What Lies Beneath ▸ House of Anubis [1]

chapter eighteen. house of flames

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            It was easy to say that we were freaked out when we heard Victor's voice on the recordings. We turned off the phonograph and left the attic as quick as we can, and because Victor was still at the school, we never ran into him. Trying to come up with logical reasons why his voice was heard on the recordings was.... difficult. Especially since Sarah specifically named Corbierre, his stuffed raven that sits on the desk of his office. The cylinders being edited didn't seem like a plausible theory.

            Basically, we don't know.

            I open up the mirror in the bathroom, grabbing my toothbrush to brush my teeth before getting ready for school. Nina and Amber have come with me, my hair wrapped in a towel from the shower I took about half an hour ago. I try to push the towel back onto my head, 'cause it's been coming loose, as Amber says, "I forgot my toothpaste. I'll be right back."

            I shrug as she leaves, still holding the towel up. "I've never understood how people keep these things on! It always comes loose whenever I do it."

            "Let me help," Nina says, taking the towel off. She gathers my hair up and faces me toward the mirror. "Watch the mirror, I'll teach you," Nina says. "It's really easy once you get the hang of it."

            I nod as she successfully wraps my hair up in the towel to finish drying. Amber still hasn't returned. "Where does she keep her toothpaste that it takes this long to find? Maybe she needs help. Come on."

            Nina and I walk across the hall and open the door to our bedroom, only for us both to stop when we see Amber in conversation with Patricia. What's she doing in our room?

            "Oh, hey," Nina greets.

            "Hi," Patricia says pointedly. "Thanks for that, Amber. Catch you later, yeah?"

            I watch as Patricia leaves, turning back to Amber, who looks shaken. "What'd she want?"

            "You okay?" Nina asks instead. "You look like you've seen a ghost. Well, you know what I mean."

—

            It's never fun listening to Andrews drone on and on about French, especially when she's not even talking and we're supposed to be working on classwork silently. Today's lesson is especially not fun. Nina and Fabian are sitting behind Amber and me and I've pretty much entirely zoned out. My mind is repeating over and over the two voices on the phonograph.

            "Mr. Rutter," Andrews' voice says, dragging me out of my zoning. I glance behind me at him, eyes widening when I see he's got headphones in his ears that are plugged into the MP3. "Listening to music whilst you're supposed to be studying shows very little respect to me."