Touch of Fear ▸ House of Anubis [2]

chapter thirty-two. house of curfews

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Patricia closes the door to our Sibuna room after we pile inside, remarking, "If we don't get the amulets back from Victor, there's no way we'll ever get back in the tunnel."

Nina crosses her arms. "We can kiss the Mask goodbye."

What? No, you can't give up. I don't want to be in your head forever! You better get those amulets back, Ashley, or else I'll—

The second the tension in the room changes, I'm using the silence phrase.

Amber puts an arm around Nina. "Don't worry. It could be worse." Then she mouths (read: loudly whispers) to us, "It really couldn't."

I roll my eyes, glancing around at them and about to open my mouth to ask what we do next when Victor's voice shouts from downstairs, "Whoever you are, wherever you are, know this. It's nearly..."

"Pin drop," the six of us mutter. Ten o'clock. Curfew.

Patricia and Alfie start to head toward the door but Fabian stops them by saying, "No, no, wait. We can do this. We can do this. We can get them back."

"How?" Patricia asks. "We blew our once chance of grabbing them when he took them off."

"So we take them while he's got them on. Say he was super tired. Like, the most tired a human being has been, ever."

I look at him strangely, not necessarily understanding what he's getting at. Is he suggesting taking the amulets off him while he's sleeping? Alfie replies, "Doesn't that kind of rely on him being human?"

Nina seems to get it, though. "Yeah, okay. So we keep him up all night. And then when he does fall asleep..."

"Nothing will wake him," Fabian finishes.

"And we make our move."

A smile appears on my face as I look between them. "Oh, this is going to be fun."

—

We came up with a plan for each of us to keep Victor awake all night. The first thing for Sibuna to do in Operation K-V-A-S-W-C-G-T-A-W-H-A (AKA Operation Keep Victor Awake So We Can Get The Amulets While He's Asleep) was for Amber to run outside, making the security lights turn out. That would get Victor out of his office and outside to investigate.

"Is he out there?" I whisper to Amber as she comes back through the doors to the girl's corridor. She nods, and I smirk. Point one – Sibuna. "All right. I need to get something from Alfie's box of pranks and then point two is ours."

I sneak down the stairs, making sure Victor hasn't come back in yet, and go to Alfie and Jerome's room. I knock lightly, opening the door. "Alfie?"