll see”