"Shh," Fabian whispered, looking over to Mara, who stood behind him.
"Let's do this," Mara whispered.
Fabian and Mara then both crept into Nina and Lavender's room. Mara picked up Nina's clock and set an alarm for 5:50am, before slowly and quietly placing it back down on her bed-side table. While Mara was fiddling with Nina's clock; Fabian laid a note down on the floor, where either Nina or Lavender would see it.
The note read; 'At 6am exactly go down to the kitchen, open the bread oven, leave it open, then leave, do not ask any questions now or later. Vincent.'
Sibuna needed to get down to the cellar and the only way they could think of without having to steal a key, was tricking Nina into using her locket to go down there.
Both Mara and Fabian then quietly exited Nina and Lavender's room, then headed back to their own.
****
Confused and tired, Nina sat up slightly from her bed when hearing her alarm. She then turned it off and looked to the time on the clock, it read 5:50. Nina then gazed around her room, looking for a reason to which her alarm was set for such an early time. Hey eyes then locked on a folded piece of paper that lay on the floor.
Slowly she rose from her bed and walked over to the paper then picked it up. She then scanned her eyes over the note, reading it.
****
"Time," Patricia demanded, as her and the rest of Sibuna sat in the laundry room waiting for Nina to open the bread oven.
Mara and Joy were both carrying the plated rope; they were going to try it out over the chasm. They had done several tests with it, and it proved to be strong enough.
"5:57," Fabian told her, after looking at his watch.
"She better actually come," Patricia spoke, "Was the note visible enough?"
"Yes, Patricia," Fabian told her, his voice sounded tired, but also a little annoyed.
"Let's just hope that she actually found it th-" Patricia continued to speak, before being cut off.
"Shh!" Joy hissed, "I can hear Nina," She added in a whisper.
They all then dropped silent and listened. Nina's footsteps could be heard in the kitchen, she then crouched down to the bread oven and used her locket to open it. After that, she half closed it before heading back up to her room. She was confused to why Vincent requested this, but nevertheless, she obeyed his demands.
"Okay, she's gone," Eddie informed the others, while looking through the crack of the door to the laundry room.
All of Sibuna then crept out of the room and crawled through the bread oven, taking the super long plated rope through with them.
****
"Okay..." Fabian breathed out, they were all stood by the chasm.
"Seems much scarier now were here," Charlie lightly chuckled.
"Yeah," Eddie agreed in a whisper, nodding, "So... Who goes first?"
Everyone stood there in silence. It was obvious that none of them wanted to volunteer.
"Okay," Mara huffed, "I'll do it."
"Are you sure, Mara," Fabian looked to her.
"Well it's either I do it, or we stand here in silence for the rest of eternity," Mara spoke realistically.
"Okay," Fabian nodded.
Everyone in Sibuna then secured Mara to the rope, making sure that she was harnessed safely. After a few minutes of making sure that she was safe - she was ready.
"Okay..." Fabian spoke anxiously, he was breathing very heavily, and much like everyone else, he was scared; scared that something would go wrong.
Mara stood looking down the chasm, while the rest of Sibuna stood behind her, tightly holding onto the rope.
"Go safely, Mara," Eddie stated.
"Hold tight," She breathed out, she was nervous, probably more nervous that the rest of Sibuna put together.
Everyone nodded. Mara then took a big breath before sitting down, so her legs were dangling over the chasm. She then, with one big breath, slid off of the edge. She tried to grasp as much sticking out rock as she could.
"Everything okay?" Joy called out.
"Yeah, good," Mara breathed heavily.
"Shout when you've reached the bottom," Eddie called to her.
"Shout if you're close to running out of rope," She called back up.
Mara slowly descended the chasm, she was still breathing super heavily, and was majorly panicked. Suddenly, she lost grip of the rock.
"AHH!" She screamed, as she swung slightly.
"MARA!" The rest of Sibuna shouted in unison. The rope tightened, because Mara was now putting all of her weight on to it.
"I'm okay, sorry, sorry," She apologised, in between deep breaths.
"Are you sure?" Patricia called out.
"Yeah, fine," Mara spoke.
Mara grasped hold of the rock again, and continued to climb down. After a while of climbing, she stepped down and felt floor below her. She could stand, she was at the bottom. She then, before informing Sibuna, pulled out her phone and turned on the flashlight, she then used it to look around, all that she could see was a big empty space with a massive door, a padlock on it.
Mara then quickly found Fabian in her contacts, then called his number. She could shout up, but she wasn't sure if they'd be able to hear her.
"Mara," Fabian answered his phone.
"I'm down, I'm at the bottom," Mara told him, still breathing heavily.
"Thank God," Fabian sighed in relief.
"How much rope is left?" Mara enquired.
"Lots," Fabian told her.
Fabian, Eddie, Charlie, Patricia and Joy then all pulled out massive nails and hammers that Mara had provided. They then stuck all 20 of the nails in the rope and floor, securing it. After a few minutes of hammering nails all up the remainder of the rope, it was secure. They would have done this before Mara headed down, but they didn't know how much rope would be necessary to reach the bottom.
Fabian then started, climbing down the rope carefully. He upheld a tight grip on the rope, making sure that he didn't fall.
****
"Right," Patricia breathed out, she was the last down the chasm, they were now all down at the bottom.
"Um... Guys?" Charlie spoke, "How are we going to get back up?"
"Climb the rope, I guess," Fabian stated, shrugging.
"This place is strange," Joy spoke, looking around the room.
Fabian then walked up to the door, the others followed.
"4-digit combination padlock," He stated, turning to face the others.
"Great," Patricia huffed sarcastically, "Now we need the code."
"Well Victor hid the ring down here, so his birthday?" Eddie suggested.
"Oh yeah, and when's that, Genius?" Patricia rolled her eyes.
"Right..." Eddie muttered in realisation.
"Let's do some research, make a note of significant dates, then come back down," Fabian instructed.
"You mean we now have to go back up?" Joy questioned, "Remind me why we all came down, not just one of us."
"Because..." Fabian began, trying to think of a reason, "Um... Th- That- That's a good point, Joy," He decided upon saying, admitting to defeat.
Sibuna then, one but one, carefully climbed up the rope. They now had their mechanism for getting up and down the chasm. Granted, it wasn't the safest of ways, but it worked.
After all of Sibuna were back up the chasm safely, they headed out of the cellar through the bread oven. It was still early, so no-one in the house was awake, making it much easier for them to sneak out.
Eddie then, being the last person out of the cellar, closed the bread over, it wouldn't close completely without Nina's locket, but he made it look convincing enough, until Nina used her locket to close it properly.
"See you back here for breakfast," Charlie half laughed. Everyone then split off, heading to their own rooms to get ready for the day.
****
Nina walked down the stairs, she quickly checked the kitchen to see if anyone was in there- No-one was. She then ran towards the bread oven and used her locket to shut it, she'd seen Vincent in his office when she was heading downstairs, so she knew that whatever he needed with the bread oven; he'd completed it.
"Morning, Nina," Nina heard a voice sound from behind her.
Quickly she swung her body round out of fear, luckily though, it was only Lavender.
"Lavender, don't do that," Nina stated, breathing a big sigh of relief.
"Do what? Say good morning?" Lavender laughed, before walking over and joining Nina by the bread oven.
"No, frighten me," Nina stated obviously.
"Oh, right," Lavender murmured, "What are you doing?"
"Vincent left a note in our room telling me to open the bread oven for 6am, so I'm just closing it now," Nina explained.
****
Joy and Mara walked downstairs and were about to walk into the dining room for breakfast when they heard Nina and lavender talking, so they decided to listen in.
****
"What did he need?" Lavender asked, grabbing some bread from the cupboard and placing it in the toaster.
"He didn't say," Nina shrugged, before standing up, pouring herself a glass of water, then walking over to the table and sitting down.
"Hmm, odd," Lavender stated, "Hey, speaking of the cellar, we need to put the lizard back down there soon."
"Oh yeah, let's do it after school," Nina smiled.
****
Sibuna sat in the student lounge at lunch time, they were trying to figure out what the 4-digit combination would be for the padlock down in the crypt.
"1922?" Eddie suggested.
"We can try," Fabian shrugged, jotting it down with the other dates they had come up with.
"How are we getting back down to the cellar?" Charlie asked.
"Got you covered there," Joy smiled. Mara smiled too, but everyone else just looked at them confused.
"Joy and I heard Nina talking to Lavender this morning, and they are taking the lizard down to the cellar after school. We can just sneak in with them," Mara explained in a whisper.
"You mean they found the lizard?" Patricia questioned.
"Seems like it, yeah," Mara nodded.
"We need find out the convenience of that lizard," Patricia stated.
"But we also need to try those combinat-," Fabian began to remind her, but then saw Nina and Lavender walk into the student lounge, so stopped, "Uh... A... Um... A Table for two okay?" He quickly improvised.
Everyone gave him a confused look, before he flicked his eyes over to Nina and Lavender, who were in ear shot.
"Yeah, table for two is good," Mara smiled, catching on to Fabian's lie.
Nina heard them, so shot a little jealously look over, but none of Sibuna acknowledged it.
"Hey, Joy?" Jerome spoke, walking up behind her and placing his hand on her shoulder.
"Ah!" Joy jumped, swinging her body round and smacking Jerome across the face accidentally, out of fear.
"OW!" Jerome exclaimed, rubbing his cheek, where Joy slapped him.
Joy suddenly realised what she did, so quickly stood up and apologised, "Sorry, Jerome," She spoke genuinely, but was also laughing a little bit.
Everyone else was now looking up at Jerome too, some were laughing, others just rolled their eyes or didn't look bothered.
"Do you want to go out somewhere tomorrow?" Jerome asked Joy.
"Yes, of course," Joy smiled.
****
"Got the lizard?" Nina whispered, looking to Lavender.
"Got him," Lavender smiled, pulling the cloth back that was hiding the cage that the lizard was in.
"Let's go then," Nina smiled, before placing her locket against the bread oven.
Nina then crawled in, she was closely followed by Lavender.
"Quickly, go!" Patricia whispered to Fabian.
Quickly Fabian opened the door of the laundry room and shoved a stick into the bread oven door, topping it from fully closing. He ended up laying on the floor with his arm stretched out towards the bread oven.
"Got it," Fabian whispered, looking back at Sibuna.
"Well done," Joy chuckled lightly, as she looked as Fabian laying there.
"Let's go," Charlie stated.
Fabian then nodded, before gently pushing the bread over door open, trying to make as little noise at possible.
****
"Okay, let's go back up," Nina stated, after her and Lavender had placed the lizard back in the cellar and secured it more.
Lavender nodded, before they both walked to the exit.
"Quickly, move," Fabian stated in a whisper, looking to the rest of Sibuna.
They all ducked down, then quickly edged away from the exit to the cellar. They then all crouched, huddled in a dark corner, where they hopefully couldn't be seen.
Nina and Lavender walked up to the passage, they were oblivious to anything but the door. Nina then placed her locket down and her and Lavender both exited.
"Phew, that was close, "Eddie breathed out, getting up from the corner. The others followed.
They then proceeded to put the combination into the wall, this gave them access to Frobisher's secret study, after that they went through all of the rooms until they reached the chasm. They then, one-by-one, carefully climbed down the rope.
****
"This house has been abnormally quiet recently," Jerome stated, walking into the kitchen to see both Nina and Lavender standing there.
Nina and Lavender quickly swung their bodies round in fear.
"Woah, you two okay?" Jerome looked at them.
"Oh, Jerome, hi, yeah we're fine," Nina spoke both quickly and hesitantly.
"So do you know why the house is quiet?" Jerome asked, making his previous statement into a question.
"No," Nina and Lavender both spoke in unison, they spoke so quickly, that it made them sound like they knew why the house was so quiet.
****
"Nothing," Fabian stated, flinging his notepad, that contained the possible combinations, on the floor in annoyance.
"So, why don't we just work through every number until 9999?" Joy suggested.
"It'll take forever to try 9999 combinations in that padlock," Eddie stated.
"10,000," Fabian corrected in a blunt tone.
"Nu-Uh," Eddie shook his head, "1 to 9999 is 9999 combinations."
"You need to include zero," Fabian stated in the same tone, he looked rather amused though.
"Fine," Eddie stated, grabbing the padlock and inputting the digits 0000, "Now it's 9999."
Fabian just rolled his eyes and laughed at Eddie.
"Guys, we need to get back up, lets do this tomorrow, we can spend the night down here," Mara stated.
"Okay," They all nodded in agreement.
****
[Hello all! Another chapter for you. So...
Will they find the combination?
What will the combination be?
Not really a questions, but Aww, Jerome is the only person not involved in the mystery.
That be all, have a nice day now folks! Byeee ^_^]