Tears of Gold: House of Anubis

Jerome & Amber LIV

Summary: Jerome figures out what happened to his gem. Amber returns home from the hospital.

✨Evie's Notes✨: Hope you enjoy the new chapter! Let me know your favorite part in the comments!

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Try as he might Jerome couldn't stop thinking about the missing gem. As he snuck back into the library after his shift, Jerome thought that he had done a wonderful job holding out as long as he had. Peering around the sarcophagus Jerome waited impatiently for Jasper to finish up his work and leave. Luckily, he didn't have to wait too long before Jasper gathered his belongings and headed back to town for the night.

Opening the laptop, Jerome was surprised to find that the curator didn't have a password set. Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, he opened the search engine and pulled up gmail, where he found the account locked.

"Uggh, of course the man doesn't secure his laptop, but he decides to password protect his email? Paranoid old wanker. Now what would your password be?".

Jerome quickly guessed a variety of passwords including Tutankhamun, Horus, Anubis, The Nile, Pyramid, Fabian and Mummy. All of these were wrong, and Jerome was left with only one more guess before he would be locked out of the account for good and an alert would be sent to his boss. Knowing that this last guess had to be a good one, Jerome thought hard before hesitantly entering, 'Collector'. He held his breath as the page loaded and then let out a little cheer when the screen showed Jasper's emails.

Jerome quickly scrolled through the man's inbox looking for evidence of his crime. It did not take him long to find the email thread titled 'Frobisher Gem' or to read the incriminating messages it contained. Hitting print on the emails Jerome confidently declared "It looks like you have got some explaining to do Jasper".

He jumped when his boss' voice unexpectedly sounded behind him. "That makes two of us Jerome".

Whirling around Jerome angrily yelled "I cannot believe that you just gave it away. And after everything that I went through to get it back! Sweat! Tears! GOOSE POO!".

"I could report you for hacking into a faculty email address" threatened Jasper weakly.

"Just try it gem rustler" cackled Jerome.

"I'm truly sorry Jerome. But the Collector is not someone that you can refuse. If you do... well I've been told stories of what happens to you and those close to you. So please Jerome, drop this, for Fabian's sake more than mine".

"And what? Just let him get away and keep it?" sputtered Jerome.

"The only way to get it back is to offer the collector something he wants even more".

"Go on..."

"The gem once belonged to the Frobisher-Smythe family. That makes it irresistible to the collector" explained Jasper.

"So, all we really have to do is find something bigger and better from the Frobisher back catalog". Jerome could totally handle this! Maybe Sibuna could come up with a list of possible items...

"Yes, then we would have a bargaining chip. But I've looked and the gem is the only item I have been able to secure. Look, it is past your curfew, and I only came back to grab a couple books..."

Jerome was about to argue when he caught sight of a familiar letter on the desk. Jasper had found that letter earlier in the evening and claimed it was from Trudy, Jerome swept it up with his coat and snuck it out of the building with him. Given Jasper's new sketchy behavior, he was almost sure that something had happened to the woman, but he needed a second opinion.