Amber XXXIII

Summary: The Sibunas meet to try and solve their curses. Amber and Alfie have a heart to heart.

Amber worriedly looked down at the beauty who's sleeping head was resting in her lap. Something terrible had obviously shaken the poor girl, Liliana was always so strong, and it was awful to see her so scared and upset. Pausing their telenovela, Amber shifted Lili so that she was lying comfortably on the bed's many pillows. With her friend secure for the time being, Amber ducked out of the room to try and talk to the others.

"Hey Ambs! Where did you disappear off too?" greeted Alfie as he pulled her down next to him on the couch.

"Lili and I wanted to get away from all the craziness for a bit. She passed out in the middle of our telenovela. So I came down to let you guys know that we can't use my room for the Sibuna meeting"

"Since Roe is a Sibuna now we can use our room, but shouldn't we wake her up so that she can be a part of this discussion? Nina said that Lili's mark flared too" suggested Alfie.

"Well if Liliana is asleep, I say we let her be" called Nina from where she was on clean up duty with Patricia. The sitting room and kitchen had gotten seriously trashed by the partying students, "There is no reason why we can't just fill her in afterwards. So let's plan to meet in Alfie and Jerome's room right after pin drop, that should give Trish and I enough time to finish up in here and give us an alibi with Victor". With the plan set, Amber and Alfie relocated to the boy's room.

*Tears of Gold – Tears of Gold – Tears of Gold*

Alfie snapped after Amber's fourth long drawn out sigh of the night. She was actually surprised by his restraint; he usually would have broken and asked her what was wrong around the second sigh. "Alright love what's wrong" he asked closing his book.

"Why does anything have to be wrong?" returned Amber from her spot leaning against his chest. Everything was just perfect except for the fact that they were all cursed, Liliana was a wreck and Tessa's comments from the election had finally started to get the best of Amber.

It had been a month and a half since the couple had decided to take things slow and put their relationship on hold. And while certain things stayed the same, Amber found herself missing her best friend. Which seemed so dumb since he was sitting right behind her, but there was now this invisible wall between her and Alfie, and she hated it!

The boy she had once been able to tell anything to seemed so far away. Alfie was the one who Amber went to when Mara was a bitch, her dad sent money instead of visiting, or Mick hurt her. He would distract Amber with stories about aliens, spar with her at the gym and even let her join him at the skate park. The pair, though radically different personalities, clicked together like a perfect puzzle. In their time 'apart' a lot had become clear for Amber, including the deep love that she had for the young man behind her.

"Come on Ambs I know something is up. You've been staring at the same article for the last twenty minutes" he pushed.

"I'm just worried about Lili and all the Sibuna stuff" she revealed not wanting to talk about the other reason. Everyday Amber found herself wanting to scream how much she loved Alfie from the rooftops, but she was scared of his reaction. He had been the one to try and break up with her, and thank the gods she had talked him out of officially ending their relationship, but it was obvious that he didn't feel the same way… right? Regardless, now wasn't the right time to talk about their romantic relationship, or lack of one, so she would just have to put those thoughts on the back burner for the time being.

"Well I haven't had a chance to speak to Lili yet, but she's stronger than you could possibly know. I'm sure that she appreciated your help this evening and that she'll open up to one of us about what upset her soon. As for all this Sibuna stuff… that's why we're having this meeting tonight. We'll get a game plan set up and kick Frobisher's ghostly psycho ass, find the mask and give it to our torture loving spirit overlord. After that we can go get ice cream or something to celebrate."

"You are such a dork! I don't think the random disembodied voices we keep hearing really count as the ghost of Frobisher-Smythe, but this is Sibuna, so I guess anything goes" laughed Amber feeling lighter than she had in a while. Lacing their fingers together she revealed, "You always make me feel better".

"Well I'm glad that I could help you feel better Amby" he smiled bopping her on the nose with his spare hand.

"Amby!" she squawked, "You swore you wouldn't use that one again! We're not in 6th grade anymore".

"Come on you love it" he teased, and yes… yes, she did. "You're my best friend Amber Lucille Millington and I am always going to be here for you". After hearing that Amber couldn't help it, she melted, dropping her magazine she curled up closer to her best friend content in the knowledge that even if it was just for a moment, she was safe in his arms.

*Tears of Gold – Tears of Gold – Tears of Gold*

After pin drop all the Sibunas, minus Liliana who was still passed out in Amber's bed, gathered in Alfie and Jerome's room. "All right Sibuna everybody!" began Nina calling the meeting to order. "The topic of tonight's discussion is our burning marks. So let's recap!"

"Well everyone in this room has had their marks burn since last night. So did anyone do something to piss off the spirit holding all of our lives captive?" asked Amber.

Nina's ashamed slump was a clear enough answer for Amber. "Anything to share Nina?" scolded Amber feeling far older than her years.

"Senkhara came to me last night as I was walking back from seeing Gran. She was already pretty angry, and I may have made it worse" began the American.

"Oh Nina what did you say?" sighed Amber.

"I was upset about my Gran, and I may have tried to quit. She said that my punishment would be to punish…"

"YOU TRIED TO QUIT AGAIN!" shrieked Amber cutting her off. "Nina this isn't some game you can just walk away from. Every single one of our lives are on the line, so you've got to grow up quick and set your head on straight".

"Wait what did you just say?" asked Nina her face turning ashen.

"That you've got to set your head on straight?" huffed Amber.

"No, well yes but no. You said, 'I've got to grow up quick' and at the game I told you to 'grow up a little, or well a lot', right after that your mark burned right?"

"Yeah, I've been feeling really stiff and achy since then and I've started to find these weird spots on my hands. Plus I think some of my hair is turning gray!? I just thought I had some icky Egyptian plague though".

"Unfortunately I don't think that's the case this time. Did anyone else get their curses after I said a specific phrase?" asked Nina.

Patricia chucked the notebook she had been frantically scribbling in at Nina's head. Catching it Nina read aloud, " 'When you told me to be quiet, she hexed my voice'. That's right! Fabian's been having memory issues…"

"Oh I don't think that has anything to do with you. I'm just tired, we spend a lot of nights creeping around in the tunnels or woods".

"You couldn't even remember Senkhara, Fabian" reminded Nina.

"Who?" Oh this was bad!

"Oh just forget it!" snapped an irritated Nina, before she sank down on the chair, which she had abandoned to pace, shocked at whatever was playing out in her head. "Earlier I told you to forget about you upsetting me over your second date with Joy and then your mark flared… I've cursed you all".

"Yessss, I think we've establissshed that Nina. Now pleasssse tell us how to fix it!" snapped Jerome.

"What's up with you?" wrote Patricia before folding the paper into a plane and throwing it at Jerome's hair.

"Well Trix, our wonderful leader here called me a ssssnake right before my mark burned, ssssso I'm rightfully worried about the consssequencesssss".

"But snakes are cool!" protested Alfie, "I on the other hand am in excruciating pain and shrinking since Nina called me a big kid, and not even in a fun John Mulaney 'look at that tall child' kind of way, which is causing me to relive my past".

"Look, we might as well try and get some sleep" suggested Fabian. "We don't know when what's her name is going to appear again, and we will need to be well rested to complete the task and get un-hexed".

The Sibuna members all knew that Fabian was right and that they would need all the energy they could get to complete the next task; so despite some protests, it was decided that they should wrap up the meeting and head to bed.

Back in her room Amber quickly finished getting ready for bed before sliding under the covers next to a sleeping Lili. As she fell asleep Amber prayed that tomorrow would be better for the girl beside her. Her last thought before she gave into unconsciousness was that the bloody spirit had better not give her wrinkles, if so there would be hell to pay!

Next Week: Patricia has a revelation about her "friendship" with Eddie and the Sibuna's race against Victor and the clock to solve the latest task.

Question of the week: Do you think Amber is going to get her heart broken?

I love hearing from y'all! Let me know what you think of the chapter and the story so far in the reviews or my Tumblr House-of-Secrets! Xo Evie