What Lies Beneath ▸ House of Anubis [1]

chapter forty-eight. house of stars

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            I squeeze my eyes shut as Victor's footfalls near us, feeling Amber grab my arm with her hand. My heart is beating loud in my ears, and I can only hope Victor and the society can't hear it. Come on, if we ever needed a miracle, I need it to be right now.

            "It's only a rat," Victor announces as he steps away. I let out a quiet shaky breath as I remove my hand from my mouth and open my eyes. The chanting starts up again.

            That was way too close. We need to get out of here and get to Patricia to see if she found a way to contact Joy. If anyone knows anything about the Chosen One or the Bringer of Death, it's the girl who's been designated as one of them. She has to know something at least.

            The ceremony ends about ten or so minutes later, but we don't leave until it's been twenty minutes to assure that everyone in the society is gone from the house. At that point, we crawl through the secret passageway and exit into the kitchen. Fabian's the first one standing, saying, "That was so close."

            "Victor must really love to stay young," Amber remarks. "He drank snake poison. I mean, that's what plastic surgery is for."

            "So are we still looking for this treasure or what?" Alfie questions. "Or have the teachers got it? Or this Rufus Zeno dude?"

            Nina shushes him. "Right now, let's just get out of here and get to bed, okay? We're not home safe yet."

—

            Sibuna made an agreement at breakfast to meet in the woods at lunch to talk about what we found out last night and to get an update from Patricia on Joy. She managed to contact her on the video-chat whilst we were watching the ceremony and said that Joy was going to try and get her hands on a new phone so we're in contact with her. So at lunch, we sit in a circle around the puzzle pieces, which are lying on the ground on Nina's blazer. Five in total.

            "Okay, after seeing what we saw last night," Nina starts, "I think our first priority should be the search for the Cup. We need to find it before they do."

            "Yeah," Patricia agrees. "Imagine what Victor might do with the secret of eternal life. World domination."

            "No," Alfie argues, "world domination to Victor is six billion people in bed by ten o'clock."

            I chuckle quietly. I like having Alfie in Sibuna. It's nice not having to lie to him anymore. "Okay, so these objects...or whatever they are," I say, "they're the key somehow. But there are more pieces, and until we have them all, we won't know exactly what it is."

            Fabian looks at us decisively. "Okay, so come on, guys, we need to get our brains into gear. 'To find the secret from he past, you must look beyond the world through glass.'"