The Curse of the Osirians

House of Curfew

Layla's POV

"What are we gonna do?" Nina asked. "Without the amulets, we will never find the mask. The mission is over, done, caput. So am I," my sister said, refusing still to acknowledge the fact that I might only have a year and some change left to live.

"You never know Victor might suddenly become more nice, and what? It could happen," Amber said.

"Sure, right after Partricia becomes a guidance counsellor," I joked.

"Haha, like that's gonna happen," Patricia rolled her eyes at me.

"Guys, you know I could still go down there myself," I started to say.

"No way! I am not letting you go down there yourself!" Nina exclaimed.

"What?! Like you tried to do after the dance?" I argued back.

"I'm the big sister, it's my job to protect you," she said. I crossed my arms angrily.

"Listen, we just have to keep an eye on Victor.
He'll slip up eventually, then we're back in business," Fabian cut in.

"Hey, Mara! I have my piece for you," I told her. "It's nothing special just a write up of some date ideas for people in town," I told her.

"Thanks, Layla! I'm sure it's great," Mara replied.

*****

"Look at the straps, it's Victor, he's wearing the amulets," Nina whispered as we sat at the dinner table.

"He's wearing all of them," Fabian said as he spotted what Nina had seen.

"What should we do now?" Patricia asked.

"We just have to wait till he goes to sleep or something, then we can take them off him," Nima replied.

"Oh, Victor in his pajamas!" Patricia exclaimed.

"Ah, I may actually throw up," said Amber.

"What if he never changes his clothes?" Nina said.

"Then we make him. Watch," Amber said as she skipped into the kitchen.

"Ah, look what you've done, you, you silly girl.
Look at this mess. Oh, I'm soaked," Victor cried out as Amber pulled out the drain.

"I'm sorry, Victor, I didn't see you there!" Amber cried out.

"There's no harm done," Vera reassured her.

"Victor, you should probably take a shower," my sister suggested.

"Definitely, like right now?" Fabian added.

"No, thank you. I am quite all right. Somebody get me a clean shirt from the laundry," Victor demanded.

"I'll do it!" Alfie said hopping up from the table with a scheming look in his eyes.

"Hey, Layla, do you want to continue our Potter marathon tonight?" Eddie asked.

"Sure, unless you we should wait for Jerome to be free? He mentioned having plans tonight," I said.

"You're allowed to have fun without him, you know," Eddie pointed out. I nodded.

*****

"Oh, what on earth, irritating.Vera? Vera would you please fetch me some smoothing skin lotion?" we watched as Victor took off the necklaces and left his office; Alfie having put itching powder in his shirt.

"Oh, it worked. I'm definitely getting more of that stuff," Alfie exclaimed quietly.

"We need to go now," Nina hissed.

"That's it? No one's gonna tell me I'm a genius?" Alfie complained.

"Hurry up, he'll be back in no time," I told my sister.

"Where are they?" Nina cried.

"Hurry up, seriously!" I told Amber, Nina, and Fabian. "He's coming back!" They managed to get out of there in time and I sighed in relief.

"If we don't get the amulets back from Victor, there's no way we' ll ever get back in the tunnel.
We can kiss the mask goodbye," Nina said. She glared at me as she saw me opening my mouth to once again point out the I could get in.

"Don't worry, it could be worse," Amber said giving my sister a hug but mouthing, "really couldn't."

"Who ever you are, wherever you are, know this. It's nearly," we heard Victor shouting from downstairs.

"Pin drop," we all groaned.

"No, no wait. We can do this. We can do this.
We can get them back," Fabian said.

"How? We blew our one chance of grabbing them when he took them off," Patricia told him.

"So we take them all when he got them on.
Say he were super tired. Like the most tired that human beings have ever been in ever," Fabian said.

"What? Doesn't that kind of rely on him being human," Alfie joked.

"Yeah, ok, so we keep him up all night, and then why he does fall asleep nothing will wake him," Nina said.

"And we make our move," Fabian finished her sentence. Ugh. They weren't even dating anymore and still doing that all the time!

"This is gonna be good," Alfie said.

*****

I giggled as Nina, Fabian and I hid in our hiding spots and started blasting music in the living room with the remote.

"Yes, yes, very clever now turn that racket off or there will be consequences. Who is it?" We heard Victor shout as he entered the room and stopped the music. "Well, show yourself!"

"Second verse, same as the first," Fabian chuckled as he pressed play again.

"What? What is going on? Who is it?" Victor shouted.

"Point 2, Sibuna!" I grinned.

*****

"Ok, so Victor has just come back into his office, looking pretty zombified," I told everyone as I joined them in our room.

"Now we just have to wait until he falls asleep and then we make our move. But, in order to do that, we all have to stay awake.
Ok?" Nina said.

"Yes, we should do some things to keep our brains active, like chess?" Fabian suggested.

"Or we could tell spooky ghost stories," Alfie said as he turned his flashlight back on.

"Oh Alfie, your stories are so boring," Patricia complained.

"How about we count sheep to keep us awake?" Said Amber.

"Counting sheep does not keep you awake, Amber. It basically does the opposite," Patricia informed her.

"Oh, that's why it never worked," Amber replied as she yawned.

"Snap out of it!" I told her.

"Oh Amber no!" Fabian exclaimed.

"Fabian, we all need our beauty sleep, some of us more than others," Amber said as she glanced at Patricia.

"Hey, I saw that, I swear you fall asl," Patricia started to say before she yawned.

"Partricia, no, don't," Nina stated as it led to the rest of us yawning as well. "Not good, not good," Nina added.

"So sorry," I mumbled at her as I crawled onto our bed.