☾ ☽
( note: near the end of this chapter, abuse is mentioned. the circumstances will be brought up a few more times, but i thought i'd tell you guys beforehand. )
"No way."
That's all he says. I glance at the others, all of us unable to see what Eddie is. "Are you... gonna, like, tell us if there's anything back there or leave us hanging?"
Eddie looks back. "There's a definitely a room."
"Another room," Patricia remarks dryly. "Great."
Fabian switches on the light on his phone, moving Eddie over so he can see inside. "I can't make out anything distinct, but... there's something in the back."
Eddie grins and pats Fabian's back. "Let's get in there."
"We need to take this slowly, all right?" Fabian tells us. I nod, crossing my arms. "Quiet, methodical work and one brick at a time." Eddie lifts a large blue capsule, like an oxygen tank or something, from the corner and comes back through. Oh, God, he's gonna— "Eddie, no!"
"Eddie, stop!" I exclaim as a loud clang fills the room. There's no way no one else heard that. "Eddie—"
"There's a pipe on the other side!" Fabian says, as Eddie hits the brick with the tank again. Oh, no, no, no, no, no... Faban grabs Eddie's shoulders. "What did I say about taking it slow?"
"And being quiet," KT adds pointedly.
"Okay, so there's a pipe there," Eddie responds, still holding the tank. "I didn't know that. We'll avoid." And before we can stop him, he does it again. Another pipe. "There's a pipe there, too."
"No kidding," Patricia retorts.
"What are the chances of a third pipe?"
"Let's not test that," I say quickly, grabbing the back of his shirt.
But I'm not what stops him. It's the sound of the padlock on the cellar door unlocking and Victor's voice inquiring, "What is this noise?" We rush to make everything the way it was when we got here, from putting the brick back to putting the tank back. "If anyone is there, show yourself."
I hope Victor doesn't find what we did. We had to leave in a hurry through the oven entrance and I really, really hope we didn't leave anything behind.
—
It's been a while since I've gotten a good night's rest. I'm not saying that because tonight I actually get a full night's sleep. I'm saying that because I don't and because I'm annoyed, because the clock reads three in the morning when there's a knock on the door and it opens, letting the hallway light in.
"Ashley," Trudy's voice inquires, and I groan, rolling away from my clock, "I could use your help. You're the only person they'll listen to, I think."
"Who?" I ask, rolling on my back as I squint over at her. Fortunately for Mara, Letdown's spending the night in Joy, KT, and Willow's room.
"Alfie and Jerome."
Oh, great. Patricia and Mara each groan and move away from the light as I get out of the bed, pulling my slippers on before following Trudy down the stairs. "Who did what?"
"Well, your boyfriend gave me a bit of a fright," she informs me. "As well as Alfie. He decided to wake Alfie up in the middle of the night wearing a zombie mask." Of course he did. "Alfie freaked out. I was getting a glass of water when it happened."
I nod reluctantly, already hearing Jerome's boasts about being even with Alfie before I even reach the bottom of the stairs. The door's obviously open. I can see the light coming out of the room into the hall, and when I actually reach the door I roll my eyes. I see that Jerome's got the zombie mask in his hands and he's ducking every object Alfie's throwing at him.
"First of all," I state, still drowsy as both of them turn toward me, "you're both dead to me. I will not be acknowledging your existences for the next twenty-four hours. Second of all, the war ends now. You scared Trudy half to death, which means you got someone else involved which means it ends. And if you don't, I'll be coming after you two and trust me, you aren't going to like what I have in mind. Capisce?"
Jerome and Alfie look at each other and agree reluctantly, "Capisce."
"Good. If I'm woken up again because of you two, that twenty-four hours will be extending to forty-eight."
—
The next morning at breakfast, it's quiet. I'm cranky, because I was annoyingly woken up in the middle of the night to end a prank war between my boyfriend and my best friend. Mara and Patricia both seem to know better than to talk to me this morning. Unfortunately, Jerome (whose existence I'm not acknowledging today) doesn't get the memo as he sits down in Willow's seat, staring at me.
I ignore him.
"Ashley. Come on, you weren't serious this morning."
Instead of answering, I take my slice of toast and get up from the table, sitting on the couch instead. I hear him groan before again, he gets up and sits next to me, still talking.
"You can't really ignore me for twenty-four hours," Jerome informs me. Yeah, watch me. I should've ended this prank war after Jerome got back at Alfie for the green hair. "Ashley. Ash." Still not answering. So he sighs. "Okay, if you wanna play that game." Instead of ignoring me like I expected, he leans over and kisses my neck. In response, I turn and smack the back of his head before going back to eating my toast. "That was an acknowledgement of my existence. I'll take it."
I roll my eyes, finishing off the last bite before getting up again, grabbing my bag from my chair. I didn't get to use the binoculars I borrowed (stole) from him yesterday considering I wasn't alone long enough to get to the gatehouse and see if I can get the new code. Denby's had to have changed it and she hasn't left yet. It takes her ten minutes to get from the gatehouse to the school and then she loiters until first class in the hallways, and she's been relatively consistent with her schedule all year.
Yeah, Sibuna's so gonna kill me.
—
After staking out the gatehouse for fifteen minutes, I finally watched Denby put in her new code after she leaves. 1-8-8-0. 1880, aka Frobisher's birth year. Of course. With that knowledge in my mind, the only thing I have to do now is make sure no one follows me there this afternoon. I put this off yesterday, I can't do it today. And really, I know I shouldn't be doing this, but... I don't know. Something's wrong with me and I know that but I can't help it.
Paranoid? Check. Hiding things? Check. Planning to sneak off without the rest of my Sibunas? Check. Is this a side effect of being the Bringer of Death? I mean, is this what happened to Lily? Or is this just a side effect of living in Anubis House for the past four years?
I catch up to Eddie, KT, and Fabian in the hallway, greeting my cousin with, "Hey, guy who doesn't listen to anyone but whatever's roaming around in that empty skull of his." KT and Fabian chuckle as Eddie rolls his eyes.
"Yeah, shut up," Eddie mumbles as the four of us round the corner. Patricia's things have just fallen out of her locker and Ben Reed, new guy and our opponent in dodgeball, rushes over to help her. Eddie scoffs. "Get a load of this guy, will you?"
KT's eyebrows knit together as we watch Ben (apparently Eddie's archenemy, which sorta explains how they know each other) and Patricia pick up her stuff. "Yeah, how terrible," she says plainly. "He's helping her with her books."
"Wha—no, no. You don't understand Ben," Eddie tells us, watching Patricia and Ben warily. "He has to have everything that I have, including my girlfriend."
KT sighs, linking her arm with his. "Relax, will you? Trust me. That girl only has eyes for you."
—
So Fabian's spent the entire night trying to figure out how to get into the secret room as quick as we can, because we don't have a lot of time if Frobisher's planning to destroy the world. Just before class starts, we meet Fabian in an empty classroom to hear what he's come up with, and he launches into his math.
"Okay," he says, "so I've calculated that we need to remove six bricks across by six bricks down. At a half-hour per brick, that's eighteen hours."
"If we remove all those bricks," Eddie says, "isn't Victor gonna notice? I mean, he's down there stoking the furnace all the time."
Fabian points his pen at him. "I thought about that. For each brick we pull out, we put back, but with fake mortar around it so no one will notice. Then each night, we just take it out again."
"Mortar?" KT questions. She doesn't know what it is? Eddie looks confused, too.
"Well, it's the bit between the bricks. If we match the color of the mortar around them, in that light, it's unlikely Victor will notice. We only need six days."
"Only," Patricia repeats.
I look at Fabian, sighing. "Fake mortar's my job, isn't it?" Fabian nods. "I can do that. Quick question, how do we do that?"
Fabian's the one at a loss for words now. Yeah, he doesn't know. "Um... dough? We can make it in the kitchen, Ashley can match the color."
Well, it's a plan, at least. Alfie's happy about it, which I briefly acknowledge, but I'm still ignoring him. "I love dough!"
As break ends and people start coming in for class, Willow smiles at Alfie. "Hey, Alfie. Where were you last night?"
"What—why? When?"
"Our date? We were gonna go camping in the living room, toast marshmallows over the hair-dryer."
"Oh, yeah, I—" Alfie looks towards us as I share a half-amused look with Patricia, "sorry, I got... distracted. Um... you want to meet tonight?"
"Yeah," Willow agrees. "We could play cards with cookies."
"Oh, brilliant."
I move from the top of the desk I'm sitting on to the chair, and before I know it, Jerome's sitting next to me before Mara, who was planning to sit there, can take it. Mara frowns and takes the seat in front of me instead, but Jerome just stares at me again. It's annoying.
"You can't go the entire day without talking to me," Jerome states. Oh yes, I can. "Just like you can't go the entire day without talking to Alfie—Scooby gang, much?" Oh, yes, I can. "All right. Fine. I just won't talk to you either." I scoff, a rookie mistake as he exclaims, "Acknowledgement! Mara, did you see—she acknowledged me."
Mara turns around, telling him plainly, "She told you twenty-four hours. And a scoff isn't much acknowledgement."
"What about her hitting the back of my head?"
"Something tells me you probably deserved it."
Jerome scowls as Mara, smirking, turns back around. Denby comes into the classroom, greeting, "Okay, take your places. We've got a lot to get through. Now, as part of our partnership in business syllabus, we are going to explore trust." Great. It sure does mean a lot from her, she who no one can trust. "Partnership is nothing without it. So to start, I want everybody up." I reluctantly stand up, along with the rest of the class. "And paired off for some basic exercises. Uh... Eddie, you're with Alfie. Patricia, you're with... Ben." Oh, that's gonna drive Eddie crazy. "Fabian, you're with KT. Joy, you're with—oh, you know what? Everybody else, just go with the person to your left."
Guess who's to my left? Jerome. Guess who's grinning because now I have to acknowledge him lest I want to fail this class? Jerome.
"Now, for our first activity," Denby says as I continue ignoring Jerome, "take a blindfold and place it over your partner's eyes."
—
The first activity is trying to lead your blind-folded partner through the room, which means they have to have complete trust in you. Unfortunately for me, Jerome took the blindfold and put it over my eyes before I could react, which means I'm the guinea pig who has to trust my boyfriend, whom I'm supposed to be not acknowledging. This'll be fun.
"No, to your left," Jerome tells me. I move to my left. "No, your other left—my left!"
"Why don't you just say my right?!"
"Because it's your right but my left—"
"Oh, come on!"
I bump into what I'm pretty sure is a chair and wind up stumbling, right into Jerome's arms. I push the blindfold up, glaring at his smug face. "I did tell you," he states, "I'd catch you if you fall."
"Flattery's not going to help you get back on my good side before the twenty-four hours are up," I retort, pulling the blindfold off.
"I'm already on your good side," he says. I scoff and push the blindfold over his eyes, hitting the back of his head again. "Hey!"
"Trip over the chair, babe," I retort, "I dare you."
Yeah, so if this is supposed to get us to trust our partners more, Denby really shouldn't have chosen this activity today. Or made us pair together. Because trust me, we revert right back to Clarke and Adams 1.0 in things like this. No, don't get me wrong, I trust Jerome entirely. Just... not in the middle of my twenty-four hours ignoring him.
"Okay, everyone," Denby says finally, "that's enough of that exercise, but keep your blindfolds on," I smirk at Jerome, who can't see with the blindfold, "because next I want you to fall backwards while your partner catches you." This is even worse. "Ashley, if you'd mind putting the blindfold back on—"
"He already just caught me," I retort quickly, throwing my arm to the chair I just tripped over as Jerome pulls off the blindfold to hand it to me. "He always catches me. Let me catch him."
Jerome's face falls. "No, please don't let her catch me."
"A lack of trust in your relationship, is there?" Denby inquires. I cross my arms. Really?She's gonna try and make me doubt our relationship?
"No, I'm just mad at him because I had to stop their prank war in the middle of the night," I respond sharply. "I'm supposed to be ignoring him for twenty-four hours."
"Oh, well, all the better," Denby states. "Jerome, keep your blindfold on and let Ashley catch you for once." She addresses the rest of the class again. "Remember, this is about trust."
Jerome, blindfolded and all, turns to me. "Should I brace myself for a hard landing?"
"Oh, just turn around and fall," I state, grabbing his shoulders and turning him around.
"I've already fallen for you once, Adams. Are you going to catch me again?"
"Are you seriously flirting with me right now?"
"I flirt with you all the time."
Jerome falls back, trusting me to catch him, which of course, I do without a second thought. It would've been real easy to take one step to the side and let him fall on the ground, and three years ago I definitely would've done that (honestly, there's a chance I would have done that last year too, and most definitely the year before that) but this is this year, and his flirting always gets to me. He's just lucky it didn't distract me, because if I'd been distracted by it, he might've hit the ground by complete accident.
Pushing himself back to standing, Jerome pulls off the blindfold and surprises me with a deep kiss, which is then interrupted, not by Denby as I would've expected, but by Alfie next to us, whose partner (Eddie) let him fall to the ground. My eyebrows raise as I glance at Jerome, then to Eddie, who's standing over him and looking pretty regretful. Distracted by Patricia and Ben, is he? Seems like that's what happened. Exhibit A for distractions.
"I do not trust you!" Alfie declares.
—
I already decided earlier in the day that in order to go sleuthing by myself without any chance of getting caught was to leave school twenty minutes early. Leaving twenty minutes early means I get to the gatehouse in ten minutes, which leaves ten minutes until Denby leaves which means I'd have twenty minutes, at most, to figure out a clue as to what Frobisher's up to. Why our files, why take a book from Victor's office, and what's up with those sarcophagi in the tank room? I doubt I'll get all of those answers right now, but if I can just get the name of the book and get it back to Fabian so we can do some research... after he kills me, of course.
Because I'm so dead.
Also, I'm a hypocrite.
I'm the one who kept telling KT that we never, ever go anywhere alone. And if we do, we have to tell someone else in Sibuna, and after KT's adventuring of the gatehouse (the very place where I'm going) on her own, the six of us decided to come up with a buddy-system plan. Someone to tell we were going somewhere—Eddie and Fabian, KT and Alfie, me and Patricia. And... I didn't tell Patricia I was planning to go to the gatehouse.
That's either because I couldn't find her (she left early as well, mentioning something about oranges) or because Eddie's vision and what I heard keeps creeping into my head whenever I see her. Jury's out on which. She'd insist on coming with me as backup and I can't risk Eddie's vision coming true. So, I didn't tell her. So, I'm here, outside the gatehouse, alone.
I should turn around. I really, really should. But I'm here for a reason, and I need to see it through. And hope I don't end up taking Patricia's place in the sarcophagus. Although, better me than her.
1-8-8-0, and the door opens. I swallow, glancing around at the outside like it's the last time I'll see it, but I go inside anyways, quietly closing the door behind me. We don't have any cameras anymore and I don't know who's roaming about. If it's Frobisher, I'm dead. If it's Denby (it shouldn't be), I'm dead. If it's Harriet? Then I have to call Eddie and hide out with her in the woods until he comes to help.
The study's the same as the last time I saw it. I mean, it's a bit messier, with papers everywhere and several books open around the place. I go to one, tilting my head at the page it's open to. It's about King Tutankhamun's tomb and the expedition. Carter's curse, I remember that. I scoff quietly. What about the Henry curse? I wonder if they can compare.
"Looking for something?"
I whirl around at the voice behind me, and my breath catches in my throat when I see who it is. "Frobisher," I say, my eyes wide as Robert Frobisher-Smythe, in the flesh, steps toward me with a smirk on his face. Oh, no. I'm so dead.
"Ashley Adams," Frobisher states. He knows my name. Of course he knows your name, he's seen your file! "I must say, the resemblance is quite remarkable."
"How would you know?" My voice is breathy and scared as I respond to him, stepping subtly to the side, toward the door and prepared to run. "Lily was seven when you were cursed."
"Elizabeth," he corrects. "The resemblance to Elizabeth. You've even got the Henry eyes." Right, so having a conversation with a guy who was literally born in 1880, one hundred and fifteen years before me, is not where I thought this sleuthing mission would be going. This... isn't good. I have to get out of here. "I wonder how much like Elizabeth and Lily you are."
"What do you want?"
"You're here alone."
"N-not really, you're in the same room as me."
Frobisher chuckles dryly, taking another step toward. "Exactly like Elizabeth. But she was... timid. As was Lily. From what I hear, you've got more fire in you... Bringer of Death."
It doesn't surprise me that he knows. He probably already knew Lily was her generation's Bringer of Death before he was cursed, and that a female descendant of hers would be it, too. I was born exactly eighty years after Lily Henry. It was me, and he figured that out the second he saw my file.
Frobisher continues, walking around me. He's trying to intimidate me, isn't he? And... it's kind of working. "I've been told Lily never harnessed the powers that came with being the Bringer of Death. She never wanted to learn." Who could have told him that? "You... you're different than her, though. You are so much... angrier."
My head snaps toward him. "What are you trying to do? What do you want with me, with us? We're just kids!"
"I think you know that's not true."
"Last I checked, legal definition of an adult is being eighteen! None of us are eighteen!"
"Legalities," Frobisher grabs my arm tightly as I try to make a run for it, "are irrelevant. You've seen much more than any normal adult has. You've been much more than anyone ever will be! Your powers are stirring inside you, waiting to be unleashed as they should be." He digs his fingers into my skin. He's much stronger than I am and I start looking around for something to hit him with so I can get away. "I can teach you."
"And come to your side?" I retort, trying and failing to escape. He's still got me in a death grip. "Never."
"Why deny what's inside you?"
"Why'd you let Michael and Elizabeth go to jail?" I counter quickly. I've wondered this for years, ever since Nina found that article that said only the Henrys went to jail, not the Frobisher-Smythes. Why only them? It's only strengthened since finding out Frobisher took the rap for everyone but them. "You let Lily become an orphan—she was the same age as Sarah!"
"Lily was better off without Michael," Frobisher answers, venom in his tone as he speaks of my great-great-grandfather.
"What about Elizabeth? Was Lily better off growing up without her mother? Why didn't you take the fall for them like you did the rest of your expedition party?!"
"Elizabeth wouldn't let me!" Frobisher exclaims. I blink as he lets go of my arm and steps back. I should run, but I want to know what he means. He's frustrated with me, I can tell, but there's something else there. Something about Elizabeth. Frobisher looks toward me, his eyes still with that evil glint but something... good in there, too. Is he still in there somewhere? Or is he faking it? "Michael had complete control over her and Lily. Neither of them could do anything without his agreement first, and when they did something wrong, he punished them."
Oh... God. "He hit them."
"Lily was better off without Michael and if he was going to be in a prison, so was Elizabeth. She wouldn't let me."
I swallow at this news. Lily never wrote anything about it in her diary. Actually... she rarely mentioned her father at all. But I don't have time to dwell on it. "Fine. But you're the greatest Egyptologist there's ever been. Not for long. I know someone who's gonna upstage you in that because he's not trying to destroy the world. Whatever you're doing, Robert," I use his first name to bring my point home, "I will find out. You'll never do it, not as long I'm around."
"I will," Frobisher says, and he seems sure of it, "and you will be around because you, Ashley Adams..." He comes closer to me again. "..are part of it. Just like the Bringer of Death always is. This time... you won't get out of it through technicalities. You. Will. Help. Me."
The next thing I impulsively do? I make a fist with my right hand and punch him in the face. And it hurts, but definitely not a priority as my satisfaction is far more than the pain. "That?" I say, rubbing the back of my hand. "That's for Nina."
( the ashley-frobisher confrontation was a scene i'd been dying to write for weeks and i was so freaking happy i got to an episode where it made sense! one of my favorite scenes i wrote for ashley )