Touch of Fear ▸ House of Anubis [2]

chapter seventy-nine. house of phantoms

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            "No!" scream Patricia and I as we watch Nina disappear into the hole that appeared. No, this can't be happening! She can't be gone! Fabian shouts her name while Alfie and Amber stand on their squares in shock. Nina!

            "Where did she go?" Amber questions on the verge of crying. "Nina!"

            "Can you hear us?!"

            Patricia, Alfie, and I join in on shouting Nina's name. But there's no response, even with us yelling her name at the top of our lungs. No, Nina can't be dead! It's not possible. She just can't be! I take a deep and shaky breath, wiping tears off my face. It's not possible. She's not dead. It's just not possible.

            "Where is she now?" Amber sobs. "Can I get off the board?"

            "I don't know," Patricia says, turning back to Fabian. He's crying harder than any of us, whispering her name and repeating 'what have I done?' over and over. "Fabian...look, Fabian, it's not your fault, okay? Okay, you just need to focus and tell us what to do."

            "All right," he says, voice breaking. "Okay, um..."

            "Fabian," Alfie says again weakly when he doesn't tell us what to do.

            "Everyone retrace your steps."

            "I can't remember!" Amber says, and neither can I.

            "Amber, uh, shift to your left and then back down the side of the board."

            Carefully, Amber, Patricia, Alfie, and I retrace our steps back to the beginning of the board. We need to get our heads together and figure what exactly happened to Nina and where she is now. If she's... When all four of us are off the board, Robert Frobisher-Smythe's recorded voice plays from somewhere, "My warnings ignored, now count the cost. Continue the task, and all will be lost. But if fallen friends you wish to reclaim, you have no choice but to finish the game."

            I really hate Robert Frobisher-Smythe.

            "If we carry on," Amber says in a small voice, "we lose everyone, but...if we don't, we lose Nina forever."

            "Wherever she is, she must be okay," Patricia assures us. I glance at her before looking at Fabian. "Otherwise why would the message say 'reclaim' her?"

            "It doesn't mean she'll be back in one piece, though," Alfie says. He's singlehandedly gotten my worries to shoot through the roof again. However far Nina fell, wherever she is now...Fabian glances at him before running out of the room.

            Patricia rolls her eyes. "Way to spin it, Alfie."

            "What?"

            "Let's get out of here," I say, glaring at the guard that turned toward Nina.