DENOUEMENT
xvi. house of risk
❝YOU TWO ARE MEANT TO BE.❞

"JOY!"

UPON HEARING the name, Sydney winced; that certainly was not the first line of the play. She lowered the camera in her hands and glanced over to the audience with worried eyes, watching as they began to look around the room, confusion evident on their faces. Eventually, Sydney's gaze landed on the disguised girl, Joy Mercer, once again, noticing how she sunk further into her seat and pulled her hood further down her face. It was odd to see her again after such a long time – so much had changed since the day they had last seen her, and it was weird to even think about.

The last time they had seen Joy Mercer, she was in her uniform and sat down beside Patricia Williamson, her roommate and best friend, ready for a French class. Seconds before the practice exam they had been given was about to begin, she had been dragged out by their headteacher and never seen again... until then.

Contrasting the red and white uniform she had been wearing when she had been taken, she was now wearing all dark colours in order to hide herself in the shadows better. Minus the clothing she was wearing, she seemed different. The bags under her eyes were more prominent than they used to be, her hair seemed to be in an unkept ponytail (though Sydney couldn't particularly see it that well due to her hoodie and beanie), and she looked... broken, almost.

"Joy..." Patricia began, repeating the word/name that she had yelled aloud and causing the audience to glance back over to the stage as she continued, improvising, "Joy... joy and sorrow!" Sydney let out the breath that she had been holding, thankful that the purple-haired girl had managed to think of something on the spot – it certainly made the audience less confused, not being aware that the girl was completely off-script as she continued, "The joy of Egypt! Its monarch Tutankhamun is dead... and, uh- and sorrow sweeps the land! Let no man enter and desecrate his sacred pyramid!"

After the introduction, everything else seemed to go smoothly enough as the play continued, with nobody realising that Patricia had made up the entire introduction, Mick and Mara finally turning up for their scenes after having skipped the introduction, and nobody noticing that the girl who had gone missing was sat in the audience. Due to this, Sydney found herself enjoying her role quite a bit and didn't exactly pay attention to much of the play – she simply snapped a few photos during each scene and made sure that they were of good quality, and also kept an eye on the teachers around, Victor, Rufus, and Joy – the last two on that list seemed worried and as though both were hiding from someone, whom Sydney presumed to be Victor, who looked as emotionless as ever.

"Our work is very important - we must go." Mick's voice said, causing Sydney to actually begin paying attention to the play once again as she heard the familiar words – her cue.

Snapping a few more pictures of the heart-wrenching scene that a few of the audience members were crying at, Sydney quickly checked them before she rushed backstage. Fortunately for her and the plan that she had made without informing anyone, her friend was the script-writer, so despite her not needing a script and thus not receiving one from their drama teacher, she had still managed to get one from Nina, who hadn't exactly questioned it and just passed her one. Due to this, Sydney was able to find the scene purposely written to bother their housekeeper and the lines beforehand, memorising them, so that she could get backstage just before the scene that they had to watch Victor's reaction for. However, Sydney had a better plan than just watching it – snapping a photo of it.

Thankfully, she had already rambled to Mr Winkler the importance of having different perspectives of the play, so he didn't exactly question it when the female prankster appeared at the side of the stage, the camera in her hands. Little did he know, she had positioned her shot so that it looked like she was taking a picture of Fabian, who had just stepped onto the stage alongside Alfie (who, in the scene, was a snake), but Victor was in the background – the true subject of the photo.

"This house belongs to us now, my pretty." Fabian declared with an evil laugh, holding a prop raven in one hand and a prop mouse in the other, putting the latter of the two props into Alfie's cobra costume, as though he was eating it, and the "snake" let out a burp to which he audience laughed out, before Fabian continued, "It is ten o'clock, you know what that means, you have five minutes to get into bed, do you hear?"

"Yes, Vincent." Nina responded, before she ran off stage with the snake following behind her, chasing her almost – that was Nina's last scene before the second act, meaning that she was due to leave for Anubis House within the next few minutes to break into the safe.

"Because I want to be able to hear a pin drop." Fabian stated, holding a pin in the air and imitating the voice of their housekeeper perfectly, who seemed to show a shed of emotion as he turned his head to share a look with their head teacher, seconds before Fabian dropped the pin and let out yet another evil laugh – as the pin dropped to the floor, Sydney snapped a photo of the scene, managing to get a perfect shot of the scowl on Victor's lips before the scene ended and Fabian made his way off the stage.

In order to take his place and to continue with the next scene, Mick and Mara soon came onto the stage, with the latter coming out whilst sat atop of a camel, which happened to be Jerome and Alfie. Of course, with those two pranksters being her chariot, it wasn't exactly a pleasant ride, thus causing Mara to let out numerous quiet whimpers as they brought her onto the stage and slowly lowered her down, with her getting off with quite a bit of difficulty.

It was safe to say that Sydney took many photos of that.

Unfortunately for her, the play continued and the camel soon went off stage, and the female prankster soon found herself sat among the audience again as she continued to take pictures of the play, having many different pictures for each scene, until the end of the first act came, with Mick and Mara kissing until the curtains closed.

As soon as the curtains fell shut, Sydney quickly came backstage and attempted to find the members of the secret club that she was in, wondering if Nina had left and whether or not she was back yet – after all, it shouldn't have taken so long to get to Anubis House and back. However, before she laid her eyes on any of the members of Sibuna, she soon ran into her best friend, Jerome Clarke, who had been looking for her once he had come off the stage. Thankfully, he'd now taken the camel costume off, wearing a grey jumper, so Sydney was able to take him a little bit more seriously.

"Hey, photographer." He greeted her, grabbing her hand and pulling her to the side as people began to rush around the stage in order to get everything ready for the second act, whilst a few people took breaks and read through their lines or had their makeup/hair retouched – it was rather chaotic.

"Hey, camel." Sydney retorted, a smirk on her lips whilst the boy rolled her eyes at her – as soon as he'd been assigned the role of camel, he knew that she'd enjoy it thoroughly and would talk about it many times; he should have expected that response from her.

"Hey, lovebirds!" Alfie chimed in as he walked past the pair, causing the two to send him a sharp glare as he went further away, leaving the two to be alone but not before he called out to them, "Date already! You're killing me here!"

"How's it going?" He questioned, rolling his eyes at Alfie whilst motioning to the camera in her hands as he did so – he'd seen her within the crowd when he was on stage numerous times, noticing the focused look on her face (sometimes she had an amused one) as she held the camera up and took a photo of whatever was on stage.

"Good." Sydney answered, quickly lifting up the camera and clicking a few buttons, beginning to show him some of the ones that she had taken as the pair laughed at the many she had taken of Alfie and Jerome in the camel suit, "As you can see, I'm thoroughly enjoying it – I get to sit in the audience and the side-lines and take pictures of you two in an embarrassing costume; I think this is the perfect job for me."

"Yeah, well, I don't think you're the only one enjoying your role." He stated with an amused tone, causing the girl's eyebrows to furrow in confusion, forcing him to elaborate, still very much amused as he thought of what he had witnessed at the end of the first act of the play, once the curtains had closed, "I think Mick and Mara took their relationship status in the play and thought it was reality – they kissed."

"I know; it's in the script."

"They kept kissing once the curtain closed and ignored Amber when she pointed it out to them – I found it funny." Jerome commented with a small chuckle passing through his lips whilst he clarified the situation for her, and her eyes mildly widened before she glanced around, trying to find the fashionista who he had just mentioned.

"Amber saw it?" She asked for clarification, worried about her friend – Sydney knew that Amber Millington still wasn't over Mick Campbell, and it must have hurt the fashionista to see her ex kissing another girl, especially someone who used to be her best friend.

"Yeah." Jerome nodded, before noticing the worried look that had come across her face, causing him to pat her shoulder to give her assurance as he added, telling her, "And I'm sure that she'll be fine."

"I'm going to try to find her." Sydney stated, still not completely assured – afterall, Jerome didn't know the fashionista of Anubis House that well; they weren't exactly friends and only tended to speak at the dining table when they were having a group discussion with the rest of the house.

"Hey, let me come with." Jerome mumbled before she had the chance to leave, gripping her hand just before she went to turn – she nodded in agreement, and the pair went to walk off until the boy called over to Alfie, who had been stood further away from the pair in the camel suit, "When I get back, we're trading places, Alfie!"

Before the boy had the chance to protest, the two blondes had already began to walk off in search for Amber Millington, who was absolutely nowhere to be seen – that also seemed quite improbable, considering that all of her costumes for the play were rather ridiculous and consisted of bright colours – she remembered that she was a cactus, and that she had some other yellow outfit that seemed to be like a duck, but was apparently a canary.

Soon enough, they had done an entire lap of the place and soon saw Mara and Mick, who seemed quite close to one another and the atmosphere between them seemed rather loved-up – it was evident that something was going on between them, and obviously, Jerome took that opportunity to tease them.

"Are you two going to lip lock again?" He called out the question to them, forcing them to glance up at the two pranksters, with Mick rolling his eyes at them before he grabbed Mara's hand and tugged her away, presumably to somewhere more private.

Just as they left, however, Alfie had managed to catch up to the pair of pranksters who he had been chasing ever since the male of them had called out to him, and quickly questioned him, "Why should I trade places with you? I make a great camel head!"

"I'm telling you: it's great fun here in the back." Jerome assured his friend, attempting to convince him despite all of them being aware that he was lying - nobody would have enjoyed being the back of a camel; honestly, Sydney was rather surprised that Jerome had ended up being the back of it and hadn't gotten his way for once.

"Nice try, but no!" Alfie responded, rejecting the boy's proposal and holding the camel head protectively - there was no way that Jerome was going to get that back, and he was stuck being the back end of the camel.

Upon realising that, Sydney let out a loud gasp which caused the two boys to turn to her with curious eyes, whilst she turned to Jerome with a devious smirk on her lips, one that screamed mischief and one that he happened to be rather familiar with - she typically wore that smirk quite a lot, especially when she was about to prank or tease someone.

Recognising the look, Jerome, mildly concerned, raised his eyebrows and pointed at the girl, questioning hurriedly, "What's that look for? I don't like that look."

"You're the backend of a camel." Sydney stated simply, a smile on her lips as she did so, before she repeated it once again even slower, "You are the backend of a camel."

"You're going to use this against me for a while, aren't you?" Jerome questioned, a huff escaping his lips as he did so, despite him being quite amused about it in actuality.

"No! I would never use it against you for a while!" Sydney denied, though the smile on her lips was still there, hence why the boy knew that there was a catch, which he soon figured out as she elaborated, "I'm using it against you forever."

"And that is exactly why I'm the head of the camel." Alfie pointed out, stroking his camel head protectively whilst the other boy out of the trio rolled his eyes, a very faint grin on his lips as he did so - meanwhile, Alfie continued, "I'm psychic, I tell you! I already knew Sydney was going to make fun of you before she actually did-."

"That's just because you know me."

Ignoring her and continuing with what he was saying, Alfie also added, "Just like I already know that you two are in love with one another, now, please, just get together and put us all out of our misery."

"Your psychic skills are flawed." Sydney stated, flicking the boy's forehead as she rolled her eyes, Jerome laughing at her actions in the background.

However, before their conversation had the chance of continuing, Mr Winkler ran up to the three of them, seeming mildly panicked as he questioned them, "Hey, guys, have any of you three seen Nina?"

In response, the three of them all shook their heads and muttered a response of "No", and Sydney realised that she must have gone to Anubis House to break into the safe if nobody could find her. However, the female prankster wondered why they were looking for her - whilst the second act was due to begin soon, Sydney recalled that Nina still had a few scenes until she was meant to be on stage.

At their answer, the teacher went to leave, presumably to find someone who knew the location of their lead in the play, but before he managed to venture far, Alfie called out to him, "Hey, Mr Winkler, what's brown, has a hump, and lives in the North Pole?"

Even Sydney didn't know the answer to that.

"A lost camel."

The reason why Sydney didn't know the answer to it: because it was a bad joke - one that caused both of the blonde-haired pranksters to lower their heads in disappointment whilst their teacher ran off, not even responding to the terrible joke that he had been told. However, when Sydney lifted her gaze up once again, she caught sight of Patricia and Fabian - two members of the group who she had been trying to find ever since the break had started.

"I'm going to speak to Patricia and Fabian and see if they know where Amber is." Sydney informed the two boys, who didn't think anything of it considering that she had been trying to find the fashionista for the entire break, and that they knew she had grown closer to the group of people over the past few days, so she said her goodbyes to them before walking over to the pair, seeing Fabian peering out of the curtains as she asked, "Have you two seen Amber? Apparently, Mick and Mara kept kissing once the curtains were down and she saw - I want to make sure she's okay."

"That's the least of our worries." Fabian muttered lowly, his tone scaring the two girls as he turned back to the pair with wide eyes that were filled with panic.

"What is it?" Patricia asked, wondering why he suddenly seemed so worried - so much could have gone wrong out there due to Joy, Rufus, and Victor all being sat so close to one another.

"I can't see Victor anywhere." The nerd informed them, causing the two girls to quickly rush forward and peer through the curtains themselves, seeing the seat that the housekeeper once used was now unoccupied, being completely empty - even when they glanced around the room, they couldn't see their housekeeper, and he wasn't exactly easy to miss.

"What about Nina?" Sydney asked, turning to face the nerd as she wondered where she was, and his lack of response told her that he didn't know either, so she informed them, "Winkler's looking for her, he's been asking a few people if they've seen her."

"Jason says he's cutting my canary scene because it's under rehearsed." Amber's voice was heard from behind them, causing the three of them to quickly spin around to face her - Sydney almost burst out laughing at her ridiculously bright yellow costume (which still resembled more of a duck than a canary) but managed to restrict it as the girl continued, "He's basically scared of my talent. So, Nina's on sooner than she thinks and there's no sign of her."

"I hope she's alright." Fabian breathed out, evidently worried for his crush (that he still refused to admit he had despite it being blatantly obvious) and thus causing him to begin stammering over his words as he continued, saying, "E-Everything will be... She... I'm gonna' go and check."

Before anybody could even say anything, the boy bolted away in search of the American girl whom he had grown to love, whilst the female prankster of Anubis House let out a small breath, brushing her hair back behind her ears from frustration due to all the stressful things happening. Then, she remembered who she had been searching for the entire time of the break and realised that she was right in front of her, causing her to approach the fashionista known as Amber Millington and hug her.

"You okay? I heard about the kiss." Sydney whispered to her, causing the fashionista to weakly nod - she wasn't completely okay with it, and she still loved her ex-boyfriend, but there were bigger things to worry about at that moment which had been distracting her.

"Amber, Sydney, can you keep a secret?" Patricia questioned as the two blonde females pulled away from their hug, glancing over at the purple-haired girl curiously but still nodding, nonetheless.

"Of course I can." Amber responded in a matter-of-fact tone before she gestured to herself and added, "Hello."

"Okay, Joy is in the audience." Patricia informed them - whilst it was news for Amber, Sydney was already well aware of the ex-student in the audience, and had kept her eye on her for quite a bit of the play when she was taking photographs to make sure that she was okay - it was also hard to look away from her; Sydney just wanted to help her - it was evident now that Joy had been taken by Victor and was being kept away, though nobody knew why.

At the news, Amber released a rather loud, cheerful gasp as she rushed over to the curtains, "Where?"

Knowing that they couldn't give too much away, Patricia quickly shushed the fashionista, before whispering to her the location of Joy Mercer, "She's four rows back, four seats in - D4."

"I've kept my eye on her for a lot of the play, as well as the teachers and Rufus." Sydney mentioned to the girl, crossing her arms over her chest as she did so before she added, reassuring her roommate, "Nobody has noticed Joy or Rufus yet, from what I can tell."

"You knew?" Patricia asked, confused.

"Just before the curtains went up and I was out there, I looked for D4 and saw her." Sydney explained to the goth, causing the girl to nod as they glanced back over at Amber Millington, who was still peering through the curtains at the audience to find the girl who had gone missing, until she finally found her.

Glancing back to the pair, the fashionista had an impressed look on her face as she complimented Joy, "Cute hoodie look."

"Uh, it's a disguise." Patricia told the girl, knowing that Joy wouldn't have worn that outfit if she didn't have to - she went for a bit more lighter colours and definitely was not a hoodie and beanie type of girl.

However, Amber Millington, fashion icon, still doesn't back down from her point and continues to support it as she states, "I'm just saying, she's rocking it."

"I think there are other things to be more concerned about than her outfit." Sydney reminded them, being aware that it wasn't safe for Joy to be in the same room as Victor, or for Rufus to be in the same room as Victor, and they still had no sign of Nina, who should have been back from Anubis House with the puzzle piece a long time ago.

"Guys," Mr Winkler started from behind them, causing them to spin to face him as he continues, inquiring, "Has anyone seen Nina? Does she know that her scenes have been moved up?" None of them answered, considering that they hadn't seen the girl and had no clue where she was, though this only frustrated the teacher as he shouted out, "Oh, come on, people! This is live theatre! We need to be ready for anything at any time!"

As he said that, Fabian joined the group once again and approached from behind the drama/history teacher, subtly shaking his head at the group to inform them that he'd found no sign of Nina Martin, which was extremely worrying; Sydney had a very strong feeling that something had gone wrong.

"Okay, everyone, stand by for the second act, please!" Mr Winkler called out to everyone, causing people to rush into their places as he left the group, who all came closer once he stepped away to talk about the missing lead of the play.

"Where is she?" Amber asked, all of them beginning to get more and more worried as the seconds ticked by - Nina was rather late to return at that point, and if something hadn't gone wrong, then clearly the American was an extremely slow walker.

"Where is Victor?" Fabian questioned, knowing that they were meant to keep their eye on the housekeeper - after all, they still had the rest of the play to do and there were many scenes in which they wanted to see his reaction; they couldn't see his reaction if he wasn't there.

Although, the suggestion made by the fashionista of the group caused them to worry even more, about something a lot worse than Victor missing the school play, and all of their eyes widened with panic as Amber said, "What if he's gone to the house?"

Oh no.

However, their moment of panic had to be interrupted and they had no time to speak about the suggestion as their drama teacher bellowed out, "Curtains in five!"

Deciding that she'd waste too much time going out to where the audience sat to take photos, Sydney went to the side of the stage alongside the rest of the group, and took pictures of the play (also watching out for the return of their American friend, who was still yet to return despite her scene quickly approaching) as it continued...

"I hope they never return, and this house will be mine - all mine!" Fabian recited his lines with a sinister-sounding voice (or just a Victor-like voice), letting out an evil laugh as he made his way off the stage to the sound of the audience booing him, and as soon as he came off the stage, his voice returned to normal as he asked the group, "Any sign?"

"Not one sign of Nina, not a single one." Amber responded, before she put her arms up and made her way on stage as a cactus - as stated previously, she had some ridiculous and weird costumes.

"Do you think she'll make it back in time?" Patricia questioned the boy, who already seemed panicked enough without being asked that question - Sydney imagined that he was going through a lot of pain; she didn't even want to think about what it'd be like to not know where the person you loved was or if they were or weren't okay.

Unconvincing, Fabian nodded as he responded to the girl whilst Sydney continued to take more pictures (she was rather glad that she had some of Amber Millington as a cactus), the nerd telling the purple-haired girl, "Yes, yes, of course. She's fine. I'm sure she's fine."

The play went on, and the photographer of the play found herself switching between being stood within the audience to being stood backstage to take photos. Despite how much she tried to stay backstage so that she was able to speak to Fabian, Patricia, and Amber about Nina's lack of return, she knew that she couldn't take all of her photos from the side-lines so quickly ran to the audience every few scenes and stayed there for a few minutes to take some photos - in all honesty, she'd say that she was doing an amazing job.

However, she soon found herself backstage once again after having been motioned up by Mr Winkler a few minutes ago, with him asking for her help with trying to get her two prankster friends back into their camel costume. Alfie had been very protective about the head of the camel, and thus, despite all of Jerome's efforts, Alfie had remained at the front of the camel. Sydney made sure to laugh at the blonde-haired boy before he went on stage, and then she continued to take pictures of the scene.

"We found the treasure of Anubis. Now we have to get out of here." Mick said, following the script - however, as he went to leave the stage, a flash of light was seen as a small firework exploded with a thundering sound being heard - Sydney managed to get an outstanding shot of that scene and she was extremely proud of, practically bouncing in her place.

"Woe to those who have disturbed me in death," Patricia, who was playing the god Anubis, boomed as she entered the stage, holding a staff within her hands tightly as she continued, turning to face the two on stage, with Mick pointing a fake gun at her, "Disbelievers. No death can kill me, because I am death!"

As she finished, she lowered the staff to Mick's hand, hitting it lightly and causing a thundering sound to roar through the air as he showed off his hand, which now had a painted red Eye of Horus on it, as he acted out a cry of pain and agony, "Ah, my hand!

"My blood will wash over your heads! And those of your children!" Patricia declared.

"We will do whatever you ask, so long as you promise nothing happens to Sally!" Mara begged frantically, her eyes wide as she feigned worry – her character in the play was the mother of Sally, and thus she was the play's version of Louisa Frobisher-Smythe.

"One more word and you will never, ever see little Sally again." Patricia declared – the god, Anubis, clearly showed no mercy, especially since he was the god of death (among other things, though him being the god of death was the most notable one).

At the threat, Mara fell on her knees as she began to plead to Patricia, acting out a mother's worry as she begged for her children to be saved from the curse that she had just put upon her, "No, wait, please, not our little Sally! I beg you!"

Ignoring the protest, Patricia lowered her staff once again to Mara's hand, hitting it lightly as the sound of thunder rumbled again, seconds before the girl glanced at her hand – the same red Eye of Horus being painted on it – Sydney made sure to get a good picture of the girl's worried face as she looked at her hand, painted with the symbol.

"Run, save yourself!" Mick called out to the camel, causing the two people under it to begin to run off stage before the purple-haired female lowered the staff to the camel, it letting out a shriek as it fell to the ground with another thundering sound being heard – Sydney took quite a few pictures of the two pranksters in the camel costume falling to the ground and she could not wait to get the chance to send every single photo to Poppy Clarke later, knowing that the little girl was going to adore them and tease her brother about it relentlessly.

"Where's Nina?" Mr Winkler questioned to the group, becoming increasingly more frustrated with each second that passed as he turned to face the students who were friends with the lead of their play, as he exclaimed, evidently panicked and annoyed, "She's on soon! This is totally unprofessional. Fabian!"

"I don't know where she is." Fabian answered – the call of his name had snapped him out of his worry-filled thoughts, and it was evident that he had been wondering where his crush was; she had taken way too long at that point, and clearly something had happened to keep her at Anubis House for such a long period of time.

"Can you go and find her? Please!" Winkler begged of the boy, causing him to run off in an attempt to find her whilst the teacher turned to face the people on stage, calling out to them as he instructed them, "Alfie, Jerome, get up! Carry on - you, too, Amber."

"Now you want me." Amber mumbled as she went back on the stage, with her and the camel beginning to do some very odd... dancing... if it could have even been called that.

Of course, Sydney found it absolutely hysterical, it managing to ease her mind from the worries that she had about Nia's whereabouts as she began to laugh at the sight of a dancing camel and cactus, taking a few photos of it before recording a snippet of it on her phone, chuckles falling out of her mouth in the process.

"Sydney!" Mr Winkler snapped, causing the blonde-haired prankster to hastily put her phone into her pocket as she turned to face the drama teacher with an inquisitive eye, wondering what he wanted and forcing him to continue, "Can you please go and find Nina? I don't think the audience can take the camel and the cactus for much longer."

With a nod, Sydney quickly rushed away from the teacher and began to wander around backstage, her eyes narrowed as she glanced absolutely everywhere, just about to step into the corridor until the door burst open, almost hitting the girl in the face.

"Hey! This is a very expensive-!" Sydney went to scold the person, but then as she glanced up, she cut herself off and a smile broke out on her lips as she saw the American who all of them had been searching for, causing her to wrap her arms around her in a tight hug, "Where have you been? Winkler's been asking around for you and he is not happy, and I thought Fabian was about to have some sort of breakdown."

"I'll tell you later, but we need to go – my scene is soon." Nina stated, the pair nodding before they quickly rushed off towards the stage, managing to get there just in time to hear Winkler yell out once more,

"Where is Nina?!"

"I'm here!" Nina exclaimed as the pair bolted towards the teacher, coming to a halt just before they ran into anyone as she began to pant heavily, out of breath from all the running that she had done, "Sweating and red-faced, but I'm here."

Quickly, Sydney made up some excuse so that nobody questioned where she had been for so long and why nobody could find her, saying, "She had a costume malfunction."

"Nina!" Fabian cried out cheerfully, a grin forming on his lips at the mere sight of her whilst he pulled her into what seemed to be a very tight hug that she returned within seconds, whilst he told her, "I was so worried!"

"Evidently, Fabian." Mr Winkler muttered, glancing back to the stage and motioning for the camel and the cactus to quickly get off before he turned to the lead of their play, informing her, "Nina, you have literally three seconds."

With that being said, the teacher stepped away from them whilst Nina quickly unzipped her coat, putting it on the railing so that she was ready to go on stage, whilst Patricia turned to her, questioning, "Did you get it?"

"Victor's going to eliminate somebody in the audience tonight, like eliminate." Nina told them, not giving them an answer to the question that had been asked but still telling them an important piece of information, which made their eyes widen in shock – the way she said eliminate made it seem like it was only one thing: kill.

"What? How do you know?" Fabian asked, all of them being rather surprised and worried about the new revelation – two of their housekeeper's enemies seemed to be in the audience, both Rufus and Joy, and neither of them the group wanted to die.

However, before they had the chance to discuss it any further, Mr Winkler turned his head back to the group and snapped at the girl, insisting, "Nina, get on stage now!"

Following his demands, she quickly put her hat on and sorted out her hair seconds before she walked onto the stage, not providing any explanation as to how she knew that Victor was going to eliminate somebody or whether or not she managed to get the puzzle piece out of the safe, and all of them were absolutely petrified.

"You two are thinking the same thing as me, right?" Sydney asked, glancing and pointing between the two as all of their eyes were still wide with worry – after thinking quite a bit, it seemed clear who the target was: Joy Mercer.

Victor had kidnapped her, hid her away from school, lied about her whereabouts, and now she was sat in a disguise in an attempt to hide from the man, whilst she sat two seats ahead of him.

"It must be Joy!" Patricia declared, her voice a cry as she clearly had thought the same things that the female prankster did, and she was now convinced that her best friend was in a lot of danger, and there seemed to be no way to warn her of her impending doom, "He's going to kill Joy!"

"Sydney, take photos!" Mr Winkler demanded, snapping them out of their little bubble and forcing them to return to the play, the girl quickly presenting her camera to the teacher with a tight-lipped smile as she lifted it up, beginning to take pictures of the American girl back on stage and the scenes that continued to progress.

Soon enough, she had found herself on the other side of the stage, wanting to take some pictures at a different perspective and also speak to Jerome and Alfie, who were at that side as well, so whilst she snapped some more pictures, not exactly paying attention to what was happening to the play, she briefly turned her head to face her two best friends, "So, what's the camel life like?"

"Terrible." Jerome mumbled, clearly not fond of the costume anymore, despite how much he loved it a few days ago and how excited he had been to show it to Alfie once he had returned home from hospital, "You try being the back of a camel! It's hard work, especially when this guy is your partner."

Offended, Alfie stuck up for himself against the boy's complaints as he quickly cried out, "Hey! You're the one who makes it hard work!"

"Well, I've personally been loving it." Sydney told them, a smirk on her lips as she did so – it was true; she had absolutely loved seeing them as a camel, and it had made the entire play experience worth it in her eyes, "I have many pictures of you two in that camel suit – I also took a video of your dancing, by the way – also, it was terrible dancing and please never do that again."

Glancing back over to the stage again, the trio had now realised that they were nearing the end of their play as the Fabian and Patricia, came onto the stage, with the latter of the two saying, "End it, my servant - they deserve to die. You will be richly rewarded."

"I can see the raven; my end is near." Mara stated as the boy knelt down in front of her, glaring into her eyes – she turned to face her husband in the play, Mick, and grabbed his eyes as she recited her final lines, "Let me hold you in my arms one last time and seal your lips, the gateway to our soul with a single kiss."

Following those lines, the pair grew closer to one another until they let their lips connect with each other's and they kissed, pulling apart as they took their last breaths, before falling to the ground in unison, collapsed and unconscious – they were dead.

"The curse of Anubis has come true - this is your reward." Patricia declared, holding up a piece of paper and a glass bottle and passing it to Fabian as he stood up from the ground – this was another scene that was meant to evoke a reaction from their housekeeper, and Sydney already had her camera prepped so that she could just about get his reaction.

"What is this?" Fabian asked.

"Whoever follows the instructions precisely will receive the gift of... eternal life." Patricia answered the man, and as soon as the words fell out of her lips, Sydney began to take a few pictures, noticing how the housekeeper had turned to face their head teacher, both of them looking slightly irritated and nervous as they stood at the back of the room.

"The Elixir of Life! Is it really mine?"

Without waiting for an answer, the boy quickly poured the "elixir" into his mouth (it was actually juice that they'd taken from Anubis House that morning, but the audience did not have to be made aware of that), drinking every last drop of it, before he pretended to choke, bringing his hands to his throat as he spluttered and slowly fell to the ground.

"I can't breathe! What is this? What have you done?" Fabian choked out, slipping further to the ground as he did so, whilst the audience seemed to be on the edge of their seats, their eyes wide as they watched the man die – they were evidently gripped by Nina's script; she did a very good job.

"Your soul belongs to me now!" Patricia boomed, cueing the thunder and lightning as the boy completely collapsed on the stage, no sign of life being seen from him as the girl quickly ran off the stage with an evil laugh leaving her lips, leaving the man who had drank the elixir that gave him eternal life there – he was dead.

Coming to the end of the play, Nina rushed onto the stage once more, quickly crouching down beside her now dead parents within the play, Mick and Mara, whilst she acted distraught, crying out for the two of them with tears in her eyes, "Mother! Father!"

No answer, of course.

Silence filling the air, Nina soon turned and snapped her head towards Fabian, who was also dead, as she yelled out at him, "What have you done?! I know you're behind this!"

However, Fabian remained face down, still acting dead.

Concluding the play, Nina stood up and stepped over the people on the floor as she turned to the audience, reciting the final lines of the play as she spoke, "My name is Sally; I am seven years old. The truth has been heard; my story has been told. My parents adventure brought us only strife. The curse of Anubis has forever changed my life."

The curtains closed.

Hastily, and whilst the audience burst out into applaud and continued to keep it going, the cast all quickly joined on stage so that they could take their final bows, with Sydney soon joining them and standing beside her favourite pranksters after being motioned to join them by the drama teacher, and soon enough, the curtains opened once again and the audience were still applauding – most, if not all, were stood up.

Unfortunately, that included Joy Mercer. The girl had stood up from her seat and began to clap loudly along with the rest of the crowd, a proud smile on her lips as she cheered for her former classmates – however, it soon went badly as her hood fell off, allowing her to be seen by the one person nobody wanted her to be seen by.

Victor Rodenmaar.

"Joy, run, quick!" Patricia yelled out to the girl, who upon hearing the cry, seemed to realise the amount of danger that she was in, briefly glancing behind her to notice that the housekeeper of Anubis House had spotted her, thus causing her quickly bolt onto the stage and rush past them, heading backstage presumably to get out and hide.

In order to catch the girl, Rufus stood up from his own seat, soon running into Victor – the pair glared at one another for a few more seconds, until the housekeeper went onto the stage and roughly brushed past Patricia and Nina in order to catch up with the girl, whilst Rufus headed out to the corridors, pushing Mr Sweet in the process as everyone watched with wide, mildly confused yet very worried, eyes.

Quickly recovering and attempting to distract the audience from the commotion that had just occurred, the head teacher joined the cast on stage and began to say thanks to everyone, including the audience, the cast, Sydney, Mr Winkler, and was saying his thank you to Mrs Andrews when Rufus re-entered the room, shoving her into the audience as he approached the stage.

The man seemed to have a thing for shoving and pushing people out of his way, as he soon did it again to Mr Sweet as he came onto the stage, whispering something into Patricia's ear before he soon left in the direction that both Joy and Victor had gone to, Mrs Andrews quickly following in an attempt to catch him whilst Sydney watched the whole thing occur with widened eyes, and it seemed like everyone else had as well, as soon enough, people began to ask questions.

"Wait, what's going on?" Jerome was the first to question, glancing around to see where the man had gone as he continued, mildly concerned that somebody had just jumped onto the stage after shoving teachers out of the way three times, "Who was that creep?"

"Uh, I'm sorry about that, ladies and gentlemen - just an over enthusiastic member of the audience, and who can blame him? Thank you." Mr Sweet quickly wrapped up, trying to make everything seem normal – somehow, it seemed to work as everyone began to clap once more, standing up to take their leave as though nothing odd had just happened.

Sydney sent a worried glance over to the secret group that she was in, hearing them mutter a few things between themselves before Patricia handed her staff over to Mr Winkler and rushed out, clearly wanting to find her best friend, though the teacher called out after her – she didn't listen.

"Man, there is more drama going on here than in the play, I mean, I think." Jerome stated, turning around to face his male best friend but then flinching upon seeing the camel head right in front of his eyes, courtesy of Alfie Lewis – Jerome rolled his eyes at the small scare, before he inquired, "Did you hear any of that blah?"

Alfie shook his head, and they soon seemed to forget about the event and focused more on the afterparty, which soon became in full-swing almost an hour later, once everyone returned back to the drama studio wearing a lot more suitable clothes than their costumes for the play. Although, Sydney would have absolutely adored to see Jerome attempting to flirt whilst in the camel costume – he would have most certainly gotten rejected.

However, despite the lack of a camel costume, it seemed that Jerome Clarke still got rejected from the pretty girl that he had been talking to moments ago, with her looking extremely uninterested before she walked away – she'd wanted nothing to do with the prankster boy, although Sydney knew that he'd deny that as soon as he was asked.

"Impressive, very pretty – you can tell how much she liked you by how fast she backed away." Alfie joked, with him and Sydney approaching the boy after having spent the past few minutes making silly jokes with camels and looking through the photos that the girl had taken during the play – he had thankfully been extremely impressed with the pictures, and Sydney only hoped that her drama teacher was going to be impressed as well.

In response to his friend's claim, Jerome shook his head in denial as he was very confident, insistent almost, that the girl who had just ran away still liked him, as he told the two of them smugly, "Oh no, I am well in there."

However, he hadn't managed to convince either of them, as the female prankster shook her head at the boy, seeming rather amused and faking a wince as she responded to him, stating, "I hate to break it to you, Clarke, but I really don't think you are."

At that, Jerome rolled his eyes as he didn't want to believe that someone had rejected him, but then his eyes caught sight of Alfie's attire – his school uniform – and looked the boy up and down in confusion before inquiring, "Why are you in school uniform?"

Sydney had asked that exact same question as soon as she had laid her eyes on her friend, being rather confused that he had decided to wear his school uniform when he hated it and when everyone else were wearing normal clothes, and Alfie had given her the same response that he was about to give Jerome.

"My parents are around; I need to look smart." Alfie informed him, causing the girl to let out a sigh upon hearing that once again – she hated that the boy couldn't be himself around his parents and how they always wanted more from him, and that was one of the many reasons (although, the main reason) why Sydney Anderson didn't like Alfie's parents, and she had declared that to the boy after every single time she met them.

"Alfie, you look like a complete nerd – you're the only person in here in a school uniform." Jerome told him in response, glancing around the room and motioning to everyone in normal clothes to prove his point, and he was right – everyone was wearing casual clothes, and Alfie stuck out like a sore thumb in the uniform; a few people had already sent him odd glances.

"My folks respect me for that." Alfie responded, causing the two blonde-haired pranksters to share a look with one another, before Sydney shrugged, shaking her head at him.

"Don't even bother; I tried to convince him to change, but he's clinging to his uniform like it's some sort of alien relic and I never thought I'd say that." Sydney said, although that only made the boy's eyes narrow even more, confusion clouding in them.

With those very same eyes, Jerome turned to the man in his uniform, "You're weird."

"I know." Alfie replied, a big grin on his lips as he did so – Sydney admired him for that, and she was glad that he embraced his weirdness around everybody else – after all, it was who he was and Sydney didn't want him to hide that.

"So, what sort of things did you tell that girl before she practically ran away screaming?" Sydney asked, catching up to the blonde-haired boy who had begun to walk away, with their friend following behind them as they changed the topic.

"Casual flirting." Jerome answered, not revealing too much until his eyes glanced over to the poster on the wall – the one which advertised the play on it, and Sydney almost burst out laughing as she realised what he had done immediately.

"Did you tell her you were a big part of the play?" Sydney questioned him, causing the blonde-haired boy to not say anything as she playfully slapped him on the shoulder, laughing, "Everyone knows that you two were the camel."

"It wasn't just that." Jerome defended himself as they finally reached the snack bar, him throwing a crisp into his mouth and eating it before he continued, telling the girl (and boy, though he'd mostly faded into the background and was only listening by that point), "She'd heard the rumours about us and had seen us around school – says she doesn't go for other people's boyfriends."

"We're not dating, though." Sydney replied, her eyebrows furrowed and her eyes narrowed at the news – she should have been used to that, honestly, it wasn't the first time that Jerome Clarke had been rejected due to the girls thinking that he was dating Sydney Anderson.

"Yet." Alfie said, covering it with a slight cough before he stuffed his mouth with the food, sending an innocent smile to the pair who had sent him a sharp glare.

"Tell that to them," Jerome said, a small chuckle passing through his lips as they resumed their conversation, ignoring the slight interruption from their friend whilst he continued, "Oh, and by the way, you now owe me a date with a pretty girl."

"I can get you a date with a pretty girl! I can get you one right now!" Alfie exclaimed, causing the two to glance over at him with quirked up eyebrows, watching as he came around the table and pushed Sydney into Jerome's chest, the boy quickly catching her and making sure she was steady whilst Alfie continued, "Oh, lookie here! I found one!"

Pulling herself away from Jerome's chest, the two blondes sent a glare towards the boy who had pushed her, with the female reminding him, "We don't like each other like that."

"Beep! Beep! Beep!" Alfie called out, a suspicious look on his face before he pointed at the pair of them, exclaiming, "That's the lie detector going off, you liar!"

"Once again, you're weird." Jerome simply stated, rolling his eyes at his friend and going to walk away until he ran in front of them, halting the two blondes in their tracks and causing them to release a sigh.

"No, listen here!" Alfie demanded, "You two like each other and you're both really, really, really dumb to not realise it! I know! Amber knows! Nina knows! Trudy knows! Maybe even Victor knows! Everyone knows!"

"Well then, everyone's wrong." Sydney remarked, brushing past her friend with a small giggle escaping through her lips, mildly amused at how passionate he was about the topic, as Jerome did the same thing, the two of them walking off.

"You'll see one day!" Alfie called out after them, the pair of them laughing at his loud voice that was getting a little bit quieter as they went further away from him, "I'll say I told you so!"

"He's odd." Jerome commented, as the girl beside him nodded in agreement – despite how odd Alfie was and how many ridiculous rumours he created and supported, they loved him anyways; he was their best friend, and they couldn't imagine their Anubis House experience without him.

Glancing around, Sydney noticed Amber and Mr Winkler sat on the stage with one another, talking for a few seconds before the teacher stood up and went away, causing the female prankster to say to Jerome, "I'm gonna go speak to Amber – catch you later."

"That's also odd!" Jerome shouted out after her, considering that she never used to ditch the boy for anyone else, including the fashionista – it made the girl chuckle slightly as she sat beside Amber Millington, who gave her a suspicious look at the exchange.

"You two are so flirting." Amber stated, making the prankster release a rather loud groan – she'd already heard enough of it from Alfie, and now she had to hear it once again – maybe they were meant to be after all, "Oh, come on! Don't tell me you don't see it!"

"I don't see it!"

"You're practically meant to be." Amber told the girl matter-of-factly, as though she was an expert on love, yet she still continued, either not having noticed how irritated Sydney looked with the constant accusations about her love life or not caring about it as she said, "If you can't see that, you're blind."

"No, all of you are just delusional." Sydney responded quickly, although that made the fashionista's eyes narrow, considering that nobody else was with them and she had said 'all of you', and upon noticing this look, the prankster elaborated, "Alfie also won't shut up about it – maybe you two are meant to be."

At that, the girl vigorously shook her head, correcting it, "Nope, definitely you and Jerome. Come on, it's so romantic! You've been best friends for so long and you flirt with one another literally every single day – we've even had discussions with Trudy about this-."

"You what?"

Amber's eyes widened significantly upon realising her mistake and noticing the glare that the female prankster was sending her, causing her to begin to ramble as she spoke, "Is this where I'm supposed to run? Because I'm in heels, and I know that I'm a pro at walking in them, but I certainly cannot run in them and they'll get all dirty and-."

"Hey." Nina interrupted the girl's ramble as her and her crush approached, the pair of them holding out drinks in plastic cups for the two blonde girls to take as they sat down next to them – however, there was no sign of Patricia Williamson.

Confused and slightly worried, Sydney leaned forward to look at them as she questioned them, "Where's Patricia? I haven't seen her since she ran out."

"We managed to find her in the corridors, and she said something about Rufus waiting for her before she took off." Fabian answered the girl, which only made her become more worried as she didn't particularly trust Rufus – there was something off about him, "I'm worried about her; I feel like we shouldn't have let her go."

"She's Patricia – you couldn't have stopped her even if you tried." Sydney bluntly stated, knowing that her purple-haired roommate was stubborn and would have barged past all of them to get to where she wanted to go.

"That's what I said." Nina responded, before her eyes widened upon spotting the teachers – Victor, Mrs Andrews, and Mr Winkler were all talking in a group, with them constantly glancing over at the group with a gaze that none of them wanted to see, "That's not good – Victor keeps staring at me with his pointy face. Do you think they know?"

"Know what?" Amber inquired, making the female prankster wonder how she was so forgetful about the most important things – how could she have forgotten that Nina almost missed her scene in the play so that she could sneak back to Anubis House and steal the puzzle piece out of their housekeeper's safe.

"That I've taken the puzzle piece." Nina reminded her, a look of recollection appearing on the fashionista's face as she did so, whilst they all glanced back over to the teachers, slightly worried that they were going to begin yelling and scolding the group for the robbery of the puzzle piece.

"No, not yet. He hasn't been back to the house." Fabian answered, comforting and assuring the girl slightly, before he briefly glanced back at the housekeeper, then turned back to them and commented, "I think that's just his usual look."

Then, he proceeded to scrunch up his face in an attempt to imitate their housekeeper, failing miserably, although it still caused Sydney to let out a loud laugh and shake her head at the nerd – honestly, he was a lot cooler than Sydney originally thought he was a few weeks ago, and she never thought she'd say that.

Then again, she'd never thought she'd be in a secret club called Sibuna.

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[22.05.2020]

NOTE: sorry for the late-ish update today. min yoongi released his mixtape and i've been recovering since. but, i'd like to thank you all for 100 votes and 1k views?? i literally thought this would get like ten views or something but you guys are amazing. i love you so much!!!

this chapter also includes one of my favourite alfie moments from this book, and it might be my favourite moment from s1. alfie becomes an even better character in s2 and i plan for him and syd to have many moments together like the best friends that they are.

i love you!!!