DENOUEMENT
xxi. house of masks
❝SHE BRINGS OUT THE BEST IN ME.❞

"HEY, YOU'RE BACK!" Fabian Rutter exclaimed as he opened the bedroom door leading into Nina's and Amber's bedroom, with the latter having not been seen in a while – Sydney had texted her a few times so that she didn't miss yet another Sibuna meeting, but was greeted with numerous texts in response, which, summed up, basically said that she was planning something amazing.

"Did you find what you were looking for?" Patricia questioned, glancing at what Nina had in her hands as she sat atop her bed – it seemed to be some sort of old newspaper, which didn't exactly seem like something that'd help them much or something that the girl would have skipped an entire day of classes for.

"Yeah, it must've been important considering you've been missing all day." Sydney added, sending the American girl a small smile in the process – it had been weird to make decisions about telling people about the search without Nina, and had also been weird to spend an entire day without seeing her and Fabian flirt.

"Not exactly, but-." Nina began, passing the nerd of the group the old newspaper clipping that she had been holding in her hands, and presumably reading, as she continued, informing the group, "I did find this in the attic."

Peering over Fabian's shoulder, the first thing that caught the blonde prankster's attention was, of course, the photograph. Although, her eyes widened as she noticed what the picture was of – it was a grainy photograph of three figures: two men and one woman. The woman? Sarah Frobisher-Smythe. The two men? Victor Rodenmaar Junior (confirmed within the article, calling him 'Son of the late Victor Rodenmaar Senior') and Rufus Zeno, who had not aged a single day. Why were they in the newspaper? Well, as the very big headline read at the top of the article, 'BOARDING SCHOOL FOUNDED ON ANUBIS ESTATE'

It was extremely peculiar – Rufus Zeno and Victor Rodenmaar both looked as though they hadn't aged in the slightest, whilst Sarah Frobisher-Smythe had most certainly aged. Of course, Sydney Anderson was well aware from her fashionista friend, Amber Millington, that moisturiser worked wonders for wrinkly skin, but she didn't think that they performed a miracle as big as the one she was witnessing with her own eyes.

"This photo was actually taken in 1960?" Patricia inquired, taking the newspaper and sitting on Nina's bed as her eyes scanned the photo, looking at the man who kidnapped her not so long ago and the creepy guardian she'd lived with for a few years – those faces were ingrained in her memory, and not a single feature had changed on their faces in almost fifty years, "Rufus and Victor have hardly changed."

"Yeah, and Sarah's aged normally, I know." Nina added, pointing to the elderly woman on the photo, named as Sarah Frobisher-Smythe, and looking quite a bit different to the Sarah Frobisher-Smythe that they had met – she had aged like any normal human, yet was standing next to two people who didn't.

"Whoever took this photo really didn't have a clue about positioning." Sydney mumbled to herself after having taken the newspaper out of Patricia's hands to look at the photo once again, critiquing it, "I mean, Victor looks like a loner and left out, considering he's stood to the side and there's a huge gap between him, Rufus, and Sarah. I know they wanted the 'Anubis' sign in the shot, but there are better ways of doing it!" Sydney begun to ramble, until she noticed that everyone was looking at her with a mildly amused look, causing her to awkwardly clear her throat before she got back to the topic that they had been previously talking about, "So... every day this thing just gets creepier and creepier, huh?"

Now being back on topic, Fabian glanced around the room for a few seconds, before his gaze landed more specifically on his crush, whilst he spoke up, "So, does this mean... the elixir..."

"...really does exist after all?" Nina finished his sentence, pausing for a second before she then shrugged – there was no other explanation that they could think of, and thus she answered their question with, "Well, yeah, looks like it does."

"And Victor isn't the only one taking it." Fabian pointed out – normally, that would have been a harrowing thought, which it was, but it still made the prankster of the group let out a small chuckle as she made a comment:

"Wow, our guardian is old, huh?"

"You know when Rufus held me in that warehouse?" Patricia questioned, although it wasn't particularly a question – it was hard to forget your friend being kidnapped and having to save them, and thus the purple-haired girl continued without an answer as she informed the group, "He said him, Victor, and Sarah went back a long way. Well, looking at this, it seems they were once friends, even."

"Or business partners at least." Fabian suggested.

"Yeah," Sydney looked back at the article, reading out the article (mixed with her own words of course), "Boring, boring, boring, 'Anubis Estate', boring, boring, 'with help from his benefactors, Mr Rufus Zeno and Miss Sarah Frobisher-Smythe.' – I don't know about you but 'benefactors' sounds similar to business partners, so they were definitely that."

"Sarah said something today about being betrayed." Nina informed the group, making the assumption that the two men had betrayed her – they didn't know any other friends that the elderly woman had, so the two men were the likely and only guesses that they were able to come up with, though they were left to wonder what the betrayal was about.

"Guys, supper's ready!" Alfie called out seconds before he burst into the room, causing Nina to quickly snatch and hide the newspaper from him as he glanced around the room, a small smile on his face as he asked, "What's this, a little secret meeting? Wicked!"

"Alfie, will you tell Trudy we'll be down in a minute? We just need to finish some homework." Nina lied to the boy, a smile on her lips as she did so – she was unaware that they had informed Alfie that there were no aliens coming to infiltrate the school, and had told him enough about the search to keep him at bay so that he didn't go insane.

"Yeah, alright then, um-." Alfie mumbled, seeming rather deflated that he wasn't being included in the meeting, whilst Sydney shared a nervous glance with both Fabian and Patricia, "But keep me in the loop, yeah? You know, we're like family now."

Hesitantly, the three members who had told him about everything sent him a quick nod, which satisfied him enough so that he left the room, leaving all of the members of Sibuna (minus Amber) inside – one of whom was much more confused than the rest of them, and was extremely suspicious as she noticed the nervous looks that the rest of the group were giving one another, knowing that Nina Martin was most certainly going to have questions about Alfie Lewis' behaviour.

"Okay, did I miss something?" Nina inquired, as they presumed she was going to, causing them all to send each other even more nervous looks as their minds began to malfunction – thankfully, Fabian Rutter, considering that he was the closest to the girl, explained everything.

However, she seemed far from happy once the explanation was over.

Letting out a frustrated groan, Nina stood up from her bed and turned to the other members of the group, extremely worried – too many people had already joined the secret group after accidentally overhearing information, and now they had another person (who was less than reliable) who had also overheard it, "We should have had a meeting to discuss this first, guys! Alfie could jeopardise the whole thing!"

"He won't! I'll watch over him." Sydney assured the girl in an attempt to ease her worries – it was easy for her to watch over her best friend, considering that she was with him for most of the time anyways, so she took it as her own responsibility to make sure that he didn't ruin everything and spill all of the secrets that they had told him.

"We just told him a few things, that's all - enough to keep him at bay." Patricia defended themselves, still believing that they did the right thing by informing the boy about a few things – of course, they hadn't given away absolutely everything, but it was enough for him to stop attacking teachers.

"If we didn't, then he would have lost whatever little sanity that he had left." Sydney chimed in, trying to convince the girl that it was the right idea and that they did what was best as she continued, exclaiming, "I mean, he attacked a teacher! Who knows what would have happened if we continued with the alien cover up?"

"Exactly, but still, this is exciting." Fabian stated as he picked up the newspaper once more, trying to change the topic quickly so that they weren't yelled at for telling somebody else about the search for much longer – it was a good call, and he'd done it rather smoothly, "It proves we were right all along - about Victor, the elixir."

"We still haven't got any proof, though." Patricia reminded them, causing the nerd's face to drop into one of frustration as he remembered that detail, which was a very important detail, "That stuff we've got is just water and herbs, according to the toxicology report."

"We picked up the wrong stuff, that's all. There were loads of bottles in the cellar." Fabian encouraged them, making them have hope that they'd be able to get more proof, and perhaps, the elixir itself – however, that meant that the group had to do one thing that none of them particularly wanted to do.

"Well, in that case, don't we need to-." Patricia began, glancing around at the group warily as they all knew what she was about to say and had hesitant looks plastered on their faces, none of them being too fond of the idea, though it seemed to be necessary.

"Go back down there?" Nina finished, sending a wary look to all of them as they released a heavy sigh, not a single one of them wanting to go back down into the creepy cellar.

Knowing that if they continued the meeting without their favourite fashionista, she was most certainly not going to be happy and would lecture them about leaving her out being rude again, causing Sydney to speak up as she told the group, "Whatever we're doing, we should go and get Amber. I don't know if I can cope with her being mad at us again for not including her – I think she'd unfriend us, both on social media and in real life."

Due to that, the group of four made their way downstairs, and rushed into the living room, knowing that was where most residents of Anubis House were going to be considering that supper was almost ready and they had been called down. Upon entering, Sydney noticed that Jerome was hardly paying attention to his surroundings, stuck on his phone, and then noticed that Amber and Alfie were sat together on the sofa talking to one another.

"Amber, could we have a word, please?" Fabian questioned, and within seconds, both Amber Millington and Alfie Lewis had stood up from the couch, the latter of which had a humongous grin as he thought he was finally going to be included, though his grin fell as Fabian spoke up once more, clarifying, "Uh... just Amber – sorry, Alfie."

"Thanks a bunch." Alfie spat out at them, evidently upset that he wasn't a part of the entire club and had been left out of parts of it, and at his words, Sydney found her gaze turning to the ground whilst guilt ate her up from the inside – she felt absolutely horrendous about not including her best friend and making him sad.

Meanwhile, as the boy stormed off to the kitchen, Nina attempted to call out an apology to the boy in order to defend their actions as she cried out, "Sorry, Alfie, it's just-."

Although, the boy had already stormed away from the group, being closer to Jerome, who had lifted his head upon hearing the commotion and a smirk fell upon his lips as he looked at his roommate, asking, "Ah, have you been dumped?"

"You and me both, pal." Alfie declared, sending a brief glance towards the third member of their trio, Sydney Anderson, before he turned his head back to his smirking roommate, telling him, "I don't see Sydney talking to you either."

Meanwhile, Sydney Anderson was with Sibuna, the five of them huddled in a circle as Patricia explained to the fashionista why they were having a little meeting, telling her, "So, we need to decide who's going to go down to the cellar and get the real elixir."

"Why aren't we including Alfie?" Amber questioned, not being aware that they hadn't told him absolutely everything and that he wasn't a real member of the club, thus causing her to be extremely confused and feeling bad for the boy as she continued, informing them, "He said he was one of us now."

Upon hearing that, Nina released a large sigh, rolling her eyes as she became heavily frustrated, murmuring quietly, "I knew this would happen."

"We should include him." Sydney stated, causing everyone to glance over at her for an elaboration of why it'd be a good idea to include a goofball and a very unpredictable person into their group full of secrets, which made her defend her opinions and her best friend, "He's my best friend – I think he just wants to be involved, and I trust him. If you're worried about him telling anybody, then I will watch over him and make sure that he doesn't do anything stupid; I'm with him most of the time anyways."

In agreement, Amber nodded, "We at least owe him an apology."

And that's exactly why the group filed into Jerome and Alfie's bedroom, finding the latter sat on his bed seeming rather upset. Instantly, Sydney had moved beside him and tried to apologise to him countless times and make him show a hint of a grin, but nothing seemed to work and she sent a desperate look to the rest of the members of Sibuna, hoping that they'd help.

"Alfie, I'm sorry!" Sydney repeated for what seemed like the millionth time, desperation laced in her voice as she just wanted her best friend to not be mad at her anymore – she hated confrontation, but when it was with Jerome and/or Alfie, it was a lot worse and she resented it.

"It's just, this is a big deal, okay?" Nina chimed in, helping the female prankster and trying to explain to the boy why they had kept so much from him , not fully involving him in the club, as she continued, "Like, life, death, the whole shebang! People have been hurt."

"Yeah, and Alfie was one of them." Amber stated, causing everyone's eyes to widen dramatically as they snapped their head to the fashionista, begging for her to shut up with their eyes – Alfie was not meant to know that he had been sent to hospital because of them, but he soon found out as the girl didn't get the hint to be quiet and elaborated, "Remember, we hospitalized him."

"Amber, shut up!"

"What?" Alfie snapped, shooting up from his bed with widened eyes and a slightly ajar mouth – it was evident that he was shocked at the revelation, and felt a strong amount of betrayal upon hearing that the group almost killed him and he hadn't been made aware.

As the group remained nervously silent, his gaze went over each and every one of them, scanning them and almost begging them for the explanation that he deserved. Sydney felt nothing but pure guilt. She remembered the entire ordeal extremely well, and she was able to recall how petrified she felt in that moment and how guilty she felt when she realised that it was their fault her best friend had the chance of dying – she was now reliving that same guilt as Alfie's gaze turned to her, becoming a glare as he expected her, his best friend, to give him some sort of information – she didn't even have to look at his face to know that his glare was clouded with betrayal, as his best friend had hospitalised him and never told him why.

"Well, that stuff you drank..." Amber began, hesitantly.

"We found it in the cellar." Fabian reluctantly confessed, finishing what the fashionista was going to say as they knew that they couldn't exactly hide it from it any longer – he deserved to know why he almost died and was sent to hospital.

"You could have killed me!" Alfie yelled at him - his accusation hit them all rather harshly, especially one person in particular, Sydney Anderson, who the boy soon snapped around to face with wide eyes, betrayal clear on his features as he snapped at her angrily, "You were a part of this?!"

"Believe it or not, I didn't try to kill you." Sydney mumbled, holding her head in her hands as she tried to will the headache that she received from all the yelling away.

However, the yelling (and thus, also her headache) didn't seem to come to a halt as Alfie continued to protest against the situation, arguing, "You still could have killed me!"

"Yeah, I guess so... sorry." Nina apologised, taking the attention away from Sydney, who she could tell was not having a great time as her head was buried in her hands, before she decided to try and have the boy look on the positive side of things to cheer him up, saying, "But hey, good news is we didn't, right?"

"And Sydney was devastated afterwards – she yelled at all of us." Patricia defended the female prankster, remembering how the girl had stormed out of the group due to the incident, her best friend meaning more to her than the search was ever going to.

Upon hearing that, the boy sent a small glance over to his best friend, feeling a miniscule amount of guilt for yelling at her (although, Sydney would have said that she deserved it), before he turned back to the rest of the group, inquiring, "So, what was it?"

"Water and herbs." Sydney informed him, remembering how anxious she had been to find out what the toxicology report had said and remembering the exact words she had been told that it said – she had been extremely thankful that what they had given him was not the elixir of life.

"Which wasn't the stuff we were looking for, unfortunately, so we need to get some more." Fabian chimed in, revealing a little bit too much information to the boy, which caused his crush to turn around and lightly hit him as her eyes were wide.

"I'll do it." Alfie declared within seconds, the announcement causing his best friend's eyes to widen with shock as she went to protest, before she was cut off by the boy, "I'm sick of being left out - this way I get to prove myself, please?" Fabian went to protest as well, but the boy cut him off as well, a desperate tone to his voice as he cried out, "You have to let me! I deserve to do this mission after what you almost did to me!"

"He's right. I vote Alfie goes." Patricia stated, supporting the boy.

"Me too." Sydney reluctantly agreed with a nod, glancing over to the rest of her club members as she continued, reminding them of the words that she had said earlier as she assured them of his capabilities, "I told you that I trust him."

"Okay, fine." Nina caved, "But, somebody has to go with him."

Instantly, Sydney nominated herself, "I will."

Thus, after supper had finished and all the dishes had been cleaned away, Sibuna (with the addition of Alfie Lewis) found themselves in the kitchen, preparing to sneak down into the cellar through the secret passageway – all of them were rather nervous, and none of them particularly liked sneaking into the cellar, though they all had different ways of dealing with it, especially Alfie Lewis.

His method of dealing with nerves: turn it into excitement and ramble.

"It's gonna' be great," Alfie stated, turning into a goofball as he begun to mess around whilst they waited for the house to be clear, thus causing him to continue cheerfully, a huge smile on his face as he enthused, "Us lot, all together. Intrepid explorers, mystery detectives, adrenaline-seeking adventurers!"

"I wish it was as fun as you're making it sound." Sydney grumbled, glancing down at the secret passageway warily, considering that the cellar was extremely creepy and most (if not all) the times that they have gone down into the cellar, it didn't go as planned and something happened that made the experience not so good.

"Alfie, you have to take this seriously." Patricia scolded him, knowing that they couldn't have him messing around in the cellar and that they had to complete their job as fast as possible – get the elixir and get out – and that made the boy nod his head in understanding, becoming serious about his task.

"So, have we got torches and stuff?" Alfie quizzed, considering that he had never gone down into the cellar or into the attic with the secret group before, so he wasn't exactly aware of how they worked – although, a torch was great to have considering how dark it was in the cellar, so of course they had one of those.

However, Patricia Williamson wanted to tease the boy, of course, and thus did not tell him about the torch that they were going to take down, and instead created a lie as she informed the boy, "No, and you'll be blindfolded."

"Blindfolded?"

"Come off it, Trixie." Sydney muttered with a small chuckle, shaking her head at her roommate before she turned to her best friend, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder as she assured him, "You won't be blindfolded; she's joking."

Nina faintly smiled, chiming in, "Yeah, don't panic."

Within seconds (and with very wide eyes that were clouded with fear), the panicked-but-refusing-to-admit-he-was-panicked boy snapped back with nervous laughter seeping through his tone, claiming, "I'm not panicking."

"Oh, Alfie, it's okay." Amber (who had announced at supper that she was running for student representative and that Alfie was her campaign manager, which was what she had been planning) reassured him, before she shrugged, telling Alfie, "I'm scared too, and I'm not even going."

Upon hearing those very unhelpful words, Sydney tilted her head and looked at her fashionista friend in confusion, "Do you ever think about what you say before you say it?"

Meanwhile, Alfie stammered out, "I'm not scared. I mean, who's scared?"

"All clear?" Fabian questioned, deciding to just get on with the task before anybody managed to petrify the boy even more, and the members of Sibuna glanced around the rooms for anybody around who could have been loitering, before they nodded at the boy –according to the nods, it was safe.

Thus, Nina Martin knelt down in front of the oven, pulling her locket out from under her shirt before pressing it on the oven door, causing the gem on the locket to glow bright red before the passageway to the cellar opened up, looking as dark and creepy as ever.

Yeah, Sydney was never going to get used to that.

It seemed like it was also an odd experience for the newbie of the group (as it would be for any normal human), as upon seeing it, his eyes widened and he breathed out, "Cool."

"Okay, so we'll keep watch, and if it's unsafe to come out, I'll knock three times." Nina explained to the boy their plan, him nodding in understanding to show them that he had listened to the instructions.

"Are you two ready?" Fabian asked the two pranksters who were going downstairs, the boy of which looked rather nervous – obviously, nobody was able to blame him for that; Sydney felt nervous herself.

"Course I'm ready." He simply responded, trying to seem calmer than he actually was, despite everyone knowing that he was scared and nobody blaming him for it.

"Yeah, we're ready. Have you got the flashlight?" Sydney inquired, more specifically to the nerd of the group, who was meant to bring one, and he quickly passed it over to her.

"You know what you're looking for, right?" Fabian questioned, looking more specifically at the female as Alfie, obviously, had never seen the elixir in his life.

Cautiously, Sydney nodded, "Let's hope that I do."

In all honesty, she had absolutely no clue and hoped that she'd figure it out when she was down there. Of course, she remembered seeing Victor drink out of the elixir, so she had a faint idea of its general location and what it looked like, though she never could have been certain – they had already gotten it wrong once.

With a smile on her lips, Nina placed her hand over her eye as she said the very familiar name which all the members had grown to love during their quest, "Sibuna."

"Sibuna." Everyone chorused, mimicking her actions – except from Alfie, who had no clue what the action was and thus just waved his hand over his face awkwardly.

Then, they began their way down into the cellar.

"Wow, it's dark in here, huh?" Alfie nervously chuckled as the pair made their way down, with only one torch lighting up the extremely dark passageway that made both of their nerves increase massively - darkness didn't exactly scream safety to either of them, "And this secret passageway has been here the whole time and none of us Anubis folk knew?"

"Nope." Sydney replied - honestly, none of them had ever bothered to explore the house and hadn't tried to go into the cellar or the attic, considering they were extremely creepy and the only forbidden places in the house, and due to their lack of searching, they hadn't discovered any of the secrets Anubis House had in store for them...

And, God, were there a lot of secrets.

"Hey, did you mean what you said... earlier?" Alfie questioned, though rather cryptically considering that the girl he was asking had said a lot of things earlier and couldn't exactly recall which one he was asking about, forcing her to glance back at him in confusion as they continued to walk, making him elaborate, "About trusting me? And what the rest of them said about you being devastated - was that true?"

"Well, I wasn't exactly going to be over the moon that you were in hospital." Sydney muttered as she attempted to remain slightly sarcastic and in a joking mindset, but eventually gave up and lowered her head, releasing a sigh as she told the boy, "When it happened, I kind of yelled at them and quit the club - said that you were more important."

"That might be the nicest thing you've done for anyone who isn't Jerome Clarke." Alfie pointed out with a laugh, changing the atmosphere from one of sadness at the memory of the incident to happiness and jokes - Sydney couldn't exactly say she was upset about the change in atmosphere.

With a faux-offended expression, Sydney playfully slapped the boy's arm and defended herself, claiming, "I'm a nice person."

"But, you're nicest to Jerome, and he's nicest to you." Alfie informed the girl with a smirk on his lips, knowing that neither of his blonde prankster friends were able to deny that statement - everyone, including themselves, knew that it was true - and that was the perfect opportunity for them to both distract themselves with a topic that Alfie Lewis adored, "When will you two just admit that-."

"Nope." Sydney cut him off before he managed to finish his sentence, already knowing what he was going to say and thus pointing a finger at him as she threatened, "Shush, or else I'll steal all your prankster masks."

"You wouldn't dare." Alfie declared, causing the girl to quirk up one of her eyebrows at him to make him rethink his statement, "Okay, you certainly would. But, come on now, Syd!"

"Come on now, Alfie!" Sydney mimicked him, sticking a tongue out at him before she glanced back in front of her, shining the torch around before she announced, "We're here."

Upon hearing that statement, the boy looked around the creepy room himself as the sound of squeaking became louder and louder, and the boy winced and seemed a lot more petrified than he already was, his wide eyes darting around the room as he prayed that whatever it was didn't hurt him or his best friend.

"Calm down, Alfs, it's just rats." Sydney assured him, having noticed a few of the pesky little animals running around the floor whilst she put a comforting hand on his shoulder before she then realised that her friend was terrified of rats, and murmured (thankfully, quiet enough so that the boy beside her didn't hear her), "Wait, that's not going to help you."

"It's just rats." He repeated with an understanding nod, calming down slightly, before he realised that he was also scared of rats and let out a groan, "Rats..."

"Thought so." Sydney mumbled, before she shook her head and tried to calm down her best friend so that they could continue with their mission, telling the boy, "They're not going to hurt you, okay? So, let's just get what we need and get out of here, so then you don't have to deal with the rats anymore."

"Sounds like a plan." Alfie agreed with a nod, though his voice was still shaky and laced with fear, which became even more evident as he continued to look around at the rats crawling around the floor and continued, speaking up once again, "A rat-contaminated plan... but still a plan."

"Just think of it as the times we used to sneak around and pretend we were doing secret missions." Sydney mentioned the fond memory as her eyes darted around the creepy attic, before she glanced back at the boy and warned him, "However, please don't roll anywhere like you're a spy."

"I would never!"

"You were about to, weren't you?"

"Perhaps."

At that, Sydney released a sigh before she walked over to the many vials on the table as she tried to find the one that the group desired - the elixir of life, yet it proved to be difficult with how many different vials were there, and she shone her flashlight on them all, her eyes narrowing in confusion as she mumbled to herself, "There's so many. Which one is it?"

Eventually, Sydney picked up one of them and examined it for a few seconds with suspicious eyes.

"This surely must be it." Sydney muttered, though she wasn't sure and was simply wishing for luck to be on her side for once, so she rolled her eyes, "Fabian would have been such a better choice for this role."

Knowing that she couldn't exactly swap the roles that her and the nerd upstairs had now, she went with what she thought and poured a little bit of the elixir (or what she assumed to be the elixir) into a different test tube, praying that she got the correct one and that she hadn't picked up water and herbs once again, like the last time they thought they had the Elixir of Life.

"Okay, Alfie, we can go now." Sydney announced, but then her eyes narrowed suspiciously as she noticed the boy shaking, his eyes locked on a cloak - that was when Sydney realised that he'd also remained oddly silent for the past few minutes, causing her to call our for the boy once more in hopes he'd show some sign of acknowledging the girl, "Alfie?"

Suddenly, the silence he'd subdued himself too was broken as he let out a blood-curdling screech that pierced through the air. It appeared that not only was the silent broken, but so was the test tube that Sydney had poured the Elixir of Life in, considering it slipped from her hands as she jumped in shock at the sudden scream of terror, the glass shattering and the elixir spilling all over the floor.

Mission: absolutely failed.

However, the last thing on the blonde prankster's mind was the elixir or the mission at that moment - they had been pushed to the back of her mind as soon as she became worried about her friend, which forced her to rush over to him with wide eyes as she grabbed his shoulders, turning him away from the cloak that had petrified him and wrapping him in a tight hug as the boy sobbed into her shoulder, tears streaming down his cheeks and falling onto her clothing.

"It's okay. It's okay." Sydney repeatedly whispered to the boy - she could feel his heartbeat racing and his body trembling, and she wondered what exactly happened, "You're safe, Alfie. You're with me, okay?"

Once he nodded, seemingly responsive to the female once again, the girl quickly tried to direct him to the secret passageway and pushed him up their first so that he could get out of the room that had obviously traumatised him as fast as possible. Furthermore, Alfie's screech had been particularly loud, and they just had to hope that their housekeeper didn't manage to hear it. However, they couldn't take that chance, and knew they had to leave the cellar as quickly as possible, which was exactly why the pair came rushing through the secret passageway and back into the kitchen, where the rest of the group had already been waiting.

It was clear that they had all heard the scream from the cellar and had come running due to the panicked looks on their faces as Fabian pulled Alfie up to his feet whilst Nina pulled up Sydney, the American sending a concerned glance to the boy who had screeched as she said, "I knew this was a bad idea."

"Alfie, speak to me, are you okay?" Amber questioned the boy, evidently worried for him as he continued to pant and his eyes darted around manically.

"What happened?" Patricia asked, wondering how everything went so wrong so quickly and sending a look to her roommate, in hopes that she had the answers.

However, before the blonde managed to speak up and inform them of what happened , Alfie already began his response and answered the question, though it was clearly a lie, "I was winding Sydney up."

"What about the elixir?" Fabian inquired, making them all remember exactly why the pair had gone down there and for his crush to release a small gasp, hoping that they had managed to get the thing they went down for.

"Did you get the elixir?" Nina further questioned eagerly, glancing more specifically at the less-panicked member of the duo, Sydney.

"I got it," Sydney began, making all their faces brighten for a second until the blonde-haired girl continued, "and then I dropped it."

"You so got my hopes up." Amber huffed, all of them seeming rather distraught and disappointed.

"We'll have to go another night; it's too risky now." Nina stated, taking out her locket from under her shirt and closing the secret passageway once more.

Due to the mission being a failure and lights out fastly approaching, the group began to disperse and go their separate ways, with Sydney and Alfie being the first ones to leave as the former took him to his room and watched him with cautious eyes, still worried about him and wanting him to feel comfortable and safe.

Considering her mind was preoccupied with worry for Alfie, Sydney didn't exactly think about what she'd tell Jerome when she entered his bedroom with worried eyes whilst she directed a clearly panicked Alfie into his room, and she simply hoped that he didn't notice and didn't ask.

Yeah, that didn't happen.

"What's up with you two? You look like you've seen a ghost." Jerome questioned as soon as he turned his head to face the pair who had just opened the door, his eyes narrowing as he set his eyes on Alfie's paled face and widened eyes, and Sydney's concerned expression.

"He just got scared about something he saw, and it made me worried." Sydney partially lied, with Alfie supporting it with a very weak nod as he went over to his bed, deciding to just go to sleep and forget the terrible night he just had - therefore, the girl turned to face her blonde best friend with a tight-lipped smile, "Is it okay if I sleep here? I don't want to leave him when he's so scared."

"You don't need to ask. I was going to text you and ask if you wanted to come down, actually." Jerome informed the girl, lifting up a film and presenting it to the girl with a small smile, "With all the elections coming up, I thought it was fitting to watch a comedy about an election."

"I never thought that I'd find politics fun, but sure." Sydney agreed with a shrug, sitting down beside the boy on his bed as he quickly began to set it up, the pair of them being cut off by a notification from Sydney's phone, which she quickly looked and smiled at, before telling the boy what it was, "It's my aunt - she sent a picture of Lila."

As Sydney lifted the phone up to show her best friend the picture of her cousin, who was brightly smiling at the camera whilst reaching out to it, and Jerome let out a small chuckle, "She's so small and cute, and does she always smile?"

Sydney nodded, "Guess it runs in the family."

"So do weird nicknames. She calls me Jerome-y and Camel-y, and you call me the name that shall not be spoken of." Jerome pointed out, causing the girl to let out a small giggle at the reminder of the nickname that he despised.

With a smirk on her lips, Sydney decided to be extremely annoying and tease the boy, questioning, "Gerbil? Is it Gerbil? Do you mean Gerbil? I think you mean-."

"I will push you off the bed."

"Sorry..." Sydney mumbled, pretending as though she was giving up as the boy started the film, allowing the girl to say under her breath, "Gerbil."

Unfortunately, he still heard.

She ended up on the floor.

The next morning (after getting back onto the bed and actually watching the comedy film all night before the pair of them fell asleep), Sydney found herself in the drama studio with the same boy, her head resting on his lap as they spoke about a topic that neither of them remembered how they got to, but absolutely loved and found hilarious.

"My spirit animal is a seagull, I'm telling you." Sydney declared, causing the boy to glance down at her with an amused expression as he paused brushing his fingers through her hair, chuckling slightly at the announcement and how certain she was that her spirit animal was a seagull, of all animals.

"I'd say it's more like..." Jerome began, but halted in his words as he took another look at her, thinking about a few different animals and the girl's personality before he told her his suggestion, "A cat, maybe?"

"Why?" Sydney asked in confusion - believe it or not, she had never compared herself to a kitten before.

Yet, she'd compared herself to a seagull.

Yeah, Sydney Anderson was a mess.

"Cats sometimes scratch people, but other times they can be really friendly, cute and cuddly." Jerome explained to her, though the girl still seemed confused which forced the boy to elaborate and tell the girl the comparisons between herself and a cat, "You sometimes go against me in fights, but you're also very friendly and caring and like hugs."

"Wow, you actually put thought into it. I just thought my spirit animal is a seagull because I like screaming and taking food from people. For example," Sydney said, before she stole a jellybean from out of the packet that Jerome had in his hands, causing the boy to send her a faked stern look, as if warning her not to do it again.

Of course, what did that make Sydney do?

She grabbed another one and threw it at him.

"I take whatever I said about you being friendly back." Jerome stated, going to grab a jellybean to throw at the girl in retaliation as she laughed at him, until both of them were cut off by sudden loud noises from down the corridor, sounding somewhat like chanting, and it caused for the pair of blondes to be extremely confused.

Apparently, they weren't the only confused ones, as Mick and Mara (who had also been in the drama studio, with the former of the two surprisingly studying) turned to the noise and went to investigate. Upon doing so, a letter fell to the ground and neither of them noticed – however, the two pranksters most certainly did, noticing that the letter was addressed for the jock, and Jerome quickly picked it up and put it in his pocket.

"Blackmail?" Sydney quizzed; her eyebrow quirked up as she sent a small glance to the pocket where the letter remained and she wondered if it was for the try-outs that Mick had applied for, considering that nobody had heard how they had gone.

"Perhaps." Jerome answered his best friend with a smirk on his lips, before he slung his arm over her shoulders and the two of them went to the corridors to find what the source of the noise was, and their eyes widened upon seeing it.

What was it, exactly?

Amber Millington, with the addition of several cheerleaders behind her who were chanting her name as they strutted down the corridor, following Amber who had just done numerous back handsprings before landing in front of her competition for student representative – Mara Jaffray.

"Vote Millington, you have to be willing-ton." Amber said her slogan for her campaign with a beaming smile, before she strutted away whilst a large group of cheerleaders gave away badges to everyone else - she really went all out for the election, in true Amber Millington fashion.

"Okay, Amber, what are your actual policies?" Mara questioned as she stormed up to the girl, evidently annoyed as she knew that the fashionista wasn't trying to help the school and just wanted to beat the nerd, and it was also making her have less of a chance to win, "Haircuts, short skirts, and mandatory "chillax" periods? Because, and I quote-," Mara glanced over at one of Amber's campaign posters, reading another one of her slogans, "'Who needs classes anyway?'"

Smiling, Sydney declared, "I love it."

"I see that my message is getting through to you." Amber stated simply, not caring about what the nerd had to say and passing her a campaign badge whilst Jerome and Sydney snickered, "Want a button?"

"I do!" The female prankster called out, causing Amber to turn to her friend with a bright smile on her lips due to the support, before passing Sydney one of the many campaign badges she had.

"This is a chance for us to really make a difference. Whose fed up with having textbooks that date back from 1987?" Mara called out, obviously annoyed as everyone knew that Amber would do nothing good for the school that would benefit them educationally.

"M-A-R-A!" Patricia chanted, a few people on the side-lines joining in as they finished with, "Mara!"

"Whose fed up with the mirrors in the bathroom making you look like a horror show?" Amber asked, causing her cheerleaders to cheer from behind her boisterously as they waved their pom-poms in the air, "And by you, I mean you, Mara."

Exasperated and annoyed by Amber, Mara continued to fight back against the girl and her stupid policies, "Whose fed up with listening to people who actually have nothing to say?"

"Whose fed up with living in the same house as the school's chief boyfriend-snatcher?!" Amber retorted, beginning to turn the fight to a personal level and Sydney's eyes widened, Jerome letting out a snicker from behind her – of course, he loved drama, especially relationship drama.

"Whose fed up you're only running for school rep because Mick likes me far more than he ever liked you?!" Mara yelled out harshly at the fashionista, causing Sydney to let out a small gasp as she sent a glare to the nerd - that was way too far, and it made Amber's eyes fall to the ground in sadness.

It was safe to say that Mara Jaffray was certainly not getting Sydney Anderson's vote after that.

However, Mick Campbell glanced up awkwardly upon his name being mentioned, his eyes widened, as he muttered, "I'm not sure I ever said that."

Thankfully, that caused a small smile to appear on the fashionista's lips, before she strutted off with her cheerleaders following her and their chants bouncing off the corridor walls, whilst Mara let out a loud groan and slumped down into one of the chairs in the drama studio, frustrated and angry.

"I really need to make my campaign better." Mara huffed out, glancing around at all the posters that were plastered around with Amber's face on them, before an idea struck her, "Jerome, you're good with influencing people and knowing what makes someone more likeable, right?"

With a very suspicious expression on his face, the boy hesitantly nodded in agreement.

"Can you please, please, please be my campaign manager? Amber has Alfie as hers and her campaign is going great and I just really want to win this and actually make a difference and-."

"Yes, okay! Stop rambling." Jerome quickly cut the girl off, rolling his eyes as he was rather irritated by how much she was talking and how she refused to be quiet, "I'll be your campaign manager as long as you never ramble like that ever again." Of course, Mara quickly agreed to those conditions and caused Jerome to let out a huff as he spoke up once more, "Well, guess that I have to actually think of something. I'm going to go and speak to some people."

With that, the boy picked up his bag and soon left.

Seeing not much more reason for herself to be present, especially since she wasn't exactly very happy with Mara Jaffray after the incident with Amber Millington, Sydney Anderson found herself quickly leaving and going down a few corridors aimlessly until she bumped into Sibuna (minus Amber Millington, who was probably still running around with her cheerleaders), tagging along with them and walking past a few empty classrooms, until they eventually came across one that wasn't completely empty - instead, Alfie Lewis was sat inside alone, his head in his hands as he looked extremely disturbed, and the group instantly halted at the sight.

"Alfie, are you okay?" Sydney worriedly questioned as she rushed into the classroom, Sibuna following her hastily as they put their things down, looking at the boy who had glanced up to them briefly before his eyes fell back down to the table.

"Last night in the cellar, I remembered – I remembered everything."

That explained why he freaked out so badly.

"What did you see?" Patricia inquired, wanting to know if they could manage to get any new information and also wondering if there was any way they were able to help the boy - whatever he saw had clearly disturbed him a lot.

"Mr Sweet, Mrs Andrews, Mr Winkler, and some other people, and they were chanting - and they mentioned the chosen one. Victor drank from a skull, and... it was horrible." He revealed, although none of what he said was extremely new information – they knew the teachers were involved, but at least they knew who definitely was included after the boy's revelation, "And one of them was in a mask - a dog mask - that's what I dream about - that face, staring at me, coming for me."

As he spoke about the man in a dog mask, he began to panic even more and tears stung his eyes, whilst he began to whimper, and his voice became even more strained. Trying to get rid of the terrifying memories, the boy pressed both hands against his head, willing for it to go away, and Sydney quickly placed her hand on his arm to comfort him - she knew exactly what it was like to have flashbacks, and sometimes the only way Sydney managed to escape them was being snapped out by someone else, and she assured him, trying to ease the pain that she knew very well.

"Alfie, it's okay, you're safe."

"I bet I know what he was drinking out of the skull." Nina stated, knowing that they could easily guess - they had seen their housekeeper drinking stuff before, and it seemed as though he focused on one thing in particular.

"The elixir." Fabian presumed, causing the girl to nod in agreement - it was all for the Elixir of Life.

"What elixir?"

"It's a potion they make - it keeps you young." Fabian explained to the boy, considering that they weren't really hiding much from him anymore - he already knew about the secret club, the secret passageway, and them hospitalising him.

"Ankh." He spoke up, causing Nina and Fabian to turn to one another with wide eyes, whilst the boy continued and told them, "That was another word."

"The Cup of Ankh." Nina breathed out in realisation, looking at Fabian for confirmation on her theory, "That's the cup that gives you immortality, right?"

Although, before anything else was able to be said between the group, Amber came rushing into the room carrying a ton of art supplies as she exclaimed, "Hello! Very important stuff to discuss here, so I've only got twenty-four hours to make sure I win The Election Factor. Hands up, who's going to help me blow Mara out of the race?"

Sydney put her hand up.

The rest of Sibuna didn't.

"Thank you, Sydney! I'm disappointed in the rest of you! Some club – you people are so unsupportive! Running around after The Cup of Mankh, when it could be my one chance to shine – thanks!" Amber ranted, clearly upset with them all (minus Sydney), before she turned to her campaign manager and announced angrily, "Oh, and by the way, Alfie, you're fired."

And with that, she stormed out of the room whilst her ex-campaign manager sank even further down in his seat – he really was not having a good day.

Thankfully, he didn't have to cope with much more of that day as it soon became the second to last lesson of the day, and they were all sat in class (minus Jerome, who had yet to show up despite Sydney's many text messages - she hadn't seen him since he agreed to being the campaign manager of Mara), and Mrs Andrews soon spoke up to the class, "Where is everybody? Let's open our books to page sixty-two, please."

Casually entering the classroom, despite him being late, Jerome had a very suspicious smirk on his lips as he turned to the teacher and gave her his excuse, "Sorry, I'm late, Miss – campaign business."

With that, the boy sat down on the same desk as Alfie Lewis, which was thankfully next to Sydney's desk and that allowed for the female prankster to lean over to the boy and whisper to him, "Where have you been? I've been texting you."

"You'll find out."

And she most certainly did.

After an extremely boring lesson in which Sydney's mind was more preoccupied on where her best friend had been for so long and what he had meant by his very cryptic answer, students soon came rushing out of the classroom and burst into laughter as soon as they noticed what was pinned to the walls of their school corridor - it wasn't exactly hard to miss, there were hundreds of them.

They were posters of Amber Millington, though she was much younger and certainly didn't look the same.

Unlike everyone else, the members of Sibuna had quite different reactions to the posters plastered across their walls, as they watched the fashion-loving member of their group turn from being happy to having her eyes well up with tears, her face falling. All of the members of Sibuna had worried expressions as they watched their group member practically fall apart in front of them, and Sydney was sending an extremely strong death glare towards everyone who was laughing - at that moment in time, she wished that she had a look that was able to kill, and she wondered who could have done such a cruel thing until it fell upon her like a heavy weight, a gasp almost leaving her lips as her own eyes almost welled up with tears at the mere thought of her friend doing something so horrid.

It was Jerome Clarke.

And, as the very famous phrase went, 'Speak of the devil, and he shall come', as the boy who Sydney had just been thinking of soon spoke up, "What's wrong, Amber? Don't like people seeing you before all the acne medicine and braces - what was your policy about always looking good, huh?"

Beginning to sob hysterically, the blonde ripped down numerous of the posters furiously, before turning to the male prankster, "I hate you, Jerome, I hate you!"

With that declaration of hatred being screeched out in front of many students, the fashionista stormed down the corridors with tears streaming down her cheeks, and Sydney hastily went to follow her friend, calling out after her, "Amber!"

However, her movement suddenly came to a halt when a hand gripped onto her arm, pulling her back. Already knowing who it was, Sydney tore her arm away from the man and glanced behind her, looking at him with an irritated expression and fire in her eyes.

And that was when Jerome Clarke realised that he messed up, exponentially - his own face dropping as he noticed how annoyed the girl looked as her fiery gaze was locked on him.

"Mara is not the smear campaign type, and neither am I." Sydney spat out at him angrily, before looking around at the few posters down the corridor that Amber hadn't ripped up and shaking her head, before ordering, "Take them down."

Not letting him say another word, the girl ran away, but she wasn't the only one who had negative words to say to the boy, not liking his stunt.

"You're a really nasty piece of work sometimes, aren't you?" Mick questioned the boy as he stepped in front of him, halting the prankster in his tracks to go and take down the posters as the jock defended his ex-girlfriend, considering they were still friends.

"I'd be careful if I were you, Campbell – people in glass houses." Jerome responded cryptically, not wanting to speak to anyone else and not caring what he let slip, considering that he was annoyed with how much he had annoyed and upset Sydney.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Mick asked.

"Well, in my book, it's pretty nasty to keep secrets from your girlfriend." Jerome answered, tilting his head slightly to see the jock's girlfriend, who had overheard them and her eyes widened at the news- not saying another word, the prankster left the pair to get rid of the remaining posters like he had been ordered to by Sydney Anderson.

Speaking of Sydney Anderson, she had her arms wrapped tightly around Amber Millington, comforting the fashionista as she sobbed hysterically in her arms. Fortunately, the prankster had managed to catch up to the girl outside after a few minutes of running (she was doing way more exercise than she normally did recently, she hated it), and had dragged her to a more secluded area outside where nobody was near so that she was able to cry without worrying if people were going to laugh at her more.

"I hate him." Amber mumbled out through her tears, and she didn't even had to say the name of who it was for them to know exactly who she was talking about - Jerome Clarke, and as much as Sydney hated people insulting the boy, he deserved it in that instance and she couldn't defend his actions.

"It'll blow over, I promise." Sydney assured the girl, slightly pulling away from the hug (but still keeping her hands on the girl's shoulders for comfort) so that she could look at her as she continued, telling the girl, "Amber, who cares what you used to look like? No matter how you used to look or how you look now, you're still you - you're still Amber Millington, and that girl is pretty great."

With a little laugh through the many tears, Amber nodded in agreement as she began to wipe away the tears on her cheeks, stating, "You're right."

"I always am." Sydney declared.

A small smirk on her lips, Amber looked at her friend with a quirked-up, teasing, eyebrow before she said, "I wouldn't go that far."

"Amber!" Sydney exclaimed, the pair of them giggling at one another before the prankster slung an arm over the fashionista's shoulder, beginning to walk to Anubis House, "Come on, let's skip the last lesson and get you back to the house and I may even let you give me another makeover, and you can rant to me about whatever Victoria Beckham has been up to recently."

"Well, she's been a very busy person, of course - she's Victoria Beckham. Did you know..."

After a long rant from Amber Millington about what her favourite celebrity had been doing recently, and once she had received a complete makeover (she now had slightly curled hair and a full face of makeup of, and had been forced into a white skirt and blue cropped jumper), Sydney Anderson found herself in the attic with the rest of Sibuna (minus Amber, who they had offered to come with but she was too upset to do so), and they were listening to the cylinders on the phonograph once again, though it made no sense.

"I don't understand what we're doing – we've listened to these all already." Patricia stated with confusion, saying exactly what the prankster was thinking as neither of them understood why they had to stay up in the attic and relisten to all of the cylinders when they'd already done it, and had recordings of them on an MP3 (a less riskier way of listening to them).

"I agree." Sydney mumbled, looking around the attic with a frown on her lips as she added, "It feels like I'm studying, and I don't study for anything."

In her hands, Nina had the blank cylinder and she kept fiddling with it in confusion, and she glanced up to face Fabian, "This was the blank cylinder, right?"

He nodded.

"But why was it blank?" Nina questioned, wondering why a blank cylinder was a clue to them - it told them absolutely nothing, and it certainly was odd.

"Because it wants us to suffer and never get it right?" Sydney guessed, not thinking too much into the blank cylinder - the only thoughts that she had about it was that she disliked it for making her come back into the attic again and relisten to all the stupid cylinders.

"Because it was damaged?" Fabian suggested, not being too sure of his answer and thus shrugging his shoulders - if it was damaged, then that was probably an issue for them.

Sydned nodded, "Or that."

"What if it's fake?" Nina inquired, "This casing doesn't look right to me. Look, it's different from the others." The American informed them as she noticed the discrepancy, and she began pulling at the cylinder as an attempt to pull the casing off, "I think it might-," As the lid popped off, she laughed, "-come off."

Nina looked inside, pulling out a note as everyone gasped, with Fabian exclaiming, "You're a genius!"

"What does it say?" Patricia asked, whilst Nina looked at the riddle for a few seconds, before reading it out to the group.

"To find the secret of the past, look beyond this world through glass."

They looked at one another in confusion.

Meanwhile, Jerome was sitting alone in his bedroom as he read a magazine glumly – and by reading, that meant flicking through the pages as he thought, his mind becoming like a maze. He didn't feel particularly bad about what he had done to Amber - not at first, anyways - and he thought that it was a bit of humour and that it was a good campaigning method. However, as soon as Sydney tore her arm away from him and ran off, guilt had been eating him up and he'd been regretting ever searching for the young photos of the fashionista.

However, a knock at his door snapped him out of his thoughts, his eyes drifting over to the entrance of his room as he hoped it was Sydney, but he soon saw that the door had already been opened slightly, with Mara's head peeking through which caused him to roll his eyes at her, asking, "Are you going to tell me what a mean, horrid person I am ?"

"Listen, Jerome, I appreciate your help and everything but I'm not the smear campaign type." Mara informed him, trying to be nice considering that she had been the one who asked him to be her campaign manager originally, though what she said caused him to release a loud sigh as he put down his magazine, turning to face the girl.

"I know, Sydney told me." He spoke, bitterly chuckling slightly at the mention of the girl that he'd upset, "She wasn't too happy either. You know, I wish I could be normal like you - do the right thing."

"Then do the right thing - apologise to her, and to Amber." Mara told him, hoping that he'd patch things up with her roommate as she couldn't imagine what Anubis House would have been like if those two weren't attached by the hip, causing her to further assure the boy, "Sydney might not be happy with you right now but you two are inseparable."

"Do you remember how you felt when your parents dropped you off here for the very first time?" Jerome asked the girl, curious at what she'd say.

"Yeah, nervous - nauseous, but I knew they weren't abandoning me; they just wanted me to have a good future." Mara answered, finding the question rather peculiar but keeping her answer honest.

Taking a deep breath, Jerome decided to reveal a personal part of his life to the girl and open up more, despite the tears that threatened to sting his eyes, "My parents wanted something else - to get rid of me. They should have been the people who wanted to stay the most and they left. Sydney, however-." He took another breath as he thought of the girl, trying not to cry, "Sydney had the choice to leave, but she chose to stay with me all that time ago. I didn't want her to leave then and I don't want her to leave now either."

"Then apologise." Mara repeated her previous advice to him, before she decided to get to the topic that she had originally come into his room to talk about, "Can I ask you something? What you said to Mick about people in glass houses and keeping secrets – is he- was he seeing someone whilst he was away?"

That was the perfect opportunity to meddle in someone else's relationship, and for a second, he considered it.

"I so badly want to say yes, as some sort of joke or a prank." Jerome revealed, but then shook his head as he continued, telling the girl, "But, I can't."

"Why not?"

"Because he wasn't seeing anyone whilst he was away, and I think I'm beginning to realise that I shouldn't mess with people's feelings as much as I do." He explained to her, before a certain girl who had told him the exact same thing flashed through his mind, causing him to let out a small bittersweet chuckle, "Don't tell Sydney, because she'll use it against me forever, but I guess she brings out the best in me, huh?"

A small smile tugged at Mara's lips at the fact that it seemed like Jerome Clarke was slowly (and, emphasis on the 'slowly') beginning to realise his feelings for the blonde girl who he had known for a majority of his life - everyone in Anubis House wanted them to get together, and that certainly was not a secret.

In response to his question, Mara nodded at him, before her eyes narrowed in confusion as she wondered what the prankster had talked about previously when mentioning that her boyfriend had been keeping secrets from her, causing her to ask, "So, what was the secret?"

At that, Jerome turned and took out a letter from his bag, which happened to be the one that the jock had dropped earlier and he had decided to pick up in order to use for blackmail, passing it to the girl.

Instantly, Mara opened the letter and read it quickly, her eyes scanning the words on the page at an incomprehensible speed, eager to find out what it was that her boyfriend was hiding, before she looked up at Jerome with confused eyes, "He didn't get the scholarship?"

"No." Jerome answered her, not particularly caring much about the entire Mara/Mick situation anymore.

"But, why wouldn't he tell me?" Mara wondered.

At first, Jerome's mind went to Mick Campbell, considering that he was who she was asking about, and presumed that he probably kept his secret so that he didn't disappoint anyone.

Then, his mind went to himself and how he hadn't told anybody about his family, or lack thereof, considering how little they cared about him, because he didn't want anyone to see him as unwanted or left to rot.

Finally, he thought about Sydney Anderson, and how she had yet to tell any other members of Anubis House about the death of both of her parents, presumably because she didn't want to relive the memory and didn't want anybody to see her differently.

They all kept secrets.

And, they all had their reasons that typically protected them, their reputation, and their feelings. It made them feel in control of something that perhaps they didn't have control over originally, and they liked that, and thus that caused Jerome to say:

"Maybe people like keeping secrets."