Otay...

"Hey, Mick," Charlie greeted, taking a seat in one of the arm chairs.

The blonde looked up from his sandwich and nodded in acknowledgement.

The air was thick and awkward in the Anubis House common room. The two had never really conversed or hung out or really been in the same room before. Every morning at breakfast, Mick would go for a run and Charlie would eat and then leave for school when Mick came back in for a shower. Classes. That was the only time they'd be in the same room. They really saw no reason for it. It's not like they have anything in common. Besides being rich; having good looks and charms; brains when they needed it; no mothers; and their fathers trying to get them to be something they didn't want to be.

Oh yeah, nothing in common.

"Listen, have you ever…" Charlie drifted off. How was he supposed to word this? Was it a good idea to ask him about this? Was he a part of the great mystery? Would he lie to him so he could get him off…whoever's trail? No. Mick didn't seem to be in on it. He never saw him hanging out with anyone in the house besides Joy, Amber, Alfie and Fabian; his current girlfriend, ex-girlfriend, good friend, best mate and roommate. It made sense. But what didn't make sense was how he could have been so oblivious, that he didn't notice his girlfriend sneaking off every day. "Have you ever noticed that Joy likes to sneak off at weird times?" he finished, deciding better of asking him about the disappearance of an entire group of teenagers.

"Oh, yeah, but that's just because she likes to hang out with her friends. I get that. I mean, all the others do it too. It's not like I'm going to keep her away from her friends 24/7 but…Charlie?" Mick looked around but didn't see him anywhere. He shrugged it off and grabbed the TV remote to start flipping.

Amber squealed. "I'm so excited! But don't try to hurt someone, Eddie."

The American turned to her with a dead-panned look and Amfie nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, don't turn evil in the next few minutes."

Eddie rolled his eyes, as did the rest of the group, and spun around to stare at the podium with the mks staff. He took a deep breath and pushed the feeling of the curious eyes that watched him away. He watched the staff closely as he reached his arm out and gripped the handle cautiously. He chuckled and pulled it away from the podium, looking over his shoulder at his fellow Sibunas.

"I don't know what you guys were complaining about; this doesn't hurt—whoa!" he shuddered.

"What's wrong?" Nina asked urgently.

"Nothing, the staff just vibrated. It felt like running your nails over a chalkboard—"

Everyone jumped when a bang echoed through the tunnels. To their right, the wall was suddenly sliding to the side. They took a moment to cheer before venturing into the next tunnel. It went on, getting darker as they continued down the corridor, and none of them knew whether or not to keep up the trek or turn back after getting some flashlights. But, once they'd gone a bit farther, they spotted light ahead and they made their decision of going forward regardless of the dim lighting.

"This is so exciting!" Amber squealed.

The others shushed her quickly and traveled on into the darkness.

"We hit the jackpot!" Eddie exclaimed when they came to the end of the hallway.

Everyone looked around the room, spinning in circles, wide eyes taking in every detail of the splendor surrounding them.

The walls were gold, just like the room before this one, and the hieroglyphics were in greater numbers. Even the floor had been cluttered with graffiti that Fabian thought was telling a story. Though the entire room was filled with them, no one wanted to take the time to translate them. And while everyone was admiring the room itself, no one noticed the treasure of the room. On the other side, right across from Mara, was a large, dusty, stone rectangle. It was about eight feet long and had a stone slab sitting atop it, just like a lid. She was the only one to notice it; everyone else focused on the walls.

Mara looked at all of her friends and sighed. They seemed really interested, and she decided to leave them to their studying. She stepped toward the stone warily. Then, she took another cautious step. Finally, she pushed forward, until she was less than a foot away. She laid a hand over the top of the cold stone for a moment. It was a little wet, like the way that stone gets when it's in a cold dark place for too long. The room had hardly any light, except for a few cracks in the ceiling where sunlight shown through, just like the rest of the tunnels; but here, the light shown off the golden walls and made it seem brighter than it really was.

After building up the courage to try and push the slab of stone away, she felt warm, minty breath flowing down her neck, and she spun around in shock.

"Jaffray?" Jerome smirked, looking down at her.

"Can I please push it open?" his girlfriend whispered pleadingly.

"I never said you couldn't. Be my guest." He motioned to the stone.

Mara looked around for a minute, second thoughts swimming through her cloudy brain, but then she reached forward and with all her might, shoved the lid off the rectangle and on to the floor. It boomed loudly and echoed through the hallways, making everyone in the room jump two feet into the air. They all ran over and crowded around the couple and the box before them.

Sibuna gasped, eyes wide and mouths agape.

Next chapter will come as soon as I can get it up!

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My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends. -John 15:12-13

-Rachel