Author's note: Hi. Hey. Hello. How are you? This is my first House of Anubis Fanfic. I hope you like it. By the way, I don't own House of Anubis, Harry Potter, or IHOP.
How Victor Died (And Brought Down Everyone Else With Him)
It had been a few weeks since Fabian had thrown out the Elixir, and everyone in the house seemed to be getting along fine. Except Victor. He had spent most of his life trying to think of a way to get the Elixir back, but nothing came to him.
"That's it! I can't go on, Corbierre!" cried Victor one cold, rainy day. "Those meddlesome children ruined my last chance for immortality! There's no way to get it back, and I can't live any longer!" With that, he coughed several times and then collapsed on the floor. As he fell, his head it the desk and began to bleed. A cold air known as Death filled the room. Even Corbierre could have told you that his 'master' was dead. Well, not really, seeing as dead stuffed crows can't talk, but you get the idea.
Victor lay dead on the floor for quite a while, until Fabian came up, carrying a large box.
"Excuse me, Victor? This came in the mail for you, and Trudy told me to bring it up to your off-" Suddenly, he broke off, noticing that Victor was lying dead on the floor.
"Victor?" asked Fabian cautiously. He knelt down on the floor and checked Victor's pulse. Realizing that the old caretaker was dead, he ran out. He yelled at the top of his lungs, "I DIDN'T DO IT! I DIDN'T DO IT!" all the way down the stairs.
..~0~..
Some time later, Nina and Amber heard Fabian screaming. So they went to Victor's office to investigate, wondering if Victor knew why Fabian was screaming. They entered the office, expecting to find a grumpy old man, sitting at his desk with that creepy stuffed bird. Instead, they found a grumpy old man lying dead on the floor.
"WE DIDN'T DO IT!" they screamed. Amber shoved Nina over and ran out the door. Nina nearly landed on Victor. She shrieked in horror and dove toward the door. Together, they ran downstairs and hid in the closet under the stairs.
"Like where Harry Potter used to sleep," Nina whispered to herself. Amber honestly didn't care, because Hermione didn't wear cute shoes. Ever.
..~0~..
From down the hall, Patricia and Mara could hear them. Loud shrieking was not uncommon from Amber, but Nina? That never happened, unless there was a good reason. Eventually, Patricia's curiosity got the better of her.
"Mara, I'm going to go see what those two were screaming about. Guard the door," she commanded.
Her roommate looked at her, somewhat offended. "Why do I always have to guard the door?" The hedgehog routine was getting overly elaborate from all the times they used it. Patricia just sighed.
"Mara, when you get good at guarding, I will promote you. But remember how many close calls we've had with you guarding?" Patricia wasn't trying to be mean, and Mara knew it. She was really horrible with guard duty.
Nonetheless, Mara stood outside the door to Victor's office while Patricia slid inside. She waited calmly for her friend to emerge, but then Patricia screamed very loudly. Mara turned around, only to see Patricia fleeing for her life, yelling, "I didn't do it! I didn't do it!" She raced down the stairs, and didn't sop until she was safely hidden in the laundry room.
As Patricia ran screaming throughout the house, Alfie and Jerome took notice of her. Jerome stared in shock, as he had never seen her act like this before.
Alfie just shrugged. "What do you think that was all about?" he asked.
"I don't know," Jerome replied. "But if something's going on in this house, I'm going to get to the bottom of this." With that, Jerome strode up the staircase, Alfie following, only to find Mara guarding the door to Victor's office. In Jerome's mind, that had suspicious written all over it.
"Mara, please move," Jerome commanded. Mara blushed. Was she still on guard duty or not? Just to be on the safe side, she decided she was.
"But Victor's really, really busy," she stated, clearly lying. Alfie couldn't tell, though.
"Doing what?" he asked.
Mara sighed. She had to use the routine again. "Reading a very important paper on how poor, defenseless hedgehogs die every year, lying dead in the middle of roads." Alfie was still not aware she was lying. Therefore, he was now sad.
"Oh. The poor hedgehogs," said Alfie sadly. "What can I do to help them?"
Mara began her speech about adding road signs, requesting laws Hedgehog Awareness Day, adopting hedgehogs, and joining Mara's made-up society (shhh, don't tell anyone), the International Hedgehog-lovers Office of Protection(better known as IHOP). Just as she began to speak, though, Jerome interrupted.
"Alfie," he began. "Do you not realize she's just stalling? There is something on the other side of this door, and Patricia is making her guard it. Let's just go in." Alfie blushed a little. How could he have fallen for that?
Ignoring Mara, Jerome led Alfie into Victor's office. They saw the body. What did they do? They ran away screaming "WE DIDN'T DO IT! WE DIDN'T DO IT!" They left Mara standing outside the door, wondering what horror might be inside. Of course, she had suspicions, but was too afraid to look.
..~0~..
While Mara was afraid, Mick was very curious. Almost all of the people in the house had run screaming from Victor's office. Intrigued, he walked up the stairs, only to find his girlfriend waiting outside of Victor's office.
"Mara, what's in there?" he asked.
"I don't know," she replied. "If I did know, I probably wouldn't be standing here." It was clear to Mick that Mara was too afraid to look inside. He saw this as an opportunity to impress her. So he peeked inside the doorway.
All he could see was the legs of the corpse, but that was enough for him. He nearly screamed in horror. "Mara," Mick said in a shaky voice. "I think Victor's dead. Go get Trudy." Mara looked pale, but did as she was told.
..~0~..
Moments later, Mara returned with Trudy. Mick told her about the corpse, and opened the door. Trudy cautiously walked in, finding Victor dead on the floor, his head bleeding. Her eyes widened in shock. She checked his pulse. Nothing. Pale and shaking, Trudy exited the room.
"Victor is dead," she stated, still in a state of shock. She thought about the blood. 'I'm going to call the police station; people don't just die out of the blue." Trudy turned to go call the police, but called over her shoulder, "Mick, could you please bring the body downstairs for the police?" She continued down the stairs and left the two standing there.
"Well," Mara said, breaking the silence. "Shall we bring down the body, then?" Mick nodded grimly, the idea of touching a dead Victor giving him the urge to hurl. He walked in and weakly gripped Victor's coat lapels.
"This has to be the single most disgusting thing I've ever done," Mick choked out. He dragged the body for a short distance before Victor's head lolled back and hit his hand. "Gross!" he yelled. This continued a fair amount of times, resulting in Victor being dropped down the stairs.
Mara felt slightly guilty seeing Victor's corpse roll down the stairs. Do you want me to help?" she asked. Without waiting for an answer, she reached for Victor's sleeves. Her hand brushed against the cold, clammy skin, and she gave a small shriek. "You know what?" she started. "I have a better idea." Mara ran down the stairs. Moments later, she returned with two pairs of rubber gloves.
"I think it's a good idea to use garbage bags as well," suggested Mick, putting the gloves on. He went to the kitchen and took out two garbage bags, and returned to the foot of the stairs where Victor's corpse lay.
The rubber gloves and plastic bags served their purpose well. The two teens put them on, shoved the corpse in the garbage bags, and hauled the body out of the house. Just as the police showed up. When two teens wearing rubber gloves drag a dead body wrapped in garbage bags out of a house on a rainy day, it never looks good.
"Mick Campbell and Mara Jaffrey, you will be taken in for questioning in the supposed murder of Victor Rodenmaar Jr." Sergeant Roebuck said as handcuffed the two and shoved them into one of the cop cars.
End of Chapter One
Author's Note: Well, what do you think? The story just kind of came to me one day, except at the time it was really stupid. So it matured some, and formed into something still silly, but more serious. Leave your thoughts, flames, constructive criticism, what you would like to see in future chapters, and so on. The Anonymous Review is on, so everyone can comment. I'll update when I can. Those who read and enjoyed are the best. If you read and didn't really like it, I'm still glad you read it.
~Apocalypse=)