Force of Nature ▸ House of Anubis [3]

chapter twenty-seven. house of smuggling

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Finding out that Harriet's missing from her room at Lakehouse Clinic is the worst possible setback we could've encountered. The only thing that could've topped it is if, like, Imposter Denby kidnapped her and buried her in a shallow grave—no, Ashley, don't think like that, don't do that, you're an idiot, everything's okay—but she is missing. And that's just not good at all.

Oh, God, we are so, so screwed, aren't we?

"I found something," Eddie says, rising from underneath the bed, holding papers. I look over his shoulder to read whatever was on it as Fabian asks what it is. "Well, for her lunch order, she ordered fish sticks."

That's... a bit anti-climactic.

"Is that it?" Fabian asks.

"It could be some kind of code, right?" Eddie comments.

Fabian feigns recognition. "Oh, the fish stick code."

I snatch the papers out of Eddie's hands. "Eddie, I swear—it says discharged," I tell them, finding the word on the sheet and pointing it out to them. "She was discharged."

"But without Harriet," KT says, "how are we going to save my great-grandpa? How are we going to stop him from waking up evil?"

The door opens and I set the papers onto the bed. It's the same orderly from before. "Oh, you're back," he says plainly, condescension dripping into his words.

Eddie gestures to the bed. "Where is she? Who took her?"

"Left with a family member," he informs. "Didn't you know? You are her nephew, aren't you?"

It's then Eddie (and the rest of us) remembers his initial lie. "Well, yeah," he acts along with it. "You know, good old Aunt Harriet."

"Well, you're never far from her thoughts." The orderly pulls a yellow envelope out of his pocket. "She kept reminding me to give you this."

"Thanks," Eddie says, and then the orderly's gone. He makes quick work of opening it as Fabian closes the door back. Inside's a card, but the words on the inside of it worry us. "What?"

—

We sneak back into Anubis House through the kitchen, and we sneak past Joy and Sweet in the living room talking about something to do with entertainment—or something, I don't know. Patricia and Alfie are with us now, having helped us get back in through the laundry room, and once we're safely in Eddie and Fabian's room, he begins.

"All right, so," Eddie tells everybody, "Harriet left us this card. Okay, it tells us what to do if anything happened to her."

"It says we have to perform the ceremony ourselves," KT states.