Told you I'd update once a day! Hope you like this story. I can't believe that so many people like this story. It means so much to me that you guys actually like this story and have read it. Sorry I'm going on and on with the sappy crap, but that's just how I am. So, I hope you enjoy Chapter ten: House of Spiders (P.S. Can you believe this is chapter ten?)

Chapter ten: House of Spiders

Nina

"I-I s-saw . . . I-I saw . . ." I trailed off, not sure how to continue. Eddie held up a hand, stopping my words.

"Don't," he said. "I think I know. Let's just do the challenge tonight, okay? I think you need to go see a certain geek about an apology."

I smiled up at him, glad he understood. As I rushed out of the tunnel, I knew that whatever Fabian told me, whatever he said, it was nothing compared to what the tunnel had said to me. I found everyone sitting in the common room, watching a movie. Fabian wasn't in there.

"Hey, Neens," Amber said hesitantly, as though she was afraid of what I might do. "Looking for someone?"

"Yeah, I need to tell Fabian something. Have you seen him?"

"I think he's in his room," Alfie said, sitting with his arm around Kelly's shoulder. "He hasn't been out in a while."

I ran out of the room, darting down the hall until I came to his door. What to say, what to say? How could I explain anything? How could I tell him what I needed to tell him? A thought occurred to me, but I banished it as soon as it formed. No, it wasn't an option.

I knocked on the door in a rhythmic pattern; knock knock-knock knock. It was a habit of ours to knock like that when we needed to talk. When Fabian opened the door, I launched myself at him, grabbing him in a hug.

"I'm so sorry! I was stupid and selfish and cruel. I don't deserve you, and I understand if you want to keep the engagement off, but I needed to say that I was sorry and I –" I was cut off by Fabian planting a gentle kiss on my lips.

"Nina, love, its okay. I understand. You needed a little space, and I was demanding that you tell me everything. It's my fault," Fabian said, a smile playing at his lips.

"But it's not your fault. I'm the one keeping secrets that I have no business keeping." I somehow found myself about to tell him everything when I stopped. "I wish I could tell you, but she'll hurt you."

Oops. I hadn't meant to let that slip.

Fabian's eyes widened. "Who?"

Eddie's going to kill me, I thought before I went ahead with my explanation. Instead of actually telling him, I rolled up my right sleeve, displaying the black Jackal on my arm. Fabian needed to know the truth.

Eddie

When everyone left the common room, I made Patricia stay with me. I wanted to spend a little time with her. She sat down beside me, watching me bounce in my seat. I was nervous that she'd find out about Senkarah.

"Eddie?" Patricia said, sitting down next to me. "Are you okay? You seem a little . . . off."

I gave a nervous chuckle. "What do you mean? I'm acting fine, just like normal."

"No, you're not," she stated. Patricia gave me a look of worry. "What's going on?"

"Nothing!" I said a little too quickly. Patricia gave me another look, this one full of suspicion. After a while of begging, pleading, and even threatening, I finally broke down. She deserved to know.

"There's something you don't know," I told her, not sure how to continue.

"What? Are you cheating on me?" Patricia joked. When I didn't say anything, she gave me a horrified look. "You are, aren't you? Oh, god, please tell me you aren't cheating on me." She got up, staring at me.

"What? NO! I'd never cheat on you," I told her. "It's not about our relationship, Patricia." That got her attention. I hardly ever called her Patricia, unless it was serious. Sighing, I rolled up my sleeve, showing my girlfriend the Mark of Anubis on my arm.

"WHAT?!" she screeched. She grabbed my arm, tracing the Jackal mark the ghost left on me. "Is she back?"

I nodded, sighing dejectedly. Patricia shocked me by grabbing me in a hug, almost suffocating me with her worry. I tried to pry her off, but it didn't work. About five minutes later, Fabian and Nina walked in, a stern look on their faces. I was about to ask what was wrong when Nina rolled up her sleeve, revealing the Mark to Patricia.

"Not you too!" she cried, letting me go. I watched in amusement as my girlfriend latched onto my best friend, holding onto her and trying to hold back tears. "How many more?"

"It's just us. But now you guys might get marked," Nina said. "I can't believe we put you two in danger."

Patricia laughed. "You put us in danger? More like we forced ourselves in danger. Fabian begged you for hours to tell him the truth."

Nina let loose a giggle, surprising us all. She was laughing? Was she bipolar or something? I swear, the woman had gone through more emotions in the last two days than most people went through in a week.

After we filled Patricia and Fabian in on the challenges we had gotten past, I walked over to the painting of Frobisher and found the 'silver thread of fate' behind the painting and tugged on it. A semi-loud noise came crashing down from the ceiling, and a large metal spider descended from the roof. I gasped in shock. That was not how I imagined it coming down.

Nina rushed over and pulled the spider from the wires holding it up. She took it to Fabian's and my room, the only room shared by two people who knew about the challenges. When we got in there, he took the spider apart and pulled out three smaller spiders.

"You all remember what we have to do?" Nina asked everyone in the room. We all nodded. This challenge was the only one I remembered form the ones Patricia told me about.

We had to navigate through the multi-colored strings that each had their own dangers. The silver ones felt like a spider bite, the yellow ones messed with our vision and minds, and the red one brought death. Or at least, that's what we thought. No one hadn't actually tested it.

We hurried down to the tunnels and I got my first glimpse at the spider web challenge. Hundreds of colored threads criss-crossed the room, threatening us with their simple looks. My breath caught as Fabian took one of the small spiders and weaved under and around the threads, easily navigating the deadly challenge.

"We've still got our master web walker!" Nina cheered. Fabian laughed, setting the silver spider on the hook. Next it was Patricia's turn.

"Good luck," I whispered, taking her hand and squeezing it.

"I'll be fine," she reassured me, ducking and weaving to get to the yellow hook. Once she got there, she placed it easily on the hook. I felt a shudder run through the room as Nina made her way to the red hook. A panel opened up behind her as she placed the spider on the hook.

After flashing a smile at us, she dove inside just before the panel closed over. I shouted in terror, but everyone else just yelled at me to get to the other end of the room. As best I could, I made my way to the other end, only touching a single silver thread along the way. Ouch.

I placed the spider in the hole in the wall, setting each of the legs in place. When the last one was set with a click, the room shook. I watched in awe as the threads shot to the walls, disappearing into small holes in the walls. The panel where Nina disappeared opened back up, letting us get back to her.

She rushed out, grabbing Fabian in a hug. There was a wild look in her eyes, like she had seen something in there. I wondered what she had seen, but before I could ask, Nina spoke.

"I got scared by the lion head again," she admitted sheepishly. "Its eyes glowed red and I kind of freaked."

"You're okay, love. It's just a mural, nothing more," Fabian said, leading the way to the next challenge. My attention was drawn to the mural on the stone circle. It was of a terrifying lion face, tendrils of its mane drifting outwards to the edge of the circle.

Along the walls of the room, shelves of bottles sat everywhere. As looked at the walls, I noticed black script painting each and every wall. Six phrases were there, all saying something else. I saw that one of them said 'The mourning essence.' What did that mean?

Fabian crossed the room and started reading all of the words written. After that, he went around collecting several glass bottles. Wow, he was such a nerd. He poured equal parts of each substance into the stone circle, watching the solution drain into the pipe leading to the door.

"Stand back," Fabian warned. "This might turn out bad."

He was right. Once the solution reached the door, a red glow surrounded the door. The goo around it exploded in a flash of light. I threw my hand up in front of my face, hiding from the explosion.

When I looked back, the wall fell away, revealing another tunnel. I knew where it led: the room with the four horns placed on a pole. We needed a . . . a . . . Oh, what was it?

Fabian led us through the dark tunnel, leading us to the study. We all took a seat around the room, looking at our resident Egyptologist. Fabian smoothed his dark hair out of his face before he spoke.

"Let's find the ox bell tomorrow. It's almost dinner, and Amber and Kelly want us all to watch a movie tonight," he said.

Nina nodded. "Yeah, and we still have three days to do the rest of the tasks. Let's have fun tonight."

And with everyone agreeing on something for maybe the first time, we walked upstairs to greet the rest of the house.

Okay, so what did you think? Also, I apologize in advance for the next chapter. Since there wasn't all that much Peddie (read: none) since the reunion started, I thought I'd make a filler chapter about them! I'm calling it House of Tears because there's a mention of the only two movies that have made me cry. Thanks for reading!

~C