As Fabian opened his eyes, he wasn't sure what he was more surprised by; the fact that they were opening, or the sight of Amber Millington cleaning blood out from under her nails. Actually, scratch that, he was far more surprised he was still alive. Ignoring Amber for a second, he looked down at his chest, unbuttoning his shirt to stare, confused at the unblemished skin. Where he had expected a bloody gash was only clean, pale skin. He tentatively poked at the spot, but felt no pain.

"Yes, yes, you're fine, obviously." Amber muttered beside him.

"But…how?"

"Honestly Fabian, did you not read the mythology around the dagger?"

"Oh I'm sorry, it's not like I was possessed or anything!"

Amber flipped her hair over her shoulder and shot an unimpressed look at him. Pulling a tube of lip gloss from her handbag, she began to explain.

"The dagger traps the evil spirits, right? It removes all traces of them?"

Fabian nodded, he had realised this when researching the necklace- it had been defeated by the dagger before.

Amber rolled her eyes when he looked back to her.

"All traces, Fabian. Including bodily injuries. God, like I'd stab you if you weren't going to heal."

"I think I'm going to take that as a compliment." he retorted, rubbing at his chest, which was at least a little warm.

Too warm, actually, and increasing at a great rate. He pulled his hand away in shock, only to realise the heat was emanating from his palm. As he stared, a dark form began to take shape. It shifted and rippled, before settling into the image of a golden ankh.

"Mine appeared about 20 minutes ago." Amber said,calmly. "According to Google, it's a symbol of the afterlife."

"And you couldn't have warned me!"

She shrugged.

"More fun this way.

Jerome took one last long look out at the expanse of the Underworld, before turning back to his friends. He slung an arm around Joy, who was shivering. Despite the dry landscape, there was a frigid coolness in the air.

They were silent for a second, before Patricia spoke up.

"So Osirian, what now?"

Eddie looked a little shifty. He clenched his fists, before releasing them and scratching at the back of his neck.

"I don't really.. know? I've never seen this part of the Underworld before."

"Which bit were you and Nina in?" K.T asked.

"Um, there was a field of flowers? But it was huge, as far as you could see."

Jerome looked back over his shoulder at the fields of burned rushes. There were no flowers in sight. Beside him, Joy made a considering noise.

"You thought of something?" he whispered.

Joy nodded, before raising her voice to the rest of the group.

"Eddie, could you and Nina speak telepathically while you were both down here?"

Eddie looked thoughtful.

"I think we could, but that might have been because we weren't entirely here? Our bodies were still technically on Earth."

"Could be worth a try anyway." Alfie offered, "Nina can't have gotten too far, maybe we could catch up with her."

Sorry guys, that's all for the moment. Hopefully I'll be able to do a surprise update sometime, but I didn't want to leave you with too huge a cliffhanger (literally!)

Thanks for all the support and loveliness

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