Summary: The Sibuna crew investigates the gate house and Lilrome overhears some shocking information.
Evie's Notes: Happy Monday! I hope you all are having a wonderful week ! As always, thank you so much your support of this story, it really and truly means the world to me 💜! I hope that you all enjoy the this new update 🌺.
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It was decided that Nina, Alfie, Fabian and Amber would be the ones to cut class and search the gatehouse for any possible artifacts. When the others made to argue, Nina just shut them all down with a golden glare and told them to go to class, they quickly obeyed.
The four Sibunas held their breath as Nina punched in the code, hoping it worked and not really having a plan B if it didn't... though that was usual for them. The group let out a collective sigh of relief when no alarms seemed to be triggered and no lights started flashing. Instead the lock quietly clicked, allowing Nina to push open the door and lead the others inside.
"WOW!" commented Nina taking in the stately decor as the group made their way upstairs. "Honestly this isn't helping my theory that all Brits live in old people houses"
"This place certainly is spooky" agreed Fabian, eyeing some pickled herbs and body parts in jars displayed on a hutch.
"She certainly has NO eye for decor" huffed Amber disappointedly, eyeing the tacky wallpaper and artwork with disdain.
"Yo! Is that an actual organ?" asked Alfie, momentarily distracted from his fireplace search by the giant instrument. "It looks like the one you would find in a haunted house or the boss level of a video game!"
"Well you got the haunted part right" commented Nina, as she idly examined the portraits hanging on the wall. She recognized one of the men as a Russell Frobisher from the deep dive she and Fabian had done into her family tree over the summer.
The room was littered with interesting objects from books, to statues, phonographs to jars of preserved creatures. It was both freakishly spooky and boundlessly exciting. Nina longed to shove these items in her bag and bring them back home with her... but she kept her hands to herself for now, they had a mission to complete. Anyways now that they knew the door code they could return at any time and investigate what secrets lay in this new location, they were her birthright afterall.
"I guess we best get started then" declared Nina, gesturing to the fireplace "Alfie and Fabian see if you can spot anything".
Amber, whose feet were hurting in her heels, decided to lean back against the organ to try and relax. Unfortunately the instrument was on and a loud clang echoed throughout the building from where she had sat back against the keys.
"Amber!" shouted Nina and Fabian
"Sorry!" apologized the girl, who had jumped up in fright and backed up against the wall. Only the wall wasn't as solid as she thought and it swung open at her touch.
"Uhh guys... I think I found something"
"It's a hallway behind an organ with another door inside it. That's basically our calling card" grinned Alfie
Brushing the soot off his hands and moving as if to join the girls.
"No, Alfie, you stay with Fabian. Amber and I will go investigate whatever 'this' is" decided Nina. "Call if you need help"
The boys nodded and headed back to work investigating the mantle piece for cracks or secret hiding places.
"I'm not seeing anything on the outside, one of us is going to have to go up it" declared Fabian.
"Fuck, I guess I'll do it" grumped Alfie, getting down on his knees to crawl into the chimney.
"Aren't you afraid of small spaces?"
"I'm afraid of everything" dismissed Alfie, with a casual shrug that he certainly did not feel. "My ancestors put their faith in me and I am not going to let them down".
Sucking in a deep breath, Alfie reached up to grab a sootstained brick and began the treacherous climb.
"You can do it Alfie!" encouraged Fabian, "just don't look down".
Of course, in a cruel twist of fate, that was just when Alfie's foot slipped and he hung precariously halfway up the chimney.
"What happened?" called Fabian seeing the falling cinders.
"You made me look down" grunted Alfie, doing his level best to not lash out at his friend, this was just his anxiety talking. Using his coping techniques from Dr. Delarosa, Alfie regained a hold on his fear and continued his climb.
A few moments later he spotted a spider web covered box placed in the opposite corner just above his current perch. "I think I see something"
"That's great! Can you get it?"
"I think so" muttered Alfie as he tried to shuffle across the chimney only to slip and hang only by his fingertips"
"Careful Alfie" scolded Fabian
"Trying" gritted back the boy. Clearly he wouldn't be able to scoot his way around the chimney, so he was going to have to jump the gap.
Closing his eyes he took a deep breath and lept. He hit the other side with a thud and quickly scrambled to gain a handhold. Dragging himself up the final few stones, Alfie grabbed the case which 'hopefully' contained whatever it is that his ancestors had wanted him to find.
"Coming down now" he warned before, dropping to the ground with a loud thud.
"Awesome work Alfie!" cheered Fabian, offering the boy a hand and helping him to his feet.
"Thanks mate, but let's agree to never have me do that again"
"Agreed" laughed Fabian as he examined the box Alfie had retrieved. "Now what do we have here?"
*Scent of Lavender - Scent of Lavender*
Elsewhere in the house Nina and Amber were cautiously making their way up the winding brick staircase of the gatehouse's lone tower room.
"Man, winding brick passageways... sound familiar Nina?" teased Amber.
"Hmmm, yeah my ancestors clearly had a favorite type of architecture" agreed Nina.
The pair reached the top of the stairs only to find a wooden door bolted shut with a large lock. Burnt into the door was a coiled cobra, its head raised and hood flared in warning. Nina's locket began to glow as she neared the door.
"Well good thing you never leave home without your necklace" joked Amber as the American girl pressed her locket into the lock causing the tumblers to turn and click before falling away. The eyes of the snake glowed bright red and the door swung open with an eerie creaking sound allowing the girls access to the hidden room.
Stepping over the threshold, the girls were immediately struck by an overwhelming wave of fear, their senses screaming that there was something VERY wrong with this space. The walls were lined with shelves and horrific sarcophagi, each with different animal heads. The pair inched into the room, playing it safe as they remembered the booby traps they had seen in the tunnels last year and had no desire to be cut in half.
"Nina, look at these bottles" called Amber, having chosen one of the walls near the door to investigate. Amber passed a crystal bottle to her friend which was full of a glimmering blue liquid she had found on the shelf. "What do you think this is?"
"I don't know" hummed Nina, turning the container over in her hand. Upon holding it up to the light she could make out a secondary green substance floating on top of the blue. Slipping it into her backpack, she resolved to look into it more later. "It could be more elixir attempts or something else altogether. Apparently both Louisa and Sarah were interested in potions and charms. One of the books I got from Mr. Englavista was Louisa's grimoire. I'll ask Amneris about it later".
The girls took a couple more minutes to investigate the space, finding more strange bottles and books in ancient languages. Nina snapped a few photos of the book titles, planning to translate them with Fabian when they got back home. It wouldn't do to tip off the adults by taking too many things at one time.
The center of the room had a large plush red carpet with red stitching in strange designs that looked familiar to Nina. Snapping a picture of the symbols she added researching those to her mental to-do list. Atop the wine red carpet was a long dark oak table with supplies not too different from those the girls were used to seeing in the cellar of Anubis house. The only marked difference between this space and Victor's was the level of organization and dust. The table before them was laid out in a clear and precise manner, so that Nina could almost imagine her great grandma standing before her preparing charms and practicing her potions.
Amber wandered over to the turtle faced sarcophagus and studied it curiously. "Nina, this one's lock seems to have been tampered with" called Amber.
Nina pried herself away from the mysteries of the table and joined her friend at the sarcophagus in question. Amber was right, the lock on that particular sarcophagus had been messed with previously. Seeing that it was also fairly rusted, Nina figured that it wouldn't take much to get it open. Grabbing a cat shaped statue from the oak worktop, Nina eagerly swung the object hitting the lock squarely with a loud clang. Her theory was proven right as the lock broke apart easily and fell to the ground causing the container to swing open revealing the horror hidden within. Nina stared in terror at the object that had fallen out of the coffin... was that a body?
Amber's ear piercing scream snapped Nina out of her shock. She clapped her hand over her bestie's mouth. "Amber! Be quiet"... but it was too late. The sound of feet thundering up the stairs heralded the arrival of a frantic Fabian and a soot-stained Alfie.
"What's wrong?!" demanded Fabian, only to stop short when he saw the body. "Is that who I think it is?"
"Louisa Frobisher-Smythe, yeah" nodded Nina. The body of the very familiar woman lay on the floor clothed in a high buttoned, floor length white dress, black gloves and heeled boots, her familiar blonde gray streaked hair was pulled back in a complicated bun.
"But how?" asked Alfie. "Shouldn't she be in the crypt?"
"Forget that! She looks like she died yesterday!" shrieked Amber.
"How did they keep her like that?" wondered Nina, craning her head to get a better view.
"Mummified," replied Fabian, pulling a face.
"They can still do that?" asked Amber aghast.
"Of course! All you need is the right herbs and some salt. If you do it right you can dry the body out and remove the organs to preserve the corpse.
"Yeah... but mummies don't look like that" protested Amber. "We've seen some in history class, they were all crumpled and gross looking".
"True, but those were from hundreds of years ago, Louisa has only been dead for sixty years" argued Nina.
"Ugh, that is so gross" shuddered the beautiful blonde
"Not really, it's just science," shrugged Fabian.
Alfie had adopted a curious look on his face as he stared at the body lying on the ground. Ignoring the others, he stepped closer and knelt down next to the dead woman.
"Alfie!" gasped Nina, what are you doing?
Reaching over the boy slid his fingers along the woman's face, "It's like she died yesterday".
"EWW! Don't touch her!" yelled Amber.
Fabian stepped forward to try and pull Alfie back from the body.
"Oh yeah, here it is," grinned Alfie, a sickly ripping sound filled the air as he peeled the facial skin away.
Nina's face went slack in shock, Amber covered her mouth and began to retch, Fabian faltered in his advance, his skin taking on a faint green hue.
Alfie stood up the deceased woman's face dangling between his fingers. "Look! It's just a mask" grinned the boy. "Plastic like my zombie mask. Plus, check this out!" He carefully pulled off what was a blonde wig and not the woman's actual hair like they had assumed. "It's just a mask and a wig... it's all fake" grinned the boy.
"Well then, who's the body?" asked Nina, staring down at the newly revealed body... which now looked to be more traditionally mummified, the face and visible parts of the neck being wrapped in linens.
"Search me" shrugged Fabian, "something else they stole from Egypt?"
"But why dress it up like Louisa?" asked Amber, who had recovered from her retching and was now applying a generous squirt of hand sanitizer to her boyfriend's hands.
"I don't know" huffed Nina, frustrated by yet another unknown variable.
The group's discussion was cut off by the beeping of Amber's alarm. Glancing at her phone the girl was surprised to see that two hours had already passed and they needed to hustle if they were not to be busted by Ms. Denby since she would likely be returning home now that class was over.
The group worked together to fit the body back into the coffin and attempted to set the room back to rights in order to not tip off the resident. With the space cleaned to the best of their abilities, the Sibuna four headed back to school for lunch and a very much needed Sibuna Recap.
*Scent of Lavender - Scent of Lavender*
Jerome and Liliana were cuddled up in the living room playing Mario Kart when they overheard a VERY interesting conversation taking place in the hallway.
"I'm just so frustrated, Kara!" ranted Joy's voice through the cracked doorway. Lili and Jerome, never ones to miss out on the drama, paused their game to listen. "It's been over a month since you've been kidnapped and NOTHING has been done about Yates and his lackeys"
"I hate it too, Joy, but we need to trust Eddie. He's working with Mr. Englavista to try and figure this all out. He says he told Mr. Englavista about Yates and he assured Eddie that he would handle it. Given that he has money and influence he will be far more likely to get the right cops to do something than us. All we need to do is to stay far far away from the tracks and keep our eyes open. Hopefully he will be arrested soon and we can just focus on bringing down the Society".
"You're right Kara" agreed Joy, "how about we go and get a coffee at Martas?"
"Sounds like a date," laughed KT.
The blonde couple traded wide eyed looks at this news. Lili waited to speak until they heard the sound of the second door slamming closed.
"What was that about?" burst out Lili, bewildered by the conversation they had overheard.
"I don't know but we had better let Nina know ASAP" replied Jerome, his eyes cloudy with worry. "Did you know that K.T. had been kidnapped?"
"No! And isn't Mr. Englavista that sketchy guy from Nina's summer trip? What's he doing hanging around Eddie?"
"Yeah, that's the guy who knew Sarah and Rufus. This Yates character is who I'm really worried about. Can you text the Sibuna Chat? We need to have a Sibuna meeting. We also can't risk Victor and Vera finding out about this, let the others know to meet in the chapel in thirty minutes".
"Done" replied Liliana, her face grim. "I'm going to go and grab my coat and then we can head over".
Jerome pressed a kiss to Liliana's head before heading to his room to grab his winter things to trudge through the cold to the abandoned church.
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Evie's Notes 2: Thank you all so much for reading 💕! I hope you enjoyed this update, let me know your favorite part of in the comments! I hope to see you all next week 💗!