Force of Nature ▸ House of Anubis [3]

chapter sixty-nine. house of capture

☾ ☽

Eddie, Alfie, Patricia, and I stand in a straight line in the living room, watching Victor carefully. He hasn't gotten ahold of the artifact—yet. Victor's a sinner, I've no doubt about it. Patricia's one, too. My only question is—have they taken a third yet? I haven't been around anyone who's given me one of those feelings other than those two.

"Do you have a death wish?" Victor asks of us bluntly, his back to us.

"I don't," Alfie stutters. "I really don't."

"Alfie, rhetorical question," I tell him quietly.

Victor turns. "You are all coming with me to the gatehouse." I glance at Alfie worriedly, biting the inside of my cheek. "There is something I need you to see."

Once again—thank God for Trudy. She comes in and stops Victor from taking us to the gatehouse by saying sharply, "Victor, my job is to look after these children, and that's exactly what I'm going to do."

"How dare you interrupt me?" Victor demands, grabbing hold of Trudy's forearm. Eddie grabs mine when I make a reckless move forward, shaking his head. Not now.

"But they've been working so hard for today's play. They're not going to miss it just because they've broken one of your ridiculous rules."

"Um, it's okay, Trudy," Patricia, much to the surprise of Eddie and Alfie (not so much mine) speaks up. "I don't want you to get in trouble because of us."

"It's fine, Patricia," Trudy says. God bless this woman, honestly. "Go on. Get back to your play."

Wait. Wait, no, we can't leave her alone with Victor.

"They are not going anywhere," Victor advances toward Trudy once more.

Eddie has to physically pull me out of the room because I'm so reluctant to leave her alone as their tense conversation continues. Alfie has to do the same with Patricia, but for a completely different reason. Patricia wants us to go to the gatehouse.

"We can't just leave her alone in there!" I insist, throwing my hand toward the door as we exit Anubis House. "Just let me go back in—"

"No, you can't!" Eddie exclaims. "Victor's there and we can't let him get you, all right? We have to get back to the school."

—

I had to find an empty classroom to calm down in once we got back to the school. I just need some quiet to think and force myself to calm down, to breathe lighter, and to try and get this insane weight off my shoulders. So I found what used to be Mrs. Andrews' classroom, took the desk in the front middle, and sat down, resting before the chaos of the play resumes.