DAY 5
Sirius awoke with a start. A gentle but steady pounding sounded on the portrait wall. He stumbled to his feet, almost tripping over Jill's outstretched body. Feeling around for a light switch, he shivered.
"Jill.Jill, wake up!" he muttered, turning on a faint torch light.
"Sirius.its 4 am!" Jill propped herself up onto her shoulders, squinting in the gray light of the morning. Rain splattered miserably on the huge windows, and tree branches whipped across the glass, creating strange patterns on the molding floor.
"SHH!-" he held a finger to his lips and gestured towards the cracking painting with his left hand- "Can you hear that?" the thudding got a little louder every second thump.
"Wha.what is it?" CRACK! The wall splintered, and a huge crack appeared. Jill stumbled backwards and shook Iorek awake. The huge bear lunged to his feet and stood over Jill.
CRASH! Half the wallpaper gave way, revealing ancient, rotting wood. A quiet thudding still resumed, though now there was less urgency in it. Iorek growled.
"STAND BACK. WAKE UP BUT-" He shook an almighty paw
"I'm here." Butler hoisted the Sig Saur up onto his massive shoulder. "Shall I?"
Iorek nodded. They knew better than to have them both go. But even so, "Sirius, Ginevra, go with Butler" Their Daemons woke and followed after them.
A spark came from the mainframe. Artemis snapped awake. His fingers traced over a TS pad and he frantically tried to re-boot it, his black hair spiking up at the front with the numerous hand combs. "Damnit.NO!" The screen flushed blue and went out with a snap. Jill ran over to the boy, who was now kneeling under the circuit boards.
"What happened?"
"Look over by the wall.see if you can find a transformer." he mumbled, not leaning back to check a button, his strong jaw line clenched with concentration.
Rebecca walked over and checked along the wall. *all fine.* she looked again. "Artemis!"
Butler frowned. The camera he was waving at in the hall didn't work. Sirius tried phoning. Nothing. Just static.
"Er.guys?" Genevra touched a picture. Her fingers ran over some soft of code, most probably Braille. Sirius came over and felt the painting. His eyes lit up. *how clever.*
"Check the others.don't go to far though." Blancha was a dog, scouring the corridors with her keen nose.
"So yes, we have no communications, lighting or power. At least, not in this room."
"Isn't there another room in this bloody mansion that has computers?" Sanders glared at the plasma screen and Artemis. The boy genius was sitting at a chair, his fingers laced, his eyebrows creased. Jill silenced the scientist with a look.
Dumbledore was tracing over the dilapidated wall. He knocked in 8 different places. The same 3 always came up hollow. "Draco, Sam, look-" he pointed at the wall, "get those two hammers and tap here." They obeyed and started to tap away at the crumbling wall. In no time at all a dank smell lifted through the hole in the wall- moss creeped up the corridor that was lit by a soft torch Sanders had.
"AAARGH!" Two strong, scissored hands cut two throats, and an arm swiped the shuddering bodies into the tiny hole with a strange sucking noise. Jill screamed, grabbing Artemis' arm, when he had backed into her, his frame stiff with fright. Blood dripped. There was a shocked silence. Drip. Drip. Drip.
Butlers head snapped up from the painting he was feeling. His soldiers sense was drumming a tattoo in his skull. Suddenly,
"GET BACK!" He blasted the wall, and the deformed monster that had been crawling out of a hole in the ceiling shrieked and withered. White pus fell from the wound. The 3 STARS agents gathered up all the paintings they had found, and sped towards the large computer room. Drip. Drip. Drip. The sound echoed throughout the whole mansion. The maggots smelled their peers hurt. Their faceless forms wriggled. Their slimy skin rubbed against each other, like wet rubber. Rot and mould stuck to their slimy outer cases like sand in an oyster. But sand in an oyster almost always makes up a pearl. And that was just what the queen wanted.
"So.Braille?" Artemis smiled his vampire smile. Butler frowned. How could he be smiling? He would never understand his principals thoughts. Butler smiled to himself, a rare show of ease. Maybe it would be better if he didn't.
Jill held the sobbing frame of Rebecca, who was nearly on the floor with grief. Sirius looked on in confusion, and was told the whole story by a paler than usual Sanders. Dumbledore tried calling HQ on his phone, but there was no signal Artemis traced his fingers again over the paintings. He still felt the rises, and pulled out his bump-mapping handheld. He scanned two paintings to bring up the Braille. After studying it closely for two hours, blanking out the pandemonium around him, Jill came over and smacked the back of his head. Artemis almost fell off the rickety old chair in surprise, and landed face first onto the table.
"OW! What the hell did you do that for?!" he screamed at her, rubbing the back of his head furiously.
"Need any help, Mud Boy?" Jill threw him a lopsided grin and Artemis sighed. He could use her help; she was good at deciphering codes. He gritted his teeth and stood up.
"I could indeed use your help, Ms Valentine." He winced. It sounded so cheesy. Jill looked at him curiously. She took the seat Artemis offered her, and poked at the paintings and pile of notes, then gave a little laugh.
"Arty, Arty. Tsk tsk. Why use paltry mortal ways of code cracking when you have a fairy on your side?" she dropped her voice a decibel. It sounded like the mesmer. Artemis frowned. "I have something that can help you in my room. But we cant get there, unless." she thought for a second, her pale forehead crinkling slightly.
"Shielding, perhaps?" Artemis enquired, feeling a little stung at Jill's remark about his code skills. It was hardly average, after all.
"No, we couldn't use that. Think! If we get caught, the little amount of magic that I posses will disappear and I wont have any left for healing. I'm half Mud, Arty. I can't afford to risk something as stupid as a de- coder when I'm depended on for wounds!" She looked at the paintings again, tracing her fingers over them like Artemis. She snapped her fingers.
"I've got it!"
Sanders slowly collected the dripping pus from the dead monster that lay in the cavernous hallway. He frowned. The boarded up passage was new.the wood should have rotted from the damp and moss should have covered the floor, but the wood looked manufactured, plastic. He poked at the creature. Something hard hit the end of the scalpel. He frowned, shuffling slowly closer. A spark shivered up the slimy skin. Sanders almost fell back in surprise. He turned around and rummaged in his bag frantically. Sirius made his way over to the doctor.
"Find anything interesting?"
"Oh yeah. Check it out!" Sanders snapped on tough gloves and pulled out the huge life form. Several vomiting noises came from behind and Sirius gagged slightly as a sucking noise came from the floor, followed by strings of saliva like liquid.
"What are you doing?" enquired Dumbledore, Fawkes resting sleepily on his shoulder.
"I've just noticed something.look!" Sanders manipulated a scalpel to reveal a complicated AI circuit board. Sirius gasped.
"A robot! But- this means that." He glanced at Sanders, who pushed his glasses up a bit and nodded ever so slightly.
"This was put here on purpose."
"Shh.come on!" Jill grabbed Artemis arm and crept along the sideboards of the stairs. Rain still lashed violently at the windows, and the shadows from the stairwell cast creepy fingers like patterns scuttling on the walls. They held their breath and edged towards Jill's room. Something groaned. Artemis threw out his arm and silenced Jill with a finger to his lips.
"Is it just me or is that coming from upstairs?" he whispered, once again resuming to tiptoe towards Jill's room.
"I think it is.we're almost there, lets go. I have a feeling that this Braille code is very important." She closed her hand around the doorknob and twisted it silently. It squeaked loudly. Jill winced, and the pair of them hurried inside.
"Where is it?" Artemis stood by the door, ready to shoot if anything came close. Jill grabbed a device from her bedside table. Whilst she was there, she also grabbed other things from a drawer. After closing it silently, they pocketed the device in a box and Artemis put it inside his jacket pocket. Jill cast a quick look around the deserted room, and Artemis suddenly caught glance at a painting.
"Jill! Look!" he hissed, pointing at the painting. Jill's eyes widened. She remembered that picture. On her first day.it struck something familiar to her. Artemis crept over to it and unfastened it, noticing the bumps of Braille on it. Something clicked.
"Er. Artemis?" Jill pointed at the hole where the painting had been partly removed. Something wriggled and screeched deafeningly.
"Well, THAT'S not good."
Artemis and Jill tumbled into the room, breathing heavily and clutching at their Daemons fur. They collapsed on their research table and tried to act normally, though their hearts thudded so fast. Everyone else was milling around, wondering many things:
a) What that noise was,
b) Who would want to kill them, and
c) When were they going to eat?
However, Iorek strode over to them, his snout quivering with anger. Jill and Artemis cowered slightly, their pale faces flushing slightly when Iorek's glare passed over them.
"Explain. Tell me the whole truth, and I will tell no-one." He demanded, crossing his huge paws over his chest. Jill looked at Artemis, who looked at her, then glanced at Iorek with a gulp. He opened his mouth, and the words tumbled out.
".and then we ran back up here.we thought no one knew we were gone!" Artemis cried, holding up his hands. Butler glared at Jill.
"You really thought we wouldn't notice if our principals were gone?" he asked, a smile playing on his lips. Jill's eyes became downcast. She looked quickly at Iorek. Her fists were clenched on her lap.
"You TOLD him, Iorek?" she said, through gritted teeth. The huge bears glare faltered slightly. "I thought I told you not to." She got up and strode towards the small bathroom, and slammed the door behind her. Butler frowned.
"You weren't meant to." Iorek shook his shaggy head. "Oh."
Artemis looked inquisitively at the two huge bodyguards. "Foaly sent you, hmm?" he said, standing too. Butler gave him half a look and he shut his mouth, smiling sheepishly, instead choosing to go over to the bathroom where Jill had locked herself.
"Why do I always have to be babied, Saratham? Its just not fair!" she hiccoughed, holding his snowy owl form in her arms as she huddled on the marble floor.
"He's doing it for a reason, Jill. You know that. Even if he thought you could handle it by yourself, Trouble would still have insisted that Iorek go." the owl reasoned, putting his beak into her hair. There was a soft knock at the door. Jill looked up.
"Go away!" Artemis sighed. Pixies. So emotional. Daikah gently prodded at the door and the lock opened. Artemis poked his head around the corner. Jill opened her mouth as if to complain then closed it. A tear ran down the young STARS members face. Daikah hopped off Artemis' shoulder and went to confront Saratham. Artemis knelt next to Jill, who looked down at her hands. He frowned at her.
"Its not easy, is it?" he said softly. Jill looked at him. "I've lived my entire life with Butler. Since I was born. He's been my only friend for 21 years. The only one I could actually trust. At school, I used to feel alone without him. I thought that once my father came back, things would be different. But he drifted away slowly. He returned to his old self. And my mother was no different. But Butler was always there. He always did what I told him. Always listened. But there are times when I wish I could truly be on my own."
"Arent you scared?" asked Jill, looking at the boy. "Of being alone."
"How can you be scared of something you've never experienced?"
"I.I wouldn't know." She dropped her gaze again. Artemis lifted up her chin with a hand. She brushed away her tears and returned the glare.
"Holly.you look so much like her.her attitude." he half smiled. "I can see the resemblance. You look a lot like your mother, Jill." She gave him a sarcastic smile.
"I hope you don't mean that I look old, Mud Boy." She mumbled, and Artemis took his hand away and brushed her hair away from her face. His cold blue eyes melted ever so slightly.
"Whats wrong with Trouble wanting to keep you safe? He's your uncle, he's the only one that you have had contact with regularly through Haven, right?" he said, softly. Jill frowned.
"Yeah, but.I wish I could contact Holly more. She's never around. She raised me alone, when my father ran away. Bit of a shock for him when he realized what Holly was," she said, a small grin on her face, "So I'm more fairy than Mud. But still." she sighed and shrugged.
"Don't you find any comfort in being protected, Jill?" She nodded slightly.
"I do. But I hate people knowing it." She gave a small growl. "I cant believe Iorek told Butler! I specifically asked him not to." There was a strange noise outside and they heard something heavy slam on the floor. "What the..?" Jill sprang up and took out a pistol, Artemis clambering up clumsily. She threw open the door and saw Sirius lying on the floor.
"SIRIUS?!" Jill screamed and ran over, tears filling up her eyes. She was about to reach him when a deafening screech filled up the tiny room. Artemis gasped.
"JILL! TO YOUR LEFT!" he ran over and knocked her out of the way as a huge maggot almost clamped its huge, leech like mouth full of sharp teeth over her body. A large white mass of fur charged it and brought it, squirming, to its death on the floor. As it lay convulsing on the tiles, Iorek looked at Sirius' lifeless form in the evening dusk. Artemis joined him, after helping Jill up, and leading her trembling body over.
Jill knelt down beside her injured friend and looked at him beneath creased brows.
"Where are the others?" Sirius groaned.
"They left.Dumbledore was supposed to stay but."
"I stayed outside, I was guarding the halls and I heard Sirius yell." Iorek dropped something at Jill's feet. She closed her hand around it without looking and absently handed it to Artemis to read.
"Antidote?" Artemis looked at Iorek, "you think this will this work?"
"Should do. From the look of his wounds, I'm not sure if it'll last." Jill moaned and helped Sirius to sit up, hugging him. Sirius gently put an arm around her as she held him closely.
Artemis turned away. He knew that what Iorek meant when he said he wasn't sure it would last. He had known death. He knew when it was coming.
Iorek frowned. "You should sleep. I'll be OK; I'm going to wait for the others to come back. I just don't understand why they left you here, apparently alone."
Jill nodded and sat down, her eyes drifting slightly as she felt Sirius' head gently land on her lap, using it as a pillow. She almost fell over; a sudden tiredness had taken over her like no other. She pulled out her journal and began to write.
I cant believe it. I know Sirius is going to die. His daemon is weak. I just don't know how to handle it at all. I'm unnaturally tired but I want to
Artemis caught Jill gently as she fell onto his shoulder and, withount reading the text, closed the red book and put a blanket over her shoulders.
Sirius awoke with a start. A gentle but steady pounding sounded on the portrait wall. He stumbled to his feet, almost tripping over Jill's outstretched body. Feeling around for a light switch, he shivered.
"Jill.Jill, wake up!" he muttered, turning on a faint torch light.
"Sirius.its 4 am!" Jill propped herself up onto her shoulders, squinting in the gray light of the morning. Rain splattered miserably on the huge windows, and tree branches whipped across the glass, creating strange patterns on the molding floor.
"SHH!-" he held a finger to his lips and gestured towards the cracking painting with his left hand- "Can you hear that?" the thudding got a little louder every second thump.
"Wha.what is it?" CRACK! The wall splintered, and a huge crack appeared. Jill stumbled backwards and shook Iorek awake. The huge bear lunged to his feet and stood over Jill.
CRASH! Half the wallpaper gave way, revealing ancient, rotting wood. A quiet thudding still resumed, though now there was less urgency in it. Iorek growled.
"STAND BACK. WAKE UP BUT-" He shook an almighty paw
"I'm here." Butler hoisted the Sig Saur up onto his massive shoulder. "Shall I?"
Iorek nodded. They knew better than to have them both go. But even so, "Sirius, Ginevra, go with Butler" Their Daemons woke and followed after them.
A spark came from the mainframe. Artemis snapped awake. His fingers traced over a TS pad and he frantically tried to re-boot it, his black hair spiking up at the front with the numerous hand combs. "Damnit.NO!" The screen flushed blue and went out with a snap. Jill ran over to the boy, who was now kneeling under the circuit boards.
"What happened?"
"Look over by the wall.see if you can find a transformer." he mumbled, not leaning back to check a button, his strong jaw line clenched with concentration.
Rebecca walked over and checked along the wall. *all fine.* she looked again. "Artemis!"
Butler frowned. The camera he was waving at in the hall didn't work. Sirius tried phoning. Nothing. Just static.
"Er.guys?" Genevra touched a picture. Her fingers ran over some soft of code, most probably Braille. Sirius came over and felt the painting. His eyes lit up. *how clever.*
"Check the others.don't go to far though." Blancha was a dog, scouring the corridors with her keen nose.
"So yes, we have no communications, lighting or power. At least, not in this room."
"Isn't there another room in this bloody mansion that has computers?" Sanders glared at the plasma screen and Artemis. The boy genius was sitting at a chair, his fingers laced, his eyebrows creased. Jill silenced the scientist with a look.
Dumbledore was tracing over the dilapidated wall. He knocked in 8 different places. The same 3 always came up hollow. "Draco, Sam, look-" he pointed at the wall, "get those two hammers and tap here." They obeyed and started to tap away at the crumbling wall. In no time at all a dank smell lifted through the hole in the wall- moss creeped up the corridor that was lit by a soft torch Sanders had.
"AAARGH!" Two strong, scissored hands cut two throats, and an arm swiped the shuddering bodies into the tiny hole with a strange sucking noise. Jill screamed, grabbing Artemis' arm, when he had backed into her, his frame stiff with fright. Blood dripped. There was a shocked silence. Drip. Drip. Drip.
Butlers head snapped up from the painting he was feeling. His soldiers sense was drumming a tattoo in his skull. Suddenly,
"GET BACK!" He blasted the wall, and the deformed monster that had been crawling out of a hole in the ceiling shrieked and withered. White pus fell from the wound. The 3 STARS agents gathered up all the paintings they had found, and sped towards the large computer room. Drip. Drip. Drip. The sound echoed throughout the whole mansion. The maggots smelled their peers hurt. Their faceless forms wriggled. Their slimy skin rubbed against each other, like wet rubber. Rot and mould stuck to their slimy outer cases like sand in an oyster. But sand in an oyster almost always makes up a pearl. And that was just what the queen wanted.
"So.Braille?" Artemis smiled his vampire smile. Butler frowned. How could he be smiling? He would never understand his principals thoughts. Butler smiled to himself, a rare show of ease. Maybe it would be better if he didn't.
Jill held the sobbing frame of Rebecca, who was nearly on the floor with grief. Sirius looked on in confusion, and was told the whole story by a paler than usual Sanders. Dumbledore tried calling HQ on his phone, but there was no signal Artemis traced his fingers again over the paintings. He still felt the rises, and pulled out his bump-mapping handheld. He scanned two paintings to bring up the Braille. After studying it closely for two hours, blanking out the pandemonium around him, Jill came over and smacked the back of his head. Artemis almost fell off the rickety old chair in surprise, and landed face first onto the table.
"OW! What the hell did you do that for?!" he screamed at her, rubbing the back of his head furiously.
"Need any help, Mud Boy?" Jill threw him a lopsided grin and Artemis sighed. He could use her help; she was good at deciphering codes. He gritted his teeth and stood up.
"I could indeed use your help, Ms Valentine." He winced. It sounded so cheesy. Jill looked at him curiously. She took the seat Artemis offered her, and poked at the paintings and pile of notes, then gave a little laugh.
"Arty, Arty. Tsk tsk. Why use paltry mortal ways of code cracking when you have a fairy on your side?" she dropped her voice a decibel. It sounded like the mesmer. Artemis frowned. "I have something that can help you in my room. But we cant get there, unless." she thought for a second, her pale forehead crinkling slightly.
"Shielding, perhaps?" Artemis enquired, feeling a little stung at Jill's remark about his code skills. It was hardly average, after all.
"No, we couldn't use that. Think! If we get caught, the little amount of magic that I posses will disappear and I wont have any left for healing. I'm half Mud, Arty. I can't afford to risk something as stupid as a de- coder when I'm depended on for wounds!" She looked at the paintings again, tracing her fingers over them like Artemis. She snapped her fingers.
"I've got it!"
Sanders slowly collected the dripping pus from the dead monster that lay in the cavernous hallway. He frowned. The boarded up passage was new.the wood should have rotted from the damp and moss should have covered the floor, but the wood looked manufactured, plastic. He poked at the creature. Something hard hit the end of the scalpel. He frowned, shuffling slowly closer. A spark shivered up the slimy skin. Sanders almost fell back in surprise. He turned around and rummaged in his bag frantically. Sirius made his way over to the doctor.
"Find anything interesting?"
"Oh yeah. Check it out!" Sanders snapped on tough gloves and pulled out the huge life form. Several vomiting noises came from behind and Sirius gagged slightly as a sucking noise came from the floor, followed by strings of saliva like liquid.
"What are you doing?" enquired Dumbledore, Fawkes resting sleepily on his shoulder.
"I've just noticed something.look!" Sanders manipulated a scalpel to reveal a complicated AI circuit board. Sirius gasped.
"A robot! But- this means that." He glanced at Sanders, who pushed his glasses up a bit and nodded ever so slightly.
"This was put here on purpose."
"Shh.come on!" Jill grabbed Artemis arm and crept along the sideboards of the stairs. Rain still lashed violently at the windows, and the shadows from the stairwell cast creepy fingers like patterns scuttling on the walls. They held their breath and edged towards Jill's room. Something groaned. Artemis threw out his arm and silenced Jill with a finger to his lips.
"Is it just me or is that coming from upstairs?" he whispered, once again resuming to tiptoe towards Jill's room.
"I think it is.we're almost there, lets go. I have a feeling that this Braille code is very important." She closed her hand around the doorknob and twisted it silently. It squeaked loudly. Jill winced, and the pair of them hurried inside.
"Where is it?" Artemis stood by the door, ready to shoot if anything came close. Jill grabbed a device from her bedside table. Whilst she was there, she also grabbed other things from a drawer. After closing it silently, they pocketed the device in a box and Artemis put it inside his jacket pocket. Jill cast a quick look around the deserted room, and Artemis suddenly caught glance at a painting.
"Jill! Look!" he hissed, pointing at the painting. Jill's eyes widened. She remembered that picture. On her first day.it struck something familiar to her. Artemis crept over to it and unfastened it, noticing the bumps of Braille on it. Something clicked.
"Er. Artemis?" Jill pointed at the hole where the painting had been partly removed. Something wriggled and screeched deafeningly.
"Well, THAT'S not good."
Artemis and Jill tumbled into the room, breathing heavily and clutching at their Daemons fur. They collapsed on their research table and tried to act normally, though their hearts thudded so fast. Everyone else was milling around, wondering many things:
a) What that noise was,
b) Who would want to kill them, and
c) When were they going to eat?
However, Iorek strode over to them, his snout quivering with anger. Jill and Artemis cowered slightly, their pale faces flushing slightly when Iorek's glare passed over them.
"Explain. Tell me the whole truth, and I will tell no-one." He demanded, crossing his huge paws over his chest. Jill looked at Artemis, who looked at her, then glanced at Iorek with a gulp. He opened his mouth, and the words tumbled out.
".and then we ran back up here.we thought no one knew we were gone!" Artemis cried, holding up his hands. Butler glared at Jill.
"You really thought we wouldn't notice if our principals were gone?" he asked, a smile playing on his lips. Jill's eyes became downcast. She looked quickly at Iorek. Her fists were clenched on her lap.
"You TOLD him, Iorek?" she said, through gritted teeth. The huge bears glare faltered slightly. "I thought I told you not to." She got up and strode towards the small bathroom, and slammed the door behind her. Butler frowned.
"You weren't meant to." Iorek shook his shaggy head. "Oh."
Artemis looked inquisitively at the two huge bodyguards. "Foaly sent you, hmm?" he said, standing too. Butler gave him half a look and he shut his mouth, smiling sheepishly, instead choosing to go over to the bathroom where Jill had locked herself.
"Why do I always have to be babied, Saratham? Its just not fair!" she hiccoughed, holding his snowy owl form in her arms as she huddled on the marble floor.
"He's doing it for a reason, Jill. You know that. Even if he thought you could handle it by yourself, Trouble would still have insisted that Iorek go." the owl reasoned, putting his beak into her hair. There was a soft knock at the door. Jill looked up.
"Go away!" Artemis sighed. Pixies. So emotional. Daikah gently prodded at the door and the lock opened. Artemis poked his head around the corner. Jill opened her mouth as if to complain then closed it. A tear ran down the young STARS members face. Daikah hopped off Artemis' shoulder and went to confront Saratham. Artemis knelt next to Jill, who looked down at her hands. He frowned at her.
"Its not easy, is it?" he said softly. Jill looked at him. "I've lived my entire life with Butler. Since I was born. He's been my only friend for 21 years. The only one I could actually trust. At school, I used to feel alone without him. I thought that once my father came back, things would be different. But he drifted away slowly. He returned to his old self. And my mother was no different. But Butler was always there. He always did what I told him. Always listened. But there are times when I wish I could truly be on my own."
"Arent you scared?" asked Jill, looking at the boy. "Of being alone."
"How can you be scared of something you've never experienced?"
"I.I wouldn't know." She dropped her gaze again. Artemis lifted up her chin with a hand. She brushed away her tears and returned the glare.
"Holly.you look so much like her.her attitude." he half smiled. "I can see the resemblance. You look a lot like your mother, Jill." She gave him a sarcastic smile.
"I hope you don't mean that I look old, Mud Boy." She mumbled, and Artemis took his hand away and brushed her hair away from her face. His cold blue eyes melted ever so slightly.
"Whats wrong with Trouble wanting to keep you safe? He's your uncle, he's the only one that you have had contact with regularly through Haven, right?" he said, softly. Jill frowned.
"Yeah, but.I wish I could contact Holly more. She's never around. She raised me alone, when my father ran away. Bit of a shock for him when he realized what Holly was," she said, a small grin on her face, "So I'm more fairy than Mud. But still." she sighed and shrugged.
"Don't you find any comfort in being protected, Jill?" She nodded slightly.
"I do. But I hate people knowing it." She gave a small growl. "I cant believe Iorek told Butler! I specifically asked him not to." There was a strange noise outside and they heard something heavy slam on the floor. "What the..?" Jill sprang up and took out a pistol, Artemis clambering up clumsily. She threw open the door and saw Sirius lying on the floor.
"SIRIUS?!" Jill screamed and ran over, tears filling up her eyes. She was about to reach him when a deafening screech filled up the tiny room. Artemis gasped.
"JILL! TO YOUR LEFT!" he ran over and knocked her out of the way as a huge maggot almost clamped its huge, leech like mouth full of sharp teeth over her body. A large white mass of fur charged it and brought it, squirming, to its death on the floor. As it lay convulsing on the tiles, Iorek looked at Sirius' lifeless form in the evening dusk. Artemis joined him, after helping Jill up, and leading her trembling body over.
Jill knelt down beside her injured friend and looked at him beneath creased brows.
"Where are the others?" Sirius groaned.
"They left.Dumbledore was supposed to stay but."
"I stayed outside, I was guarding the halls and I heard Sirius yell." Iorek dropped something at Jill's feet. She closed her hand around it without looking and absently handed it to Artemis to read.
"Antidote?" Artemis looked at Iorek, "you think this will this work?"
"Should do. From the look of his wounds, I'm not sure if it'll last." Jill moaned and helped Sirius to sit up, hugging him. Sirius gently put an arm around her as she held him closely.
Artemis turned away. He knew that what Iorek meant when he said he wasn't sure it would last. He had known death. He knew when it was coming.
Iorek frowned. "You should sleep. I'll be OK; I'm going to wait for the others to come back. I just don't understand why they left you here, apparently alone."
Jill nodded and sat down, her eyes drifting slightly as she felt Sirius' head gently land on her lap, using it as a pillow. She almost fell over; a sudden tiredness had taken over her like no other. She pulled out her journal and began to write.
I cant believe it. I know Sirius is going to die. His daemon is weak. I just don't know how to handle it at all. I'm unnaturally tired but I want to
Artemis caught Jill gently as she fell onto his shoulder and, withount reading the text, closed the red book and put a blanket over her shoulders.