Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-4766823-20130124173740/@comment-7556745-20130819203240

Here's the fanfic I told you about...

Another term was about to start and the only thing Fabian was ready for was to see Nina. He had kept in contact with her for most of the summer. He even went to visit her for a couple days. She showed him around town and introduced him to some of her American friends, who were all sad when he went home. In her last email, she promised that her and Gran were going to come visit him and his family before term started. But after he got her email, he didn't hear from her again. No more emails, no more calls. He couldn't wait to get to the house to make sure she was ok.

His cab pulled up to Anubis House. He got out and ran into the house. He rushed into the living room.

"Is Nina here yet?" He stopped when he saw everybody (Eddie, Patricia, Joy, Alfie, and Amber) sitting there and they all had a sad look on their face. "What's happened? Where is Nina?"

"Miss Martin will not be returning," Victor said coming up behind Fabian.

"Why?" Fabian demanded. "What have you done to her?"

"What makes you think I've done something to her?" Victor asked.

"Sorry," Fabian said. "Force of habit"

"Why isn't she coming back?" Amber asked.

"I'm not allowed to say," Victor said and he walked out of the room.

"Did you guys talk to her this summer?" Fabian asked the others.

"Yeah, we hung out a couple of times," Eddie said.

"You and Nina hung out?" Fabian asked angrily.

"We found out we live pretty close to each other so we hung out and she filled me in on everything." Eddie explained.

"Really?" Patricia asked "Funny you didn't mention that before." Eddie rolled his eyes.

"And then a couple of weeks ago she stopped calling. I didn't hear from her again."

"Same here," Patricia said. Amber nodded.

"So the question is..." Joy said. "What happened to Nina?"

"Maybe she was..."

"She was not kidnapped by aliens!" Amber interrupted Alfie. He frowned. Everyone was quiet.

Upstairs Amber entered the room. Nina's side was bare. She hoped nobody would be taking it. There was a knock on her door. In walked Trudy.

"Trudy!" Amber cried jumping up and hugging her housemother. "Please tell me you know why Nina's not coming back!"

"I'm sorry sweetie," Trudy said sadly. "But I don't. But I do have something for you. Nina gave me this when she came to get the rest of her stuff. She asked me to keep it safe until you came." Trudy handed her an envelope, patter her shoulder and left the room. Amber decided to wait to open it. She wanted the other Sibunas to read it with her.

That evening Amber, Alfie, Fabian, Patricia, Eddie, and Joy sat in Amber's room. They envelope sat in the middle. Everyone was quiet, staring at it.

"Who's gonna open it?" Alfie asked. Patricia looked at the others.

"Well, since we can't decide..." she said. She picked it up, ripped it open, and pulled out a folded piece of paper, but she didn't unfold it.

"Give it here," Fabian said. He took it and slowly read over it.

"Well?" Amber asked. "What does it say?" Fabian took a breath before he read aloud.

Dear Amber, Alfie, Fabian, Patricia, Eddie, and Joy

I'm sure Victor or Trudy will have already told you that I'm not returning to Anubis House. I cannot say why in case this letter gets into the wrong hands. You may figure it out soon though.

I just wanted to say thanks to you all for making my time at Anubis House the best time of my life. Thanks for being the best friends I could ever ask for. The things we did together was so fun and of course terrifying. But thank you for helping me through it.

Amber, thank you for being the best friend and roomate I could ever have. I will miss you and your frequent blonde moments.

Patricia, I know we didn't get along in the beginning, but I'm glad we were able to become such great friends.

Alfie, in case you're wondering, I'm not being kidnapped by aliens. But not being able to talk to you guys will make me feel like I'm on another planet. I will miss you and your funny jokes.

Eddie, thank you for helping last term. I'm sorry you had to be dragged into all of this. I'm leaving you in charge of Sibuna. Watch out for them for me.

Joy, I know we didn't get a long a whole lot and I'm sorry for that. I was hoping maybe we could talk more this term. I guess that will never happen. But thank you for helping us, I owe you one.

Fabian, thank you for being there since the very beginning. Thank you for never giving up on me. I will always remember our time together. I will never forget you. I'll love you forever.

Fabian had to pause for a moment before he read the rest.

I'm sorry I have to leave like this, I wish I could say what's going on. I'm not even supposed to be writing this letter. Sometimes I just want to go Back to the Beginning and remember all the fun times we had together.

So this is where I say goodbye. Thank you guys again for everything. I will miss you all so much! Give my love to Mara, Jerome, and Mick. Be safe and stay out of trouble.

Nina Sibuna!

Everyone was quiet.

"Eddie, are you crying?" Patricia asked.

"What?" Eddie said rubbing his eyes. "No...I just...I have an eyelash in my eyes" Everyone was trying not to cry.

"So what do we do now?" Patricia asked.

"Well we obviously have to figure out what happened to her," Eddie said.

"What if we're not supposed to?" Joy said. "It could be something bad!"

"I can't not know, Joy!" Fabian said. "I need to know that she's ok!" He examined the letter again looking for any clues or hints that she may have left.

"I think I found something!" Everyone gathered around him. He pointed to the words 'Back to the Beginning'

"They're in bold," Alfie said. "So they must mean something"

"Back to the beginning..." Eddie said to himself. "Back to the beginning of what?" Everyone shrugged. Fabian though for a moment thinking back to when Nina first came to Anubis House. He thought of her "initiation ceremony" and how she'd been stuck in the attic and what happened up there. He though about how that had been the start of the search...he jumped up.

"It means exactly what it says," he said. "Back to the beginning." They all stared at him confused.

"What are you talking about?" Eddie asked.

"Remember when Patricia made Nina go up in the attic?" Fabian asked. Eddie was still confused. She told me she thought she saw somebody. It turned out to be a picture. We found a box in the secret room."

"A secret room?" Eddie asked. "In the attic, let's go check it out!"

"Its not there anymore," Patricia said. "Victor knocked the door down and now its part of the guest room"

"What about the picture?" Amber asked. "Wasn't there something on the back of it?" Fabian's eyes lit up.

"Yeah there was!" he said. "It was a clue...our first clue."

"What did it say?" Eddie asked. Fabian thought for a moment.

"I don't remember exactly," he said. "But it led us to the stairs in the hallway. The eighth stair"

"Lets go check it out!" Alfie said. They all headed for the door.

"Wait," Eddie said. "We shouldn't all go. Victor might hear. Me and Eddie will go." In the hallway Fabian counted down the stairs. The eighth step was still a little loose from when him and Nina opened it.

"What do you think we're gonna find?" Eddie asked.

"I'm not sure I want to find out." Fabian said. He lifted up the board to reveal a box. Eddie pulled it out. Fabian put the board back in its place and they went back to Amber's room.

"Well," Patricia asked. "Did you find anything?" They showed them the box.

"What could be in it?" Alfie asked.

"Well, we're about to find out," Fabian said. He opened the lid to reveal several things that belonged to Nina. Some of it was once Sarah's. Fabian pulled out the locket. He pulled out the key that had opened the box in the attic. Some other things were Sarah's music box, the map to the tunnels, Sarah's papers, and Nina's diary.

"She's really not coming back is she?" Amber said quietly. Fabian handed Eddie the locket.

"She would've wanted you to have this," he said. "You're giving me the locket?" Eddie asked surprised.

"You're the new leader of Sibuna," Fabian said. "Its no use to any of us" Eddie took it.

"How is this supposed to help up figure out what happened to Nina?" Alfie asked. Patricia continued looking through the box and came across a newspaper article that had been torn out. It was fairly new.

"Look," she said. The title said 'Identified Gang Robbers are sent to Prison'

"I remember that!" Eddie said. "Over the summer a couple gang members broke into a jewelry store and cleared the place out"

"A gang," Fabian asked.

"Yeah, one of the worst in our area," Eddie said. "You don't want to cross them! This happened right before I lost contact with Nina" Everyone had a scared look on their face. "Wait...you don't think..."

"I don't want to think about it!" Amber said.

"What does the article say?" Fabian asked.

"It says 'two individuals, an elderly lady and her grand-daughter, who were at the scene of the robbery were able to identify those involved.'" Patricia read. "'However due to the fact that not all gang members were caught, the two witnesses had to be placed under protected custody and re-located"

"Re-located?" Everyone said at once.

"She's been put under Witness Protection" Fabian said. "The girl we know as Nina Martin no longer exists" Eddie was playing with the locket. He opened it and a note fell out.

It said:

Its up to you now.