Summary: Mission Impossible: Murder Barn Edition

Evie's Notes: Happy Saturday! I hope you all had a wonderful week . Thank you again for your continued support, it truly means the world to me 💜. I hope that you all continue to love this story and enjoy this new update🌺.

---------------------

The speed that her stomach was twisting and turning made it so that Lili could barely eat her breakfast. She was so nervous about their rescue mission. Poor Roe had been unknowingly abandoned in the hands of that mad man for days on end. Who knows what states the crew were going to find him in... Rufus was unpredictable and had proven before that he was not above torture or murder.

"Are we all ready to launch Operation 'Save Jerome'?" checked Alfie as he took his seat at the breakfast table.

"As ready as we will ever be" sighed Lili.

"I was thinking," began Fabian. "You and Amber should take Joy with you today... it will be easier to search the place without raising suspicion if you have another pair of eyes on the ground".

Lili watched as Amber and Nina had a fast and silent conversation on the topic. Despite the pissed off look on Amber's face, Nina gave in. "You're right Fabian, we could benefit from an extra set of eyes. We'll let her know she's in".

The arrival of Eddie shut down any last minute discussion of that morning's rescue mission.

"How was your Gran yesterday, Nina?" asked Lili, casting about for a topic she knew Nina could ramble on about for hours and was Sibuna free.

"The same, but I'm hoping for a full recovery very soon. Well, that is if we can give her what she needs".

"Which we will" swore Fabian.

Lili could see that this boy would do anything, even travel to the ends of the earth to make the American girl happy.

"A little optimistic maybe?" whispered Eddie. "I mean she's in a coma, right?". The boy had clearly not meant for his comment to be heard, but in the silence of everyone cooing over 'Fabina' it rang uncomfortably loud through the room.

Lili joined Amber in shooting the boy incredibly disapointed looks. An accurate observation or not, not all comments needed to be shared.

"Eddie," hissed Patricia, as she stomped on the boy's foot.

To be fair, he did quickly apoligize, but still he really needed to learn how to think before he spoke. Seeing Nina's signal, the group of six fled the room to gather their rescue attempt materials, Eddie would just have to entertain himself.

*Tears of Gold – Tears of Gold – Tears of Gold*

Lili hadn't gotten to go to Rufus' murder barn last time when the Sibunas rescued Trudy. The actual building was much more horrifying than the group's descriptions had made it out to be. The group had decided to hide the car where they had last time and walk the half-mile to the barn. The walk didn't take long, and in no time the group of four was crouching behind some rubble to scope out the place.

"That must be Rufus' car" announced Patricia.

"Which means that he's still inside" groaned Fabian.

"Well we outnumber Rufus four to one," proposed Alfie. "So when I give the signal, attack!"

The attack plan could certinly work, Lili just wished that they had Amber with them to reign some righteous Jujitsu rage down on the villian.

"NO!" disagreed Fabian. "Let's stake out the place first, see if he leaves. If he does, we try to break in and see if Jerome is in there".

"Suprise, surprise" muttered Lili to Patricia. "Fabian wants to wait and see what happens".

"I guess we can play it your way" granted Alfie, sadly placing the large rock he had found back on the ground.

"I think we'll probably be safe if we move up a couple walls..." suggested Lili. "That way we might be able to get a better look inside the barn".

After a few moments of silent deliberation from Fabian, and Lili counting backwards from a hundred in Latin to not strangle the boy, he agreed.

The group of four was sneaking from doorway to doorway when a sudden crash was heard from inside the murder barn. The crash itself and the pained yelp that accompanied it filled Lili with hope. She knew all the sounds Jerome made and that was not one of them. Her hopes were confirmed when a familiar red and blue jumper clad form fled from the barn.

"Go Jerome!" cheered Alfie quietly, still cautious that Rufus could make a reappearence.

Jerome was certainly putting his history as a track runner to good use, but foolishly decided to hide behind several barrels of hay rather than put distance between him and the kidnapper. Lili couldn't fault him for his thinking though, it wasn't like he knew they were finally there to help.

Unfortunately the group's fears were proven correct when a familiar leather decked man burst out of the barn door. A loud crash from behind the haystacks gave away the tall boy's location. "Jerome.... Where are you Jerome? Come out, come out wherever you are" sang the man in a creeptastic haunting way. Lili really hated this part of Sibuna work.

"We need to do something," whispered Lili.

"Fabian!?" worried Patricia.

The scholar grabbed the rock Alfie had previously abandoned and chucked it with all his might against one of the metal walls in the opposite direction of Jerome's hiding place.

Luckily it seemed like the man fell for it, and he hurried off in the opposite direction. Lili popped her head out from their hiding place and rapidly motioned for Jerome to come join them.

The boy's eyes grew wide, and a mix of fear and hope crossed his face. Lili couuldn't believe it, she was about five seconds away from having her boyfriend back in her arms. Jerome slowly crept his way towards them, but was intercepted before he reached him.

Rufus had apparently snuck around the building and was now in the perfect spot to grab Jerome. The man launched forward and snatched the tall boy, tackling him to the ground. The pair scuffled for a bit. Patricia and Fabian had to physically hold Alfie and Lili back from joining the fight. Unfortunately, Rufus being the heavier of the pair gained the upper hand and was able to wrestle Jerome into submission.

The man twisted the boy's hands behind his back and dragged him back into the warehouse cursing: "You really thought that you could get away that easily? You are a valuable pawn, boy. And a little leverage goes a long way".

"Let me go, you psychopath!" protested Jerome.

"Now there is no need to be rude Mr. Clarke, I much prefer to think of myself as simply a creative human being. I recommend that you shut up or you'll find out just how creative I can get" threatened the man, before slamming the door to the murder barn closed once again.

"Well... bollocks." muttered Fabian. And yeah, Lili was pretty sure that summed up everyone's thoughts.

"Follow me and let's see if we can get a better view of what is going on inside" directed Patricia, leading the group through one of the broken windows.

The group hurried down three different hallways before they heard Rufus' voice.

"This library passage, it leads to the Mask of Anubis?" checked the man. "Good! Soon the Mask of Anubis will be mine. You have proven to be a most useful servant Jasper, the mask will be my passport to the Egyptian afterlife where I will reign as a god. After I have ascended to power, you can do what you want with the mask, after all you have quite the list of black market clients who are always chomping at the bit for your latest nicked artifact. I assure you that you will come out of this partnership much better off than you started".

Yikes! Well that was a lot to process. It seemed that Jasper had gone even farther off the rails than the group had initially assumed... and he had failed to correct his behavior. Lili and the Sibuna club would deal with him later, for now they needed to get the mask.

"Rufus is more of a fruit loop than before" ranted Patricia. "All that stuff about being a god is just crazy talk, right?".

"Right?" added Alfie when Lili and Fabian failed to respond.

"But what if it isn't," worried Fabian. "What if that's what Senkhara really wants, to enter the afterlife and become a god?"

"Well then that is great news" argued Alfie. "We let her go and she can take her tats and hexes with her".

"No, think about this" snapped the scholar. "The Egyptians believed that one could not enter the afterlife without a body".

"Which is why they mumified people," added Liliana.

"But Senkhara hasn't got a body," protested Patricia.

"Exactly!" breathed Fabian in horror. "Remember Amber, when she asked about how a ghost with no body was going to wear the mask? Well Senkhara isn't going to wear it".

"She isn't?" asked Alfie.

A wave of horror swept through Lili as she realised just what Fabian was saying.

"She's going to make Nina wear it," revealed Patricia.

"Senkhara has been telling us her plan all along, but we weren't able to figure it out. She literally told Nina that she would cry tears of gold... which is what happens when the high priestess wears the mask... which only happened at the funeral of pharohs the book said".

"Which, if the religion was to be believed, and after all the shit we've gone through over the last two years leads us to think it is, was when the pharoh's soul was apotheosized... or made a god" explained Fabian.

"So Senkhara is planning to take Nina to the afterlife with her?" gasped Alfie.

"We can't let Nina put on that mask, I need to go and warn her" declared Fabian, stealing Alfie's keys.

"Well, go. The three of us will be able to handle this" assured Patricia, pushing the boy back down the hallway they had come. Fabian took off with a run, not even looking back once. He was on a mission to save the person he loved, the type mission which Lili was also currently on.

"So Fabian's dealing with a body-snatching she-demon, and we get Rufus... Still think we drew the short straw" remarked Alfie. And yeah... that summed up the Sibuna club's entire experience rather well.

The slamming of a door and the delayed sputtering of Rufus's car, signalled that there was no more time for thoughts about she-demons or impending godhoods, now it was time to Mission Impossible the murder barn.

"Now that Rufus is gone... this is our chance. I think we can get in through that window there" announced Patricia.

Grabbing onto the wire mesh and wall, Lili began to climb with the others as she quietly thanked the gods that she had decided to wear pants for this mission, instead of the jean skirt she had originally planned on. Toppling in through the window, Lili joined her friends in rushing to the vaguely person-shaped blanket covered form.

"Jerome" shouted Alfie.

"Roe love, we're here now. I'm so sorry it took us this long" apologized Lili only to stop as Patricia ripped off the blanket revealing... Eddie?

"Eddie?" yelled Patricia, clearly upset to see her boyfriend in the murder barn, which Lili totally got.

"Where the hell is Jerome!" worried Lili.

"What are you even doing here?" asked Alfie.

"I was tired of your lame excuses," explained the American boy. "You've been so distracted and I thought you were seeing someone else, so I decided to follow you".

"That's so romantic" awwed Alfie.

"So stalky" scoffed Patricia, and Lili was more likely to fall on her side of the issue.

"Hey! I'm pretty regular compared to most of the things that are going on around here" defended the blond boy.

"Well, you still haven't told us how you ended up here" ordered Patricia.

"Well, I saw you guys headed to the coordinates I had for Jerome and fake Uncle Rene... you know which NO ONE would listen to me about!? And after you guys went into the building, I moved up closer and saw 'Rene' grab Jerome and haul him towards the car. When I went to go get you guys, Uncle Crazy caught me"

"But what about Roe?" pressed Lili. Eddie was safe enough with them for the time being... Jerome was still out in the wind with the mad man at the moment, they had to get moving.

"I don't know," admitted Eddie. "I hit my head while trying to fight Rene off. Um, I think he took him. I can't remember. Ugh... even my concussion has a concussion".

"Serves you right for spying on me" huffed Patricia.

"Thanks for the sympathy, Yacker"

"Stuff sympathy, we need to get you out of here" argued the girl.

"Yeah, and double-quick time," added Alfie.

"I call an Uber and it'll pick us up around the corner. If we are going to catch up with Rufus, we need to hustle" declared Lili.

Patricia and Alfie supported Eddie on either side and helped him to his feet.

"Are you going to be able to make it?" asked Patricia, finally cracking and showing emotion.

"Don't worry about me Yacker, let's just get out of here and go help Jerome" assured the boy. Lili wasn't going to argue with that, so the ragtag group of four hobbled out into the sunlight.

-------------------------

Evie's Notes 2: Thank you all so much for reading 💕! I hope you enjoyed this update, let me know what you want to see more of in the comments!

Next Update: Patricia deals with Eddie's delusions and comes to a startling realization.

I love hearing from y'all! Let me know what you think of the chapter and the story so far in the comments or my Tumblr House-of-Secrets! Have a great week and stay safe! - Xo Evie 🌺