Fluke; Part 5
By Ginny :)
Please r/r! Con crit especially, so as I can make the next thing I write ['lily & James; mirror'd illusions'] even better! Oh, and I can't be bothered to go and root out my books, so I'm making up my old spells for this. I apologise in advance for my translations of Tom's spell into Welsh. I had it translated over the net, after failing to make any sense of Latin-- Enough said.
Ginny :)
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... The Chamber has been opened...
Fluke didn't understand it, and didn't want to, and anyway, she didn't have the time to wonder at it. Tom gripped her by the arm, and lead her into the mouth of the pipe. Fluke heard Myrtle gasp behind them.
Suddenly, the floor seemed to give way underneath them, and they were falling, slithering, sliding down a the long pipe. Fluke felt a scream rise shrilly in her throat. Tom still had a grip on her arm as they landed in a heap at the bottom. Fluke sat there, bewildered and frightened, eyes tight shut, shaking a little, gasping for breath. She wondered, frightened, what was happening, why they were there, what Tom was up to...
He pulled her to her feet.
"Lumos!" He raised his wand, lighted it, and hoisted her ungently to her feet.
"Tom!"
"What?"
"W... where are we?"
He gave her one of those nasty smiles. Fluke's insides writhed like snakes and lizards.
"You'll see. Come on. This way." Fluke didn't have a choice, as he pulled her along behind him into a narrow passageway. It was dark. The air tasted dry, like sand. There was not a breath of wind. It was too dark to see anything much, except for those things directly in the light of Tom's illuminated wand. She didn't speak to him. Her mind seemed to be numb. She didn't understand what was going on... were they in the secret chamber for good... or for evil? Fluke wished she knew.
Then the passageway ended, and a huge chamber was opened in front of them. It was like a giant cave, carved out of rock, only with thousands of designs-- mostly of snakes and dragons-- etched into the walls. A dagger of fear dug deep into the back of Fluke's neck and drew it's self down her spine as she saw them.
Tom turned to her.
"Here we are, then, Fluke."
"Oh..." she stared around. The slit- like eyes of snakes and dragons stared down at her.
"Now, I need your help again." He took the drawing out of his pocket. Fluke watched, wondering what was going to happen. Her stomach felt full of lead weights.
"Fluke, are you listening?"
"Um... yes." She blinked at him, unsurely.
"Good. Take the picture." She did as he instructed, feeling unable to obey any other will, but for his, "Now... shut your eyes," like a robot, Fluke did so, "Imagine that the snake is alive..."
The vision seemed to fill her mind. A snake. Basilisk. Twisting and writhing and snaking and sliding and.... Fluke suddenly seemed to snap out of the depths of her mind. She screamed.
"Keep imagining it!" Tom yelled, his voice forceful, "You have to!"
... flowing and glowing and
"Now say 'Neidr! ddyfynna'ch at d'n fyw'," [translation; Snake! I summon you to come alive] Fluke repeated him blindly, no other option being in her mind. It was as though... her mind was no longer her own, taken over by this enchantingly evil beast.
"Ag pawb'r allu ca I mewn'm gwythi." [With all the power I have in my veins.] Again, Fluke repeated, and Tom continued, smiling his sickly smile, "Ddyfynna'ch, at gwasanaetha'i fel a'n ufuddblentyn." [I summon you to serve him as if a dutiful child] The picture was beginning to shine as Fluke repeated. Tom's voice continued in it's drone, as he read the final line, "Fi, a creedig'ch ddyfynna'ch at anadla!" [I, who created you, summon you to breathe!]
"Fi, a creedig'ch ddyfynna'ch at anadla!" Fluke repeated, her voice distant. Her mind was somewhere else, somewhere, too far away to hear it's thoughts. Tom's words were hers.
But as she pronounced the final syllable, Fluke's previously lost mind seemed to rush back into her head. She realised with a jolt where she was, what she had done, that something wrong was about to happen...
Fluke felt a scream rise shrilly in her throat, as she saw the picture she had drawn with such precision disintegrate into dust. Her eyes were forced shut against the searing white light that flashed then. It penetrated through her eyelids. She felt a rush of warm air over her thin face.
And then... silence...
And then... laughter, and the dry, hard sound of scales scarping over sandy flooring. She opened her eyes. Rainbow lights flew around her from where she had slammed them shut so hard and hastily. And... in front of her...
The basilisk.
She had created it. It had come from her mind, her imagination, using the hidden evils that everyone has inside them. Somehow, she knew it. Fluke drew back with a shuddering heave and gasp.
"Thankyou, Fluke," Tom spoke now. She stared at him. Her voice seemed stuck in her throat. She couldn't move. The basilisk lay on the floor, it's eyes upon her, staring though to the bone, or so it seemed to Fluke. Her brown eyes flicked from one face to the other; the serpent and the boy.
"That is quite some magic you have inside you." He smiled again at her, a cruel mirth in his eyes.
"Wha-? I didn't... I couldn't have..."
"You created it," he affirmed, "It's made from the evil you have alive inside you; that everyone has inside them. Not that this," he motioned to the serpent, "is evil. It isn't. It's just a snake. It just shows how much evil you have inside you."
"But--" Fluke backed away. She wasn't evil-- she got upset when she accidentally trod on a snail the other day, it didn't make sense...
"It's true," he shrugged, "It's just that almost nobody admits to themselves what power there is, lying in wait, in their souls. You were no acceptation. You could draw, you used the power inside you..." his thin lips became still thinner, "You were different, because you could harness that power."
Fluke opened her already gaping mouth to interrupt again, but he cut across her.
"Still, it's of no or little matter, you know. It all amounts to the same thing in the end." Fluke noticed that his hand had gone to his pocket.
His wand! Her mind snapped at her, his wand's in his pocket! Do something! Get your wand out, idiot!
Fluke's fingers met the hard surface of the wand in her pocket, and she drew it out at the same moment Tom did. She moved first though.
"Stupefy!" The jet of light was send spinning through the air towards it's target, and... missed. Fluke cursed.
"Clever move, Fluke." Tom grinned at her. She glared back, "Not clever enough though... stupify!" She tried to dodge, but the curse hit her straight on. Fluke froze, rigid, unable to move, hot tears of anger and hate and frustration came from her eyes.
Tom paused again for a moment, as if thoughtful, not at all sorry for his actions. Then continued, only half to Fluke, "You know, I could just kill you with a single curse. But you know what?" Fluke didn't reply; she couldn't, "Just to kill you, straight off like that... that wouldn't be winning. Now you've challenged me, Fluke. You sent that curse at me. Now," and he paused, as if savouring the words, "I have to win."
Fluke's heart was in her mouth, beating so loud she thought that surely Tom would be able to hear it. She couldn't hide her fear. It seemed to create an invisible, yet suffocating cloud around her, even in her stupefied state.
"And you know something else?" No reply, of course. "No? Then I'll tell you. Killing you with a curse... that wouldn't be winning. You wouldn't know that you've lost. You'd just be... dead. But now I have this Basilisk on my side," the great snake stirred upon hearing it's name, and smiled as only snakes can, before setting it's head back down again. Fluke made sure to avoid it's eye, as Tom continued, "I can use it to make sure you know you've lost. Even if you had not challenged me, you would die, Fluke. Surely you realise that?"
She couldn't answer, even if she had wanted to. She was shaking with fury, the only movement she could manage.
He grinned a grin very much like the basilisk's, "But, I have a sense of fair play, you know..." and with a wave of his wand, he unstupefied her. She rubbed her lumbs to get the life back into them, and didn't dare send another curse at him, "... so saying, I will let you fight my basilisk. You have your wand, he has his teeth and his eyes. Basilisk! She challenges your strength! Up!"
And the basilisk uncoiled it's self from the ground. Fluke avoided it's eyeline like the plague. She didn't know what to do-- every nerve in her body was screaming at her to run, but common sense told her that if she tried that, she'd be an easy mouthful. She had to fight it.
"Stupefy!" it was the first spell that came into her head. The curse hit the great serpent, but bounced back off it's hard scales. Fluke had to jump aside to avoid getting hit by the rebound.
The basilisk, seeming enraged by this, lunged at her. Fluke was forced to keep dodging and darting and veering to keep out of the way of it's huge poisonous fangs. To add extra terror, she had to remember not to look the beast in the eye if she valued her life. She skirted it's every move, screaming curses of every kind at it. All bounced off it's green scales. Tom's sick laughter rang in her ears. She hated him... she hated him...
Fluke's limbs were beginning to ache... she was tired. She couldn't keep this up. She just couldn't... but she had to... she had to...
She fumbled and almost fell with tiredness.
And then the basilisk struck. Fluke felt the fang sink through the skin, fat and muscle, into the very marrow of her bone. Fluke screamed, loud, shrill and in such pain.
The poison seemed to run into her blood like red hot melted iron. Fluke sank to the ground, Tom's laughter ringing in her ears.
Everything became fuzzy. And then she was floating... floating... floating through space. She was hardly going to be missed to Hogwarts, and this she knew, as she looked down at the form of her body in it's puddle of ruby red blood, Tom laughing, the basilisk snaking it's way back to him to be patted on the head.
What was there to stay for? No one.
Fluke pushed on the air and moved forwards. It was like swimming, only, she could breathe... kind of. Well, all right, she couldn't... but then again...
She decided not to let it trouble her, and swam off, upwards, towards the light that had appeared. Upwards, to join her family.
And Tom laughed. Fluke had lost at something else; the game of life. Purpose served. This was the bullet in the game of Russian Roulettes.
For Fluke it was the end, but for someone else... it was the beginning... and after that... another ending which was really a continuation... which was really... a beginning...
... the Chamber had been opened...
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Well, that's the end! No, I can't continue it. The next part isn't my story. It's not for me to write. You can tell I've been reading philosophical books, can't you? My lily and James series should be much happier then this, and, hopefully have a more satisfying... end? ;)
By the way, I have a new website, http://www.geocities.com/foolish_faye/me.html?989654552580 [copy & paste the address into the URL boxy thingy], with my pictures of the characters in my fics... including 'Fluke', 'To Sleep No More', and 'Even Angels Make Mistakes!', possibly with more to come.
Now, please could you review? Con crit, if possible! Tell me what you liked, didn't like, if it made you think, cry, turn into a manic depressive, laugh like a psycho... [OK, so it's unlikely, but you never know] ... what can I improve? Characterisation? Grammar? Plot? Please let me know!
Cheers!
Ginny :)
