YAY I HAVE ANOTHER CHAPTER! woohoo. Yes I'm excited.

I haven't really gotten into my main character's past yet, I know, but its coming.
Next chapter.
I promise.

School is keeping me a little bit busy at the moment, but after next week end of course exams, I'll be finished and I can write all I want. It will be glorious.

She shook her head lightly, gritting her teeth and scratching her cheek with her nails. Skulduggery looked at her curiously and went back to his work drawing up a plan of the house. She smiled weakly at her other colleagues; Jim, Grunge, Eric and Stephanie (there had been a bit of an issue with Stephanie when she arrived. As the new girl who noticed that their team leader was the only other girl in the team, she didn't seem to fully appreciate her superior's work (or authority), and so had to be politely but firmly reminded of her position. That had been a funny day). It was getting late in the afternoon, and they hadn't had any new ideas all day. Grunge (affectionately called that by his parents when, in actual fact, his name was George) had given up at lunchtime and sat down to play some game or other. It had been this game which had caused a spurt of hot memories to flood through her head, burning the inside of her mind. The game was called Slender and Grunge was obsessed with collecting pages of some sort. Stephanie had rudely commented that he should be looking through his empty mind for pages of information and ideas, but she was quickly reprimanded. It had been three days since the explosion of the pool, the knife and the house, and Skulduggery had requested to "supervise" the girl's team. She had vouched to get the case moved off her and her team's shoulders and have it given to someone else, but as soon as Skulduggery had put in his request she gave up. Being as stubborn as she was, she had forbidden her team of saying anything about her "headaches" to their new supervisor. All but Stephanie had complied, and the rest of the team had now made it their responsibility to make sure she never got anywhere close to Skulduggery. The rest of the team understood their leader's secrecy; they had been there when the two, the inseparable duo, had split up. It hadn't been a sad break up, as such, more just the end of something that had a history.
Skulduggery coughed politely as he stood over her desk. The girl looked up and Skulduggery grinned his skeleton grin as handed over a plan of the house. In the top corner was a little box with dots labelled "dust" in it, and they had been periodically spaced throughout the whole page. He thought it would be funny, he said. His once-partner laughed softly and rolled her eyes at the subtle humour. Stephanie thought this an excellent opportunity and walked over to see what the two were laughing at in the completely unnecessary manner of a teacher checking on her students work. As she approached, Grunge and Eric beat her to the pair and begun a conversation about where they would go from there, improvising a far-fetched plan wherein more houses would be blown up. Plan foiled, Stephanie did the "stupid thing" and joined the conversation anyway. She opened her mouth to ask whether her leader's headaches had gone, and subsequently got punched in the face by Grunge. He turned back around and shrugged, she had it coming to her.

Five vehicles sped across the city. Two motorbikes, one Bentley, one black van, one Razor scooter. That was Grunge. He had insisted. It was a cold night, very cliché for what they were about to do. She hated clichés. It was nice to finally be doing something, she had to admit, especially not alone this time. The headache that was swimming beneath the surface was being held down by the warmth of her companions. All the same, they could surely have chosen a less dramatic time to go back to the rubble that had once been a house.

On arrival, Grunge flipped his scooter off the wall and jumped, landing slightly immaturely on his feet, making his boss smile. As Skulduggery jumped out of the Bentley, Jim skidded to a halt and Eric opened the side of the van, revealing a large number of screens. He yelled to Grunge to hurry up and get in, why did he get to ride his scooter while Eric had to drive his techy van? Their mini squabble was cut short by a quiet moan from their leader. Grunge rushed to her, asking if she was ok. She gritted her teeth and said yes, don't let on to Skulduggery. Grunge gave her a quick hug to show he understood, and went back to Eric in the van. Skulduggery ventured over to where Jim was standing and asked why wasn't Stephanie with them again? Jim asked hadn't she already explained, Skulduggery replied no she hadn't, and went over to ask her. She looked up, her dark eyes boring into the eye sockets. Because Stephanie was an annoying little brat and was having a bit of a sleep, remember? Skulduggery sighed and put his arm around her, noting the slightest shudder that his touch had provoked. Jim came to her other side and squeezed her shoulder gently, giving her a sneaky sympathetic look so that Skulduggery wouldn't see. The three of them walked slowly towards the house.

Inside the van, Eric was sitting in front of the main screen and Grunge was making a cup of coffee. He was humming The Girl from Ipanema.

Under the house, a man was asleep.

Also, a quick footnote, what do you think of giving Her a Significant Other? R&R :)