Chapter 12: The Box Opens

Patricia and KT stood stiffly on the spot with their eyes wide open looking directly towards Erica who was still sat in her chair nearby. Neither of them had said a word as they were to in shock with the fact that Erica was still up and awake. This wasn't supposed to be part of the plan, Erica was meant to be sleeping. Why wasn't she sleeping? It was the early hours of the morning after all.

Erica was sat up in her chair with her arms crossed and her eyes staring directly forward towards Patricia and KT. To them Erica actually looked scary but all she wanted was answers, they were practically invading her privacy after all.

"Are you going to answer me?" Erica questioned. "What are you doing in my room?" she asked again.

"Erm we forgot that you were staying up here" KT lied.

"So why were you whispering about me being asleep?" Erica asked.

"Oh we weren't talking about you honestly we were just-"KT started but got cut off by the sounds of someone's phone ringing.

Erica glanced down at her phone with a rather unhappy expression on her face. Her mother was calling and for Erica this was a very inconvenient time to be having a conversation when all she wanted was answers. Patricia and KT had come into her room at night, wanting her to be asleep and Erica believed that she deserved those answers that she wanted so badly. It would have been easy enough to not answer her phone but if she didn't Erica knew that her mother would get worried which would then cause all sorts of drama to happen. Maybe even her mother finding out that she was in England at Anubis house, not where she was supposed to be.

"Hello Mom" Erica greeted trying to put on a friendly and happy tone of voice as she answered her phone. "I miss you too" she then replied to her Mom before sending Patricia and KT a glare.

After receiving a not so friendly glare from Erica, Patricia turned to look at KT before pointing towards the door and signalling for them to leave. KT walked back through the door and began to walk down the attic stairs but as Patricia went to follow her she turned and took one final glance towards Erica. Erica looked up towards Patricia and slightly shook her head making Patricia feel bad. Erica looked hurt. As Patricia then followed KT through the attic door she began to feel a particular feeling that she didn't feel very often. Patricia felt guilty as she knew that she had now probably broken Erica's trust, meaning that she now didn't have as much power to help Eddie out in saving his little sister. She knew that she had to earn back Erica's trust for her own sake as well as Eddie's. So as Patricia's head then hit her pillow, she knew that it was going to be a sleepless night trying to come up with a plan to solve this problem.

….

It was Thursday morning and luckily for the Sibuna team the first two classes of the school day had been cancelled due to a teacher conference meeting. Patricia had woken up at the same time that she usually does on a school day, finding KT still peacefully fast asleep and Joy sat on her bed painting her nails. The room smelt strongly of nail polish which was a particular scent that Patricia didn't like so much as it gave her a headache. After having hardly any sleep though, Patricia already had a headache.

"Morning" Joy greeted Patricia with a smile. "Can I paint your nails?" she then asked.

"Erm no there already painted. I let you paint them yesterday, the only colour that I allow you to paint them" Patricia replied before getting a sudden brainwave. "Why don't you paint Erica's?" she then asked.

"Erica's, why?" Joy questioned.

"She's feeling lonely and it will probably do her some good to have some girly time with someone" Patricia answered, babbling on slightly.

"Yeh okay" Joy smiled before grabbing her box of nail polishes and bouncing happily out of the door.

As soon as Joy left the room Patricia quickly chucked her quilt cover off of her before rolling out of bed and running out of the bedroom as fast as she could, trying not to wake KT. Once Patricia had exited the bedroom she began to pace fastly across the hallway and down the stairs. She was trying so hard not to draw attention to Victor because right now Patricia had a plan. A plan that was for two different problems that needed to be solved fast. As Patricia reached the bottom of the stairs she quickly darted over to Eddie's bedroom door before banging on it furiously for him to open up.

After a few minutes of knocking a rather confused and sleepy Eddie opened the door. His t-shirt was creased, his hair was messy and he was continuously rubbing his eye, trying to wake himself up a little more. Eddie wondered why Patricia was knocking on his bedroom door whilst he was still sleeping because she knew that he liked to sleep in when classes had been cancelled. She only ever wakes him up when he's done something wrong.

"What have I done now?" Eddie questioned.

"Nothing, you've done nothing" Patricia replied.

"Then why an earth are you waking me up?" he asked.

"Get dressed and get to the dining room table" Patricia ordered. "And bring the box" she added whispering through her teeth.

"Why?" Eddie half asked, half moaned.

"There's no time for questions, just do it and I'll explain later" she snapped whilst smacking him lightly on the arm which caused him to wake up a little more. "Be quick" she told him before quickly darting into the kitchen.

Now she had to wait.

….

"Come on Erica it will be fun" Joy smiled as she and Erica began to walk down the stairs. "I'll let you pick the colour" she added.

Once Joy and Erica entered the dining room, Erica had spotted Patricia straight away. Patricia smiled, hoping that she would have forgotten all about last night but that never happened. In return Erica sent Patricia the biggest glare and it was safe to say that she was in an even bigger mood than Patricia could have ever imagined. As Joy and Erica sat down together at the dining room table, Patricia began to wonder what was taking Eddie so long, so she walked out of the kitchen and off to find him.

"What took you so long?" she questioned as they met each other half way in the hallway.

"I'm coming now" Eddie replied, rolling his eyes at his girlfriend.

"Just go and sit next to Erica you will understand then what you have to do" Patricia told him, ignoring the fact that he had just rolled his eyes at her and knowing that he would be thanking her later.

As Eddie entered the dining room, he immediately noticed that ring on Erica's hand that he and the rest of Sibuna so badly wanted. It was now in sight and Eddie himself had the box in his hands. He now understood why Patricia was in such a huff for him to hurry up.

"Good morning" Eddie greeted his sister and Joy as he sat down next to Erica, keeping the box out of sight in his lap.

"Morning" both of the girls greeted back.

Eddie then turned around in his chair towards the kitchen to get Patricia's attention. He then very discreetly pointed towards Erica's hand, making Patricia nod with her smile on her face as she was glad that he finally understood what was going on.

"Erm Erica" Patricia started carefully.

"What?" Erica snapped as she turned slightly in her chair to send Patricia another glare.

It was then that Eddie made his move. He carefully but quickly picked up the box and placed it gently onto Erica's ring so that the imprint was in line with it.

"Would you like some breakfast?" Patricia asked, trying her best to distract Erica.

Suddenly a golden light began to shine up through Erica's ring and through the box. It looked beautiful and Patricia had to try her best not to react to it in order to keep Erica facing her.

"No" Erica frowned.

The light then went out; drawing Patricia's attention and Eddie quickly placed the box back onto his lap, wondering whether it was open.

"Ahhhhhhh" Erica screamed.

"What is it?" Joy asked.

"My hand is burning" she cried.

It was then that Eddie heard a faint whisper of "twenty five days"

A/N: Hi everybody sorry for not updating in so long. School has been a nightmare! I've gone from doing my English Literature course work to Sociology mock exams and now I'm back to course work and getting ready for my real A level exams. I'm so sorry about the wait but I just haven't had the time. I hope I can start updating more promptly again soon and that people haven't given up on this story. Sorry once again, thank you for waiting. Please review x