Hey it's Hailey! Just wanted to add a disclaimer: I don't own the show, the characters, the mystery, Sibuna, the songs, or whatever real life things I mentioned.
"Who's there?" he asked, clearly scared and looking as if he was going to pee his pants any minute.
"Relax- it's just me. Hailey", I reassured him.
"Hailey what are you doing here? Leave now!" Jerome whisper-yelled, but then we heard footsteps as Victor and a bunch of other people entered. As they came down the stairs, I shrugged and leaned back as if to stay there but Nina motioned me over. I quickly crawled over and sat next to Amber. I quickly peeked out, to see Victor and the teachers putting on robes. Then they started chanting as someone put on some type of dog mask. No-it was a jackal. Anubis, the god, had the head of a jackal and the body of a human. So it was most likely a jackal. I took out my IPhone Dad gave me when he dumped me here and videotaped it. I set it in the corner, so I could still see what's going on but they couldn't see the phone.
"Good idea", Nina whispered as quiet as ever. I gave a small nod and continued to watch. They started chanting and Victor drank something out of a skull. As I saw the skull, my head felt as if thousands of explosions were going off and I was blasted into a vision. The person whose skull it was was an Ancient Egyptian. They were walking into an empty pyramid and praying to the Egyptian god Anubis. I couldn't hear what it was, but suddenly he was ambushed by a bunch of warriors. They took him to their leader I guess and he was burned alive. I suddenly was blasted back to the present. My head was clutched in my hands and my teeth were clenched. They were all looking at me as if I was crazy, but they also looked really worried.
"Are you okay?" Amber asked, her eyes widened in a childish, innocent type of way.
"I'm fine", I mouthed, going back to watching the teachers and hoping everyone just forgot what happened. The teachers all drank out of the skull, and I had to turn away. Seeing the skull just made my head hurt extremely bad. Finally, at around 2:30 it was over. Everyone went to their room, dragging their feet on the grounds tiredly. Just as I crawled into my bed, Nina and Amber came over and sat on my bed.
"Why did you follow us into the cellar?" Nina demanded angrily.
"I was curious. I've heard you guys talking about some cup, something about a thing called Ankh, the chosen one, and some guy named Rufus trying to kill my brother. I thought I'd find my answers by going down to the cellar", I explained, my voice sort of scratchy as I was struggling to keep my eyes open.
"What happened? When Victor drank out of the skull, you looked like something stabbed your brain", Nina asked. I pretended to be asleep, and Amber comfortingly stroked my hair.
"Let her sleep Nina. She's still really young, and it's late. Even I'm tired", she said, yawning. They got off my bed, and I actually fell asleep as both of them drifted off to sleep. I woke up feeling really tired at 6. I opened up my laptop, and downloaded the video off my phone onto my laptop. I plugged in my earphones and watched it again. I opened up a certain program I used for video editing all the time. I decreased the whispers of all of us and increased the volume of the teachers' voices. I took off the static-y sound it was giving off, and listened to what the teachers were saying. It was some Egyptian chant. Nina and Amber woke up half an hour later after I finished editing all the stuff so it had good video quality and it was really easy to watch and understand. I motioned them over handed them the earphones.
"What's this?" Nina asked.
"The video from last night. I fixed it up so now we can hear it all properly and stuff", I explained as they slowly put the earphones in their ears. I replayed the video from the beginning and they watched intently.
"Thanks. Is it alright if we borrow the computer to show this to Fabian, Patricia, Jerome, and Alfie?" Nina asked.
"Sure".
"What happened last night? To your head? When you saw Victor drinking out of the skull, what happened?" Amber inquired, her blue eyes wide with curiosity.
"I-I just got a headache", I lied. "Are you guys gonna tell me what's going on now?"
Nina looked extremely conflicted. "We'll talk about this later. Meet us in here after breakfast". We all exhaustedly dragged ourselves down the wooden steps, lazily plopping down into the chairs. But as soon as the scent of freshly made pancakes hit our nostrils, our eyes widened and we sat rigidly. Trudy quickly sauntered in, placing the blue platter full of pancakes in the center. Everyone paused, waiting for Alfie and Jerome to finish attacking the plate like rogue dogs before taking one. I took two, lightly pouring the sweet maple syrup over them. I quickly finished, chugging down my milk before carrying the plate, glass, and silverware to the kitchen and washing it. Nina, Amber, Fabian, Patricia, Alfie, and Jerome soon followed. We all quickly ran upstairs, our energy revived by the sugary sweet pancakes. I sat down in between Nina and Amber as everyone formed a circle on the floor.
"Are you guys gonna tell me now?" I pleaded.
"We can't have another person in danger!" Nina looked conflicted.
"She'll just try to find out if we don't tell her. Either way, she'll be in danger", Fabian butted in.
"Well- it depends. Can you keep a secret?" Nina asked. I gave a sure and confident nod. "You swear not to tell anyone?"
"Never in my life would I tell", I assured.
"Yes! This means another initiation ceremony!" Amber squealed.
"Damn!" Jerome yelled, angrily stomping out and slamming the door.
"You can only be in if you tell us what happened to make Jerome hate you so much", Patricia said.
I hesitated, and then painfully choked out "Our mum...she died when she was giving birth to me. It's-it's my fault she's dead. Jerome's right. It's all my fault. But if I could have it any other way, I would have chosen not to be born".
There was a silence as they all gave me looks of sadness and pity. Especially Nina. She came over and put a hand on my shoulder.
"Nina- you wanna tell her what's going on", Alfie asked. For once even he was serious.
So she explained to me, all about Joy, Rufus, and the cup. When she told me about the elixir and the teachers, it all made sense. The black mist around them, how they should be dead. They cheated death by taking the elixir. It all made sense, finally!
"So this Rufus guy, he's been sending you text messages yeah?" I asked, a devious grin appearing on my face.
"Yeah", Patricia said warily. I got up and grabbed my laptop, opening up a certain application I made.
"Can I see his number?" I asked. She gave another wary nod before handing me the phone. Once I found the number, I entered it in. I spent at least three minutes breaking down the firewall until I hacked it.
"What are you-" Amber began.
"Wait a second", I cut her off. I sent in a small virus to break through his passwords and yes! I was in. I motioned for them all to come around. I now had the main menu of Rufus's phone. I went into memory, and after a few more code breaking and viruses, I managed to install an undetectable virus that would give me his location at all times. Seeing there confused faces, I explained. "I installed a small undetectable virus on Rufus's phone. Now we can track him at all times".
"That's amazing! How'd you do that?" Alfie asked.
"I made this program where I can hack into a persons phone, and I figured out how to do GPS tracking on it". They all looked at me as if I was a lunatic. Seeing their looks, I asked, "What?"
"You're barely twelve and you can hack into a cell phone?" Fabian looked shocked. I gave a small nod.
"Where is Rufus now?" Patricia asked.
"He's in a grocery store", I looked at the charge from his credit card that got sent onto his phone. "He bought a pound of apples, a gallon of Lactaid-free milk, and a packet of chocolate chip cookies", I added. They gave that 'you're crazy' look again, but I shrugged it off. "I can track him on my cell too, so if you guys ever wanna know...", I trailed off.
"That's awesome! Thank you so much!" Nina gratefully thanked me. "Alright guys; meet back here after dinner okay?"
"Sibuna", they said, putting a hand over their right eye. Now it was my turn to look really weirded out.
"Oh yeah- our club name is Sibuna. This is our symbol", Amber explained cheerfully, putting her hand over her eye again.
I said,"Sibuna" and copied the motion with a large smile. Everyone but Nina and Fabian walked out. As I was about to leave, the shut the door, trapping me inside.
"What really happened last night? I know it wasn't just a headache", Nina demanded forcefully.
I gave her a short glare before sitting on my bed in defeat. "I promised not to tell your secret- you promise not to tell mine?"
She and Fabian both gave a short yet solemn nod.
"I can- I can see the dead", I mumbled softly, but still loud enough for them to hear.
"What?" they both exclaimed in shock.
"I can see the dead", I repeated with more confidence. But I was scared. Scared as heck. Nobody else in the whole world knows this but me, and I was just terrified of what they'd think. I took a deep breath and continued. "That night in the cellar. When I saw the skull, I saw that person's life. I saw who it was, where they live, all that stuff". Now they looked scared out of their minds.
"How?" Nina breathed shakily after a minute. Fabian remained frozen, his mouth agape with shock. I shrugged.
"Please don't tell. If anyone else finds out- they'll hate me. I finally found somewhere I be- just please don't tell", I begged desperately. Nobody could find out about this ever. Fabian came out of shock, blinking rapidly.
"We won't tell. Right Fabian?" Nina assured me.
"Right", he stretched out, clearly not sure of his answer. Nina shot him a short glare, and then sat next to me and put a comforting arm around my shoulder. I felt tears well up in my eyes, but before they could spill out, I clenched my fist tight enough to hold them in. Fabian awkwardly put a hand on my shoulder in a comforting way.
"It's gonna be okay", Nina murmered.
"Thanks", I said. The corner of her mouth twitched into a small smile and she and Fabian left. I took a deep breath and went outside, only to bump straight into Mara.
"Hailey, hey! I was just coming to tell you! Mr. Winkler assigned a partner project where you have to get to know that person and then act them out. Since he heard about your problems with Jerome...Jerome's your partner".
My eyes widened. "He's gonna be so angry when he hears".
"He already heard". I heard glass crash to the floor. Yep, he knows.
"Thanks Mara", a loud stomping came up, obviously Jerome. He stood in front of me angrily. I crossed my arms and looked up at him. "What?"
"Winkler paired us up for this stupid project", he sneered.
"I know".
"I don't want to work with you".
"I know". He faltered, looked as if he was going to say something, but walked away. I turned my attention back to Mara, who was looking at the screen of her laptop. Her face twisted into an expression of pure horror.
"What?" I asked.
"I'm with Alfie!" she exclaimed. She put her face in her hands. "Ugh".
I couldn't help it- I started laughing. She gave me a playful glare and I laughed even harder. So Mara and I pretty much hung out and joked around the whole day. The next day, I woke up, changed into my uniform, set the table, and read a book while I waited. I was reading this book called 'Gone'. It's really good. The day went by, and finally Mr. Winkler's class came. He told us all to stand up at the side of the room while he read out the partners for the project.
"Hailey and Jerome, Mara and Alfie, Amber and Fabian, and Nina and Mick for Anubis House", he said. He always paired up house members because it's easier to work on projects that way. "You will have this class period to work on it, and then it will be an out of class project". I went and took a seat next to Jerome as Mr. Winkler handed out the paper of questions we're supposed to ask.
"You wanna ask first? Or should I?" I asked him.
"I'll ask first. Full name?"
"Hailey Alex Clarke".
"Date of birth?"
"October 31 1998".
"Favorite color or colors?"
"Gray, black, purple, neon blue, and red".
We continued with questions like those for a while. Right as we got into the more emotional questions, class ended. "Do you wanna work on the project after school?" I asked.
"6:00 in my room", he answered, avoiding my gaze, as he slung his bag over his shoulder and walked out. After school, I ran back to my dorm. I changed into tight dark blue skinny jeans and a black t-shirt with a purple tiger face on it. I swapped the lame school shoes for a pair of black converse high tops. I sat on my bed and completed my homework. I went downstairs and turned on the TV, and the news was on. Nina and Fabian settled beside me, watching the flames flicker across the screen.
"A fire is now currently spreading through the abandoned Timmy's Ice Cream Factory. No signs of life- wait. I've just received word that many stray animals have made their home inside this place" the bleach-blonde news lady said. My eyes widened.
"No", I whispered. I ran out the door as fast as possible. I saw the flames. The factory was only a mile away. I took a deep breath and started running as fast as I could. As soon as I felt myself slow down, I jabbed my fingernails into my wrist, which made me keep running. My feet pounded against the rough ground as I took a shortcut through the forest. Animals were fleeing past me, hoping the fire wouldn't come. I skidded to a stop as I arrived. News crews were surrounding the fire, giving their reports. Firemen were trying, to no avail, to douse the fire with their large spray guns. I crawled to the back of the building, and saw a long ladder. I took a deep breath and started climbing. The hot metal sent a burning sensation up my hands, but I just keep climbing. I took my fist and smashed open a window. Glass shards stuck in my hand. I swung my feet in and once I felt solid ground I came all the way through. Flames on the bottom floor were halfway through coming. I was in the middle floor, number 15. I saw a small cat in the corner. I crouched down and crept up to the gray tabby. I held out my hands and grabbed the cat. It started screeching and clawed me. My arms were bloody and red, covered with scratches. My left arm wrapped around it's belly while my right arms held it's paws. I went to the window that all the media was looking through. I smashed it open and yelled to the firemen. Once they saw me and the cat, they started yelling like crazy. They put out something that looks like a cushion for me and the cat. I threw down the cat and ran to the next floor. No animals there. Wait- a small little kitty. It was white with orange and black patches. It's ear was torn off. I smashed open the other window and threw the kitty out. I encountered many dogs and cats, throwing them down to safety. I finally reached the top floor. The fire was gaining on me fast. A large, fat black lab was huddled into the corner, whining. My heart broke when I saw her. She was the biggest dog I've seen. I didn't know how to get her down without hurting her. I crawled up to her and gave her a large hug.
"How are we gonna get you down sweetie?" I asked. She looked up at me with large brown eyes, and my eyes filled with tears. I picked her up; she weighed about 78 pounds. My arms strained from the weight, causing more blood to flow. She licked my face quickly. I kicked the window open. The flames were right behind me. The only way for me to get out alive was to leave this dog behind. No, I'd never do it. The firemen were too busy tending to the animals to see me. The only way to get out was to run through the flames. I took a deep breath. God. If there was such a thing as God, please listen to me. I want Dad to be happy, Jerome to forgive me and be happy, and all my friends to have a good, happy life, and for their safety. I ripped off the sleeves of my shirt. I rolled up one and put it in my mouth. The other I rolled up and put in the dogs mouth. And then I ran through the flames.
