What Lies Beneath ▸ House of Anubis [1]

chapter forty-nine. house of harsh

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            "The riddle definitely said 'light your way and find the demisphere hidden below,'" Nina informs the rest of Sibuna the next morning at breakfast, with no one but us in the room.

            "What's a demisphere?" Alfie questions.

            I shrug, removing my head from my hands and laying my arm on the table. "Half a hemisphere?" I suggest weakly.

            "Hidden below," Patricia repeats. "Does that mean hidden in the cellar?"

            "We still need to collect a sample of the elixir as well, remember?" Fabian remarks. "And we know where he keeps it now."

            Nina nods. "We need to go back down there."

            Amber leans toward me and whispers, "Why does she keep saying that?" Well, the cellar's the only place we can get to now that there's a padlock on the attic door. Louder, she adds, "Please don't make me go!"

            "To keep risks at a minimum," Fabian pipes up, "maybe we should just let one person go down there this time."

            "Great plan, Fabes!" Amber compliments. "I'll stay here and hold the fort."

            "We'll draw straws for it, yeah?"

            She's clearly not as pleased with that suggestion as the other one. At least drawing straws makes it fair. "Or we could just do it that way..."

—

            I double-check my bag before class starts for the six straws we're to use to choose who goes down into the cellar to get the elixir sample. I cut one of them to be shorter than the others, and that's our unlucky volunteer. And no, I'm not cheating at the straws, if I end up pulling the short straw then I'll go down. Unhappily, but I'll do it.

            "All six, still there," I confirm, taking them out of my bag to show the others. "At break, yeah?" The others—except for Alfie and Amber, who aren't here yet—nod to agree with the timetable. Where is Alfie, anyway? I glance around the classroom, spotting him over by the door with Jerome. And it looks far more serious than it usually does with them. My eyebrows furrow as Alfie treks over to us. "What were you and Jerome talking about?"

            "You know, the usual," Alfie shrugs it off. "Where to hang, what to scam, who to snarl at. I'm fed up with him to be honest. Are those the straws?"

            "Um, yeah," I say, putting them back in my bag and zipping it up. "We're drawing at break. That good for you?"

            Alfie nods, maybe a little too nervously. Nerves from possibly going back to the cellar, I'd bet. "Yeah, good." Then he abruptly sits down at the closest desk. I watch him strangely before sliding into the seat next to him, tilting my head as the others go about their business. "What?"