House of Anubis: One Last Stand

House of Tunnels/House of Libraries

Nina and Eddie met back up with Fabian, Patricia, and Amber, having important news to tell them.

"We know when and where the next Secret Society meeting is," Eddie grinned.

"It's in two days," Nina revealed. "At the Frobisher Library."

"Hey, there are tunnels that lead to Frobisher Library," Fabian smiled, giving them all the same idea he had.

"Directly from the house," Nina added.

"I thought the library's shut down," Patricia admitted. "How do they get in?"

"I'm pretty sure breaking into an old, abandoned, historical temple of books isn't the worst crime they've committed," Eddie responded. "And they wouldn't be risky enough to take the tunnels from the house we're all staying in."

"So, we're going to spy on their conversation?" Amber clarified.

"Precisely," Fabian nodded.

~~~~~
Meanwhile, Jerome had already finished up his prank which amazed Barry and Clayton since he committed it in five minutes. And he had knocked out three younger classmen students.

He was proud of himself, remembering the times when he was a high schooler. As he walked down the hallway, he saw the room where the faculty meeting should've been taking place. He found himself peering inside through the glass, noticing that it didn't look like any teachers of the staff. His eyes not only spotting Trudy, but also landing on a recognizable face. Her disguise wasn't enough the fool him.

Jerome noticed Vera look up, her eyes staring straight into his. Jerome flipped out of view, his back resting on the wall. He held his breath, waiting for Vera to come out of the room after her.

He knew of all the wicked things she did. Everything he wasn't aware of that high school year, Sibuna found a time to update him.

Sure enough, Vera came out of the room.

"Jerome?" she smiled, her voice in a sweet tone.

Jerome didn't respond.

"I hear you're mentoring this year."

"Vera?" was all Jerome asked.

Vera dropped her smile and whispered very close to Jerome. "I don't know if that little possy knows of my identity and knows that I'm here yet, but if you tell them, you will regret it. And we don't want this year to be any harder than it has to, do we?"

Jerome shook his head.

"Excellent."

Vera flashed a final smile and went back into the room. Jerome felt like he had now somehow wormed his way into the mystery, unintentionally. But he wasn't going to delve deeper. He'd just try to forget it all and carry on with his life. Its not like Vera would be of any importance if he just stayed out of it...

~~~~~
After the work day ended, everyone went back to Anubis house. The Sibuna members decided some, if not all, of them should go down through the tunnels and make sure everything is the same, because they didn't want any surprises when they headed to spy on the meeting.

"I don't think Trudy's here," Fabian said. "We should go down now."

"I'll let Joy and Alfie know," Nina volunteered.

She went up to Willow's room.

"Hey," she greeted, seeing Alfie in the room. "How was your day?"

"Do I really need to answer that?"

"Right," Nina uttered. "Anyway, Fabian, Patricia, Amber, Eddie, and I are heading down into the tunnels. You know you can come if you'd like."

"I shouldn't just leave Willow unsupervised. What if Trudy comes back and harms her?"

"Jerome's going to be above ground, of course," Nina reminded. "He might not be part of Sibuna, but he won't let anything bad happen to anyone."

Alfie eventually gave in after trying to resist. "Ok."

They found Joy upstairs as well, and Joy was on board instantaneously. They went downstairs to the other four. Nina picked the lock to the cellar door since they didn't have the key and decided not to go through the kitchen.

They crept down into the cellar, knowing there was no reason to be cautious, and yet still, they were.

They saw that none of Victor's creepy experiments were down there. The entire cellar was practically clean and empty except for the dust.

Nina headed over to the shelves where she put the secret code in, revealing Robert Frobisher-Smythe's old study. Inside the desk, the amulets were still there. They knew they'd need the Thoth amulet for sure, since that was the one that actually opened the secret door leading to the library. But of course they put all of them on to deflect the first booby trap right behind the bookshelf. All seven of them happened to be in there, including Victor and Vera's old ones, so there was enough for them all.

"I remember when I was blind," Amber frowned. "It wasn't fun."

"Just think," Alfie joked, "if you were never blind, you wouldn't have sat on your future boyfriend's lap. Jamber probably sparked in that moment, and you didn't even realize."

He made the others either smile or laugh, except for Amber of course since she was still angry at Jerome.

Nina pulled out the book, and they all entered behind the bookcase. They waited for the light, but eventually, they realized it wasn't coming.

"Um..." Eddie trailed.

"Maybe all booby traps can't last forever?" Joy suggested in a questioning tone.

They shrugged and carried on, finding that all the tasks they once had to complete was no longer in operation. They passed the hopscotch without actually having to complete it, and then they made it to the chasm where the bridge still was. The pendulums weren't swinging anymore, but they had to balance in order to not fall into the pit. They passed the room where the spider webs used to hang and went through the alchemy room. They also passed through the room with the horns and the reflectors until they finally made it to the secret tunnel that led to the Frobisher library.

"If only it were this easy back in school," Patricia muttered.

They made it to the end of the tunnel, pressing the button that opened the bookshelf. They all filed into the library, seeing that it was empty and bare.

"Where is everything?" Amber asked.

"Well, the library closed down again, so they probably packaged and sent the exhibits to other museums," Fabian figured.

"This was the place where,I discovered my powers," Eddie remembered.

"It's also the place Nina almost killed Joy," Alfie added.

Everyone glared at him.

"What? Just speaking the truth."

"Let's head back," Nina instructed. "We know we'll be safe getting here, so we're good."

They all turned back to return to the tunnels.

~~~~~
Another day, another chapter!

Do you think Jerome should stay out of the mystery?

Do you think Sibuna's plan to spy on the Secret Society will work?

Until the next chapter Aristocrats, stay awesome!