Force of Nature ▸ House of Anubis [3]

chapter twenty-one. house of entrapment

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            Eddie barely manages to catch the tank before it fell right on me, which it would have if he hadn't stopped it because I was right in the way. I stumble to the side following my near-miss. putting a hand over my heart as Eddie keeps holding it. "Do you have it?"

            "It's a little heavy," Eddie responds with a strained voice, and Fabian helps him push it back to a standing position. "Okay, that's heavy."

            Right, back to figuring out why the face inside looks so familiar now that it's not about to squash me into a pancake. I step closer to the tank, looking at the cursed man as Eddie tells KT and Fabian that they need to kiss and make up. That face... I swear I've seen it before... in someone else.

            "Holy Frobisher-Smythe," I realize, taking a step back. "Sarah." Fabian steps over, seeing the same thing I am judging by his own expression. No, no way. This is impossible. "Fabian, his face... it's Sarah's face."

            "But that would mean..." Fabian trails off as we turn to each other with wide eyes.

            "Yeah."

            Robert Frobisher-Smythe. I'm sure of it now—the man in the tank is Robert Frobisher-Smythe. But how? He doesn't even look a day older than the last known picture of him. He's supposed to be dead—if his daughter, who would be turning a hundred years old in two years if she was still living, was dead, then he was supposed to be, too.

            "Fabian? Ashley?" Eddie asks, pulling us out of our trance as we look at them.

            "We know who this is," Fabian tells them.    

            "I hate to admit it, Eddie, but you were right when you said I might know who it is," I add. "I do and it's not a pleasant thought."

            "Well, who is he?" KT asks, quickly glancing at the face before looking away.

            Before Fabian or I get a chance to answer, the doorbell downstairs rings—our agreed-upon signal for when Patricia and Alfie ran out of things to distract Denby with.

            "That's Patricia," KT states, "the warning signal."

            I look at the face one last time before running out of the tank room with Fabian, Eddie, and KT. KT locks the door back with her key and we leave the study, but when we get back to the main stairs, Denby, Alfie, and Patricia are already back inside. Alfie quickly distracts our teacher with a shout and falls on a chair nearby as we duck behind the railing.

            "Oh, poor Alfie!" Patricia says. "I might need some help getting him back to Anbuis House."

            "No, no, I couldn't possibly," Denby argues. "I'm very busy."