DENOUEMENT
xlii. house of help
❝WE HAVE TO DO THIS TOGETHER.❞

RAYS OF SUN streamed in through the curtains that morning, and if pathetic fallacy was something that actually existed in real life and the weather was able to foreshadow to people about how their days were going to plan out, then the weather that day would have suggested that the day ahead of Sydney Anderson was going to be absolutely perfect. Unfortunately for Sydney Anderson, she constantly mixed up pathetic fallacy and personification (that was what happened when she zoned out during her English lessons), and subsequently, pathetic fallacy didn't exactly work for her. Instead of being the perfect day that one may have assumed it being due to the weather, the female prankster was completely shaken after her sleep had been interrupted, her being woken up by the fact by a spirit that placed a curse upon her and her friends and thus put their lives at risk - it wasn't particularly a great way to wake up, and not a single one of the three roommates had managed to fall back asleep after the incident, simply staying awake, trying to process the information that they were now cursed, and talking about their worries until it was time to face the rest of the residents of Anubis House, and then the students/teachers at Amun Boarding School. Although, they soon encountered another issue.

Yeah, it was safe to say that pathetic fallacy really was not occurring that day for Sydney Anderson.

Their next issue also stemmed from the Mark of Anubis that they had been given in the night, as the three girls knew that absolutely nobody could see the new marks that had suddenly appeared overnight and tainted their skin. Due to that, they had to find a way to cover up the black mark on their skin, which proved to be significantly harder for Amber Millington, whose mark was very much visible when it was on her ankle, and that was why Nina Martin had begun rifling through her drawers whilst Sydney Anderson (whose mark was on her thigh, so was much less visible) comforted her fellow blonde.

"I don't know who I'm more scared of - the spirit, or my dad." Amber Millington informed them, her worried eyes locked on her newly marked ankle whilst her prankster roommate (also being newly marked by the spirit) had an arm slung around the fashionista's shoulders in an attempt to comfort her, though her eyebrows furrowed at the odd statement that came from her friend's lips.

"...I'd say the spirit - you know, the one who is actually threatening to kill us." Sydney told her, knowing that the two of them and whoever else was marked (the female prankster didn't lack basic intelligence - maybe educational intelligence, but not basic intelligence - so she was fully aware that there was a high chance that the spirit had also cursed both Alfie Lewis and Patricia Williamson too, and now all of them were cursed, though she hoped that they weren't as the three roommates hadn't seen the other two previously un-marked members of the club, and hadn't encountered Fabian Rutter either) were probably able to hide the mark from their parents/guardians for some time until they returned home after the term had finished, but it was much harder to hide from the spirit who continually threatened to kill them and had proved she had the power to do so.

"Here - these'll cover it." Nina Martin finally spoke up, moving away from her wardrobe and walking over to the two blondes whilst she held a pair of long socks that were... not the most fashionable (they were in the colours of the flag of America, of course belonging to Nina Martin), which she soon passed over to the roommate who required them to cover the bold and very much noticeable mark on her ankle.

"Okay, so I just have to wear long socks for the rest of Daddy's life." Amber declared, unballing the unappealing socks and looking very much disgusted and not that pleased with them, but she was fully aware that she had to wear them and had no other choice, "That'll look great around the pool. Why couldn't mine have been like Sydney's?"

"Well, it's safe to say that shorts are a no-go for me for... however long it takes for this mark to come off, and considering that the only pyjama bottoms I wear are shorts, that's going to be an issue." Sydney muttered, the hand that wasn't slung around her roommate's shoulder being used to rub against the mark on her thigh whilst she thought about how she'd cover the mark at night, especially when she slept in the same room (and bed) as Jerome Clarke - somebody who wasn't a member of Sibuna - a majority of the time.

"I'm so sorry, you two. I didn't want this for either of you. I just... I feel so powerless against this thing." Nina apologised, her head hung low as the guilt she felt had slowly began to consume her - she knew that getting the others involved in the group again when there was a curse-y spirit coming after them was a risky move, and now their lives were in danger along with her's; she had never intended that to happen.

"I know, it's okay." Amber assured the guilt-ridden female, and it didn't take much longer for the female prankster to chip in with her own thoughts, nodding alongside the fashionista that she had her arm slung around.

"Yeah, and we knew the risk we were taking when we joined this whole quest." Sydney reminded the American female, making all three of them recall when the pair of blondes had turned the duo (Nina Martin and Fabian Rutter) into a group of four and had made Sibuna rise once more, and both of them had insisted that they joined the group even when they had been told about the risks it came with.

"We were with you anyways, and now we're just really with you." Amber pointed out.

"Really, really with you." Sydney repeated, putting emphasis on the 'really' part of that statement whilst she slung her other arm over the American, comforting both of her roommates and bringing them into her for side hugs.

Honestly, at the start of the previous term, Sydney Anderson had never expected to find herself in another trio at Anubis House and she had never expected for that trio to be only girls, considering that the girls whom she was closest to at the start of that year were Patricia Williamson and Joy Mercer, and she really wasn't that close to either of them and simply spent a few of her breaks with them whenever she couldn't find the two boys whom she mainly associated herself with. Of course, she had been friendly with the other girls at Anubis House as well beforehand, especially since they were her roommates and Amber Millington had been the one to teach her about fashion and makeup, whilst Mara Jaffray attempted to get the girl to study and do her homework, but she hadn't spent a lot of breaks with them. At the start of the previous term, the only trio that Sydney Anderson cared about was the trio between herself, Jerome Clarke, and Alfie Lewis (and, don't get her wrong, she still adored that trio and was never going to get rid of either of them - they were best friends for life). However, Amber Millington and Nina Martin had both continued to worm themselves into the life of Sydney Anderson, or perhaps she had wormed her way into their life, but the prankster couldn't have been more thankful for that - even if it meant that she had to continuously put her life at risk.

For the first time in her life, she had female friends who didn't make her feel like a third-wheel whenever she was around them. Just like Sydney Anderson knew that she was going to remain best friends with Alfie Lewis and Jerome Clarke for an extremely long time, she was almost certain that she was going to remain best friends with both Amber Millington and Nina Martin for an extremely long time as well - and that... well, it was an amazing feeling - euphoric, even - despite the friendship being tainted with a curse.

Was there a saying that said 'best friends who get cursed together stay together'? No?

Well, maybe the curse simply meant that the ending of their friendship was going to be tragic or that the moment that the trio were separated was going to be terrible. Or, maybe it meant that even a curse couldn't break their friendship, and thus no amount of distance was going to break it either. Perhaps, it meant both.

Although, before the female prankster was able to ponder over that thought for much longer, the sound of a door slamming open broke her out of her thoughts and caused her to shoot her glance up, her eyes landing on a distressed Patricia Williamson who soon flipped over her arm and pointed towards the inside of her wrist, now covered with the Mark of Anubis, as she inquired, "What do you call this?"

Whilst Nina Martin winced, Amber Millington glanced down to the matching mark that had made its mark (quite literally) on her skin as she answered, "Membership?"

"Welcome to the club - it's getting more like a cult as the days go on!" Sydney Anderson commented, her tone being jokingly cheery as she motioned to the exact same mark that had appeared overnight and covered the skin on her thigh.

"You two, as well?" Patricia spoke, her face panicked and a little bit confused as she turned to face Nina - the person who encountered the spirit most and thus knew the most about her - as she quizzed worriedly, "Who else?"

"I'm freaking out!" The panicked voice of Alfie Lewis reached their ears as though it was on cue, and the group all turned their eyes to the entrance of the bedroom as the boy bolted into it - although, the female prankster's eyes soon found their way from his worried face and to his calf, now being covered by the dangerous Mark of Anubis, confirming her suspicions that all of them had been marked that night, "I've just acquired a tat overnight! I'm too young, it's illegal, and if I had the choice, I would have gone for some sort of fire-breathing dragon!"

Amber's eyebrows furrowed, "Not my name?"

"Oh, here we go again." Sydney sighed, facepalming with her free hand (Nina had stood up from the bed when Alfie had rushed in, so now the prankster only had one arm slung around the shoulders of the fashionista) knowing the exact words that were going to come out of the lips of Alfie Lewis - of course, she was right.

"We broke up!"

Although, Patricia soon brought the more important/dangerous topic back to the forefront of the conversation once more, looking back towards Nina for the answers to her numerous questions, "Does this mean we're cursed? Are our lives at risk too?"

Before anybody was able to answer the purple-haired girl's question, the sight of Fabian Rutter entering the room caught their attention and the other male member of the group didn't hesitate in pointing towards the mark that had appeared and covered his calf during the night, causing the nerd's eyes to widen with fear, "So you've met the spirit?"

"Met?" Patricia repeated incredulously, lifting up her arm and pointing towards the mark that was on her skin as she corrected him,  "Stamped!"

At the sight of the dangerous mark on yet another person's skin, Fabian's eyebrows furrowed in confusion as he whipped his head towards Nina, with him being clearly perplexed by the unexpected situation, "Wait, they've all got them?"

"Yep." Sydney answered, pointing at the mark on her thigh and then pointing towards the exact same mark on the fashionista's ankle to show that they had also received the mark during the night, before she tried to lighten the mood slightly, "At least it's like an actual club now, or a cult - a really, really official one." Yeah, it was safe to say that she received a few glares and unimpressed looks, causing the girl to quickly raise her hands in mock defense as she quickly apologised, "Okay, bad timing - I get it."

"Well, if we all have tattoos, what about you?" Alfie inquired, motioning towards the nerd of the group - that question made the female prankster recall how they hadn't told either the goofball or the goth about the Mark of Anubis when they had joined them into the group, considering that the nerd had decided that it wasn't anything necessary to tell them due to them thinking it was only going to be him and Nina who got them, since neither Sydney or Amber got them after they had joined until just.

It turned out that telling them about the mark was probably extremely necessary, and they had made a mistake in not doing so - thus, Nina stepped forward and revealed the truth to the latest additions to the group, answering the question for the nerd as she told them, "Fabian already had one, after me."

"What?!" Patricia responded in disbelief, clearly not happy that the group had kept something from the pair, and the annoyance she felt was evident through her tone as she continued, "And you didn't think it was important to tell us it was kind of contagious?"

"But, when Amber and Sydney never got one, we thought it was just us, so-." Fabian soon found his words falling short, knowing that his excuse probably wasn't good enough and, subsequently, knowing that the group had made an error when they had decided not to tell the two members, and he continued much more hesitant, "Well, we decided-."

"Oh, you decided." That time, it was the purple-haired member of their group who had interrupted the nerd, her eyebrows raising challengingly at the statement that she had repeated and thus causing the room to fall silent for a few moments, nobody having a response for her - however, she soon broke the silence, angrily and sternly telling the members of the group, "From now on, we make all decisions together. Okay?"

Without an answer (though, it wasn't like any of them were going to disagree with her), Patricia Williamson stormed out of the room and it wasn't much longer until Alfie Lewis followed her footsteps (quite literally), only stopping for a brief second once he had reached the door to throw another upset look at the mark on his calf before he exited the room, the door slamming being the last thing the remaining members of the group in the room heard before everything plunged into silence, nobody having anything to say.

Although, whilst they were mainly quiet, the members of the group did have their own physical reactions to the situation that had just occurred, and Sydney Anderson's reaction was to throw herself back onto the bed of her fashionista roommate, lying down on it as she released a humongous sigh that was laced with frustration. Yeah... believe it or not, she didn't exactly plan to start her morning that way, and she also didn't plan for it to stay so... terrible.

And that was exactly the reason why the female prankster found herself knocking frantically against the door that led into the bedroom of Jerome Clarke and Alfie Lewis a while later - she had gotten dressed for the school day and had her breakfast majorly in silence, thinking to herself and reflecting on her own emotions before deciding what to do, and that was what led her to rushing to the boy's corridor and knocking on it constantly - and, no, her decision was not just to annoy the two boys by constantly knocking on their door.

After three seconds of non-stop knocking (and, emphasis on the 'non-stop' part of that sentence), the door finally swung open whilst the female prankster was in the middle of knocking once again, causing her knuckles to almost hit the face of Jerome Clarke. The only reason it didn't was because the boy had seen a fist flying at his face and had moved back seconds before it would have hit him.

Yeah... that wasn't her decision either.

"Woah!" Jerome called out, his eyes wide as he glanced down to his frantic best friend (who was now even more frantic and repeating many, many, many apologies to the boy) and wondered what was wrong with her, considering she never knocked that much - she'd either do a small knock and wait for one of them to open the door and/or tell her to come in, or she'd do a small knock and come in anyways because she knew she was always welcome to their bedroom, and that was what led the boy to having furrowed eyebrows as he inquired, "What's with the incessant knocking?"

Well, the girl couldn't exactly come out and tell the boy that she was worried for their mutual best friend because both of them had been cursed by an evil spirit and that their lives were in immense danger if they didn't find some stupid mask, so she simply responded with yet another question and asked him, "Is Alfie in here?"

"Yes...?" Jerome slowly replied, clearly confused by what was occurring and still receiving no answers as the female prankster brushed past him, entering the room and looking over at his roommate that was sat on the bed - the male prankster wasn't dumb, and he had been able to tell that something had been wrong with Alfie Lewis and Sydney Anderson all morning, though was yet to discover what; although, at their odd behaviour, he presumed that they had argued for some reason and sent them a suspicious look, before deciding to leave the room, shutting the door behind him and allowing the pair to speak.

Sydney Anderson was the first to break the silence that had fallen upon the pair of best friends, her tone delicate as she spoke up and asked softly, "You okay?"

"Oh yeah, I'm fine. You know, we've just been cursed by an ancient spirit and it turns out my best friend knew about this curse the entire time and didn't tell me about it - I feel great!" Alfie whisper-yelled at the female (both of them were fully aware that their mutual best friend could have been standing behind the bedroom door and listening to their conversation), his tone oozing with sarcasm as he did so, before he let out a long and deep sigh and the expression of sadness took over his features, and it wasn't long before he revealed, "It just... feels like last term all over again - constantly being scared, having nightmares; it's just the same."

"I know." Sydney murmured, sending him a sympathetic look as she stepped forward and sat down beside the boy on his bed, putting her bag that she had brought with her on the floor and turning to him, sending him a very faint smile as she continued, "But, we got past it last term, didn't we? And, we did that by sticking together, so we can't ignore each other now - we're Sibuna. We have to do this together."

By that point, Sydney had placed her hand on his shoulder in order to comfort him and to show that she was there for him, and he nodded in agreement - he knew that they wouldn't have gotten past everything last term if they didn't have each other, so he was fully aware they had to look out for one another - that was exactly why he soon asked, "Are you okay? You got the mark too."

"Lucky for me, it won't be as hard to cover it as other people's will be - especially Trixie." Sydney answered whilst she made her way towards her childhood best friend's wardrobe and opened it up, the question having reminded her of something she had to do and thus, was doing as she continued, "Guess we're the... somewhat, lucky ones... in that sense."

"Yeah, as lucky as having a curse put upon you can get." Alfie responded with a sigh, knowing that the pair weren't really that lucky - although, his attention was soon diverted, his eyes narrowing as he watched his friend, "What are you doing?"

"Stealing Jerome's clothes." Sydney answered casually, as though it was a normal thing for her to do - however, when she looked over her shoulder and saw the boy's look, she soon elaborated and explained to him why, "My mark is pretty easy to cover, but the only pyjama bottoms I wear are shorts. My solution: steal Jerome's pyjama bottoms instead."

Amused at the situation, Alfie shook his head and let out a small chuckle, watching the female take out a grey pair of sweatpants before she then pulled out a light-blue jumper, making a small 'ooo' sound at it as she put it with the sweatpants she had taken out - she seemed so happy and like she was making the best out of such a terrible situation, and Alfie soon found his eyes narrowed once more as he spoke up again, telling the female truthfully,  "I wish I could be as positive as you about this whole curse-y thing.

"Honestly, I'm scared." It took a moment or two, but the female prankster soon revealed the truth to her friend whilst the cheerful atmosphere had completely drained from the room, the blonde-haired girl closing the wardrobe and taking the two items of clothes she had stolen in her hands as she walked back towards the bed, putting the clothing in her bag and then facing her friend as she continued, "Of course, I knew the risks when I joined this entire thing, so I'm probably not as scared as I'd be if I was in your position, or Patricia's. Although, it's still somewhat petrifying to have this threat looming above us, and now we have this reminder of it marked onto our skin." Sydney explained, "However, I've learned that being sad about things doesn't change it; it's already happened. Of course, you need to process your emotions properly, but then move on once that's done. I already processed my emotions when I first saw the mark on my skin, so now it's time for me to get this group back together. I mean, on the bright side, we're now really connected!"

At that last statement, Alfie shot her a glare that was meant to be somewhat annoyed, but he couldn't help himself as he found it mildly amusing and soon ended up shaking his head at her, "You're weird."

"Alfie Lewis, calling me weird?" Sydney asked, disbelief in her tone and being accompanied by a few giggles, "Oh, how the tables have turned."

Grabbing one of the smaller pillows that was on the bed, the boy used it and hit the female with it, causing them to both break out into more laughter.

Although, Sydney Anderson soon recalled something that she had wanted to discuss with her friend for a while, and it seemed like the best time to do so, thus she found herself changing the topic of their conversation as she spoke, "Speaking of weird, actually, what happened between you and Amber? I know you broke up and all - well, somewhat-."

"We broke up!"

"Tell that to her!"

"I tried!"

Shaking her head at the entire ordeal that was extremely messy, the female prankster let out a small chuckle before she decided to get them back on track, asking the question that had been in her mind since she had found out that her two best friends had broken up, "Anyways, why did you break up with her? You never told me."

"I guess I realised we weren't compatible, and that she doesn't really like me back - I chased after her for years, and she only agreed to date me because I handcuffed myself to the library." Alfie explained, causing the female to nod in understanding whilst the boy became a little bit more deflated, "I just want someone who... likes me for me, I guess."

"You'll find them eventually, Alfs." Sydney assured him, wrapping an arm around his shoulders comfortingly and squeezing him, before she sent him a goofy smile and told him, "Hey, if not, then there's always the people at Isis House - they seem like your type of people."

Alfie's eyebrows furrowed, "What do you mean?"

At first, Sydney was hesitant and slow in her response, but as she continued to speak she soon fell into her normal flow of speaking, "They're passionate - I mean, the jocks are like... jock-ier than Mick, and I didn't think that was possible. Then, the scientists - well, you probably remember the rumour about that guy who mixed chemicals and it almost destroyed everything, just because he loved science - I mean, can you imagine that?"

"Destroying everything?" The boy inquired.

"No, loving science!" Sydney corrected, causing the boy to laugh as he recalled how much his friend despised science - it was so much so that she couldn't even imagine somebody liking the subject, due to it being pure torture for her - though, she soon continued with her explanation and finished it off, "Then, there's 'Weeping Willow' - seems sweet, but she apparently always goes on about vibes in class, plus she had a crush on Jerome. They're some strange people."

"But... you said they were my type of people." Alfie reminded her, being rather confused at her point for a few moments until he figured it out, "Are you saying I'm strange?"

Sydney raised her eyebrows at him, "Are you saying you're not?"

At that, the boy used the same pillow that he had used previously to hit her once more, causing the pair to erupt into giggles whilst she pushed his shoulder in response.

Being so caught up in their giggles and their 'fight', neither of them had noticed that Jerome Clarke had pushed open the bedroom door and had watched them for a few seconds with an amused look on his face - they only noticed his presence when he finally spoke up, inquiring, "Are you two done now?"

Instantly, the pair shot their heads over to look at the boy, whose hands were shoved into his trouser pockets, and the female prankster's eyes narrowed suspiciously as she questioned, "Were you outside the door listening to us?"

"I tried to at first - I didn't know that either of you could be so quiet." Jerome commented, letting them know that he hadn't heard any of their conversation about being cursed or their lives being at risk - as the boy continued, he lifted up the apple that he had begun to eat and further explained to them, "So, I gave up and picked up some food, then came back to hear you laughing. Is everything good now?"

Instantly, Alfie accusingly pointed to their female best friend and declared, "She called me strange."

"You are strange - now, let's go." Jerome simply responded, causing the accused to let out a loud laugh whilst the accuser's jaw dropped in shock, though they soon gathered themselves up and went out of the bedroom door, Alfie going ahead first whilst Jerome waited for his childhood friend to pick up her bag, and he had gone to follow her when she went past him until his eyes caught sight of something, causing him to speak, "Oh, wait."

As he spoke, Jerome had reached out and gently grabbed the arm of Sydney Anderson, pulling her back towards him whilst she turned around to glance at him with confusion, wondering what was wrong. Although, her question was soon answered as the boy motioned towards her undone tie that hung down from her collar. With all the stress that came along with being cursed and having to make sure that all her friends were okay, she had forgotten to ask somebody to do her tie for her.

Lucky for her, she had someone always looking out for her, and that someone was obviously Jerome Clarke, whose hands soon reached up to the girl's tie as he expertly did it for her, doing it expertly and then completing it with a gentle poke to her cheek, causing the girl to amusedly roll her eyes at him whilst he chuckled, "Now, we can go."

As the boy slung his arm around her shoulders and the pair began to walk, beginning to catch up with their mutual best friend who was a little bit away, the female glanced up to the male prankster and cheekily inquired, a smile on her lips, "Was you doing my tie just a way for you to poke my cheek?"

"Oh no, she's onto me." Jerome sarcastically spoke, chuckles finding their way through his words as the female shook her head at him and his comment, lightly giggling to herself about it as the pair finally caught up to Alfie.

Although, only a few minutes later did their mutual friend soon find himself rushing back to Anubis House due to having forgotten his backpack that held a majority of the things that he needed for the school day ahead of him (Sydney Anderson assumed it was due to the stress of the spirit cursing them, just like she had forgotten to have someone do her tie), hence why the blonde pair of childhood best friends found themselves walking by themselves on the way to school.

"I cannot believe he forgot his school bag back at the house - I mean, who does that?" Jerome Clarke asked, his words being mixed in with laughter that couldn't help but fall out of his lips due to the entire absurd situation - it was lucky that their house wasn't too far away from the school, so the boy wasn't going to be late for class.

"Alfie." Sydney pointed out to him - she was trying to laugh about it, though she was able to assume why the boy had forgotten his belongings and it caused her to be slightly worried about him and also made her think about the spirit, so she soon forced herself to change the topic to distract herself. "So, when are you going to visit your dad again?"

At the sudden change of topic and at the question, Jerome had fallen silent for a very brief moment, seemingly hesitant before he answered, "Uh, today, actually."

"That's great!" Sydney responded, a smile forming on her lips at the answer - whilst their last prison visit had a rocky start, she had noticed how the boy had been much happier by the end of it and wanted him to be that happy again, although she was a little worried that there'd be a rocky start and thus inquired, "Do you want me to come with you?"

"I do, I really do, but..." Jerome told her, knowing that he'd adore to be around his childhood best friend for longer, but he soon found himself cutting his own words off with a deep sigh and he forced the pair to come to a halt in their walking before he decided to reveal the situation to the female, "He said that he wanted me to do something top-secret and 'not without risks' to use his words, so he wanted me to come alone next time."

"That's..." Sydney began, becoming worried for her friend and thus trailing off as she tried to find the right words to use to describe the peculiar situation, before she finally rested with, "...odd."

"You don't say." Jerome mumbled, clearly nervous about the entire meeting whilst he continued, "It wouldn't be as bad if it wasn't for the fact he's a convicted criminal."

"Hey." Sydney spoke up, making him look right at her whilst she grabbed his hand, lacing their fingers together and comfortingly squeezing his hand,  "Whatever it is, do it only if it feels right, okay? You don't have to do anything that you don't want to do."

"Sydney!" The distant voice of Amber Millington caught their attention, causing the childhood best friends to snap their heads around to see where she was, looking over and seeing that the fashionista was walking alongside Nina Martin and Fabian Rutter, and that the three were waving her over, presumably to talk about the curse - of course, she wasn't able to say 'no' to talking about something that was threatening the life of herself and her friends, and thus she nodded towards them and released a small sigh as she turned back to face her childhood best friend.

"Come find me or text me afterwards, okay?" Sydney instructed him, giving him a reassuring smile to make him think that everything was going to be okay and if it wasn't then she was going to be there for him, and then the female wrapped her arms around him and gave him a brief hug (of course he returned it) before the female rushed off to join the group of three, not noticing how the male prankster's eyes had lingered on her and how he'd had a soft smile on his face the entire time.

Then again, neither did he.

Although, he had eventually been able to tear his gaze away from the female once Alfie Lewis (now accompanied with his school bag) had caught up to him, and the pair had continued on their path to school. However, Jerome Clarke had almost instantly noticed that his roommate was still acting odd even after the conversation with Sydney Anderson, due to him constantly flinching or jumping at the slightest noise, as though he was on edge - something was wrong, and it wasn't that Alfie Lewis and Sydney Anderson had an argument as he had originally thought, so it was safe to say that he was very suspicious.

And, his suspicions grew later when the sound of a bag dropping to the ground was enough for Alfie Lewis to jump, lifting the marked leg (covered by his school trousers) up from the ground - the humongous flinch even made Jerome Clarke startled, and he was rather frustrated by the boy constantly being scared by small noises that occurred around them, causing him to ask, "What is the matter with you today? Why are you so jumpy?"

"Do you ever get flashbacks to past traumatic experiences?" Alfie asked, being rather hesitant about the words that he was choosing to say as he knew that he couldn't tell his roommate about there being an entirely new mystery that was putting the lives of those in the secret club in danger once more as they had all been cursed by some evil spirit.

"Well, frequently - bad hairstyles and bad girlfriends, mostly." Jerome responded, not understanding the severity of the situation as the pair walked down the corridor together, "Is that what this is about - Amber?"

"No, I had a bad dream last night - started bringing back stuff from last year." Alfie revealed, and the mention of the incident that occurred last year forced the blonde-haired prankster to come to a halt in the middle of the corridor, his eyes wide.

"Oh, that?" Jerome muttered, instantly understanding why his roommate had been so on-edge all morning once that piece of information had been revealed to him, and the blonde-haired boy didn't waste any time in comforting his friend, telling him assuringly, "Hey, that's all behind us now, buddy. We're not in some absurd, life-threatening situation anymore, so you can relax, yeah?"

Oh, blissful ignorance - how beautiful it was; unfortunately, Alfie Lewis didn't have the luxury of being unaware to the threat put upon him (quite literally, due to the mark being on his skin), so the boy hummed disbelieving, subtly rolling his eyes before he walked away, knowing that his roommate wasn't going to be able to understand or give good advice since he didn't know about what was happening.

Worried about his friend, Jerome went to follow the boy through the corridor and continued on through the door, although he soon found himself being stopped and having to go backwards when somebody blocked his way.

That somebody, of course, was the as-intrusive-as-ever Mara Jaffray, who gave the boy a smile and quickly yet still eagerly greeted him, "Jerome! Hi!"

"Hi." Jerome responded, not too thrilled to see her as whenever they spoke it was typically about his father and/or his sister, and he presumed that it was probably about both that time and she was probably going to try again to convince him to tell Poppy Clarke about everything, even though he wasn't ready to do so at that moment - then again, it made sense in a way, considering that Mara Jaffray had only started to get involved with the family business of the Clarke family due to her getting close to Poppy Clarke and wanting to help her find her father - she had just found herself promising things to Jerome Clarke in the midst of it, which conflicted her between the two siblings.

"I'm sorry I got mad at you before." Mara apologised, referring to the previous day when she had been rather angry that he still didn't want to tell his little sister about how he had gone to meet their father in prison despite the meeting having gone well.

"It's fine." Jerome assured her, wanting the conversation to be over as soon as possible so that she didn't begin trying to convince him of telling his sister everything - he wanted to tell her in his own time and in his own way, when he knew for definite that his father was a good man who wasn't going to hurt either of them once more.

"What you tell your sister is your business." Mara continued to keep the conversation going, it being rather awkward due to the want being one-sided.

"Thank you." Jerome spoke, beginning to walk away from the nerd in hopes that the conversation had come to an end and that he never had to hear about having to tell his younger sister about their father until he wanted to tell her himself.

However, Mara Jaffray was still refusing to let the conversation come to an end, continuing to follow the boy down the corridor as she followed her statement up with, "And, if you don't want to tell me the big top-secret reason why you won't tell her about your dad, then you don't have to."

"Okay then." Jerome spoke plainly, not even looking back at her as he continued to make his way down the corridor and had heard her following behind him.

"I won't ask." Mara stated.

"Good." Jerome replied, being fully aware by that point that the nerd was very desperate to ask why he didn't want to tell his younger sister about his dad - however, the girl fortunately dropped it for then, and the male prankster actually managed to make his way down the corridor without her following him, as she had stopped in the middle of the hallway, releasing a heavy sigh as she watched the boy walk off.

She really didn't know how long she was going to be able to hide the fact that Jerome Clarke had visited the father of the Clarke siblings from Poppy Clarke, but she also didn't want to make the boy even more angry at her - she'd already betrayed him once by helping the younger sibling write a letter to the father in prison, and she didn't want to do that again.

"You causing trouble, Jaffray?" The voice of Damian Cyrus reached her ears, causing her to snap her head to the side as the rebellious boy approached her, signature smirk present on his lips whilst he slung his arm around her shoulders, bringing her closer into him as he claimed, "I've always loved a troublemaker - I guess it's the best of both worlds when it's a nerd with a dark side. Who'd have thought you could steal my heart more?"

"Oh, shush!" Mara scolded him, despite the amused and wide smile that had formed on her lips, pushing him slightly and causing his arm to move from around her shoulders, before she crossed her arms sternly and turned into her tutor-self, inquiring, "Have you studied that equation I told you to?"

"Just for you." Damian declared, his smirk managing to grow even bigger if that was possible - the flirtatious aura radiated around him, and the nerd beside him had grown used to it after so many tutoring sessions with the delinquent.

"Well, then, let's see it in practice - come on." Mara instructed him, motioning for him to follow her to another place where they were able to sit down and study the equation.

At that, the boy's smirk managed to grow even bigger than beforehand, though a hint of a genuine smile was present within, whilst he watched the nerd walk further away from him with her expecting him to follow her like always, and he called out to her from down the corridor, "You know, some people would call this a date!"

Rolling her eyes playfully, the nerd briefly looked over her shoulder at the boy whilst she shook her head at his words, resisting the temptation to laugh. Her look caused the boy to snap out of his slight daze, forcing him to quickly rush to catch up to the nerd as they continued to a different room where they were able to study, or as Damian Cyrus would have said, 'to go on their very personal, intimate, and romantic date'.

At least some people were having a good day.

In contrast, Sydney Anderson was most certainly not having a good day and had found herself back in the tunnels alongside the other members of the secret club once school had finished. For about half an hour, the group had been examining the wall that forced them to come to a dead end despite it not being present on the map of the tunnels, and they were attempting to find any way to get past it.

One way they thought they may have been able to get past it was by pushing it, though it was extremely difficult to push a wall out of the way when they were only teenagers and none of them were particularly sporty, which was exactly why Sydney Anderson released a huge puff of air as she claimed, "This... is way too much exercise."

"There's nothing here!" Patricia Williamson declared, giving up on finding anything on the wall that allowed them to open it and go straight through to the next part of the tunnels and thus turning away from it, making her way towards the pendulums.

"Keep looking." Nina Martin snapped.

"No, well, she's right." Fabian Rutter (surprisingly) disagreed with the American female, supporting the purple-haired female instead as he had grown increasingly frustrated with the dead end, "We've been at this forever. We have to face facts - there's nothing here."

"But the map says we go right through here." The American reminded him, glancing back at both him and the purple-haired female who he had moved to stand beside.

"Why don't we just break through it?" Alfie Lewis suggested, not having any other ideas on how they could get past it after finding nothing related to a task on the wall and there was no way to simply push it, "Just run at it and smash it with our shoulders."

"That's a terrible idea." Sydney Anderson pointed out to him, a wince on her face at the thought of how much it'd hurt to run at the wall and smash their shoulders against it.

Apparently, the female prankster wasn't the only person who disagreed with the idea due to not liking the fact that they'd get hurt, as Amber Millington also didn't agree with the idea as it'd hurt her shoulders, so she told the boy, "Maybe your shoulders."

Of course, Alfie shot her an annoyed glare - whether it was due to her being okay with him getting hurt rather than herself or that she was still refusing to break up, Sydney was unsure and assumed it was probably a mix of both, but she didn't get much time to think about it. Why? Because, the next thing she knew, Alfie had suddenly began bolting towards the wall that signified the dead end whilst a humongous and boisterous war-cry ripped out from his mouth, and the cry only stopped once the absolutely insane boy had smashed into the wall harshly, the impact so big that the boy had fell backwards into the wall on the side and then onto the ground, causing both blonde females who cared for him immensely (Sydney and Amber) to call out his name and rush to check on him.

"The pendulums just stopped!" Nina announced before the blonde pair were able to ask if the boy was okay, pointing towards where the swinging death traps of doom were no longer swinging, which she had noticed when she had turned around to check on the boy who had smashed into the wall.

At the news, all of the members of the group snapped their head around to check if the revelation was true, finding that it was indeed - the pendulums had disappeared into the walls and didn't appear to be coming out to chop them up anymore, and that caused Fabian Rutter to glance back towards Alfie Lewis, "Alfie, you did something."

"I did?" Alfie confusedly asked, considering he hadn't intended to stop the pendulums of doom and had thought that his attempt at doing something when smashing into the wall had completely failed - although, he soon composed himself and hid his confusion, acting as though he had intended to stop the pendulums of doom all along, "I mean, I did."

"Oh, stop pretending you knew!" Sydney amusedly scolded him, letting out a small laugh and shaking her head at him whilst she pulled him up from the ground, allowing for the group to check what was behind him - a vent.

As soon as the jokester was out of the way, Fabian knelt down and checked the vent, pushing against it to discover that it moved slightly when doing so - perhaps that meant that it could move even more and be some sort of secret entrance to behind the wall and onto their next task. Of course, wanting to examine it more, the nerd didn't hesitate in lifting up the vent only to reveal that there was a small and dark tunnel behind it, riddled with mysteries. The revelation instantly made the group lighten up, having discovered their next task and how to progress through the tunnel further - they had some work to do, and thus the five other members of the group soon joined Fabian Rutter in being knelt down by the vent, all of them looking inside the tunnel and wondering what was inside.

Meanwhile, Jerome Clarke had visited the prison that held his father once school had finished and a majority of his nerves (though, not all of them) had vanished due to a text message that he had been sent by his childhood best friend before she had gone down into the tunnels, which told him that she was always there for him and that she wished him 'Good luck!' completed with many thumbs-up emojis. The remainder of his worries soon vanished once he had arrived at the door that separated him and his father, quickly muttering to the guard beside it that he was a visitor and causing the guard to begin unlocking the door. During that time, Jerome Clarke had looked through the bars of the door to see his father, sending the man a smile whilst the man had instantly brightened up at the arrival of his son. Although, it was at that moment when the male prankster had noticed that somebody else - somebody who looked extremely familiar - sat in one of the chairs in front of his father, and it wasn't that much longer until that person spun around in her seat, sending Jerome Clarke a wide smile.

Poppy Clarke.

Nevermind, all of the worries had returned and the smile that had been on the face of Jerome Clarke had quickly slipped away, a frown now present on his lips as he rushed over to the table where both his father and his sister were once the door had been opened for him, "What are you doing here?"

"Uh, I don't know? Speaking to my dad, maybe?" Poppy responded sarcastically, still being rather irritated that she had been left in the dark about the visits to her own father when she was the sibling who wanted to track him down initially.

Realising what had happened, the male prankster sat into his chair whilst the pieces fit together in his mind, and the accusations soon began, "You snuck into my room."

"Kids." John Clarke started, attempting to calm everything down before the arguing had the capabilities to become much worse - however, he was ignored.

"You went through my stuff." Jerome continued with the accusations, frustrated with his younger sister for invading his privacy in such a way and, in consequence, finding out about the visits to their father presumably through the letter.

"Our stuff, Gerbil." Poppy corrected him, putting emphasis on the word 'our' as she was insistent that she had just as much reason, if not more reason, to visit their father than her older brother as she reminded him, "That letter was for me too, you know."

"Poppy." John tried again to try to break up the argument between his two kids, though his words went unheard yet again as the pair began to spit insults at another, with the older sibling starting it and the younger sibling retaliating.

"Misfit."

"Mutant."

Subsequently, Jerome decided to snap by the female's ear, which led to the girl instantly slapping him and forcing a loud 'ow' to elicit from his mouth, before they began actually physically fighting (obviously not harsh enough to really hurt the other, but to prove a point and prove who was the superior sibling), attacking one another with their hands whilst their father quickly tried to intervene and stop them, putting his arms in the middle of the pair whilst he yelled out, "Kids!"

At their call, the pair of siblings stopped and turned to face their father with wide eyes, whilst the man slowly lowered himself back into his seat, a pleased look on his face.

"That's the first time, in a long time, I felt like a real dad."

Speaking of things that were long, Sydney Anderson had soon come to the realisation that the tunnel that they were looking at seemed to have no ending and continue forever - although, it did plunge into darkness and she couldn't exactly see all of it, so she simply hoped that it ended much sooner than it seemed like it did. Although, that wasn't the only issue that the group had found with the tunnel that they appeared to need to go through.

"That looks super small." Nina Martin was the one who voiced another issue, sounding slightly scared as she emphasised and elongated the word 'super' to describe how tiny the tunnel was - if somebody went in there and was claustrophobic, it most certainly wasn't going to end well due to how tiny the space was.

"And buggy." Amber Millington added, which was of course her main worry considering her immense fear of the small critters - it was safe to assume that she wasn't going to volunteer to go into the tunnel due to how infested with bugs it seemed.

"So, uh, who wants to go first?" Fabian Rutter inquired, glancing around at the members of the group hopefully - as presumed, Amber Milington instantly shook her head.

"Do not start arguing about who goes first again." Patricia Williamson demanded, her voice stern as she sent a glare to each and every single member of the group - though, her request was fair, especially since the last time they had argued about who went first in a task it led to the purple-haired female taking the risk and then being surprised by swinging pendulums that almost sliced her in half, "This time, we draw straws."

"Sounds fair enough to me." Sydney commented in agreement, nodding her head in the process whilst her and the purple-haired member glanced around at everyone else for their thoughts, seeing that they were also nodding in agreement.

Thus, the six members of the group moved away from the tunnel and sat in a circle whilst Patricia grabbed a large stick from the ground, beginning to break it into six pieces to resemble the straws as the made five pieces of the stick long and then one extremely short, and then hid which one was the shortest and began to hand them around.

Alfie Lewis was the first person out of the secret group to take his pick as the sticks were handed to him first whilst the person holding them (Patricia) told the group the rules so it was clear,  "Go, short straw checks the tunnel out first."

Once the boy had picked a stick out of the female's hand, the sticks were then passed around to Sydney Anderson, who was beside him. Considering that there was not really a tactic (or, at least not one that she knew of) to pick the longest stick, the female quickly took one out of the bunch and hoped her choice was right, and her confidence became pretty high once she looked at it. Her stick/straw seemed pretty much the same length as the one that Alfie Lewis had in his own hands, and both of them appeared to be quite long. The same thing happened for both Nina Martin  and Fabian Rutter, and that left Amber Millington and Patricia Williamson - although, it became quite obvious who had the short straw once the fashionista picked hers, it being significantly shorter than the rest,

"No, not me!" Amber instantly protested, turning back towards the tunnel that she had been selected to conquer as she gazed inside it, looking at what she had to face due to the choice of the sticks, "There's bugs, Alfie - bugs; you know I don't do bugs."

Blank-faced, Alfie stared at her, "Okay, so..."

"You're my boyfriend!" Amber insisted, despite him having made it clear to her on numerous occasions (one of those occasions being that morning, and there were several more occasions during school that day) that they weren't together anymore - yet, the fashionista still continued and told him, "You should volunteer to go in for me."

"We broke up." Alfie reminded her once more with hints of laughter coming through with his words, adding that to the countless times he had already told her that exact same phrase - however, the laughter and amusement soon faded away from the boy's face and tone, the atmosphere becoming much more serious as the boy continued to repeat the phrase he had spoke numerous times, his voice growing louder each time until he was practically screaming it at the girl, "We broke up! We broke up! We broke up!"

And, whilst tension hung thick in the air, all that the members of the secret club were able to do was watch the situation with widened eyes, not particularly knowing what to do.

It was Sydney Anderson who first sprung into action with subtle movements, deciding to try and calm the seething male down as she placed a comforting hand on his shoulder and let him know that she was there for him - and, whilst Alfie Lewis was enraged, Amber Millington seemed relatively calm as she stated, "I will decide when we break up."

In response, Alfie Lewis blinked a few times, as though he couldn't believe what situation he had gotten himself into or what he was hearing escape the lips of the female he once had a major crush on, and he went to crawl forward towards the tunnel, giving into the request of his ex-girlfriend-who-refused-to-be-his-ex-girlfriend.

Well, that was until Sydney Anderson had pulled him back moments before he had entered the tunnel, sending a concerned look his way as she whispered into his ear, reminding him, "You don't have to do this, you know?"

And that seemed to make the boy reconsider his decision for a few moments, though just when he seemed like he was about to back out from doing it after his friend's words, he had noticed the small glare that he was receiving from the fashionista, so soon frustratedly rolled his eyes and began crawling forward to the tunnel once again, releasing a small whimper in the process of doing so.

"Thanks, Alfie." Amber said with a pleased smile coating her lips, glad that she had managed to escape the choice of the straws despite it meaning someone else had to potentially get into danger, and that caused the female prankster to shoot an annoyed glare at the fashionista - she adored her fellow blonde, she truly did, but Sydney Anderson really did not like how the fashionista was upsetting her best friend and forcing him into situations that he didn't want to be in; her refusing to break up with him was funny at first, but it had clearly gotten too much for the boy to cope with and she was now forcing him to go into small tunnels when she had been the one selected.

Although, Sydney Anderson's friend in the tunnel was a bigger focus for her at that moment, so her and the rest of the members of the secret group watched him begin to crawl through the tunnels, it being mainly silence for a few moments until the boy spoke up, his words being intertwined with nervous laughter, "Hey, little guy, why don't you just go that way?"

"Who are you talking to?" Nina Martin inquired, her eyebrows furrowed - the boy clearly wasn't talking to any of them, and they couldn't see anybody else in the tunnel.

"My real friends." Alfie snapped.

"Bugs." Sydney sighed, causing all of the members to turn to her with perplexion clear on their faces as they noticed that the girl had facepalmed over the situation, only bringing the hand away from her face to rub her forehead frustratedly as she further elaborated, "He's talking to bugs."

Understanding the situation, the members all let out noises of understanding before they turned back to the tunnel, continuing to watch their friend go through it as it fell into silence once more - the only sound they could hear was the sound of the boy in the tunnels moving, or their own breaths as they awaited some news about what lay in the tunnels and whether it resulted in a new task for them to complete. Yeah... they didn't get that news, but they got some news - it wasn't as good as the news they wanted, however.

"No, no, no - it's getting smaller." Alfie cried out to them, his voice evidently panicked as he continued to shout back towards them, "This thing's getting smaller!"

"Alfie, can you see anything yet?" Fabian inquired, wondering if he was able to see anything that'd suggest it was their way past the wall (for example, a lever or button).

"Yes! This thing is getting smaller!" Alfie answered, sounding like he was on the verge of tears as he yelled back towards the group - clearly, the boy was not fond of small spaces, and the tunnel was an extremely small space.

Worriedly, Sydney Anderson watched with hesitant eyes as the boy, despite his evident fear of small spaces and the immense panic he felt at that moment, pushed through his worry and went further into the tunnel that he had claimed to be getting smaller, although a gasp ripped out of the female prankster's lips when she noticed dirt falling from the top of the tunnel, and she knew that wasn't good in the slightest. If the dirt was falling, it was going to fall on top of Alfie Lewis and trap him inside - there'd be no way out.

"Alfie..." Nina muttered hesitantly - upon seeing more dirt falling down, the female prankster of the group had instantly gone forward to try to save her best friend, though hadn't been able to get too far before she had been pulled back and then held back so she wouldn't try it again by Patricia, who knew that it was too risky to let somebody else go in there at that moment and their only hope was that the boy in the tunnel would turn around and get out, which was exactly the instructions that the members of the group shouted towards the boy in much more panicked tones than the ones used previously as they cried out, "Oh no. Turn around, Alfie! Get out of there! Alfie!"

"Help! Help!" Alfie desperately and frantically cried out for somebody to save him from the horror that he was going through as the tunnel soon caved in and blocked the boy from the sights of the now-five-membered group, and it wasn't long before Sydney felt something trickling down her cheeks - tears, she presumed - and she felt more of them join as the boy continued to yell out, his voice being the only sign they had to know he was alive as he screeched, "Help me!"

Honestly, Sydney Anderson didn't know how she felt - it was like a whirl of emotions were bubbling up inside of her and it was so much for her to cope with that she didn't even know how to react. She couldn't speak, she didn't think that she could breathe properly, and she couldn't move her eyes from the last place where she had seen her best friend. All of it almost made her feel numb, even though she was able to feel her heart physically hurting as it pounded furiously against her chest, and she felt the many salty tears slowly falling down her cheeks as she wondered if she had just witnessed the loss of her best friend - the loss of Alfie Lewis, but she didn't want to admit that. She couldn't lose somebody else - not him.

She couldn't witness somebody else die.

She couldn't go through another loss.

She couldn't live a life without her crazy best friend.

Sydney Anderson could not lose Alfie Lewis.

"I can't see him!" Nina Martin announced to the rest of the group, all of them watching the horrific situation in front of them with wide eyes as the dirt continued to fall into the tunnels, as though it hadn't done enough damage and strived to do more.

"Is he gone?" Fabian Rutter inquired.

"Don't talk like that! He's not gone!" Sydney Anderson snapped, finally managing to get her words out - that managed to trigger the rest of her body to move a little, though it wasn't like she was able to go into the tunnels as Patricia Williamson, knowing that the female prankster was highly likely shoot off into the tunnels to save her best friend even if it meant putting herself at risk, had a tight grip on the girl and kept her closeby - the only movement that the female prankster did was wipe her tears away with the back of her hand.

It wasn't like that did much though, the tears kept coming.

"I think the tunnel caved in - he's trapped!" Nina declared, the words causing even more tears to flow down the prankster's cheeks as she wished that she had stopped the boy from entering the tunnel earlier, because it was clear that he didn't want to do so.

"Poor Alfie - this is all my fault." Amber Millington spoke up, her voice cracking and revealing her sadness about the situation that she clearly regretted and wanted to make up for - due to that, she started towards the tunnels, "Alfie, I'm coming to get you!"

"Amber!" Nina Martin yelled out, all of them (minus Sydney Anderson, who was simply sobbing at the thought of witnessing the loss of both her closest friends after having witnessed the death of both her parents) instantly protesting against the gesture as they knew that it was a risky move that could lead to them losing more people than just the boy who was currently in the tunnels, "Amber, wait!"

"Amber, no, don't!" Patricia Williamson cried out alongside the American, desperately wanting the perky blonde to come back to safety, "Wait, come back!"

Despite the protests of the group, Amber Millington continued to crawl further into the tunnel as the dirt continued to fall. Sydney Anderson attempted to keep her eyes locked on the fashionista, wanting to make sure that she was safe, though her vision was distorted by the tears that kept falling down her cheeks. That only got worse when the sound of Amber Millington screeching reached their ears, causing all of them to cry out her name whilst the shrieks of horror continued to fall out from the fashionista's throat.

Again.

And again.

"Okay, I'll go, I'll go." Fabian offered, knowing that the fashionista wasn't going to be able to get both herself and/or the boy who she had gone to save out of the tunnels due to the state that she was in, and thus he quickly began to crawl forward into the tunnel and gave instructions to the girl, "Amber, Amber! Calm down, calm down, calm down."

"Be careful, Fabian!" Nina told him, not particularly pleased that he had gone into the tunnels considering that it meant that three members of the group (half of it) had gone into the tunnels and were at risk, in addition to that, the American still had a major crush on the man and didn't want to watch him get hurt.

"Amber, I'm gonna get you out, alright?" Fabian continued to try to coax the female into following his orders, knowing that was the best way for her to get out of the tunnels, "Come backwards, come backwards. No, come on, I need you to move." The nerd instructed her, though it was clear that she was too terrified to even move at first, causing the brown-haired boy to say, "Nina, help me, please."

"Come on, Amber - you can do it, come on." Nina joined in, encouraging her roommate, and within a few more minutes the brown-haired boy and the perky blonde had begun crawling backwards and out of the tunnels, with both the American member of the group and the goth member quickly going forward to help pull the two of them out of the tunnels, "You're okay - you got it, you got it."

Due to Patricia releasing her grip on the weeping female that had been in her arms in order to go and help the fashionista out of the tunnel, Sydney had found herself able to fully move once more and she did not hesitate in doing exactly that. Despite the screeches that echoed behind her, clearly protesting her impulsive and probably reckless decision, the female prankster hastily crawled into the tunnel to save her best friend.

"Alfie!" Sydney shrieked, the devastation in her voice easily detectable as she did so - despite the large amount of sadness she felt and how the tears distorted her vision just slightly, she continued to push on through the bug-infested and very tiny tunnel in order to find her best friend through all the dirt that continued to pile up; it was probably lucky for her that she wasn't scared of small spaces and/or bugs, "Can you hear me?"

"Help!" Alfie screeched.

"I'm going to get you out!" Sydney assured the boy, feeling a little bit lighter at the sound of his voice as it made her aware that they hadn't fully lost him and they still had the chance to save him, which was what encouraged the girl to continue crawling forward, only coming to a halt when something that appeared to have an odd shape and seemed much harder than dirt came into contact with her hand.

Eyebrows narrowing at the weird feeling, Sydney Anderson glanced down to where her hand was and moved it out of the way so that she was able to set her sights on the peculiar object that she had touched, only for a loud yelp to leave her lips and for her eyes to widen tremendously at the petrifying object - something that she had hoped that she'd never see in real life.

"Sydney!"

As dumb as her fear may have seemed, it still had the power to overwhelm the girl with immense panic as her eyes landed and locked onto a scythe - one that looked exactly like the scythe that The Grim Reaper used to reap souls within The Sims franchise.

As fun as The Sims game was, it most certainly was not fun when the aspect of death included in it (the aspect that had already terrified Sydney Anderson when it wasn't real) transferred over to reality. Sydney Anderson didn't think that she was able to be more scared of The Grim Reaper than she already was, though that moment proved her wrong.

She didn't particularly understand what it meant to actually touch the scythe that the Grim Reaper held, though in her mind it meant one of two things: either she was going to die, or she was going to be the one to take a life. Believe it or not, she wasn't fond of either of those options, especially when she had been thinking about them at a time when her life was at risk, and she also had the life of her best friend in her hands at that very moment.

"Sydney!" The sound of the group calling her name once again erupted in her ears, making her thought process come to a halt as she took her eyes of the scythe for a moment or two to glance back behind her at the members of the group, all of whom had widened and worried eyes as they watched the situation unfold in front of them.

"I'm fine!" Sydney called back, which was not entirely true - however, the girl knew that she had to make herself be fine, and thus she took a deep breath and looked one last glance at the scythe, muttering repeatedly that it wasn't real, before she tore her gaze away from it and continued to crawl through the tunnels, being able to tell that she was growing closer to her best friend due to his cries getting louder and clearer, "Alfie, please relax. I'm coming, okay? Stop screaming."

"Okay, I'm not screaming, but I won't relax!" Alfie responded.

"That's good enough." Sydney muttered, knowing that she was also not that relaxed and thus not expecting the boy who had literally had dirt fall atop of him and was trapped to be relaxed either - although, if the girl thought she wasn't relaxed then, then she had a whole wave to hit her when she continued to crawl through the tunnel, only coming to a halt when she felt a sharp sting against her finger, causing her to let out a loud 'ow' and recoil her hand back from whatever it was that had hurt her, her eyes widening and numerous emotions overwhelming her at the sight of the familiar object.

Shattered glass.

Shattered glass that was now dripping with her own blood - she had witnessed the same sight over a year ago, though the blood of her parents had been mixed in along with it.

A year ago, the sound of a million shards of glass shattering was something that had taunted her for a long period of time - she had thought she was over it, yet it was now playing over and over again in her dastardly mind alongside the painful memory that she had willed away all those months ago when she had received therapy.

The sound of the glass shattering mixed in with the sounds of bones crunching together and the sound of agonising screeches for help - they were desperate and filled with pain, and Sydney Anderson hadn't heard someone cry out with as much emotion as she heard in that moment; it was terrifying, enough to make someone freeze and for all of their hands to stand up due to how powerful it was. Some of those screams were from reality and escaping the mouth of Alfie Lewis, but some were the screams of the people passing by who had witnessed the car crash that had ended the life of her parents a year ago.

Despite the broken glass being the only thing that she saw whilst she was in the tunnel, it was part of a much larger thing - it was a trigger to the terrible period in her life; a chain reaction, almost. It could have been described as though it was like a wall made out of bricks - it seemed fine and stable for a while, until one of the bricks were taken out of the wall. Then, it collapsed, and anybody around it collapsed along with it.

"Sydney!" The panicked voices of Nina Martin and Patricia Williamson reached her ears, snapping her out of her thoughts and forcing her to blink a few times as she remained silent, trying to process what had just happened to her and how she had experienced something that she never thought she'd have to go through again.

"Why is she not moving?" The worried voice of Amber Millington inquired, all of them clearly perplexed by how the girl had suddenly frozen in the middle of crawling.

"Sydney, are you okay?!" Fabian Rutter asked, all of them trying to glance into the tunnels in order to attempt to see the reason why the female prankster had come to a halt - however, they couldn't see much due to how badly lit the tunnel was; they could only just make out where she was, which was how they noticed that she had frozen.

"I..." Sydney Anderson breathed out, her voice extremely shaky and soon cutting off as the female prankster wiped the many tears from her face and tried to brace herself to speak once more - it was like a lump was stuck in her throat, and she felt like she was struggling to breathe, causing her to take a deep breath before she managed to get out, "I'm good."

She had to push forward, so she did. Despite how heavy everything suddenly felt upon her, Sydney Anderson continued to push ahead and make her way through the tunnels until she finally reached the pile up of dirt that had built up to build a wall between her and her best friend, blocking them from one another and not allowing for Alfie Lewis to be safe. Sydney Anderson had to save him, so she didn't waste any time in beginning to move the dirt in order to get her best friend out - although, the amount of dust and fog was terrible, causing her to cough slightly whilst it fell everywhere around her.

Though, it soon appeared to be worth it when the female prankster finally caught sight of her best friend, noticing his panicked state instantly and trying to help him out as she told him, "Alfie, come on - come back, come back. It's okay, I'm here, alright?"

Nodding, Alfie Lewis soon followed his friend's instructions and began to crawl back out through the tunnel with her, and the pair were out of the tunnels and thus out of danger soon enough. As soon as she didn't have the threat of her and/or her friends being killed by a tunnel looming above her, the female prankster instantly leaned against the wall, holding her fingers that had been cut by the glass and were still bleeding, and closed her eyes, trying to calm herself down and distract her crazy thoughts from thinking about what had just occurred inside the tunnels.

"Alfie, I'm so sorry!" Amber Millington exclaimed apologetically once the pair of jokers had managed to get out of the terrifying tunnels, instantly throwing her arms around the boy and wrapping him in a tight hug as the pair sobbed over their almost-loss.

Whilst Sibuna had almost lost a few of their members, the Clarke family had gained an additional member to their family, gaining their father back as the two siblings reconnected with the older man whilst they sat in prison, catching up with what the three of them had missed about each other over the past few years.

"So, Poppy, is Jerome keeping you out of trouble?" John Clarke inquired, eager to know how his eldest child was looking after his youngest child and how the pair were getting on at Amun Boarding School.

A huge smirk falling upon her lips at the question, Poppy Clarke responded rather smugly, telling the father of the pair, "Jerome can't keep himself out of trouble."

"Shut it, Poopy." Jerome Clarke muttered, not wanting his father to see him in a bad light, especially not after the man had told him that he had grown up to be the man that his father always dreamed he'd turn out to be - he didn't want to disappoint his dad.

"He and Sydney are the school pranksters," Poppy informed the man, laughing in the process whilst she ignored her brother's protests and thought about all the stories that she had heard about her brother and her brother's best friend who he most certainly had a crush on yet was too oblivious to see it.

"Stop." Jerome told her, amusedly rolling his eyes at the comment.

"Really?" Although, John Clarke was intrigued by the revelation and a wide smile had fallen on his lips at the mention of his son and his son's childhood best friend, causing him to turn to face his son, telling him, "I told you that you and Sydney make a good pair!"

Flabbergasted, Jerome cried out, "Don't encourage her!"

"They do, don't they?" Poppy continued to talk about her brother and her brother's best friend, the smirk still present on her lips as she continued to ignore her brother's protests, "He does all these pranks-."

"She's showing off." Jerome claimed, cutting the female off before she continued and revealed every stupid thing that he did at the school.

"Relax, being the school prankster is not what led me into... Well, it's not how I ended up here." John awkwardly revealed to the two kids, being slightly hesitant and cutting himself off to find the right words in order to talk about how he ended up in prison to his own children, "I was devastated when I had to leave that school."

"Why did you?" Poppy quizzed, leaning forward in her chair due to being intrigued - due to her young age, she never remembered her father or what he was like and thus she was curious to know how he had ended up in prison.

"Poppy." Jerome instantly scolded his younger sister, knowing that was probably a sensitive question for the man and not wanting to cause an argument or upset him - it wasn't like asking a man in prison how they got in there was a normal, everyday activity for them to do, so they didn't know the 'do's and don'ts' of it.

"It's okay." John assured his son, considering he had already presumed that the question was going to come up sooner or later and had prepared an answer - so, turned to face Poppy and told her, "I messed up, didn't I? Like I always messed up, right?"

Awkwardly, Poppy shrugged, "I... don't remember."

"That's probably a good thing." John muttered, knowing that he didn't want his children to remember him as the terrible man that he had been so long ago - he resented that version of himself and wanted to do better, for both himself and them, and that started with telling his son about the secret task, thus he quickly grabbed some change out of his pocket and passed it to his youngest child, "Pops, do you wanna get us something from the machine - some, some chocolate, or something?"

Following his instructions with a smile on her lips (because, who didn't love chocolate?), Poppy took the money out of her father's hand and got up from her seat, with the two male family members watching her go over to the vending machine and made sure she wasn't in ear-shot before Jerome turned to face his father, instantly telling the man, "I swear, I didn't know she was gonna come-."

"Don't worry, I'm thrilled to see her." John cut off his son's words, assuring the boy and letting him know that it wasn't an issue - he had wanted to see his youngest child anyways and it had made him much happier, even if it meant that he couldn't tell his son what he wanted to, "But, of course, the thing I wanted to discuss with you will have to wait-." Instantly, Jerome went to protest, eager to figure out what the secret task was and what he had to do, but the father stopped the protest before it could even happen and told the boy, "It's okay - it'll keep - but, come alone next time."

"Yep." Jerome nodded, already making plans in his mind about returning to the prison and which days were going to be the best for him to come back alone.

"Chocolate!" Poppy exclaimed gleefully, putting the big chocolate bar onto the table whilst her family members sent her a wide smile, pretending as though they hadn't been talking about a secret task that came with risks as they engaged in further conversation.

Although, the chatter between the members of the Clarke family contrasted heavily against the chatter (or lack thereof) between the members of Sibuna, who were sat in the bedroom that belonged to Nina Martin, Amber Millington, and Sydney Anderson after they had gotten out of the tunnels and had made their way to the room to discuss the tiny tunnel and how they were planning to get past it when they all seemed to be terrified of something in there. However, there wasn't much discussion occurring between the members as they sat facing the side of the bedroom that belonged to the fashionista of the group, three of them (Patricia Williamson, Nina Martin, and Amber Millington) sitting on the bed of the American, whilst three of them (Alfie Lewis, Sydney Anderson, and Fabian Rutter) sat on the ground just below them.

Once they had managed to get Alfie Lewis out from the small space and had saved him, every single member had at least said a few words, with Amber Millington profusely apologising to her boyfriend-who-wasn't-her-boyfriend, Alfie Lewis telling the others how scary the tunnel was and how much he hated it, Fabian Rutter saying that they needed to come up with a plan, Patricia Williamson voicing her opinion about the tunnels, and Nina Martin deciding to get out of the tunnels. The only person who hadn't spoken the entire time was Sydney Anderson, who felt as though she wasn't actually there, presumably due to her mind being elsewhere. Her mind was at the crash that had caused the death of her parents - it was a scene that she was able to imagine well, despite her not having physically visited the sight since the crash had occurred. It was odd how she was able to recall each and every single detail about a place that had been so insignificant to her life before that dreadful day, and now it was stuck in her mind constantly. She had to wonder if her mind found its way back there repeatedly due to the piece of her being left there all that time ago when her parents were ripped away from her.

Once they had reached the room to have their discussion, the rest of the members had joined in with the silence of Sydney Anderson (who had silently cleaned up the wound on her fingers from the glass, though small cuts were evident on her fingers), their lack of words blending in with her own and making it seem normal - due to that, nobody noticed how... drifted... the female prankster seemed in that moment, and how she was slowly transforming back into the same mental space she had been in the previous year, when she had been far from okay. Instead, their minds were occupied with thoughts of the tiny tunnel that terrified them and seemed to hold only dreadful things, allowing them to realise their fears.

"So..." Alfie Lewis, who had his fingers underneath his chin thoughtfully, was the one who slowly broke the silence that had filled the room as he declared his newly-found fear, telling the members of the secret group, "I'm claustrophobic."

"And I'm definitely bug-phobic." Amber Millington added, though everybody already knew that she had that fear - especially Sydney Anderson, who was typically the one to deal with the screeches from the fashionista whenever she saw any type of insect or bug.

"Yeah, I didn't really want to say, but..." Fabian Rutter started, clearly hesitant with his words as he paused for a moment, shaking his head for a moment whilst he released a small yet heavy sigh, before he finally found the courage to tell the members of the group what had startled him when he had gone into the terrible tunnels, his tone filled with hatred as he continued, "I'm really bad with worms - I'm not phobic; I just hate them."

"It's like the tunnel knows." Amber Millington remarked, her eyes narrowed suspiciously at the thought she had just voiced to the group - and, she was most certainly right, the tunnel filled with terror knew all of their fears and used it against them accordingly

"That would mean there are skulls there." Nina Martin pointed out, her voice filled with utter dread as she revealed her own fear to the members of the secret group and, consequently, what else could have possibly been in the tunnels.

"And feet." Patricia Williamson chimed in, her own fear blurting out of her mouth - although, at the rather odd exclamation, all of the members (minus Sydney Anderson, whose mind was still stuck at the scene of the car crash) turned around to face the purple-haired female with confused looks, wondering how and why she was scared of feet.

Yeah... it was a bit of an odd fear - it also posed the question of how exactly that fear was going to turn up in the tunnels, whether it was going to arrive in the form of plastic feet, like a doll's or a replica, or in the form of... an actual human foot.

Hating the strange looks she was getting due to her peculiar fear, the goth member of the group decided to quickly change the topic of conversation, using the first thing that she had thought of as the topic of conversation and thus causing her to inquire, "Okay, is anyone else concerned that Sydney hasn't said anything since we got out of the tunnels?"

"That's a good point." Fabian muttered observantly, his own eyes (among everyone else's) turning to face the blonde-haired prankster in the room curiously and worriedly,

"What about you, Sydney?" Nina asked the female prankster inquisitively, the use of her name within a question managing to snap the blonde out of her daze as she realised that she needed to pay attention to what the group was saying.

Realising that they were all looking towards her expectantly, presumably for an answer to a question that the girl had missed, the female prankster hummed, asking, "What?"

At the odd behaviour she was displaying, Alfie's eyes narrowed suspiciously whilst he watched her cautiously, wondering what was wrong with her and what she had seen in the tunnels that had affected her so badly - meanwhile, the other members of the group didn't see too much wrong with her, and the fashionista of the group repeated the question that had been asked beforehand, "What did you see down in the tunnels?"

"A scythe." Sydney answered plainly after a moment or two of resistance - normally, her voice would have quivered when she spoke that word, or her facial expressions would have held more fear within them, but they just seemed bland at that moment as the only thing that she was actually focusing on was the glass that she had seen in the tunnels - the shattered glass that had been coated in blood.

"A scythe?" Amber repeatedly confusedly.

Apparently, the fashionista wasn't the only person who was confused by the peculiar fear, as all of the members of the secret group (minus Alfie, who had instantly understood why she had seen a scythe in the tunnels) had turned to look at the female prankster oddly, with Nina being somewhat amused as she asked the question that they had all been thinking, "Why are you scared of a scythe?"

Noticing that the female prankster was staying silent, for some odd reason that he had yet to figure out at that moment (he presumed it was due to seeing a scythe in the tunnels, but he felt as though there was more to it), Alfie was the one who had answered the question for the group, releasing a heavy sigh as he placed his hand on his forehead, muttering, "The Grim Reaper."

"What?" Patricia quizzed, wondering how a scythe related to the figure of death that the female prankster had been scared of for as long as the group was able to remember.

"The Grim Reaper on The Sims carries around a scythe - it's what he uses to reap souls." Alfie explained, making them all understand why she had been so scared of a scythe as the boy concluded, "Sydney is petrified of The Grim Reaper."

"Your big fear in the tunnels is a fictional character?" Fabian asked for confirmation, a small and faint laugh being entangled in his words in the process - the rest of the fears that the group had spoken about he had heard of before and understood, but he didn't understand how someone was able to be so petrified of a character that wasn't real.

"And glass - shattered glass." Sydney revealed in a quiet, yet still audible, voice after she had shot a small but extremely frustrated glare to the nerd, mildly annoyed that he'd put down her fear in such a way and chuckle about it, "Apparently, the tunnels didn't think that my fear of a fictional character was scary enough either."

"Shattered glass? I don't get it-." Amber started, puzzled, though her words were cut off by the purple-haired member of the group who had instantly moved her arm over Nina's body in order to cover the fashionista's mouth with her hand.

Afterwards, the room fell into an awkward silence with the members of the group all having a look of pity and sadness on their faces, unaware of what they were meant to say in order to make it better. The only person who had any sort of experience with parents dying was Nina Martin, who had lost her parents in the exact same way that Sydney Anderson had. However, the American was much younger at the time of the crash that had ended the life of her parents - their situations were alike but vastly different, meaning that one of them couldn't completely understand the other.

"Sydney..." Alfie's voice, laced with sympathy, was the first one to fill the room again, and the jokester didn't waste much time in putting an arm around his blonde-haired friend and comforting her - he was fully aware about how distraught the girl had been the prior year about the death of her parents and had also witnessed her break down due to it within the half term when she had informed him about the death of her parents, and he never wanted to see her in that place again.

Whilst Alfie Lewis had also witnessed the breakdowns of Sydney Anderson, he had also witnessed her work hard during that half term to improve her mental health, with her growing and changing every single day that passed and slowly, yet surely, getting better. He didn't want that to stop.

"You okay?" Alfie inquired, squeezing her shoulder comfortingly whilst the rest of the members watched the interaction between the two friends carefully - the group were aware that, out of the entire secret group, Alfie was the closest to Sydney and was probably the best person for her to speak to out of them all.

"I had another flashback of it - the crash." Sydney revealed, causing the boy's eyes to widen slightly as he knew that most certainly wasn't good, though the female prankster continued to speak and reveal more to the group, her words getting faster and more panicked as she continued to talk to them, "I haven't had a flashback in over a year, and now everything feels like last term again with me being in this terrible place mentally, and I don't want to be back there and-."

"You're not back there again." Nina interrupted the frantic words, her voice sounding assured and determined as she placed a comforting hand on the prankster's other shoulder and set her a small smile in order to make her feel better.

"Nina's right." Fabian agreed with a confident nod - honestly, he really hoped that the female prankster didn't fall back into the person that she was last term, because he was a decent person who didn't wish anybody to be mentally unwell, but also because it was peculiar to see the female so unhappy when she was the one who typically lifted the spirits of the group by teasing one of them or by making a small joke that probably wasn't necessary at the time, thus the nerd told her, "We're gonna get you through this."

"And, it's normal for people to have bad days." Patricia chimed in, wanting to make the blonde-haired female feel a little bit better and to let her know that people weren't always perfect and always happy - it was okay to be sad.

"What if I don't get better?" Sydney asked, a tear falling down her cheek in the process - it was a question that she had to ask, especially since it had taken so much work for her to recover after last term and she was unsure whether she was able to do it again.

"Sydney, you've already confided in us." Alfie pointed out to her, making her realise how she had done that without even thinking about it - whether, the term previously, she had made it a point to lie to everyone whenever they had asked her what was wrong; she had changed, "Even if you have relapsed a little, you still remember you shouldn't hide everything and that you shouldn't hide behind a mask - you still remember your therapy."

"And, we're all here for you." Amber added, now having realised why the girl had been so petrified about shattered glass beforehand and wanting to be there for her close friend, "Every step of the way."

"Thank you." Sydney muttered, wiping away the tears that were on her cheeks as she sent a faint smile to the group - she was so undoubtedly and genuinely thankful that she had each and every one of the members of the secret group by her side unconditionally, and despite them being brought together by rather unfortunate causes, the friendship that they had found along the way was extremely fortunate.

"You don't have to thank us." Alfie assured her, bringing her in closer to him and letting her head rest on his shoulder as he continued, telling the female prankster with a smile, "Remember what you said this morning: we have to do this together."

"So, now what?" Nina quizzed, taking them back to the prior topic: the tunnel.

"Anyone else want to go back to hitting a dead end?" Patricia asked, causing the female prankster to raise her hand in agreement as neither of them (especially not Sydney) were exactly the biggest fans of the tiny tunnel that held all of their terrors.

"No-. Wait, I'm pretty sure that's the first time I've ever seen you raise your hand." Fabian cut off his own words initially, his eyes becoming narrowed at the raised hand of Sydney, considering that she never put her hand up in class and typically dazed away - however, he soon snapped out of his shock and put her hand down, shaking his head at the group as he continued what he was going to say beforehand, "No, look, there's nothing else for it. If we want to continue, we're going to have to get over our fears."

"It can be done, okay?" Nina agreed, being quite confident in their abilities to get past their fears as she continued to explain how they were going to do it, "I mean, there's all sorts of behavioural therapies that tackle this stuff now - they mostly use exposure."

"I'm not taking anything off." Amber declared, causing the other blonde-haired female in the group to let out a small chuckle at her inference of exposure.

"No, exposure to the thing you fear." Nina quickly cleared up the error, correcting the female and explaining what she meant by the term 'exposure', because the members of the group most certainly weren't going to be taking their clothes off in front of one another, "It's gentle exposure - just a little bit at a time 'till you're cured."

"Cured sounds good." Amber agreed.

Nodding along to her statement, knowing that none of them exactly liked being scared of things, the members of the group soon came up with a plan as the nerd of the group pointed out to the members, "Well, we've got bugs in the science lab."

"Yeah, and there's plenty of places in the house I can build up a tolerance to small spaces." Alfie chimed in with a way to get over his own fear, before he then turned to face his blonde-haired friend, soon thinking of a way to get her past her rather large fear of the figure of death that he quickly voiced, "Then, Sydney and I can keep killing Sims until she's not scared of The Grim Reaper anymore."

As much as that idea petrified her, the female prankster nodded in agreement - although, she had another fear to crush - the fear of the crash - and that was much harder to solve than the rest of the fears that everyone else had to crush, so Sydney Anderson came up with her own idea, "I'll talk to my aunt about the crash - I think it'll help a little."

"Okay, nobody's coming near me with feet - I'm telling you right now." Patricia instantly declared, a hesitant and rather scared look on her face at the thought of feet coming anywhere near her - she truly did resent them.

Although, nobody was going to let her get out of solving her fear that easily, and that was soon proved to be true when Alfie Lewis lifted his foot and moved it towards her face, causing the purple-haired girl to quickly shuffle back on the bed to get away.

Unfortunately for Sydney Anderson, it was much harder for her to get away from the fear of the crash, considering the memory was etched into her mind - she couldn't simply avoid it, and that was proved to be true earlier in that day. After she had told the Anubis House residents about what had occurred, she had attempted to push the crash out of her mind permanently and had tried to avoid it as best as she was possibly able to, which had seemed to have worked until that day when it had made itself present without a warning.

She had to face it, whether she wanted to or not.

"Hey, Auntie!" Sydney Anderson greeted the woman brightly as she popped up on the laptop screen, feeling a little bit lighter simply at the sight of her guardian even if it was through a video call rather than real life.

For some privacy, she had decided to do the video call in the room of Jerome Clarke and Alfie Lewis, considering that the former of the pair was still at prison to talk to his father and the latter of the pair had locked himself in the sarcophagus in order to try to get over his fear of small spaces.

"This is a surprise - I wasn't expecting you to call until later." Erin Montgomery responded, a grin on her lips at the sight of her niece - the pair of them had grown even closer over the half term, with the female prankster's aunt constantly helping the younger with her recovery and making her feel at home and loved; even when Sydney Anderson had returned to Anubis House, the pair kept in contact and spoke every single day, texting throughout the day and typically calling each other at least once per day just to check in on the other and make sure that everything was okay.

"Are you complaining?" Sydney jokingly inquired, faking an offended gasp in the process - the female prankster was fully aware that the older woman loved to talk to her niece and give her opinions about all of the school drama that occurred (obviously, the aunt couldn't know about the secret quest, but she was fully aware about Amber Millington refusing to let Alfie Lewis break up with her).

"You know I'm not!" Erin quickly defended herself, the two of them breaking out into a small fit of laughter at their jokes before they soon calmed down, and the older woman finally asked the dreaded question, "So, how's your day been?"

"Uh, actually... not that good." Sydney revealed, causing the smile on the face of her aunt to instantly slip away and be replaced with a frown, her eyebrows knitting together with worry as she leant closer to the camera and encouraged the prankster to elaborate on why, "I had a flashback today... about the crash, and it... it just really hurts, for so many reasons. I mean, I thought I had recovered and that I was over it, and now I'm back here."

"You are recovered, sweetie." Erin assured her, but at the doubtful expression on the younger's face, the aunt let out a small sigh before she continued, "Listen, I think about your mother and father every single day. I think about my last conversation with Emelia, I think about when I was told about the news. Sometimes, I get sad over it - that doesn't mean I'm not recovered. It's natural to be sad about it, honey, and it's completely normal to remember the incident and them. One bad day doesn't mean you're not you anymore - one bad day doesn't mean you can't pull through. You just have to keep on doing exactly what you're doing, okay? They'd be so proud of you, you know that, right?"

"I know..." Sydney muttered, "I just... I'm sick of feeling so scared of it all. Even the slightest thought of having another flashback is petrifying, and the thought of going back to that mental place is even worse - it's like I'm constantly running from it."

"Then stop running."

"What?" Sydney asked, perplexion clear on her features as her eyes narrowed and her eyebrows furrowed at the seemingly absurd suggestion.

"You've been running away from the incident for over a year now - you tried to deny it and forget it when it first happened and told nobody about it, then you had therapy and gained the courage to tell people but then tried to forget it again. Clearly, running away isn't working - you can't run or hide from it, so why not face it?" Erin inquired, providing a decent point - Sydney had never really tried to face the crash, she had just tried to escape it; she still hadn't visited the site of the crash, nor had she actually looked at the graves of her parents since the funeral (she had been to the site, she just hadn't dared to look at the gravestones because she knew that she'd cry if she saw the name of her parents on it).

"Face it." Sydney repeated, before letting out a very light chuckle as she commented, "That sounds much easier said than done."

"Oh, it will be." Erin agreed with a nod, knowing that facing things was much harder to actually do instead of just think about, "But, maybe it'll make things easier afterwards - the long run, right? Just think about it, okay?"

And, that was what Sydney Anderson did for a few moments, the call being silent for a few seconds as she sat and thought about what her aunt had just told her and whether or not actually facing the crash was the right decision for her to take. Although, her thought process was soon broken by a very sweet, yet loud, voice coming over the laptop.

"Syddie!"

"Lila!" Sydney exclaimed, equally as excited as the little bundle of joy, who had just dived in front of the laptop camera with a humongous grin on her lips, was - she was still as adorable as ever, and it made the female prankster miss her even more than she had done previously as she cried out, "Oh, I wish I could hug you!"

"I miss you!" Lila Montogomery declared, pouting slightly in the process - due to being an only child, the little girl hadn't had any siblings to play with for the past few years until Sydney Anderson had joined their mini family, and now the pair adored one another.

Widely smiling at the cuteness of her daughter, Erin picked up the small child and placed the little one in her lap, before she glanced back at the camera and informed her niece, "She has been asking about you and Jerome-."

"Camel-y!" Lila quickly called out, a little giggle escaping her lips afterwards - she was never going to let the blonde-haired boy live that nickname down, and Sydney was almost certain that even when Sydney and Jerome were forty years old and Lila was in her late twenties, the younger girl was still going to refer to Jerome as 'Camel-y'.

"-Non-stop, and says that she wants 'Alfs-ie' to play 'Spies' with her again, but turn it into 'Wizards' - she's been watching Harry Potter." Erin told the prankster, ignoring the slight interruption as she was used to it and using the nickname that her daughter had given Alfie Lewis when he had come over during the break, "Anyways, speaking of you and Jerome, is that his jumper?"

Oh yeah, she was wearing the jumper and pyjama bottoms of her childhood best friend that she had stolen earlier that day - yeah... she had forgotten about that.

"N-No." Sydney lied unconvincing, quickly coming up with an excuse as to where she managed to get the new clothes from, "I went shopping with Amber."

"Do you really expect me to believe that Amber Millington would let you buy a baggy jumper when you went shopping with her?" Erin asked, one of her eyebrows quirked up.

"Okay, you make a good point."

"So, how are you two - you and Jerome?" Erin quizzed inquisitively and with a very suggestive look on her face, as she wanted to know exactly how her niece's relationship-that-wasn't-a-relationship-but-everyone-wanted-it-to-be-a-relationship was going - she was already pretty aware, considering that she had been sent a few photos by Alfie Lewis during the term.

"Same as always." Sydney confirmed with a nod, leaving out the information about Jerome's father because she didn't know whether or not he would want her to tell her family everything to do with his life - it was his information to share, not her's.

"Causing mayhem and not admitting your feelings for one another, got it."

Instantly, Sydney's eyes widened with shock as her head snapped towards the camera, questioning what the heck she had just heard as she went, "What?"

"Nothing!" The aunt quickly denied any and all accusations, hastily attempting to change the topic of conversation away from what she had just blurted out, "So-."

"No, no, no!" Sydney interrupted, profusely shaking her head at the attempt to change the topic (she did it enough to know when her own family members were also attempting to run away from their problems), and she yelled, "You do not get to do that - running away from things is my move! What did you say?!"

"Oh, look at the time! I think it's time for Lila to go to bed!" Erin announced, causing the youngest member of the mini family to look at her mother with confusion, knowing that it was way too early for her to sleep yet - if the little girl knew that, then so did Sydney.

"It's seven o'clock - she doesn't sleep until eight!"

"Alfs-ie sent pictures of you and Camel-y to Mummy!" Lila announced gleefully (yes, she shipped them together), "Are you and Camel-y together, like the fairytales?"

"No!" Sydney cried out, mentally planning ways to murder her best friend for sending photos (presumably of her and her childhood best friend cuddling, because she knew that he had many photos of them like that) to her aunt, thus making her a shipper.

"We wish, honey." Erin muttered to the little girl, hoping that the person on the other side of the laptop screen wouldn't be able to hear the quiet voice - yeah... her hopes were soon crushed, as the female prankster quickly shouted to her aunt:

"I heard that!"

"I asked him how you were doing, and he sent photographic proof that you were doing just fine in the arms of Jerome Clarke." Erin revealed, proving the female prankster's assumption of the picture being her and her childhood best friend cuddling, and she knew that her aunt was going to have many questions, "Are you sure that there's-."

"So, Lila, you've been watching Harry Potter?" Sydney hastily cut the woman off, remembering what she had told her about her cousin at the start of the call - of course, the adorable child nodded at the mention of her favourite series of films to watch at that moment, and the female prankster grinned as she found her way out of the call, using the same trick that she had used on Damian Cyrus a while ago and thus asking the little girl, "Do you want to see a spell? I rehearsed this one a few days ago!"

Knowing exactly what her niece was trying to do (she had tried to do it herself literally moments beforehand), Erin quickly tried to interrupt the conversation to find out the answers to her questions about Sydney and Jerome, "Syd-."

"You're a wizard?" Lila inquired, her eyes wide and filled with awe at the idea of her cousin being one of the wizards that she had watched on the screens.

"The best wizard in town." Sydney confirmed with a nod, putting on a very convincing act for the younger girl who had instantly become excited at the revelation, waving her arms around and bouncing up and down as she gleefully demanded:

"Show me! Show me!"

"Sydney, are you going-."

"Abracadabra!" Sydney cried out enthusiastically, and once she had finished saying the 'oh so very magic word', she hastily clicked the button that ended the call and smashed her head against the laptop keys as she thought about how she was most certainly going to kill Alfie Lewis.

Apparently, if you spoke of the devil then he soon arrived, because only a few moments later did Alfie Lewis burst through the door to his bedroom and declared that it was time to play 'The Sims' and kill some of them in order to get over the female prankster's fear. Of course, that gave Sydney Anderson a brilliant idea and she soon asked if they could make a Sim to kill, leading them to entering 'Create-A-Sim' as the prankster soon got to work and began to create the sim that... oddly enough... resembled the boy beside her.

"Hey, this Sim looks like me!" Alfie exclaimed, realising that he looked very similar to the character that was on the screen and having a small grin on his lips about it until he remembered that the pair planned to kill the Sim.

"Oh, really? That's really funny, huh?" Sydney asked, sarcasm dripping from her words and allowing the boy to know that the similarities between the character and the boy were very much intentional whilst she changed the name of the Sim to 'Alfie Lewis', and then continued to talk, her words still being very much sarcastic, "I totally did not mean to do that. I mean, why would I ever want to kill a Sim that looks like you? It's not like you sent pictures of me and Jerome to my aunt- oh, wait! You did!"

Realising exactly what he had done wrong, the boy glanced towards the bedroom door that led to his escape route before he turned back to the angry female next to him and inquired, "Okay... so when exactly do I need to run?"

"Now." Sydney answered, hardly giving the poor boy a warning as she dived towards him - however, he still managed to dodge the attack as he quickly shot up from his chair and bolted towards the door, with the female prankster hastily following him and only being a few footsteps away from him.

Just when Sydney Anderson thought that she was going to be able to catch the boy due to him needing to stop in order to open the bedroom door, the door swung open for him as Jerome Clarke entered the room, allowing Alfie Lewis to instantly exit the room and hide behind his best friend whilst the new addition to the room looked at his two friends oddly. Though, when Sydney Anderson had gone to continue her chase for Alfie Lewis, Jerome Clarke had quickly stepped in and wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her back towards him and keeping her away from Alfie Lewis as he tried to figure out what was happening.

"I have... so many questions!" Jerome muttered, his eyes travelling down to the clothes that his childhood best friend was wearing as they looked suspiciously like his own clothes, "Firstly, are those my clothes? Secondly, why are you chasing Alfie?"

"He sent pictures of us to my aunt." Sydney revealed, whilst Alfie simply awkwardly smiled and waved, considering it wasn't exactly like he was able to deny the accusation.

"Valid reason." Jerome declared, letting the female go as he told her, "Proceed."

"Jerome!" Alfie cried out, having expected his best friend to stick up for him and instead being betrayed, thus he hastily rushed towards the kitchen when the female prankster made it look like she was going to continue running after him again, only for her to stop once the boy didn't notice that she actually wasn't chasing him.

Upon Sydney remaining still despite her clear want to go and chase their friend, Jerome's eyes narrowed in confusion as he questioned her, "Are you not going to go after him?"

"I think not being able to see me and not knowing where I am will scare him more." Sydney revealed her reasoning for not continuing to chase him, a mischievous grin on her lips in the process that made the boy release a small chuckle whilst he watched her travel towards his bed, sitting down on it as she stated, "Oh, and yes, these are your clothes."

"Weird, but okay." Jerome commented, his eyes not-so-subtly scanning the outfit that she was wearing (yes, he was checking her out) with a smirk on his lips, before he told her, "They look better on you, anyways."

"Everything looks better on me, Gerbil." Sydney retorted, a small smile on her lips that soon turned into laughter once the boy playfully rolled his eyes at her - little did she know that he was thinking that she was most certainly right, and he thought she looked absolutely gorgeous in anything, including his clothes.

It was normal to think that about a friend, though.

Unaware about the thoughts that her childhood best friend was having, Sydney soon recalled where the boy had been for a majority of the afternoon and was eager to know how it had gone, causing her to inquire, "So, how was visiting your dad?"

At the sudden question, Jerome snapped back into reality and pushed the thoughts about how stunning Sydney looked to the back of his mind, quickly answering the female as he turned around and pretended as though he was putting some things away in order to hide his blushing cheeks, "Poppy was there - she must've found the letter."

"You hid the key to your drawer under your bed again, huh?" Sydney guessed, a smirk on her lips as she did so - of course she knew where the boy hid the key to his drawer, considering that he hadn't changed the 'secret' location since they were kids.

Within seconds, Jerome's head had snapped back towards her incredulously, wondering how bad his hiding space truly was as he asked, "Does everyone know about that?!"

"No, I just know you." Sydney pointed out to him, quickly assuring him about his worries that everyone knew about the key that he hid underneath his bed as she got up from the bed that she had sat upon and walked over to him, wrapping her arms around his waist to continue to comfort him whilst she glanced up at him and finished what she had been saying, "Also, Poppy's your sister - of course she's going to know that about you."

"Well, he couldn't tell me about the thing." Jerome revealed with a heavy sigh, his arms instinctively wrapping around his childhood best friend to return the hug that she had impulsively given him as he told her, "I definitely need to go alone next time."

"Well, that's a shame." Sydney commented dismissively, not exactly thinking much about the words that she was saying as she simply rested her head against the boy's chest.

She hadn't missed how his heart seemed to skip a beat, becoming slightly faster at her words.

Another thing that seemed to happen due to her words was that a humongous smirk, mixed with a hint of smile, fell onto his lips, and he moved one of his hands to lift up her face so that she was actually looking at him as he smugly quizzed, "Why? Missed me?"

"Oh, come on." Sydney chuckled, rolling her eyes at him playfully whilst a rather large grin formed on her own lips, telling the boy, "You know I do."

Of course, that comment had caused the smirk intertwined with a hint of a smile that was on the face of Jerome Clarke to become even bigger (if that was even possible), and it was impossible for Sydney Anderson not to notice how much it had grown within the past few seconds, forcing her to roll her eyes at him once more.

"Nevermind, I can see your ego expanding with each second that passes on. Can I take it back?" Sydney asked jokingly, small fits of laughter seeping through her words as she went to pull away from the hug - although, she didn't really get that far.

Why?

Because, soon enough, Jerome Clarke had gently grabbed her arm and pulled her back towards him so that they were extremely close - practically centimetres away from one another - and he softly put her hand on her jaw to force her to look at him whilst he shook his head, "Ah, ah, ah, you can't take it back now, Anderson - admit it: you missed me."

"I think one time is enough for your ego, Clarke." Sydney muttered, chuckling at the interaction as both of them failed to see how close they were, and once again she pulled away from the hug and went back to sitting on the bed of Jerome Clarke, which led to him glancing around the room and noticing something.

"Why are you playing Sims?" Jerome asked with narrowed eyes, having seen the laptop that still had 'Create-A-Sim' displayed upon it, and he walked towards the laptop and noticed that the Sim looked a lot like his roommate, and also that the name of the Sim was 'Alfie Lewis' causing him to inquire, "And, why have you made Alfie?"

"So I could put him in a pool and take away the ladders."

"Yeah, no." Jerome muttered, instantly quitting the game and switching off the laptop, closing it down as he explained his reasoning for doing so to the girl, telling her exactly why he didn't want her to put a Sim in the pool and then take away the ladders from it, "You'll cry, and I hate seeing you cry. How about a movie, instead?"

"A movie sounds good." Sydney agreed with a nod, making herself comfortable on the bed whilst the boy began to grab the few but necessary things that they needed for them to watch a movie together, such as popcorn and the actual film.

During the time that Jerome Clarke spent grabbing the things required, Sydney Anderson fell deep into her thoughts about the conversation that she had with her aunt and remembered her words. The choice was a rather difficult one to make, and both options had several pros and cons (she made a mental list of them), but she had to admit that her aunt was right. Ever since the crash had happened, all that Sydney Anderson had tried to do was escape it, either by running away from it or hiding from it. She had to face it.

Thus, she chose an option, which was why when her childhood best friend moved to sit beside her on the bed (now with everything that they needed for the film), Sydney Anderson wasted no time in asking him, "Can we go somewhere tomorrow?"

Considering that the pair of blondes normally didn't plan days out with one another and simply did things spontaneously, the blue eyes of Jerome Clarke narrowed suspiciously as he glanced over to the blonde-haired girl and had his own question to ask in response, another smirk on his lips, "Is this your way of asking me out on a date?"

"Not particularly."

Ouch. That hurt.

Although, Jerome Clarke didn't exactly understand why the rejection hurt so much - it wasn't like he was actually expecting her to say yes, considering they were strictly best friends. In addition to that, as much as he'd hate to admit it, he had been rejected before, although they didn't feel as hurtful as the rejection he had just gone through - was it perhaps because they were best friends? He didn't know. It confused him. All that he knew was that it was an odd feeling, and he was having a lot more of them around Sydney Anderson as the days passed on.

However, the strange negative emotion that the male prankster felt soon was uplifted, forcing the boy to smile widely as Sydney Anderson (jokingly or not was unknown) added:

"Maybe next time."

Soon enough, it was the next morning - or, as Jerome Clarke had thought about it: the day he was going out with Sydney Anderson to a place he wasn't aware of and for some reason that was unknown to him (not that he was complaining about going out with her, but he soon realised that it did really sound like that she was taking him out to murder him). Although, before the blonde pairing went out together, they still had to endure the hell that was school and Sydney Anderson still had to help the rest of her secret group get over their own respective fears, so they tried to tackle one of them during school hours. That was exactly how the members of the secret group had ended up in the science lab during their break, looking at the table in front of them that had containers filled with bugs resting upon them.

Yeah, they were facing Amber Millington's fear that day, and it was safe to say that the fashionista was extremely nervous about doing so, being reflected in how she had pulled her amulet out from underneath her shirt and had begun to fiddle with it.

"Amber, put it away." Fabian Rutter scolded her as soon as he had noticed the nervous trait, quickly reminding her, "We have to keep them out of sight."

"Sorry." Amber sheepishly apologised, tucking the amulet back into her shirt as she informed them, "It's, like, my lucky charm - that's all."

And Amber Millington felt as though she really needed luck at that moment, which she soon remembered as she glanced over at the containers that held the bugs in them - the containers that were only merely steps away from them, and held her biggest fear.

Wincing at the sight of the terrifying and disgusted creatures, the fashionista was rather hesitant as she asked, "You want me to put my hand... in there?"

"Not at first." Nina Martin told her assuringly, knowing that there was no way that the fashionista was going to dive straight in and put her hand into the container without taking steps towards it - they had to do it slowly, and the American soon told her the steps, "At first, all you have to do is take one step forward."

"A step?" Amber repeated.

"Doesn't sound so bad, does it?" Nina inquired, glancing around at the other members of the secret club, with Patricia Williamson and Sydney Anderson (the two members who weren't scared of bugs in the slightest) shaking their head at the question and allowing for the American to continue, telling them, "Just one step towards the tanks - everyone."

Easily, Sydney Anderson took a step closer to the container that held the bugs, with her and the purple-haired member of the group being the first ones to do so. Soon enough, the rest of the members joined and had taken a step alongside them, and that included Amber Millington, though her step was much slower and much more hesitant than the rest of them, her eyes remaining locked on the container of bugs.

"Okay, now all you have to do is take another step when you're comfortable." Nina instructed them, causing for a few of the members (Patricia Williamson, Alfie Lewis, Sydney Anderson, and Nina Martin) to all follow the orders and take a step closer to the tanks, with the American turning around and continuing what she had been saying afterwards, "Like that, one step at a time, at your own pace."

Soon enough, five of the members of the secret group were standing in front of the containers that held the bugs - even Fabian Rutter, despite his complete and utter hatred for worms (Sydney Anderson was expecting him to present to her a whole PowerPoint Presentation about why he hated worms soon enough, though he had yet to do so). Although, that meant that one of the members hadn't made it to the tank, and when those at the tank glanced back, they noticed that the sixth member was still stuck at the back of the room - it was Amber Millington, who was very much glued to her place and showed no sign of moving any closer to the containers.

And, whilst Sydney Anderson had to deal with that during the school day, Jerome Clarke was walking in the corridor by himself as he attempted to find his childhood best friend and instead found himself stumbling into Mara Jaffray, who was still as determined as ever to find out more about what was occurring within the Clarke family.

"Hey, Jerome!" The nerd quickly greeted the male prankster, rushing forward to catch up with the man before she inquired, "When are you going to visit your dad?"

"I already did - yesterday." Jerome answered, presuming that she'd find out from his younger sister anyways due to how close the pair were and thus soon adding to inform her, "Although, Poppy was there."

"What?"

"She found the letter." The male prankster explained to her, revealing how the younger sibling had managed to find out about the meetings and why she had gone to the prison - though, the boy then slipped up, temporarily forgetting he hadn't told the nerd everything as he said, "So, he couldn't tell me about the thing."

"What thing?" Mara asked suspiciously, being rather confused whilst the boy soon realised his error and placed his hand on his forehead, rubbing it due to frustration at his mistake.

Deciding that there was no turning back and no point to lie about the situation, Jerome caved in and pulled the nerd to the side, telling her, "Okay, you cannot tell anyone - only Sydney knows, but my dad told me to come alone, because he had something top-secret for me to do - he mentioned it, but he couldn't tell me in front of Poppy."

"That's weird." Mara commented, her eyes narrowed as she pondered over what it was that the father of the Clarke siblings wanted his eldest son to do for him - it was very suspicious, and also quite concerning, as the man was a criminal.

"I know - I just want to know what the big secret is." Jerome agreed, releasing a small yet rather worried sigh as he had to go another day being unaware about what his father - a convicted criminal - wanted him to do that was 'without risks' and had to remain top-secret, and it truly did play on his mind quite a bit.

It seemed that their parents played on the minds of both Sydney Anderson and Jerome Clarke that day, and the female prankster had become even more anxious as time ticked on and it had reached the end of the school day, with her and her childhood best friend returning back to Anubis House to get changed. At that moment, the blonde-haired female was waiting in the entrance hall for her best friend to be ready, and she slowly felt her nerves beginning to eat away from her as she realised that she was moments away from facing something that she had avoided for over a year.

"Hey." The voice of Jerome Clarke snapped the female prankster out of her thoughts as he made his way out of the boy's corridor and into the entrance hall, his eyebrows furrowing with concern as he set his sights on the much paler version of his childhood best friend, "Are you okay? You look really sick."

Taking a breath, Sydney Anderson decided that it was time for her to tell the boy about her plans for their outing, thus she stated, "I actually need to tell you something."

"Maybe you should sit down." The male prankster suggested, clearly somewhat concerned and a bit panicked as he quickly, yet gently, pulled his best friend over towards the chair that was in the entrance hall and then hastily sat her down on it in fear that she was only a few moments away from passing out due to how pale and sickly the poor girl seemed to be, "I think we should stay here - we can watch some films in my room or something."

"No, Jerome." Sydney told him, deciding to just blurt out the idea for what she wanted them to do that afternoon so that the boy would stop worrying about her being sick and understand why she seemed so pale, causing her to announce, "I want to visit the crash."

For a split second, Jerome had frozen - his body had turned completely stiff, with absolutely no emotion being revealed on his face. It was worrying, to say in the least, for the female prankster, who watched his reaction with hesitant and worried eyes - of course, she knew that the boy was always going to be there for her in the end regardless of his opinions, but she also knew that there was a high chance that he wasn't going to like the idea and thus protest against it due to wanting her to be okay. That was all Jerome Clarke ever wanted for Sydney Anderson: for her to be okay and happy.

Meanwhile, the male's head was whirring frantically, as though the cogs in his mind couldn't and didn't have the ability to work fast enough to process the shocking information that he had just heard. It was safe to say that he hadn't expected to visit the site of the crash with his childhood best friend that day (or even within that entire term), and he wasn't exactly sure on whether or not he agreed with it, due to wanting to keep the female prankster away from the devastation that she went through last term, but also wanting her to be happy and, obviously, to make her own choices, because he didn't control her. Honestly, he was conflicted, but it wasn't really his choice to make about whether or not the female shouldn't go and he soon realised that, which was when he finally broke away from his stiffened reaction and managed to say something:

"Are you sure?" He inquired, his hesitant and clearly worried eyes resting on the female to observe her reaction and how she truly felt - of course, he wasn't going to stop his childhood best friend from visiting the site of the crash, but he did want to make sure that she was certain in her decision about going due to the many risks that decision had.

"I had another flashback yesterday - I spoke to my aunt about it, and she said that maybe things would get better if I stopped running away from it all." Sydney informed him, causing the boy's expression to morph into one of sadness as he heard about the flashback, but the female prankster quickly continued after she took a small breath, telling the man, "I was going to do it alone initially, but then I wasn't sure about whether or not I'd actually be able to cope once I saw it, so I wanted someone to be there for me."

Hardly even a second afterwards, the boy had already grabbed a hold of her hand and laced their fingers together, sending the blonde-haired girl a faint smile as he reminded her, "I'm always going to be here for you, okay?"

Thus, hand in hand, the pair of pranksters made their leave.

With their hands holding and their fingers intertwined together, one would have assumed that a sense of comfort would have derived from that touch - normally, it did, and perhaps there was a small sense of comfort that still came from the simple action. However, the dread overpowered any sort of positive emotion as the blonde pairing slowly and hesitantly made their way to a place where two people lost their lives - a place where death had occurred. It was odd, really, like they were approaching a doom of their own.

Perhaps that was due to the fact that Sydney Anderson could have been an additional life lost in the same place that they were approaching if she hadn't have been sat in the back seat. Perhaps that was due to the fact that only horrors had occurred in that place for Sydney Anderson. Perhaps that was due to the fact that only negativity stemmed from that place and thus was associated with that place for Sydney Anderson.

In a place with so much horror attached, could there have been any sort of light able to derive from it?

For over a year, the only thing that Sydney Anderson was able to associate with the place where the lives of her parents were stolen was negativity, and she didn't understand how something good was able to come from it. The negative feelings that surrounded the road tainted with death had gotten so bad that endless and relentless fear coursed through the veins of the female prankster when she, in her dreams, had seen the trees by the road, the shapes of which she had memorised. Simply by the small details in the surroundings, she was able to recognise the place of the crash within a second due to the countless amounts of nightmares she had about it, and she remembered how her breathing would fasten and how she'd try to wake herself up to no avail.

Those memories were lodged firmly into her mind - the memories of the disastrous crash itself and then the haunting nightmares that came along with it, as though the tragedy wasn't enough. Thus, it was no surprise when the girl stiffened upon seeing the familiar sight through the trees, forcing herself and Jerome Clarke beside her to come to a halt.

A few minutes before the incident had occurred which had thrown Sydney's world upside down, she was having a conversation with her parents. She was sat in the back of her car, her head buried deep within her phone whilst she texted Jerome, as her parents attempted to converse with their daughter, being sat in the front of the car and turning round to her to catch her attention at times. In all honesty, Sydney could not recall a single word said in that conversation, as she was more focused on her phone than her family and wasn't paying attention to the conversation – she only remembered having it, though the words said during it were a blur to her. She didn't know that those words would be the last words her parents would say, or else she would have paid a lot more attention, and perhaps even remembered their final words.

However, Sydney didn't pay attention to that conversation, until she heard a terrifying screech escape from her mother's lips – one of the many screeches that continued to ring through her ears, haunting her both in her nightmares and within her day. The screech caused her eyes to dart up from her phone, tearing away from the text conversation she was having, so that she could see what the commotion was, although the scene merely flickered before her eyes, happening so fast that she couldn't even comprehend it.

Her mother attempted to grab the steering wheel to get them out of the way, but it was far... far... too late.

The sound had to be the most haunting and horrendous thing – the sounds that still haunted her to this day.

The sound of pained and agonised screeches coming from those whom she loved with a mix of her own thrown in there, although she couldn't really distinguish them properly; the sound of a million shards of glass shattering; and the intensified sound of bones crunching filled the girl's ears, lodging themselves in her mind and being trapped in there for seemingly the rest of her life, as they would not allow her to forget the memory.

Then most of the sounds came to a halt. She could hear a faint buzzing noise, and some far away chatter and yelps for help that seemed as though they were coming from outside the vehicle, although she didn't pay attention to it. The shallow breaths of her parents were apparent, but they were worryingly shallow, and Sydney wondered why they weren't calling out.

It seemed as though the world was flicking a light switch, as her vision went from bitter darkness to blinding white light repeatedly, her not being able to make out much. Although, she could taste something cold and metallic within her mouth – blood, of course – which grazed her teeth and soaked her tongue, tainting it. She could feel the aches and cracks in her bones, as it felt like her entire body was being crumbled and smashed into a tiny box which even contortionists wouldn't be able to fit into.

However, before she could even try to figure out if she, or her parents were okay, the world stopped flickering it's figurative light switch, and the blinding white light slowly turned into bitter darkness as a blanket of darkness took over her vision.

"Syd." The voice of Jerome Clarke rang through, with him having stopped as well though a bit further ahead of his childhood best friend, thus causing him to look back at her with a concerned expression coating his face as he inquired worriedly, "You okay?"

"It's here." Sydney Anderson informed the man, her eyes wide as she stared at the place that caused her to lose both of her parents and almost her own life - the nurses had deemed her to be lucky due to her surviving, but was she really?

"Are you sure?" The male prankster quizzed, his eyebrows furrowed as he wondered how the woman was able to tell - it just seemed like a normal road to him, and there was nothing distinctive about it that screamed that two people had lost their lives there.

"This place has been the setting for a majority of my nightmares for the past year - I'm sure." The blonde-haired woman insisted, seeming to snap out of her frozen state as she continued to head forward, eventually stepping onto the road where the car crash had occurred and glancing around it for a few moments until she finally spoke up once more, "It's so... odd. I mean, it looks so normal, despite everything."

Then again, Sydney Anderson was almost certain that she had been to numerous places where deaths had occurred yet she hadn't even taken a double take at them or even thought about such potential of that occurring due to how normal they seemed, with not a single trace of an tragedy happening in sight. Everywhere she stepped, someone could have died right in that spot and she wouldn't have had a clue about it, and that was what was happening with the death of her own parents.

The road had been cleared of any blood and glass that had been there prior, and now it just seemed like a normal road that had no tragic incidents behind it, thus people in their cars zoomed past it without a care in the world - perhaps there was bliss in ignorance.

"There was so much blood over this road and there was glass everywhere, but now you can't even tell that anything happened here." Sydney explained to the boy who was watching her cautiously - though, she hadn't noticed that due to her eyes being locked on the road tainted by tragedy, "I guess everything moves on after a while, huh?"

"What are you thinking?" Jerome wondered, not wanting the female prankster to hide her thoughts from him or bottle anything up - he wanted her to be open, especially with him, and let all her emotions out to the open world so that she wasn't alone in dealing with it.

She was never alone.

"I just... didn't know what to expect - I still don't, I guess." Sydney muttered, her words extremely slow and somewhat careful whilst she cautiously glanced around the area where her parents died, "This place has been in so many of my nightmares, I'm just expecting for this to be another one of them and for the crash to happen right in front of my eyes."

"That's not going to happen." Jerome assured her.

Just as he said those words, the sound of a car filled their ears. Sydney instantly flinched. Her eyes widened. 'Run' her thoughts screeched. Terror coursed through her. She took steps backwards. Her back hit something - the chest of Jerome Clarke. Calming her down, the boy wasted no time in wrapping his arms around her and beginning to whisper small things in her ears to help her get through the fear that rushed through her.

Then, the car passed.

Nothing had happened.

Everyone was safe.

"It isn't." Sydney whispered, a tone of realisation lingering in her words whilst her voice only just being audible to the boy who had his arms wrapped around her comfortingly.

However, the comfort of his arms being wrapped around her soon had to disappear, with the woman quickly unwrapping herself from him and moving further away from him. Normally, Sydney Anderson would have stayed in the arms of Jerome Clarke for a little while longer, but something had caught her eyes and she had soon been drawn to the place where it was, a smile forming on her lips at the sight of it.

As his childhood best friend knelt down beside the grass, Jerome had decided to slowly approach her, soon stopping his footsteps when he had reached to just behind her and then glancing over her, looking at what had caught her attention, "What is it?"

"Daffodils." Sydney answered, very briefly gazing back at the blonde-haired boy with a soft smile on her lips before she looked back at the flowers in the grass, recalling her knowledge from when she had researched flowers for the funerals of her parents as she informed him of their meaning, "They symbolise new beginnings."

At that, a similar smile to the one that the female held fell upon the face of Jerome Clarke, who soon knelt down beside his childhood best friend and took one of the three daffodils that had grew, ripping it up from the grass but making sure no harm was done to the actual flower itself - though, that caused Sydney Anderson to throw him a small glare.

"You just ripped up a new beginning."

"No, you're taking your new beginning with you." Jerome retorted, taking the daffodil and gently placing it behind her ear, adjusting her hair and moving some strands out of her face in the process - meanwhile, the female prankster's glare softened and an extremely wide smile formed on her lips once more.

"You're such a sap." Sydney lightly giggled, amusedly shaking her head at him.

"Is that a pun?" Jerome inquired, a playful smirk present on his lips as he knew that they had been discussing flowers and then she had called him a 'sap', which could have meant 'soft' but also was something produced by trees - nature jokes; the pinnacle of humour.

"Stop!" The blonde-haired girl cried out, lightly pushing the boy before the two of them stood up, sending one last glance at the site of the tragic crash (which she had now conquered, may it be added) before they began to make their way back into the woods, but they still had one more place to visit.

The cemetery.

"This is my fifth time coming here, and it still feels weird." Sydney Anderson declared as her and Jerome Clarke stepped through the gates that led into the cemetery - of course, she, and even the boy beside her, had visited before (the funeral, the anniversary of their death, their birthdays) - though, the female prankster had avoided actually looking at their gravestones every single time after the funeral.

Despite there being other mourners littered around the cemetery, it was rather quiet and peaceful as the blonde pairing made their way through, passing numerous different rows of gravestones, all of which had their own unique and different engraved epitaphs that, in one way or another, promised the dead that had been laid to rest that they weren't going to be forgotten and that they were loved in both life and death.

"We can go whenever you want." Jerome Clarke reminded her, not wanting for the woman to push herself too much and then for the visits to the devastating places have the reverse effect of what they were meant to do - they were meant to help her face her demons/fears and hopefully get rid of them, not subdue her to more of them.

"No, I've come this far." The female prankster denied the offer, shaking her head before she caught sight of the two gravestones that they had been looking for and pointing it out to the boy beside her, "And, we're here."

Emelia Anderson and Alexander Anderson - the parents of Sydney Anderson. Both of them had made their mistakes, and they had many regrets (their biggest one being abandoning Sydney Anderson when she was younger), but who didn't make a few misjudgements in life and take the wrong track? Did their mistakes mean that they deserved to die in such a cruel way before they had even witnessed their youngest child pass high school? No. Regardless of their past, they tried to fix what they did wrong, and that was what mattered most. Their life shouldn't have been defined by their errors, but by if they tried to fix them and, if so, how they tried to fix them. The Anderson parents vowed to take care of Sydney Anderson as best as they were possibly able to, and decided to stay with her until they were old and wrinkly - they kind of broke that last vow, though...

"You know, you'd think I'd feel more comfortable talking to graves after a year, but this still feels really awkward. Is there, like, a manual on how to do this?" Sydney inquired, kneeling down in front of the two graves that had her parents names inscribed onto them - she actually managed to look at them for the first time in over a year without feeling a sense of dread and uncontrollable sadness overwhelm her.

"As if you'd read a manual." Jerome responded, causing the female to shoot him a mildly annoyed but slightly amused glare that forced him to give her actual advice on how to speak to her dead parents - yeah... that wasn't something he thought he'd be doing that term, "Just say how you feel - I can leave you alone for a moment, if you'd like."

"Please." Sydney responded, causing the blonde-haired boy to to step a respectable amount away from the gravestones that allowed his childhood best friend some privacy, and then she turned back to the graves, taking a deep breath before she began speaking to them, "Hi, I guess. This is really weird, wow - maybe that's a sign I should visit more, I guess." The daughter of the deceased mumbled, her words slow and hesitant as she didn't particularly know what to say, thus she found herself taking another deep breath in order to try to continue speaking to the graves of her parents, and then the words began to spill out from her, "I miss you both so much, and I know that my lack of visits doesn't really prove it, but it's because the entire incident has just... tortured me, in a way. For the longest time, I thought the only solution to that was running away and hiding - then, I kind of got hit with the fact I can't run and hide from it forever, so I'm here trying to face my fears today." Sydney informed them, feeling as though she had to explain her absence to them despite them not even being there - or perhaps they were, perhaps they were ghosts watching over her, but she wasn't exactly aware of that, "It's odd, because for the longest time, I thought that my only fear was The Grim Reaper, yet here I am now plagued with so many different fears, and it's scary. Although, I guess that they're all related to death in a way - The Grim Reaper, change, losing the people around me, your deaths."

Maybe that was her fear all along: death.

At the start, it manifested itself as The Grim Reaper and fear had coursed through the little girl's veins merely at the thought of the figure of death. Then, Sydney Anderson had actually witnessed death and had been a victim of the pain that it caused, so her fear of death had began to manifest in more than one way - it made her hate change, and made her terrified of losing her friends (for example, when she thought that Alfie Lewis was going to die and had just frozen), and made her run away from the death of her parents.

Her fear was death.

"I don't really know what else to talk about. I mean, Jerome's here too - you always liked him. Oh, speaking of that, I found out about the bet that you two had on us - I wonder if you're still betting about us up there. Lila and Auntie Erin also want me and Jerome to get together, which I definitely think you've somehow put them up to." Sydney chuckled at the thought, a smile on her lips at the thought of her parents somehow getting her auntie and her cousin to ship her and her childhood best friend - though, sadness soon swept over her, causing her to continue speaking with sorrow in her voice "I miss you, Mum, Dad. Erin's done so much for me and she's amazing - truly, she is - but she's not you two." Sydney revealed, taking another deep breath to calm herself down and also to make sure that she didn't begin crying - then, she stood up, and a sense of tranquility - perhaps a connection that she felt towards her parents who had passed on - overcame her, giving her to courage to take one last look at the gravestones and allowing her to speak once more, "I'll come again, I promise. This place... suddenly isn't that scary anymore."

And, with that, Sydney Anderson had managed to conquer both her biggest fear and the darkest period that she had experienced in her life - she now felt a sense of peace that she hadn't felt in such a long time, and that allowed her to hold her head high as she walked alongside Jerome Clarke to the exit of the cemetery, the pair of them wrapping one another in a tight hug once they had passed the gates of the place of the dead once the female prankster had told him that she had actually managed to face it.

So, it was safe to say that the pair of blondes were a little bit happier upon entering Anubis House than how they had been when they had exited the house earlier, and it appeared as though they weren't the only happy ones as Alfie Lewis, who had been descending the stairs upon the arrival of the blondes, soon laid his eyes on them and exclaimed, "I've been looking everywhere for you! It's time to play The Sims, my friend, and not a single townie is surviving our wrath!"

Not leaving her anytime to protest or question the order, the eager boy had soon begun to march (as in, literally march) towards the bedroom that he shared with Jerome Clarke, clearly expecting for his female friend to follow in order to completely pass her fear.

Although, Alfie Lewis' declaration for them to suddenly play The Sims in order to kill a ton of the characters caused the eyes of his roommate to narrow in both suspicion and confusion, him turning towards his childhood best friend for an answer as he inquired, "Okay, do you want to tell me why you're doing everything you're scared of today?"

"We thought it was about time I faced my fears." Sydney revealed, not particularly lying about the situation but not telling him the entire story (there'd be a lot more explaining to do if she told him all the reasonings for her suddenly doing everything she hated) as she went towards the bedroom of the boys, briefly stopping to turn back to her childhood best friend to inquire, "You coming?"

And, of course, Jerome Clarke couldn't deny Sydney Anderson.

So, the next morning, Sydney Anderson was much less fearful of death (confirmed by the fact that Victor Rodenmaar and/or Vera Devenish had not rushed into the room of the boys the previous night when she had been playing The Sims with them), though that didn't mean that the other members of the secret group, Sibuna, had faced their own respective fears. Thus, that was exactly what the members of the group were checking the next morning as they all stood in the science labs.

"Okay, I'm ready." Amber Millington declared after a few minutes of her preparing to hold a bug - the ultimate test to see whether or not she was less scared of bugs and could, at least, cope with being around them and perhaps touching them.

"Are you sure?" Nina Martin inquired, not wanting to force the fashionista to face her fear too early and then alerting the students/teachers by her screeches.

"Just do it quick." The typically bubbly, but now extremely petrified, blonde instructed them, considering she didn't want to have to hold her biggest fear for much longer than she was required to - thus, Nina Martin sent a nod towards Patricia Williamson.

Following the silent instructions, the purple-haired member of the group found herself opening up one of the containers filled with bugs, taking a cockroach into her hand and causing Amber Millington to begin whimpering - yet, the fashionista still put her hands out in front of her, ready to hold the petrifying cockroach whilst Patricia Williamson told her, "Remember the training, think of it as a little Alfie."

In response, Alfie Lewis (who was now officially single - Amber Millington had 'broken up' with him just before lights out, when both Sydney Anderson and Jerome Clarke had gone up to the female prankster's room as the male wanted to make sure she was okay after facing a lot of her fears that day) sent a small wave to the the fashionista, whilst Sydney Anderson slung her arm around the mentioned boy, a grin on her lips as she declared, "Even regular-sized Alfie isn't scary."

With that being said, Patricia set the cockroach into the fashionista's hands, forcing her to begin to whimper even more as her fear crawled around in her palm - though, the blonde managed to stay as calm as she was possibly able to whilst she spoke to the cockroach, taking the advice she was given and thus telling it, "Hey, Alfie, you're not so bad."

"Okay, I think you're ready." Nina announced confidently, causing Patricia (apparently the official cockroach-handler) to take the cockroach out of the girl's hand and place it back into the container, though they still had one person to check for their fears, "Fabian?" Upon his name being called out, the nerd held out his hand and allowed for the American to slowly let a worm fall onto his hand, letting it slither around for a moment or two.

"Yeah, I think I'm ready too." Fabian Rutter muttered.

"Alfie?" Nina inquired, glancing towards the boy expectantly as they wondered whether or not he had managed to get over his fear of small spaces - Sydney knew that he had spent a majority of the night underneath his bed in order to get over the fear.

"Yeah, I think so." Alfie informed the female, explaining how he managed to get over it to the group, "I spent the whole night under my bed and no stones fell down, so..."

Then, Nina turned to face the female prankster, being a little worried upon doing so, as they were fully aware that her fear was probably one of the harder ones to get over, "Sydney?"

"As ready as I can be." Sydney nodded, being quite confident.

"Can confirm: she almost wiped out an entire town last night just by drowning them." Alfie chimed in to support her, a proud smile covering his lips whilst he continued to add, "And, she didn't have Victor rushing in to see why someone was screaming."

Nina grinned, "Okay, then. Let's get this thing done."

Although, before the secret group was able to leave the science lab and make their way to the tunnels to complete their next task like they had planned, the sound of the doors behind them opening caught their attention, forcing all of them to spin around and unexpectedly set their sights upon their head teacher, Mr Sweet, entering the room with Victor Rodenmaar following right behind him, as the former spoke up towards the kids, "Ah, students. Um, you remember we have a zero tolerance on jewelry at the school."

"No? I don't remember that." Patricia Williamson denied.

"Neither do I." Sydney Anderson agreed, her eyebrows furrowed with confusion and suspicion as she was well-acquainted with the rules of Amun Boarding School and had thought she was fully aware of all of them so that she knew how far she was able to go before being expelled, "The rules have been recited to me many times - you know that, Mr Sweet - and I don't recall hearing anything about having a zero tolerance on jewelry."

"Well, nevertheless, we do." Mr Sweet insisted, continuing what he had been saying regardless of the students' protests about the rule they were talking about not actually existing, "And we are doing a spot check today to ensure that all students are uniform and consistent representatives of the school. And um-."

"All jewelry, please." Victor Rodenmaar interrupted the head teacher impatiently, clearly wanting the entire conversation over with and not wanting to be there for much longer than required, thus he stepped forward towards them with bracelets in his hand.

"No." Patricia refused.

"Patricia, please." Mr Sweet responded, not wanting to enforce a punishment upon the purple-haired girl and just wanting her to follow the so-called 'rule' pleasantly - however, it was soon evident that wasn't going to happen as the purple-haired girl shook her head.

And, as expected, the housekeeper of Anubis House was determined to have the apparent rule followed, quickly implementing a new punishment to threaten them with for not abiding by it as he told them, "If you do not wish to comply, your punishment will be a new house curfew - straight to your bedrooms after dinner, and you will be monitored."

"That's a bit strict for a uniform check, don't you think?" Sydney inquired, not being afraid of the punishment threatened upon them due to her being confident in her abilities of sneaking around, so she crossed her arms defiantly and raised her eyebrows challengingly at the older man.

"Rules are rules, Miss Anderson, and punishment must be in place for those who do not follow them." Victor declared strictly, sending them all a harsh and threatening glance in hopes they'd submit to the new rules and pass over the amulets, though none of them moved an inch, causing the man to speak up once more, "Very well."

Not receiving what he had desired, the housekeeper soon went to take his leave whilst the members of the secret group kept their precious amulets. Well, for a few seconds.

"Wait." Nina spoke up, taking a few steps forward and causing the housekeeper to whiz around to face her, whilst the members of the secret group looked at her with wide eyes as they wondered what she was doing and why she was doing it, though it was presumably due to the punishment that'd be placed upon them if they didn't submit to the rule.

Taking one last look at the group, Nina Martin soon pulled the amulet from around her neck and placed it into the dastardly hands of Victor Rodenmaar, and that left the members of the secret group to reluctantly follow her lead, each and every single one of them taking the amulet from around their necks and placing it in the hands of their housekeeper, who muttered a 'thank you' each time he received another amulet.

"Thank you very much." He eventually finished after gathering all of the amulets (minus the one that was in the dollhouse), taking his leave from the science lab with them all his hand and a smirk present on his lips.

Of course, that meant an emergency meeting for the secret group was required, which was exactly why all of the members had found themselves sitting in the drama studio with bedrudged looks plastered across their faces as they wondered what their next move was.

"There is no way we can risk having Victor guard us round the clock - we can get the amulets back." Fabian Rutter declared, defending the seemingly absurd choice that Nina Martin had made to submit to the ridiculous rule that the female prankster was still almost certain didn't actually exist, thus handing their amulets (and the way into the tunnels) to their enemy.

"We don't just have to get them back." Nina Martin told him, "We have to get them back soon, or... it's over."

▲▼▲

[13.08.2020]

NOTE: this chapter is the longest in denouement and i think one of the more important ones for sydney. i was taking notes throughout about what i wanted to say at the end, so there's a lot!

at the beginning with the paragraph about how sydney finally has a trio of girl friends, i wanted to highlight her friendship with nina and amber bc they're obviously extremely close now. plus, i wanted to show how much she's changed, both mentally and also friendship-wise, since season one. although there was a snippet that hinted to s3 that kinda hurts but ok. i also brought back sydney calling sibuna a cult, bc that's forever an iconic line!

i also reference s3 again with alfie and sydney, when she's saying that he might find his perfect match at isis house.

oh, and i decided that mara and jerome aren't really at the friendship stage for her to be like "why won't you tell me?" about his dad like it happens in the show, so i changed it to him accidentally revealing it. there's also a snippet of the relationship between damian and mara which i adore - damian's just so cocky.

plus!! i really wanted sydney to defend alfie when it came to the tunnels. she has and always will be alfie's best friend since day one, and she will defend him from the world. this gave me mega season one flashbacks when she constantly defended him from amber when she said "as if i'd ever date alfie!"

oh, and the entire fear of the grim reaper was included jUST for this task. i've has this planned out since day one for this task someone please give me some credit here. but, she's just been scared of death the entire time and hasn't noticed - it started as the grim reaper then unfolded into more, so she technically doesn't have two fears in the tunnels. it's one fear that overlaps a lot.

i also wanted to bring back sydney's therapy and her mental health because i wanted to show that people aren't always completely okay and they have off days - that's okay. i also want to say i'm not romanticising it with jerome going with her to the crash and graves - sydney knows due to her therapy she shouldn't be alone when facing this stuff, so she asked the person who has always been there for her as a friend. jerome has been there for her literally since day one, and he also knew sydney's parents, so i felt he was the best choice.

also a few structural things i did here! i referenced the very first flashback, since sydney is now getting over them completely and recovering. also, when she's panicked over the car, the sentences are really short (fast reading = panicked), but then slow when jerome comforts her because she's calming down.

okay, that's all my notes now! the next chapter is chaotic, to say in the least. right now, i'm kind of struggling. my dad keeps getting rushed to hospital and i'm having to look after him a lot, but i'll try to continue updating.

i love you and thank you for your patience.