Touch of Fear ▸ House of Anubis [2]

chapter fifty-three. house of heists

☾ ☽

            "One year, we will have a nice, quiet year," I muse aloud, watching Kid Alfie while he sleeps on the cot in our room. This is insane, even by Sibuna standards. "One without something stolen from Tutankhamun's tomb by Frobisher-Smythe, without crazy spirits, maybe we'll even have a dance where no one almost dies."

            "A girl can dream," Nina remarks with a heavy sigh before throwing Amber and I a hopeful smile, causing the two of us to laugh and her to join in.

            The moment is interrupted by Fabian, who bursts into the room and starts, "You won't believe it—" But then he stops abruptly, like he's forgotten what he was going to tell us.

            "Are you okay?" Nina asks.

            "Hm?"

            "What's wrong?" she asks again, but he doesn't seem to remember what he was going to tell us. It seemed really urgent. "Okay, try really hard. What was it?"

            "I don't know," Fabian tells us. "I don't know. I remember it was massively important."

            "Okay, try really hard to remember," Nina says. "What was it?" She snaps her fingers next to his ears, and he sighs, putting his hand over his face. He can't remember what he wanted to tell us. "Never mind. Unless it helps us with the Song of Hathor, it can't be that big a deal."

            "Well, speaking of," I pipe up, "the only thing Anubis could definitively say about it is that it's short. Still doesn't know the tune or any lyrics it may have."

            "Senkhara's been around for a zillion years, right?" Amber asks. A zillion seems exaggerating things a bit. "She might know it. Why don't you ask her?"

            On the surface, seems like a pretty good idea. Ask the only person who could know. But digging deeper, she might just curse us even worse than she already has. If only Anubis could remember the tune!

            "That's actually not as crazy as it sounds," Fabian comments. I raise an eyebrow. "Is it?" He looks back at Amber. "Is it?"

            "What?" Nina says, shaking her head, clearly not all right with this. "No, no, no. No."

—

            "What are we going to do with the kid?"

            Kid Alfie scoffs at my description of him. He's sitting on Amber's bed while she, Nina, and I are on mine, trying to determine what exactly to do with him today. "The kid?" he repeats. "I'm your best friend."

            I shake my head, completely unnerved about this. "Not until you get back to normal, kid."

            Nina sighs. "Well, we can't leave him alone here all day," she says. Who knows what kind of mischief Alfie could get into being here alone? "And I really can't take any more time off school."