Courage {Neville Longbottom} (ON HOLD)

Chapter One Hundred Eleven

No matter how much pain Kefira found herself at the moment, she didn't loosen her grip to tug off the bracelet. It felt as though she had stuck her hand into a fire to grab at hot coals, and while she attempted to muffle her screams by trying to bite down on her tongue, Faye's screams continued to grow louder. Faye's already weakened body seemed to kick into an overdrive in attempts to escape the pain as she thrashed about as much as she could. She was using up all of her remaining energy in such a short span of time while Kefira continued to pull on the bracelet.

The Healer in the room had no idea what to do at the time as she had her wand in hand, facing the unknown dilemma. It appeared the only appropriate solution was to separate the girls, but just as she went to raise her wand, Faye lifted up her leg and kicked Kefira back as hard as she could. There was no need for magic as the physical effort had seemed to do the job just fine as Kefira was knocked back to the ground.

However, in the midst of the struggle, Kefira had found herself successful in pulling the bracelet off Faye's wrist. As her back ached terribly from how hard she hit the ground, Kefira managed to turn her head and look in the direction of the bracelet that she held in her hand. The burning continued and she quickly dropped it to the ground kicking it away from her, only to see what appeared to be a branding mark of what looked like intertwined snakes burned into the palm of her hand.

Too busy staring at the palm of her hand at the new possible scarring that was going to take place, Kefira neglected the bracelet for a moment, only to miss the object turn into that of a snake. It quickly began slithering towards her, opening its large mouth to expose the fangs that were going to sink right into the flesh of her neck if it had any say. Faye had fallen back into her bed, but with her head turned, she was able to see the snake descend on her old friend. Too weak to call out, Faye still tried, she still attempted to scream out to tell Kefira to watch out. But her efforts did not go to waste as the Healer that had been in the room the entire time was finally able to act.

The snake seemed to go for a killing strike, directly aiming for the part of Kefira's neck that was exposed, only to be blasted back into the wall by a powerful light. Immediately, Kefira lifted her head up, placing her hand down to see the snake fall to the ground and start to shrivel up as it turned to ash. For a few seconds, no one moved, no one even seemed to blink even as people started arriving in the doorway after hearing the bouts of yelling and screaming that had taken place prior.

Looking back down at her hand finally, Kefira was able to see the mark on her hand start to fade, which brought her to look up at Faye, who remained in the bed with her eyes closed.

"Faye?!" Pushing herself up as fast as she could, Kefira made her way to Faye's bedside and proceeded to shake her until Faye opened up her eyes once more. She could barely keep them open more than a slit and her face was so deadly pale that Kefira felt as though she had just approached a corpse.

Turning to look over her shoulder, Kefira narrowed her eyes in the direction of the collection of Healers that were standing around while Faye seemed to be fading away before their very eyes.

"Well, don't just stand there!" she spat at them. "Do something! You're Healers, aren't you!? It's your job to save her! Save-"

A cold hand clasped around Kefira's wrist, bringing her voice to stop abruptly and her attention was back over to Faye, who was looking directly at her.

"They can't do anything for me anymore, Kefi," Faye told her, "that bracelet was the only thing that was keeping me alive this long, I think."

"What? What are you talking about? It wasn't keeping you alive, it was killing you-"

"No," Faye attempted to shake her head but was only able to flip it over to the side before it became too much for her. Instead, she closed her eyes, trying to conserve as much energy as possible in order to speak with Kefira for as long as she could. Her hand continued to hold onto Kefira, no matter how light her grip was, she kept in contact with her.