Two is Company (House of Anubis)

Chapter 67: The Road to Totality

The week crept by, then the weekend too, coming and going with no discernible progress. November 12th rolled around far too quickly, and Eddie had to admit things felt pretty serious. It was like they were in a stalemate of epic proportions, but now the adults had the slight lead.

The first attempt to steal Frobisher back had ended with Fabian and KT nursing wounds from his and Alfie's attempts to boost Eddie and KT up to one of the lower windows around the back of the Gatehouse. That had failed miserably when Fabian's entire weight gave out beneath him, and sent him and KT dropping into the bushes, which made it so Alfie lost his balance, and dropped Eddie too. Patricia and Kira's raucous laughter from their lookout posts had alerted Denby to their presence, and they'd all had to make a quick getaway.

The second attempt was to steal back the instructions, but given the fact Victor hated all of them in equal measure, trying to lure him out of his office long enough to snatch the parchment back was impossible. He merely sneered when Kira "surely broke her ankle falling down the stairs, Victor!" and scoffed when Alfie "scalded his flesh off trying to steal cookies out of the oven."

Safe to say, no one was willing to give it a third go-around, and they were stumped. The one consolation they had was that they were still in possession of the bracelet.

"Only one day to go!" Trudy sang from the kitchen while the battered and bruised Sibunas ate their breakfast Monday morning.

Eddie smiled tightly, hating the chipper reminder of their impending doom. "We know, Trudy," he muttered. "The eclipse is tomorrow!"

"That's kind of all we've been thinking about," Fabian said through gritted teeth.

"Well, Mr. Sweet will be very pleased to hear it!" she chirped, trotting further back toward the laundry room. "He just wants to make sure everyone knows what's coming!"

"An ancient evil is what's coming," Patricia griped, tossing back her orange juice like a shot.

"Come on, guys! I was sent here to fix this, we're a day away, and we still have no plan," KT said miserably, planting her head in her hands while Kira rubbed soothing circles on her back.

"I say we've exhausted our other options," Patricia said. "We should do like Kira suggests, and make sure this ceremony doesn't happen. If we can't do it, we sure as hell don't want them doing it."

Eddie couldn't help but let his disappointment through. "So we're just giving up? What about what Harriet said?"

"Yeah, Eddie, what about what Harriet said?" Patricia retorted, at the end of patience. "Because that was a month ago, and we fucked that up too."

"So Frobisher just stays asleep forever?" KT asked meekly before Eddie could go toe-to-toe with his ex over a bowl of cereal. "That's it?"

"Better than the whole Great Evil bit," Alfie pointed out.

"I just... was really hoping to see him at peace," she sighed.

"And if we do the ceremony right, we will!" Eddie insisted. "Guys, come on. We can't give up. What kind of an Osirian would I be if I let you all down?"

"Uh, a smart one?" Patricia said. "Eddie, the last Osirian who tried to screw with things he didn't understand went mad and tried to kill, like, all of us. Not that I think you're suddenly gonna snap, but Nina left so we wouldn't get into trouble."

"Safe to say, I think we're well passed that point," Fabian remarked, then sighed. "Still, I haven't told her just how bad things are... and I don't want to have to. I think Patricia and Kira are right. It's time to go on the defense. We can't let them get the bracelet or the Descended."