CRAP I FORGOT TO POST THIS LAST WEEK ARGGGHH

I have to say, this chapter was one of my favourites to write because ahhHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Anyway, I only own Cora, Jaxx, Ed and Ell in this story and the actual plot itself. Everything else is not mine.

I'm also adding the instrumental of Melanie Martinez's 'Mad Hatter' to this chapter as well as 'When the Dark Falls'. I feel like it just suits the chapter.

Don't forget to review!

It's the loud ringtone of 'Bad' that has me shooting up straight from the dreamless dark of sleep. Groggily rubbing my eyes, I somehow manage to press 'answer' and 'speakerphone' without my glasses on.

"Finally Cor! How you doin?"

"Jaxx, really? You just woke me up. What's the time? I can't see right now."

"4:20PM. I tried calling you 20 times before."

"Jaxx, don't bull me." Then again, I suspect he's right. I feel like I have a lot more energy to burn than usual and that's saying something. Having woken up at stupid times like 5 in the morning for the business for 7 years of my life, I probably needed all that sleep.

"I'm not, Cor," Jaxx goes on, "But that's not the point. How is life for you in there? You seemed like you were enjoying yourself with all that sleep, looks like."

"Yeah," I weakly laugh, pulling on my glasses, "Life's been great so far. I've been mainly checking out the rooms, cooking my own food and playing video games from the last century. Also, I've taken the best bedroom of the house: The original Goulden boy's, actually."

"You liar!"

"I'm not, I swear!" I laugh at the disbelief in his voice, much more audibly.

"Coraline Gould, taking the ultimate bedroom of the house and playing video games with static, so from what I've heard from the twins and now you," he says with incredulity, "Dad would flip to heaven, hell and back."

"His problem, not mine."

"True. How's the anxiety treating you?"

"Nearly crapped my pants yesterday, but it's mainly alright."

"What happened?"

"Dropped a massive mirror down the attic stairs and thought it broke."

"Yikes. Did it?"

"No, thankfully. And I'm still not using the meds yet. Em and I still don't trust them. How's uni doing?"

"Meh, boring as usual. It's life outside it that's gotten a bit spicy. Both good and...A somewhat neutral-bad. Em's gonna move in next door to you, for good news."

"Sweet!"

"But neutral-bad is weird. I've been hearing rumours from Laurie. She says that mum and dad are getting worried about Uncle Thorfrid. She's been hearing stuff about a potential shift in political powers. It's got Uncle Thor all over it, she says."

I frown. This obviously is pretty suspicious. Uncle Thorfrid had never been one for politics, last I met him…

"Anything else, Jaxx?"

"It's all pretty recent, so no, nothing else. Unless you wanna hear my latest assignment about atom structure."

"Ugggh, no thank you. So I'll hear from you later?"

"Sure. Love you Cor."

"You too."

After I end the call, a text pings up from Ell and I know what I'm going to search out today:

'Thr's a basement in house. Stuff thr might frek u out a bit but ull b ok.'

As I fling off the covers and start getting some actual clothes on, I wonder what she means by 'stuff that might freak me out.' Had Ed planted a prank in the basement that was gonna jumpscare me?

A sudden noise darts my head to the bedside table. The photo frame of the original Thorfrid Larsson that stood on its own falls off, hitting the carpet with a soft thud. I'm soon becoming nervous at the feeling that I'm being watched by somebody in here. Yanking on a fresh green hoodie found in the closet, I zip out the bedroom and breathe a sigh of relief. What was that about?

I want to go back in and investigate, but I decide it's best to leave it for now and check out that basement…after some super-late brunch.

After brunch, I can't stop looking behind me as I walk down the long staircase that leads to the doorless entry of the basement. It's uncomfortably dark down here and my heartbeat slowly creeps up faster and faster. I pull out my phone, tapping open the flashlight app and sigh in relief as I find a power switch and flick the light on.

My relief stops within milliseconds.

The basement has a wall of guns.

And ammunition.

And a wide-open secret door that I'm definitely not going into right now.

My chest tenses as I slowly pace the room, my fingers gently tracing the handles of the weaponry and portraits of Thorfrid. Did dad even know about this?

The pre-made text dings in, this one from Ell.

'Ed and I reckon that this basement was lost in genratinl memory since dad didn't hve a basement in the house plans he gave us. It was also pretty dusty down here 2, everything undisturbed. But who knows. Maybe dad pulled it out on purpose so he can stash all the more "letters" here and have somethin to defnd ourselves, just in case.

'Also, this place creeps Ed out the most. A few times somethin has fallen down and broke, so weve alwys had to fix it and put it back. Well, I did in the end of the reno. He got 2 creped. Also, hope u have th guts 2 go down th secrt dor. We left it open 4 u.

'Take care Cor,

'Ell'

After reading the text out loud, the sound of something falling and hitting the floor gives way to goosebumps crawling on my skin. When I turn around to see what it is, there isn't much relief when I see that it is another framed photo of the original Thorfrid Larsson.

First my bedroom, now here. What is going on?

As I crouch near it, I see that the glass of the frame split in two and the back of it was crooked, letting the photo peek out with…papers?

Curious, I pull out what seems to be handwritten notes on lined paper that is now yellowed and creamy with age. Unfortunately as I try to make sense of it, words keep randomly switching between Norwegian to English and the handwriting is a horrible mess. I attempt to make sense of the English words, but all they do is creep me out even more.

'Worried _ _ _ _ Tid fluxes could be changing what's written in stone. My old friends don't know it _ _ _ _ but this isn't who they would think it may be. If they even did know someone is after them. Their pursuer isn't senere _ _ _ _ _ lied from the start on his true identity. His mission Codename: Crossed Eagle is going to be fulfilled _ _ _ _If I don't stop him and _ _ _ _ venner _ _ _ _ I think I may be next.'

Nothing is making sense, but why do I feel that I'm up to something?

Crash.

I turn my head to see another Thorfrid portrait shatter on the floor. All of a sudden, the presence that was felt in my bedroom is here and I don't hesitate to jump up and run back upstairs, escaping the creepy basement. My heart slows down, but it doesn't stop pounding for the rest of the day as my mind always ends up drifting back to the documents I found behind the photo.

Specifically, three words: Codename: Crossed Eagle.

Not even Sly Cooper's first boss is keeping me from leaving those words alone.

'Crossed Eagle...' I ponder, 'Isn't that from a 1950's comic book or something?'

Maybe there's a reason for that name, maybe not. But I'm betting that hopefully something is hidden in that specific comic with the involvement of the Crossed Eagle…hang on, didn't Jasper's grandfather or someone own comic books?

"Later, Cora." I mutter, "Think about kicking this boss in the butt right now."

After defeating the boss, wondering why the hell the TV wasn't static and rage-quitting at Mariokart, the rest of the day is pretty much uneventful, compared to earlier.

The thoughts of Codename: Crossed Eagle don't return until late at night, when I'm about to fall asleep. I frown as I stare at the ceiling through the darkness, glasses off my face.

"Crossed Eagle. A codename. I don't get it, really. Maybe it's code for an operation? Operation: Crossing Eagle? Pfft. Nah. Operation: Eagle? Hah, sounds very American. Operation: Cross? Mm…neh. Not that. But why doesn't it leave me alone?"

Then, something clicks in my brain. I clench the bedsheets from underneath and my palms are suddenly sweaty.

Didn't dad have a delivery called Operation: Eagle's Cross when I was younger? Of course he did! I remember that his 'one-to-two days' trip had been 'accidentally' extended to over a week and he returned home with handcuffs on his wrists, his favourite black coat in tatters. I overheard him telling mum that he had barely escaped arrest at the hands of Uncles Matthew and Thomas. I still remember hearing the conversation and the sounds of mum lasering the handcuffs off his wrists.

"Eddie, you've got to tell me what happened."

"Laur, the Eagle shipment was nearly sabotaged. The cola got through just in time, but they gave good chase. They caught me for only five minutes before I snuck off."

"Eddie, you're a really bad liar, and you know that. It wasn't a shipment, was it?"

"It was a shipment, Lauren, I swear."

"It wasn't, Edward. Don't lie to me. You know I'm practically a human lie detector."

And that was when Ell pulled me away so we could play with her dolls. I think she and Ed were listening too.

Though the bed is warm and my pyjamas are fluffy-soft, I can't stop shivering at my recent discoveries and resurfaced memories before I fall into a dreamless sleep.