a flash of concrete and then darkness again. Valkyrie fought against her natural urge to shout out, clinging desperately to sanguine as they tunneled. she still had her eyes tightly closed as they neared the surface of the tunnel her breathing turning to rasps as sanguine pushed his strait razor to her throat. "now lil darlin" sanguine sneered toying with her "what are we gonna do with you then". this had been going on for months now and quite frankly she was bored to death of it. "billy ray are you really going to kidnap and try to kill me every ni...". before she could finish her sentence skulduggery landed on her smashing through the thin ceiling of sanguine' s house. "oh" said skulduggery sounding generally surprised "i didn't think you would be here sanguine". sanguine arched an eyebrow "really do ya think she would just kidnap herself" "no" said skulduggery "i mean i didn't think you would still be alive". there was a pause and then both skulduggery and Valkyrie burst into unwavering laughter. Valkyrie stopped "this doesn't mean i forgive you for landing on me that really hurt" and then resumed her ruckus giggles. sanguine swung his gun round at Valkyrie and she had no choice. leaning down to the ground she took a deep breath and then let the ground immerse her. darkness.
skulduggery lunged his anger driving him into a dive that shattered sanguine s ribs. sanguine gasped for air and moaned his lazy drawl. "look skelit'n" he reasoned trying to mask his pain with words"its lot like its ma fault". he was kicked again this time in the face. "that was fun!" skulduggery laughed. sanguine stopped and murmured through his hands "ar ya mad skelit'n really? your partner just died". "VALKYRIE" he shouted "YOU CAN COME OUT NOW". sanguine raised an eyebrow clearly thinking skulduggery had lost it. but his smug smile was wiped out of sight as Valkyrie stepped out of the gloom. "OH COME ON".
a wall of silence greeted the next few seconds before the girl spoke. "can we got to the car now?". her face was expressionless,her voice blank with bordem. skulduggery kept his eye-sockets on sanguine his teeth grating and fists clenched. The girl led him out of the room by the arm and sanguine was left alone. there was a crunching from the far wall and it gave way to a man, striding in a Lycra shirt and trousers of the same material his nose wrinkling in disgust at sanguine. he shook his head. "a reflection" sanguine announced "and a darn good one at that. sir... please dont kill me it wasnt...". the man approached him and put a bony finger to his lips the other hand on the concrete statue of valkryie. he clenched hard andthe concrete crumbled to a fine grey powder, dropping grain by grain to the solid oak floor. "whoops" he mocked "i was only giving her a pat. would you like a pat BUDDY". billy ray went to run but tripped and fell, stubling into a door then a wall. he smacked his hands uselessly onto his stone prison his face contorting into a vicious sneer. the man edged nearer. "oh yeah sorry about that" he said putting his hands up in an innocent mock. "i might have accidentally sealed this room". he srugged "sorry"
the girl sat in the car in silence. no thoughts crossed her mind. nothing amused her. she just sat, arms by her side and eyes staring straight ahead.
(i will continue)