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KT's all right, thank God. Fabian and Eddie heard her screaming in the middle of the night and found her in the closet in the main entrance hall—actually, they found her underneath the closet in the main entrance hall. Somehow, and she can't remember how, she ended up locked in there and fell through the floorboards, and, wait for it, right into our secret room. But Fabian and Eddie didn't get a chance to go down and explore it, for two reasons: 1) KT wouldn't let them for some reason and 2) Victor heard commotions and ordered them back to their rooms.
So I was incredibly relieved to see KT alive and well this morning, but what she tells us about the secret room is, well... a bit creepy. She said there was someone down there, and that's when she started screaming and Fabian and Eddie found her.
"Frobisher?" Eddie questions at breakfast. It's just Sibuna for now.
"It looked like him," KT confirms dreadfully.
"And he spoke?" Fabian asks.
KT nods, and Alfie asks, "What'd he say?"
"He said 'stop,'" she answers.
"Stop?" I repeat curiously. Why would Frobisher tell her to stop? I mean, I get him not wanting us to get into the secret room (considering the guillotine placed there by persons unknown/kind of known), but... just telling her to stop? That doesn't make any sense.
"See," Alfie says, "I, for one, am willing to take that advice."
"And then he just—" Patricia looks over at KT with confusion, waving her hands around, "—he just disappeared?"
"No, I disappeared," KT corrects. "I pushed up against the back wall until Eddie and Fabian showed up. He just seemed to disappear into the darkness."
Right. Well... that's not worthy of a Stephen King novel at all.
Eddie comfortingly puts his arm around KT and asks her, "You okay to go back in?" And I don't miss the look Patricia gives—her jealousy problem's just getting worse and worse, isn't it? Not to mention Eddie's problems with her being friendly with Ben. What's going on with them lately?
"With you guys?" KT says, looking at all of us. "Yeah."
"After school," Fabian states.
"Agreed," I remarked. After school, we go down into the secret room and face whatever waits for us down there.
Eddie shakes his head. "Before. Sooner rather than later, remember?"
Before I get a chance to say anything (and what would I have said? He's using my own words against me) Joy and Willow come in. It's Joy who speaks, "Uh, hello, people, where's Letdown?" Oh. Oh, crap. I send a wide-eyed look to Fabian and Alfie, who return it with their own looks. How are we gonna get out of this one? "Mara's gonna kill me."
"Um..." Patricia takes the lead on this one. "About that... Victor took him."
"What?" This time it's Mara's voice who cuts in. Yeah... Joy's not the only dead one, is she? And when did Mara even come in? She lays her eyes on Joy. "How could you? I love that dog." She does? She named him Letdown for a reason.
As Mara turns around and leaves, betrayed, I can already tell Joy's gears are turning in her head to find a way to make it up to Mara. I look at Eddie, saying, "Before sounds good. Let's."
—
When no one is looking, the six of us sneak into the entrance hall closet. There's a KT-shaped hole in the floor and a ladder there as well, so that makes it easier for us to go down. I volunteered to go first, so I'm the first person besides KT to step inside the secret room. It's mostly bare, this part of it is. There's a curtain in place of a doorway and once everyone else is down here, we go through it.
There's a trip wire Eddie accidentally trips, and another pair of curtains opens up to another room. Inside, the entire place is covered with dust. There's a phonograph, several books, and early twentieth-century wallpaper. But who cares about any of that when there's someone in a chair facing a mirror—and the chair spins around to face us!
"Stop," a voice says, but it's just a mannequin. Okay, what? "Heed this message."
"That's not Frobisher," Eddie points out the obvious. "It's a waxwork."
"In the event I have awoken..."
"It's a recording," Fabian identifies. I share a glance with the others, stepping over the tripwire as we all go towards the waxwork warily.
"And it's definitely Frobisher," I say, being the only person who's heard him speak in person. Yeah... my bad.
"...and am under control of the god Ammit, herein, you will find the information necessary to reverse my betrayal. Do not confront me, and please, forgive me for my actions."
"Wow," Patricia remarks.
"Well, that explains why he's not so nice anymore," Alfie adds.
"My great-grandpa," KT says in a small voice, "he would hate what he's become."
"What's with the dummy?" Eddie inquires. "He couldn't just put it in a note?"
"I've seen pictures of this," Fabian says. I raise an eyebrow—where could he have possibly seen this dummy before? "It's from a museum. It's from a museum that celebrated his expeditions back in his day." KT reaches forward to touch the waxwork's face. "He must have adapted it. This man really knew how to get people's attention."
"No one was supposed to find this place," KT says. "He must have really thought his original plan would work out."
"He didn't count on Denby and Victor working together," I tell her. "I kind of doubt he even thought Victor would still be alive and kicking. I mean, it's hard to make the elixir and it's ninety years later."
Eddie lets out a deep sigh. "All this stuff. It's gonna take forever to get through it."
"What's that?" KT asks. I turn away from the wall of inventions to see Fabian messing with the phonograph.
"It plays recordings," he informs. "It doesn't work."
"Maybe it's out of batteries," Alfie says, earning a skeptical look from Fabian. I clap my hand on Alfie's shoulder, nodding slowly. "Or not."
"Guys," Patricia says, "I hate to be a killjoy, but we need to get back to school."
Eddie shuts a flimsy book covered with an inch of dust, showing it to us. "Got plenty to read anyway."
I look at the waxwork of Frobisher one more time before following them out. Eddie's right, it'll take weeks to read everything in there, even with the six of us. And by then, by the time we figure out how to stop Frobisher's plan, he'll already be knee-deep in executing it.
—
The school day goes as normal as can be for most of the day. I can't get my mind off the secret room and the recording that echoed throughout it. Frobisher said he would be under control of something—what? I couldn't make out what he said in it. We need to hear it again and we need to stop talking this time.
We decide to skip our third class of the day for a Sibuna meeting in the lounge. Eddie's been reading the book as subtly as he can all day and I can't tell if he's got something or not, but either way, we all need to see what's in it. So we're sat on the stage now in a circle and Eddie's got the book in the middle.
"It says here, 'Ammit was known as the devourer of souls,'" Eddie reads.
"So not a nice guy," Alfie states.
"Girl," I correct. That's what he's under the control of! "Ammit—she, uh, she was always at Anubis' side in the Hall of Two Truths, which is in Duat, which is the Egyptian underworld." I notice everybody's looking at me weirdly now. "Of course I know who Ammit is. Hello, I had Anubis stuck in my head last year. He told me about her."
"Okay, well, check this out." Eddie flips to the next page, which has an illustration of Ammit devouring someone's soul. She's one part lion, one part hippopotamus, and one part crocodile. And it's even worse than I imagined, so... thanks.
"Yeah, she's also known as the eater of hearts and the great of death," I tell everybody. "Anubis, he would weigh a heart against Ma'at's feather—"
"Goddess of truth," Fabian adds.
"Yeah. And if the heart wasn't pure, well..."
"She'd devour it?" KT asks. I nod.
Eddie says, "Yeah, and their soul would wander restless forever, unable to complete their voyage to immortality. I read, too," he adds pointedly to me.
"Wait, so she was like a judge?" Alfie asks.
"More like an executioner."
"She was everything the ancient Egyptians feared," I say. "And with good reason."
Eddie looks down at the book, running his finger along the words as he reads. "However, Ammit became angry and grew frustrated with the god Anubis. She considered herself Anubis' equal and wanted more than just the impure hearts of the dead."
"Got too big for her boots," Alfie says quietly.
"Yeah." Eddie turns to the next page, which shows a gothic-horror-worthy illustration of five human beings beneath the devourer of souls' haunting figure. "Ammit's dark ambition was to cross into the human realm and claim the hearts of the living."
"Oh, that doesn't sound good," KT states.
"Really don't like where this is going," Patricia adds.
Eddie flips to the next page. Now it's Ammit with lightning cracking behind her, destroying buildings. "It is said that if Ammit were to ever succeed, her strength and power would grow to make her equal to that of Osiris, god of all the underworld."
"Um," KT's evidently very freaked out right now, "can you skip to the end or something? Maybe there's a happy ending."
"Yeah, are there any nice pictures in there?" Alfie adds.
Eddie turns to the next page, and no more illustrations. Now we've got sketches like the ones in the secret room—except for a photograph of a room with what appears to be five sarcophagi. I furrow my eyebrows at it, unable to place where I know it from immediately, but am distracted from figuring out where when Alfie speaks again.
"That's nicer, right?" Alfie asks. "That's not scary."
"It says, 'To cross over, Ammit must claim five human sinners who embody the greatest flaws of mankind. Ammit will enter the mortal realm when all are taken.'"
"Okay, I was wrong. That's very scary. That's actually terrifying."
Eddie pulls off the photograph and gives it to Fabian. "Well, on the recording," Fabian says, "Frobisher said he was now under the control of Ammit. He must be capturing sinners."
It reminds me of what Frobisher said to me. He said I would help him—did he mean I would be one of his sinners? If so, why didn't he just take me then? Or is there something else here I'm not getting?
"Uh," a voice says at the doors. It's Denby. "Why aren't you all at class?"
"Uh, we're going," Eddie says quickly, shutting the book as we scramble to get up. "We were just going."
Patricia falls behind as we huddle around Eddie's locker, whispering to each other about what we just found out. This isn't good at all. How are we supposed to stop the literal devourer of souls? It's one thing going up against Rufus (twice even), a secret society of teachers, an evil housemother. It's another going up against an evil Robert Frobisher-Smythe who's under the control of an ancient Egyptian deity.
Our conversations cease when Ben Reed appears out of nowhere to go to his own locker, which is just a few down from Eddie's. Eddie glances at us before asking, "Where you going?"
"You can relax," Ben responds. "My work here is done. I made you look better, like I always do."
My eyebrows raise as the four of us share a look, watching Eddie ask incredulously, "What? Made me look better? My girlfriend thinks I'm a jerk because of you."
"Yeah, your girlfriend, your friends, your school, your tournament. What do you have to complain about?"
I mean... there's a whole list but, like... not relevant. Fabian hits our arms, nodding away from them to tell us to give them a moment, so we leave. "So, Ammit," I say to them, leaving Eddie and Benji alone. "Not good."
"Oh, you think?" Fabian sarcastically responds. "Well, at least we know one thing." KT, Alfie, and I look at him, waiting for him to say something. "Ammit wanted to be Anubis' equal. Maybe... maybe that means Frobisher needs you to help him—"
"No, no way," I interrupt harshly. "Never. I won't."
"I know. But we need to go back to the secret room, so after lights' out tonight?"
"Sounds good."
—
Patricia didn't show up for art class. It's not really a surprise, because she doesn't like it normally, but Eddie also looks horrible. I assumed that they had another fight and didn't press him on it other than asking if he was okay. I'm distracted myself, because of the whole Ammit thing. Completely understandable that I've zoned out during my favorite class with my favorite teacher who hasn't missed a class since the day Denby filled in for her.
It's not every day you hear that the world's best Egyptologist who was supposed to have died ninety years ago actually never did and was put under a curse and if he was awoken by the impure of heart he would be under the control of a god whose nickname is the devourer of souls.
"Ashley. Ash." Fabian's concerned voice knocks me out of my thoughts and absentmindedly painting on my canvas. "You've been painting that flower for ten minutes. What's wrong?"
"It'd be easier to list what isn't wrong," I answer.
He sighs and agrees, "Yeah, I get that. Bit hard to focus on art with everything we found out on my mind."
"Probably better for you. Every time you try to focus on art that's not Egyptian, you look like you want to call your mum to pick you up because you have no idea what's happening."
"I can focus on art that's not Egyptian," he claims, and I give him a look of disbelief. "I... like the Mona Lisa and Starry Night—"
"You mean the two most famous paintings in the world?"
"Well, your painting's very nice," Fabian says after stammering a response to me pointing out the two paintings he mentioned are literally household names, as are their painters. I'm still painting the sarcophagus one I was working on when Denby subbed for Burton. "And you're Australian, not Egyptian, so—"
"But the painting has obvious Egyptian influences."
"Oh, whatever," Fabian says shortly, and I smile to myself. Normal conversations are rare at this point, so it's nice to bicker with him. He's been in this since the beginning, and he and I are the only original members of Sibuna left. "But I do have a question about your painting."
"Shoot."
"Why are you painting the jasmines red?" Fabian asks me, and I'm about to deny that I have when I look back—and notice that for the past ten minutes, I've been painting the jasmine flowers, typically a white flower, a deep shade of red that matches the color my charm and Nina's locket glow. "They're supposed to be white, unless you're—"
"I'm not," I interrupt. "I didn't—tell me I haven't been possessed by Michael and Elizabeth Henry."
"No, you probably just dipped the brush into the wrong paint and didn't notice. You were pretty out of it," Fabian reasons.
"Yeah. Yeah, maybe," I say quietly. "But..."
"But what?"
"I could swear I had red eyes the other day, Fabian," I confide, lowering my voice to a whisper so no one else hears, not even KT, who's right by us. She hasn't even noticed we're talking. Fabian looks at me strangely, waiting for me to go on. "I looked in the mirror and my eyes were just... red."
"The entire eye or just the iris?"
"Just the iris. It was only for a second. I blinked and it was gone."
Fabian nods slowly. "Was this before or after you went to the gatehouse?"
"After. Right before Eddie nearly got guillotined."
"And you didn't see it at all before?" he asks. I shake my head. "And since then?"
"Still the normal blue, as far as I know," I answer. "I'm just—" I pause and sigh, biting the inside of my cheek. "With what was in the book, about Ammit capturing sinners... could he have gotten me as one and I didn't know it?"
Fabian's quiet for a long moment. A long tense moment that has me fearing the worst, but finally, he tells me, "I don't think so. I'd expect for a sinner's emotions and behavior to be heightened, and you're exactly the same. Impulsive and won't listen to the rules you set. He didn't get you."
I let out a relieved sigh. Fabian, I trust on this subject. He's speaking from a place of logic and not emotion, which is what anyone else I asked would do. "Thank you. I was really scared I was about to help him help Ammit enter the mortal realm."
"Not if you can help it. You'll just confront him again like the recording specifically told us not to and punch him."
"Am I ever going to live that down?"
"No, don't think so."
—
The fact that no one's seen Patricia since we found out everything we did about Ammit is extremely concerning. She didn't show up for any classes and it was like she just... disappeared. Of course, our first thought was that Eddie's vision came true and Frobisher and Denby got ahold of her for whatever they're doing, but KT skipped our last class of the day to go to the house, and she met us halfway between the house and the school to inform us that Patricia's in our room but she wasn't talking to anybody.
When we walk inside the house, my stomach drops. It's the same dreadful feeling I felt when Victor came in that day, acting all out of whack. Something's wrong. Something is very, very wrong, but... what? It's not as obvious this time.
But no one else notices. The boys go to their rooms, I follow KT up to hers, and with each step on the stairs, the feeling grows. It's so much that I don't even want to open my door and go into my room, but I don't get much of a choice, because the door pulls open and Patricia stalks past me into the bathroom. The feeling is even worse now.
I'm frozen there in the hallway for a few seconds more, until Mara's voice pulls me out of my frozen state, thoughts and all. "Ashley? Are you all right?"
"Fine," I tell her, shaking off the feeling. "I'm... sorry about Letdown."
"You're not who I trusted him with," Mara says to me, her eyes glancing past me at Joy's room.
"But we are the ones who took him from her and accidentally let Victor know he exists," I say. "Don't be mad at her. The last thing she wanted to do was disappoint you. Don't worry. Knowing Joy, she's gonna get crafty to get Letdown back before Victor sends him to a shelter."
Mara sighs lightly, shaking her head. "I suppose you're right. And hey, whatever's been going on with you lately..." She pauses, giving me a smile. "You can always talk to me about it. Sisterhood, remember?"
"Yeah, sisterhood," I agree, sending her a genuine smile. Talking with Mara is always like a breath of fresh air. "And I'm fine, Mara. Everything's fine."
—
Everything was not fine, as it turns out.
The feeling that enveloped me the second I walked into the house hasn't let up at all and being in the same room with Patricia was only making it worse. I don't want to know why I'm feeling this way around her. I just... I need to ignore it until something happens that I can't ignore it. I have to ignore it if I want to stay sane.
But the feeling keeps growing, and growing, and growing, until I can't even be in the same room as her anymore. I actually had to get up and go downstairs to hang out with Fabian and Eddie, who were doing research on Ammit. Well, Fabian was doing extensive research; when I got down there, Eddie was complaining about how short Ammit's Wikipedia page is and that it's no help whatsoever.
Following a tense dinner (especially between Eddie and Patricia), we wait for everyone else to get distracted with post-supper activities, ready to go back into the secret room. Something stopped me from making sure Patricia came down with us and I made sure to be the first one waiting inside the closet, just to prolong being around Patricia again.
It's not that I don't like Patricia. She's one of my best friends, she's my roommate. But something's wrong and I just... I can't be around her and her weird aura, to put something like Willow would. I miss Willow as a roommate.
And I can't believe I actually just thought that. Wow.
Finally, everyone except Patricia arrives, which means it's time for our latest expedition to the secret room, except I'm not a hundred percent sure what we're looking for down here. "Be careful," Fabian warns as we make sure not to trip the tripwire again.
Behind us, I hear Alfie asking where Patricia is, and then moments later, the feeling comes again. I don't even have to turn around to know that Patricia got the Sibuna text KT said she shot to her and she's down here with us. I don't have much time to dwell on the feeling, though, because Fabian hits my arm and says, "Hey, come help me with the phonograph. See if we can get it working."
I nod, wishing the feeling away as I kneel beside the phonograph. Fabian turns it on its side and opens a compartment. I point to something inside and ask, "What's that?"
"What?" KT asks.
"Ashley just found out why it's not working," Fabian answers. I smile to myself—I love finding this stuff accidentally. "Whatever powered this thing has perished over the years."
Fabian reaches into the compartment and holds up whatever made it work all those decades ago, now nothing more than a frayed wire or something similar. "Oh," Alfie says, elbowing me with a wide smile on his face as I stand, "so it was the batteries."
KT sighs. "Great. Now we've got to go looking for parts."
Eddie looks and sounds dejected as he says, "Look, guys, let's just call it a night. Fabian, take a picture of the parts. We'll have a look for 'em online."
( right so ashley? can definitely tell when someone's been turned into a sinner. this chapter's unlucky sinner is patricia and as u can tell she really doesn't want to admit that, so there's a lot of denial about it going on for the next few chapters, but oh boy is Sinner Patricia really fun )