The Adventures of the Junior Phoenixes, Part 4: The Pendant of Light

Chapter 22: Books, Barrows, and the Two Portraits

Chapter 22

     “Let me out!” a voice called out from the darkness before her. Star walked warily down a corridor lined with books on shelves. The books lined the corridor from top to bottom; books of all sizes, shapes, and in various languages. The corridor ran straight as far as Star’s vampire eyes could see. A strange luminescence gave light to the corridor.

     “Let me out!” the voice called again.

     “Where is that voice coming from?” Star asked herself. She wanted to call out to the voice but she didn’t recognize it, therefore she didn’t trust it.

     She kept walking down the corridor. She tried to read the titles of some of the books but many were in different languages. She saw one that piqued her interest. She reached for it and pulled it from the shelf.

     “Lost Creatures of the North by Newt Scamander,” she said to herself. “I wonder if it has anything about those Cold Drakes in it.”

     Suddenly the corridor was rent with a sharp, loud, bloodcurdling scream. Star dropped the book and instinctively tried to reach for her wand. She fumbled in her school robes and in her cloak for her wand but could not find it.

     “I’m dreaming,” she said in a moment of realization, “I must be dreaming. There’s no way I’d be somewhere without my wand.”

     She reached into her pants pockets and, in the back pocket, her fingers found a wand.

     “Thank goodness,” she said with relief. She pulled the wand out and chuckled. “Shade’s wand. Go figure.” She looked at the wand: English Oak and Phoenix feather. It still had the Dittany Stalk wrapped around it that the Wapanaki had placed on it. “Thank goodness I have this still!”

     She lit the wand and continued down the corridor. She clutched the wand tightly, walking down with trepidation. She turned around to see behind her and she gasped.

     The corridor behind her had vanished.

     “Okay,” she said, “Now this is getting creepy.”

     She reached her hand to the dark but it was hard, like a wall.

     “That’s lame. Looks like I have only one way to go.”

     She continued down the corridor. Fear began to build up in her mind. She took deep breaths to keep herself calm. Her undead heart was beating quickly in her chest, her nerves racked and her hand beginning to shake.

     “Keep it together!” she told herself, “Don’t be a loser! Keep it together! You’ve seen scarier. A hallway ain’t scary, dude.”

     “I can hear you,” the voice whispered in the darkness.

     “AH!” Star yelled out. She ran off, running down the corridor with purpose and panic. She gripped the wand tighter, anger beginning to settle in. “Wherever you are, dude, come out and bring it!”

     Before her, as she kept running, she saw a pair of unadorned wooden doors. She burst through the doors and found herself in a massive room. It looked like a cathedral, with great round columns and stained glass windows with images on them. The room, just like the corridor, was lined with books as high as they can go. The whole room looked like it was a once a church, but there no religious symbols or altars anywhere; only books and books and books.

     “What is this, a library?” she asked aloud.

     She looked closely at one of the stained glass windows and examined it. The Pendant of Light around her neck twitched.