DENOUEMENT
viii. house of flames
❝I, SYDNEY ANDERSON, [...] PROMISE TO PROTECT THE SECRETS OF ANUBIS HOUSE.❞
BORED, BORED, BORED.
That's exactly how Sydney Anderson felt whilst she sat in her French class, which was typically boring anyways, but had managed to get even worse as the students were meant to be working and studying silently, with not even their teacher talking as she sat at her desk doing some sort of paperwork. So, it was safe to say that she was extremely bored as she simply stared at her textbook, not actually looking at the words as she was in her thoughts, which were honestly just going crazy.
At one point she had actually been somewhat focused on French, but then her thoughts soon drifted into thinking about Sibuna, which then led to thinking about the voice that they heard on the cylinder last night, before she somehow shrugged it off (as best as she could - it was rather hard to forget that their housekeeper's voice was heard on the cylinders that dated back to almost one hundred years ago, and that he was accused of murder) and decided to try and come up with some pranks.
However, her thoughts were cut off as she heard the silence in the room be broken, surprisingly not by herself or Jerome or Alfie (though Sydney had been seconds away from throwing a paper ball at one of their heads for some sort of entertainment), but instead by their teacher.
"Mr Rutter." Mrs Andrews called out, causing Sydney to glance up from her desk to see the teacher approaching the nerd's desk, as he took his earphones out - he had been listening to the MP3 player which the cylinders were recorded on, "Listening to music whilst you're supposed to be studying shows very little respect to me."
"I'm really sorry, Miss. It just helps me to think." Fabian defended himself, not wanting to be on the bad side of their teacher or have the MP3 taken away from them - although, that was a likely case; Mrs Andrews tended to always follow the rules and, if someone broke them, they would get a punishment.
"You know the rules." Mrs Andrews responded, proving Sydney's assumption to be true as the teacher put her hand out, motioning for the boy to hand over the MP3 as she continued, "MP3s are not allowed in class."
Hesitantly, he put it into her hand, Sydney wincing as he did so, before he questioned, "When will I get it back?"
"When I'm ready." She simply told him, walking back over to her desk with the MP3 in her hands, and putting it into one of the drawers.
Annoyed, the three girls within Sibuna sent a look that could've killed towards Fabian, frustrated that he had gotten the MP3 confiscated - although, it seemed like he felt the same way and was annoyed at himself, his eyes lowering the desk.
Soon enough, Sydney found herself perched atop Jerome and Alfie's desk in a different classroom, waiting for Mr Winkler to arrive to start their history lesson as she spoke to the two other pranksters, who were leaned back in their chairs.
"Let's face it, brother, we are so out of the babe race." Alfie declared, putting his feet onto the desk just behind where the female prankster was sat, with the girl now being rather happy that he was finally giving up on Amber and that he wouldn't take anymore terrible advice from the other prankster within their trio.
"Speak for yourself." Jerome told him, still believing that he could get any girl that he wanted, and that any girl would fall to his feet – which, most certainly was not the case, hence why Sydney let out a rather loud, disbelieving scoff.
"Right." Alfie murmured slowly, also having the same idea as Sydney as he turned to face his best friend, reminding him of what happened yesterday as he said, "So was that your clone Esther shut down yesterday?"
"Yeah, she practically runs away from you every time she sees you." Sydney pointed out to the boy, remembering how the teacher hadn't been so impressed with Jerome after the stunt he pulled yesterday.
"Esther's mad about me." Jerome assured them, but the two pranksters did not feel very assured about that and were almost certain that he was wrong and that the athletics teacher wanted nothing to do with him, but he still continued, "She just doesn't know it yet, same as Amber with you, mate."
"Okay. So, what's your latest big idea, Casanova?" Alfie asked him, making the girl out of the three groan as she fell back onto the desk, her head landing on Alfie's legs whilst she rolled her eyes, extremely frustrated
"Why? Why do you constantly ask for his advice when it sucks?!" Sydney cried out, although the pair ignored her, simply giving her an amused look before they resumed their conversation, with Jerome telling Alfie "amazing" advice.
"If music be the food of love, play on."
"We play them some music?" Alfie assumed that's what the boy meant but was still confused by the weird statement – he was also wrong with his presumption.
"No!" Jerome exclaimed with a shake of his head, but it was too late, and he had already ingrained an idea into his friend's head, which, like always, he thought was ground-breaking and absolutely astounding, when it typically wasn't.
Suddenly gasping, Alfie excitedly moved his legs from the table without warning, thus causing Sydney's head to hit the desk as he told them his idea, "Oh, I know, I know, we write them some music! A song for Amber, yeah?"
"Can you write me an apology song for my head?" Sydney grumbled, rubbing the back of her head to try and ease the pain, hoping that there wouldn't be a bump there and that the small ache she felt on her head would disappear soon.
Rolling his eyes and mildly amused by the girl's statement, Jerome chuckled as he grabbed the girl's hand, pulling her back up into a sitting position on their desk whilst he spoke to their friend about his idea, "You see, I was thinking a sonnet – poetry."
"My song will be poetry, man." Alfie declared, causing the prankster to let out a chuckle whilst Sydney groaned at it, knowing that it was bound to end badly, but Alfie still continued to ramble on about his song, "A tune to end all tunes. Oh yeah, I'm getting the vibe already."
With that being said, he pulled out a kazoo from his top blazer pocket, beginning to play it to come up with a beat for his song, and whilst Jerome laughed at his enthusiasm, Sydney simply put her head into her hand and groaned once again, though an amused smile was on her lips.
"Sydney!" Amber Millington called out from across the classroom, causing all three of the pranksters to lift their head up to see the fashionista waving the female over as she sat with Fabian and Nina, causing her to quickly slip off the desk and rush over to them, "Do you have your sacrifice on you?" Sydney nodded – she had put it in her bag this morning after Amber had told her numerous times about making sure that she had it, "Good – Sibuna initiation at the end of the school day."
And thus, once the school day had finished, Sydney Anderson found herself stood with Fabian Rutter, Nina Martin, and Amber Millington within the woods, a fire flickering beautifully in front of them as they all wore small grins on their faces, glad to have the prankster on their team and to make her an official member of their secret club.
"Okay, so throw your sacrifice into the fire." Amber instructed her, causing the girl to reach into her bag and pull out her sacrifice, looking at it one last time.
Sydney had put a lot of thought into what her sacrifice should have been. Since she knew it was going to be thrown into the fire, she didn't want to burn anything too important, but still knew it had to be something that meant a lot to her. That's exactly why she had brought out a photo – a rather old photo, in which there was an eleven-year old Sydney Anderson in between her parents. Thankfully, Sydney had this photo saved on her phone, or else she wouldn't have parted with it.
But, she did part with it, tossing the photo into the flames and watching as the picture got hastily swallowed by the flames, as though the photo was there meal and they hadn't ate in days – sort of like Mick or Alfie whenever they saw Trudy's cooking.
Once that was done, Amber's smile seemed to widen as she told the girl the rest of the instructions, "Repeat after me, I, say your name, being of a sound mind, promise to protect the secrets of Anubis House, and stand by my fellow club members, and say our names."
"I, Sydney Anderson, being of sound mind... somewhat," The prankster joked, all of them chuckling at her addition to the initiation, before she continued, remembering the exact words that the fashionista had told her, "promise to protect the secrets of Anubis House and stand by my fellow club members: Fabian Rutter, Amber Millington, and Nina Martin."
The three original members of Sibuna lifted their right hand to cover their right eye, glancing over at the new addition of their team to tell her to follow along, which she soon did as they all simultaneously said their club name – a special name among them now.
"Sibuna."
After that, it was a few seconds of silence, with the fire crackling a little as they all smiled widely at one another, feeling a sense of trust and comfort among each other. Despite the search being rather weird and everything creepy that they found out, there was a part in all of them that loved the club due to how close it made all of them – Sydney, who had only been in the club for around twenty-four hours now, felt an immense sense of happiness as she realised that she had now made more friends – one of them being the American who she had planned to befriend anyways - through a humongous secret.
"Welcome to the club!" Amber squealed excitedly, rushing forward and embracing the prankster in a tight hug as they all laughed, "You are now an official member of Sibuna!"
Unfortunately, being an official member of Sibuna wasn't always completely happy – they had a search to complete and artifacts to discover, and things to figure out the meaning of. That was exactly how the group members of the club found themselves in Amber's and Nina's room, with the latter attempting to open the puzzle piece that she had found yesterday within the panel – apparently, that was how they found the clue in the last puzzle piece they found, and thus the American was attempting to twist it.
"Any luck?" Fabian inquired, sitting next to the girl on the bed as he glanced over at her, wondering what she was thinking as she continued to pull the artifact, it seemingly not doing anything.
"I was wondering if this jewel bit turns or something, but it's really stiff." Nina informed him, before she held it out to the nerd and suggested for him to try by telling him, "I could do with some brute strength?"
"Don't give it to Fabian then!" Amber called out, whilst the prankster in the group laughed, reaching over to give the fashionista a high five as the two of them laughed.
"Yeah, I have more chance of doing it than Fabian, no offence." Sydney added, still chuckling whilst the nerd sent a small glare to the girls, rolling his eyes before a smirk fell upon his lips upon the jewel on the top of the artifact popping off, causing Sydney's eyebrows to raise in shock before she stated, "Okay, maybe I was wrong."
"What's inside?" Nina quickly asked him, causing him to pull out a sheet of paper as Amber and Sydney jumped up from their seats and moved to stand in front of them, so that they could see the clue, which he proceeded to read it.
"Khet is the place to find, and there in the flames, you must look behind."
After hearing the clue, everyone shared a glance – one that screamed that none of them had any idea what it meant, staring at each other in confusion as the clue had completely perplexed them, not even knowing where to start with it.
With a shrug, Amber stated, "Even I have no idea."
And, in an attempt to figure out the clue, the three girls within the club made their way downstairs, sitting in the living room as they surrounded themselves with the many dictionaries that they had found in Nina's and Fabian's room, as the pair had collected quite a few dictionaries in an attempt to solve the clues in the past, and thus had many lying around – Sydney didn't think she owned this many books in general, nevermind just dictionaries. As the three flicked through the dictionaries, looking for the word 'khet', Fabian had gone back to the school in order to deliver some sort of box to one of the teachers, and he was hoping to get the MP3 back – honestly, Sydney wished she'd have gone with, because she was almost certain she hadn't read so many words in her life.
"Oh, this is so boring." Sydney groaned, flicking another page within the 'K' section over as her eyes scanned the page for the stupid word that she was beginning to loathe, eventually reaching the end of the letter's section, causing her to place the book down and release yet another groan, complaining, "Nope, it's not in here – stupid khet doesn't know what stupid letter it stupidly starts with – stupid letter and what a stupid word-."
"Got it!" Amber called out, cutting the prankster's ramble off as they all snapped their heads over towards her as she continued, telling them the definition, "Khet means "fire" or "place of fire"."
"Can we throw these books into a fire?" Sydney questioned, picking up a dictionary and tossing it over in her hands – she hated reading at the best of times, and now she had to; it wasn't even for her education!
"Place of fire?" Nina breathed out, repeating the phrase as she glanced over at the wall, where there was a fireplace, before she exclaimed cheerfully, "Yes! Reverse it, and what do you get?"
"Fire of place?" Amber suggested, confusion evident within her tone and on her features as she did so, glancing between the two girls to see if she was correct with her assumption – she was not.
However, Sydney supported the fashionista, shrugging as she looked over at the American, stating, "I mean, she's not wrong."
With an amused smile on her face, Nina stood up from her seat and moved so that she was standing next to the fireplace, motioning towards it as she spoke, "Amber, do you see anything that I'm standing right next to?"
"The fireplace." Amber answered, though she still didn't understand, causing the two girls to look at her in a suggestive way, causing her to understand what they meant as she exclaimed, "Oh! Of course, the fireplace!"
Sydney and Amber then joined Nina at the fireplace, all three of them crouching down as they began to examine the fireplace for if there could be anything behind it – considering the clue said that they needed to look behind the place of fire. Amber began to knock on the bricks, trying to see if there were any hollow parts, then it hit the prankster why she had been doing that merely a few days ago in the hallway – the dots were all beginning to connect.
"What are you doing?" Victor's voice sounded out from behind the trio, making them all hurriedly shoot up to face their housekeeper, trying to seem less suspicious – although, he was already very much suspicious of the three, considering that it wasn't seen as normal to be around the fireplace, "Why are you fooling around in the fireplace?"
"We're collecting soot for an art project about Pompeii." Nina lied, whilst the prankster beside her subtly rolled her eyes – Sydney never did work; this group was so going to ruin her reputation, "Extra credit."
Yep – extremely ruined.
However, the girl decided to join in, knowing that their housekeeper would be very much suspicious of the prankster within the group doing something extra for school as he knew how little homework she did, and thus she lied to the man, telling him, "Yeah, I decided to do it to help my grades. Nina and Amber offered to help me."
"I don't like you snooping around the house - chandeliers, fireplaces." Victor told the three, still being very much suspicious of them and their behaviour around the house; he had an idea of what they were up to, and he didn't like it a single bit.
"We're taking the chandelier down as soon as Fabian gets back from the school." Nina informed him, trying to make him less mad as she did so – furthermore, they really did not want to leave the chandelier up, as they knew that their housekeeper was more likely to find the secret panel in the entrance hall if they did so.
Unfortunately for them, it seemed liked they'd have to forget about their own desires as their housekeeper shook his head whilst he instructed them, "No. Leave it up there."
At that, Nina's face scrunched up in confusion, "But i thought you said-."
"Yes, I did, but I've changed my mind." Victor interrupted the girl, causing all three of them to share a confused and suspicious glance with one another as he continued, informing them, "I shall want you all in bed early tonight. Lights out, nine o' clock, and I shall expect to hear a pin drop after that - tell the others."
"Uh, but-!"
However, not even allowing them to protest, the housekeeper turned away and began to exit the room, interrupting what Amber was saying as he shook his head, telling them, "No buts, no buts."
"We'll come back to this later." Nina whispered to them, causing them all to nod in agreement – they couldn't give up on the fireplace, and they had to figure out where the next clue was.
Trying to get her mind away from the clues, Sydney had spent the rest of the day with Jerome, and she wasn't exactly sure where the other member of their prankster trio was. She had seen him during supper, but he practically rushed off immediately after, which left the two blondes together in his room – they did a little amount of last-minute homework, before a pillow fight had broken out between them.
Basically, the normal.
However, soon enough, the third member of their trio finally appeared when it was almost nine o'clock, dragging the pair of blondes out of their bedroom and into the living room before he shot out once again to grab Amber Millington, stating that he had finished his song and it was absolutely amazing. At that, Sydney and Jerome had shared a wide-eyed glance – this was not going to go well.
Although, the boy had soon raced downstairs with the resident rich girl trailing behind him, forcing her to sit in the sofa in front of him as he stood in the middle of the room. Jerome and Sydney were sat on the sofa behind him, and thus didn't even had to hide their reactions as the boy began to beatbox. Immediately, Sydney sighed heavily and put her head on Jerome's shoulder, whilst the male prankster attempted to stifle his laughter and put his arm around the girl.
"What up, what up?" He began, Sydney wincing as soon as he did – the beat-boxing was already bad, but his rapping managed to make it even worse, "Oh, it's Amber, y'all. Amber, if I was a gambler, I'd put my money on you, 'cause you care about stuff that matters like making yourself look good," He made a kissing noise, puckering his lips to the girl whilst Sydney groaned and Jerome laughed, "And Amber, I always scramble to get to sit with you and make every jock and skater dude so jealous that they spew-."
"Okay, thanks, Alfie." Amber interrupted him, a look of disgust on her face as she did so – honestly, Sydney was glad that she had cut him off, because she really didn't know if she could deal with anymore of his rapping without slamming her head against something, "That was totally and utterly..."
"Yeah?"
"Horrible." Amber finished, making the boy's once excited expression deflate, a frown appearing on his lips as the fashionista continued, telling him, "Sweet, but seriously, don't quit your day job."
Rushing into the room, Nina spoke, "Victor's on the warpath, guys, and it is not pretty."
"Uh-oh." Jerome muttered, turning to the girl beside him and rubbing her shoulder slightly, whispering a goodnight to her before he quickly stood up, leaving the room.
"Time to make a quick exit." Alfie added, following behind the prankster as they hastily went to their rooms, not wanting their heads to be bit off by their housekeeper.
As soon as the pair of pranksters had left, Amber, with a wide smile on her face, commented to Sydney, "That was cute."
Opening one eye, Sydney pressed a finger to her own lips as she simply stated, "Shush."
"What is going on?" Fabian questioned as he rushed into the living room, looking at the girls as he did so, before he continued, "I was just at the school and the teachers were acting really, really weird, and then as soon as I get back, Victor bites my head off and sends me straight to my room!" He exclaimed, before he pulled out the MP3 from his back pocket, causing them all to gasp, "Although, I told him I had to give you this first."
"You got it!" Amber called out, quickly standing up and taking it from the boy's hands, examining it and making sure that it wasn't broken.
"Do you think she heard it?" Nina asked him, which was a rather good question – if a teacher had heard what was on the MP3, then they were in some trouble.
Thankfully, the nerd shook his head, telling them, "Close, but no."
"It's nine o'clock!" Victor yelled out – the unusual time caught them all off guard for a second or two, considering that they had been hearing ten o'clock for the past several years, "You have five minutes and then I want to be able to hear a pin drop."
With a roll of her eyes, Sydney was the first person to leave the room, making her way upstairs with the two other girls following her, whilst Fabian went to his bedroom on the ground floor. After saying goodnight to the girls, Sydney entered her own bedroom and saw that the nerd, Mara Jaffray, and the goth, Patricia Williamson, were both already tucked away in their beds.
Having Patricia Williamson as her roommate rather than Amber Millington was still something that Sydney had to get used to, and it didn't particularly help that she hardly stayed in her own bedroom, typically being in Jerome and Alfie's room. For the past few years, there had been a portion of the room completely covered in pink, luxurious items and a closet filled with expensive dresses and shoes – now? That side of the room was covered in dark colours and slightly messy, and the closet was nowhere near as full as it was previously.
Honestly, Sydney felt sorry for Mara.
It was not a secret that Sydney Anderson was a rather messy person, especially since she was never in her own bedroom. Her side of the room was never neat, tidy, or organised, and the nerd had constantly scolded the prankster for it. Now, whilst Patricia was cleaner than Sydney, she still wasn't up to Mara's expectations – oh well.
Sliding into her bed, Sydney went through her texts for a few hours, having a conversation with Jerome and a few others, before she shut it off, her eyes shutting as everything faded into darkness.
Until the memories played once again.
It was peculiar how as soon as the scene appeared in front of her, she could recognise it – then again, the incident had repeated itself in her brain constantly, to the point where she thought that she'd be able to recall every single little detail about it from memory. As soon as she saw it, she felt her body freeze, her blood running cold as her eyes widened with panic, her heart drumming in her chest.
She knew – she knew she couldn't stop it.
But she had to try, right?
She heard the humming of a conversation happening in front of her – one that she didn't pay attention to as her eyes were glued on her phone, watching a reply from Jerome Clarke come through, causing a small amused smile to appear on her lips before she began to type back to the boy. It was like she was a puppet on strings, and that somebody was controlling her.
She tried – she tried to move her body; she tried to lift her head to look in front of her; she tried to pay attention to the conversation that was happening in front of her. She tried, but she couldn't – she couldn't move her body no matter how much she tried.
That was until the screech pierced through the air.
Panting heavily, Sydney shot up from her bed, her hand on her chest as she attempted to calm herself down – she was used to this, having to calm herself down almost every time she woke up and ground herself back into reality. However, after she calmed herself down, her breaths and her heartbeat returning back to normal, the girl released a very quiet groan as she noticed that it was still dark outside, with her two roommates still very much asleep. Leaning back into her bed and pulling the covers over her once more, Sydney Anderson knew that it was going to be a very long night.
Due to her terror-filled night, Sydney found herself yawning whilst at the breakfast table, almost falling asleep numerous times whilst simply sat there. Upon noticing this, Jerome and Alfie had sent each other a confused glance, wondering why the girl was so sleepy, but she didn't even noticed the looks they shared with one another, hardly even paying attention to anything that was happening around her – she hadn't even heard Jerome ask her if she was okay as he quickly did her tie for her, like normal.
However, she was snapped out of her sleepy trance as the sound of water filled her ears, along with the sound of Amber Millington screeching, causing the tired girl's eyes to widen as she turned her head to face the fashionista, seeing her absolutely drenched in water with Patricia Williamson beside her, and in her hands was a once-full pitcher of water, which was now empty. At the sight, everyone let out a humongous gasp, staring in shock whilst Fabian and Nina shot up from where they sat at the couch, rushing over to table.
"I asked you to keep a secret!" Patricia yelled at the now soaked female, before she turned to everyone else at the dining table, who were all staring at the scene with wide eyes, "She's known me since we were eleven, but now she's siding with someone who's only been here two minutes!"
Having heard the screams, Mara Jaffray rushed into the room, her jaw dropping at the scene in the dining room before she turned to her purple-haired friend, questioning, "Patricia, what's going on?"
"Betrayal - that's what."
"You don't go through people's private things here. It's, like, an unwritten rule." Amber defended herself, which made Sydney recall parts of a conversation that she'd been somewhat a part of earlier (she was meant to contribute, but was too tired to even pay attention to it, so her memory of it was foggy), in which something had been said about Patricia going through Nina's things to take her locket.
Sydney had never thought of Patricia to be a kleptomaniac, but then again, she never thought of Victor to be a murderer like Sarah Frobisher-Smythe claimed he was – she supposed that a lot of her expectations of people were being thrown out of the window recently.
"I think it's actually a written rule." Nina spoke up in support of her roommate, crossing her arms over her chest as she did so
Frustrated, Patricia threw whatever remaining water was left in the pitcher onto Amber, it splashing her in the face as everyone let out another gasp, the purple-haired girl stating before storming out of the room, "Some friend you are."
After her departure, the room was silent for a few seconds, their jaws still agape and watching Amber Millington as she wiped her eyes.
"Well, that certainly woke me up." Sydney commented, glancing around the table until her eyes landed on the American within Anubis House, causing her to remember what had happened when she had arrived, "We really shouldn't let her be near water anymore."
The day was already off to a terrible start, and the prankster wondered whether or not it could actually get any worse.
Of course it could.
"Now I'm sure you're all hungry for the latest practice paper." Mrs Andrews stated as she began handing out the papers, but then the door opened and the purple-haired, water-throwing, now late to lesson girl rushed in, "Ah, the late Miss Williamson. How nice of you to grace us with your presence."
"Sorry, Mrs Andrews." Patricia replied as she sat in her seat next to Mara, seemingly to just scrape past getting a punishment for arriving late, but then her phone rang, causing a small smirk to fall on Sydney's lips, knowing that she'd most certainly get a punishment for that.
Yeah, Sydney Anderson wasn't particularly fond of Patricia Williamson at that moment, considering that she was rather close to the girl who she had thrown water all over. It was unfortunate, especially since Amber Millington was already going through a tough time after being dumped by Mick Campbell – she really didn't need Patricia to be splashing water everywhere.
"Ah, yes. I am getting mightily fed up with this. Yesterday, it was Mr Rutter and his music player, today, Miss Williamson. You know the school rules: no mobile phones, no MP3s." Mrs Andrews told everyone, considering that it seemed like quite a few of them had been forgetting the rules and she was fed up of having to repeat them and punish people for them, before she turned to face the purple-haired student again, "Miss Williamson, hand it over."
"It's okay. I'll switch it off and put it in my bag." Patricia tried to reason with the woman, clearly not wanting to hand her phone over to her and wanting to come up with a different solution – one that would allow her to keep her phone so that she could stay in contact with a private investigator she'd been talking to, in hopes to find Joy Mercer.
"No, that's what you should have done, now you can give it to me." Mrs Andrews told her, causing her to reluctantly pass her phone to the woman as the French teacher continued with her lesson, telling everyone, "Okay, everyone, you all know what to do."
And with that, the past paper started.
Thankfully, nothing else had happened during the school day – it being a rather average day where the pranksters all messed around and joked with one another to make the boring lessons pass faster. However, as soon as the bell rang for their last lesson, Sydney had practically been dragged away from the pranksters she was normally with by Amber Millington, which fortunately seemed normal to them – afterall, they did used to be roommates and were rather close, so they just assumed that Amber wanted cheering up after the stunt Patricia pulled that morning.
However, instead of that, she had been hastily dragged back to Anubis House with the rest of Sibuna before anybody else arrived, so that they could examine the fireplace in the living room more closely to see if that was the place for the next clue, which was exactly why they were all hiding behind the doors that led into the living room, with Amber peeking her head around the doors to check if it was empty.
"Nobody – not one body." The fashionista stated, which was extremely good for them – they needed to figure out what the next clue was, and if it wasn't the fireplace then they were back to square one.
"Okay, let's go." Fabian told them, all of them rushing forward and approaching the fireplace – they'd already worked out a system beforehand to make sure that nobody snuck up on them like Victor did last time.
Thus, Sydney and Amber were on lookout – the former paying attention to back entrance of the house and the latter paying attention to the front entrance of the house and the stairs, whilst Nina and Fabian were crouched down by the fireplace.
However, as the pair accidentally bumped into one another, apologising to one another and seeming to have a lot of romantic tension suddenly fill the air, Sydney realised that they were a terrible pairing to have examine the fireplace without getting distracted, and shared a glance with Amber as the two lovebirds stared at one another, not saying a word.
"Hey, Romeo and Juliet." Amber called out, breaking the silence in the room and the romantic tension quickly fading as they realised that they had been staring at one another for way too long.
"Are you going to look at the fireplace, or look at each other?" Sydney questioned them, causing the pair of them to blush wildly, their eyes darting anywhere else in the room but each other at her words.
"Moving swiftly on." Fabian spoke quickly, making a small awkward cough before the pair of them glanced back at the fireplace, continuing to search for the next clue.
Although, after a few seconds of searching and seemingly nothing being found by either of them, Nina let out a sigh and leant back, "There's nothing here, but I was so sure."
"Maybe we've misread the riddle." Fabian suggested, not wanting them to lose hope as they weren't exactly an expert in deciphering clues yet – they could have made a mistake, especially with the word 'khet'.
"Maybe, or maybe it's just not this fireplace." Nina added with a shrug, which was also a rather good point – they'd only thought it was the fireplace in the living room because it had been right in front of them when they found the definition of khet; it was convenient.
"Well, of course!" Fabian exclaimed, his eyes widening as he realised something, quickly telling the group his idea, "The house has central heating now. I bet a load of these old fireplaces were bricked up when it was fitted."
"How are we going to find out where they were?" Amber questioned, and the prankster of the group nodded alongside her, knowing that none of them had that sort of knowledge of Anubis House, considering that they'd only lived in when it had central heating.
"Yeah, it's not exactly like we can ask Victor about it." Sydney added, a frown on her lips as the clue was proving to be a lot harder than they'd expected it to be.
A few seconds of silence filled the air, with nobody knowing exactly what to do, until Nina reached for her locket, gripping it tightly as she suggested an idea to the group, "Maybe it's time to visit Sarah."
And, thus, that's what they did.
"I hope we catch Sarah in one of her more lucid moments. She can get very confused. I mean, she could send us to a fireplace back in 1972." Nina spoke as they followed the girl throughout the old people's home, presumably to Sarah's room, opening the door but then quickly shutting it as they noticed that a man was there, speaking to her.
"Sarah, Sarah, do you remember me?" A man, dressed in all black leather, asked the elderly woman, who must have been Sarah Frobisher-Smythe.
"I've never seen her with a visitor before." Nina told the four, obviously intrigued by the man who seemingly knew her – especially by her real name and not by the name she went by at the house - all of them were confused as they listened in to the conversation, wondering who the man was.
"Sarah, try to concentrate. We're talking about the old days." The man instructed her, and it seemed as though he wanted something from her – some information, perhaps, hence why he was trying to get her to remember something.
"I remember your face." Sarah informed him, squinting as she took a look of the man who spoke words of encouragement to her upon hearing that, but then the woman continued, her tone filled with sadness as she told him, "But, I get so muddled."
"Sarah, just relax. Everything's alright." The man comforted her, clearly not wanting for her to slip into a state of sadness or to become more confused, and he spoke slowly so that she'd understand him better, "I'll get you some tea."
Upon hearing that, the four members of Sibuna hastily moved to a separate corner, pretending to have a conversation and look at things around the home. As the man walked past them, they stopped their fake conversation and watched him, taking in his appearance as they wondered who he was and what he wanted to Sarah Frobisher-Smythe.
Due to the man being present, they couldn't get any information out of the elderly woman and decided to leave as soon as possible, before the unknown man noticed that there were four students watching him and eavesdropping into his conversations. Thus, they had made their way back to Anubis House, arriving just in time for supper, which just so happened to be one of the most awkward suppers that they'd had in a while as everyone sat in silence, tension in the air.
Evidently, nobody in the room was happy with Patricia Williamson after the stunt that she had pulled that morning – everyone in Anubis House had agreed that it was uncalled for and that the fashionista within the house didn't deserve to be drenched, and thus they ate in silence, ignoring the purple-haired girl.
"Pass the juice, please, Mara." Patricia requested, and the girl in question simply glanced up at her plate to look at her roommate, before lowering her gaze back to her food, forcing the purple-haired girl to stand up and get it herself.
"Well, aren't we quiet tonight.?" Trudy commented as she came back with some more food to put on the table, clearly not aware of what happened this morning, but not being a fan of the tension that was among the residents of Anubis House – afterall, she loved to be cheerful and enjoyed it most when they were all happy and having fun.
"No kidding." Patricia muttered, before putting down the pitcher of orange juice and leaning on the table, glancing around at everyone at the table as she questioned, "So, what's with the silent treatment?"
Nobody spoke up for a few seconds.
"What you did to Amber was terrible." Nina answered, knowing that the issue would not be solved and that the tension would be in the air for ages if nobody spoke about what had happened, and Sydney nodded in agreement with the American.
"And, what do you think, Mara?" Patricia questioned, presumably because she expected for the girl to support her after they had grown a lot closer after Joy Mercer had vanished – however, Mara Jaffray was not in support of the actions of the girls.
"You went too far – plus, I was on clean-up duty." Mara answered, not giving her the answer that she expected as she scolded her in hopes that she'd actually listen – with Joy Mercer gone, it seemed that Mara Jaffray was the only one who could tame the girl.
"Yeah, okay, you're probably right." Patricia agreed, causing people to look at her in shock, considering that none of them had expected her to actually agree and thought she would have remained stubborn and defended her actions, "I'm sorry, Amber."
Sydney found herself even more shocked, her head snapping towards the girl with her eyes growing even wider at the apology, knowing that the purple-haired girl never apologised to anyone.
"Falls off his chair in amazement." Alfie spoke up, actually doing what he said and landing on the ground with a thump, causing a few people to laugh whilst the female prankster rolled her eyes, getting out of her chair and helping him back up.
"Did Patricia "I'm Never Wrong" Williamson just apologise?" Jerome asked her, considering that it was very rare for her to do that – the last time had been Nina, but she had never actually apologised for that – it was just close to an apology.
"Shut up, slimeball." Patricia ordered him, pretending to sniff the air before she continued, telling him, "Oh, and nice cologne - eau de cat pee?"
"That's hysterical." Jerome muttered in response, taking a sip out of his orange juice as Sydney returned to her seat, chuckling slightly at their exchange and causing the male prankster to send a small glare her way.
"And, Nina, I'm sorry about going through your stuff. The thing is, I did have a reason and, if you're interested, I'll tell you about it - not now, obviously, but, in private sometime?" Patricia told the girl, (another apology – shocking) glancing down to the table towards where she sat, hoping that she'd agree.
"Yeah, sure. You, me, no witnesses - should be fine." Nina joked, causing the goth girl to let out a sigh and deflate before the American shook her head, telling her, "Seriously, I'd like to talk."
After that conversation, supper thankfully resumed as normal, with the tension in the air having diminished as the chatter resumed as normal, with the pranksters discussing some movies to watch after supper in order to procrastinate homework, eventually coming to the decision to watch the Zombie Slasher franchise once again, knowing it'd keep them occupied for enough hours to forget about their homework.
Sticking to their word, the three of them did exactly that.
As soon as supper was over, they raced into Jerome's and Alfie's room and began to set up the film, dragging the desk in front of the former's bed like they always did. However, upon glancing around the room, Sydney realised that they'd forgotten the snacks - how could they have forgotten snacks, of all things?
"I'm going to go get some snacks." Sydney announced to the boys, them giving her a nod and a thumbs up just before she left the room, hearing one of them call out for her to see if they had any popcorn and to get some crisps - they were very demanding boys.
With a roll of her eyes, though a smile on her lips, the girl entered the kitchen, but her eyes narrowed in curiosity as she saw the three other members of Sibuna crowding around the oven - more specifically, the oven that never opened.
"You guys do realise that oven is stuck, right? It doesn't open." Sydney informed them from behind them, all of them letting out a gasp and snapping their heads towards her upon hearing her, but then letting out a sigh of relief upon setting their sights on her, knowing that their secret hadn't been exposed to someone like Victor.
"And, that is where you're wrong." Fabian stated, a smirk on his lips before he pulled back slightly, allowing the prankster to see that they'd opened the oven.
However, instead of it being an oven, it seemed to be a secret passageway that led into eternal blackness, and the prankster's eyes widened before she rushed forward, joining the rest of them in looking down the secret passageway.
"It's really dark down there." Amber pointed out, glancing down the tunnel wearily - she was not a fan of the dark.
"So, this is where the next clue leads us, huh?" Sydney mumbled, trying to see if she could notice anything down the hole, but simply seeing darkness - maybe the flashlight headbands that Jerome and Alfie had would come in handy.
"Hello?" Trudy called out, her voice seeming way too close for comfort, causing Nina to hastily close the oven shut.
Once it was shut, the American turned to face the rest of the group as she told them, "Okay, tonight, after lights out? Sibuna?"
With a grin on their lips, they place their hand over their eye as they simultaneously agree, using their group name as they nodded, "Sibuna."
"Now, does anyone know if we have any popcorn in?" Sydney questioned, standing up to her feet and quickly checking the cabinets and grabbing the snacks that the pranksters wanted, whilst Sibuna chuckled at the girl and how many snacks that they were getting for three people, especially considering they'd just had supper.
Then again, Alfie Lewis could have easily devoured all of the snacks by himself if he wanted to.
After watching all of the Zombie Slasher films, Sydney had said goodbye to her favourite boys and returned to her own bedroom, actually doing minimal amounts of homework as she waited for lights out. Soon enough, the time came, and she snuck out of her bedroom, meeting up with the rest of Sibuna before they made their way down the creepy secret passageway.
Once they had gone down the steps, shining their flashlights to light the way, they all glanced around with wide eyes as they examined the room they were in. The actual room was a lot creepier than the staircase down, with it being filled with tons of weird chemicals and covered in cobwebs and dust, and they still hadn't found a light switch - the darkness didn't help the creepy atmosphere the room provided.
"A ghost!" Amber screeched, causing everyone to flinch and snap their heads towards her, looking at where she had her flashlight pointing at - it was not a ghost, but instead a sheet.
"More like a sheet." Nina told her, reassuring her and comforting her as she placed her arms around her, not wanting her to continue screeching as it could have the potential of waking up Victor.
"Can we find a light switch, please? Bad things don't happen when the lights are on." Amber said, causing the prankster of the group to turn to face her with her eyebrows furrowed, wondering if she truly believed that.
"Are you sure about that?" Sydney questioned her, knowing that her logic was flawed if she genuinely did think that - so many bad things happened with the lights on, it's just that things seemed less creepy and you could see more when the lights were on.
"Yes! It's basic knowledge!" Amber insisted, her eyes darting around the room cautiously as she was petrified that something was going to jump out at there and scare her - honestly, it was the perfect place to prank somebody and scare them, considering the already petrifying atmosphere the room had.
"Okay guys, let's check this out." Fabian encouraged them, knowing that they couldn't stay down there forever and had to find the next clue, causing them to investigate the room more, with the nerd eventually finding the light switch, and the lights flickering on.
It was still creepy, but a lot less, and Sydney was very much grateful for that.
"This place is weirding me out." Amber commented, her face disgusted as she continued to look through the room.
Amused, Sydney turned to the girl and spoke up, "I thought you said that bad things don't happen when the lights are on, so what could be so weird about this place now?"
"Have you seen it?" The girl questioned, her face scrunching up with disgust as she noticed a layer of dust on the table, before she asked, clearly not fond of the place, "Can we go?"
"Not yet." Nina answered her, shining her torch anywhere that she could as she tried to find something that linked to the clue - they just needed a small sign of it, and that would have been extremely helpful.
"We need to find the next clue." Fabian informed them, continuing to look around himself before he spoke up once again, warning them, "Be careful what you touch here guys - looks like there might be some other... little surprises down here."
Wondering what he was talking about, Sydney turned around and saw that he was pointing his torch at a stuffed bear's head sat atop a table - yeah, the place was definitely still creepy and very much disturbing.
"This stuff smells old and gross, ew." Amber complained, not used to being in such odd and/or dirty environments - she thought that the attic was bad enough, but this place seemed a lot worse due to the stuffed animals and the chemicals that were down here.
"That's because it is old and gross, Amber." Sydney told her, a frown on her lips as she examined the room, really not fond of it.
"Guys, look on the wall!" Fabian exclaimed, causing them all to join him in rushing to the wall as she flashed his torch on it, showing that there was a drawing of flames above a tethering ring, "Flames."
"There in the flames, you must look behind" Nina recited the quote, astounded almost, whilst the prankster in the group let out a breathy laugh.
Putting a finger to her lip, Sydney sarcastically spoke, "Gee, I wonder what it could mean."
"That's easy. It's even got like a ring pull thing on it - may as well say "pull me" on it!" Amber agreed with how obvious it all seemed, though they were rather pleased that they had found the clue.
"That's not a ring pull, Amber, it's a tethering ring." Fabian told her, putting his flashlight down before he elaborated once more, "They're used to tie animals to."
With that being said, the nerd tried to pull it off, struggling slightly until it eventually came off, him stumbling backwards as it left a small hole in the wall, with all of them quickly looking at it and Fabian trying to look through it, but then he stepped back and shook his head, informing them that there was nothing behind it.
"It seemed like such a good plan." Nina said with a sigh, taking the tethering ring into her hand as she looked at it, before she let out a gasp, "Look! Numbers! A code?"
"Sibuna!" Amber called out, raising her hand to her eye as they all agreed to continue searching, happy that they had at least found something in the journey and that it had not been pointless.
"Sibuna!"
However, the happy moment is cut short as a sudden bang was heard, sounding like a door slamming and causing all of them to snap their heads in the direction that it came in, their eyes wide.
Typically, loud bangs were not good.
"What was that?" Amber asked worriedly, causing the nerd of the group to shush her seconds before a shadow of a man appears on the wall, the sound of footsteps getting louder also becoming apparent.
"Hide!" Nina instructed them in a whisper, before they all grabbed their things and looked for a good place to hide.
Turning off the light switch, the four of them rushed to the closet, which thankfully was empty and big enough to fit them all in, albeit it being a tight squeeze. However, it was handy as they could see through the crack of the closet doors, allowing them to see as the light flickered back on, having been switched on by Victor.
Trying to stay as quiet as possible, the group watched their housekeeper through the gap in the door, seeing him pick up a small glass bottle with a cork topping it off, it seeming to have some weird orange chemical inside of it.
"Ah, so little left." He commented, pouring some of it into a vial, before raising it up and making a toast, "To life!"
And with that, he poured the contents down his throat.
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[10.05.2020]
NOTE: i'm writing some chapters for this and y'all about to be real mad at me ngl