The four girls met in the kitchen again the next day to go over the results. "So, we know it's Chelsea," Naomi stated. "Who do you think should go investigate? More than two people might cause suspicion."
"I think I should go, because I am a Hufflepuff," Helena pointed out, "I shouldn't cause any suspicion at all. I can just ask nicely and it shouldn't be a problem. The older students help us with spells all the time."
"Can I go too?" Kiara asked, "The spell I cast didn't exactly make me popular with a lot of Slytherins, so I'd like to avoid the dorm for as long as possible. Apparently, I'm pretty sure Amber's got a lot of friends."
"I'm not even surprised at this point," Naomi sighed. "Next time, just don't. I'm not exactly sure what you're doing, but don't do it."
"I don't know if Professor Smith will let you," Helena gulped, "and I really don't want to get in his bad books. He can be a bit harsh sometimes."
"Just sneak me in, or say we're studying together," Kiara shrugged. Helena pursed her lips but nodded.
"Ok, so we'll send the two of you for now. Try not to do anything drastic, just try a spell on her. However, if you spot an easy opening to get the djinn out, take it. You can have the stuff." Naomi handed the duffel bag to Helena. "Take some time to read over the guide. It's really helpful, trust me."
"Well, that's settled," Kiara said, `"I'm guessing you're not telling me to read the book for a reason."
"The exorcism thing is just in case," Naomi explained, "and it's not something I think I can trust you with. No offense, of course. Jeffrey said it had to be precise. You do the stabbing. Helena can do the exorcism when you fail at stabbing."
"I've been professionally trained at stabbing," Kiara argued, "I'm not going to fail!"
"Yeah, stabbing humans," Naomi replied. "I don't think any of us know anyone that could successfully stab a fully fledged magical beast without failing or getting harmed in the process. Unless, Kiara, you know Slytherins that can do it. Which you don't, considering you apparently got one of the most popular of your house to hate you in a single night."
"I mean, technically I do, but none of them would be willing to help me."
"My point exactly," Naomi concluded.
"Is there anything I can do?" Christie asked. "Maybe I could be a- a backup. And when you say stab, will it hurt the host? Chelsea, right? Isn't that dangerous? We don't want to kill another person."
"As long as you don't stab somewhere vital," Naomi said. "So, like the heart, the brain, the throat, and such. And if you're willing to go to the Hufflepuff dorm, Christie, you can be plan C; hit Chelsea as hard as possible with the frying pan to deliver a concussion. Actually, anyone can do that, but if you're there, it might be easier."
"So, we're good?" Kiara asked, "Because I have homework to complete."
"Wait," Christie said again, "who's going to be attacked next?" There was a long pause, each one of the four eyeing each other warily.
"Probably a hufflepuff," Helena guessed, "If she's repeating the cycle again, it would go back to hufflepuff, the house Chelsea started with, and has the easiest access to."
"Be careful then, Helena," Kiara told her, "I'd hate to have another of my friends die. Well, Elizabeth wasn't that much of a friend, just someone who put up with me."
"That was somehow nice and insulting at the same time," Naomi said amusedly.
"Well, I have to make sure that even in death Elizabeth knows how much she means to me," Kiara said grinning, "Now, I really do have tons of homework to do."
"Wait!" Christie said again, "Before Kaylee died I had this dream, where Rose told me that she was about to die. If I just woke up a little earlier…" She trailed off before starting again, "So, just be on the lookout for those dreams, and wake up immediately if they happen."
"Ok, cool," Kiara said, getting more impatient with each word, "Now if I don't do my homework, all my professors are going to kill me, so I have to go. Bye!" She ran out of the room before anyone could say anything else.
"I know for a fact she had months to do that homework," Naomi grumbled, "Why did she wait so long?"
"Well, since Kiara left, can I leave too?" Christie asked, "I'd like to catch up on a few assignments as well."
"Yeah, sure." Naomi said, "I'm leaving too, so I'm going to guess that you are leaving as well, Helena. Bye guys!" All three of them went their separate ways. Later that night, Helena went to pick up Kiara from the library where she had been studying.
"I can't believe we're breaking the rules like this!" Helena whispered to Kiara as they walked to the hufflepuff common room.
"It's not even against the rules to study together," Kiara pointed out, "The library closes in a few minutes anyway, so we have a good excuse."
"Still, we're not actually studying! I really hope we don't get caught."
"Helena, we're literally stabbing someone with a knife, of course we're going to get caught eventually. But if it's for a good cause, like, say, stopping a bunch of innocent people from getting murdered, I don't think we'll be in too much trouble."
"But, I mean, I'm pretty sure this is illegal!" Helena fretted. "Isn't that a full on attack?"
"But we're doing it anyway," Kiara shrugged. The two made it to the front of the Hufflepuff dorms, where Helena tapped out the rhythm of Helga Hufflepuff on the barrels. "How do you remember that?" Kiara wondered aloud.
"It's a hufflepuff thing," Helena said as the two entered the common room.
"So when are we, you know?" Kiara whispered to Helena.
"I think we should get Chelsea alone, so we don't do it in front of everyone. I'm pretty sure she's in her dorm right now, so it shouldn't be too hard." Helena replied, nervously wringing her hands.
"Ok, let's go." Kiara said, and they went up into the dorms.
The two were almost at Chelsea's dorm, when they heard an ear splitting scream coming from the first year dorms. Helena and Kiara exchanged a look, before frantically racing towards the dorm.
The first thing Kiara saw was Maya, curled up on the floor, several fresh cuts on her arm, with blood dripping down and pooling on the floor. The second thing she saw was a tall, dark haired figure, clutching a razor blade, with a small smile on the brink of insanity. Chelsea.
"Get away from Maya!" Helena shouted, her voice quivering from the sight of her friend. The older hufflepuff girl turned towards the two of them and her face contorted into an unnatural scowl.
Kiara whipped out her wand and tried to keep her arm from shaking. "Protego Maxima!" she shouted and bright blue light burst from her wand, surrounding the three of them in a protective force field. Chelsea hissed and jumped back from the shield, her eyes narrowed at them.
"What are you guys doing?!" Maya demanded, her voice hitching from the pain of her cuts.
"Saving your ass, but if you want us to leave, that's fine too!" Kiara replied.
"Kiara!" Helena snapped, "Is it really the time for sarcasm?!" She yanked the duffel bag off of her friends shoulder and scrambled to open the zipper.
"The shield isn't going to hold up for long enough!" Kiara shouted, "So I'd appreciate if you'd move faster!"
"The zipper is jammed!" Helena screamed, desperately trying to rip open the bag.
"You're a witch! Just use magic!"
Helena took her wand out and stabbed it between the zipper, torquing her wrist and wrenching open the bag. She scrambled for the thermos and opened it, nearly spilling the blood on her in the process. "God, this is disgusting!"
"No one cares!" Kiara groaned, "Just do it! Just Shia LaBeouf it!"
Helena dumped the rest of the contents onto the floor, desperately throwing things aside to find the other essential weapon. "Where's the knife?!" Helena demanded. "It's not here!" Something in Kiara's brain clicked and she scrambled around in her pockets, throwing the pistol and the switchblade on the floor.
All of a sudden, the shield collapsed and Chelsea ran towards Maya, her eyes crazed and maniacal. Just before she could get to her, Kiara hit her with a back kick, managing to fling Chelsea across the room. Meanwhile, Helena fumbled with the knife, finally unsheathing it and nearly impaling herself in the process. She dipped the knife into the thermos before running over handing it to Kiara. "Don't stab the brain!" Helena warned. "Or the eye! Or the-!"
"Just let me stab it- her first!" Kiara roared. Chelsea slowly rose back and stared at Kiara before running back at her. Kiara ducked as the girl swung the razor blade at her. She jabbed at Chelsea's side, missing by just a hair. The two continued to hit each other, each barely managing to avoid being impaled.
"Here!" Helena lobbed a roll of gauze at Maya's direction. Maya lunged for the gauze and started wrapping her arm entirely with the whole roll as Helena hurriedly flipped through the guide book. The girl was greeted with crude cartoon drawings and comic sans size 24 text filling all of the pages. "This- this is useless!" Helena spluttered. "Why would Elizabeth's brother give us this?!"
"Because twisted humour apparently runs in the family!" Kiara said through gritted teeth as she continued to go against Chelsea.
Helena shook the book in her hands again and tried staring at the words again, but they all jumbled into one unnatural smile. "Focus, focus, focus, focus," Helena muttered, but her brain decided instead to turn into a complete blank. She looked over and screamed when she saw Kiara pinned down on the ground by the other girl. Helena whipped out her want and shouted, "PETRIFICUS TOTALUS!"
Chelsea jolted, freezing in place, and fell down on the other side of Kiara, who sprang up on her feet. However, only mere seconds later, Chelsea started jerking into contorted postures, as if she were having convulsions. All of a sudden, strange shards of light burst from her body as she stood back up, blade in hand. Helena's eyes widened to the size of the moon. Did she… break the spell?!
When Chelsea lunged at her again, Kiara quickly rolled to the side to avoid getting slashed. However, the switchblade slipped from her hand and slid over towards the other side of the room. Well this is great, Kiara thought bitterly, I totally have everything under control. Helena noticed her friend's slightly panicked face and kicked the pistol into her direction.
"That won't work!" Kiara shouted, panic in her voice, "I don't know how to shoot a gun! And I don't even know if its silver! Or lamb blood coated! Or even loaded!"
"It's better than nothing!" Helena cut in, continuing to keep Chelsea occupied with useless but time stalling spells, "I can't keep this up forever!" Kiara nodded before hastily picking the pistol and pointing it at Chelsea. A sudden surge went up her arm, similar to adrenaline. In the back of her mind, a cool voice not unlike a flight attendant, said, Please hold the gun with two hands.
"How the f- bloody hell did you get into my brain?" Kiara demanded, her eyebrows furrowed as she clearly executed her stunning abilities to sort out her priorities. The woman repeated herself, saying, Please hold the gun with two hands or your estimated chance of survival will stay at 3%.
"Kiara, what are you on about?!" Helena demanded. "I'm trying to focus and you're not. Helping!"
"I'm trying to focus and the bitch in my head isn't helping either!" Kiara snapped. She quickly adjusted her arm position and pointed it at Chelsea, though her arm was shaking more than that one time she had tried archery. Nevertheless, Kiara squeezed her eyes shut and pulled back the trigger, bracing herself for a loud bang like in the movies. Instead, nothing happened. Before Kiara could fully register exactly what happened, brain-lady said, Please make sure the safety is turned off before you shoot. "What the hell is a safety?!"
There should be a small switch on the side that indicates whether or not the safety is turned on. This tool was implemented in the 1900s to prevent accidental shootings and- "I don't care," Kiara hissed, backing herself against the opposite wall of Chelsea and turning the gun to the side. She saw a button next to the handle sticky-out bit and clicked it. Suddenly, part of the handle came off and fell into her hand. You have pressed the magazine eject button. That is not the safety.
"Shit shit shit. What do I do?"
Insert the magazine back into the gun.
"And how the hell am I supposed to do that?!"
Insert the magazine back into the gun, the lady repeated. Kiara scowled at the part that fell into her hand and shoved it back into the handle party thingy of the gun. It made a satisfying click sound just as Chelsea managed to throw Helena to the side and launch herself at Kiara. The Russian girl panicked and gave a firm back-kick, making Chelsea topple over, before running to the opposite wall before Chelsea could get up. Now, turn off the safety.
Kiara examined the pistol and saw a little switch pointed at an engraved word; safe. She flipped the switch and was about to point it at Chelsea again, but brain-lady interrupted with, Use the palm of your hand to pull the slide to its rearmost position and release it to chamber a round. "Simpler words, please!" Kiara demanded, trying to get rid of the plastic yellow diagonal tube that had popped up in her mind. Place the palm of your hand and pull the top back the furthest it can go, before releasing it. Kiara did as instructed and was rewarded with a weird sound that vaguely resembled a shhk click. Aim and fire.
Kiara furrowed her eyebrows and raised her arm, pointing it at Chelsea's leg, before pulling the trigger, nearly hitting her head from the recoil. A loud BANG resonated throughout the room, followed closely by the shattering of glass and two high pitched screams. Kiara looked up and saw Helena and Maya in ducked positions with shards scattered around them. Chelsea, on the other hand, was in the process of getting up, her eyes looking murderous. "Oh, well, that failed." Kiara, said, shrugging. She never had been good at long distance sports anyway. Kiara aimed again and took another shot. Instead of hitting Chelsea's ankle, the bullet flew out the window and hit a bird flying past the castle. She burned through another six bullets, not a single one of them hitting anywhere near Chelsea. Fuck.
Meanwhile, Helena had risen onto her feet and ripped open the package of salt, dumping loads all around the walls and in the corners. She stared at the pictures in the book, using her hand to block out the smiley faces, before using the serious string to spray a pentagram and the correct symbols. Helena took the squirt gun holy water thing and started spraying it at Chelsea, who hissed and screamed when the droplets fell on her. Helena squinted and started butchering her way through the gibberish written on the pages. "Ut Ecclesiam tuam secura tibi facias libertate servire, te rogamus, audi nos!" Helena shouted, looking up. Nothing. "Why didn't it work?!"
"I don't know!" Kiara hollered, whipping out wand and shouting, "Expelliarmus!" The razor blade flew out of Chelsea's hand and out the window. The possessed girl narrowed her eyes at Kiara before lunging at her. Why didn't I pay more attention to memorizing the self-defense moves we were taught? Kiara thought, panicking. She tried to grab Chelsea's arm, so that she could execute the one move she did know, but the girl ducked out of the way, and punched Kiara squarely in the stomach.
"Ow!" Kiara yelped, before ducking Chelsea's next move, which seemed to be a sidekick. Kiara could tell that Chelsea wasn't very well trained in hand-to-hand combat, but the djinn possessing her was. Which meant that even though the older girls moves were jerky, she still was bigger than Kiara and could overpower her quickly. Chelsea lunged at Kiara again, and this time she wasn't quick enough to escape. Chelsea dragged her down, leaving Kiara on the floor.
Chelsea loomed over Kiara, who started writing her obituary in her head. Local girl dies because she couldn't remember any self-defense moves, even though they were a critical part of her black belt test. Helena saw her friend and something in the back of her mind clicked. You call it stupidity, she called it instinct. Whatever it was, Helena acted upon it. She rushed over and nearly tripped as she scrambled to pick up the multi-coloured pan. Her hands grasped the handle and she ran over to Chelsea, harnessing her once-practiced quidditch beater skills and swinging the pan at her head.
The girl crumpled down to the floor next to the shocked face of Kiara. I mean, come on. It wasn't everyday where you say your totally unathletic friend baseball bat the crap out of some demon possessing a girl six years older than you with a pansexual pride frying pan like she's from Tangled. However, the brief grace period was interrupted by a terrifying screech. The two looked down at Chelsea, whose mouth was foaming like some kind of animal with rabies. A figure with strange black tattoos and a pair of horrifying blue eyes burst from her mouth and rose into the air.
The two scrambled form the djinn as it continued to scream and thrash, blue wisps curling off its fingers. That is not what I thought a djinn would look like, Kiara thought. Kiara dove towards the other side of the room, where the switchblade lied, still dripping with the lamb's blood Jeffrey had given them. She grabbed the knife and flipped onto her back, launching the knife directly at the djinn. Somehow, just somehow, the world decided to pity her and let the knife hit directly at the target. The djinn let out a howling roar before everything around her went black.
Dear Readers,
Late again, I know, we suck at this. But anyway, when this story finishes, I don't know how often we're going to upload. Both of us are kind of wrapped up with our own thing. (surprise surprise we have lives.) She's got a lot of work to do, I'm working with a separate editor on other stories. On top of that, school's a bitch.
Anyway, thanks for reading this chapter, and I hope we get the next one out on time.
-Luna
We're almost done. This story is hitting the last chapters. This feels so weird. We've been working on this since June or July and we're finally done, so yeah.
We are going to have another story, (A Percy Jackson one) but as Luna said, we're both pretty busy so I don't know when it's going to come out, or even if it will come out anytime soon.
Thanks for reading! The next chapter will be a special chapter, so be on the look out for that!
Book Recommendation: The False Prince by Jennifer A. Nielsen
-Lupus