I hope you read my introduction, because otherwise you might be a tad confused!

Disclaimer: Oh yeah, I totally own House of Anubis. And yeah, I was being sarcastic...

Chapter 1: After Nearly Being Killed with Deadly Bugs…

Nina's POV

I woke with a jolt. I had another nightmare about Rufus after a mere six hours since he had threatened us, meaning me, Fabian, Patricia, Amber, Alfie, and Jerome, with deadly bugs in an hourglass all for the Cup of Ankh. It had been an eventful night that definitely scared me out of my pants. I honestly didn't think I would ever be the same after that experience.

"Nina?" I hear a soft voice calling my name from the opposite side of the room.

"Yes Amber?" I answered in the same volume.

"I can't sleep. I had a really scary nightmare and now I'm afraid to go back to sleep," Amber whimpered. She sounded on the verge of tears, so I got out of bed and made my way through the darkness to her.

"Me too," I said, as I sat down beside her. "I think we are all pretty shaken right now. How about we go downstairs and get a drink of water? When I was little and I had bad dreams, my gran would let me get up and drink some water. It would usually clear my mind and make me feel a little better."

Amber nodded. "But what if we get caught by Victor?"

I considered that for a moment. "Well, seeing as we completely ruined his life's work, he will either be too upset to care or extremely angry and give us toilet duty for two months. Personally, I really don't care if we get caught; I need to get out if this dark, claustrophobic room and have a nice glass of cool water."

Amber nodded again. We both got up and cautiously walked to the door. Even though we didn't care about getting caught by Victor, we still crept slowly through the hall and down the stairs. I mean, you never know, Rufus could be lurking under one of those stairs for all we knew. When Amber and I entered the kitchen, we were surprised to see Fabian, Alfie, Patricia, and Jerome gathered around the island.

"What are you all doing up?" I asked them.

"Probably the same reason you are," replied Jerome. "We're all freaked out!"

I nodded, and so did Amber for the third time.

"I'm really scared." Amber said in whisper that was barely audible. Alfie immediately went over to her and put his arms around her. I saw a tear run down Amber's cheek. She seemed to be the most affected by this, probably because she did almost have a deadly bug shoved down her ear by Rufus. I looked around and saw that Patricia was wrapped in Jerome's arms for comfort as well. Noticing me watching the others, Fabian came and pulled me into a hug. I felt safer, but when I looked up into Fabian's eyes, I saw a hint of fear and pain. That's when I realized it was all my fault. I was the Chosen One, and I roped them into danger. I was the reason for the events that occurred; if there hadn't been a Sibuna, Fabian, Amber, Patricia, Alfie, and Jerome would be sound asleep having nightmares about the Solar System, losing their credit card, having to wear pink, alien invasions, or pranks gone wrong. If there hadn't been a Sibuna, my friends wouldn't be scared out of their wits, too afraid to close their eyes, too afraid to be alone, too afraid to be themselves.

"Nina, what's wrong?" Fabian questioned me. I didn't realize that I was crying.

I couldn't answer. All these emotions seemed to hit me at once, making me unable to speak.

"It's my fault," I managed to choke out.

"What are you going on about?" Patricia asked.

I took a deep breath. "I should have done this on my own. I'm the Chosen One, and I led into this horrible experience that has ruined your lives!"

"No, don't talk like that! Nina, we all knew the risks, and we were all prepared to take the chances!" Fabian told me.

"Yeah, and the experience wasn't completely horrible," Alfie spoke up. "I mean, honestly, how many people can say they were confronted with an immortality obsessed maniac threatening us with deadly, zappy bugs and live to tell the tale?"

Everyone glared at Alfie.

"Sorry, just trying to diffuse the tension." He said quickly. (If anyone can tell me in a review what that line was from and who said it, then the next chapter will be dedicated to you! Hint: It's from a movie.) I tried to smile, but I just couldn't get myself to.

"It's okay, mate," Jerome stated, before directing his attention back over to me. "And Nina, it's not your fault for what happened. If it's anyone's fault, it's mine. I became Rufus's little spy and led him to you guys!"

"No!" yelled Patricia. "We would never have had to deal with Rufus in the first place if I hadn't trusted him to begin with. I let him get close to me!"

"Okay, that's enough!" shouted Fabian. "Stop playing the blame game! It's not going to help the situation!"

Everyone got very quiet. Fabian was right.

"Blaming ourselves only creates guilt among the fear we are already feeling." That comment came from Amber, who up until now, was silently in Alfie's arms. We stared at her. "If Rufus hadn't gotten to Patricia or Jerome, he would have found other ways. We can't beat ourselves up over this. Please, I don't want to fight."

A silence lingered in the air. That was the deepest thing Amber has ever said, and it really made us all think. The last thing we need right now was to fight. We needed to stick together if we were going to heal from this experience. We need each other more than ever…

A/N Yeah, this chapter was a little depressing. This was how I imagined I would feel after being confronted by Rufus. I will try to update soon, but my grandma is coming for a visit tomorrow and she will be with my family for about a week... hopefully that won't affect my ability to update! And... oh yeah, please review! Tell me what you thought of the beginning of the sequel! :)