A Pocket Full of Rye • House of Anubis

iii. house of locks / house of eyes

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when the pie was opened,
the birds began to sing

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Nina runs up the stairs in the dark, stumbling over the top step in her haste. With the murky light of the moon filtered through the single stained glass window on the far wall, she can only make out the dim outlines of boxes and objects strewn about, and kicked up dust finds its way into her nose. She sneezes, haphazardly stumbling about as she searches blindly for a hiding spot.

"What's that?" Victor barks from the bottom of the stairs. "Who's up there?"

Nina swears under her breath, reaching anxiously for the chain around her neck, something to fidget with to calm her nerves as she figures out her next move. The locket is warm in her hands from where it's been resting against her chest, and she finds a surprising amount of comfort from just holding it in her hand. It grounds her enough to spur her on, deeper into the attic. She can hear Victor's heavy-footed gait on the stairs, and knows that if she's not hidden within the next twenty seconds, she's going to be first expelled, then deported. All this in mind, as her back hits the far wall, and she half-turns to grope her way along it in the hopes of finding some nook or cranny to call her own, the locket suddenly seems to heat up in her hand. Nina lets out an involuntary squeak of surprise as part of the wall gives-way under her weight, and she spins into an even inkier darkness than before. She feels around for the way out, but is met with only stone; Nina is effectively cut off from the rest of the attic. Before she can panic, she hears Victor's voice from the main room:

"Ugh, rodents!" he sneers, hissing at whatever he's noticed amid the old junk.

Nina holds her breath for as long as she dares, until Victor's footsteps fade away, leaving her in the embrace total, heavy silence. Now, she begins to panic. Where the hell is she? Is she in the walls? If she is, how the hell does she get out?

As all these questions and concerns bounce around her head like runaway pinballs, something inexplicably magical happens off to her side. A stone circle that juts slightly out of the wall begins to glow red, and Nina can make out an eye shape just like her locket through the hazy crimson. Speaking of her locket, she looks down at herself in the dim red light only to discover her locket, too, is glowing, and she lifts it up, balanced on her finger tips like it might burn her. It doesn't, though, only phosphoresces in her hand like an ember from the fire.

Nina lifts the locket to the stone circle and gasps as the light flares brighter for a moment, before going out completely. Gears immediately begin to turn somewhere just behind her, and the wall reopens. She rushes out into the main chamber of the attic, breathing the sweet, dusty air heavily; the wall grinds shut again behind her.

After a quick look to see if she's in any danger of Victor finding her after all, Nina pats the stone where she'd seemingly fallen through. It's solid as a rock and doesn't budge no matter how hard she pushes. Then, she notices the same eye-shape and circle just opposite the moving panel and she traces it delicately with her finger tip.

The locket must have touched it when I was groping around here blindly, she thinks. But how does it even work? Some kind of key? Nina picks up her locket with purpose and presses it into the groove; it glows again and the panel reopens.

Triumphant, she peers back into the hidden alcove with the intention of having a closer look, but is startled by a pair of glowing red eyes glinting in the back of the room. With a sharp squeak of terror, Nina abandons any plan of sleuthing in that moment, and dashes out of the attic down to the locked door.