Chapter 17:

Kara

I was running.

Sprinting as fast as I could, I tried to reach the house. I knew that if I could only get close enough, somebody would see me and I would be safe. My lungs burned and I could hear my heart pounding furiously in fear- just a little bit farther. My breaths came out as ragged gasps and a layer of sweat was pouring down my forehead- just a little bit farther. I was nearing the edge of the trees, meaning the house was just around the corner, but someone grabbed me and I fell.

I screamed desperately for help, but no noise came out. My voice was constricted by the pair of hands pushing steadily against my throat. I coughed and spluttered, trying to breathe. Tears rained down my face and onto the hands of my attacker, but he didn't stop; instead he laughed.

"You are the Beloved! Born into the history of Ancient Egypt and all of its wonders. You will agree to do what I say, or I will kill you."

I coughed and blood splattered up out of my mouth and into the face of my attacker. His piercing ice blue eyes were the last thing I saw before I heard a crack and everything went black.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

I shot up in my bed with a scream that I quickly muffled with the palm of my hand. I looked around cautiously and let out a sigh of relief to see that Amber and Nina were still fast asleep in their beds. Taking another deep breath, I plopped back down onto my pillow and rubbed my temples.

Over the past couple of days I had been having reoccurring nightmares- or flashbacks- about my encounter with Rufus. My housemates were surprised that I was dealing with the attack so well, but that was only because I refused to show them my weakness. They had enough on their minds with the mystery and schoolwork- it wouldn't be fair for me to drop my problems on them as well. Plus, it was in my nature. I was never one to admit defeat, even if I was now the most defeated I had ever been in my life.

For the next hour, I rolled around in my bed in a vain attempt to get back to sleep. Finally I decided that it wasn't going to happen and, cautiously getting out of bed and heading to the door, I decided I may as well do some exploring around the house. I had been staying there for almost a month- it was time that I really had a look around the mysterious Anubis house.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Standing in the main foyer of the old house, I looked around as I contemplated on where to start my journey. Quickly, my eyes focused in on the wooden door that lead to the cellar. Smiling to myself, I decided that I may as well go big or go home. As I moved towards the door, I removed a bobby pin from my hair and twisted the bottom part of it down- just like Nina and Eddie had showed me. As much as I wished I was that badass, I didn't actually know how to pick a lock until the two other Americans showed me, claiming it was an important Sibuna skill. I sent a silent thank you their way when the lock gave a small click and the doorknob turned, granting me access into the creepy old cellar. Carefully, I made my way down the rickety old steps into the cold room below, making sure to shut the door behind me.

When I reached the bottom of the staircase, I was taken aback by the state of the basement. Beady eyes from stuffed animals stared at me from all corners of the room, and a large table was set up in the middle, housing a variety of strange looking chemicals. I made my way over to the table and lifted up a vile of an amber-coloured liquid. Without really thinking, I leaned my head forwards and took a whiff before gagging and putting it back down immediately.

Gross, I thought to myself as I slowly backed away from the strange table. I looked around again, this time in pursuit of something specific. I smiled as my eyes landed on the bookshelf mounted against a side wall. Walking up to it, I glanced up at the fancy eights that doubled as a combination code. I quickly racked my brain for the code, clenching my fist to help me try and remember it. I was fast to remember the number, and turned the slots above the shelf to the correct code- 1890. I watched with excitement as the shelf moved out of the way, revealing Robert Frobisher-Smythe's- and according to Rufus, my cousin once removed's- hidden antechamber. I walked in and the door slid shut behind me, sealing me in from the outside world and currently, away from my nightmares. I knew what resided behind the bookshelf at the far end of the room, but I wanted to have a good long look at the secret study first. There were so many ancient looking books, just like mine. Everything I saw proved what Rufus Zeno yelled at me regarding my heritage. As much as I denied it to myself, I knew that part of me was lingering in the antechamber in order to prove to myself what the power crazed man so blatantly thought. I was never one to believe in coincidence and now here I was, surrounded by more proof than I could ever need. The missing spots on the bookshelves where my ancient volumes should have been were evidence enough- I didn't even need to see the photo of my second uncle and his wife. The wife who had the same Smythe family nose and gentle blue eyes that I saw every day in the mirror.

After having proved what I knew all along, the other part of me started jumping in excitement. I was in a secret study hidden behind a secret passageway in the cellar of an old house! This was the most exciting moment of my life! Smiling enthusiastically, I reached into my pocket and pulled out the old carved amulet that I, uh, borrowed from Nina, and placed it around my neck. I approached the shelf and looked for the red book with a picture of Thoth on the spine and, upon spotting it, gave it a gentle tug. Suddenly, the bookshelf lurched and spun around, providing me access to the dusty tunnels behind it. Wowed, I made my way through the first set of tunnels, having got passed the light beam with my, Nina's, amulet. I passed by doors that were previously opened, eventually leading me to a giant chasm. A small bridge about the size of a balance beam went across and cautiously, I stepped onto it and made my way over. I went through a few more rooms before I finally reached the final one- the Chamber of Anubis. At the far end of the room, in the now open glass case, rested the fake Mask of Anubis. I looked around the room again and smiled, completely amazed at the fact that something like this could actually exist. For so long I dreamed that hidden rooms and secret mysteries were possible, knowing that I had an overactive imagination and it could never be true. But then, there I was in the midst of a grand chamber that my friends almost died trying to find. It was all so surreal.

"You waste your time." A voice said, interrupting my thoughts and floating freely throughout the chamber. I didn't need to turn to know who it was. Sighing, I replied, my eyes still fixed on the replica Mask across the room from me.

"I know," I said simply. "I know that I need to get going on the clue, but I just needed to come and see this for myself." I abruptly turned, spotting the floating white figure quite a few feet behind me. "I needed to be sure. Looking at some more of those hieroglyphs- we're heading in a direction that I'm not really positive that I want to go in."

"It is your destiny." She replied simply, although it sounded like there was a hint of comfort in her voice. Like I told Nina, this spirit thing wasn't evil like Senkhara; she didn't wish harm on anybody, she was just unorthodox in her encouragement.

"Who are you?" I asked for what felt like the hundredth time. I hoped that because I was actually talking to her and embracing her presence, that maybe the strange divinity would finally give me an answer.

"You will find me when you find yourself." She stated before disappearing into the air. I let out a dry laugh, keeping my eyes glues to the spot that was once occupied by the floating woman. The funny thing about her was that I never saw her face- she always had on some sort of golden mask. Maybe one day I would find out what she looked like. Maybe one day I would find out who she was, and maybe, just maybe, one day I would find out what she meant by those same words.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Nina

"Nina!" Fabian exclaimed the next day at breakfast. I quickly looked up from my toast to find my boyfriend striding confidently into the room, stopping only when he reached me.

"Yes Fabian?" I asked with amusement. His cheeks were red with a slight blush, and he was fidgeting his fingers in the way that he always did when he was nervous.

"Today, you and me are going on a proper date!" He stated, only stuttering slightly on his first word. I smiled and took his hand, pulling him down into his chair before offering him a peck on the cheek.

"Okay, sounds great!" I replied before turning back to my food. I giggled slightly at the dumbfounded yet relieved expression that resided on his face as he took a few calming breaths. That was the cutest thing about Fabian- we had been together- dating or not- for the past two years, and he still got nervous at the smallest things, like asking me on a date. I smiled to myself as I finished my food, looking up when I heard more people enter the room. Currently, it was just me and Fabian, with Jerome sitting at the opposite end of the table. I gave a smile as Kara walked in, taking her usual seat next to Fabian.

"Good morning!" I offered as she started scooping some scrambled eggs onto her plate. She smiled and gave a small "morning" in return. "You weren't in bed when I woke up this morning, is everything all right?" I asked. Kara started slightly, dropping the egg spoon against the table with a loud clatter. She quickly picked it back up and placed it back in the bowl, giving me a reassuring nod.

"Yeah, everything's fine," she said, scooping up some of her breakfast onto a fork. "I just woke up early and couldn't get back to sleep, so I decided to go for a walk." She smiled and quickly turned back to her breakfast, stopping me from continuing the conversation. I shrugged it off and turned to Fabian with a teasing smile.

"So Fabian?" I asked flirtatiously, leaning my elbow against the table with my head in my hand. He looked at me curiously, raising an eyebrow at my antics. He was holding himself together incredibly well, the only sign of his nervousness being the reoccurring blush on his cheeks. "What did you have in mind for our date?" He chuckled softly, offering me an amused smile.

"You'll just have to wait and see." He stated. I rolled my eyes affectionately and picked up a piece of toast, continuing to eat my meal as the rest of the house staggered into the dining hall. We all talked idly with each other for the next twenty minutes until Trudy bustled in, shooing us all off to school.

The day passed normally; I went to all of my classes and did my class work, all while thinking about my date with Fabian and avoiding looks from Mick. The original five Sibuna members had come to a conclusion on what to do about Mick, but we didn't want to tell him until we talked it over with Kara to make sure she was okay with our decision. Amber and I decided we would talk to her tonight before we all went to bed.

We were all sitting in Mr. Winkler's drama class, talking amongst ourselves as all groups had already completed and presented their projects. To many people's surprises, there were quite a few people in Anubis house who had extreme musical talent. While I already knew that Fabian could sing and that Kara really enjoyed it, I was shocked to find that Mara had a gorgeous voice, and even more surprisingly, so did Alfie. Finally, the bell rang and we all stood up to leave.

"Kara?" Jason called from the direction of the stage as we all grabbed our belongings. "Could I talk with you a minute please?" I looked to my left to see Kara nod and make her way over to where our teacher was standing.

"Nina?" Fabian asked, nudging me for my attention. I smiled at him and gestured for him to go ahead- I wanted to wait for Kara and walk back with her so she didn't have to do it alone again.

Kara

"Yes Mr. Winkler?" I asked as I approached the teacher. He smiled at me and gestured for me to sit with him on the stage. Upon taking a seat, he rested his hand on my shoulder comfortingly and began to speak.

"Kara, I'm a little bit worried about you. You were telling me all about your passion for musical theatre before your, um, attack," he said, stuttering slightly over his addressing my encounter with Rufus. "And I noticed that over the past couple of days you haven't been showing much interest. I also noticed that you look incredibly tired... You've been occasionally drifting off in class. Is everything all right?" In my head, I quickly calculated the risks of telling Jason the truth. My main reason for not telling my friends was that I didn't want to add to the amount of things they already had on their plate. I knew that if I told Mr. Winkler, I wouldn't feel guilty about it, but now the problem was that I still didn't like to show other people my weaknesses. As well meaning as my drama teacher was, he was still a person.

"Oh yeah!" I said cheerily, making the split second decision to not tell him. "Everything's fine- I've just had a bit of trouble sleeping lately. It's just a bit of home sickness though, nothing to worry about!" I smiled brightly at him, waiting for a response. However, rather than the smile and acceptance I expected from him, Mr. Winkler just raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms, removing his hand from my shoulder. He fixed me with a look that told me that he wasn't going to believe anything that wasn't the truth.

"Kara," he started in a way that sounded near to demeaning. I sighed dejectedly and looked down briefly before raising my eyes to meet his gaze again. "You've been through quite the ideal. I understand that you want to put on a strong face for your friends, but an assault that caused hospitalization isn't something that you can just recover from in the span of a week." We sat in silence for a few moments as Jason waited for his words to sink in, and I built the courage to confess about my nightmares. Eventually I decided that he already knew that there was something wrong, so I may as well tell him and possibly get some help for it.

"It's just... I've been getting nightmares. I mean, I usually get nightmares a lot, but they're, erm... other things. Like ghosts and trying to run, only to find out that you can't! But recently... recently I've been dreaming about the attack. I'll be walking somewhere- whether it's a street near my house in America, or the walk back to Anubis house- and he'll suddenly be there. He's hitting me, and choking me, and screaming at me for being useless! I'll tell him that he's supposed to be dead, but he just says the same thing that he said that day! He just looks me in the eye and says 'I will kill you' before everything goes black and I wake up in my bed!" I cried, having begun sobbing about half way through my explanation. Winkler looked at me sympathetically as I broke down, wrapping my arms around my torso in an attempt to hold myself together. Every nightmare was the same- Rufus would glare at me with such evil and hatred and repeat in exact detail the words he hissed at me before; "You are the Beloved! Born into the history of Ancient Egypt and all of its wonders. You will agree to do what I say, or I will kill you." The thing that terrified me the most was the way he said it as though I would be seeing him again shortly. Every day I prayed to whatever god that was listening that I would never have to see him again. Unfortunately, I knew that the day would come when I would have to face him again- I just didn't know when.

"It's all right Kara, just try to calm down for a minute." Jason said, gripping my arms tightly. He knelt down in front of me so he was at about the same height as me and looked me in the eyes. "It's okay," he said again. "Just breathe. In, and out. In, and out. In. Out. In. Out." I followed his instructions, listening closely to his voice as I regained control of my breathing. Finally I was calmed down enough that Mr. Winkler could talk to me normally again. "Now that you've told me what's wrong, I can find a way to help you. I want you to go back to your house and take it easy, okay? Then tomorrow before History, I'd like for you to come and see me. Can you do that?" I nodded and took another deep breath, exhaling shakily. "Good. Now, Nina's going to take you home, okay?" He added before looking over his shoulder where I noticed Nina standing for the first time. I mentally berated myself for breaking down without realizing that my friend was still in the room. I purposefully didn't tell her about this, but now she knew anyways.

Pushing my thoughts aside, I stood up before gingerly approaching Nina. With a hesitant smile and a quick goodbye to Jason, the other American looped her arm through mine before leading me out of the building and back towards the house.