"Hide hide hide!" Max whispered quickly as they ran up into the attic. They could barely see.
But they heard Victor calling to ask who was there and grew more panicked. Nina hit a wall with her locket and it suddenly opened. The two fell inside and it closed.
When they heard Victor leave, they began trying to figure out how to leave.
"How'd we open it?" Max frowned.
Nina noticed something on the wall, it was a socket in the shape of her locket. It began to glow. She placed her locket against it and the wall opened up once again.
"Whoa..." Max whispered.
"I'm starting to think these are more magic than we thought." Nina mumbled.
They opened the wall again and saw glowing red eyes. Quickly then shut it.
"Let's get out of here." Max told her, Nina nodded.
They went to the door and used a bobby pin to unlock it, only to see a surprised Fabian and Amber.
"Are you guys okay!?" Fabian whispered.
"What was it like up there?" Amber asked.
Max chuckled. "Ah, a lot of rats."
Amber gasped. "You two are so brave. Well goodnight." She headed off to her room.
"Don't tell Patricia but my hands were shaking so hard." Nina admitted.
Fabian chuckled. "Your secrets safe with me."
"It's late, we should get to bed." Max informed them, they nodded.
~~~
"Okay come on, if I'm gonna keep your secret, you have to tell me one thing." Fabian started as they stood outside of their room.
Max's eyes widened. "I swear I go out of my way to avoid seeing you guys change! I'm not doing anything weird!"
Fabian snorted. "I know that, you don't really seem like the type. I was just going to ask if Max was your real name or not."
"Oh..." Max smiled sheepishly. "No, my real name is Remi."
"Remi." Fabian tried it out, smiling a little. "So, why did you pretend to be a boy to get into the school? They take girls too."
Max huffed. "Normally. Except I applied as a girl and got rejected because of my previous record from my old school. And they'd seen my face already. So...I cut my hair and changed up my look and reapplied as a boy."
"Wow, that seems like a lot of grief to get into one school." Fabian commented.
Max sighed. "I have my reasons, but we need to get to bed." He nodded in agreement.
~~~
The next morning, Alfie and Jerome clapped for the them at breakfast. "Well done." Jerome praised.
"Was it scary?" Mara asked.
"Not at all, it was really cool." Max smirked. Patricia scowled.
"You have to admit Patricia, they passed with flying colors." Fabian smiled.
Patricia shook her head. "They didn't bring anything back."
"Actually..." Nina grinned. She and Max took out two old books they took from the attic.
Patricia stormed off in frustration, Mara went after her.
~~~
They went up into the attic, with Fabian in tow this time, and Nina opened the wall. Fabian gasped and dropped the flashlight when he saw the eyes.
"Wuss." Max smirked, picking up the flashlight. She pointed it at the eyes. The was a painting of a woman.
"I- the eyes were looking at me." Fabian shuddered.
Nina held up the portrait and they looked at it. Her eyes widened. "It's the girl from the locket!" She opened the locket and sure enough, it was the same person.
"Hey wait, look at that." Max told them when they tried to look for a name. On the back was some hieroglyphics.
Fabian took a picture of it with his phone and they decided to visit Sarah again tomorrow.