So I freaking loved writing this chapter. It made me sooooooo happy and I know it will make a lot of you happy as well. And I have something I need to say. Some of you may have head this but, last night in the House of Anubis general discussion we had an issue with a troll. This person, I will not be giving a name of who it was, said some terrible things about our dear friend Whispering Memories, aka Icy. I won't even repeat what was said about her becasue there were some very inappropriate things said about her. The situtation has been resolved, but I feel the need to say that if any of you ever have a problem with someone being a cybrbully, report them. Like that day. And if you ever have to, hopefully you won't, give as much evidence as possible. Cyberbullies are not welcome here. And let that be a warning to an cyberbullies who are reading this. I, along with many others I know, will not tolerate it and are not afraid to take action about it. That's all I have to sy until my A/N the end of the chapter. I hope you all enjoy chapter 21!

Chapter 21: House of Angst

"Amber, does she ever blink?" Jerome whispered across the table. Turning her head slightly, Amber saw Leto looking at the eight teens. Every few minutes Leto would walk onto the patio and watch them as they sat there. She never said anything, she just watched.

"I'm assuming so," the blonde replied wearily. Realizing what she was thinking, Amber shook her head violently. How could she ever doubt Leto? The woman, as stone faced as she was, had worked for the Millington family for as long as Amber could remember. Her father trusted her, so Amber would as well. Despite her strange behavior the past few days.

Nina noticed that Amber was spacing out so she tapped on the table to bring her friend back to the present. "Sorry," Amber said sheepishly.

"All right, let's get back on topic. After what happened today it's more obvious than ever that someone doesn't want us around," Nina began.

"Are you just realizing this now? After what? Three near death experiences?" Jerome retorted. Before he could say anything else, a look of pain twisted itself onto his face. "What was that for Patricia?" he sneered, glaring at the girl.

"For being annoying. Now shut up and let Nina talk."

"Thank you Patricia. Now, as I was saying, since we don't know when or where these people will try to attack next I think it might be best for us to always travel in groups. We have a better chance that way."

"I agree with Nina," Fabian added.

"Of course you do," Jerome grumbled under his breath. Nina and Fabian glared at him, while their faces turned a growing shade of red.

Alfie, who was sitting next to Jerome turned to look at him and said, "Jerome, what's going on with you tonight? Chill out mate."

"Oh I'm sorry Alfie; I thought that I was allowed to be a little irritable after almost dying." He snapped out the word dying with such force that it caused Alfie to reel back in surprise. "You know what? Forget this. I'm out of here. Have fun with your little meeting." Jerome stood up from the table and stormed inside the house.

Nobody was sure how to respond to that. "Should someone go like, talk to him?" Mick asked. "To make sure he doesn't do anything stupid that could get him killed?"

"Mara you go," Alfie suggested. "I don't think he could get mad at you if he wanted to."

"Oh I don't know about that," Mara stated, "but I'll try anyways. You all keep talking. I'll see if I can get him to come back out." With one last look at her friends, Mara crossed through the doorway and began to search for Jerome. He wasn't in the living room, the kitchen, the library, or anywhere on the first floor for that matter.

Having a good guess of where Jerome was Mara ran up the stairs two at a time. When she reached his bedroom door there was no sound coming from the other side of it. With a slight tap to announce that she was there, Mara pushed the door open and slipped inside. There were no lights on in the room, so the only way to see was the pale glow of the moon that shone through the window.

Standing in front of it was the lone figure of Jerome. He didn't even turn around as Mara crossed the room and went to stand next to him. "They told you to come up here didn't they?" he finally said. His eyes didn't waver from the view outside the window.

"Yes."

"Well you might as well go back downstairs and tell them I'm not coming down."

"Jerome, please just talk to me. What's wrong?" Mara pleaded. She lightly placed her hand on his arm, but he pulled away at her touch. "Jerome."

Tearing his eyes away from the window Jerome looked down at Mara. The look on her face surprised him. It wasn't annoyance like he thought it was going to be. It was fear. "I don't want to talk about it Mara." He was trying to push her away, to get her to leave him alone, but he knew better. He knew that it wouldn't work. Not on her.

Mara didn't say anything to him. She just looked at him. Jerome felt himself getting lost in her big, brown eyes. There was something comforting about her eyes, like the eyes of someone he once knew. Like someone he once loved, a long time ago. "What won't you tell us?" Mara finally whispered. "Jerome, you can tell me anything. You know you can. We're friends."

He couldn't look at her. The very sight of her made him want to unlock the door to his heart. He wanted to tell her, but he just couldn't. He told himself years ago that he would never admit it to anyone. But now it was getting hard. The lock on his heart was about to break, and it was all because of Mara. She was the first person to ever truly care about him. The door couldn't stay shut anymore.

With every part of his body shaking he choked out the words, "I'm scared. I don't think I've ever been more scared in my life." He took a deep breath as he studied Mara's face. He wasn't sure how she was going to react to his little confession. After all, he was Jerome Clarke—the prankster, the class clown, the jerk, the guy with the 'holier than thou' attitude. He wasn't supposed to be scared. It wasn't part of who he was.

"I would think you were mad if you weren't," Mara replied softly. "Jerome, you don't have to ashamed your afraid. I'm afraid too. It's nothing you have to hide from us. I haven't stopped being afraid since I found out about all of this."

"You're you Mara. If the others found out you were afraid, they wouldn't think any less of you."

"And you think the others would think less of you?" Jerome's gaze dropped as he nodded ever so slightly. "Jerome, we're your friends. We would never think less of you."

"That's what you think the others would do Mara."

"OK so what if they did? When have you ever cared of what others think of you?"

"Just because I don't act like it doesn't mean that I don't care. Do you know what it's like to feel like no one cares about you? To go through life wondering that if you died that day, if anyone would even care."

"Of course they would Jerome! You just can't see it. We all care about you." Mara went to move closer to Jerome, and this time he didn't move away. "I care about you." Jerome felt his breath freeze in his throat as Mara continued. "Today when you were lying there, not moving and not breathing, I thought that we had lost you. I had never felt more afraid of anything in my life. I, I don't know what I would have done if you had died."

A minute of silence passed between the two of them. Each was trying to process everything that had just been said. Finally, Jerome found the courage to speak up. "Thank you Mara." The dark haired girl opened her mouth to reply but before she had the chance to, Jerome wrapped his arms around her in a hug. Her words forgotten, Mara returned the hug.

When the embrace ended Jerome tried to regain some of his composure. "Mara, can I tell you something?"

"Of course Jerome. You can tell me anything."

"You have to promise to never tell a soul." Mara nodded, waiting for what Jerome had to say. He took a deep breath and softly said, "I thought I was going to die today. But, rather than me thinking about all the things I never got to do with my life I thought about something completely different."

"What was it?"

"I thought that Fabian and Nina better talk to each other about how they feel because who knows if we're going to get out of this alive. I realized that I didn't want them to go through life without saying I love you to the person they truly love. And just as I thought it was over for me, I regretted not saying it to the girl I love."

"You love someone? Who?" Mara asked. Jerome looked at Mara and in the dim light she could make out the traces of a smirk etched upon his mouth.

"You."

That one single word echoed in Mara's ears. Jerome was in love with her? Her mind raced as she tried to figure out how to respond to that. In her wildest dreams, Mara would have never guessed Jerome was in love with her. Before she had a chance to even think about responding, Jerome leaned down to her and kissed her. With that, Mara's brain went numb. The only thought that could go through her head was that she cared a lot more about Jerome than she thought she did. Maybe she even loved him.

All of the pieces began to click together in that moment. Why he was so nice to her at school, why he was so angry when she was with Mick, all of it. She felt so stupid for not seeing it before. Then, as quickly as the kiss began, it was over. Jerome looked at Mara in fear and backed away slowly. "I'm sorry," he mumbled.

"Don't be." Jerome looked over at her in surprise. "I haven't fully figured out how I feel about this yet, but I do know I liked it." Mara stood on her toes and lightly pecked Jerome on the cheek. "And I know I care about you so much Jerome. So if you can give me a little bit of time to sort this all out, I'll let you know how I feel very soon. All right?" Jerome smiled and nodded slightly.

"You know, the others are probably wondering why we haven't come down yet," Jerome wondered out loud.

"Probably. We might as well head down there. They won't be too happy with me if I come down without you. Are you OK with going down there though?" Rather than responding, Jerome laced his fingers through Mara's and gripped her hand tightly.

"I think I'll be all right." Hand in hand, the pair crossed the room and made their way out to the patio. Mara was sure that Jerome would let go of her hand as soon as they were in sight of their friends, but he didn't. Jerome too, was thinking that Mara would drop his hand. So, the two walked up to their friends still holding hands.

At first no one seemed to notice, they were all listening to Nina talking about some theory she had about something or other. During the conversation, Amber just happened to look up and seen Mara and Jerome standing there. Still holding hands. "OMG," she practically shrieked. Naturally everyone turned to see what Amber was shrieking about.

Nina stopped speaking mid-word as if she was completely frozen. Fabian looked back and forth from Mara to Jerome in shock, as if he thought he was imagining things. Amber was practically jumping up and down in her seat with a huge grin on her face. Patricia looked slightly amused, but completely understanding at the same time. Alfie was stammering, trying to get some sort of coherent word out of his mouth. Sitting at the end of the table was Mick, and he didn't look happy. At all. He actually looked like he was going to kill Jerome.

"Sorry it took us so long," Mara apologized as she sat down in her original seat. Jerome took his seat next to Alfie, who was still stammering. "What were you talking about before we came in Nina?"

"Oh, um, I was just talking about the clues that we've found so far. And if there was some sort of connection to their locations. Back at Anubis House, all of the clues were in everyday items-like the telescope and the grandfather clock."

"And I was telling her," Patricia interrupted, "that there probably no connection since so far all of the places have been really random and really spread out over the island. At school, everything was inside the house somewhere. This is all too sporadic."

"But clues aren't necessarily based on location," Alfie argued back. "Like in mystery novels, they could be connected by anything."

"Thank you Alfie. I'm just saying it's something we shouldn't dismiss as impossible," Nina stated.

"Look," Amber said as she stretched, "I'm getting really tired. Let's get some sleep. After all, some of us are going clue hunting in the morning."

"Good point Amber. All right, we might as call it a night. Sibuna?"

"Sibuna." The eight teens got up from the table and began making their way inside. Amber and Patricia both walked alongside Mara and the three of them began whispering in low voices. Alfie and Jerome were doing the same thing. Mick on the other hand, pushed past all of them and stormed up the stairs and out of sight.

As Nina was about to turn to go up the stairs, Fabian grabbed her arm to stop her. She looked at him curiously as the others all passed the two on the stairs. "What's up?" she asked when the others were all at the top of the staircase.

"Your theory about the clues being connected. I think you might be right," he whispered. "Come on, there's something I want to show you." He took Nina's hand and led her quickly into the library.

When Fabian was sure that the room was empty he ran over to one of the bookshelves and pulled a red book off of the shelf. It was the book that Fabian had purchased the day they all went into town. He flipped through its contents until he came to a specific page. "With the first two clues I didn't really think anything of this, but when we found the last one, I began thinking if this was the connection."

Fabian handed her the book and she gazed at the page. "Klasiká stoicheía, the four classical elements of the world. I don't get it Fabian."

"The four classical elements were what ancient scientists thought out planet was made from—earth, air, fire and water. They believe that all things came from those four elements. What was the first clue about?"

"Poseidon. Who was the god of water," Nina said with understanding spreading across her face. "And in the clue we just found, Hephaestus was the god of fire and volcanoes. But what about the second clue? About King Midas. Gold isn't one of the four elements."

"That's what stumped me as well. It's the reason I didn't suspect this to be the tie from the beginning. Now this is a stretch, but it might be possible. Where does gold come from?"

"It's mined out of…the earth. And earth is one of the four classical elements. Fabian, you're a genius!" Fabian grinned and opened his mouth to say something, but a sudden noise caught him by surprise. The sounds of footsteps were coming close to the library, so Fabian and Nina scrambled to find a good hiding place. To their right was a waist high shelf lined with encyclopedias. It was the best hiding place they could find, and they made it there just in time.

As they ducked their heads down, a door in the back of the room creaked open. Slowly, Nina pushed two books apart on the shelf and tried to see who was there in the room. She had to suppress a gasp as she watched Leto and Philip standing in the room, glaring intently at each other. "Whatever it is you're planning, it won't work," Philip hissed in a low voice. "There's nothing that you can do so give up now old woman."

"What makes you think I'm planning anything?" Leto asked back. Her dark eyes seemed to pierce through Philip like spears, because he seemed taken aback for a moment.

"Your phone conversations are a dead giveaway. That and you won't take your eyes of the children. I see you watching them, their every move."

"You better watch your mouth boy. I'm not a person you want to oppose. This conversation is over, and if I ever catch you snooping around again you'll be sure to pay dearly for it. I will see to that myself." Leaving Philip slightly stunned, Leto turned around and walked back out of the library. A moment later Philip glanced around and then walked out the main library door. When both adults were gone Nina and Fabian stood up from their hiding place.

"So," Fabian started, "that was interesting."

"Very." Nina's eyes darted back to the door that Leto walked though.

With a sigh Fabian said, "You want to follow her don't you?"

"Just for a little bit. Since the day I met her, there was something off about that woman and I'm going to find out what that is. One way or another. Are you in?"

"Well there's no way I'm going to let you follow her alone. Let's go." With a mischievous twinkle in her eyes, Nina led the way through the library and out the back door.

The ended up in what looked like a service hallway. It completely lacked any sort of décor, unlike the rest of the house. The walls were made of plain, gray bricks that had cracks running along them. The floor looked like it hadn't been swept since the building was built, there had to have been an inch of dust on the floor. Hanging from various points on the ceiling were exposed light bulbs. Most of them were either dead or flickering so the entire hallway had a dim, eerie look to it. Every once in a while there was a strange banging sound that made both Nina and Fabian jump.

"It's probably just the furnace," Fabian reassured. It didn't make Nina feel any better though. At the end of the hallway was a large, metal door. Nina and Fabian both looked at each other. Leto had to have come this way; there was no other door out of the passage. With a shaky hand, Nina turned the rusty handle of the door. The door dragged across the cement floor, making a horrible scraping sound.

The inside of whatever room it was, was completely dark. "Do we go in?" Nina asked. Fabian nodded. Nina took a step through the dark doorway, and Fabian watched as she vanished from sight.

"NINA!"

Le gasp! Who saw any of that happening? I did, but then again, I also know how this story ends so my predictions don't really count for much. I wanted to take a moment to thank my lovely reviewers who make such predictions about this stoy. I get so happy when someone gets it right. So here's my new question for you- What do you think Philip and Leto's argument was about? And why would having Leto as an enemy be a bad thing? Let me know what you think! Reviews fuel mt writing fire and feed my plot bunny! So leave lots of them!

Oh and also, check out Blahgal's new story 'the land of the gods'! I'm the beta for it and I can honestly say that it is one of the most original stories on here that I have read. So if you want something that hasn't been done in HoA before, go check it out!

Peace out.

~Wolfie