She was dying. This was it. Please. Please God, if you are listening. Please just end it.
The visions hit. Harder than ever. Apparently God had headphones in.
Her and Skulduggery back to back, surrounded by remnants. Darquesse and Vile ripping up a street, at each other's throats..Valkyrie on Skulduggery's couch giggling helplessly at the mutilated turkey Skulduggery held out to her on Thanksgiving. And then it was her parents, waving at her as the nonexistent version of herself drove off to college in the Oompa-Loompa. They were waving, and smiling, then crumbling to ash in front of her very eyes. Her mother's smile turning into her last, painful wail… And her sister. Oh God her beautiful blue-eyed gift of a sister..innocent until the life drained out of her eyes as Valkyrie pressed the SunBurst device to her chest. The pain wasn't enough. It would NEVER be enough...
Valkyrie watched on the small screen of her cell phone, as Ravel plunged the knife into Ghastly's unsuspecting back. All the air left her lungs, leaving her heaving on the floor of her bedroom. She clutched the cell-phone desperately, her eyes seeing what her mind could not comprehend. Ravel slid the knife deep into Ghastly's neck, and even from Valkyries screen she could see the guttural cry of shock as Ghastly's life was ripped away from his body..
She had just started her seemingly endless pile of math homework, apparently they take pre-pre-pre algebra at her middle school very seriously, when she heard her mother outside her door. She recognized her light airy footsteps. That and the fact that she heard her mom sniveling all the way from the staircase. "Mom?", she called towards the door. "That you? You can come in you know." Her mom opened the door slightly, and peered in slowly stepping through the doorway. Her eyes were red and sunk in as if someone had vacuumed out the light that used to shine there. "Mom what's wrong?" She frowned at the broken look her mother showed her. "Stephanie...it's Gordon.".
..."Magic," she grinned at the skeleton on her windowsill as he tilted his head toward the tiny flickering flame in her palm, that began to morph right in front of her, the flame slowly dying as a light deep inside her palm grew brighter and brighter until it lit up the entire house in it's fierce luminescent glow. "Magic," he agreed.
Stephanie thrashed and kicked and screamed. Violently thrashing and banging her head against the walls of her useless padded cell. Six orderlies struggled to contain her. Stan was yelling at her, as if the louder he spoke the more likely the words would resonate somewhere in her tattered mind. "Your mind is not seeing reason Stephanie! You are not in reality right now!" She fought harder, and screamed until it seemed as though her vocal cords were being ripped apart by a pack of feral wolves. And still she screamed. "I AM VALKYRIE CAIN. MY PARTNER IS SKULDUGGERY PLEASANT. HE IS A SKELETON. HE SAVED MY LIFE WHEN I WAS TWELVE YEARS OLD. HE IS COMING FOR ME. HE WILL COME." David was trying to keep ahold of her legs per routine while simultaneously trying to calm her down. This worked in the very beginning, but as the months, and then years went by, the girl had only gotten worse. "SKULDUGGERY! SKULDUGGERY!" Stephanie wailed, her throat sounding as destroyed as that of the crazy band singers he knows Jason listens too. "What an odd name," Shawn thought as he brought out a small syringe and plunged it into the insane girl's arm, as gently as he could. She kept fighting for a few long seconds, but her raging soon died out into mutters and jolts in her troubled sleep.
They lay her down on her cot in the corner of her cell. She couldn't have really harmed herself in the heavily padded cell, but it was easier for all of her daily nurses if she was less..energetic. "I think it's safe to say we need to up her meds," Stan nervously chuckled, wiping a droplet of sweat forming on his brow. Some of the others murmured their agreement, but Shaun stayed quiet. He was busy making sure the girl was comfortable, even though she would be out for several hours in a dreamless haze. He studied the anxiety still lingering on the girl's face, fading by the second, until she seem almost relaxed. The others had already left, as they usually did while he pointlessly tucked the unconscious girl in.
It was at times like these, when Stephanie was sleeping, that Shaun could almost see the hint of a smile pass across her lips, as if she WAS dreaming. He hoped it was something nice, something that relieved her of the emotional turmoil she always seemed to be trapped in. He rechecked her pillow one more time and headed towards the door. His phone buzzed in his pocket and he pulled it out as he locked Stephanie's cell. "Happy Birthday Shaun-ie! Twenty-four already?! I'm so proud of the man you've become :) -Mom"
He had forgotten it was his birthday. Really, he stopped counting at twenty-one. But he liked the gesture anyways, and the mention of his childhood nickname. He wandered the halls of the hospital aimlessly, his mind wandering to Stephanie once again.
Did she think about birthdays? Did she think about any of the celebrations she undoubtedly had as a child? He didn't know much about the mayor, except for the fact that his family was totally loaded. He imagined pink blow up castles and ponies, and a young untroubled Stephanie giggling at her two loving parents. What happened to that? What possesses a young healthy eighteen year old to attack her parents, claim they WEREN'T her parents, but kidnappers? She still constantly shouted about parents she never had and a baby sister that never existed. And of course all the magic stuff. Her whole situation had baffled him since the beginning. After all, they were basically the same age despite her seeming older, and..wiser somehow. He nodded at a nurse he sort of knew as she passed him in the hallway.
He said a little prayer, holding onto a sliver of hope that she would get better, although it seemed unlikely. Somebody had to.