Two is Company (House of Anubis)

Chapter 75: Slobmys eht wollof

"Harriet?" Eddie asked dumbfoundedly, staring at the frightened woman trembling on the bed in front of him. "What are you doing here?"

"This is the real Ms. Denby?" Patricia whispered from somewhere behind him wonderingly.

Eddie watched Harriet's eyes snap to Patricia and cautiously take her in, before they nervously focused back on him.

"Harriet, it's me, KT," said KT gently, offering the woman a little wave. "We met at the hospital."

Harriet stared at them mutely, and Eddie sighed. Sometimes she could be so lucid, and other times... "Harriet, you don't have to be afraid," he tried again, inching toward her. "Do you remember us?"

No sooner had the words left his mouth did Harriet start screaming at the top of her lungs, startling him backward into his twin who'd been hovering anxiously behind him.

"Jesus Christ!" she yelped, stumbling back into Fabian who only barely just managed to keep the two of them from falling over.

Harriet screamed again, louder this time if it were possible, and KT and Patricia stuck their heads into the hallway in a panic to make sure no one was coming to check on the noise.

"Harriet! Harriet, please!" Eddie shushed her frantically, crouching down at her bedside. "We don't want to wake your evil sister!"

She stopped screaming abruptly, regarding him with a rapidly softening expression. "You're the boy from the hospital," she whispered almost reverently.

He let out an audible sigh of relief. "Yeah," he breathed. "Yeah, it's me, and this is KT, Fabian— you remember them— and Patricia, and my sister Kira."

"That's nice," she replied pleasantly. "And I'm Harriet. Nice to meet you."

"Um, yeah," Eddie said awkwardly, casting a look over his shoulder at his friends, "I know; we've met before."

"Oh, yes, we had such fun."

A door opened somewhere close by, and immediately they were all on edge again. "Eddie," Kira hissed warningly, smacking him hard on the shoulder.

"Eddie, come on," Patricia insisted, putting a hand on his shoulder and squeezing.

He bit his lip, loathe to leave Harriet behind again in such a miserable situation, but there was no choice. He scrambled to his feet and tried to keep his smile reassuring. "We have to go, but we'll be back for you," he promised. "Hang tight, Harriet! I promise we will!"

He shut the door behind him and locked it back up to avoid raising suspicion; the last thing he saw of Harriet were her wide glassy eyes, glinting in the dim light.

—

They made it back to the house undetected, and split off into their respective groups: Kira and KT were spending the night together— he didn't want to know— and Patricia had bid them a quiet goodnight. She seemed shaken, but then again, they all did. Most of their housemates were already in bed, given it was just past curfew, and Eddie couldn't hear much of anything from Alfie and Jerome's room. That meant they were probably sound asleep.

As Fabian dressed for bed, Eddie sat at the computer, pouring over the footage from the spy cameras. There was something he missed, something he could find that could help them with Harriet. There had to be.

"No sign of Frobisher?" his roommate asked after almost an hour had passed. It was nearing midnight.

Eddie shook his head. "No, but he's in there. I know it... We'll have to get back in there and talk to Harriet. If this thing can't tell us what's going on, maybe she can."