Lots of angst in that last chapter. Next up's something I've been waiting for this whole time, something that makes everything all the more complicated. I think you can guess what it's going to be. Enjoy this one, guys.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN HOUSE OF ARTICLES
When I came downstairs for breakfast, Alfie was having a crisis.
"No, no, no, no, no!" he cried. "What is this? There should be stuff here! Right where this table is, there should be food!"
The dining table was, as Alfie put it, bare of food. It looked exactly as it had when everyone left it last night.
"Where's Vera?" I asked. It was weird that she would forget breakfast, especially on a school day. Vera was crazy punctual, for everything.
"Maybe we should go and see if she's alright," Fabian suggested.
"Oh, no Vera?" Trudy walked into the living room. With a glance at the empty dining table, she said, "I'll make breakfast. At least I can remember how to do that."
"Trudy, shouldn't you be resting?" I asked as she walked to the kitchen. She waved me off with a kind smile.
"No," Alfie told me. "It's a great way to recover. You know, familiarity and pancakes and stuff. Trudy, you remember how I like my bacon, right?"
I looked at the interaction and decided I just wasn't going to question it. Before I got the chance to sit, Victor walked into the living room.
"Mary Ann Norton," he called. "I have just had a phone call from Mr. Sweet. You are to go and see directly before school, which is now." He walked right back out after delivering the message.
"Huh," I pondered. "Wonder what's got Sweetie interested in me for."
"Hey, I'm sure it's nothing to worry about," Fabian said.
I laughed. "Yeah, not like I've done anything to get his attention. Though you could count the lying or the stealing or the avoiding of education because I'm too busy trying to find a mask…"
Fabian laughed with me. "Off you go," he said, nudging me off.
I grinned. "But do I have to?" I rolled my eyes and headed off to the school building.
I'd been to the school early in the morning before, when no one was around so I could check on the Cup of Ankh. Hell, I'd been to the school late at night before too. That didn't make it any less creepy, especially when I saw Mr. Sweet standing outside of the school waiting for me.
"Uh, good morning, sir," I said when I approached.
"It may not be such a good morning, Mary Ann," he said. Way to be pessimistic, sir. "Please come with me." I followed him through the hallways to his office.
"What's this about?" I asked as I took a seat in the chair in front of his desk.
"This morning, there was an article on the school website regarding an American student," he said.
My eyebrows furrowed. "I'm not the only American student at the school," I pointed out. As far as I knew though, the only other one was Eddie. The article must've mentioned a 'she' or something. But who'd write an article about me?
"Yes, that is true, but we have reason to believe the article was written about you," he explained. "It brought up some, ah, questions regarding your presence in class, or rather the absence."
Shit. I didn't miss that much of class this term, did I? Certainly not to be noticed… Well, the beginning of term was bad in Mrs. Andrews's class; Fabian and I accidentally missed like three of her classes due to Mask-searching stuff. And most recently, I was leaving school early to visit Gran.
"Is there a problem?" I asked, unable to lift my gaze from my fidgeting hands. Calm down. Calm down. You can't be in that much trouble.
"There isn't," he assured me and I forced myself to look up at him. "You are passing all of your classes with excellent grades and your teachers have nothing but nice words toward you. Despite this, I am required to ask about your absences in class, especially when it has been described as–" He looked to his computer monitor, which was probably opened up to the article in question, "–'one of the lowest in the school'."
My ears felt hot. "I think that's quite an understatement, sir," I said while I tried to keep my temper down. "I mean, I was sick a couple weeks ago, but I haven't missed any of my classes in a while, and even then I only left to visit my grandmother."
Mr. Sweet's face changed at the mention of Gran. "Your grandmother was mentioned as well in the article."
"What?" My anger escaped from me and I struggled to control myself. "Sorry. Gran was in the article?"
"Yes, it was stated of her condition in the hospital," he said calmly. Why would someone write about my grandmother? The blood left my face at the thought of my parents mentioned as well. It would be like America all over again, with looks and whispers of people thinking I'm a murderer.
"And–" My voice cracked and I paused for a second. "And my parents?"
His expression turned into one of pity. Obviously, he knew about my parents. The police report must've been attached to my school files, if not then the notes of all those visits to the school counselor. "No, the story of your parents is not revealed." I felt myself relax a bit, but tension was still set in my posture, making it nearly impossible to sit against the back of the chair.
"Who wrote it?" I finally asked.
"It was posted to the Jackal Anonymous blog, so the identity of the author is unknown." I vaguely remembered reading posts from that blog. They were about the weird shit that went down at the school, like Donkey Day and the leaking of a video of Mr. Sweet dancing from around twenty years ago. Whoever wrote the articles called themself 'Jack Jackal'. Why would Jack Jackal write a mean article about me?
"Am I in trouble, sir?" I asked after a few moments of silence and looked back down at my hands.
"No, Mary Ann," he told me. "I am just looking into the accusation. We cannot overlook such a rude post about a student, so I will be searching for the mysterious Jack Jackal."
"Thank you, sir."
"You are dismissed back to your house," he said. I stood and made my way to the door. "Ah, and Mary Ann?" I paused with my hand on the doorknob and looked back at him. "The article is not kind to you, but do not let it get to you."
I nodded. "Will do." Without another word, I exited the office and made my way back to the house.
My body went into autopilot as I sped to the house. Someone wrote on their blog about me and apparently said something bad enough to get the principal involved. I definitely needed to see what that article said.
I opened the front door of the house too quickly in my haste, which resulted in a smack to the face with at least thirty pounds of polished wood. A loud oath escaped my lips before I could stop myself and my eyes watered. I entered the house and went straight for the living room, where I knew Amber left her laptop the night before.
A faint voice whispered in my ears that sounded a lot like Senkhara, saying something about falcons, but I ignored it and logged onto the school website. The article was easy to find.
AMERICAN STUDENT CUTS CLASS & ABANDONS OWN GRANDMOTHER
A certain American may seem as wholesome as her granny's apple pie, but when she spends so much time cutting class, you have to ask 'is she worthy of a scholarship?' If she spent as much time caring for her seriously ill gran in the hospital as she did running around campus, why doesn't she fly the old lady home?
When she is in class, she always appears distracted, gossips, and puts off other students who are trying to learn. In addition to this, her attendance rate must be one of the lowest in the school. What she spends all her time doing, one can only guess, but what we can be certain of is that is has nothing to do with the curriculum. Her selfish and uncaring nature is only highlighted by the cruel treatment of her own grandmother. Recently over from the USA, she now languishes in a lonely hospital bed. It is now weeks since she was admitted and her only granddaughter has only visited a handful of times.
This kind old lady has given up her own life to raise this student and this is how she repays her? Selfish, moody, and rude, she seems to offer nothing to our school or our society at large.
Until next time– Jack Jackal signing off.
"What did Sweetie want to talk about?" I looked up, startled, as Fabian walked over to me from the dining table. Amber and the rest of Sibuna followed. I didn't respond, only tried to wipe away the tears and close the computer before they could to me. Fabian took the computer from my hands and sat on the arm of the chair I was sitting on while he read the article.
Amber sat on the table in front of me with concern on her face, but I couldn't look at her for more than a second. I felt ashamed, and angry that I felt so weak.
Did I really put off other students? I couldn't think of a time where that happened, but maybe I did it unknowingly? And Gran… The image of her rotting away on her hospital bed alone was now etched into my brain and made me feel horribly disgusted with myself. Gran had to raise me on her own for years, that couldn't have been easy. Why didn't I visit more?
"A certain American student may seem as wholesome as her granny's apple pie, but when she spends so much time cutting class, you have to ask 'is she worthy of a scholarship?' If she spent as much time caring for her seriously ill gran in the hospital as she did running around campus, why doesn't she fly the old lady home?" Fabian read aloud. God, it sounded worse coming from his mouth than simply reading it. "Mary Ann, this is horrible!"
"Way harsh," Amber said.
"Mr. Sweet wanted to talk about the running around campus bit," I said.
"Who would write that about you?" Alfie asked.
"I don't know," I said and tears threatened to burst out again. "I have no idea who this could be."
"Maybe it was Joy," Amber guessed. Joy?
"No, no way," Fabian defended. "Joy would never stoop this low."
"Oh, come on," Amber argued. "Break it down, people. Who's jealous of Mary? Joy. Who'd like to get Mary out of the way? Joy."
"Uh, Senkhara," Patricia countered. It must've been hard for her to hear the accusations against her best friend.
"Vera," Alfie added.
"Rufus," Fabian piped in.
"And Victor," Amber admitted.
"Wow," Alfie sat back against the couch. "Loads of people hate you." I looked away and wiped my eyes with my hands. God, there was a lot of people against me. And that wasn't even including my old classmates from America.
I felt a hand on my shoulder and glanced over to see Fabian shooting Alfie a why-the-hell-would-you-say-that look.
"Look," Amber brought the discuss back to point. "This is not Victor. And Senkhara may be one big, bad spirit lady, but I don't think she could work a laptop." A short laugh escaped from me at the vision of Senkhara crouched over a monitor and screaming at it when it wouldn't turn on. "And why would Rufus–"
"I don't care who it was, okay?" I interrupted. "That is, like, the least of my problems right now. But it's true… the idea of flying Gran back home never popped up once and I've been so busy trying to find this mask that I barely ever visit." It was getting harder and harder not to break down in front of them. "I'm being the worst granddaughter ever."
"No," Fabian said firmly. "No, look at me." He was frowning, but had some sort of stubborn courage in his eyes like when he tried to tell off Senkhara. "If we don't find this mask, she may not even have a granddaughter." That thought frightened me and I made a god awful sniffling noise.
"We have to keep going," Patricia told me, "even more than before."
"Right," Fabian said, adding onto Patricia's statement. "Okay, so we'll go, we'll get the other reflectors off Victor, we'll go downstairs, we'll complete the constellation." He gave me a funny smile. "We'll find the Mask, give it to your ghosty friend–" I let out a laugh "–and then we're free. And then you can get back to being the devoted granddaughter that we all know you are." He looked at me with this look of pure compassion and it made my heart beat really fast. "Deal?"
I blushed and sniffled as I glanced away. "Deal."
Amber beamed at me. "Sibuna hug!" she suddenly declared, and then hopped to her feet with her arms outstretched. I looked at her with an eyebrow raised but stood nonetheless. Within a second, I was devoured in a sea of arms from the entire gang and Alfie and Patricia were cheering about something (sounded like "DOWN WITH THE GHOSTY FRIEND!").
It took a few minutes before the hug was broken up and by then it was nearly time for everyone to head to school.
"Okay," Fabian said as he threw on his uniform jacket, "so, how do we get the watch and the other two reflectors from Victor's office?"
"What do we usually do when we want something Victor's got?" Amber replied sarcastically.
"Ransack his office," Alfie answered with an expression too giddy to be normal with the given topic.
"Yeah, but what does that require?" I countered. "Him out of the office and some time." I glanced at my watch. "We don't have either. We need to be at school in five if we want to make it to class on time." With the article out, I needed to be present in all classes or there'd be serious trouble.
"Look, whatever it is, it has to be good." Fabian said, "I mean, Victor never just goes out."
On cue, Victor entered the living room with his grey going-out-for-business-reasons trenchcoat in hand. "Ah, Trudy," he called. "Trudy, I'm just going out." I turned to Fabian with my mouth agape and he just looked at me with the most confused expression ever.
"And I want to be a millionaire," Alfie announced to the ceiling.
"I'm not sure when I'll be back," Victor went on without paying us any mind, "but it may be quite some time." He then put on his trenchcoat and left.
When the front door slammed shut, Patricia was the first of us to speak. "Okay, let's do it."
We all ran upstairs as fast as we could. "Patricia, Alfie, stand guard," I said as Fabian opened the door to Victor's office, which was unlocked for some reason. The two nodded and Aflie positioned himself at the front of the staircase while Patricia stood by the door. I entered the office to see Amber searching a cabinet and Fabian looking around the desk. "Alright, the reflectors could be anywhere, but Victor doesn't just leave things in plain sight." I opened a drawer of a dresser near the door and rifled through the papers inside.
"Or not," Fabian said. I faced him as he pointed at something on the desk. "Look." I walked over to his side. Victor's small notebook was wide open on his desk, and a familiar mark was drawn on the open pages.
"That's the Zodiac of Horus," Amber exclaimed.
"And it's got the reflectors listed about, look," I pointed to some scribbling beneath the zodiac. Little paragraphs were scattered around the chart with arrows pointing to certain sections. "Even where he thinks they are, like a stained glass piece from the attic and his pocketwatch. It even mentions the doll's eye!" I paused for a moment. "This is weirdly easy." It wasn't like Victor to just leave something so vital behind.
"I, for one, am in favor of easy," Amber said. Fabian lifted the notebook from the desk, and right underneath it was Victor's pocketwatch. Fabian picked it up.
"Victor's watch…" Fabian muttered, holding it up so I could see the little white falcon symbol on its cover. He then addressed the notebook again. "Look, he's keeping the doll's eye in the cellar and he thinks the sun clue means the stained glass window in the attic."
"Does anyone else find this super creepy and strange that Victor would just leave this here?" I asked. I started to look around the room, feeling like some form of booby trap was going to lash out at me at any moment.
"Maybe he's just worried about where Vera's gone to," Amber suggested.
"Look, besides, if we don't round up these reflectors, it's game over," Fabian said.
"Yeah, I realized," I said, "but we need to leave now, or people will start wondering what I'm up to because of that stupid article."
"Alright, look, we've got this," Fabian rushed. "We'll follow Victor's notes. After school, grab the reflectors, and we'll meet up later." He gathered the things from Victor's desk and we all left.
~ After school ~
I visited Gran after classes were over while the rest of Sibuna split up to get the remaining two reflectors.
Gran was asleep again when I entered the room. Not wanting to wake her, I sat by her bedside and read over the doctor's report. I couldn't understand any of the words, so I settled with one of the multiple magazines left on the bedside table.
She didn't wake up at all during the hour I had to visit. Before I left for the school, I held her hand. "I've got to go," I whispered, "but I'll be back soon enough. We've almost got the Mask in our hands, and then I can devote all my time to you."
~ Back at the house ~
When I met up with Sibuna back at the house, Amber and Alfie looked traumatized. They got the shard from the window, but apparently discovered Vera sitting in a chair, looking like she became Victor's next stuffed pet.
"She was totally frozen," Alfie said, holding his arms out like the monster from Frankenstein and looking out into the distant.
"Totally," Amber agreed.
"She was just," Alfie tried demonstrating what Vera looked like by standing stiffer than before, but I just couldn't see it.
"So," I tried to wrap my head around it. "Vera's in the attic, frozen but somehow alive, right now. Like, right now."
"A zombie Vera," Alfie nodded.
"Alright…" I shuddered. "How about we worry about the task, and then freak out about Vera later?" They all nodded. "The other reflectors are in my room, let's go."
We went upstairs and just before I could open my door, the attic door behind me rattled. I jumped and we all wheeled around.
"What was that?" Amber asked nervously. I jumped when the door shook once more.
We huddled up and slowly walked toward the shaking door. It was almost like something was trying to get out…
All of a sudden, the door popped open and a hand flew out. We all screamed and jerked back. The door flew open and Vera was standing in the doorway, her hands stretched out to me like she was asking for something.
That was when I noticed the Mark of Anubis.
It was glowing bright red on the palm of one of her outstretched hands. She shuffled forward and we backed away. She kept shuffling forward, her head lopped to one side and her legs straight like some sort of puppet.
Suddenly, she stopped. Her Mark stopped glowing and became a black tattoo. Her head straightened and her posture became more human. She blinked and lowered her arms. We all stood there, staring at her.
"Am I late for dinner?" she asked, discombobulated. None of us dared to speak. She suddenly looked at us warily. "Where are you all going?"
"Studying," I lied just as everyone else answered with something different. Amber said shopping, Alfie announced paint ball, Fabian stuttered homework, and Patricia made incoherent noise.
I thought we were goners, but Vera sighed with a hypnotized look on her face. "Hobbies are good," she said before making her way awkwardly out of the girls' corridor.
"Looks like Vera's all thawed out," Patricia uttered when she was out of earshot.
"She's been Senkhara'd," Alfie freaked.
"Senkhara said she'd take care of Victor," I remembered. "She must've, I don't know, done something."
"See? It's true: zombie Veras do exist," Amber said. I shuddered and went into my room.
"Alright, musical mirror is in the music box," I muttered to myself, talking the mirror out of said box. "Goblet is in socks." Got the goblet out of a pair of bright green socks I left buried in my dresser. "And mosaic piece is in Amber's fourth important purse." Amber held the piece up for me to see, having already took it out.
"And we've got the watch," Fabian said, holding that up.
"Doll's eye," Patricia showed it to me before slipping it into her pocket.
Alfie held up a red slab of glass. "Sun shard," he said, handing it to me so I could put it in my bag.
"We're set, let's go." I said.
Plan didn't turn out so well. Vera and Victor were outside his office and Vera looked scared of something. "Ah, ah, ah," Victor said, making us stop on the stairwell. "Where are you off to?"
"We're going to the library," Fabian answered.
"No, no, no, no, no," Victor denied, pointing to each of us. At that exact moment, Mara and Eddie walked into the main hall. Mara said hello to everyone and Eddie gave me a head nod before the two of them walked into the kitchen. Victor and Vera walked into the former's office, Vera clearly upset over something (did she notice the Mark?), leaving Sibuna disappointed on the staircase.
"Fantastic," I muttered. "How're we supposed to get to the task chamber now? Library's out of the question, people are in the kitchen, and we can't go at night."
"And we're running out of time," Amber said.
"What could happen when the moon and the sun overlap?" I rubbed my eyes. "Knowing Frobisher as well as we do, it can't be good."
"We'll go down at dawn," Fabian said. "It's our only option. Sibuna?"
We did the gesture. "Sibuna."
~ Early morning ~
"It's way too early; my head's not going on with the rest of my body," Alfie muttered loudly as we entered the task chamber.
"Shit!" I exclaimed when I noticed the sun and the moon. They were practically on top of each other and literally glowing orange.
"The moon's nearly over the sun, we need to go right now," Fabian ordered. We all took our respective places with reflectors. The light beamed over from Fabian to Alfie, which then made its way to Amber and then to me. The sun shard was huge compared to the hand, making it nearly impossible to reflect the beam over to Patricia. Everyone was shouting and the time was nearly up.
The beam was moving again, I saw it make contact with Patricia's reflector, when there was a huge noise. I screamed when the shard was suddenly ripped from my hands. The sun and moon had locked in place and the hand statues fell to the ground.
"Constellation fail!" Alfie said.
I gripped my hair and turned away.
~ At school ~
English class was the first period of the day, and I barely got a chance to sit down and read "1984 BY GEORGE ORWELL" written in block letters on the board when Vera was suddenly in the doorway, calling for me.
"Mary Ann dear, a quick word, please," she said. Class hadn't started yet and the teacher wasn't there. I shared a look with Fabian before stepping out into the hallway with her.
"It's about your grandmother," Vera said gently. I stiffened. "The hospital just after you left for school." It was suddenly very difficult to breathe. "I'm afraid your gran has taken a turn for the worst. The doctors would like you to go straight away. And I'll come with you, of course–"
"No," I interrupted too quickly. Before I could leave a distrusting impression, I added, "I'd, um, I'd rather go on my own."
"Of course," she said understandingly. I brushed past her and hurried out of the school.
My phone beeped with a text during the cab ride. It was from Patricia. "Where are you?"
"Going to hospital. Gran's got worse." I answered.
"Good luck" was my reply.
~ Hospital ~
"Her heart started failing at roughly five twenty this morning," the white-clad doctor informed me, reading off her clipboard as we walked briskly to Gran's room, "but she hasn't woken since yesterday. She was claiming lightheadedness, nausea, and difficulty breathing as well as refused breakfast. She then fell asleep and didn't wake up."
We entered her room and the first thing I heard was a band of beeping from different machines. She was lying on her hospital bed and was surrounded by several electrical boxes with a multitude of buttons on each one.
"This morning her heart rate was too low and she had stopped breathing," the doctor carried on. "We managed to resuscitate her, but she no longer responds to stimuli."
"Will–" I cleared my throat. "Will she make it?"
The doctor only then looked up from the clipboard, and then said, "We don't know. There's never been a case like this before. We're going to have to wait it out and hope for the best."
I nodded and looked back at Gran. She looked so peaceful… but also so lifeless. "I understand. Thank you."
She left Gran and me alone for the next two hours, only returning to change the IV drip. I wasn't entirely sure why I was supposed to come immediately. My sudden being there wasn't going to magically revive her.
It reminded me of the time when my grandfather had a heart attack. We stayed in hospital waiting room for five hours while they operated. Us being there didn't help. There was a lot of worried waiting about. When your loved ones were hospitalized, there wasn't really any place that was good to be at. Being in the hospital brought constant, nonstop worrying. Being anywhere but the hospital brought nonstop anxiety.
The beeping of all the machines was slowly driving me mad. When even one beep was misplaced, I'd wheel around to the respective machine and stare at it, try to figure out what was wrong, but each and every time it would just carry on beeping normally.
After a while of just sitting there, watching after her, my mind started playing weird scenarios. Maybe she was lost in her own head, going on some mystical journey in the vastness of her mind. Maybe she was having one of those out-of-body experiences, and was watching me now in spirit form like on those television shows. Or maybe she was slowly deteriorating, her will crumbling bit by bit until she died.
Died. Those scenarios always got to me. Why would happen if she did die?
I shook my head sharply. Gran wasn't going to die. She was going to be just fine. I took her hand in both of mine and ignored the coldness of her fingers. Shutting my eyes, I exhaled shakily. "Come on, woman of steel, what's wrong? Tell me what's wrong…"
My eyes snapped to the door when I heard it open. Instead of the doctor, it was Fabian. While I was really confused as to why he was there, I was grateful he came.
"Fabian!" I jumped to my feet just as he approached. He gave me a big hug.
"What've the doctors said?" he asked when I let go.
"They're worried," I said. "She was doing fine, but then she didn't wake up and I don't know what's happening now."
He moved to the end of the bed, where the doctors kept Gran's report. He flipped through the papers and I sat back down.
"It looks like the doctors are as confused as we are," he said after a moment. Trust him to understand what that clipboard said. "Evelyn Meridian Norton." I glanced up at him and catch him grinning at the paper. He looked over to me. "That's an unusual middle name, Meridian."
"Yeah, it's a family thing." I looked to Gran and grinned. "My mom's was Oasis. Thank God my dad refused to follow that tradition and went with Ingrid."
"Mary Ann Ingrid Norton?" he asked. I nodded and he got this weird grin on his face before looking back at the papers. "It says she was taken in in London."
"Another one of those tourist things." I struggled to remember the name. "She complained about a green witch and then something about an observatory."
Fabian chuckled. "It's Greenwich." I rolled my eyes. "Greenwich," he repeated, and a serious look crossed his face. "You know what else is in Greenwich? The international meridian."
"I'm not seeing the connection," I confessed. He didn't answer, only looked more troubled. I stood. "Uh oh, you've got that look on your face like shit's gone and hit the fan; what's wrong?"
"Greenwich Mean Time," he explained. "GMT. I think your gran fell ill right on top of the international meridian for time."
Then the connection was clear. Her falling ill wasn't a coincidence. It was a message, a message to watch the time.
"Gran is the timepiece?!" I turned to my unconscious grandmother. Why would Senkhara tell me to watch her?
I grabbed Gran's arms and pushed up her sleeves, eyes flickering across her skin for it. And there it was. Below the elbow of her left arm, the black Mark of Anubis stood out. My heart raced and I could hear Senkhara laughing in my head. And that was when my world shattered around me.
Gran was marked. She was involved in this mess now.