All of Sibuna wished they could say something to Roser, who sat in Rock's chair, even though there was a chair on the opposite end, about her massive betrayal, but with Mara and Mick in the dark about the situation, saying something could prove a mistake. The newcomer looked oblivious as to the death glares Patricia was shooting her from across the table, paired with suspicious glances from Alfie, Amber and Fabian, who was on the receiving end of a sympathetic look from Nina for his taking responsibility for the whole fiasco, while Jerome only looked up every now and again with his eyes, but clearly jarred by everything that had happened. But, all the while, amidst the stares and glowering, Roser picked at her food, humming to herself and smiling as if nothing had happened. Mick looked awkward in the tension and Mara could feel it, but was too busy worrying about her friend in the hospital. They all had one question on their minds; how had it happened that the entire house was now turned into a silent madhouse of danger and lunacy?

"Would you stop humming that ridiculous song?" Jerome snapped at Roser, who looked up and gave him sad eyes, clearly hoping he would feel sorry and comfort her, like he would've done with Rock, but not this one. Jerome had officially taken back his comment from earlier, when he'd said she was a female Alfie, as Rock had demanded he do, but instead replaced it with a new one; she was dumb as a doornail. Instead of apologizing to her for his question, he gave her a coaxing look as if to say, 'yes, that's what I said.' Next to him, Mara finally stood up, breaking the long silence, and picked up her plate, motioning to Mick for him to follow her and help her with the dishes in the kitchen. Patricia looked over to make sure they couldn't hear anything at the table, before returning to her death glare.

"Traitor," she hissed. Roser looked up, faking surprise.

"I'm the traitor? What about you?" she asked.

"What are you going on about?"

"How you stole that cup from Rufus Zeno? I know all about that. You shouldn't steal. It isn't right." The only person who didn't scoff at this was Jerome.

"We stole the cup from Rufus? He never had the cup," Nina put in.

"Really? Because he told me he did." It irritated everyone that she sounded so matter-of-fact, like she knew she was going to win this argument, but she wasn't—not if Sibuna had a thing to do about it.

"Whatever you say, but you should know that if you take that cup and give it to Rufus, he's just going to kill people and try to take over the world."

"Yeah, right. He wouldn't do that. He seemed like a perfectly nice guy."

"Right," Patricia said. "That's how he seemed to me, too, and Jerome, until he kidnapped me and locked me in a warehouse. Oh, not to mention he threatened to mummify Jerome alive."

"What are you talking about? He wouldn't ever do that."

"You're just an idiot, not worth our time," Jerome said, standing up and leaving the room. Everybody knew how much nerve it had taken him to let that go, to let her sit there pain-free and victorious as Rock laid in a hospital bed with an oxygen mask. "Unfair."

Everyone, except Jerome who was not there, looked up as Trudy walked in, followed by Nurse Delia, the nurse who had tended to Alfie when he was in the hospital.

"Nurse Delia!" Alfie said, smiling. "Where's Rock? Is she alright?"

"Ah, well, sadly, she didn't make it through last night," Delia said ruefully. Everybody's faces fell and they didn't know what to say. That was when another person entered the room.

"Nurse Delia, come on. You've had your fun. Just leave them alone," Rock said, standing in the doorway.

"Nurse Delia!" Alfie called. It was followed by other jeers and comments. Delia smiled and waved, triumphantly, offering a winning smirk to Alfie, as she backed out of the room and left.

"You both scared us! What's wrong with you?" Mara said, looking up from the couch. Rock smirked.

"Yeah, I know. I don't think I'm going to make it… through the night!" she groaned dramatically, pointedly falling onto the couch, so that her legs were laying on Mara's lap and her head on Patricia's.

"Oh, come on. Get up, you drama queen. You're worse than Amber," Patricia teased. Rock put her hands up to her throat and made a choking noise, pretending she couldn't breathe. Mara smacked her arm playfully.

"Ow, be nice," Rock said sitting up and putting her feet on the floor.

"Whatever," Patricia smiled. "Go find your boyfriend." Rock rolled her eyes and made her way to Jerome's room, making a point to drag her feet as if she were having trouble walking. Everybody laughed. "Get out of here!" Rock was about to walk into Jerome's room, when she made a spur of the moment decision. He hadn't been in the room when Nurse Delia had played that prank on them all. She cleared her throat and put on her best imitation of Patricia.

"Jerome, get out here, we have some bad news! It's about Rock!" she shouted through the door. Obviously her voice was a good imitation of someone, because the door flew open to reveal a worried looking Jerome. She stifled a laugh as his expression changed to shock.

"What is wrong with you?" he asked angrily, but even Rock could see the smile in his eyes.

"Yeah, I got asked the same thing when I did that to everyone else out there," she said. He smiled.

"You're turning into me," he said.

"No, you're worse. Much, much worse. Can I come in, or are you going to make me stand in the hallway? I just got out of the hospital." He moved out of her way and the two walked inside. He closed the door.

"So, are you going to live?" he asked her playfully.

"Possibly, maybe not."

"How long are you going to milk the 'I just got out of the hospital' bit?"

"…Until people stop believing me." He leered at her, and then there was silence. "So you were right about Roser," she said, her voice returning to seriousness. He looked at her, sitting on his bed while he randomly stood next to the door.

"Yeah."

"What are we going to do about her?"

"Well… that's just it, we can't really do anything. I wish we could, I mean I really wish we could, but the only ones who know about Rufus are you, me, Nina, Fabian, Patricia, Amber and Alfie."

"Yeah… and Victor."

"Are you saying you want to tell Victor?"

"I… just don't know. We have a turncoat in the house, who is clearly spying for Rufus. It's not safe. Victor hates Rufus as much as we do. Why don't we tell him Rufus is back and that he tried to kill me? I mean, we don't have to tell him about the new clues or the new search. We don't have to say a thing about the elixir or the cup. He knows we know about Rufus, so we should tell him to be safe… Or maybe we should tell another teacher. I just think it's a bad idea to let Roser just go on like nothing's happened."

"Yeah, she's so stupid she thinks Rufus is the good guy."

"I know. She stole my phone. That's how she got in touch with him. I know that's how. I was wondering who answered him when he called and it wasn't me, so it must have been her when I left the room with Amber."

"Well, if you tell, I won't be upset, but you really need to think about what you say. We can't risk being caught by the teachers."

"I would definitely be careful. You know that."

Rock was just sitting on her bed, peacefully trying to read her book—trying, trying really hard! That was when Mara barged in; looking determined to find something out. Rock looked to see if Roser was in the room, only because she irritated her and she didn't want her intruding on the conversation.

"Hey, Mara," Rock said, casually.

"Rock," Mara replied, leaving off the 'hey.' Rock waited for her to continue.

"Um… What's up?" she asked finally.

"What's up? What's up? What's up is that I know Fabian isn't the one who choked you and I know you're hiding something from me and I know that Patricia, Jerome, Fabian, Nina, Amber, Alfie, and goodness forbid, Mick probably know whatever you know too."

"Mick doesn't know," Rock blurted. Rock gasped a little realizing what she'd just said.

"Doesn't know about what?" Rock's mouth moved but no words came out. Abruptly, she threw the book on the bed and stood up, pushing past the fuming Mara and running out of the room. She ran into the living room, making the Sibuna signal with her hand and hoping that everyone, except Mick would catch on.

"Nina's room, now," she hissed quietly. Mick, at the table, remained oblivious. The group ran out of the room and up the stairs. Trudy called after them asking what they were doing, but they didn't respond. They just continued running and finally made it to Nina's room where Rock shut the door with a sense of urgency.

"What's going on?" Nina asked. Rock looked stiff.

"Mara's suspicious. Now, I don't know if that's a big deal or not, but she knows we're hiding something and she is determined to find out what it is." Sibuna exchanged looks of concern.

"What else does she know?"

"Well, she said she knows that Fabian isn't the one that choked me and that I'm hiding something, that we're all hiding something. Then she said she hoped Mick didn't know about it so I accidentally said that Mick didn't know and now she definitely knows, and—" There was a knock on the door.

"Rock, open this door now. I know you're in there!" Mara's voice called. Rock shut her eyes repentantly.

"No, I'm not," she called back stupidly, looking worried. Nina slapped her forehead with her palm and held it there. Fabian put his head in his hands.

"What?" Alfie mouthed to her. She shrugged quickly and made a 'my bad' face. Jerome ran his fingers through his hair.

"Patricia, how good is Mara at keeping secrets?" Nina asked.

"She can keep a secret if it's really important," Patricia said, looking slightly like she was just guessing. Nina didn't want to include Mara, it was obviously dangerous, but she knew that now Mara was never going to leave them alone.

"I'm sorry," Rock sighed dejectedly, sitting on the bed. Nina rolled her eyes, knowing it wasn't Rock's total fault, and walked over to open the door. Mara came walking in like a woman-on-a-mission. Nina closed the door behind her.

"I want to know what's going on," she commanded.

"Fine," Nina said. "We'll tell you."

"An elixir of life?" Mara asked. "That's ridiculous."

"You don't believe us," Patricia said. Mara looked at all of the faces in the room.

"No, I believe you. Jerome and Alfie's presence is making it hard but I believe you. It just sounds ridiculous. I mean, I always knew Victor was creepy but… that's just weird." Everyone nodded. Well, Rock still looked sad, but, everyone had forgiven her. After all, they knew that Mara's brains would be helpful in solving the mystery. "…And this man who choked Rock, he's after this elixir?"

"Yes, which is why we have to keep this a secret. If he gets it, there's no way to tell what he'll do."

"Well, if this new girl is on his side, don't you think you should tell Victor, or Mr. Sweet?"

"We should but, what if she tells him about everything we've found?"

"She doesn't know anything more than the fact that we have the cup," Rock said. "And I thought the teachers already knew that."

"She's right… telling them wouldn't be so bad."

"Let me go talk to Mr. Sweet then." Everyone looked at Rock, who was standing there looking hopeful. "He might not go straight to Victor, and I really think they should know that someone inside the house is working for their enemy and trying to kill their students."