The Curse of the Osirians

House of Masks

Layla's POV

"Hey, you're back," Fabian said as he and Patricia entered our room.

"Did you find what you were looking for?" Patricia asked.

"Not exactly, but we did find this in the attic," Nina told them as I handed Fabian the newspaper.

"Whoa," Fabian said.

"This photo was actually taken in 1960?" Patricia exclaimed.

"Yep," I confirmed.

"Rufus and Victor have hardly changed," Patricia observed.

"Yeah, and Sarah's aged normally, we know," I told her.

"So does this mnn the elixir," Fabian started to say.

"Really does exist after all? Well, yeah, it looks like it does," my sister finished his sentence. Aww how cute.

"And Victor isn't the only one taking it," Fabian realized.

"You know when Rufus helped us in that warehouse? He said him, Victor, Sarah and Charlotte went back a long way. Well, looking at this, it seems they were once friends, even.
Or business partners at least," I told everyone. I decided not to mention the bit about Sarah saying they might have loved Charlotte.

"Sarah said something today about being betrayed," Nina said.

"Guys, supper's ready. What's this, a little secret meeting? Wicked," Alfie said as he came into our room.

"Alfie, will you tell Trudy we'll be down in a minute? We just need to finish some homework," Nina asked him.

"Yeah alright then, um but keep me in the loop, yeah? We're like family now," he said as he slapped Fabian on the back and then left.

"Ok. Did we miss something?" Nina asked confused.

"Ugh, we should have had a meeting to discuss this, guys. Alfie could jeopardize the whole thing!" Nina exclaimed as they filled us in on Alfie attacking Mrs. Andrews in class.

"Nina! They're allowed to make decisions without us, though I do wish you had talked to us first," I agreed.

"We just told him a few things. That's all. Enough to keep him at bay," Patricia said.

"Still, this is exciting. It proves we were right all along. About Victor, the elixir," Fabian cheered.

"We still haven't got any proof, though. That stuff we've got is just water and herbs according to the toxicology report," Patricia pointed out. Though personally I was thinking it very likely that it was exactly what a supposed elixir of life would be made of. I mean what was she expecting, some never before heard of secret ingredient?

"We picked up the wrong stuff. That's all. There were loads of bottles in the cellar," Fabian rushed to say.

"Well, in that case, don't we need to," Patricia said.

"Go back down there?" Nina nodded as we all shared glum looks as we headed downstairs to get Amber. She was sitting next to Alfie though.

"Amber, could we have a word, please? Uh, just Amber. Sorry, Alfie," Fabian said. I felt really bad.

"Thanks a bunch," he complained.

"Sorry, Alfie!" Nina called out as he stormed out of the room. I looked over to see Jerome staring at us and gave him a little wave which I was pleased to see he returned.

"So we need to decide who's going to go down to the cellar and get the real elixir," Patricia stated.

"Why aren't we including Alfie? He said he was one of us now," Amber asked.