━ DENOUEMENT ( jerome clarke. )

26 ⊳ HOUSE OF PESTS.

With a devious smirk present on her lips, Patricia took the mention of the blonde boy and saw it as an opening to a conversation in which she could tease the female prankster and announce the gifts that she had been given yesterday to the rest of the girls, causing her to say, "Speaking of which, Jerome gave Sydney two gifts yesterday."

"Oh, did he really?!" Amber practically squealed, excitedly grabbing onto her friend's arm as she continued, extremely gleeful with the news as she claimed, "Now all he has to do is to get on a car and get to be on a magazine cover!"

Sydney's eyebrow quirked up, "What?"

"It's the checklist in the 'Amber Millington Guide to Dating' - it's how you know if someone is perfect for you!" Amber informed the girl, very enthusiastic about her checklist and her dating guide, which made the prankster and the other girls in the room shake their head, slightly amused at the perky blonde.

"Amber, I love you, but one day I'd love to see how you'd react if all your money was cut off, considering all the points on that checklist are materialistic." Sydney stated, and at the suggestion, the fashionista's eyes instantly widened dramatically with pure fear being clouded in them, causing a chuckle to escape the prankster's lips – Amber Millington truly was something.

"So, what did Jerome get you?" Nina inquired, a smirk on her lips whilst she wiggled her eyebrows suggestively at the prankster, hoping that she had been gifted something romantic, though the eyebrow wiggling and the smirk made Sydney release a small groan.

"I hate all of you." Sydney muttered, threateningly pointing at all of them in the process whilst they all giggled at the suffering of the girl, "If you must know, he got me a prank set and a photo - I need to thank him still, actually; it was lights out when I found them."

"That's so cute!" Amber exclaimed, a humongous smile on her lips as she thought of, perhaps, her favourite couple (that she knew in real life – she had many favourite celebrity couples), who she had been attempting to get together for years.

"Speaking of getting things..." Nina began, a smirk on her lips which drew everyone's attention away from the topic of Jerome Clarke and Sydney Anderson and to the more important subject: Sibuna and the riddles, "We got the next clue - well, I think it's a clue? Either way, it was inside Corbierre, like we guessed - it was gross!"

"I am so sick of creepy, stuffed animals!" Amber cried out dramatically, crossing her arms over the chest as she did so, showing how much she hated the stuffed animals – they'd had way too many encounters with them that term, and they'd have preferred to not.

Honestly, Amber Millington was right - they were creepy.

"So, what was it – the clue?"

"It's this circular piece, and it says 'END' on it - that's it." Nina informed them, though that was rather peculiar and caused them all to share a very confused and perplexed glance with one another as they wondered what it meant – there wasn't even a riddle to go along with it, just a puzzle piece with the word 'END' on it.

Whilst Nina wet her toothbrush and put toothpaste on it, beginning to brush her teeth, Sydney's tone mirrored her expression - pure confusion – as she questioned the group, "Does that mean the end of the search?"

"But, how can it mean the end of the search? We haven't found the Cup of Ankh yet." Patricia quizzed, also having an expression on her face that was plastered with confusion – her eyebrows were furrowed and her eyes were narrowed – they were all just as confused as one another as they wondered what the circular piece meant.