An unexpected visit

Stacey was lying in bed, thinking about how amazing her birthday had been. The dinner with her friends had been hilarious and she couldn't think of how it could have been any better. The wind was loud outside of her window; she could hear it whistling through the trees. All of a sudden there was a loud whooshing sound and a thump outside of the window. Slowly, she creeped over and opened the curtains a tiny bit. What she saw left her unable to move. Was she hallucinating? She closed the curtains and jumped back onto her bed. She must be hallucinating. I've been reading too much, she though. Stacey closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths. As she was doing so she heard a light tap coming from outside. She went back over to the window, knowing that it was probably just a tree or something. But no. It was a skeleton. A live, human skeleton. And it was waving at her! Either she really was hallucinating or maybe...just maybe it could be a certain fictional character from one of her favourite books. But the key word in that sentence was fictional. So it can't be, can it? Just as she was thinking this another head popped up, this time it was a girl was long dark hair and dark eyes. She was holding a flame in her hand to light up the space in front of her. Stacey just stood there gawping. The girl with the dark hair raised her eyebrows at her as if saying "Why are you just standing there? Let us in!" So, slowly, Stacey slid the window up, still not believing that any of this was actually happening. Maybe I fell asleep. Maybe this is just a dream.

"Finally!" The girl exclaimed. She walked across the room and flopped down onto Stacey's bed. "Oooo, your bed is so comfy!" The girl started jumping on it slightly, giggling like a little kid.

"Valkyrie! Behave yourself!" The skeleton, that Stacey knew all too well as Skulduggery from possibly the best book series in the world, turned to her and said "Sorry about her, she's been eating a lot of chocolate since her...um...break up with a certain boy named Fletcher.

"Skull! We don't talk about him!" Valkyrie said then resumed her bouncing.

Skulduggery carried on talking, completely ignoring the teenager with a mental age of six "You're Stacey, at least I hope you are or I am so sorry for bursting in like this, and I'm-"

"Skulduggery!" Stacey exclaimed, "Oh my god, is this real? I can't believe this! Did you know that it's my birthday, is that why you're here? Can you sign a few of my books? My friends are going to be SO jealous! Beat that Georgie and Amy!" Stacey was practically dancing with excitement.

"Umm, seems as though we DO have the right house. Happy Birthday!" Skulduggery held out a parcel, it was an odd shape, like a stick...

"Have you got me a stick? Like you did for Valkyrie? Wow, my friends are going to be so jealous!"

"I like this girl. She appreciates my awesome sense of humour."

"No, she's just fangirling. And you didn't actually get her a stick did you, Skull? That's so lame-"

"A chocolate stick! Wow!" Tears were actually forming in Stacey's eyes. This was the best birthday ever! She couldn't wait till school and she could boast about all of this to her friends. She could almost imagine the look on Georgie's face...

"Crazy girl." Valkyrie got off of the bed, smoothed the covers and came over Skulduggery. By now Stacey was actually sobbing with happiness.

"Err, are you ok?" Skulduggery awkwardly put his arm around her, thinking she was crying because she was sad.

"Oh my god! You touched me!"

Skulduggery jerked his arm away, "Oh, gosh, sorry!"

"I think she was happy about you touching her..." Valkyrie shook her head. People just got weirder and weirder. She used the air to rearrange a few books on the shelf. "Honestly, if you're going to read about every part of our lives, at least have the books in the right order!" As she was saying this there came a loud howl coming from outside. A wolf howl.

"No..." Stacey gasped. Could it be? She went over to the window again and looked out. On the grass below her were two wolves. A dark grey one and a lighter one. As she watched they changed. The dark one growing into a tall, blonde boy. The other a girl with brown hair. "I'm dreaming...this isn't real." The girl and the boy crouched down and then propelled themselves upwards with their legs. Their hands caught the windowsill and, one after the other, they climbed inside.

"Hey! Just a quick question, why is there a skeleton in your room?" The girl that Stacey knew as Maddy asked.

"Umm, that's Skulduggery and this is Valkyrie."

A small, nervous giggle escaped Valkyrie and everyone turned to look at her. She was patting down her hair and staring at Rhydian. "And, who is this?"

"I'm Rhydian..." He turned to Maddy awkwardly. It was like being with the three K's. He didn't understand why girls tend to stare at him. But, instead of helping, Maddy just burst out laughing. "Mads...!" But he couldn't but laugh too.

"Happy Birthday, Stacey!" Maddy handed her a small package. Stacey tore it open in her eagerness and tipped the contents onto her hand. It was a necklace and in the middle was a small pendant. At first she thought it was a dog but, when she looked closer, she saw that it was a tiny wolf, its mouth open as if howling at the moon.

Stacey put her hand over her mouth to try and stop the sobbing noises. "It's beautiful...Thanks!"

"See, Skull. We should have got her a necklace or something. But, instead, you decide to buy her chocolate in the shape of a stick! Why do you always try to be funny...?"

"Hey, she liked it, didn't she?"

"I loved it! But how did you all know it was my birthday?" Skulduggery, Maddy, Rhydian and Valkyrie all looked at each other and then said in unison:

"Amy."

"Yeah, she had really long, brown hair, blue eyes, you know her?" Valkyrie asked. "I liked that girl."

"You only liked her because she totally freaked out when she saw you." Skulduggery added.

"No... Well, maybe. But she was pretty cool, though. And she was more excited to see me more than you."

"You guys should have seen her face when she met Rhydian! We thought she was going to faint." Maddy nudged Rhydian with her elbow slightly, "Looks like all the girls like you, huh.

"Yeah, maybe." Stacey smiled at Rhydian's moodiness.

"Anyways, I'm sorry, Stacey, but we have to be going. People to save, you know. It was great meeting you. We don't get to meet fans very often do we, Skull?"

"No we don't. Hope you liked your present. Don't eat it too fast or you'll feel sick, and you don't what that on your birthday. Bye!" Skulduggery and Valkyrie went over to the window and jumped out, giving Maddy a heart attack in the process.

"It's fine, they have magic. They use the air to slow their fall." Stacey reassured Maddy.

"Well, we better be going too, full moon and all." Maddy gave her a big hug, "Happy birthday."

"Nice meeting you. And hope you liked meeting us, Amy warned us that you will probably be in shock." Rhydian laughed and then hugged her. Maddy tried to hold in her laugh as she watched Stacey's face go bright red. "Bye, then!" Then they to disappeared out the window.

Stacey sat back down on the bed. She had to control her breathing to stop herself hyperventilating. All her dreams just came true in the matter of, what? Half an hour? She had met the two most funny and amazing book characters she knew. Then, in came two of her favourite people from TV! And Rhydian had actually...hugged her! It was too much to take in. This has definitely been the best birthday she had ever had, or will ever have. Suddenly overcome with tiredness she lay down and fell instantly asleep. Dreaming of everything that had just happened.

Happy Birthday Stacey! Hope you liked it (:

As this is a birthday present from my friend, it is just a one-shot so please don't ask me to do more chapters. If you want to read more of my writing then why not take a look at my other stories? I hope everyone liked this, it was quite fun writing about Skulduggery AND wolfblood. Love them both, haha.