A/N: This will be a two-shot. I'll write the other chapter tomorrow.
Disclaimer: None of the characters are mine. They all belong to Derek Landy (god bless him)
Val's POV
I didn't knwo why I was so desperate. Ghastly took it with pride. Tanith was a bit less talkative but otherwise okay. Though the lack of talking was probably a result of me not answering. I was still angry about Guild. He was a real prick. But the anger wasn't bad. It was more like a streak of red on a grey, dull sea, quickly drowned. For two days I had been totally apathic. Fletcher had even painted my face black with face-paint to get me to react. It had been no use. I had been no use. I couldn't do anything when Skulduggery got dragged into the other reality. I looked at myself in the mirror. I was at Gordon's house, my reflection still living my life. It was still black. Originally I had com to the bathroom to finally wash it off but I had gotten distracted. I looked back at the distraction. It was a butterfly. A Holly Blue as far as I remembered. It sat just outside on the windowsill, one leg at the glass. It seemed to look at me. I knew they were rare. But frankly I didn't care. But it seemed to care for me. It was still there, slightly waving its antennae. An image of perfect stillness and beauty. Now that I thought back on it I couldn't imagine why I would ever have called China Sorrows beautiful. She was graceful and pretty, but not beautiful. Bauty required pureness, a virtue she didn't have. She had lost her brother on the battlefield. Bliss had been great. I was still afraid of him. Although he was dead and although I had been trained so much. But my training wasn't enough apparently. Not enough to prevent Skulduggery from being dragged away back then. Not enough to prevent myself from falling now. I was like a butterfly. Freshly hatched from my cocoon I still hung on the branch and dried my wings. I couldn't fly, I couldn't. He could. He showd me how I would do it once I was ready. He had brought me into this wonderful world of airflows and glistening drops of morning dew. I had leaned too far off my branch and fallen over. He had caught my like the big birdwing he was. He had taught me flapping, but my wings still weren't dried out. The giant Palawan Birdwing above me I had felt safe. But now he was gone and I was falling towards the ground. Slowed down by my wings but not saved by them. Skulduggery had introduced me to magic. He had been my teacher, my mentor, my friend, my secure haven, someone I could hold onto until I had the power to stand for myself. But now he was gone. Just gone. Not even with the wind but with creepy, cruel and violent faceless ones. I was falling, there was nothing I could do. Tanith had returned to London. She couldn't catch me. Ghastly wasn't here either, he couldn't catch me. I lay my fingertip on the glass where the butterfly's leg was. It was stil swaying it's feelers. Up and down, up and down, like a heartbeat only softer. It was soothing, looking at it. It was so fragile. So breakable. So beautiful. I wanted to touch it. But it was like my emotional strength. I couldn't reach it through the glass and if I were to open the window just so slightly, the Holly Blue would fly away. Or, in the worst case, get smashed.
I sighed. When inhaling, the scent of the paint became prominent once again. Right, I had wanted to wash it off. I turned on the water and started rubbing it off. I watched the streaks of black disappear in the outflow. It was fascinating. They would go a half circle then fall off the edge. Was I going to fall off an edge, too? No, I already did. I looked in the mirror once again. My cheeks were still grey. I rubbed some more on them. Finally my face was clean again, though a bit pink from the rubbing. I turned around to look at the butterfly once again.
It was gone.