Chapter 2: Jewels, Letters, and Handcuffs

Two weeks later…

It seemed that all of Anubis house was awake at 7:00 AM. Or at least that's how the crowded kitchen made it seem. Trudy was away on some personal business and the Anubis residents were left to fend for themselves in the morning.

"Move!" Patricia growled as she shoved Mick to the side.

The blonde boy shot her a look before sliding over to the opposite side of the counter and passing Fabian who was crouched under the counter, a cereal bowl on his head.

"What are you doing on the floor?" Mick asked as he snatched a piece of toast from Alfie's hands.

Fabian merely shrugged and he handed Mick his bowl. "Do you mind pouring my cereal? I'm afraid of getting my arms ripped off in battle."

Mick rolled his eyes at the comment and handed the bowl to Jerome before saying, "Can you pour some cereal for Fabian?"

"I would if someone would get their elbow out of my ribs!" Jerome responded.

Amber offered him a smile as she took a banana from the fruit bowl. "My bad,"

Jerome narrowed his eyes at her, but before he could say anything he heard the loud sound of someone clearing their throat.

All the Anubis kids stopped in their tracks and looked over at Victor who stood at the doorway with a single letter in his hand.

"Is it time for mail already?" Alfie asked.

Victor ignored the hyper boy and held up the letter. "It appears to be addressed to all of you. I'll leave it on the table for you to read when you've all settled down."

After his last word, Victor set the letter down and walked out of the room. The students stared at the letter, flashes of curiosity sparking a fire in their eyes.

"Well, who's going to open it?" Jerome asked.

As soon as the question left his lips everyone's heads turned to Nina, who stood in the corner of the room avoiding all the breakfast mayhem.

"Nina?"

At the sound of her name, the girl looked up. "After breakfast," she replied.

The others nodded in agreement and in what felt like a second, the chaos resumed.

(***)

After all the Anubis residents finished eating, silence returned to the group. They all sat in anticipation as Nina ripped open the envelope and pulled out a single scrap of parchment.

Nina cleared her throat and unfolded the paper before beginning to read.

"To all residents of Anubis house, Isaac Lenard, and Danielle Richards:

The jewels are not all broken. You are not safe.

-S."

Nina felt her hands grow cold and she set down the letter.

"That's it?" Jerome exclaimed in disbelief. He sat forward and took the paper from where it lay on the table. "Must be some sort of joke."

"The jewels?" Mara questioned. "What jewels?"

Nina shrugged and she snatched the letter from Jerome's hands. "Isaac and Danielle? Who are they?"

"They were those two students that went to Peru with us," Mick answered.

"Peru…" Amber muttered the word under her breath and her eyes shot towards Nina. "We have to get to class."

"Aren't we going to talk about this?" Eddie asked.

Fabian shook his head and stood up from his chair. "It's a joke, just like Jerome said. We should just forget about it. Anyways, Amber's right. We're going to be late."

The rest of the teenagers nodded and slowly the group began to head to class. As soon as all the residents were gone, leaving Nina, Amber, and Fabian, Amber took the letter from Nina's hand.

"Another mystery!" she squealed.

"Why are you excited about this?" Fabian asked.

"Because mysteries are fun," Amber told him.

"Mysteries are what have almost gotten us killed," Fabian reminded her.

"Oh, pish posh," she replied before turning towards Nina. "What are you thinking?"

"Peru," Nina answered, "Remember when we were in the caves and we found that bag of jewels. We thought Alfie had broken all of them, so we left. What if they weren't all broken? What if one of those two students has the one that remained whole?"

"I like the way you think," Amber smirked, "So what are we going to do?"

"I think we should go to class and talk about this later," Fabian suggested.

Nina nodded. "I agree."

Amber sighed and handed the letter back to Nina. "Fine… if you want to ruin the fun."

Nina laughed and shoved the letter into her bag. "We can talk after class."

"What about during lunch?" Amber asked.

Nina shook her head and pulled a binder out of her bag. "I can't. I'm going to the police station to recruit some officers for career day. Mr. Sweet set it up for me."

Amber groaned. "Fine, after class."

"Great, now can we go? I don't want to be late. I have astronomy first period," Fabian stated.

The girls nodded and the trio exited Anubis house and headed to school.

(***)

"Thank you Officer Richards," Nina exclaimed as she followed him out of his office.

Officer Richards smiled at the girl and nodded. "Anything for Eric."

Nina returned the gesture and proceeded to exit the building before spotting someone out of the corner of her eye. Seated towards the back was a handsome dark haired boy. His head hung low and he was hunched over with his hands behind his back.

Nina quickly made her way over to the bench, pausing a few feet in front of it, and watching as Officer Richards walked over to the teen.

"When is this going to stop Isaac? This is the third time this week," he reminded him.

Isaac shrugged and sat up so his dark eyes stared at the officer. "I don't know. Guess it's just a bad habit."

"I'll need to tell your father and get an escort to take you back to school," he replied.

At this statement, Isaac jumped up from his seat and shook his head. "C'mon it wasn't that bad. If Mr. Sweet sees me coming back to school in a police car I'll have detention for the rest of my time there."

"I can take him back," Nina interjected. She stepped forward and Officer Richards looked back at the teen.

"That's not necessary, Nina," he told her.

Nina shook her head. "I insist. It would be a waste to have one of your men take him when I'm headed there anyways."

Officer Richards sighed and glanced at Isaac who was staring at Nina with a slightly raised eyebrow. "You're off the hook… for now. We'll talk later. If I see you back here again your father gets a call."

Isaac nodded and gestured to his back. "Will you uncuff me now?"

Officer Richards took out a small set of keys and quickly undid the handcuffs. As soon as they were off, Isaac rubbed his wrists and began to walk out of the building.

Nina rushed to catch up with him causing the skirt she wore to sway and move with the wind.

"Wait up!" She shouted once they were out on the sidewalk.

Isaac sighed and stopped in his tracks, letting Nina catch up to him.

"Isaac, is it?" She asked.

The boy merely stared at her before continuing to walk, this time at a normal pace.

"Not much of a talker? I just saw you talk in there, so why not spare a few words for the girl that just saved you from a year's worth of detention?" Nina pointed out.

Isaac glared at the girl and shoved his hands in his pockets. "I didn't ask you to do that."

"You didn't, but I needed to talk to you," she told him.

Isaac scoffed and returned his eyes to the street in front of him. "I don't even know you."

"Yes, but I know you. I'm Nina. You came to Peru with us about two weeks ago. You were the one that found those jewels," Nina reminded him.

"You remember that?" Isaac asked.

Nina nodded and she rummaged through her bag before pulling out the letter Anubis house had received in the morning. "I do. My friends and I received a letter this morning and I was wondering if you knew anything about it."

"A letter?" Isaac questioned. He took the envelope out of Nina's hands and pulled out the piece of parchment. After a couple seconds of examining it, Isaac froze.

"What?" Nina asked.

"Umm, nothing," Isaac quickly answered.

Nina narrowed her eyes at him and stepped in front of him to block his path. "What is it?"

"Nothing," Isaac replied more firmly.

"I'm not an idiot. I know that you know something," Nina told him.

He shrugged and stepped around her. "It's just a dumb letter."

"Isaac-," Nina said as she placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Don't talk to me like you know me," he spat out.

Nina was taken aback by the statement and she let her hand fall to her side. Isaac shook his head, his eyes looking remorseful, but instead of apologizing he dusted off his leather jacket and said, "Do yourself a favor and burn the letter."

Immediately, Isaac threw the envelope to the ground and walked off, leaving Nina on her own.

(***)

"You're here!" Amber exclaimed when Nina returned to school. "Okay, we only have ten more minutes until lunch ends, so let's discuss the plan."

"I think we should just forget about it," Nina replied.

"What!" Amber's eyes widened at her best friend and she looked over at Fabian. "What did you say to her?"

Fabian shrugged. "It wasn't me that talked her out of it."

"I talked to Isaac," Nina revealed.

"What!" Amber's voice grew in volume once more and Nina motioned for her to quiet down. "I thought we agreed we were going to do that together."

"I know," Nina sighed, "but he was at the police station, so I took a chance."

"What happened?" Fabian asked.

Nina shook her head. "He doesn't want to help us. He made that quite clear to me, but he does know something. He reacted to that note too quickly to not know something."

"What about the other one? Danielle?" Amber asked.

Nina shrugged and passed Amber the note. "We can try."

"Okay, well she's sitting over there," Fabian informed them before pointing to the girl a few feet away from them.

"How are we going to do this?" Amber asked.

Nina shrugged and took the note from Amber's hand. "We just have to be direct."

Fabian and Amber nodded in agreement and the trio walked up to where Danielle sat at a table by herself, reading a book.

"Excuse me?" Nina offered the blonde a smile and Danielle stared up at the group.

"Can I help you?" she asked.

"You're Danielle, right?" Amber questioned.

"According to my birth certificate," she replied.

Fabian laughed at the joke and Amber shot the boy a look.

"Umm, you went on the Peru trip with us a few weeks ago," Nina told her.

"Yeah," Danielle nodded and closed her book.

"We received this letter in the mail and we wanted to know if you knew anything about it," Nina explained to her before handing her the envelope.

Danielle took a moment to read it before she muttered a curse under her breath and handed them back the letter. "You might want to talk to Isaac. He may know a bit more than I do."

"I knew it!" Nina exclaimed. "He had to be hiding something, but he didn't trust me."

Danielle narrowed her eyes at the girl and added, "After the incident in the cave I saw Isaac put something in his pocket. He probably knows something about it. If he doesn't, you can't blame him. That note is pretty cryptic."

"Thanks for the help," Nina replied and the group started to retreat.

"Wait!" Danielle called.

Nina glanced back at the girl to see her packing up her belongings and running up to them. "I'm going with you."

"Sorry, but this is a Sibuna thing," Amber pointed out.

Danielle shook her head and hung her messenger bag on her shoulder. "I don't know what that is, but I do know that Isaac won't talk to you guys. Like you stated before, he doesn't trust you. You need me."

The trio exchanged looks before ultimately nodding and saying, "C'mon."

Danielle nodded and they all exited the courtyard.

(***)

The second Isaac returned to the school he headed straight for Isis house. He rushed up the stairs to his room and immediately locked the door behind him.

"Where is it?" he muttered to himself as he began to rummage through random drawers.

After what seemed like an hour, Isaac spotted the brown parcel out of the corner of his eye. It sat on one of his shelves buried behind an array of miscellaneous items. He walked over to the package and carefully took it off the shelf before unwrapping it and dumping its components into his hand.

The bright red ruby shimmered and glowed in the light coming from the window. It almost made Isaac want to abandon his next planned action, but he knew that if he didn't go through with it those Anubis 'losers' were going to find him.

"Okay, time to get this over with," he stated before setting the ruby down on his desk. He grabbed his heaviest textbook and in one fluid motion slammed it down the jewel. Upon impact the ruby broke into 12 pieces and scattered all around his desk.

Isaac sighed and he tossed his textbook aside before moving to collect the fragments. Just as he picked up one of them, his bedroom door burst open and Danielle rushed in.

Her eyes widened at the sight before her and she gulped. "What did you do?"

"Danielle, what are you doing here?" he asked.

"I came to stop you from doing anything rash… apparently I'm too late," she replied.

Isaac shook his head and he put the fragment he had in his hand in his pocket before sliding the rest into a burlap pouch. "You talked to those freaks, didn't you?"

Danielle laughed and took the pouch from his hand. "I did and now we have to go to Anubis house."

"I've heard stories of that place. Are you sure you want us associating with those people?" He asked.

Danielle hesitated for a moment before shaking her head and gesturing for him to follow her. "Let's go."

(***)

All of Anubis house plus Danielle and Isaac stood crowded around the dining table, the fragments in the center of the room.

"You are ridiculous. I know you love your mysteries, but this is a bit much," Jerome replied as he looked over at Nina, Fabian, and Amber.

"I have a feeling, okay?" Nina explained. "Everyone take one of the fragments."

All of the students reached for a piece except for Isaac who already grasped one in his hand.

"Okay, now what?" Mara asked.

Amber shrugged and looked down at her fragment. "That's all we had."

Jerome rolled his eyes and glared at the trio. "I told you this was all a bunch of-,"

"I have another letter for you," Victor exclaimed as he walked into the room. He set down an envelope on the table and looked at the teens. "I suggest you start replying. I'm sick of all these appearing."

The moment Victor left the room Nina reached for the letter, which was bulkier than last time, and looked at the envelope. "There's no return address."

"Who cares?" Isaac exclaimed, "Just open it."

Nina sighed and she broke the seal of the envelope before pulling out the letter. "It reads:

Do not break the last jewel.
I know that my instruction may come late, but please do not break it.
If I have in fact sent this after you have broken the jewel, do not touch its fragments.
If you do, your life will change forever.

-S

To reach me, use the component inside."

The cold feeling from earlier washed over Nina's body again and she looked up at her house mates.

"Well thanks for that guys," Mick spat out.

"How were we supposed to know?" Fabian asked.

"You could've used common sense!" Mick shouted.

Fabian scoffed and said, "This coming from you! Mick, the biggest-,"

"Will you stop!" Patricia interrupted them.

The boys immediately shut their mouths and Patricia nodded. "Thank you. Now what's in the envelope?"

Nina took out the heavy object and raised an eyebrow. "It's a phone."

"Is there anything on it?" Danielle asked.

Nina shrugged and she unlocked it to find a single contact displayed on the screen. "It's a phone number."

"Well what are you waiting for?" Mara asked. "Call it."

Nina exchanged a nervous look with Amber before dialing the number and pressing the phone to her ear.

It began to ring.

AN: I hope you enjoyed the chapter. The next one should be coming soon. The mystery is still relatively unknown, but trust me the next chapter is when all the mysterious, dramatic, and supernatural stuff begins to occur, so do not fear. Anyways if you enjoyed this and want me to continue please review, favorite, and subscribe!

-Karina