It's A Twin Thing | j. clarke [1]

twenty-two

-:- House of Yesterday / House of Victory -:-

Though the clue was difficult, somehow Fabian managed to come up with a theory. HIs theory being that 'to find the secret to the past, look beyond this world through glass,' referred to a mirror. The mirror in question was a standing mirror in the front hallway, next to the sarcophagus. It sounded correct, and no one opposed it when Fabian brought this up.

That's how Fabian, Nina and I found ourselves in the front hallway the day after we discovered the clue. We pulled the mirror away from the wall, trying to find where the next clue could be.

"Is there anything written on the back?" Fabian asked as Nina walked behind it.

"Nope," she sighed.

"'Look beyond the world through glass,'" Fabian muttered to himself. ""Beyond the world,' what does that mean exactly?"

I shrugged, thinking of my conversation with Anna in the cellar. If she was a ghost, which I unsure of, then it certainly would've been a conversation that was 'beyond the world,' but there was no glass involved. Anna had simply appeared, without invitation, and the more I thought about that fact the more I believed I'd imagined the entire encounter.

"What are you three doing?" Victor's voice echoed through the entry.

We turned sharply to see him standing on the stairs, leaning against the banister. His glare bore into us as we scrambled to come up with a good excuse.

"I was, um, just admiring this," Nina referred to the mirror as she pushed it back into place. "Is it Roman? Or, um, Victorian? I'm kind of an amateur antiques collector."

"Always snooping," Victor condemned. "Get off to school immediately."

I grabbed Nina's hand and the three of us were nearly toward the exit when Victor called our names once more.

"Ms. Martin, the both of you," he said. "It's very public spirited of you, I'm sure, to visit the sick and elderly. However, try and restrict your visits in future to weekends only."

"What visits?" Nina asked, trying to play it off. "I don't know what you're talking about."

If Victor hadn't been eyeing us so closely I would've elbowed her for her terrible lying, but I didn't want to give him any more of a reason to suspect us, or Sarah. If he knew where we were going, then he might start to wonder who it was and visit himself, and Sarah wouldn't be hidden anymore.

"Emily Grant," he clarified.

"Emily, of course," I jumped in. "Weekends only, got it."

Nina opened her mouth, most likely to protest Victor's sentiment, but I took hold of Nina's arm and pulled her away before she got herself in trouble. Nina was annoyed for the rest of the morning, limiting when we could see Sarah would also limit the amount of progress we could make on the clues.