House of Jara CHAPTER 14
"Having a little tiff are we?" Trudy asked with a small smirk painted across her face in delight at the cute 'couple'.
"What do you mean Trudy?" Mara questioned confused at the way Trudy was acting around them.
"Well you two have been very close lately especially since coming back to school and Mick and you breaking up Mara, that I thought…" Trudy explained but was cut off by Mara.
"No! We're just friends nothing else" She told the mislead house mother much to Jerome's disappointment.
"Oh sorry well I'm done in here so I'll leave you two to it" Trudy chuckled and left the living room and went up to clean the girls' bathroom.
"Back to what I was saying, I can tell that it was scaring you. You can talk to me you know" Mara disclosed.
"Mara, can we just leave it? Please I don't want to talk about it I just want to watch some telly but in my room in case Victor comes back" Jerome suggested and Mara nodded but they decided to go to her room instead as there was more room to sit on the floor. They watched The Mask with Jim Carrey in but they didn't chat through the movie like usual they sat there in silence neither one actually paying attention to the movie. Luckily they could hide that as they had watched this movie together the previous term. It was nearly the end of the film when Sibuna came bursting into the room.
"Thank God you guys are ok, we thought Rufus had got you when you didn't come back to school" Nina stressed.
"Sorry we should have told you, texted or something" Mara apologised to the hysterical Nina and the worried friends.
"Why didn't you come back to school?" Fabian questioned. "And to miss Maths, Mara you love Maths" He added.
"I did try to tell her" Jerome said under his breath, only Mara heard him a subtly hit him in the side.
"I know but Jerome wasn't feeling well and we said none of us should be alone with Rufus on the loose" Mara explained and the Sibuna members looked at Jerome expeacting his explanation.
"I'm better now, no need to worry" He lied, having heard Rufus's voice several times during the movie. Alfie eyed him suspiciously but asked no further questions.
"We need to get going soon to see the 'movie'" Amber reminded her friends with air quotes.
"We could leave right now that way we can get a good look 'round the warehouse before dark" Fabian suggested, everyone agreed and they left, Jerome had to sneak out as Trudy would have told him he was too 'unwell' to leave the house. As they walked through the woods Amber kept complaining about bugs, trees and nature in general.
"Amber, will you shut up! I don't want to run into Rufus 'cause you can't keep your mouth shut" Jerome sneered at the pretty blonde 'Ah that's too bad' he heard stopping dead in his tracks making Mara bump into him but he just looked around suspiciously.
"Jerome mate, what is it?" Alfie called from behind Mara concern growing for his best friend.
"Nothing, I thought I heard something but it must've been the wind. Let's just carry on" Jerome lied.
"It was his voice again wasn't it? I think you should tell them you know. They ought to know" Mara whispered to Jerome as they carried on walking through the woods.
"No it's fine it's just my imagination, I can handle it. Let's just focus on trying to find out what he's up to" Jerome replied and walked ahead of her to catch up to Alfie who had gone ahead of them when they were talking.
"What was that about?" Amber questioned no longer worrying about 'nature'.
"What do you mean?" Mara asked playing dumb, beginning to worry she had heard what she'd said to Jerome.
"I heard what you said to Jerome. Does he keep hearing Rufus's voice? I remember when my daddy cancelled my credit card. I kept hearing him tell me over and over in my heard and dreams" Amber said trying to relate.
"Amber will you give it a rest it isn't the same as your dad" Mara said getting rather frustrated with Amber's rambling.
"Keep your hair on Mara I was only saying" Amber said with a pout.
"I know I'm sorry Amber I guess I'm a little upset at the moment you know with this and my break up with Mick" Mara apologised for her outburst and Amber just simply hugged her.
"Guys come on we're nearly there we don't want to get distracted" Patricia called from ahead of where Mara and Amber had stopped, they quickly caught up and within five minutes they were staring at the warehouse. There was a car parked outside so they had to hide in the trees, ten minutes late Rufus emerged from the building and drove away.
"Let's go check it out before he comes back" Nina instructed and they all ran over to the building when they were sure Rufus had gone. They searched for ten or fifteen when Fabian found a sketch of a mask. He immediately recognised it.
"Why would Rufus want to be drawing the Mask of Anubis?" He muttered to himself, Nina looked at the picture.
"What is that?" She asked not recognising it from anywhere.
"It's the Mask of Anubis but it's a legend, it doesn't exist. Take a photo of it and I'll explain what the legend tells us later. We also need to stop by the Frobisher Library there's a book there with these ancient Egyptian legends in it. I know; I'm a geek" Fabian expressed and Nina did as she was told: took a photo of the drawing with her iPhone.
"I was gonna say nerd but geek's cuter" Nina smiled sweetly and stared into Fabian's eyes. They then heard the faint roar of a car; it was getting closer rather quickly: Rufus was almost back.