Chapter 3; Part 1

"I can't believe it," PAtricia let out after I told my tale of the newly uncovered passage.

Every one just stared down at there hands dwelling on the story in their minds.

I rubbed my neck with my hand, "Scary doesn't even begin to describe it. And right now, it's the only thing on my mind... all the time." My heart was still pounding rapidly in my chest even after a day. She was still inside of me, listening and controlling me.

"Nina," Amber started, staring down with wide-eyes. "What's on your wrists? Is that a tattoo?"

"It ingraved it on my wrists when it happened. When she came. It says 'freedom'. " I explained, studing my new tattoos and rolling down my long sleeves so they would be hidden.

Patricia glanced at them and then back up to me. "What was the riddle that you said aloud before... you know?" she asked. Everyone avoided reminding me of what had happened but that did not stop my mind from thinking about her.

"The woman who evil trembles before lies behind these doors. The hot desert wind are caused by her breath and but her power will be put to the test by the one who releases her from her rest." I recited from memory, scared of what might happen if I repeated them. Luckily, nothing did happen, giving me a brief moment to relax.

"I'm going to do some research on that." Fabian stated, with determination as he grabbed his laptop.

"Do you think it has to do with the dream that you had before?" Fabian asked, as all of Sibuna looked at me inquistively. The only person who had known about the dream was Fabain; I didn't share want everyone to know about it so they wouldn't worry. But I guess it was too late for that; we all did not sleep the night before.

"Maybe," I let out, with a slight shrug. "But I just want it off my mind right now. To just relax after what I went through last night."

Once, the Sibuna meeting was dismissed and I walked out with a still babbled face. Quickly, I slipped a light jacket over my shoulders and walked out the door, unnoticed.

To escape my thoughts I knew of one place to go; my secret hide out almost. Fabian and I had uncovered this somewhat magical place when we ventured out into the woods one day on a date. As we walked off of the trails, we approached a child's old treehouse. There was a sense of happiness within it's faded colors, and shaky structure.

I sat in it for hours on end, without any distractions. I stared out blankly, as my head took me to different thoughts randomly. Suddenly, arousing me from my peacefulness, my phone buzzed beside me.

Immediately, I reached for my iPhone. "Three new texts from Fabian. Two new texts from Amber. A new text from PAtricia. New text from Jerome." They all stated how worried they were, where are you's and Trudy's worried.

I moaned, set down my phone again, ignoring their questions, and returned to my state of emptiness.

"Thinking?" a voice woke me. The peacefulness around me had suddenly disappeared.

"OH! You- Fabian! You scared me, Fabian! I thought-" I shouted, as it echoed through the emptiness of the woods.

"I figured you'd be here." he added, interrupting me. His hands were stuck in his pockets and he stared out at the beautifulness of the woods.

I climbed down to be with him, and apoligized as I bit my lip, "I just needed to clear my head. I'm sorry if everyone was worried about me."

He held me close and put his arms around my shoulder and consoled, "I understand. I can't even imagine what it was like. But your life hasn't been exactly normal since the Chosen Hour."

"Tell everyone I'll come back later. I'm just going to walk around for another hour or something." I sighed, with a monotone voice.

Fabian locked eyes with me, and scolded, his voice switch to sternness, "Nina, you can't just walk off your fears. Walking in the woods is not going to change anything that's happened to you."

"I- I just want to be away from the rest of the world for a while. So... just leave me alone, Fabain." I retorted as I strutted off on the dirt paths.

Fabian quickly grabbed my hand, stopping me from running away. "Nina, I'll never leave you alone. No matter what."

My mind traced back to my dream from the earlier in the school year when those familiar words were whispered in to my ears. And along with them, the shadow around me said "He's dead." If the he was Fabain,... my heart would slowly be eaten by guilt and sorrow and pain. I could not let this happen to him; not because of me.

"No. No. No." I shouted as I pulled my hand away. "This can't happen. I can't let you go. I just can't." He stared at me with blank eyes and I could see how many questions were formign in hsi head.

Once I struggled my way out of his grip, I sprinted off. As far as I could go taking a few glances back.

"Nina! Nina!" he called to me as I heard him faintly. "I love you... Nina!"

Tears ran down my cheeks intensely. I truly was in love him, and I could not deny that. But if saying I loved him too put his life on the line, I would have to kill myself too.

I would not let all those words from my dream be put in to reality. I could not put any one of my friends, especially Fabian, at that level of danger.

"He's dead." The voice echoed inside my head. They repeated on and on. "He's dead. He's dead. He's dead." The voice tried to destroy me and at that moment, I thought it had.

If I lost Fabian, I would die as my heart would be eaten up inside of me.

Chapter 3; Part 2

After running for three more hours in the woods, I finally returned back to Anubis House. I shut the door carefully, trying not making a sound.

I glanced down at my watch which read 11:30.

"Where were you?" Eddie's voice suddenly said with ease, causing my heart to pound.

"Why are you still up?" I turned the interogation around on him as I stepped in to the living room where Eddie sat with a book in hand and his feet casually on the couch.

"Reading," he answered, simply. "Now, where were you all night?"

"I was just...running. That's all." I lied through my teeth with my not-so-clever response. For an avid liar, I am certainly not a good one!

"Nina, I must tell you. You are a terrible liar. Tell me the real truth." he snickered with his sly smirk.

"I am not lying!" I replied, in a high pitched voice, as I tried to recover from my fall but ended up on the ground again.

He smirked, "I'm not stupid, you know."

I raised my eyebrow, "I never said you were,Eddie."

"Yeah, but I know a lot more than you think. You don't think I've heard about your dreams, and whatever is beheanth the house and the doll house and this 'Sibuna' thing."

I stared at him astonsihed and then let out a soft wow. How could he have known? How had he figured it out? "Not even the smartest girl in the school figured it out." I laughed, avoiding the real subject.

"Nina, tell me. What's beneath the house? What the hell is Sibuna? Just tell me everything." he interrogated, strongly and firmly, squeezing the truth from within me.

"Well, this will take a while. It began last year..." I started the introductrocution to what proved to be the most wonderful underd-dog story ever told! And also, a happy ending with prom!

"So now a... spirit is possessing you that you released in the secret passage? That's really...freaky." Eddie said, babbled as he tried to comprehend all the infomation he had been given.

After silence he added, "That was not in the acceptance letter." I laughed quietly so that I would not wake Victor.

"So what's Sibuna?" he asked, curious mindly.

"Anubis, backwards." I explained, rather simply.

His eyebrow suddenly raised high on his forehead at the stupid idea. "It was Amber's idea." I quickly tacted on, and he let out an "Oh".

"So, are you going to help us?" I proposed, with a smile.

"Well..." he hesitated for the moment. "I like mystery movies. And it sound like the most intersting thing I'm going to have all year so... why not." This ended up being Eddie's orientation to the Sibuna Club.

"Sibuna!" we both exclaimed while covering our eyes as I hoped inside that eddie would be trustworthy enough to share to secret.