When everyone arrived back to Anubis house, Joy and Alfie came running downstairs, Eddie and Fabian hurried inside, and Nina, Patricia, and Amber followed close behind.
"Sibuna meeting now!" all seven of them exclaimed at the same time.
"Wait," Nina paused. "You four have been part of the mystery too?"
They nodded. Joy and Alfie indicated they'd been working together, and Eddie and Fabian indicated they'd been. Which meant they all had a lot of catching up to do with everything they found.
"Before we go into any detail," Joy swallowed, "we need to show you something."
Jerome watched as all of them headed upstairs. He went into the sitting room area where the little kids were. They greeted him as he came in.
"I really hope I'm making the right choice right now," he muttered to Lucille.
~~~~~
Meanwhile, the others were gathered in Willow's room where Willow lay unconscious and no one really knows why, though Joy and Alfie know who. And it was time everyone started from the beginning.
"Ok," Eddie began, "Perry told me my dad is on work leave and he's replaced him as principal. And the letter meant to be given to Trudy mentioned Trudy was part of the Secret Society, and she needs to recruit the next member."
"I knew Trudy was up to something," Joy admitted. "I overheard her on the phone, but she said she wanted out, and something bad happened to the last person who tried it."
"So, Mr. Perry and Trudy are baddies," Amber declared. She complained, "But not, Trudes..."
Patricia added. "And that creep knows Eddie took the letter, and he wants to scare him into not telling us about it, but it's too late for that."
"He confronted me about that," Eddie mentioned.
"And," Nina continued the conversation, "we overheard two people in Mr. Perry's office talking about how something could kill you guys, and they'll keep doing it until the Osirion and Chosen One turns themselves into the society." She glanced at Eddie as she said this.
"Do you suppose that's what Perry has done to Willow?" Alfie pouted.
Nina didn't respond, but she made a facial expression that, in a way, gave Alfie the answer to his question.
"We saw someone coming into the school," Eddie reminded Fabian.
"Vera Devenish," Fabian swallowed.
"Vera?" Amber repeated. "I assumed she died."
"We actually never knew what happened to her," Nina said. "And there was a familiar voice in that office."
"Vera's voice," Patricia confirmed.
"She's wearing a disguise, but I still recognized her," Fabian sighed. After he realized no one had anything to add, he summarized all their findings, "So, we know Mr. Perry runs this Secret Society, which in the letter mentions it's what Victor wants, and Trudy and Vera are a part of it for sure. And they have a meeting coming up soon. They're plotting some mission to get to the Osirion and Chosen One through us, which is most likely why they took Eddie's dad. Anything else?"
Eddie added, "And I snuck into the principal's office, and in Perry's file, it says Victor was a reference for him. I wanted to speak to Victor and see how they knew eachother, but I don't know where he lives."
"Where's Jerome?" Amber suddenly asked.
"He's not part of Sibuna anymore," Nina told her.
"Did you kick him out?!" she exclaimed defensively.
"No, no. He just doesn't want to be a part of it anymore."
"Why not?" Amber asked.
Nina shrugged.
"Mystery, people," Patricia reminded. "Amber, you can confront Jerome later, but we need to find out more about this society and exactly what they're plotting. Willow is unconscious right now, and we have no idea why."
"If the new Secret Society wants Nina and I, why don't we just give ourselves over?" Eddie suggested.
"Because that's stupid," Patricia criticized. "We don't know what they'll do to you, so it's better that you're here protecting us while we're all working together to keep eachother alive."
"She's right," Joy commented on Patricia's advice.
"You didn't have to call it 'stupid'," Eddie muttered.
"Can we please just find a way to wake up my wife?!" Alfie begged. He was down on his knees next to Willow's bed. "Because she can't die."
They heard the door unlocking down on the first floor and assumed it was Trudy. They dropped their voices so she wouldn't hear their meeting.
"Alfie, we'll wake her up," Nina assured.
"Let's meet up again later," Fabian dismissed the meeting.
He walked out the room alongside Nina, and Alfie was the only one to stay inside the room with Willow.
"You know, if we actually started this thing out with all of Sibuna, we'd have pieced all these facts together sooner," Fabian admitted.
"Yeah, we know that now," Nina smiled. "And since we're all working together, no more keeping secrets from eachother." She grinned up at Fabian as they made it down the stairs.
"I have a feeling we're not just talking about Sibuna here."
"We're not." Nina gave him a soft kiss on the lips.
They looked over and saw both Patricia and Eddie staring at them.
"What?" Nina asked.
"How do you two have such a...cute relationship?" Eddie asked, finding the word for it.
Him and Patricia could never seem to understand a really cute relationship since their marriage was full of sarcasm and making fun of eachother. To other people, they sometimes seemed to hate eachother, but they knew they never loved anyone so much.
"I guess we're just not Eddie and Patricia," Fabian replied.
~~~~~
Trudy was in the kitchen as everyone else ate supper, except for Alfie who'd taken his upstairs. It was pretty silent since Trudy now made things awkward. Jerome wasn't even involved now, but he knew something was up that kept them quiet.
Instead of a amber sitting beside Jerome like she had, she sat near the other end of the table on the other side, so he asked her to pass the potatoes.
"Get it yourself, Clarke!" Amber growled.
"Did I do something wrong?" Jerome asked, confused.
"I don't know; maybe you decided not to participate in a certain something that you were a part of!"
"Inside voice, Amber," Nina reprimanded.
"You know we're about to be married right?" Amber checked with Jerome, quieting down her voice.
"I could never forget," Jerome answered, "but that has nothing to do with this."
"It has everything to do with this!" Amber rolled her eyes and left the table, marching out of the room altogether.
Everyone glanced at Jerome's both confused and distraught expression and kept silent until Joy reassured, "It's just a fight. It won't last."
Jerome took a deep breath and nodded, "Yeah."
But still he got up from the table after losing his appetite and went to the seclusion of his own room.
~~~~~
Here's the end of the chapter for you all! I hope you enjoyed! Instead of discussion questions for this chapter, I just want to ask you about this story.
Is it good?(I just want to make sure that it's not crap)
And is there anything more you want to see in the story?
Criticism is welcome, as always, but I just want to be sure that this is a great story that you love as much as the others, because you Aristocrats count the most in these, so until next time, stay awesome.