Ciphers of Chaos

Chapter 4: In which a big time due is owed and an agreement is made

"You mean to tell me, I left my little brother in charge for a month, and you idiots discover a body, and now are possible suspects for murder?" Tom groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose as we nodded. 

The nine of us were sitting in a circle in the common room of Chamera, Tom's dorm house, and had just finished explaining to him what happened in the past couple of hours. To say he was mad at us was well, an understatement.

"I see you guys once a month to bring you letters from the village, hand-me-downs, and school books so you don't have to buy them, and somehow, in the time I left you guys alone, you find yourselves coming to me for advice on how to not be suspects for murder?" Tom ran his hands through his hair and loosened his tie. "We all received the letter this morning, Penny practically screamed from the rooftops that she was found in the Library, and not even the first years were dumb enough to sneak into to the floor to investigate. And yet, my little brother and his mates were the ones to do it. And you were caught by Bumderodel no less!"

"And, Nespa," Evan quietly reminded him, making the rest of us glare at him.

"And Nespa! Perfect!" Tom stood up and started pacing, rubbing his forehead. "I have Nespa's class first thing monday!"

"Look Tom," Danny finally said, "If it was Nespa found, wouldn't you wanna go and look inta it? We can't all be perfect lil' boys and gearls, like ye an' Penny. Ms. 'Elluh was murdered, and ye expect us to jus' sit around? My motha, she was sisteen when my half-uncle was murdered, and if it wasn't fuh 'er, 'is murderer would still be on the loose. Did yuh think my abuelo was 'appy that she did this?"

"Danica, I know the story," Tom started but was cut off.

"Exactly. So, you should know," Danny spoke with her best speech, trying her hardest to mask her accent. Not many people took kindly to Danny's accent, well, except for the Serpente boys of course. "just  'ow important this is to us. But, we need your 'elp."

"We need a place to hide," Connor raised his hand but Danny shushed him.

"We need a lot more than a place to 'ide Connuh, we need 'elp with the actual solvin' too."

"Please Tom," I begged, "You know you're the most clever out of all of us."

"Fine," Tom finally said, "But, Connor's right, you do need somewhere to hide for a bit." 

"Uh, yeah, no duh!" Houston called, pointing at the door. We all shut up and listened as someone knocked on it, sending shockwaves through the room. 

"Mr. Riddle! Open the door!" Bumderodel's voice ordered through the door. I looked at Danny, whose face grew pale.

"Quickly," Tom ushered all of us upstairs, "in the attic. Hide there. One of youse breathes too loudly, game over." 

He rushed down stairs and the eight of us rushed to find somewhere to hide. The attic was small and dusty, and filled with boxes and old furniture, more furniture than we had in use in Serpente, with a small window at the far corner. Evan rushed over to the window, holding Conner's hand and ducking behind a couple boxes. Bryson and Houston took their spot behind a pile of old mats, while Drake and Chris hid behind some rusting bureaus. Danny pointed to a chair and pulled herself into a tight ball underneath it. I grabbed a mat from the pile and threw it over the chair, before crawling under there next to her.

"Whaddya mean disrupting?" Tom's voice could be heard through the floorboards of the attic.

"Your brother and his dorm members were found disrupting what is now a crime scene. The police want to bring them in for questioning Mr. Riddle." Bumderodel's voice explained.