House of Anubis: House of Mistakes

Part XXX

"Frobisher..."

He stood there, wheezing in the doorway, halfway to collapse, and a million thoughts raced through Fabian's head as he jumped to his feet and vaulted over the bed. "No, no, no, no!"

Robert sunk to his knees, gasping for breath and crawling towards Fabian at an agonizing pace. It was like something out of one of those stupid zombie movies Alfie sometimes forced the house to watch, except this wasn't some ghoul from Night of the Living Dead. This was someone far more real and potentially far more dangerous.

It took Fabian a second to realize he was babbling, the stream of weak threats and frightened pleas spilling out of his mouth and all over the floor. He was cornered, his back pressed against the wall, and still Robert advanced. He fumbled for his phone and hit KT's contact with shaking fingers. She needed to know he knew, needed to know what was happening.

"You have to listen to me," Robert wheezed, clutching at his chest. "I'm sick!"

"No, you are evil!" Fabian bellowed back, surprised at the ferocity in his own voice. He couldn't be sure if KT had picked up, but he thought he could hear her panicked voice faintly repeating his name. "Don't you come any nearer! I know why you're here, Frobisher!"

Tears sprung to the man's eyes as he struggled for air. "Please, I just need your help," he begged, and Fabian tried to make a break for it. "I need to get back to the Gatehouse!" His fingers grasped weakly at the hem of his uniform jacket, but Fabian didn't stop moving until he was in the hall. "To the tank! No! Please, stop!"

Robert collapsed onto the floor in a pitiful heap, crying out in pure agony, enough so that it gave Fabian pause. Even after he was in the foyer, the old man's tormented wails echoed down the hallway, tugging at his heartstrings. He did sound like he was in serious trouble...

It's a trick, Fabian's brain warned him. After all you've just seen, are you really going to go back in there and get yourself captured?

But he's still a person, his conscience argued. And if it's not a trick, you've just left a sick, suffering man to die on your bedroom floor. Could Fabian live with himself if he let that happen? He bit his lip and looked at the door, then down at his phone. The call had gone through, but KT had hung up. He pocketed the device and took a step back toward the exit, but one more thought stopped him. If anyone can fix what's already gone wrong, it's Robert. Just... be careful.

Fabian was smart. Hell, he'd outsmarted Frobisher tons of times already; he was confident enough that even if it was a trick, he wouldn't succumb.

Robert howled in pain again, and before he could decide against it, he shuffled cautiously back down the hall and eased open the door.

—

"Run the scene again, please," Mara sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "You're supposed to be in love. I've seen better chemistry between ammonia and bleach!"

Eddie raised his eyebrow. "Doesn't that make mustard gas?"

Way to give him ideas, Mara, KT groaned inwardly, tightening her grip on her copy of the script. She needed to get out of there, find Patricia, and find that summer house.

"Yes, it does," Mara snapped, going back to her scribbling. "Now run it again. Joy and Jerome will be back any minute, and the final scene is almost ready."

KT smiled tensely and turned back to Eddie, trying not to make it too obvious to anyone who wasn't Alfie that she was well beyond uncomfortable.

She cleared her throat and began the line again, but before she could finish, her cellphone rang from where she'd tucked it into the waistband of her skirt. She jumped, startled, and Mara rounded on her. "Why do you have your phone on you?" she asked accusingly. "This is our final tech rehearsal! No phones!"