Touch of Fear ? House of Anubis [2]

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"We're gonna be trapped!"

Nina's voice rings in my ear as we watch the ceiling descend to the floor. The only way we'll be able to get across is by crawling as fast as we can to the other side, which Fabian encourages by shouting, "Go, go, go!"

So we immediately go, getting to slithering quickly like snakes to get to the other side of the tunnel. Fabian makes it to safety first, followed shortly by me, Nina, and Amber, but Amber's shoe had fallen off while she was crawling and because her motto is 'no shoe left behind' she tries to reach under to grab it. Nina grabs her, exclaiming her name and pulling her up from the ground.

"Sorry, sorry," Amber apologizes. "No shoe gets left behind."

"Amber, did you not see the ceiling coming down on us?" I ask, throwing my hand toward it. "Every shoe gets left behind when we're about to be crushed to death by, like, three tons of rock!"

But as I'm speaking, the ceiling starts to rise again. Nina points at the ground we just crawled on, and I look to see that there are a bunch of squares I didn't notice before. "Look, there's some sort of pattern," she remarks, out of breath. Another pattern. I doubt this one will be any easier to get past than the other.

A man's voice, the same voice that warned us that if we went into the tunnels without protection we would be blinded for twenty-four hours, sounds, "Traverse the grid with step or hop. Follow the sequence, do not stop. All must complete the hopscotch test before the ceiling stays at rest."

"Hopscotch?" I repeat, glancing at the pattern. Of course, it's a hopscotch court. "We have to play hopscotch in order to get across? Are you kidding?"

Fabian shakes his head. "I can't hopscotch to save my life."

"Well, Fabian, you might have to," Nina replies.

"I was school hopscotch champion two years running," Amber states matter-of-factly. School hopscotch champion. Full of surprises, isn't she? She grabs a rock off the floor and adds, "I wonder if I've still got it." She tosses the rock onto the court and begins to hop toward it, but the ceiling starts to lower again.

"Stop!" Nina exclaims, pulling her back. The second she's off the court, the ceiling rises again.

"But I did it right," Amber insists. "You saw me."

"It was pretty much textbook."

"I'm not sure any of this is textbook," I remark, crossing my arms. "Maybe the ancient Egyptians played hopscotch differently than we do and that's what Frobisher-Smythe based this off of."

Amber hums. "It's obvious the ancient Egyptians did not know a thing about hopscotch then."

"Ashley may be right," Nina remarks, looking carefully at the court. "These aren't numbers. Look, they're, like, animal symbols. Is that a duck? Take a picture." Fabian takes his phone out to take a photo of the court. "Okay, let's just call it a day. We need to clear our heads." I throw her an unimpressed glance, gesturing vaguely to my head. "Sorry, Ash."