Force of Nature ▸ House of Anubis [3]

chapter thirty-seven. house of history

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            I slip Nina's locket around my neck as we enter the cellar through the oven door. Fabian puts in the code for the antechamber and it slides open, like it always had.

            "What are we looking for?" KT questions.

            "We'll know when we find it," Fabian answers as the door slides back. I push my hair behind my ears, kneeling in front of Frobisher's desk. "Just push every button and pull every lever. This place is full of hidden compartments."

            "Just avoid the one with the light that blinds you," I add, and Fabian nods. We don't need that right now, without an amulet or a mirror to help us.

            Eddie looks over. "Hey, what if we call the cops?"

            "'Hey, what if we call the cops?'" I repeat in a mocking voice, rolling my eyes.

            "And tell them what?" Fabian retorts to him. "That an ancient Egyptologist is about to be woken up?"

            "No," Eddie responds, "that there are four kids being held against their will at the gatehouse."

            "Yeah, and then they'll say, 'Why?'" KT says. "And we'll say, 'To work on a school project."

            "Yeah, I don't really think they're going to send a S.W.A.T team," Fabian says, "do you, Eddie?"

            I jump up from behind the desk. "And that's why we don't go to the cops about stuff that happens at this school. No one would believe us."

            "Fine," Eddie mumbles as Fabian stands on a couch to look at the bookshelves attached to the wall. I turn back to the desk. "Haven't you already searched every inch of this room, Fabian?"

            "Well, maybe I missed something," Fabian responds.

            "You? Dude, you don't miss anything. I mean, if there was something here, don't you think the house would have some sort of way to—" Eddie's interrupted when the desk drawer I've been trying to open comes all the way out and I fall backwards, holding onto it for dear life. "—tell us."

            I look at the drawer, finding my balance. There's another part to it, behind where it should've ended at the back of the desk. "Did I just find a hidden drawer?"

            "Uh, yeah," Eddie states. I set it on the desk, taking out something that looks old and Egyptian-like. Handing it over to Fabian, my cousin adds, "Pretty good, huh?"

            "What is that thing?" I ask Fabian as he examines it.

            "Some kind of film canister," Fabian answers. "We need a projector. There's one in the cellar."

            Eddie volunteers to go out and get it for us as Fabian figures out the canister. He sets it up on a small table and aims it toward the wall above the desk and we sit down to watch the grainy film inside, hoping something that'll help us is on it.

            The first shot is of a desert and a white tent, and people walking. "That's the expedition party," Fabian identifies.

            "Oh, my God," I comment as it switches to a shot of the party together, celebrating what they've found. "This is... it's weird seeing them all alive and moving."

            "That's Alfie, Patricia, Jerome, Joy, and Ashley's great-grandparents," Fabian says. I look at the faces of Michael and Elizabeth Henry, reminded of the crimes they committed and the prison sentence they served. They abandoned Lily for their own greed.