Fabian

Most people I knew had a preferred place of study. Somewhere they went when they needed to get away from distractions and buckle down to finish that huge project or study for that test tomorrow. I had always been partial to the library. Whenever anyone else bothered to come in they tended to sit on the edges of the room in hopes that the librarian wouldn't hear them whispering, or else see whatever dirty magazine they were hiding inside a book. I gravitated towards the middle of the room, knowing it would immediately get me labeled as someone actually there to work and therefore not to be bothered. Almost no one talked to me while I was there, so it worked exceedingly well as a study spot.

At least it had until today.

There was supposed to be a calculus quiz right now, and in an attempt to stall, Jerome and Alfie – in all their endless wisdom – had rigged the school's loudspeaker to play a different song every two minutes, and all classes had been put on hold until they could get it fixed. It was mostly a mix of show tunes and line dancing songs, but every so often we'd get an outlier – the last one for example, had been a song Nina said was called 'La Cucharacha'. Most students would have gone back to their houses by now but Sweetie was on a witch-hunt for whoever had engineered the whole thing and forbidden anyone from leaving, so the school had scattered itself across campus. Nina and I had taken refuge in the library; she was reading a book on Egyptian dream myths and I was trying to review for calculus, but the background music made it rather difficult.

"I'm going to murder them," I declared in a low voice, knowing she would know whom I was talking about.

Nina's lips twitched upwards. "I take it you're not a fan of the Macarena," she said in response, referring to the song currently playing.

"I don't really have an opinion on the Macarena one way or the other, but the rest of the day has been completely thrown out of order. They'll probably have to shorten all the classes and we'll still be taking the Calc quiz tomorrow, so all they've done is give us more to worry about tonight. I swear they never think." I looked up to see Nina looking at me with a small smile on her face. "What?"

She shook her head and went back to her book. "Nothing."

I nudged her with my elbow. "Come on, what is it?"

Nina sucked her lips in, clearly trying to hide another smile, and looked up at me, eyes twinkling. "You're cute when you're being geeky."

My cheeks warmed and she giggled, before going back to her book. I gave a slight cough before turning back to my calculus notes, ignoring the 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow' remix that had just started playing. I let the calming logic of math wrap around me, tuning out everything else but SOHCAHTOA, and quadratic equations. I had done such a good job that when something lightly bumped my foot I almost didn't feel it.

I glanced up at Nina in confusion, but she appeared to be studiously reading and I assumed I'd imagined it. I went back to my notes; only a few seconds later, something traced its way along my ankle and up my leg before it drew back and my breathing stilled. I subtly glanced over at Nina again, only to see that she was still determinedly looking at her book, trying not to smile. I looked back down and pretended to focus on my notes, simultaneously shifting my foot forward to run it along the underside of Nina's shoe. I had just drawn back when she defiantly bumped her foot against mine again, tangling our feet together.

My lips were shaking with the effort of keeping a straight face and I focused on sliding my foot around to the back of her leg and running it up so that the tip of my toes just barely knocked the underside of her knee and I could feel her leg trembling slightly even through my shoe. Her shoe came to rest lightly on top of mine and she gently rubbed back and forth, making my pulse go considerably faster than it was already going.

I was just beginning to ponder whether or not I would have a heart attack and die right here when her cell phone rang. Nina huffed quietly and quickly pulled the phone out of her bag, looking around to make sure the librarian hadn't heard as she flipped it open and held it to her ear. "Hello?" A pause followed and I used it to nudge her foot a few times, feather light at first, each time slightly harder than the last. "Hey Patricia, what's up?" I was more than a little pleased to hear her voice sounded a bit higher than normal.

Whatever pleasurable feelings I may've had suddenly vanished as Nina sat up straight, pulling her feet away from mine and shutting her book with the hand not holding her phone. "What are you talking about?" Her tone had become dead serious with a hint of panic and I looked up in concern as she started fiddling with her locket. "Just now?" Another pause. "Well did he take anything?" It was more than a little difficult to try and figure out what she was talking about since I could only hear half the conversation, and I desperately wanted to ask what was going on. "Well did he at least say what he was looking for?" The answer must not have been one to her liking because she sighed and tugged at her hair. "I can't. You-Know-Who screwed up the loudspeaker and they've got the whole building on lockdown until they can fix it and find out who." After a few seconds she held the phone up, probably so that Patricia could hear the 'She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain' rap Jerome had done last year currently blasting out of the speakers overhead. "If it goes on for much longer they'll probably send us back to our houses. Can you guys keep him out until then?" The tension in her forehead relaxed and Nina blew out a breath. "OK, thanks. I owe you one. See you later."

Nina flipped the phone shut and placed her head in her hands with a sigh, shoulders rigid. "Nina what happened?" I asked.

She held the position for another two seconds before lowering her arms to fold them on top of the desk. "Patricia and Eddie caught Victor going through my things." She sounded equal parts angry and resigned. I, however, fell entirely into the former category.

"Are you kidding me? Where does he get the right to do that?" I demanded.

"Probably somewhere in his handbook of 'How To Be a Housemaster from Hell For Dummies'," she snapped. "He didn't even say what he was looking for, said one of us stole his pin or something." Nina glanced around and tugged her bag so that it was facing us both, lifting one side up a bit so that I had an unobstructed view of the thick book inside. "What if he was looking for this?" The question came out so quietly it was more of a breath that happened to have words in it, and she quickly closed the bag again and slid the book she'd been reading in front of it.

I placed my hand on top of hers, wishing Patricia and Eddie had been able to find out what he'd wanted. "How could he possibly know about it? Besides Victor's normally less obvious about things like that. He was probably just… doing something else."

The crease in her forehead remained but she laughed. "How very specific," she teased.

"Yes I do pride myself on my specificity," I grinned and linked our fingers together. "Victor's always pulling crazy stunts like this. Don't worry about it until you have to, alright? You've got enough to worry about as it is."

Nina smiled and squeezed my hand. I didn't even realize I was leaning in or that she was too until we were close enough that I could count her eyelashes if I wanted to. Her lips, her beautiful lips were right there and I was so close to kissing her and –

"There you are."

Nina and I jumped apart, turning to see Joy leaning against a bookshelf. "Sweetie says to go back to our houses, classes are cancelled until they can get this fixed. The housemasters are going to figure out if it was one of their students."

"Thanks Joy." Nina smiled a little too widely to be genuine, and her hand was squeezing mine so hard it was starting to hurt. "Anything else?"

Joy shrugged. "Nope."

"So you're just standing there because you feel like it."

Joy smiled tightly and turned, heading over to the exit. Nina relaxed her death grip on me with a sigh and I glanced down to make sure my hand still had circulation. "You know, you could try and be a little nicer to her," I suggested.

Nina turned from glaring at the back of Joy's head to glaring at me and I winced inwardly. "Fabian."

"Yes?"

"Try not to be such a good person. It's irritating."

She withdrew her hand from mine, grabbed her bag and headed over to the library doors, leaving me to pack up my stuff as quickly as possible and try to catch up.

The entirety of Anubis house sat in the living room as Victor paced in a circle in front of us. I was squeezed on to the couch with Nina, Amber and Eddie. Patricia sat with her arms crossed on one of the chairs while Joy perched on the arm of it, and Jerome, Alfie and Mara sat on the couch across from us. Jerome had his hands clasped behind his head and one leg resting on the other, looking entirely too relaxed, while Alfie's leg bounced up and down and he did his best not to look Victor in the eye.

This had been going on for roughly the past ten minutes. Making us stew in our own potential guilt had been one of Victor's favorite interrogation tactics for as long as I'd known him. However since this time we knew exactly what the crime was and who had done it, all of us – except Alfie – were pretty much unaffected.

After another few minutes Victor finally began speaking. "One of you," he proclaimed, hands clasped behind his back. "Has erred." He gave us all a good glare and I couldn't help but wonder if he'd practiced this speech in front of the mirror. "You all know what I'm talking about. That little stunt with the loudspeakers earlier. It was not amusing in the slightest, and rest assured the perpetrators – as well as anyone covering for them – will be punished to the fullest extent of the law." I fought the urge to roll my eyes as I pictured all the things I could be doing right now that would be less of a waste of time. Flossing my teeth for example. Organizing my books. Stabbing myself in the eye with a thumbtack.

"I am giving you the chance — " Victor raised a finger in the air for emphasis, " — to confess. Right here, and right now. If you own up to your wrongdoings, you will be granted leniency. If you remain silent, then all of you lose your weekend privileges this month, and I will be forced to search your school bags."

I felt as Nina went rigid all over. "What do you mean search our bags?" Her voice shook ever so slightly.

Victor turned from looking suspiciously at Patricia and Joy to face Nina. "I mean, Miss Martin, that I will be looking for the tools used to hijack the school's technology. If they are found in your possession, you will be punished. If they are not in your possession, than you have no reason to worry." He paused and looked at Nina suspiciously as her face took on the appearance of someone trying very, very hard to look like they weren't worried in the slightest. "Do you have reason to worry, Miss Martin?"

Nina shook her head quickly. "Nope! Not at all, not a single, reason, to be worried. Scout's honor!"

I couldn't stop my eyes from glancing at the bag next to her, able to just barely make out the outline of the Book of the Dead through the fabric. There was a chance Victor had no idea what it was, that he wouldn't recognize it. There was also a chance that he was one step ahead of us, as always, and this entire thing had been an elaborate ploy to search our things after he hadn't found it in her room. Victor continued to stare at Nina, the scowl etched into his face betraying a hint of triumph. "Open your bag Miss Martin."

I saw Nina's hand contract into a fist. "What?"

"I said open your bag."

"I, uh, I don't have it."

I winced. Victor raised his eyebrows. "And what is that sitting right next to you?"

"Umm…"

"Hand it over Miss Martin."

Nina slowly, oh so slowly pulled her bag onto her lap and was just lifting it up when Amber let out a piercing scream. Everyone immediately looked over as she sprang from the couch and leapt onto the coffee table.

Victor turned to face her in absolute bewilderment and Nina took the opportunity to take the book out of her backpack and shove it underneath the couch as Amber pointed towards Mara's feet. "Spider!" she shrieked. "It's a spider can't you see it?"

Mara glanced down before looking back up at Amber in concern. "There's nothing there Amber."

"What?" The blonde looked over in puzzlement before shrugging her shoulders. "My mistake. Sorry!"

Amber tossed her hair over her shoulder before daintily hopping off the coffee table and returning to her place next to Nina.

Victor fixed a suspicious gaze on our resident fashionista, before turning back to Nina. "Miss Martin I will ask you one more time and one more time only. Hand over your bag."

Nina rolled her eyes but complied, folding her arms as she did so. He upended it on the table Amber had just been standing on and Nina scowled as he sifted through her pens, notebooks and hair ties. Victor let out a much aggrieved sigh after a few moments. "Can none of you ever make anything easy for me?" he demanded.

"Come now Victor what fun would that be?" Jerome grinned.

Victor's shoulders straightened as he looked over at the school's most notorious duo. "Lewis. Clark. Your bags."

"Why do you always assume it's one of us?" Patricia snapped as Victor collected Alfie and Jerome's bags. "Every time anything goes wrong you immediately blame someone in this house and I for one find it unfair. If an earthquake hit you'd probably find a way to blame us for it."

"Just for that I'll take your bag as well Miss Williamson."

Her mouth fell open in indignant shock and I felt a twinge of sympathy. Patricia should know better than to draw Victor's attention when he was in hunting mode. Victor held out an expectant hand and Patricia set her jaw, defiantly throwing her bag at him with enough force to knock him back a step, causing Eddie to snicker.

"Yours as well Mr. Miller."

"Oh you don't want my bag," Eddie assured him.

Victor raised his eyebrows. "Why's that?"

Eddie shrugged. "I brought some pancakes from breakfast to school this morning and so now everything in there is covered in syrup. I was planning on throwing it in the washing machine later. I mean you're welcome to my bag if you want it, but I wouldn't."

Victor stalked over so that he was right in front of Eddie and leaned down so that they were face to face. Eddie looked distinctly uncomfortable until Victor pulled back a few seconds later, and strode out of the room. "Expect your bags back shortly. And clean up that mess Miss Martin."

Nina threw up her hands but stood and started to collect her things. "Right, of course. Makes sense since I'm the one who dumped my things everywhere."

I stood to help as the vengeful muttering continued, gathering up her notebooks and handing them to her. She gave me a small smile. "Thanks."

I smiled back and we finished picking up her things as Amber began interrogating her boyfriend. "He's not going to find anything in there, is he Alfie?"

Alfie grinned, considerably more relaxed now that he was no longer on the receiving end of Victor's hawk stare. "Course not Ambs."

"Where did you put the whatever-you-used then?" The blonde's eyebrows knit together in confusion.

Jerome clapped a hand to his heart. "Oh ye of little faith! What have we done to convince you it was us who toyed with the school's technology? It's practically vandalism. Have our wretched housemates so little confidence, in the inherent goodness of our hearts, that you believe we would stoop so low?"

Nina and I and everyone else in the room immediately stopped everything we were doing as Jerome was met with a mix of exasperated glares and 'are you kidding me right now' stares. "Let's make a list shall we?" asked Patricia acidly. Nina took advantage of everyone's distraction to yank the Book out from under the couch and shove it back in her bag.

Jerome laughed. "We borrowed them from the janitor's closet and shoved them in some sixth-year's locker when we were done."

"Jerome!" Mara looked reproachful.

"What?" He looked confused. "The teachers all know it was us. We just made sure they couldn't prove it."

Nina and I finished collecting her stuff and she shoved it into her bag, making absolutely no attempt at organization. She grabbed my hand and I felt her press a piece of paper into my grip. I looked up at her, a question rising but she preemptively silenced me with a quick press of her lips to mine and pulled back with a wink, strolling out of the room.

Slightly puzzled, I sat back down on the couch, doing my best to subtly unfold the note and glance down at it. In Nina's precise handwriting she'd printed, 'My room. Five minutes.'

I frowned and slid the note back into my pocket, letting my housemates conversation slide into a buzz in the background as I tried to puzzle out what she wanted me for. I waited the five minutes – or at least as long as I could stand – and walked out after Nina.

I took the stairs two at a time in my curiosity. Maybe something had happened with Victor or the Book. Maybe Nepthys had contacted her again.

I knocked lightly on the door. "Nina?" I twisted the handle and pushed open the door. She was sitting on the bed, one leg swung over the end of it, chin propped up by a hand, leaning over the Book. Nina looked up as the door creaked open and grinned when she saw me. "What's up?"

Nina gave a little laugh, her tongue poking out between her teeth as she shut the book and placed it on the floor next to the bed. I waited for her to answer my question, but instead she tilted her head, hair spilling over her shoulder as she eyed me, a smile blossoming on her lips. I felt a bit confused. What had she called me up here for? "Umm, Nina?"

She slid off the bed and walked over. "Yes?"

"So you – you asked me to come up here — "

"Did I?"

I blinked. "Yes. And so I'm – I'm here now and I'm jus – just wondering as to the why I'm here — "

The words in my throat died abruptly as Nina hooked her fingers into my belt loops, pressing me back against the door and simultaneously pulling herself closer so that her body was pressed into mine. My heart couldn't seem to calm down and I could feel the blood rushing through my body. She put her lips to my ear and whispered, "Because I asked you to come."

"Huh." It wasn't much of a reply, but it was the most intelligent sound I was capable of making at the moment. "Again, why?"

Nina gave a delicate lift of her shoulders, before releasing me and spinning away, walking over to the other side of the room, leaving me feeling as though I'd had a Band-Aid ripped off and been doused in ice water. I stared after her in confusion for a few seconds as she idly straightened the curtains before walking over to her. "Are you ever going to give me a direct answer?" I was extremely confused by how Nina was acting right now, enough that I forced myself to wonder if this was a dream.

"Maybe if you start asking the right questions," she said. I got the distinct feeling Nina was enjoying herself right now.

"What are the right questions?"

Her hands stilled. "Well rather than ask why I brought you up here," she turned and leaned back against the wall, eyes roaming up and down my body. "Try asking what I plan to do now that I've got you here." I'd never understood the expression undressing someone with your eyes before now. Although in all honesty, rather than simply undressing me, Nina seemed to be tearing my clothes off with her eyes and flinging them to different corners of the room.

I suddenly realized why she'd brought me up here and I felt myself beginning to smile. "Well then," I walked over to Nina, placing one hand on the wall behind her for balance. "What do you plan to do?"

Her eyes sparkled with delight and she ran a finger along my collar. "What do you think?"

I let the hand not on the wall wrap itself around her, splaying my fingers against the small of her back. "That's still not an answer."

"No?"

"No."

"Hmm. Well that is unfortunate."

My lips twitched. "Quite."

Nina's smile widened and she placed her hands firmly on my shoulders, walking me back across the room. "Maybe instead of telling you — " the backs of my knees hit the bed and my pulse jumped " — I should be showing you." Before I could quite comprehend what was happening, her hands on my shoulders had contracted into fists and she swung me around and tugged, sending us both toppling back onto the bed.

A sound a bit like a grunt a bit like an, 'oof' escaped my lips as Nina dragged me down on top of her. Our legs were tangled up in each other and our bodies fit together like two pieces of a puzzle, sending heat rushing through me as I felt everywhere – everywhere – Nina pressed up against me.

I made to prop myself up slightly, not wanting to crush her but she smacked my hands out from under me and I dropped back down again. She smiled, running her hands up and down my arms, making me shiver. I didn't think I'd ever seen Nina like this before, this teasing, playful side of her. It was… fun. I leaned my head down, brushing against her ear. "Don't you have something you're supposed to be showing me?"

Nina kept that small smile on her face, allowing one hand to wander over near the nape of my neck and under my shirt collar. "Would you like me to show you?" Her voice was a murmur.

I couldn't remember the last time I'd enjoyed myself this much. "If you want to show me."

Her smile became a smirk. "Good answer."

Nina wrapped her legs around me and gripped my arms, rolling us over and I barely registered my surprise at how we didn't fall off the bed meant for maybe one and a half people at the most. The second I was underneath her Nina leaned down and fused her lips with mine. Adrenaline crackled through me and I reached up to knot a hand in her hair, letting the other skate down her back. Her lips tasted like spearmint, sharp and tangy. I opened my mouth to hers, trying to taste more of her and she opened hers right back, nipping at my lips and surprising a sound of surprise and pleasure out of me.

We'd never done anything like this before, at least not with each other. I didn't know what Nina's experience was, but I was simply moving on instinct as my hands roamed over her back, her lower back, and then lower still. I felt her tense and I froze, our lips a hair's breadth apart. "Nina?" A question.

"Don't stop." A warning.

I felt myself smile. "As you wish." I moved my head back up to kiss her again, losing myself in the taste of her, the feel of her. I felt like there was probably something else we should or could be worrying about, but any time that particular unpleasant thought reared its ugly head, it immediately flew back out every time Nina ran her tongue along the roof of my mouth, or slid her hands inside my shirt to run them along my shoulders – she had somehow gotten the top few buttons undone without my noticing. Something I was learning quickly was that Nina was very, very good at distracting me with her lips and her hands and every other part of her.

A dull rushing was filling my ears that increased with every brush of Nina's fingers against bare skin, every press of her lips to mine. There was a burning need rising up in me to feel more of her, and that was all I knew. That desire for more. I moved one of my hands from where it was beneath her ear, cupping her neck, and brought the other up from her waist. I drew a tiny bit of my focus away from kissing her and directed my hands towards her school jacket. I twisted my fingers into the fabric, and as closely pressed together as we were, felt her breath hitch the slightest bit. "Take it off," she whispered.

A nervous energy bubbled up inside of me. I wasn't sure how far she wanted to go, or how far I was willing to go, not just with Nina but also with our housemates a single floor below, and her roommate capable of entering at any second. I just knew I didn't want to stop yet. I clenched my fingers around the blazer and started to slowly slide it off, inch by inch. Nina seemed to have considerably less patience than I did however, because the second it passed her shoulders she arched her arms and tore it the rest of the way off, flinging it to some corner of the room.

My hands molded themselves to her arms through her thin uniform shirt; I was a cartographer, mapping her out with my fingers. I moved one hand over to curl in her hair, letting the strands slide through my grasp as the other shifted to glide beneath her shirt, tracing her collarbone. She made a sound against my mouth and I was convinced someone had drugged me because this was nothing less than ecstasy and surely I would die from the pleasure. But I honestly couldn't think of a better way to go.

The door slammed open and Nina leapt upright, straightening her shirt as Amber strolled in and walked over to her vanity, seeming not to notice me. "OK Neens so I've been thinking about what I want you to charm for me or use your Chosen One magic on or whatever, and I've decided that I've found it and since we've decided you can only do one at a time I've decided that you should do me first since I'm your roommate and your best friend — "

Amber chose this moment to turn towards us, a hair clip about go into her head, her voice stuttering out when she saw Nina sitting semi-rigid on the edge of the bed, me propped up on my elbows, both of us looking more than a little disheveled. Her eyes flicked between us, once, twice, and then she tossed her hair and smiled. "Hi Fabian."

I lifted a hand. "Hi Amber."

"So. Right. I'm going to go then, and Nina you can get to this later, so I'll just be, umm, going then."

Nina took pity on the blonde girl, interrupting her roommate. "Amber, you do know I'm doing everyone later tonight, right?"

Amber frowned, her hand on the door handle. "What?"

Nina winced. "Right, my bad. I texted the others, I was going to tell you later. I'm doing them tonight before bed; I want to get them all done at once."

Amber folded her arms. "And you forgot to tell me? I'm an original Sibuna member!"

"I was going to tell you! It just… slipped my mind," Nina tried to defend herself. "It's in here at about nine."

"OK, noted," Amber said. "So I'll just, umm," she coughed. "I'll leave you to it then. Bye!"

She opened and ducked through the door, pausing to poke her head back in. "Oh, and put a chair or something in front of the door! Honestly, you two have no sense sometimes."

The door clicked shut and Nina made an annoyed sound of frustration, falling back on top of me. I let her weight knock me back onto the mattress and grinned. "It wasn't that bad." She raised her head to glare at me in disbelief and I laughed. I couldn't help it. "Come on Nina, just try and forget about it."

That smile that had been driving me crazy mere moments ago drew itself back onto her lips as she sat up. "Forget about it huh?"

I nodded, pushing myself up to look her in the eyes. "That was what I said, yes."

The smile widened. "I know what could help me forget."

I didn't have time to respond before she wrapped her arms around my neck, attaching her lips to mine. More than happy to assist my girlfriend in her quest for temporary amnesia, I twined my arms around her back, and together we fell back on to the bed, losing ourselves in each other.

Sibunas were good at a lot of things. Solving puzzles. Evading vengeful rulers. Cheating death. Pissing off Victor. Sitting in an even circle, is not one of our talents. Some of us always end up a bit on the outside, or too in the middle, and because Amber is a perfectionist we then have to spend roughly the first five minutes of every meeting fixing ourselves so that we're perfectly symmetrical. Today it was taking longer than normal, mostly because Joy didn't feel like moving and Alfie kept jumping up to say something. When we finally got settled, everyone pooled his or her objects in the middle. Joy had brought head phones, Alfie had a stuffed clown doll that would probably give me nightmares, Amber was using her eye mask, I'd brought a pair of socks and Patricia – unsure what to use that Victor wouldn't snatch – had ended up bringing a pajama shirt. The girls were doubtful of that one. "You do realize that's the only shirt you can wear until this is over?" Amber checked.

Patricia shrugged. "I'll wash it."

"Every day?" Joy prodded.

Patricia folded her arms. "Oh stuff it already, it's not your shirt."

Amber opened her mouth to protest again but Nina put a hand on her arm. "It's not the end of the world. Let her do what she wants." She gestured at the pile. "Everyone sure? Remember, no take backs." There was a general consensus of head noddings and sounds of affirmation. Nina flipped the Book open to the page and swallowed, looking slightly ill. "Eddie?"

"Right here." Her Osirian was directly to her right and held out a hand. She clasped it, linking their fingers together, looking immediately more reassured and I fought down an irrational flare of discomfort. They'd explained that since Nina had practically collapsed the last time she'd done this, she would be drawing on Eddie's strength this time around as a precaution.

Nina held out her left hand over the collection of objects; and though she seemed calmer having Eddie nearby, I could see the lingering tension in her body. Reading from the Book, she started speaking.

If you asked me what she said, I couldn't tell you. It wasn't any language I recognized, although she was speaking in a way that sounded American. Although admittedly that might have been the accent. Wisps of red started forming around her hand, clawing at her fingers but Nina kept going, her words rising around us, spilling from her lips and filling the air with their melody. I don't know how long she spoke for. I lost track of time, of sense, of all things meaningful. There was just Nina and the spell – because what else could it be – that she was casting, the red around her hand, swirling from her palm to cradle our objects in its pulsating grasp. I couldn't help but feel slightly ashamed that I'd picked socks. Surely I should've chosen something more sentimental, something more profound for such an occasion?

Nina lowered her hand and the last few shimmers of red seemed to be absorbed into our objects, which gave a quick, faint, red throb, before fading back to normalcy. I looked over at Nina and nearly did a double take. Her face had gone slack and her hand was gripping Eddie's so tightly her knuckles had turned white. There was a pale golden glow where their hands were joined that seemed to be flowing out of Eddie and into Nina. This went on for a little while before Nina released his hand and exhaled once, carefully and hard.

"Nina you all right?" I couldn't remember the last time I'd seen her look this bad.

She nodded, once, a sharp movement. She then proceeded to place her hands over her face and lean back until her head was on the floor behind her. Eddie gripped her by the shoulder and closed his eyes for a few seconds, before nodding. "She'll be fine. Just drained is all."

"How drained?" I asked, unable to keep the sharp edge out of my voice.

Eddie tried to grin but it looked more like a grimace. "Well she won't have any trouble falling asleep tonight, that's for sure."

"But it worked right?" asked Amber. "I mean, the whatever-she-did? It worked?"

Eddie shrugged. "Looked like it."

"Awesome." Patricia reached in and grabbed her shirt out of the pile, looking at it suspiciously, as though she expected it to grow teeth.

Joy noticed her staring and laughed. "It's still a shirt Patricia. Just armored up, or whatever."

Alfie made a face as he grabbed the clown doll. "Great. Now I'm going to be thinking this thing's possessed or something. It's not possessed is it Nina?"

Aside from a noise that could not be interpreted as either affirmative or derisive, Nina did not respond to the question.

I looked at Eddie, worried, but he waved me off. "Trust me. She'll go to bed, wake up and be fine in the morning."

"Hollyeyetnight. Ianaell."

The group looked at Nina in confusion. "What?" Alfie asked.

She made a frustrated noise and lifted her hand, floundering it around for a while before it landed on Eddie's shoulder. She tugged him down so her mouth was next to his ear and said something I couldn't hear, but it made Eddie frown. "No. Bad idea Neens."

"What's a bad idea?" asked Amber.

Eddie lifted himself back into a sitting position. "She says she'll be fine tonight and wants to get out of the room."

"What room? This room?" asked Joy.

"No, the room we're stuck in, the one we had to come to you guys for help with."

Patricia rolled her eyes. "Oh you mean the freaky dream room with too many keys. I mean she'll technically be sleeping while she's there, so she should be fine right?"

Eddie frowned. "Well, technically probably, but — "

"Look she's got those earrings she charmed, she's coming anyway. And if we take them the only thing that happens is that psycho lady starts killing her in her sleep again."

Alfie – who had been started staring at her strangely – moved his head close to hers and looked at her very carefully. Patricia shoved him away and folded her arms. "What?" she snapped.

He shrugged. "That's the most logic I've ever heard you use in the same breath," he explained.

Patricia smacked him.

∞"What if we all choose a key at the same time, pull it off the wall, and hope for the best?"

The rest of us let out a collective groan. This was the fifth time Amber had suggested something like this in twenty minutes. So Nina, for the fifth time in twenty minutes, again explained that wouldn't work. Amber wrinkled her nose. "OK, see, you say that something bad is going to happen, but we don't know what that potentially bad thing would be. What if we just wake up?"

Patricia, sitting on the floor nursing her foot, rolled her eyes. "OK, after everything we saw last year, if you still want to risk it, go ahead. However if you try, I will probably break your fingers."

Amber gasped, sounding offended, and walked over to where Alfie was stomping on random patches of floor, testing for hollowness.

According to Eddie's watch – although who knows how accurate it was right now – we'd been here for about an hour, examining every single nook and cranny of the room, removing the lanterns from the walls, only to realize this did nothing and put them back, even standing aside when Patricia grew so frustrated she kicked the door. This had accomplished absolutely nothing except to entertain the rest of us as she hopped around for the next few minutes, cursing and rubbing her toe before Eddie got her to sit down. The only thing we'd managed with any certainty was when Alfie had – accidentally – snapped a thick, wooden stick off the wall that no one had even noticed was there. He was currently twirling it between his hands, so most of us were giving him a wide berth, for fear of possible concussions.

I glanced over at Nina who was seemingly bickering with Eddie in the corner. I was just about to walk over when Joy called out from her place near the message, "Hey anyone bring a torch?"

Eddie opened his mouth and Nina answered before he could even sound the question. "Flashlight." I bit back a smile at how smug she sounded, thinking back to two years ago. We'd been trapped in the attic and when I'd suggested a torch, she'd derisively asked if I wanted to burn the place down. She'd been so… American back then. Not that she wasn't still American now, but she no longer took a few seconds to process whenever one of us used British slang.

"What do you need it for?" Patricia asked.

Joy scratched a fingernail against the wall. "It feels like there might be something written here, but I can't tell if it's a stain, or intentional, or what. And it doesn't help that the lights are absolutely useless."

Amber fished around in her pocket before tossing a miniature pink one over. Joy caught it with a thanks, and clicked it on, pressing it up against the wall and squinting. "There's definitely something here," she said a few seconds later, sounding excited. Joy had only joined at the very end last year; she didn't yet know the thrill that accompanied solving one of these puzzles.

Nervous energy started to fill the room as our focus shifted over to Joy. "Try moving back a bit," I suggested. She turned to me with a confused look, but shrugged and took a few steps back, keeping the light fixed on the same spot. The brightness filled up the room, washing everything in a blinding whiteness that made us all blink as we waited for our eyes to adjust. "There!" Alfie pointed. In the center of the message were rings of circles, growing bigger as they moved outwards. And at the center was a crudely drawn picture of fire. It was dark enough to blend in with the walls, so dark that without the torch we probably never would have seen it. I tilted my head. The circles looked familiar, almost like a, like —

"It's a target." I turned to see Nina's entire face had lit up. She shoved herself off of the wall and hurried over to the lanterns, yanking the closest one off. "Joy, don't move that light."

I walked over as she pried the metal top off. It had clearly been removable once, but was currently rusted shut. "What are you thinking?" I asked.

She looked up at me and grinned, making my heart thump painfully. "Wait and see."

The lid came off with a squeal and she held a hand out to Alfie. "Give me the stick."

"It's not a stick, it's a staff," Alfie protested, even as he walked over to hand it to her.

Nina took it from him and grinned. "It's not a staff Alfie. It's a torch." She dipped the stick (staff, torch, whatever) into the lantern and there was a sudden flare that made Amber cry out. Nina passed the lantern to me with a 'hold that please' and walked over to the wall, holding the now flaming wood out to the side, careful to stay out of the way of Joy's… torch. Hefting it, I saw as she took a single deep breath, and pressed the flaming end to the fire in the center of the target.

For the briefest second, nothing happened.

Then —

Nina cried out and jumped back, the torch clattering to the ground as the entire target flared up, fire consuming everywhere the design had been until the whole thing was fire and as I ran over to Nina to help her up, I briefly wondered if she'd set the room on fire and we were going to be burned alive. But no, the fire was too purposeful for that. Now that all the rings and the drawing in the middle were burning, things seemed to have stopped catching fire. Then the flames began to move.

They disconnected themselves from each other and broke into pieces, wiggling around on the wall like fiery caterpillars. I felt Nina clenching my hand tightly, probably wondering what was going to happen next. They shifted and squirmed and eventually clicked into a new pattern, a row of letters, spelling out, "From the middle to the back. 7 left. 4 up." No one seemed to object to my reading aloud, they were all still too busy staring. Now that they'd given their message, the flames slowly burned away, leaving nothing, not even scorch marks, to show that they'd been there. Even the target had come back, sitting there looking as dark and unused as ever.

I glanced over at Nina and saw her face – well all of her really – had gone tense. I gave her hand a squeeze. "Hey. You good?" I made sure to keep my voice to a murmur, not knowing what was wrong or if she wanted people to realize anything was wrong.

She swallowed and nodded. "I'm just… not a huge fan of fire is all. But I'm fine. I promise." She was still frowning though, so I did my best to smile reassuringly. When that didn't work, I pressed a quick kiss to her mouth. She smiled when I drew back, and I mentally high fived myself.

"WHY," Patricia's demanding tone drew our focus to the rest of the group, "Would you think we'd need string? No, really. I'm genuinely curious."

Amber stuck her chin out. "Well it turns out we do, so good thing for all of us that I brought it isn't it."

"Why do we need string?" Nina asked.

"While you two were being all kissy-kissy," Eddie smirked as Nina squeaked and my face warmed, "We decided middle to back means middle lantern to back wall. We're sticking with the lantern theme and this wall's right across from that one, so it makes sense." While he'd been speaking Amber had tied one end of the string to the top of the lantern and was walking the other end to the wall across from it.

"Here." She tapped with her finger. "This is the middle."

Joy clapped her hands together, grinning. "OK, what was it? Four down, something left?"

"Seven left, four up," I supplied. She beamed at me and I felt myself smile back, not noticing how the smile once again slid from Nina's face before she drew her hand out of mine and walked over to Amber.

She counted out seven bricks to the left, and four up, as Joy walked over to me. "How did you know what that thing said?" she asked.

I shrugged. "Back when Nina first got here we were trying to read a message on the back of this painting, and we needed Egyptian numbers to figure out part of it. I kind of just, memorized them I guess."

Joy grinned impishly at me. "That is so cool Fabes."

I felt my eyebrows rising in surprise. "Really?"

"Found something!" Nina's declaration cut off whatever Joy's answer might have been. I couldn't hear whatever she said to Amber from across the room, so Joy and I walked over as Amber pulled a nail file out of her pocket and handed it to Nina as Patricia threw up her hands in apparent surrender.

Silence crackled through the room as Nina used Amber's file to pry a brick looser and looser until she could slide it out of the wall. She turned it over and dumbed something into her hand, holding it up so the rest of us could see what it was.

"A key!" Alfie yelped, practically vibrating with excitement. Joy clasped her hands together and smiled the widest smile I'd seen from her in a long time.

Clasping the key in her hands as though it was a diamond, Nina practically flew over to the door. The seven of us seemed to be holding in a collective breath as Nina slid the key into the lock, turned, and with a soft click.

The door swung open.

AN: For that one reviewer who asked: yes this is intended to take place canonically, post season 2. However, for story purposes, there are itsy bitsy alterations I'm making. But they're teensy I swear! Sorry Purists! But I promise I'll try and keep it as close to the real thing as possible. Thanks for the question. And thank you to everyone who participated in my survey!

Favorite, follow and review please. Let me know whose POV's you'd like to see.