It's A Twin Thing | j. clarke [1]

twenty-six

-:- House of Pests / House of Betrayal -:-

I spent the rest of the weekend with Jerome and Alfie making a plan for Rufus and pranking Mick to keep up with appearances. After much debate, we ended up deciding on putting a red sock in his laundry to turn his clothes a bright shade of pink, reminiscent of Mara's trick on him from earlier in the term. That was the easiest part of the weekend and coming up with something to do for Rufus was a different story.

"Why can't you just take some of the elixir?" Jerome had asked. "Fabian wouldn't even notice."

"First of all, Fabian would notice, and so would my sister. On top of that, I don't want the elixir falling into the wrong hands, and that means Rufus."

"Then what do you suggest Lizzie?" He paced around their bedroom.

The use of my nickname threw me, and I sat on his bed with my mouth hung open slightly. Jerome caught it too, but only briefly paused to blink at me before returning to his stress-induced pacing.

"I could do the drawings again," Alfie offered, breaking the tension.

"That's not a bad idea Alfie," Jerome nodded. "Get sketching."

"We just have to make sure they stay with us this time," I noted. "Victor still hasn't made a move since he found out we had the pieces."

"Maybe he forgot?" Alfie shrugged as he reached for his pencil.

"Not likely," I grimaced as my stomach dropped at the thought of Victor having all the pieces. "I feel awful we haven't told the rest of them."

"You can't," Jerome urged. "At least not until we have the Rufus situation under control."

"We better get it under control quick."

"We will, Alfie's drawings will hold him off for a while."

"And then what?" The anxiety in my tone surfaced, and for a brief moment,I saw a flicker of guilt in Jerome's eyes.

"Then we'll think of something new." His tone was soft but determined.

I nodded solemnly in agreement, trying to be okay with the fact that we didn't know how Rufus would react or what he would demand next but I couldn't shake away the nerves as our weekend came to a close. I didn't sleep well that night and woke up to a curious Nina standing over me.

"You slept through your alarm again," she poked my shoulder. "That's three times in the past week."

"I keep having nightmares," I told her. It wasn't entirely a lie, considering Anna's face still frequented my dreams.

"About Anna?"

"Yeah, it's so strange," I mumbled. "Why can't she just leave me alone?"

"There's probably a good reason she isn't," Nina considered.