Touch of Fear ▸ House of Anubis [2]

chapter thirty-seven. house of hacks

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            "The search is complete," Victor announces what seems like forever later. "You may return to your rooms."

            "Oh, thank God," I mutter, gathering up my books. I've been trying to finish up my project for Mrs. Andrews' class and it hasn't been going so well. I've been a little distracted worrying about whether or not Victor would find the goose in Jerome and Alfie's room, but Alfie did mention to me they managed to hide it in the closet. But Victor never said anything, so I assume it's all safe. I add to Amber as I stand from Patricia's usual seat since Vera's in mine, "The silence was infuriating."

            "There will also be grave consequences," Victor adds as Patricia enters from wherever she ran off to while we were upstairs checking on the spare amulet, "for those of you who chose to ignore Vera's instructions to remain in here, starting with you, Miss Williamson. Where on earth—"

            Vera interrupts, "I think they've all been cooped up long enough, Victor."

            And surprisingly, he actually listens to her. "Very well," he says, deciding not to give Patricia even more detention than she already has, before he and Vera leave together.

            Amber looks at Trixie and questions, "Where did you run off to?"

            "What? Nowhere," Patricia claims. "Uh did I miss anything?"

            "I checked our room and everything's still there," Nina tells her. "Big relief, huh?"

            "Yeah," Patricia agrees, but there's something a little off about it. A little strained. "Huge."

            "So, guys," Nina continues with a smile, "I think we're ready. Victor's gonna be at the staff meeting tonight, so tunnel time in two hours?"

            Patricia's quick to protest against our schedule, which is still odd. Is she okay? "Or—or maybe we could just practice a bunch more times before we even think about—"

            "Look, Patricia, we already practiced upstairs. You'll be fine. So meet here later? Agreed?"

            "So long as Amber wears different shoes," I remark. Amber makes a face and Nina laughs.

—

            Well, with another hour left before Sibuna's due to meet before going down to the tunnels to see if we can make it through the next task, I decided it might be best to see how the goose thing is going. It's still incredibly gross, but like I said—I'm involved in this as well, so I might as well keep up to date with this gem.

            "Three musketeers, three musketeers," I remind myself quietly as I go down the hall to their room, trying to make sure I stay with this. Anubis kept trying to talk me out of it, so I used the final of the seven 'silences' that I won in the Wonky Donkey bet to make him shut up. "That's why I'm doing this. They are my friends, I am involved in this, and my life...is a stupid soap opera."