House of Symbols
The room shook violently. Amber continued to scream. Fabian tried to help Nina who had fallen to the ground. Eddie instinctively grabbed Patricia around the waist with one arm and placed his other on the wall closest to them to steady themselves Alfie and Joy were bent over on all fours trying to crawl towards the doorway.
"Guys!" Nina yelled over the mass commotion. Her necklace was glowing a deep red. It began to rise into the air. And then, as suddenly as it had begun, everything stopped.
"What the.." Eddie said as he leapt back from the wall still holding Patricia. A small rectangular portion of the wall where Eddie's hand had been only moments before slid upwards revealing a hole about the size of a piece of paper. Everyone gathered around the hole as a small shelf slid out of it. On it there appeared to be a carved rock. The rock was about the size of one's fist and was a dark green. It had been carved into the shape of a jackal's head.
"Okay was not expecting that" Eddie muttered.
"I guess this Shen..." Patricia started.
"AHH!" Amber screamed quickly. The crowd of people turned to look at her as she stood bracing herself for another earthquake.
"Sorry I thought it was going to do that every time you said that.. that word."
"Is it just me or is that rock glowing" Alfie commented with confusion. The rock had a deep brown glow surrounding it. Fabian reached forward to remove the stone from its shelf.
"OWWWW" He yelped retracting his hand quickly. He looked down to see a red line burnt across the palm of his hand.
"Did that just burn you?" Nina gasped.
"Wait Eddie, lean over towards the shelf again" Joy said sounding confused. Eddie looked questionable at her but proceeded to take a step closer to the stone. As he did the stones glow changed to a light blue.
"I thought I saw it change." Joy muttered.
"Fabian any explanation for this" Eddie asked hopeful.
"Not a clue" Fabian replied still holding his burnt hand. Eddie reached forward slowly with one hand towards the rock.
"Eddie! What are you doing!" Patricia yelped from beside him.
"What?" He said innocently "It looks... I don't know.. nicer now"
"We don't need two people burnt" Nina replied
"No, Eddie try to grab it" Fabian insisted. Eddie reached forward cautiously and placed his hand above the stone. He started to grasp it waiting for it to burn him. But it didn't. In fact it was cold. He picked it up off the shelf and turned it around in his hands examining it.
"I don't understand, why could he pick it up" Amber asked confused.
"I really have no idea" Fabian said staring at the stone Eddie held.
"Great another mystery, you know I was hoping to have one year without something strange happening" Alfie complained.
"We should head back guys, plus I think it's better this...thing stays down here for now until we figure out what it is." Nina said starting to gather up the mess of food and blankets scattered across the ground. Eddie replaced the stone on the shelf. Immediately upon doing so the shelf retracted into the wall and the hole closed its self.
"How do we open it again?" Joy asked
"I don't know, maybe we just have to say that word again" Fabian replied
"Shen" Joy said. Nothing happened.
"I think Eddie has to say it." Patricia commented.
"Alright. Shen" The door quickly opened and the shelf slid back out of the wall.
"Excellent now that we know how it works, close it again." Amber said as she went to help Nina with the blankets.
Alfie walked into the dining room and saw that everyone else was already seated.
"Mmmm yummy food. Oh how I have missed you Trudy" Alfie commented as he began to dish out food on to his plate.
"Haha oh thanks lovey, now eat up everyone, first day of classes you don't want to be late." She replied with a smile.
"Fabian what happened to your hand!" Mara said taking his burnt hand away from the bowl he had been reaching towards.
" Oh umm… well I was.. I" He looked desperately around at his table members.
"It's my fault" Eddie interjected "I came to get a snack late last night and Fabian came out to tell me to get back to bed, you know, being Fabian and all, and I said fine only if he would grab the plate by the counter. But the plate was to hot and burnt him."
"Well if you didn't want to room with him this year all you had to do was say, no need to burn him." Jerome joked. Everyone laughed and Fabian quickly hid his hand under his napkin.
"What are you all still doing here? Get to class!" Victor yelled as he descended down the stairs.
Victor had finally found something. He had no idea if it would be useful but it was worth asking Jasper about. He stepped through the open door to the Frobisher library and walked over to where Jasper was sorting some papers.
"Ah, Victor, good to see you. Can I help you with anything?"
"Yes actually I was hoping you might be able to tell me about something"
"Oh, and what might that be?"
"I was wondering if you knew anything about a Nebu in relation to Ancient Egypt"
"Ah yes well Nebu often represented gold. Some thought that its color represented the flesh of the gods. If I remember correctly there was a jewel called the Great Nebu which was thought to hold the souls of gods. If used properly the Egyptians believed they could obtain the souls giving them immortality. But they found the Nebu could not work on its own."
"What did it need?"
"I don't believe they ever discovered what the missing component was. But it's useless anyways. The Great Nebu was destroyed ages ago by a pharaoh who believed no one should have the right to its power."
Jerome jogged forward to catch up with Mara. He placed one of his arms around the back of her shoulders.
"Are we still on for dinner tonight?" He asked giving her a quick smile.
"Of course, Poppy wants you to text her when to meet us."
"Poppy? I thought it was going to be just us." He said looking down disappointed.
"I know, I'm sorry. She asked and well.."
"You couldn't say no. I really need to teach you how to have a backbone." He said jokingly.
"Sorry. I promise we will go on a date soon. Just us."
"Fine." Mara leaned up on her toes and kissed his cheek.
Patricia looked up to see Eddie walking towards her. Well actually he was just walking down the hallway. He looked distracted and upset, and didn't seem to see Patricia approaching him.
"What's wrong Junior, upset you have class with your dad again" Patricia said with a smirk.
"Ahh yakker. Actually I was thinking about that rock from last night."
"Oh."
"But thanks for the reminder" Eddie replied sarcastically. The bell rang and Patricia stepped around him to head to class. Eddie grabbed her arm and swung her back around to face him
"Not so fast yakker, what, afraid you'll be late to class" he joked.
"No." She shot back quickly.
"Good. Cause, you know, I thought you might want this back." He said raising his hand to show Patricia's wallet.
"How did you get that! Give it back!" Patricia whined. Eddie turned and started to run down the hallway. Patricia chased after him and followed him outside onto the front lawn. He finally stopped and waited for her to catch up.
"Give it back slimeball. I really should go to class."
"Oh come on it's just French."
"Just because you're good at French doesn't mean we all are."
"Well, you know, I can always help you later." He said with a smirk while taking a step closer to her.
"Ya I have a feeling you wouldn't actually be doing much 'helping' " she said laughing
"Oh well we will just have to see now wont we." Eddie replied with a wide grin.
Fabian pulled Nina aside as they walked out of the classroom.
"Hey I'm going to head down to the tunnels after school. I was going to try to get back to the house as quickly as I could so no one would be around. You want to come with me?"
"Sure, but why are we going back down? Without Eddie we can't even open that shelf."
"I know, but I was going to take a closer look at the walls and see if there was anything there that could have indicated there was a secret hole."
"Alright."
"Alfieeeee" Amber said cheerfully as she walked up behind where he was sitting. "I made you something" she said happily.
"Oh no." Alfie said looking slightly terrified. Jerome laughed from the chair beside him.
"Oh relax, they're only cupcakes. If you don't want them I'm sure I can find someone that does."
"Cupcakes!" Amber bent forward handing him a pink tin.
"And the frosting is made with your favorite chocolate." She said proudly.
"Wow thanks Amber!"
"Wait a second….what's the catch?" Jerome said suspiciously.
"No catch, I felt bad because of all the stuff I made you do last year Alfie."
"I'm sorry what" Alfie said with his mouth full. "I got distracted by these amazeball cupcakes."
"Anddddd I'm taking you to dinner tonight."
"Dinner?" Alfie said questionably.
"Yes. You like food, I like to dress up. See it's a win win." Amber said grinning "just make sure you wear a dark blue tie with a black shirt, and no funny shoes k" She then turned abruptly and left.
"Now that sounds more like Amber." Jerome said laughing
Nina reached up and entered the code to open the secret door to the Frobisher study. Fabian and Nina quickly entered the room as they discussed the English homework
"I think I'm going to do a paper on…..Eddie? What are you doing here?" Nina said stopping.
"I don't know…I just kinda felt like I needed to be here" Eddie said looking slightly unsure. "It's like my brain just said 'Eddie go to the secret study' so here I am…wait why are you guys here?"
"Nina and I were going to go look around the mask chamber for some clues to this whole Shen thing. I thought you only had that voice in your head thing if Nina was in danger?"
"As far as I can see I'm not currently in danger"
"I don't know, I guess I'm sort of supposed to protect this Shen thing to."
"Alright let's get going. We need to be back before someone notices" Nina said as she walked over to the bookcase. The three of them made their way through the tunnels until they reached the mask chamber.
"I realized that most other mysterious objects we have uncovered have had some sort of symbol to indicate there is something hidden there or that it is an object of importance." Fabian said as he walked over to where the wall had opened the night before.
"That is true. The reflectors always had symbols on them" Nina said in agreement.
"Hey look!" Fabian said as he rubbed the dirt off of the wall with his hand. A colorful symbol began to appear from under the dirt.
"It looks like… like a jar?" Eddie commented
"And it has the stone on top of it!" Nina pointed
"Eddie can you…"
"On it. Shen." Eddie muttered. The wall opened and the shelf appeared. Eddie took the stone of the shelf and began to examine it more carefully. He turned the stone upside-down. The bottom of the stone was rounded and flat
"Hey what's that?" Nina said pointing to the left edge of the stone.
"It's just a small black circle. I saw it yesterday too."
"Isn't a circle the symbol of the Shen?" Nina asked
"Ya, and look there is something else next to it." Fabian said pointing to a very faint red symbol.
"Is that..?"
"Ya that's my necklace."
"Nina put your necklace up to the stone" Fabian instructed. Nina took her necklace out from under her shirt and placed it gently on the bottom of the stone. Instantaneously the necklace began to glow a deep red and Eddie became stiff. Nina and Fabian looked up to see Eddie looking forward eyes widened.
"Eddie? Eddie what's wrong!"