There were several seconds of silence in which Eddie thought that maybe he hadn't spoken loud enough and they hadn't heard him. He opened his mouth to repeat himself, but after the initial shock wore off, the silence was effectively shattered by outraged and panicked shouts. Fabian and Kira were shouting over each other for everyone to remain calm; KT's eyes darted nervously around at her clubmates' faces, while Alfie sat down heavily on Eddie's bed, hyperventilating. Patricia stepped toward him hesitantly, and Eddie thought she might be asking him if he was certain of what he was accusing, but he could hardly hear her over the pandemonium and his own blood rushing in his ears.

"Be quiet," he said, but no one was listening to him anymore. "Quiet! Qui— SHUT UP!" Everyone froze, staring at him like deer caught in headlights. "Just... Just stop it for a second."

"This is madness," Fabian whispered, more to himself than anyone else, before addressing Eddie. "You don't know what you're talking about!"

"Yeah, Eddie," Patricia added, gnawing at her lip. "That's a pretty big accusation."

"W-Was it a vision? How do you even know?" stammered Kira.

KT, who was closest to the door, tensed and lifted a finger to her lips. "We can't talk here," she whispered, jerking a thumb toward the door. "Not with Victor hanging around. Lunch is almost over anyway, so... so let's just go back to school and we can figure this out there. Does that sound reasonable, Eddie?"

That was pragmatic of her, deferring to him, and Eddie wasn't the only one to pick up on it. They all looked at him expectantly, and after a few seconds, he nodded. It was as good an idea as any. "Fine," he gritted out, still scared to move away from the safety of the wall. Which of them was, as his vision of Frobisher had warned, a viper in their nest? And why now, after all this time, would any of them choose to betray the group? Blackmail? Coercion? Willingly? There were too many variables to consider, and his head was pounding as it desperately tried to sort through it all. "It's fine. Let's go."

Patricia and Fabian helped Alfie up and the latter patted his back gently, while the poor boy tried his best to compose himself. Then, they filed first out of the room, then the house, in wary single-file, with Eddie bringing up the rear. No one spoke the whole way back to school, and truthfully, it felt a lot like a death march. A few times, someone would turn around to look at Eddie, each searching his face for some sort of answer; they wouldn't be able to find anything, though— Eddie didn't have an answer.

They ducked into an empty classroom, and Eddie shut the door firmly behind them. If it had been under any other circumstances, the sight would be kind of funny: every single Sibuna member had taken a defensive stance in a circle, all facing inward like they were gunslingers about to have a six-way shoot out. It wasn't funny, though. Not at all.

"It can't be one of us," said Patricia. "We're, like, quite literally the good guys. Eddie, are you absolutely—"

"Sure?" he cut her off sharply. "Yeah. My visions, they've... they've never been wrong before."

"But they haven't always come true!" Kira protested. "They're warnings, Eddie, not etched in stone."

"Well, someone smashed the phonograph, didn't they?" he snapped at her. "That's not a warning; that happened! And one of you apparently did it!"

"No," Fabian said firmly. "I don't believe that. I trust all of you with my life— I have trusted all of you with my life a hundred times before. It makes no sense."

KT pursed her lips. "Right, but... if one of you has gone rogue, it could sabotage everything that we do," she remarked gravely.

Alfie curled his lip mistrustfully. "'You?' It could be you! I mean, you've only been here five minutes!"

"What's that supposed to mean?" she parried. "Just because I'm newer than the rest of you means I'm a sellout? It's not me!"

"Well, it isn't me!" Alfie insisted. "Team Evil would want someone smart," he continued gesturing at Fabian and Kira, "or super grouchy..."

Patricia took offense to that one, jaw dropped incredulously. "Excuse me?"

"Alfie, stop," ordered Fabian, just as offended.

Arguing was getting them nowhere, so Eddie shut it down. "Look, whoever it is, you'll have to make a mistake at some point." He wet his lips, gazing at each of them imploringly. "Guys, if you're in trouble, just come clean," he begged. "We can help you if you're being blackmailed. It doesn't have to be like this."

Unfortunately, no one spoke up, just glared around the circle.

"Okay," Eddie said solemnly. He'd figured as much; after all, his vision hadn't painted the situation as particularly morally gray or sympathetic. "Fine."

"What if... What if one of us has been made a Sinner?" Kira suggested, voicing the thought that no one else seemed to consider or at least didn't want to consider. "Then what?"

"We still don't even know what that really means," sighed Fabian. "We can't operate under the assumption that this... betrayal is anything other than exactly that."

"Everyone deserves the benefit of the doubt!" she argued.

"If you're dead, you can't smash phonographs, Kira," Alfie pointed out, voice shrill.

"Well, maybe—" she began, but KT cut her off gently.

"Enough, babe... please."

Kira pursed her lips and crossed her arms tightly over her chest, put out by the dismissal, and Eddie was torn between feeling sorry for her and grateful that everyone had finally shut up.

After a few tense seconds, Patricia huffed, running a hand through her auburn curls. "Well, in the meantime, how are we supposed to trust one another?" she asked.

Eddie's mouth was a thin, grim line. "We can't."

—

After the shock of finding out there was a traitor in their midst, Kira couldn't concentrate on any of her classes; for the first time in a while, she was glad that Mara was so intent on keeping her busy. By the time the end of the day rolled around and Mara had dragged Kira, apparently the play's Stage Manager, Joy, the Assistant Director, and— reluctantly— Jerome, the Director, into helping her hold auditions for a piece of theatre that barely had characters to audition for.

At least it was just in the living room. Obviously, Anubis House had first pick for their actors since the production team was basically all them so far. Somehow, though, Kira couldn't imagine this year's production would ever quite live up to the legend that was Nina's play the year before hers and Eddie's arrival.

Gods, Nina. She wondered what her ex-roommate would think of their situation now. As far as Kira was aware, Fabian still hadn't updated his girlfriend that there even was a quest that a reformed Sibuna had to work through, much less that there was treachery afoot. That poor girl had enough to worry about with her grandmother, though. Last Kira had heard, she wasn't getting much better.

Kira couldn't imagine being the only one left in her entire family, especially not so young. The thought of losing any family made her sick, let alone all of them. Maybe she'd ought to text Nina and check in... just to see how she was doing.

And speaking of losing family...

She looked across the living room at Eddie where he sat sullenly on one of the couches beside Patricia, but not exactly beside her. There were definitely a few purposeful, perhaps even subconscious inches between them. No matter how he felt about any of them, Eddie seemed to be taking precaution until they could settle whatever was going on.

Maybe sensing her gaze on him, Eddie glanced up at Kira with narrowed eyes, and she quickly looked away. Did he really think she could have done it? Didn't he know that just because she didn't always agree with him, that didn't mean he wasn't part of her beloved family? At the end of the day, hadn't she proved that she would choose her brother?

Maybe not. Kira couldn't help but feel like anything she'd ever said or did might come back to bite her now: any snide comment, any time she'd challenged group consensus, anything at all. Kira knew her own mind, knew the one thing for certain was that she hadn't betrayed anyone and never would— not of her own volition, at least.

So that meant it was someone else. She'd become so close with the weird kids clique over the past few months, the housemates she'd considered mostly surface-level friends entering the small circle of people she'd take a bullet for. Yet, there was no doubt in Kira's mind that, when push came to shove, she was by no means an integral member in the club. She wasn't the Osirian, or the brains, or the Key holder, or a Descendant. And even if she didn't have a fancy title, nor had she proved her loyalty to the group time and time again like Fabian, Patricia, and Alfie had over the years.

At best she was Eddie's sister, cut from the same cloth as the divine protector with nothing much to show for it; or even the spare set of brains if Fabian was incapacitated... or a traitor.

At worst, though, she was an interloper, one who stalked them in the middle of the night, eavesdropped on their plans, then forced herself into their ranks with threats about joining the other side. No, the odds were not in her favor, and whoever the traitor was wouldn't have much trouble spinning her into some sort of scapegoat. Truthfully, though, she wasn't sure why anyone would betray the club at this point unless they were going about the idea of what a Sinner was all wrong. Surely there were better opportunities for treachery before that point— why show their hand now, unless they'd only just been dealt in? Either things were that desperate on Team Evil's end, or perhaps Sibuna's traitor wasn't a traitor at all.

Kira shuddered at the thought, examining her housemates' pinched expressions, landing on her girlfriend's. Her heart squeezed anxiously. For their sakes, she hoped one of them really had just decided to go rogue; being at the mercy of a wrathful goddess intent on devouring their hearts and souls was gut-churningly unthinkable.

She didn't have to think about it for too much longer, though, because Mara finally called their house meeting to order with a sharp clap of her hands. "Okay, everyone!" she said, sitting up ram-rod straight in her chair. "We'll now be holding auditions for the male lead! It's obligatory, so unless you want to flunk drama, you're all required to participate. Sorry, not sorry. Who's up first?"

With put-upon sighs, all the boys, minus Jerome of course, stood up and made their way toward the dining room. Alfie was the only one who looked somewhat excited, bouncing around like he hadn't just learned one of his friends was out to get him. Kira couldn't blame him, though, not really. The play was a distraction from the horrors they were facing— a much more welcome one than it had been that morning.

"Oh, me! I'll go first!!" Alfie exclaimed, just as Victor strolled in looking as irritated as always.

"Oh, Victor," Jerome said, raising his clipboard. "Sorry. It's students only, but don't give up on your dream." Victor leered down at him, and Jerome shrunk down in his seat. "Okay, okay..."

Without breaking stride, Victor turned slowly to address the rest of the house. "A very large, very expensive chocolate cake has been stolen," he said, punctuating each word with a sharp, cold diction.

Kira watched her housemates' faces morph into various expressions of confusion, exasperation, and amusement. Naturally, Alfie who looked like he'd gotten his hand stuck in the cookie jar. Oh, Alfie, what were you thinking? thought Kira, biting her lip.

Victor continued smugly, "Yes. Stolen. Would anyone like to confess?" The caretaker looked straight at Alfie, but he shied away as casually as he could muster.

"No? Just as I thought," he sneered. "Very well. Have it your way, then. You will all stay here, while I conduct a room search." With that, Victor spun on his heel and strode out of the room as quickly as he'd entered.

All was silent for a moment until Fabian leapt into action, slapping Alfie hard on the arm and rushing from the room. It took Kira a spilt second to understand what he meant: the wax figure was still sitting in Eddie and Fabian's bedroom in plain sight.

Oh, for the love of—

"Mara, be right back, I've gotta pee," Kira said quickly, passing her her clipboard and tearing off after the rest of Sibuna who'd also leaped into action.

Mara's expression darkened as they all took off. "This is really unprofessional!" she snarked after them. Ignoring her confused, annoyed calls, Sibuna poured into the bedroom. Thankfully, Victor hadn't looked there first.

For the second time that day, the room erupted into chaos. Patricia and Eddie, undoubtedly their physically strongest members held the dummy's arms like two goofy bouncers, swinging it haphazardly in different directions while they looked for a place to hide it. KT shouted for them to shove it under the bed, while Fabian tried to clear room in his wardrobe.

"You came up with that idea pretty quick," he remarked cooly.

KT's eyes narrowed. "What's that supposed to mean?" she snapped.

Fabian shrugged. "Nothing... just you seem good at hiding stuff."

"Which is exactly what someone who's really hiding stuff would say to hide their own guilt," she parried. "Fabian."

Kira inserted herself between them as casually as she could, hoping to diffuse the tiff before it came to blows. So far no one had gotten physical, but with tensions and stakes so high, it was only a matter of time before someone got hurt.

"Motherfucker—" Patricia grunted when the shoulders of the wax figure caught against the bed frame, sending the force back into her bad leg.

"It doesn't fit," Eddie reported, and the couple pulled the dummy's head out from under the bed.

Kira glanced around the room, and she and Alfie exclaimed at the same time, "The window!"

Patricia perked up at that and nodded eagerly. "Yeah! Maybe if we saw him in half—" Everyone paused at her violent suggestion, turning to her with suspicion. "What?" she asked, while Eddie tried to fling the dummy out the window. It looked like a pathetic WWE smack down rather than whatever it was supposed to be. Ignoring the crash, Patricia continued, "It's not like it's alive!"

"Wait, put him on the bed!" Aware they were on a time crunch, Alfie reacted quickly and snatched one of Eddie's jackets, heaving it over wax Frobisher's head. "We can use him as a novelty coat stand!"

"It's like magic," deadpanned Eddie, gesturing to what was still very evidently a wax figure, only now with a coat on top of it.

"Alfie, will you please just go outside and keep watch. Or something?" Fabian huffed, all but shooing him out the door. "Thanks!"

Not two seconds later, he was back, eyes wide as saucers. "The black crow has landed," he hissed. "I repeat, the black crow has landed!"

Eddie's jaw visibly clenched. "If Victor's coming, just say Victor's coming!"

"Okay," he retorted. "Victor is coming!"

No sooner were the words out of his mouth, did the door slam open. They rushed to cover the dummy, but relaxed marginally when they saw it was only a furious Mara standing in the doorway. She glared first at Kira, who winced, knowing she'd have to answer for her lie later, then at the others. "If you don't all come and audition for the play right now, I'll have to give the part to Victor!" she growled.

"No, no, no! I'm ready for my closeup," Alfie pleaded.

She said nothing more, just spun on her heel and stormed back into the living room. Alfie started to follow her, but Eddie called him back with a small grin.

"Alfie, wait!" he said. "I have an idea."

—

Hiding in plain sight wasn't always the best course of action, but it would certainly have to do for the time being. Eddie and Alfie hastily stuck a monster mask over Frobisher's face, along with a hat and scarf and paraded him into the living room for Alfie's audition prop.

While Alfie set up his space near Willow, the rest of Sibuna scattered about the room: Kira sliding sheepishly back into her Stage Manager chair beside Joy, Mara, and Jerome, while KT and Fabian hovered by the kitchen door with Trudy. Patricia leaned against the doorframe to the boys' corridor, and Eddie fell in beside her to watch the show.

"Hi, boys and girls!" Alfie greeted the makeshift casting agents. "I'd like to introduce you to my friend, the Amazing Archie!"

"Oh, Alfie! That is brilliant!" Trudy's laugh was more like a squeal, completely tickled by his shenanigans. Mostly everyone else groaned or rolled their eyes.

He grinned and made a muffled noise, cocking his head at the dummy as if listening to it. "What's that, Archie? You want to tell everyone how amazing I am at playing heroes?" The lineup looked at each other and immediately began writing down something on their clipboards; Eddie and Patricia exchanged sidelong glances and began snickering.

"Wh– What? Wait! I- I- I can do impressions! I can do Victor!" Alfie scrambled, then cleared his throat. "'It's ten o'clock, and I want to hear—'"

"Exactly why you stole that cake, Mr. Lewis," Victor finished snidely, stalking into the room like he was circling his prey.

Eddie winced; he'd figured that cake stunt would come back to bite Alfie, but not quite so soon.

"Um, cake," he stammered nervously. "Uh, have you seen any cake, boys and girls?" Alfie continued in his puppet-voice.

"Ha, ha, how very amusing," drawled Victor. "I know you took it, boy."

"Did you find evidence in Alfie's room?" Trudy chimed in pointedly.

"No," he replied calmly. "I don't need evidence; the gluttony of Mr. Lewis is well known to all." He pointed a finger directly into Alfie's face, so close he went cross-eyed. "You will serve a detention with Ms. Denby at—"

"You can hardly punish him without proof!" said Trudy, rushing in from the kitchen and planting herself firmly in front of Victor. "Besides which, I just witnessed him wolf down four and a half helpings of lasagna! Does that sound like a boy who ate a giant cake?"

In an increasingly rare show of house solidarity, Eddie and the rest of his housemates shook their heads agreeably on Alfie's behalf:

"No way," chorused Jerome and Joy.

"Four helpings!" KT emphasized.

"You never mix cake and lasagna," said Fabian. "Everyone knows that."

Of course, everyone knew he'd stolen it, including Trudy, but Alfie had Victor beaten. No proof, no detention— it was as simple as that. He smiled smugly at him, to which Victor scowled furiously and blustered off. "Thanks, Trudy," breathed Alfie when he was gone. "Now, where was I?"

"Next!" Mara shouted. "Fabian?"

Eddie watched with a sort of morbid fascination as Mara set up a scene between Fabian and Joy, leaving them both to stumble through a truly painful improv. Given the circumstances surrounding their relationship history, it seemed a little cruel and unusual... but it was kind of funny.

"Oh, cut!" Mara groaned when the awkwardness reached its critical point. "You're more wooden than Alfie's dummy!"

A gentle tug on his sleeve drew Eddie's attention away from auditions and onto Patricia who eyed him with concern. She beckoned him quietly into the foyer, and he followed her automatically. "Are you okay?" she murmured.

Technically he shouldn't be talking to her— anyone, for that matter— until he figured out who'd broken the phonograph. But it was Patricia. Still, he had to at least try to hold his cards close to his chest. "Yeah!" he assured her.

She cocked her head and raised an eyebrow in that knowing way of hers. He crumbled like a tin can under a tank.

"No," Eddie admitted glumly. At least he'd tried.

"It must be hard not knowing who to trust," she commiserated, her fingers brushing the back of his hand. "But you do trust it's not me, don't you?"

He had to tread lightly here, had to be as objective as possible. "Well, I mean, it might be—" Patricia's expression crumpled into pure disappointment, and he backpedaled furiously. "Sure! I mean, sure I do," he said, taking her hand and squeezing tightly. It was cool and slightly rough, and he could feel her fingers flex slowly in his grip. "You know, I was thinking that whoever sent those love letters could be our traitor."

Patricia's mouth set into a grim line. "Someone trying to drive us apart... could be," she agreed, a look of consternation crossing her face. "Look... I don't want to point fingers, really. I didn't think anything of it at the time, but maybe..."

"Maybe what?" he prompted slowly.

After a beat of hesitation, she sighed. "Look, I've seen KT borrowing your laptop. What if she's the one who set the whole thing up?"

"KT?" said Eddie in bewilderment. "Resident-lesbian KT? Dating-my-sister KT? You think she made the fake profiles, sent those love letters? Why?"

Patricia shrugged helplessly. "I don't know! Maybe she... I mean, Frobisher's her great-granddad, yeah? Maybe he pulled her over to his side, and he put her up to it! To turn us against each other."

"I dunno..." he said uncertainly, casting a glance over his shoulder at KT. She hovered behind Kira's chair, braiding and rebraiding his sister's ponytail absently. She certainly didn't seem like a traitor, but then again, who among them did?

Patricia squeezed his hand in return, pulling his eyes back to hers. "Whatever the reason, I'm just glad it didn't work," she whispered, drawing him closer.

"Right," he agreed, the breath leaving him as she pulled him down for a lingering kiss.

"Eddie, for fuck's sake!" Joy barked, and they sprung apart. "Quit the snogging! You're the male lead now!"

"Me?" he squawked. "I didn't even audition!"

"Tragically, you're our only option besides Jerome," sighed Mara, sizing him up. "Well, Eddie, I'm gonna make you a star."

He shuffled awkwardly, aware of the other Sibuna's unimpressed gazes on him. Clearly, he'd made it evident whose loyalties weren't in question... the exact opposite of what he'd been hoping to accomplish.

Oops.

—

Kira tried very hard not to be put out by the message Eddie had sent that evening with the PDA in the foyer. Whether intentional or not, he'd drawn a pretty clear line in the sand between Patricia and the rest of Sibuna— she's to be trusted, but what about the rest of you? It was impossible to know if he was acting with his heart or his head, but Eddie had narrowed down his pool of potential suspects by one that day.

She knew she wasn't the only one feeling a bit nervous now, but it was hard to tell what type of nervous everyone was. Or rather, were they nervous to find out who'd betrayed them, nervous to be accused, or nervous to be caught. Truthfully, Kira was almost certain Alfie was innocent, unless the cake debacle was just a stunt to throw them off the scent. Victor wouldn't have been so insistent to send Alfie to the Gatehouse if he'd been working for Team Evil already. That made Kira nervous, too, though: how blatant the attempts to send them hurtling into Frobisher's clutches were. No one at Anubis House had ever exactly been subtle, but schemes were hardly ever so obvious.

Then again, what was so obvious about the situation at hand? It certainly wasn't obvious who did it. It wasn't Kira, it wasn't Eddie, it probably wasn't Alfie, so that left at least three potential suspects in her mind: Fabian, Patricia, and... KT. She didn't want to consider her girlfriend, but she had to be objective. If it was truly a willing betrayal on their hands and not a misconstruction of what they currently understood to be a Sinner, then KT undeniably had the most motive. Even if she'd done it, it was hardly because she was an evil person— naive and trusting maybe, but not evil. More likely, she'd been tricked into believing Frobisher hadn't woken up bad.

But that was only if she'd done it, which Kira didn't get the vibe. Plus, she really didn't want to have to face KT if that was the truth. How could they proceed? Obviously, Kira adored her girlfriend, but it was hard to have a healthy relationship when one half of the couple had smashed an important piece of the puzzle to stop a Great Evil from enslaving mankind to the whims of an Ancient Egyptian goddess and her spindly imperialist puppet.

Fabian and Patricia had the least motive beside Alfie. They'd been in Sibuna for ages: Fabian since the club was founded, and Patricia almost as long. Why turn on it now? However, that unfortunately meant when accusations flew, a few were certain to stick on Kira and KT. That was the way the dice rolled; only time would tell which one of the couple rolled snake eyes. Whether for good or bad, she didn't have to wait long. A few hours later, Fabian sent the group chat a grim text that made the hairs on the back of Kira's neck stand on end:

Fabian: Meeting downstairs now. We figured it out.

It didn't take a genius to figure out what "it" was, and she slowly rolled off her bed and trudged leadenly down the stairs to the boys' room. Eddie, Fabian, Patricia, and Alfie were already there, and after about a minute, KT joined them, wordlessly falling into line with the rest beside Kira. KT looked over at her with a weak smile, which she returned, just as weakly. Whatever happened now, she'd have to be brave, have to calmly lay out her argument if they'd mistakenly decided Kira was their traitor, and if it was someone else... figure it out then.

To her surprise, it wasn't Eddie that took the proverbial stage, but Fabian. That didn't sit right with her. While he might not have done it, it felt wrong to have a suspect deliver the verdict. There was nothing to be done, though, except listen.

"I'm sure you can all guess why we're here," he began quietly. Fabian was stoic, expression carefully neutral; it was simultaneously unnerving and a comfort. "I've scanned all your fingerprints— mine included— and cross-examined them with the finger prints found on the broken phonograph. There was a match. You know who you are, you know what you've done, so if you want to come clean now and spare yourself the shame, this is your last chance."

Predictably, no one cracked; Fabian shook his head solemnly. "So be it," he said, a tad dramatically as he paced the line. "I just... I can't believe you betrayed us... KT."

The air in the room became a vacuum, sucking the breath out of her lungs. Kira had only been theorizing; she hadn't actually thought KT had done it. It was only now just hitting her that deep down, she hadn't really believed any of them had actually done it. How could she have? No, there... there had to be some mistake. There was so much wrong with Fabian's fingerprint test, too many chances for interference. Had he, a suspect, been the one to administer it? Had he had help from someone else? Had Eddie agreed? What was going on? Why? Why? Why?

All those questions spun in her head, making her dizzy, and she blinked away the haze of shock to focus in on the piece of paper that Fabian held in his hands— Match Found, it said, KT Rush— and KT's horrified face staring at them all with mouth agape. "Wh-What?" she breathed. "No, you've got it wrong!"

"I thought you were our friend," Alfie rasped, crushed by the results.

"I am!" she insisted. "The whole reason I'm even at this school is to stop this Great Evil, not lay down the welcome mat!"

"Or did Frobisher manage to convince you after all," Patricia accused bitterly, shuffling back a few paces behind Eddie like the stunned boy was going to somehow be any sort of protection at the moment.

"No! No, I'd never betray you guys! Not if you held a gun to my head!" she exclaimed, searching each of their expressions desperately on the hunt for back-up. "Eddie? Kira, please say something." Kira hesitated for a moment, then looked down at her shoes. She needed more information to be sure, more than a piece of paper, but... but there was motive, undeniably so. KT recoiled, hurt by the silence. "You've all got this so wrong," she whispered in a tiny voice, and Kira's heart broke in her chest. She shook her head disbelievingly and turned to go, but Fabian stopped her coldly:

"If you walk away now, you'll only look more guilty."

KT stopped with her hand on the knob, spine rigid. For a moment, it looked like she might say something, but when no sound came out of her open mouth, she shook her head again, blinked back tears, and left the room without another word.

Kira sat down heavily in Fabian's desk chair, covered her face, and cried. Someone's hand rubbed her back, but she didn't look up to see whose it was— she didn't fucking care. What was truth? What was fiction? The lines only got muddier, and Kira still wasn't sure exactly where she stood.

Maybe no one was sure. Maybe they were still sinking.