riddle me this. ― ʜᴏᴜꜱᴇ ᴏꜰ ᴀɴᴜʙɪꜱ

thirty two.

"of course," vera agreed. "just as soon as victor says its okay." she added, causing bella to sigh in annoyance, clearly too impatient to wait around as she could only hope that no one had taken the amulet. when the lady walked past her into the other room and with her back turned to her, bella wasted no time in sneaking away, needing to find that amulet before she got into bigger trouble.

she rushed back to the flowerbeds that she had been working around all day, suspecting that it had fallen off in this area whilst working. "come on, it has to be here." she mumbled to herself, digging through the soil and just praying she didn't bury it inside the manure. when she was met with nothing but dirt, bella sat back in defeat, knowing that she was in such a huge mess. 

"nina's gonna kill me." she groaned, knowing that the others will definitely not be happy to hear this. "wait," a sudden thought popped into bella's head. "my clothes." she mumbled her thoughts aloud to herself, thinking that it may have got caught in her top when she was changing into the sports gear. 

she wasted no time in heading back into the house through the back door, however, she had completely forgotten about victor's ongoing room search and his command to stay in the living room with vera until he was finished. it was too late for the girl to remember, as she walked straight into victor and vera.

"ah," victor's eyes landed on the girl, causing her to halt in her step. "there will also be grave consequences, for those of you who chose to ignore vera's instructions to remain in here." he declared, stepping up to the girl intimidatingly. "starting with you, miss kim. where on earth―"

"i think we've all been cooped up long enough, victor." vera suddenly cut the man off, coming to bella's rescue. she didn't expect it vera to come to her rescue, nor did she expect victor to agree with the woman, but their new housemother seemed to be able to tame the man. 

"very well." he nodded, waving the girl off before walking away with vera. bella breathed a sigh of relief, she didn't know if she could stand anymore punishments from victor compared to what she was already getting.

"where did you go?" amber questioned as her, fabian and nina stood up from the table where they had been doing their school work whilst waiting for victor to finish his room searches.

"huh? oh, just left something." bella lied, but amber seemed to see through her, eyeing the girl suspiciously as bella avoided her gaze. "did i miss anything?"  she added, trying to act normal and hope that amber would drop it.

"i checked our rooms and everything's still there," nina answered. "big relief, huh?" 

"so the spare is still safe?" bella questioned, plotting that as her backup plan if she can't find her amulet.