Layla's POV
"Is Victor still asleep?" Fabian whispered as we joined him and Alfie in the hallway.
"Sleeping like a baby," I replied with a grin.
"Well, lucky old Victor," Amber commented, cranky from the lack of sleep.
"I don't think he'll see it that way when he realizes all the amulets are gone," Fabian pointed out.
"That's why we have to get to school before he wakes up. "Tonight, we go back to the tunnels," my sister said.
*****
"Hi," I greeted Jerome.
"Hello. What are you so excited about?" He asked as he held my locker open for me.
"I've got a meeting with Mr. Sweet, and I can't wait!" I replied.
"Steady. I'll have to call the excitement police," he said as he rolled his eyes at me. I stuck my tongue out and he bopped me on the nose.
"Hey! No, I'm intervewing him for the website.
Mara wants me to write an article on junk food in the school cafeteria. She's calling it: "Do you want lies with that?"
"What a scoop," Jerome said sarcastically as we headed over to his locker next.
"Are you okay? You skipped breakfast," I asked.
"There's a limit of how much sugary flaked corn I can take in a lifetime. I may have peaked early," he joked, though I could tell something was up.
"You're a terrible lier," I told him as I crossed my arms.
"I resent that. I am a brilliant liar!" He argued.
"Either way, I know something's up. You can tell me. You know I won't judge," I reassured him.
"Okay. Last time I visited my dad, he asked me to do something for him," Jerome said.
"Bring him some books?" I asked.
"Find a priceless gem in old suit of armor," he said quickly.
"Okay. I was way off. I thought he was trying to go straight," I said confused.
"He is. It's to make up for something bad he did before," said Jerome.
"By making you steal the gem? Two wrongs don't make a right, Jerome," I reminded him. "I just don't want you to get in trouble," I added quietly.
"I'll be fine. Anyway, it doesn't matter. I failed.
I looked all over the library for the suit of armor. It's gone," Jerome complained.
"This actually matters to you, doesn't it?"
"It's a bonding thing. Some guys go fishing.
Clarks track down priceless jewels. That's how we roll. He needs me to do this for him," Jerome said sincerely.
"You're putting another human being before yourself. I think I might cry," I teased him.
"Please, don't. People will think I'm being mean to you!" He hissed as he quickly looked left and right. I rolled my eyes and gave him a hug and a kiss on the cheek before heading to Mr. Sweet's office.
I had just walked into his office when I suddenly spotted a photo on his desk I had never really looked at before. Was that he and Eddie fishing?
"Is that Eddie?" I asked pointing to the photo.
"Oh, yes, he's...well he's my son, but I don't think he wants people to know so if you could keep that to yourself I would greatly appreciate it, Layla," he replied looking extremely uncomfortable.
"Oh of course, my lips are sealed," I told him as I sat down and began reading off the list of questions Mara had given me. "Junk food expose concluded," I said into my recorder once I had finished the interview.
"Very thought provoking, too. Junk food, yum, yum. When is lunch?" I heard him mumbled as I stood up and went to leave when I noticed a pile of jackets that appeared to have metal feet.
"Sorry. What's that?" I asked.
"Oh, that is a coat stand, Layla. It's a fairly common thing," he replied.
"But it has metal feet," I pointed out.
"I use it as a coat stand but actually, it's a suit of armor from the library. Yes, I took rather a shine to it," he whispered. I did my best not to react to this. But I could feel the excitement bubbling in my chest.
"Oh yeah. Well, thanks again!" I said before quickly dashing out of the room.
*****
"Try and guess why I'm so happy!" I told Jerome as I joined him on the couch back at the house later.
"Because there's a trigonometry test tomorrow and you're weird," he said looking up from his book.
"No. Although I don't mind a good trig test.
So I suppose you don't want to know where the suit of armor is after all," I teased as I started to get up.
"What? You found it?" He exclaimed.
"Yes, but you're not interested," I said giving him a look.
"No, Layla, don't do this to me," he said as he grasped my hand and tugged me back down.
"Mr. Sweet uses it as a coat stand in his office," I told him once I got tired of seeing his puppy dog eyes.
"His office? Now that is interesting," Jerome leaned back.
"But don't ask me how you get to it," I warned him as I went to go find my sister.
*****
"So Patricia's doing Victor's evil chores, so it's just us tonight. Everyone got their amulets?"Nina asked everyone as we made our way into the secret study.
"Sibuna back in action again," Amber commented. "Does anyone else worry about Victor coming looking for the amulets again?" She added.
"Well, if he does, he won't find mine. Look at me. Where do you think it is? Around my neck, right? Maybe my wrist. Both wrong. Boom.
Check it. Alfie Lewis doesn't make the same mistake twice. Oh. I'm not doing that again!" Alfie cried as he pulled his amulet off of his ankle and yanked out some of his hair at the same time.
"Alfie, did you remember the walkie-talkies?" Fabian asked.
"Oh. 10-4 little buddy. It's a little walkie-talkie speak. Over and out," Alfie joked as he handed one over.
"I can't believe you still have these," Nina laughed.
"Yeah, they were under the bed. I had forgotten about them, actually," Alfie said.
"You still play with them, do you?" Amber said clearly seeing through his statement.
"You don't play with walkies, Amber. They're used for very serious form of communication in tons of intelligence all over the world!" Alfie defended.
"So who's A-dog and the J. Meister then?" I asked as I held them up and giggled.
"They came with the radio," he said snatching one of them back from Fabian.
"So, who's going down to the creepy tunnel of doom first? Rock Paper Scissors?" My sister asked. We all stuck out or hands.
"Rock paper scissors, shoot!" She exclaimed. I frowned as she lost. She patted me on the back as we walked into the tunnels.
"All right. Layla and I will be on the other walkie-talkie and talk you through it," Fabian told my sister as she approached the grate.
"You'll be fine. Just be careful," I told her as I bit my lip.
"I'll try. Let's just get this over with," she said.
"Nina, can you hear me? Are you okay?" I asked once a minute had passed.
"I'm here, Layla. "So far, so good. There's not much room to maneuver in here," she replied.
"What is it? Are you all right?" Fabian asked as we heard her gasp on our end.
"Flashlight just went out," she informed us.
"The tunnel can't be that long. You must be there already," Fabian said.
"It's dark in here. I can hardly move. I hear noises, bad noises," she said.
"It's just your mind. It's playing tricks!" I tried to reassure her but I had a pretty tight grip on Fabian's arm. "Nina! Nina!" I cried out but there was only silence from her end.
"Layla, you're cutting off my blood supply!" Fabian said as he gently removed my fingers from his arm.
"Sorry, I'm just worried," I mumbled.
"I know so am I," he said.
"Nina? Nina! Are you there? Talk to me. Are you there?" Fabian asked as we suddenly heard her scream.
We suddenly heard the sound of screeching and turned around to see a door open to reveal more tunnel.
"It was a door. Nina did it!" Amber cheered.
"Nina, can you hear me? Nina, can you hear me?" Fabian repeated.
"Yep, I'm nearly back. You should be able to see me soon," we heard Nina finally reply. Oh thank god!
"A little help here," she asked as Fabian and I helped her out of the tunnel.
"How was it?" Fabian asked.
"Honestly, like being down in a long tunnel with bugs and a skull," she said as I brushed off her clothes.
"Sounds about right," Alfie commented.
"And there were voices," she added.
"Voices? That's new," said Fabian.
"Yeah, weird ones. It was all in my head but still..." my sister mumbled.
"Well your safe now and you did it!" Fabian gestures towards the new section of tunnel.
"Okay. Let's see what Frobiser Smythe has in store for us next!" Nina said.
"For Nina, for the mask, for Sibuna," Amber exclaimed. I saw my sister looking over at me with a frown and guessed she was thinking about the potential curse on me as well. I was just glad the spirit lady didn't seem to be as laser focused on me as Nina; not that it was a good thing she was after my sister and if I thought about it she probably knew I was a lost cause anyways which wasn't really all that uplifting of a thought but we had the next task to worry about.
"No way!" Fabian muttered as we walked up to a room with tons of strings all over the place.
"It just keep getting weirder," my sister said.
"I'm detecting a definite theme in here," Amber stated.
"The spider headed weaver goddess of war," Fabian said as he pointed to the wall where there was an image carved.
"Weavers and war...cause those two go together really well," Alfie said sarcastically.
"Look at that spider over there. It looks like an indentation. There must be something goes in there," Nina said, pointing to the wall directly across from us.
"I'm hoping not a giant spider," said Amber.
"That's where we have to get to," I stated.
"Let's go then!" Alfie said as he went to move one of the strings aside and yelped as his skin made contact. "It really hurts!" He cried out.
"It's like a bee sting," Amber said as she examine it.
"Or spider bite," I pointed out.
"I think there's some kind of venom on all the threads. What are those? Some kind of hooks?" Fabian observed.
"Hooks? What do you think they're for? Lets just call it night, guys. We'll come back tomorrow," Nina said as she and I turned back around.
"Tomorrow, okay. I have this weird feeling I'm going to be ill around about then," I heard Amber saying.
*****
"So did you phone your Gran?" Fabian asked as we walked into the drama studio the next day. Nina had explained about the voices she heard being Gran's so we of course had wanted to make she was okay.
"Yeah, she's fine. I mean, I knew she would be.
I just needed to hear her voice, and on the phone this time, not some creepy tunnel of terror," Nina said.
"You were scared, that's all. The mind plays tricks," Fabian told her but I couldn't help but be reminded of how we had heard voices last year and what with Jerome and Eddie hearing someone whispering "Osirian", lately I could understand Nina's caution.
"Yeah. It's just..." Nina said as she looked at me and then Fabian.
"Just what?" He prompted.
"I can't help thinking it meant more than that."
*****
I stared in shock as I spotted Alfie chasing a wild goose down the hallway and looked over to where Jerome was hiding guessing this was there spectacular scheme to get Mr. Sweet out of his office. I had to admit, it was good entertainment either way. I couldn't remember the last time I had laughed so much.