Hi there! Another story! Cause I feel like it! Of course I will still be updating Dimension shunting! Don't worry! Hope you enjoy!

A weekend at home, finally. I had been crime fighting and detecting all week and I needed a break. Skulduggery and I were working on a new case, the Codex of Magic had been stolen, along with the Locket of Armadalia. Both of these items were needed in a complex potion, the Azdrove potion, which would make the drinker both immortal and capable to store power. Whoever drunk this potion could in fact steal other people's magic, draining it from them and taking it for themselves. Skulduggery suspected that someone was hunting for the ingredients to create the potion, they would continue searching for the ingredients until they had collected them all.

There were ten ingredients in total and the culprit had already stolen two. He or she could be potentially dangerous, after all, the best sorcerers of all had banded together in the Council of 10 and had sworn to protect the 10 ingredients from the greedy clutches of evil sorcerers like Mevolent and Serpine during the war. They had split away, carrying an ingredient each to the far corners of the globe, hiding them with their super magic and power. These sorcerers were known as the Invincibles as they were, practically invincible. Each sorcerer had an extreme power that had never been seen before.

Apparently, there was no one alive who had ever seen or experienced these powers for themselves. People were actually very scared of the Invincibles, which was why no one ever went after the ingredients. Two of the Invincibles that had been guarding the ingredients were found dead, their stomachs ripped open and their mouths sewn together. It was all rather gruesome really.

We had to figure out which ingredient he would go to find next and beat him to it, not to mention, actually finding the place. No one had any record of where they might be. I thought that this case was going to be tedious, we had already done a day of research. A day! We'd figured out that the locket and the codex had been the easiest ingredients to find.

The locket had been located in Fiji, in an underground cave. There had been plenty of protection around it, Darquesse probably would have had difficulty getting in.

The Codex was found in America, hidden in the Building of Light. The Building of Light, to mortals was the Empire State building, but to sorcerers, it was known as the Building of Light. It went up 550 levels and the very top level was made up entirely of light. It was beautiful, I had seen pictures of it. The top levels were used for containing highly dangerous criminals, for they couldn't be kept in normal sorcerer's prisons, they were too powerful. The middle levels, were for magical experiments, testing out chemicals and magical potions, animals and mutations. The bottom levels, were just hotel rooms designed to accommodate any sorcerer who was in need of a place to stay. It was really, rather funky. The Codex had been kept in a secret basement level 100 metres underground.

Stop it, I told myself. You are supposed to be relaxing and hanging out with your family! I walked down the stairs to greet my parents and make myself breakfast and I almost fainted.

The reflection was bent over my mum holding a knife high above her head.

"Stephanie! How could you do this? We can help you! With whatever problem your dealing with just –

The reflection swung the knife down and it sunk into her mother's chest with a sickening, wet, thunk. Dad had obviously heard Mum's screams and came bursting through the front door with a pitchfork in his hand. When he saw Melissa, his wife, he dropped to the ground crawling over to her, not noticing that the reflection was standing behind him.

"Melissa," he sobbed into her chest, "No, I love you! You can't just leave me like this! You've always helped me solve my problems, and now I can't help you! I can't save you! Melissa I love you, I love you so much."

I was frozen. I couldn't move. I needed to help my father from the evil refection, I needed to avenge my mother's death, but I was frozen. I felt tears roll down my face, but my hands couldn't move to wipe them away. I watched in agony as the reflection took the knife once more in its hands and plunged it into his chest. To make it worse, it twisted it in his chest making his rugged breathing suddenly stop.

I finally did something. I threw up everywhere. The reflection spun around, seeing me, and it's eyes widened in fear. It sprinted out of the house. I would have gone after it, if I weren't crouched down on my knees vomiting everywhere.

Eventually, I ran. Away from the house and away from the gruesome scene. I kept running, I didn't know where to go, my mind was a blur. I ran all day and eventually, my body couldn't take it anymore and I collapsed on the ground. The last thing I saw, was a skeleton running towards me dressed in an impeccable suit.

When I woke up, I was lying down in a warm, cozy bed. I opened my eyes slowly, and the horrors from yesterday suddenly came flooding back into my mind. Tears were flowing freely down my face now. My innocent parents, my kind, honest parents were dead, killed by someone who looked exactly like me. And I did nothing.

I could have leaped into action, taking the reflection down, after all, it didn't have magic right? But I didn't. I stood still and watched it murder them in cold blood.

I was hyperventilating now and bawling my eyes out. Skulduggery came rushing up the stairs and sat down next to me on the bed cradling me gently in his arms.

"I know you don't want to talk about it Valkyrie, but I need to know what happened," Skulduggery whispered, "It's the only way I can help you."

So I told him. Told him how I did nothing, told him how I ran away.

"I'm a coward," I croaked, "I just let them die."

"Valkyrie," he murmured pulling her closer to him, "You are no coward. You are one of the the mostr bravest people I know. You've had to face Darquesse, torture, break –ups, all these villains, you've saved me countless times. I could not be more grateful for you. You are my best friend Valkyrie. I am amazing, so being my best friend, you must be completely amazing too. Don't ever doubt yourself Valkyrie, this has happened to me before and I know what it feels like."

She snuggled into him and they stayed like that for a while, wrapped up in a warm embrace.

Well there you go! I wasn't expecting to kill off characters but oh well! Hope you like!