Touch of Fear ▸ House of Anubis [2]

chapter sixty-seven. house of collections

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            The morning sun streams in through the curtains as Nina, Amber, Fabian, and I stand in front of the open dollhouse, hoping for something new. But nothing has changed from last night. The figurines are in the same exact spot they were.

            "The figurines are still in the entrance hall," Fabian states.

            "Great," Nina says plainly. "But the riddle doll definitely isn't. So that must mean—"

            "They're pointing at something else."

            "But what?" I question.

            Fabian unfolds my zodiac sketch, glancing from it to the dollhouse before stating, "Osiris."

            Amber replies, "Gesundheit."

            "No, look. It's right there on the chart," Fabian says, showing us. The Osiris symbol is right opposite the one for sarcophagus. There is a sarcophagus in the entrance hall, but there was nothing made of glass in it, Alfie checked. "Remember that old mosaic that was in the hall? That's of Osiris."

            "Oh, yeah," Amber says. Oh, that thing, I forgot about that. "Oh, it's really awful."

            I point at the symbols on the zodiac. "Osiris is right opposite sarcophagus."

            "Which means he is locked in stone," Fabian explains, "like a mosaic. Why didn't I think of this sooner?"

            "Don't worry about that," Nina tells him. "Let's just go get it."

—

            Alfie came out of his room just in time to join the four of us in searching the hall for the mosaic of Osiris. Patricia hasn't yet joined us, but I'm not sure we'd find anything even with her help. We've been up and down this entire hallway twice looking for our next reflector, but it's not here. The mosaic is gone and I have no idea when it disappeared or where it could have gone.

            "I can't find it anywhere!" Nina exclaims.

            The door to the corridor upstairs opens and Joy and Patricia come down the stairs. Those of us who have been searching frantically before someone sees us and wonders what we're doing quickly act nonchalant, like this is something we do every day, hanging out in the hall for no reason.

            It apparently doesn't work. "Everything okay?" Joy questions. "You're looking a bit frazzled."

            "Yeah," Nina answers. "Yeah, I'm fine. I just, um, I'm looking for my..."

            The five Sibunas on the ground all wind up giving different excuses. Nina says phone, Amber says hairbrush, Fabian says toothbrush, Alfie says shoes, and I say necklace. We should coordinate lies next time, because this one was all over the place.