What Lies Beneath ▸ House of Anubis [1]

chapter twenty-eight. house of reunion

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"Cleaning fluid?" Amber repeats doubtfully what Victor's just said the test results read. So far it's just her, me, Clarke, and Patricia down for breakfast this morning. "Alife drank cleaning fluid?"

"That is what the hospital said," Victor states. He's got to be lying. Otherwise he's been drinking cleaning fluid the past hundred years to keep himself living. He can't be that desperate.

"Yeah, right," Patricia scoffs quietly.

"Perhaps you would care to enlighten us on exactly what you think was in that bottle, Miss Williamson."

"Pass."

Victor turns around and leaves us be. Trudy comes in and Clarke's face lights up, saying, "Trudy-kins, how are you today?"

I bite back a laugh as Trudy answers, "Old enough and wise enough to know when you want something, Jerome. Out with it."

"Well, you know how Alfie and me are best mates, yeah? And now he's in a hospital bed, probably bored to death with no one to talk to except old men with hacking coughs and bad breath. I want the day off to go and visit him."

I speak up, pointing my fork at him. "Yeah, me, too. I want to go see him, make sure he's all right. He's my best friend."

Trudy nods. "Fine."

"Come on, Trudy, it's not like we've been—" Clarke cuts himself off from convincing her to let us go when he realizes she actually said yes. I nod at him. "Fine?"

"But not the whole day, though," she says. "You can have a couple hours this afternoon. Both of you can go."

A couple hours. I can do that. I can go a couple hours without killing him. Besides, it's for Alfie. I think we can put aside our rivalry for him.

"Um, Trudy," Amber remarks, "could I do that as well, please? I feel really bad that he doesn't have something nice to look at in there." I roll my eyes.

"Oh, okay," Trudy says. "I'll see what I can clear with Mr. Sweet."

Then Patricia says, "Trudy—"

"No, I can only get permission for three of you to go. You'll have to fight it out amongst yourselves."

—

"Of course I should be the one to go. Alfie loves me!"

"Amber, watch my lips: I am going to the hospital, not you."

I stand up and put myself between Patricia and Amber, telling them, "It's not like we have a matter of life and death at our fingertips—oh, wait, we do! Shut up for two seconds."