The Adventures of the Junior Phoenixes, Part 3: The Pendant of Death

Chapter 24: Lumos Alligans

Chapter 24

     The Keres closed in on the group as they stood in the corridor. Their oily, dark burlap cloaks seemed to flow and ebb as though they had minds apart from the Keres themselves. The tentacles oozed a grotesque and foul slime. They whipped out towards the group, reaching out to snare them in.

     “Move!” Teller screamed. He pushed the others out of the way and jumped into a room. The tentacles narrowly missed Bria, Dan, and Nymph. Rain Fox swiped at the tentacles with her blades. They went right through the tentacles, slicing them off. The creature writhed in pain, but where the tentacles had been cut off another grew quickly in its place. The other creatures began to enter the rooms to the sides of the corridor.

     “My blades don’t hurt them!” Rain Fox shouted to Teller.

     “That’s because they’re agents of Death,” Teller spoke, his stunning spells not working either. “I don’t know how to stop these things!”

     “Master Bullavin taught us!” Bria shouted. “Hold on, I’m trying to remember!”

     “Oh!” Sherman Locke exclaimed, “Keres! There’s a spell! A charm based on light! Bugger it all, I need a wand!”

     “First your trousers, now a wand?” Star asked, “Make up your mind!”

     “Move!” Teller shouted again. The Keres tried to attack them again. It nearly snagged Sam in the leg. Dan grabbed her quickly and threw her aside out of the way of the tentacles. They missed Sam but slammed Dan hard into the walls of the corridor. Dan slumped down, the wind knocked out of him.

     “They feed on the wounded!” Sherman noted, “They’re like leeches, they feed on blood! They’re after the patients!”

     “That’s what the Patronus meant!” Iggy shouted, “Protect the patients!”

     Sky Heart screamed. A Keres was in a room, hovering over a Muggle woman in a bed with tubes coming out of her. “No! Get away from her! Protego!”

     The charm had no effect. The Keres only hissed and floated over the woman.

     Bria ran over to where Sky Heart was standing, trying to hurl spells at the Keres. Bria grabbed Sky Heart’s hand, which was sweaty.

     “What the bloody hell are you doing?” Sky Heart asked, wrenching her hand from Bria.

     “Trust me!” Bria shouted at her, “Give me your hand!”

     Sky Heart reluctantly gave her hand.

     “Think confident thoughts!” Bria instructed her.

     “Are you kidding me?” Sky Heart replied. “Do you know who you’re talking to?”

     Bria smiled a quick smile and aimed her wand at the Keres. She took a deep breath and thought of strong, confident thoughts. She thought of their fight against Black Agnes, of their fight against the vampires the year before, and the joy she felt when Shade asked her to lead the students around Diagon Alley. She felt strong, confident, and spoke the words of the charm Master Bullavin had taught the Seventh Years to use against Keres.

     “Lumos Alligans!” Her wand lit up and a pulsing, reddish-white light exploded from her wand. It swelled up and swirled, focusing on the Keres. The red-white light reached out like claws at the creature. It shrieked as the light reached out at it. The Keres hissed loudly and backed away from the woman in the bed. It floated through the wall behind it and disappeared, offended and repelled.