House of Anubis: House of Mistakes

Part IV

It was impossible. Whoever had smashed the phonograph did the deed way too thoroughly to fix. Still, Fabian had to keep his cool if he didn't want to panic anyone. It didn't help, though, that while he was trying to work, Alfie and Eddie kept messing around. Their latest escapade was poking one of Fabian's knickknacks—a bust of a head (Don't ask him why he had it. His Uncle Ade had some excess oddities in his storeroom.)—as if to wake it up from a deep sleep. It was very annoying.

"Okay, guys... guys, listen," Fabian snapped, batting his housemates' hands away from the statue's face. "Robert seemed to have thought most of this through; maybe he left some spare parts for the phonograph in the secret room."

Eddie's face broke out in a lopsided grin, glancing between the two boys. "That's actually a good idea. Alfie and I will go check."

Thankful they were finally going to be useful and out of his hair, Fabian released a sigh of relief and returned to his tinkering. "Okay," he said.

"But it's lunch," Alfie whined. Eddie rolled his eyes, leaning in the doorway, while Fabian stared up at him, aghast.

"Alfie!" Fabian chastised. "We need to know what message Frobisher left for us, and you're concerned with lunchtime?"

Alfie shifted from foot to foot. "Fine! I made a sandwich for nothing, then." He gestured forlornly to his half-eaten meal, before following Eddie out of the room. Once they were gone, Fabian took a deep breath, blowing it out forcefully. Back to work

—

"Stop!" cried the scratchy recording of Frobisher's voice from the dummy in his image. It continued its warning until, Eddie reached forward and snapped the trip wire that set it off.

"Ah, yes," Alfie sighed, looking around the dusty room. "The crippling fear that Frobisher is going to jump out at us at any second." He was only half-joking.

Eddie snorted. "Never gets old, does it?"

Alfie shook his head. "No," he chuckled.

A beat of silence passed, and Eddie assessed the situation. Here they were: alone. Alfie was an idiot, so he wouldn't be too hard to trick. It wouldn't hurt to put another Sinner away before he enacted the plan Victor had gone over with him the day before. Eddie just needed to keep things mundane...at least as mundane as searching for spare parts to a century old phonograph in a secret room under a boarding house could be.

"Well," he said, moving further into the room. "Let's look for those spare pieces." Alfie nodded and began picking up anything that looked like a machine part. Eddie caught sight of a very creepy doll, and picked it up with great pleasure. "Hey, Alfie," he said, tapping him on the shoulder. Alfie turned around and let out a startled cry at the sight of a doll right in his face.

Eddie cackled as Alfie shook himself out. "Yeah, yeah, Eddie. Obviously I knew it was a doll."

Eddie composed himself, reveling in a flash of pride at further unsettling his housemate. Just as he opened his mouth to suggest an activity that would move them in the direction of the gatehouse, Alfie's voice cut through the stillness of the secret room:

"You know," he began. "Fabian wants answers, and this guy," Alfie gestured to the Frobisher-Dummy, "is the only one doing the talking."

Eddie blinked. Was Alfie possibly stupider than he'd thought. "What?"

Alfie nodded at the dummy with a cheeky smile. Eddie shook his head, dumbfounded. "No." Alfie inclined his head toward the dummy even more. "No!"