"What do you mean, gone?" I asked gently. "Gone as in passed?"

"I do not know," Victor said, a tinge of panic in his voice.

I glanced around. "Stop doing that!" Victor yelled.

I jumped. "I'm sorry," I said. "This just feels...wrong...without Rufus here."

"He is not in charge of you, you know," Victor said, his worry making him irritable. "You are allowed to come see me whenever you want. The way you obey him is almost disgusting."

"You are in no position to lecture me about anything," I pointed out. "Ever. Now, when did you last see your father?"

He stared at the stuffed crocodile that was perched on the wooden table. "Three days ago. I woke up, and he had simply disappeared. The car was still here. I fear that he may have been kidnapped."

"Was there anything strange going on?" I asked. "Did you notice anything odd?"

"He was preoccupied with another project," Victor said. "One that did not require you. The mask in the tunnels below the house. I think he may be trapped there, but I cannot find the entrance." His voice broke. "I have not slept since he disappeared." He stood up and went to the kitchen, bringing back a small mountain of ancient parchments. "I cannot decipher them," he strained. "The words swim. I translate one correctly, then attempt the others and they make no sense. There is something missing, some clue that has not yet been revealed to me, but I cannot seem to find that either. What can I do? Should I simply give up? Is it really such a bad thing to surrender to what you know to be fate? Does trying or not trying make a difference?"

I did not answer.

I imagined Mr. Rodenmaar entombed in the tunnels below, buried alive. I did not pity him. Did that make me callous? I did not think so. If I was, then Mr. Rodenmaar had made me that way.

"Why call me in secrecy?" I demanded, instead of answering his rhetorical questions. "You must realize that I will not keep anything from Rufus."

Victor's lips curled at the mention of Rufus' name. "I do not trust him."

"I do not trust you."

"No one does," Victor said. "You have no idea how freeing that is, do you? I have no responsibility to anyone. I can do what they ask, or betray them, and they don't think any worse of me for it, because they already think the worst they can. When everyone hates you and you don't care, you realize how strong you are. You, on the other hand, cannot know for sure what you can endure."

"My parents..." I began, fuming.

"Not that sort of pain," he said. "They didn't die because they didn't want you, or didn't love you. My father didn't care enough to leave anything behind." He said this so dispassionately, as if he did not pity himself at all. "You don't know what that is like. You are a tragic figure, not a hated one. And tragedy is always endurable, but hate, for some, is not."

His philosophizing was unsettling.

"I have to go," I said. "Rufus is waiting for me." I turned quickly before I could see his lips curl again. I hurried out of Anubis House, feeling Victor's eyes watching me from the windows. Just before I turned the corner that hid the house from my view, it spoke to me again. I am yours.

"You went alone?" Rufus shouted. "Are you daft? Or did that witch house put a spell on you that kicked good sense from your mind?"

"Oh, don't be so dramatic." I dropped my bag in the entryway. Rufus had been waiting for me inside, prowling the corridors like a leopard. "You do realize I've lived there all my life, don't you? What would a few more hours have hurt?"

"May I also remind you that they had never tried to kill you before?" Rufus shot back.

"They weren't trying to kill me directly," I reminded him. "I was just bait, for you."

He steeled his teeth, walking away from me and walking back and then walking away. "I just..." he said. "You can't...you have to trust me."

"And you would've stopped me," I said.

"I would have gone with you," he said. "Mr. Rodenmaar has to realize that he can't fool around with us, play games to split us apart."

"Mr. Rodenmaar won't be a problem," I said. "He's dead."

I explained to Rufus what Victor had told me. "So Victor knows for sure that his father is dead?" Rufus asked confusedly.

"Not Victor," I said. "The house."

At the mention of the house speaking, Rufus paled. "Don't speak of such things," he said. "You don't know what you're talking about."

I decided it was better not to breach that particular subject at the moment. "You know what this means, don't you?" Rufus asked me. "The house is yours again. When you're eighteen, you can return to it, and you'll be safe. Forever."

Forever is a long and very non-eternal period of time.

I was far from safe forever.