Two is Company (House of Anubis)

Chapter 56: 1881

They scoured the crypt for what felt like hours, but was probably more like thirty minutes. After all, it wasn't hard to cover the perimeter of the musty tomb, especially with five people poking at the wall and praying for a miracle in the form of another secret passageway. Joy had already sat down with her back to one of the statues in defeat, locked in a virtual war with the poor cell service to get an SOS out to Kira or Alfie, and KT had taken to dejectedly examining the hieroglyphs on the stone coffin in the center of the room. Fabian and Patricia were more stubborn about their search for a way out— more stubborn than Eddie, at any rate. They were both adamant that the Frobishers must have added some extra way out beyond the obvious main door and the tunnel off-shoot, though Fabian's assertion seemed more out of faith in the Egyptologists' genius, while Patricia's felt more like desperate, mounting panic.

Eddie knew she didn't do well with being locked in places, but she never really went into detail about why that was. It was only from Nina that he knew Patricia had been kidnapped by Rufus when she was fifteen, but he could never get what actually happened out of his ex. It remained a burden she seemed desperate to shoulder on her own. He wanted to comfort her, wipe that agitated expression off her face with that lopsided grin-and-smooch combo she'd always claimed to hate but still couldn't hide her blush when he used it on her; instead, Eddie kept on the opposite end of the crypt from Patricia. She didn't want him or his comfort.

Still, struggling with the frustration of helplessness and overwhelmed with the urge to do something, he turned his attention to KT, who also looked like she needed a friend. He dusted his hands off on his jeans and put a gentle hand on her shoulder. "Hey, KT," he greeted in a quiet voice. She startled, looking over her shoulder at him before sighing and turning her gaze back on the coffin. "You doing okay?"

She chuckled humorlessly. "Yeah... Hey, at least if I'm buried alive, I'm in the family tomb, right?" she replied, walking away from him to one of the doors they'd already tried. It lead to another room, which was according to Fabian seemingly built for Louisa, while another such room lead to one made for Sarah. Sarah was buried in another cemetery, and the five Sibunas had all made an unspoken pact to not check to see if Louisa's body was in her tomb or not. While they talked, it seemed that Fabian had finally abandoned his search, instead using the dim light from his phone to read over the hieroglyphics KT had been perusing earlier, likely trying to translate them. How he could do that, Eddie would never know— he was supposed to be the Osirian for gods' sake, but reading an ancient language was beyond his faculties.

They all leapt a foot in the air when KT pushed open the door to Sarah's empty grave, and what must have been five bats came screeching out into the main chamber. Most flew out a small hole in the glass skylight, while two of the nocturnal creatures found purchase on the ceiling, and their little black eyes peered down at the students almost judgmentally. Joy began to cry, and Patricia finally abandoned her search for a way out to rush to her best friend's side.

"It's okay," Fabian breathed once they'd gotten over their shock. "They're just bats."

"Right," KT exclaimed sarcastically, throwing up her hands. "'Just' bats in this 'just' crypt!"

"Well, they got out," Fabian pointed out. "Maybe we can."

Patricia scoffed from her spot beside Joy. "So we just have to wait around here long enough to grow wings?" she drawled, but Eddie could tell she was still shaken. "What we need is to get a message out to Alfie and Kira so they can get us out of here."

"There's no signal," Joy sniffled, wiping her eyes with the back of her sleeve. "I've tried everything, but the message keeps turning green." She held up her phone, and sure enough, her iMessage chats remained that tragic lime green color.