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Rufus Zeno was on the prowl. And boy, the man looked like a ravaged animal as he did, at least in Camilla's personal opinion. She hadn't seen the man up close since their prom the year before and time had not treated the man well. His skin was a sickly yellow colour causing the many scars from his little encounter with the wasps the year before to stand out., shining in the dim light. The dark circles under his eyes were ones even Tim Burton would be proud of his characters having but even despite all this there was chaotic energy that Camilla could feel off him. in all her lessons with Victor about Ma'at and Chaos being in balance in the world when it came to magic, she could tell the man was tipping those scales dramatically into the Chaos camp and it was up to her and her friends to restore it back to natural again... a task that seemed almost impossible to do at that moment as she watched the man hold his palm out and start to circle a finger just above it. A small smoking arrow forming on the man's palm spinning wildly. He was searching for someone but Camilla got the impression the arrow wasn't going to point to Jerome but to her.
"We need to do something!" Patricia hissed to Fabian whose eyes widened as he too saw the magical smoke forming in Rufus's palm.
Fabian was broken out of his hypnotising state as he heard Patricia's words looking around for something. Anything.
On the floor, he saw a rock and in a feat of athletic skill he had never shown before he threw it across the open courtyard to hit a shut barn door.
Patricia, Fabian and Alfie all ducked for cover as Rufus's head turned at the sound. Camilla, however, stayed rooted to the spot she was in as she watched the arrow slow to a stop pointing in her direction.
"Camilla!" Fabian hissed grabbing his sister and pulling her out of sight.
Rufus let out a grin as he closed his fist without even bothering to look down at the smoky arrow, causing the spell to break and the smoke to evaporate around his fist. Why had he had even bothered trying to find the boy via a spell when he was a child and he knew he'd slip up was beyond him. Perhaps he was giving Jerome far too much credit than the boy deserved.
The man slowly approached the door until another clattering sound was heard behind him, by the haybales causing a smirk to form on his face. that sneaky little bugger.
"Jerome..." He tauntingly called out, rather enjoying the little game of cat and mouse the two were playing. "come out! Come out! Wherever you are!" he called sneaking towards the haybales, sneaking behind them just in time to see Jerome pop his head up looking around the empty courtyard. The boy seemed to think he was in the clear and slowly crept out of his hiding space just in time for Rufus to grab his arm.
"You don't think you could outsmart me?!" Rufus cackled as Jerome tried to fight his iron-like grip. "you're a valuable pawn in my little game with The Protector!" he shouted as he dragged Jerome back to the office area. "You are the Marsat Alhami! A little leverage like you goes a long way!"
"a pawn in his game with me?!" Camilla whispered in anger as she watched the scene play out with the fellow Sibuna's. "Jerome is far more than that asshole,"
Fabian looked to his sister before glancing to their friends, "follow me," he told them, "let's see if we can get a better vantage point." He put a gentle hand on Camilla's arm but Camilla didn't fight him as she followed behind him. as much as she wanted to kick Rufus's ass right now, she knew for the sake of Jerome's safety they needed to approach this situation in a stealthy way.
Fabian led them into the barn next to the office room, all of them missing Eddie as he popped his head around the corner of the building having witnessed the whole interaction in horror.
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Amber rushed down the hallways with a huge thick envelope in her hands. She had promised Camilla she'd find Mara and hand her the materials for Jerome's dad's case.
"There you are Mara thank goodness!" Amber groaned slightly as she heaved over the thick envelope into the nerdy girls' arms smiling slightly at Mick and Poppy who were stood by her. "this is from Cam, to help you in Papa Clarke's parole case."
Mara looked confused as she glanced to the two around her, Poppy's smile lit up like a child who had been told Christmas had come early and Mick looked nonplussed. "what is all this?" she asked the blonde.
"how am I to know? Cam just asked me to find you because she is slightly busy today." Amber flicked her hair over her shoulder and sent the girl a forced smile, "there is a note, maybe that explains more. Got to run by," with that she waved her fingers at the three before turning on her heel and walking down the corridor. Student's moving out the way for her like normal causing the forced smile to creep into a real one. It was a small thing but it was a nice reminder she was still the queen of the school.
Mara looked at the envelope before opening it up, inside was papers upon papers with print outs and emails and honestly everything a good lawyer could need to help any parole hearing go smoothly in someone's favour. Poppy let out a gasp as she saw the files taking them from Mara as the girl herself unfolded a piece of paper with her name on it. Instantly recognising the handwriting to be Camilla's.
"A few things to help win the court case. If your as good a journalist as you claim, you should be able to make use of all this. We may never see eye to eye but we both care about the Clarkes... and FYI; this is the level of information a rich little girl with far too much power can get. You are welcome.
~ Camilla x"
Mara gulped a little as she read over the note.
Camilla knew she had written The Jack Jackal article on her. But instead of getting even in some elaborate prank, Camilla had done something far far worse, at least in Mara's opinion. She simply had decided to let the knowledge of her knowing hangover the nerdy girl like the blade of a guillotine suspended in the air. Unsure of when it would drop or in this case when Camilla would strike and make the knowledge public.
"What's all this?" Mick asked looking at the paperwork in confusion.
"I think Camilla just handed us the last information we needed to win your dads hearing Poppy," Mara said softly looking to the young girl who was holding a business card up with a smile on her face.
"I think she just did." Poppy agreed meeting Mara's gaze.
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Nina and Joy looked up as the door to the Frobisher library swung open and Amber came in, fashionably late like always. The pair had been hunting desperately for anything that could give them a clue to the whereabouts of this second hidden key. It didn't help that the exhibitions where getting packed away into large wooden crates so their hunting had been hard to do around this. they had pretty much searched every nook and cranny of the ground floor – but had found nothing.
"you know this would be so much easier to look for without these crates lying around," Amber commented as she put her book bag onto Jasper's desk, watching Joy as she slid the lid of a crate open to re-search inside once again.
"well its all getting shipped out tomorrow," Joy told the girl with a smile. "it might be best to try then?" she offered glancing to Nina.
"There is no time," the American girl shook her head as she placed the fake mask of Anubis back into the crate, she had been looking in.
Disheartened, Nina headed over to the spiral staircase to sit down to think of anywhere they might have missed in the large building. She paused by the stairs taking in the balustrade properly. At the bottom of the staircase there was a symbol of two wings. "lift the wings to find the book..." she whispered softly causing Amber and Joy to glance to one another at the girl's words. "the doll riddle!"
"doll riddle?" Joy asked looking to Amber.
The blonde simply shook her head, "Joy we don't have time for a rookie recap."
"the doll lead Victor to the library." Nina explained to them, "he was looking over here." She pointed to the staircase Camilla frequently used as a perch, like a beautiful grumpy batman forced to go to the library by her friends and brother, rushing over to it. "and Trudy when she was trapped with the dollhouse, she saw a picture. Of a key." She added glancing at the pair who were looking at her as if she had gone crazy, "she said something about wings..." Nina smiled as she turned one of the pillars on the staircase, "and a secret compartment."
A secret compartment slid open at the bottom of the stairs lined with velvet. But there was nothing inside. Nina crouched down by the compartment and felt around the velvet, searching for a clue. "this compartment was meant to hold the book of Isis..." Nina explained as she searched. "but it didn't, let's see if there is something else hidden inside."
Amber's eyes widened and she rushed off to her bad.
"so, there's an excuse book in there too, yeah?" Joy couldn't help but ask the overly excited American girl, "Because if Jasper comes back, we're going to need them."
Amber scoffed as she ran back over with her manicure set in hand crouching down by the secret compartment with Nina. "Joy, breath, this is how we roll."
"Plus, with the twins on team Sibuna, Jasper won't care," Nina explained kindly looking to the girl with a smile before turning her attention to Amber who was holding out nail scissors to her. Holding her breath slightly, Nina cut through the seam in the lining. Hidden underneath the velvet was a shiny golden key.
Nina picked it up triumphantly. "yes!" she pushed shut the secret compartment, "let's go!"
The three girls rushed over to the secret door in the library before they could open it however someone spoke from behind them.
"Ah-ha!"
The three whipped around to see Mr Sweet stood in the doorway.
"so, this is where you've all been hiding." He asked looking at them over his glasses.
"Mr Sweet..." Joy smiled at the man; they had been caught. Shit.
"So where are the other Anubis house residents?" the headteacher asked the three girls tilting his head, "Fabian? Camilla? Alfie? Patricia? Eddie?"
"I don't know." Nina quickly spoke looking to the man. "we were just..."
Joy noticed the pause in Nina's sentence and quickly jumped in, "researching an article for the Jackal."
"that is an extra-curricular activity." Mr Sweet informed them sounding disappointed. "now don't let the recent success of the Jackal go to your head, or I may have to reconsider its future after all. Now, get to class! Immediately!" Mr Sweet ordered them, the three girls looking to one another as he left the room.
"we'll have to come back later," Nina whispered to her friends.
"AND!" They all jumped as Mr Sweet came barrelling back into the library again, "if you see any of the other's tell them to make haste to my office, I shall be having words." with that he turned on his heel and left again.
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From the barn next to the office area Rufus was using the four Sibuna's had found a slight gap in the wall and could hear and see everything happening in the room next door. Rufus was currently on the phone, to Vera they all assumed, and Jerome was slumped on a chair.
"and this library passage leads to the Mask of Anubis!"
"that bloody bitch!" Camilla hissed under her breath. Any advantage they could have used on Rufus Vera was taking away from them at every turn.
"Good!" Rufus growled slightly in delight, "soon the mask of Anubis will be mine. It's not too late to share it with me, Vera. The Mask of Anubis is our passport to the Egyptian afterlife where we will reign as gods,"
Fabian glanced to Camilla in alarm as the twins heard those words coming from the man. They were thinking is goals weren't as bad as that but Rufus with godly power... that was almost as bad as Apep destroying the world.
"Rufus is a fruit loop!" Patricia hissed as she too took in the man's words. "all that stuff about being a god... it's just crazy talk, right?"
She glanced to the twins and saw their uneasy expressions. Before Camilla had magic, they would have agreed with her hands down, but now there was so much grey to their knowledge. Isis was real, she granted Camilla magic so the chanced Rufus could become a god, unfortunately, was probably real too. "right?!" she hissed again in fear.
"We can't say..." Camilla told her friend apologetically.
"What if the gods are real?" Fabian offered, "what if that's what Senkhara wants too? To enter Aaru and become a god."
"oh just great," Alfie mumbled, "we should just let her do it and she can take her hex's with her!"
"no, think about it!" Fabian hissed at them both, knowing Camilla understood the gravity of the situation. "the Egyptians thought you couldn't enter the afterlife without a body, that's why they mummified people."
"but Senkhara doesn't have a body..." Patricia pointed out.
"exactly." Camilla spoke up in fear, "remember what Amber said? She asked how a ghost was supposed to wear a mask?" they all nodded their heads at the girl. "Senkhara isn't going to wear it."
"Nina is..." Fabian mumbled in horror as he understood finally why The Chosen One had been chosen by the spirit in the first place.
"Senkhara's going to take Nina into the afterlife with her?" Alfie asked in alarm.
"Over my dead body." Camilla instantly argued.
Fabian looked to his sister in pain, he knew Camilla would fight for Nina but with Senkhara and Rufus she might end actually burning up. "we need to go warn Nina not to put on the mask."
"then go!" Patricia told the twins, "both of you... me and Alfie will be able to handle this."
Fabian looked to Camilla who glanced at the hole in the wall for a second before begrudgingly nodding her head and racing from the door. She had to look at the bigger picture here. Nina's life was in danger, Rufus may still use Jerome as a pawn so would keep him alive.
Gods she hated being The Protector sometimes.
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Mara sat next to Poppy in an uncomfortable blue plastic seat as they waited for the hearing for John Clarke to start. She was looking through the paperwork Camilla had collected in awe knowing most of it would be useful, Mick looking bored beside her as Poppy glanced down at her mobile once again.
"I'm sorry Jerome's not turned up yet," Mara whispered to the girl assuming that was why she kept glancing to her phone.
"if Jerome and Camilla don't come in time..." Poppy turned to Mara, "I think you should read the article..."
"I have enough to read out," Mara told the girl lifting the papers in her hands, "plus I think if you read it there will be more emotional weight."
"I can't I get nervous," she whispered slightly. "I'm already getting flashbacks to my second-grade recital." Poppy turned to see Mick looking at her questioningly, "I was sick... down my recorder," she explained.
Before anything else could be said John was lead in causing Poppy to get to her feet and rush over to him. "hello Poppy," the man smiled at his daughter. "did you manage too ...?" he railed off.
Poppy nodded her head, "I really hope your hunch works."
"I think you and your friends will have enough to get me out, think of her as our back up plan," John winked causing a small smile to creep onto Poppy's face. they were Clarkes and Clarkes always had a backup plan.
"Where's Jerome... and Camilla?" John asked seeing the two empty seats.
Poppy's face fell a little, "They..."
"Jerome will be here!" Mara spoke up.
Mick scoffed, "this is Jerome Clarke we're talking about..."
"he has changed," Mara told Mick.
"really?"
"okay stop this spat, we need to focus." Poppy interrupted the couple before they forgot the real reason, they were all there. She took her seat next to Mara again before looking to her dad. Maybe their back up plan was the best chance the two Clarkes in the room had. She only hoped her phone call had been enough.
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After school Nina, Amber and Joy raced through the tunnels until they arrived at the chamber containing the mask. Nina stopped slightly at the entrance as the Jackal statues had completely disappeared. All there was to see was the smooth checkered floor that led to the glass cabinet. The three girls looked at the mask warily as they slowly crossed the board.
"okay..." Nina whispered nervously, "fingers crossed and watch out for booby traps." She took the key out from her back pocket, hesitating as she stood in front of the glass. Nina glanced to Amber who gave her an encouraging smile.
Bracing herself for the worst, Nina put the key into the lock.
The girls each took a deep breath, Amber reaching out behind Nina to grab Joy's hand.
The key turned, and the glass cabinet opened.
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Ahhhhh! two chapters left!!!
Who do you think the backup plan is with the Clarkes? and now they actually have the mask will the Rutters get to them in time to stop Nina from putting it on? your gonna have to wait and see!
I have had some questions about when I will be posting book 3, so the plan is (if it's okay with everyone) I'm gonna wait two weeks before starting book 3. one week to give myself time off from writing 100% (I'll post the fun facts then) then a week to write up the cast Q and A and the bloopers.
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Love ya
Sarah xxx