Two is Company (House of Anubis)

Chapter 63: The Fire Alarm

They continued to chant the incantation over and over, sparks of blue lightning sputtering around inside the glass dome like the plasma ball Eddie's mom got him and Kira for their eleventh birthday from the American Museum of Natural History. They continued until it seemed like the right time to stop, considering there'd been no instructions of exactly when the ceremony was over— almost like whoever had written the directions down had figured it'd be obvious as to when the whole thing was complete.

Clearly not, Eddie griped to himself as the three of them uncertainly lowered their outstretched hands and peered at Frobisher's still features behind the dirty glass.

After a long moment of silence, Fabian was the first to speak: "Has it worked?" he asked hesitantly. "Is he awake?"

Eddie shrugged, not taking his eyes off the tank. Every moment that dragged on was like witnessing the Schrödinger's cat paradox, if the cat was an 142 year-old Victorian-era Egyptologist in what looked like a cross between steampunk and space race technology.

"Say something!" KT demanded, her voice hushed and anxious.

"Why don't you say something?" he retorted incredulously, giving his friend the side-eye. "You're his great-granddaughter!"

"And you're the Osirian, big boy," she parried, and Fabian jerked his head up and down in agreement.

Damn, they had him there. Being the Osirian was such a pain in the ass sometimes, truly. "Fine," he grit out and took a few circumspect steps toward the tank, half afraid it might explode in his face. He couldn't think of anything of substance to say, so all he managed was a meek, "Hi."

Fabian was on his case in a heartbeat. "Oh, Eddie, he's in a tank, he's not gonna hear that," he said in exasperation.

"Okay, calm down!" Eddie snapped sheepishly. "Hello? Mr. Frobisher-Smythe? Hello?!" He pulled his phone out of his pocket and turned the flashlight feature on, shining it into the man's face; he even went so far as to tap on the glass, but Frobisher didn't stir even the slightest bit. Eddie's heart sank into his stomach. "Nothing! Are you kidding me? Nothing! He's still sleeping like a baby!"

"Are you sure?" Fabian croaked, shoving him out of the way and pressing his nose up to the dome. "No, no, no... It has to have worked, surely!"

"Well, I don't know, Fabian," Eddie snarked, "but we clearly did something wrong!"

"No, it can't be..."

KT looked like she was on the verge of tears. "God, fuck this!" she spat, blustering past them toward the grate. "If it didn't work, then can we please get out of here?"

"Uh, aren't you forgetting something?" Eddie asked, aware he was acting on frustration but not giving much of a shit. "Your brilliant plan to have us locked in here."

"Well, that's just great!" she exclaimed, throwing up her hands, before stalking off to one of the least dusty corners of the crypt and plopping down. "Spectacular! So we failed to perform the ceremony and now we're stuck in this crypt with dead people!"

"Well, that tends to be where dead people are!" Eddie remarked snarkily.

"Eddie," Fabian sighed disapprovingly, while KT began to cry.

"What? What did I do?"

—

"I don't think I can live like this," Mara admitted hollowly, staring into her cup of hot chocolate.

Kira distractedly hummed in agreement as she poured the water from the kettle into her own cup, watching the hot chocolate powder swirl up in a dark brown cloud. Now that she was away from Willow's sweet yet constant nattering, she could properly worry about her friends stuck in the crypt. Patricia and Alfie still weren't back yet, and she'd heard no word from either of them. Not to mention the fact that Victor and her dad were currently upstairs playing cards and gossiping about how Denby had gone absolutely mental and was tearing up the campus in search of her "lost property."