Two is Company (House of Anubis)

Chapter 97: The Sinners Walk Among You

"Does Eddie know?" Kira demanded the moment they got through the front door, trying to keep her head on straight. "About Patricia, I mean."

Fabian shook his head distractedly as the two tore up the stairs toward the attic. "No, there was no way to tell him without her realizing that I knew," he explained in a rush, making a beeline for the attic door. It was locked fast, and he grunted in agitation. "Give me one of your hair pins."

Kira did so without hesitation, one of her more unruly pieces of hair unfurling into her face. She brushed it away so she could better watch as Fabian deftly picked the lock and pushed the door open with a careless bang. Kira shoved past him so she could make it up the stairs first, eager to see KT and praying that, when she did, she'd be at the very least safe. However, when she made it to the top, she gasped at the sight before her: the room was empty, the only indication anyone had been there recently being the open window under the stained glass with a long rope of bedsheets dangling out into the open morning air.

"Did she really jump out the third story window?" Kira exclaimed in a mixture of terror and awe.

Fabian scrambled up the steps behind her and his jaw dropped at the sight. "Holy shit, she really did. Kira, that means they were trying to trap her!"

"No, it means she could be anywhere," she said, rushing to the window and peering down. Thankfully, her girlfriend's broken body wasn't lying at the bottom. With that confirmed, she raced back down the attic stairs to the girls' corridor, then to her own room.

"Kira, what are you doing?" called Fabian from the base of the steps.

"I'm getting my shit to go look for her," she answered, dropping to her knees on the opposite side from where the hami khafi glass still law strewn to grab her hat from under her bed. "It's cold out there, and I bet she left without anything to keep her warm!"

She made to stand up, but a flash of yellow under Patricia's bed caught her eye, and she crawled to reach what turned out to be some sort of parcel from a law firm in America. "Fabian, it's addressed to KT," she reported with mounting anxiety.

He entered the room and took the package from her, squinting at the "Why would Patricia have this under her bed?" he asked dubiously.

"Because the possessed bitch stole it, that's why!"

"Rutter, Miller?" Victor's voice snapped from the hallway, and the two went rigid before leaping to their feet. "Where is KT?"

While Fabian hid the parcel behind his back, Kira advanced a step into the corridor. "We could ask you the same question," she challenged.

Victor pursed his lips, expression calm yet somehow still murderous; it sent a chill up her spine. He glanced toward the open attic door, then back to them coldly. "KT has, this morning, decided to leave the school," he answered tersely. "It would appear she has already done so..." He looked back toward KT's abandoned room with a tense set of his shoulders. "This is bad," he whispered, more to himself than to them. "This is very bad indeed." Without waiting for a reply from either of them, he turned and blustered back in the direction of his office.

"Kira," muttered Fabian, "this is bad."

"No shit," she muttered back. "C'mon, if Patricia hid that package from KT, it's gotta be important."

—

Once Eddie rounded Alfie up, they snuck away from the school toward the crypt, descending into the stale air which was just as unwelcoming as always. He wasn't sure exactly what he was supposed to be looking for, but if it looked anything like Jerome's artifact, that thing could be hiding anywhere in the godforsaken tomb.