Emily (Hold)

Twenty One

"You guys are really pathetic right now" everyone at the breakfast table looks at me, the truth of Joy writing the article has come out "I mean" shaking my head "yeah, Joy wrote the article about Nina but do any of you realize she's been hurting since Nina got here?" I found her crying in the bathroom stall, truth be told Joy and I don't have a friendship like I do with the rest of Sibuna minus Nina but I realized she and I are similar in many ways. For one: her mom is in the military like how my humans parents were, second: she's been losing her friends to Nina like me. I mean Nina got everyone to finish that one chamber, didn't even bother to talk to me about it. Third: she's been interrupting any conversation I'm trying to have with my friends about what happened and who my parents are "No. Since Nina arrived Joy has been pushed out" looking down at Patricia "last year Patricia you gave me so much shit because I was new and Joy suddenly disappeared and how you all seem to have forgotten Joy yet here Joy is and you all forget that she exists, you all call yourselves her friend but right now I don't even see her so called friends" looking at Nina "yeah your grandmother is in the hospital and it was low for Joy to write about you in such a nasty light but since coming here you have been making everything about you and having Joy be forgotten" looking around the table "you all may want to make Joy a bad guy but she was just trying to do something to ease the pain of losing her friend" looking down at Patricia "and you call yourself her best friend"

Leaving the room with my bag, I see Joy and take her hand "You didn't have to do that" she shakes her head

"I did" nodding my head "we're going to have some breakfast together away from them"

"But" she motions to the house as we walk off to the local town that is about twenty minutes away, I text my mom Hathor to see if she minds saying Joy and I will be late and she says it's fine "didn't you just eat?"

Looking over at her "I could barely eat, not with how any of them are treating you—now" pulling out my iPad I show Joy what I recently found "I know you wrote one article and Mara wrote the others but maybe you could try to help her"

She looks at it "Best Student Website?"

"I already signed you and Mara up" she looks at me shocked "you and Mara and excellent writers, especially Mara"

"So are you" she shakes her head "that book you wrote, that fictional tale about what our lives were like in Anubis House last year? Amazing" yeah, I wrote a somewhat fiction/nonfiction story of what happened in Anubis House but instead I changed all the characters names and the name of the houses and everything.

"If anyone asks" shaking my head "I'll say I based it off of the school and the opportunity but I won't tell them the truth, no one could be ready for that. Now, back to the contest—you and Mara have a real shot at winning, just talk to Mara and convince her but also tell Mr. Sweet"

"Of course" she hugs me "thank you Emily" pulling away "I know I haven't been the greatest person but your forgiveness means a lot"

"You have nothing to ask my forgiveness for" shaking my head "besides, Nina is a toxic person. Because of her all of Sibuna's lives are in danger" 

"What?" She asks

Nodding my head "Your the only one I trust right now Joy, because you see the truth about Nina but also because you know what we all went through last year. Nina has been acting like she understands and was there too"

"Back to Nina putting our friends lives in danger?" She asks

"Yeah" I show her a picture of one of the marks I took before "This is the Mark of Anubis, our friends plus Nina has the mark. They only have one more month left to live because I found out all those with the mark have half a year left to live or Anubis will collect their souls"

"Oh my god" she's horrified then looks at me "why don't you have the mark? Our friends have it but"

"Because the God Anubis removed it for me" she stops and I nod my head "it's a long story but I'm not a normal Paragon" shaking my head no "you remember the couple that arrived a couple weeks ago?" She nods her head "they are my birth parents. Their the Horus and Hathor"

She looks shocked "You mean...as in the actual Egyptian Gods?"

"Yeah" nodding my head "I know why the mask we are looking for is for but also what happens if Nina or I puts it on, especially me"

"What happens?" She asks

"The ghost Senkhara, that's her name" Joy is the only one who could possibly believe me now "she wants to go to the Afterlife but my father Horus made it clear that anyone who wishes to enter the Egyptian Afterlife must have done good deeds. That their soul is pure. Her soul is anything but pure and she knows she's going down to Hell"

"So the mask is a one way ticket for her to Heaven?" I nod my head "but why you or Nina?"

"We have corporeal bodies and my dad told me that only corporeal bodies can wear the mask" shaking my head as we get to a coffee shop and buy some food "if Nina wears the mask she goes to heaven or god please she goes down to Hell" she lets out a laugh as we sit down to eat "but if I wear the mask I could change someone into an immortal or bring someone back from death"

"Wait" she asks "if you met Anubis, why don't you call him now of the spirit"

"Because she grants the Mark of Anubis" explaining the conundrum "until she removes them our friends are in danger and I doubt Anubis will willingly take back the marks without a price"

"How did your mark go away then?" She asks

"My dad Horus" shaking my head "this all feels so unreal yet I remember it all and it's all just so amazing to remember and live through"

"So what's it like being the daughter of two gods?" She asks

Shaking my head "At first shocking, especially when you fight literal man bulls"

"Man bulls?" She asks