Tears of Gold: House of Anubis

Amber XXX

Amber was so happy the Mara vs. Vera trial was finally over. Instead of being expelled, Mara had been suspended for 2 days and banned from writing for the school paper. With the trial over, the Sibuna club was able to turn its full focus back to the quest for the mask. Friday's dinner was still a bit awkward since Mara could barely look at Vera, Eddie and Patricia were giving off a strange energy, and Nina was still jumpy because of their newest members being marked.

The previously planned Sibuna meeting had to be postponed until the next day since Joy had called for a house-wide movie night to try and cheer Mara up. Amber looked around the sitting room as the group watched Mama Mia, Mara's pick, doing a silent headcount to reassure herself that they were all still there. She had been badly rattled that morning seeing Liliana and Jerome's brands. The couple were wrapped up together in one of the armchairs, clearly not willing to let the other go for fear that they would vanish. Amber completely understood that, snuggling further into Alfie beside her, she tried to push away the images of the group suffering a horrendous death at the hands of their resident ghost or the maniacal house builder's traps.

*Tears of Gold – Tears of Gold – Tears of Gold*

Saturday morning Amber found a text from Nina sent to the Sibuna group chat ordering everyone to meet in Sibuna Clearing for the initiation ceremony before lunch. What had started out as a joke and way for Amber to bond with Nina and Fabian had taken on new meaning by the end of last year. With the discovery of Victor's murder cult and seeing the effects of his experiments, the Sibuna club had unconsciously started to believe in the Egyptian gods. Not in the sense that Amber replaced her own belief of the Christian god, but when you had seen what she had, not believing was no longer an option. Which was all a long-winded way of saying that the sacrifices to the house gods were not just a figure of speech. Hopefully the others would take this task as seriously as the situation required.

"Ready to go Neens?" Amber asked slipping on her coat.

"Yeah, I think some of the others already left for the clearing" agreed her roommate. Putting on her own coat and heading out the door.

When the pair arrived at the clearing, they found Patricia, Alfie and Jerome building the fire.

"Hey guys!" Nina greeted. "You guys ready for this?"

"Yeah, it'll be nice to be an official group member" replied Jerome.

"Yeah, and I'll be glad to have finally made my sacrifice to the house gods" revealed Patricia. "I've been involved with Sibuna this whole time but never had my own initiation".

"Why weren't you initiated last year Trix?" asked Jerome.

"I was just focused on finding Joy. The whole mystery and cult take down was second to my own search for her. And when I finally got her back, the danger was over, and we were focused on finals. I guess it just kinda fell through the cracks" she explained.

"Hello, my lovely Sibunas!" called out Liliana as she dragged Fabian into the clearing behind her. "I'm so excited to do this!".