Me: Rufus blackmailed me into doing the disclaimer.

Rufus: MUAHAHAHAHA! *glares* Ice-Princess-93 doesn't own House of Anubis or anything else...

Me: I'm gonna run away now... Bye!

Rufus: GET BACK HERE!

My entire self was just a big jumble of nervous… nerves.

I continued walking towards the warehouse. Towards a probably-planned-out death. Towards a deranged man looking for immortality, with the capability to kill anyone and anything in his way.

I tried not to let those thoughts bother me as I walked hand-in-hand with Fabian, behind Victor and Mr. Sweet. The moment would have been perfect – the falling snow, our hands intertwined, sneaking glances at each other – if we weren't behind one man-gone-good and our school headmaster, heading to rescue two of our housemates from being held hostage from an abandoned old warehouse in the middle of nowhere, probably miles away from civilization.

Yeah. I tried not to let that bother me.

"Nina, you'll be fine," Fabian kept saying over and over again when he saw my facial expression. It probably showed fear.

"Fabian, if something happens to me or us while we're in there–" I was quickly cut off with a gloved finger going over my mouth, shushing me.

"Nina, we're not going to die. I promise. Nothing bad is going to happen."

"How can you be so optimistic?" I asked once he removed his hand and took mine again.

"That's a good question." He fidgeted, checking his watch for the billionth time in the past hour. I sighed; he tightened his grip on my hand.

"Anyways, if something happens to us," I continued, "I want you to know that I–"

"Children, we're here." It was Mr. Sweet. I mentally kicked myself for not pouring out my soul to Fabian earlier. What, are we cursed? I asked myself. Fabian gave me a knowing smile as we stopped a few feet away from the entrance.

"Do we all know the plan?" Victor asked quietly, inching closer to the presumably-locked door.

We nodded.

"Good." He took another step closer. "On my mark. One… Tow… Three…"

He opened the door as quietly as possible, the outside light pouring into the dimly-lit room.

My heart lurched to a stop at what I saw.

There were Mick and Mara, bound and gagged in a corner – but that wasn't all. They were in dog crates. I shuddered.

One of them tried to say something that just sounded like a muffled question. Probably wondering if we're here to rescue them, I thought.

Just then, all my fears were realized as one of the people I dreaded most seeing walked out of the shadows, turning on a bright overhead light.

"Rufus," I said with hopeful confidence. "We meet again."

"Ah, the Chosen One," he stepped forward. Fabian let go of my hand and stood protectively in front of me. "I'm not going to harm her, boy."

"Bullshit," he responded fiercely.

"I just want the Cup of Ankh and the elixir, and then I will be on my way."

"You can't have it, Zeno." It was Victor, stepping in to apparently try and help. He had a small pistol in his hand. "If you hurt them, I kill you."

"Now, now, Victor," Rufus said in an attempt at a calming voice. "The only ones I care about are the Chosen One and her little git of a friend who gave me the fake flask of elixir a few weeks prior. The others? I only kidnapped those two" –he pointed to Mick and Mara in disgust– "because I thought they'd have the information about where you hid the Cup. But I was sadly mistaken."

"So you were expecting us." I said it so softly; I'm surprised even Fabian heard it. Unfortunately, Rufus did too. He nodded, looking satisfied.

"Yes. Now…" He rudely shoved Fabian out of the way, grabbing me by the shoulder and shoving me to the floor. I knew what was coming next.

My vision blurred a bit as the back of my head exploded in pain from hitting the cement. In a few minutes, I was able to see properly again.

If there was anyone outside that warehouse, even if they were all the way back at Anubis House, I'm almost positive they would have heard me scream. The result? Absolute chaos.

Just like in the nightmares we'd had, I felt the cool metal of the barrel of a pistol being placed against my forehead. My eyes widened in absolute terror and shock as I watched him playfully flip the safety lock off and on. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Jerome, Alfie, and Patricia struggling to hold a violently-thrashing Fabian back from charging at Rufus and knocking him out. Amber stood by them, sobbing uncontrollably.

Oh, what help. I thought. I looked at Rufus, his eyes glinting with pleasure. "I'll do whatever you want!" I shouted. "Just… don't…" I couldn't even bring myself to say the words 'don't shoot.' He realized this too, and a malicious grin replaced the small smirk he wore. He let go of me, tucking the pistol into his belt.

"Very good," he responded, stepping back. "Where is the Cup?"

Alfie let go of Fabian enough to go through his messenger bag and produce the Cup of Ankh, throwing it to me before resuming his position as a restraint.

"Here," I showed it to him. He greedily snatched it out of my grasp.

"And this," he continued, pausing for dramatic effect, "is where everything you know becomes a lie."

"What are you–" I wasn't able to finish my sentence. We all turned to a dimly-lit corner of the room, hearing some rustling coming from behind a box.

When your killer intuition tells you to run for your life but you don't move, well… you're an idiot. Just like us.

And who was it that came out from behind the box? None other than Joy Mercer!

"What is this?" Patricia shouted, jabbing an accusing finger at her double-crossing best friend.

"Patricia, Fabian!" It was Jerome. He and Alfie were standing there, dumbstruck, as Fabian managed to get out of their grasp and run at Joy, pinning her up against a wall and rummage through her handbag, producing, of course, the elixir. We all stared at them blankly.

"Joy! How did you – What did you – Why–" I was cut off.

"It's not what it looks like!" she was pleading. "Fabian, let me go!"

"Joy, I am this close" –he held up his thumb and index finger to measure a millimeter– "to dropping it." He had the flask in the other hand.

I felt myself being jerked backwards. "Hey!"

"If you drop it, she dies." Of course it was Rufus. He had the pistol in his hand again, pointing it at me. I didn't even bother flinching.

Just like that, Fabian literally dropped Joy and walked over to us, handing it over. Rufus sneered.

"Zeno, let go of the Chosen One!" Now Victor was getting involved. Will this day ever end? I asked myself. I sighed.

"It will be a repeat of what happened back in the cellar of Anubis House," he answered, uncapping the elixir. He poured it into the Cup. "And this time, someone will die."

It was as if the whole world froze. We all stared at him with bated breath as he took a sip from the Cup. This time, we didn't even have the scales with the acolyte coins on them. Nothing shook or tipped in sight, so we had no idea who the victim would be now that it was all real.

Unexpectedly, Victor was the one dropping to the floor in agony. We all stared at him, too shocked to move.

"Why is it him?" Jerome asked, pointing, terrified, at the lifeless body. "I thought – I thought we were the acolytes! One of us should be dead!"

"You want us to die?" Amber asked. She had finally stopped crying long enough to pay attention to what was happening around her.

"No! It's just… I'm really confused."

"That makes two of us," Patricia said, sighing. She looked off to her left. "Joy?"

"Huh?" Joy was in a heap on the floor, rubbing her head slowly. I guessed that when she fell, she must've landed like that and not bothered to move. "Oh. Hi."

"You lying, backstabbing, cheating double-crosser!" Patricia was shrieking, running at Joy and pinning her against the floor. "We could have died because of you! Why didn't you tell us you weren't who you seemed?"

"Um…" It was Mick. We kind of forgot about him and Mara being tied, bound and locked up on the other side of the room. We all started advancing on them, when someone spoke up.

"Not so fast!" Rufus exclaimed, blocking our access to our friends. He smirked. "I think–"

BANG! Rufus fell to the floor in a pile, blood trickling down the side of his head. We all stared at him in more shock than we had at Victor.

Mr. Sweet appeared out of nowhere, smiling proudly. "Yes, children," he said. "I told you we wouldn't let Rufus Zeno harm you."

I was about to kill him. Mr. Sweet, I mean. This time, I was the one being held back by Jerome and Alfie. Fabian joined in too, but lost interest once he realized something.

"Mr. Sweet!" he shouted. "Why didn't you intervene at all in the past hour? Were you just standing there the whole time?"

"Of course not, Mr. Rutter," he replied. "We've been trying to unlock the cages your housemates are currently being held hostage in."

"He has a set of master keys… on his belt," Joy mumbled, still being held down by a threatening Patricia.

"Let go of me!" I was still struggling to get out of Alfie and Jerome's grasp. Finally, after some reluctant looks on their part, they listened. "Thank you."

We unlocked the crates and untied Mick and Mara, who came out crying with happiness. They were scarred everywhere from the ropes. They looked really confused from the looks they were giving us.

"Nina?" Mara asked.

"Yes?" I was disposing of the ropes and putting the set of keys back on the floor.

"Um, what just happened?"

I sighed again. "It's a long, long story Mara. We'll fill you in on the way back to Anubis House."

She seemed happy with this, and we all went out to the cars. Mr. Sweet and Mr. Winkler carried out Victor's body, leaving Rufus' where it was. Joy, unfortunately, had to return with us. She went with the teachers while Mrs. Andrews drove us.

"You're still shaking," Fabian noticed as we all settled in for the long ride back to school. "You okay?"

"Well, let's see. I've been held at gunpoint constantly today, been threatened, hit my head, and almost died. Again. Yeah, I think I'm fine."

He laughed a little at this, the spoke again. "Oh, guess what I've got?"

"What?"

He produced the Cup of Ankh from his bag, grinning from ear-to-ear. I stared at him in shock.

"We need to hide that again," I pointed to it.

He shook his head no.

"Why?"

"Nina Love, no one else is after it now. I think it's time to just sit back, relax, and relish in the fact that once again Sibuna solved the mystery."

I hugged him, grateful for his killer instincts and sense of humor. We smiled at each other, then talked with the rest of our housemates on the way back to where it all started.