What Lies Beneath ▸ House of Anubis [1]

chapter fifty. house of lights

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            "Do my eyes still look like an albino rabbit's?"

            I've got to say: of all the appearance-related things I expect Amber Millington to say, comparing her eyes to an albino rabbit's is not one of them. Her eyes don't look red to me at all, though. Mine probably look worse, though at least I was able to sleep last night knowing Victor didn't catch Alfie in the cellar.

            "These late nights are really making havoc with my beauty regime."

            "Has anyone seen Alfie this morning?" Nina asks. "I hope he's okay."

            "Here he is," Fabian says with a smile, eyes on the door behind us.

            I turn around, finding that Alfie's coming in for breakfast. Seeing that he's safe is a lot better than just hearing it. Everyone greets him with different questions—Amber asks how he is, Patricia how he did last night, and Fabian if he found anything. At that, Alfie smiles at us, reaches inside his blazer, and nonchalantly removes the same bottle we saw Victor with the other night.

            "Well done, Alfred!" I exclaim, high-fiving him with his free hand. We have the elixir—now we just have to figure out what to do with it.

            "Yeah, good job, Alfie," Nina adds with a grin.

            "What about the other thing?" Fabian inquires.

            "The demisphere?" Alfie says. "I looked everywhere but I couldn't find anything that looked right."

            Patricia suggests, "Maybe it's not down in the cellar after all."

            Pursing my lips, I recite our riddle, as though saying it out loud will give us a new clue we didn't know before. "Unleash the power and light your way to the demisphere hidden below..."

            "You okay, boo?" Amber asks suddenly.

            I look back at Alfie, who's facing the kitchen all of a sudden, and his body language doesn't exactly scream positive. But he turns around when she asks that, and says to us, "Why did you all disappear and leave me last night?"

            "We didn't," Patricia tells him as my eyebrows furrow. Alfie spoke to us himself, he should know we didn't leave him.

            "We only went back to our rooms," Nina adds, looking at him confused, "when we knew you were safely back in your room."

            "How did you know I was safely back in my room?" Alfie questions, now as confused as we are.

            "Because you told us," Amber reminds him.

            "I did?"

            How does he not remember this? I nod, frowning as I say, "Over the walkie-talkie. A-Dog, Other A-Dog?"