This past week just sucked major balls.
Just wanted to let ya'll know.
A red 1950 Chrysler Imperial pulled up smoothly to the curb and man stepped out of the car. He had a green suit on, that was made of strong fabric, like the man himself.
Mr. Bliss nodded swiftly when the door to Gordon's mansion opened. Valkyrie stepped out, grimaced, and shut the door forcefully.
"What time is it?" she grumbled and marched straight past Bliss.
He checked his gold watch. "8:24," he said in his deep voice.
Valkyrie groaned loudly and cracked her knuckles and kept walking to the car. She stopped suddenly. "Why does everyone have a really old car now?"
"You should be talking," he mumbled. "Your car is from 1970."
She shrugged and examined the car. "What is it?"
"A Chrysler Imperial. Like the Bentley, only much better," Bliss answered.
Valkyrie grinned. "I'm going to tell Skulduggery you said that. He's going to be so pissed." Bliss chuckled slightly, then stepped and opened the door for Valkyrie. She slipped into the car gracefully, and he shut the door. He walked to the driver's side and climbed into his seat. He revved up the quiet engine and pulled away.
"Details," he said seriously, reaching into his coat pocket and producing a folder. "Five more dead; two females; three males. One of them is non-magical. They're all under the same circumstances as the others. No marks or anything on them. We still don't know what's wrong. No signs of entry wounds, no blood, just death."
Valkyrie took the folder and flipped through it, frowning at the pictures of the dead. "This sucks," she announced.
"It does," Bliss agreed. "Oh," he said suddenly, "I almost forgot. This was found hanging on a branch a few yards away from the dead." He pulled a small plastic bag with a small piece of black fabric in it. "No DNA on it at all. Not a trace."
Valkyrie opened the bag and examined the fabric. It looked familiar to her, but she couldn't figure out where she had seen it.
Suddenly, her phone beeped loudly a few times. She dug her cell from her jeans pocket and flipped it open, pressed a few buttons, then closed it again. It beeped again. She grumbled and nodded to herself. She put it away, until it started making a different noise. It rang the loudest and most obnoxious ringtone possible.
"Skulduggery," she answered, trying not to smirk, "I said go away. It's 8:30 in the morning and I'm not ready to argue yet. I need my energy." She listened to what he said on the other end, grumbled something, and then hung up. "He needs a hobby, other than harassing me."
"But he loves you," Bliss said quietly, half a joke, half seriousness.
Valkyrie caught on and gave a small laugh. "I guess," she sighed and turned to look out the window. She saw little kids out already, hurling snowballs at each other and trying to build snowmen. It had snowed a lot recently, giving the kids a few days off from school. She grinned.
"Valkyrie?" Bliss said, interrupting her thoughts. "We're going to have to walk from here on out. It's too slippery and the snow is piled up too high for the car to get through."
She shrugged and stepped out of the car. She almost dove back in from the cold. But she gritted her teeth, wrapped her coat around her, and trudged through the sludge and ice with Mr. Bliss.
They arrived a few moments later at the scene of the crimes. Two other people were there; Grand Mage Cogent and Kane Sharp. He snarled at the sight of the two, but instantly smiled when Cogent glared at him.
"Mr. Bliss and Valkyrie, thank goodness," she said warmly and shook their hands. "We've got a few things to get done today. Valkyrie, you have the supplies?" Valkyrie nodded slowly and reached into her coat pocket and produced seven syringes, seven little vials, nine cotton balls, and a little bag of ice.
Sybil Cogent point to a body with a sheet covering them. "Start with her then."
Valkyrie sat down cross-legged by the covered body. She lifted the blue sheet covering them and grimaced. The woman looked shocked. Her mouth was open and her eyes were wide. Valkyrie solemnly reached a hand out and gingerly brushed her eyelids close. Valkyrie took a deep breath and grabbed the ice bag. She reached out and pressed it against the woman's neck. The ice turned a green color, then faded to yellow. She muttered something to herself and pulled out a piece of paper and pen. She scribbled something down.
Valkyrie took a cotton ball and wiped down the woman's neck. The skin turned a deep red. She wrote that down and took a syringe. Valkyrie pushed it into the woman's neck and injected her with a golden, thick liquid. Valkyrie stepped back as the veins in the body pushed towards the surface, looking as if she was to burst. She crouched down to one vein near the collar bones and watched it carefully.
It puffed out, then detracted, and then puffed back up again. She readied the same syringe and jammed it into the vein. It instantly burst and blood and blue goop oozed out from it. Valkyrie looked at it intently, then deposited it into a vial, closed it, then moved onto the next person.
She repeated the same process on the remaining four, and got the same results. These people shouldn't have died.
Valkyrie groaned and stood up slowly, rubbing her knee. She looked around and found a few sets of prints. She could tell it was the grand mage, Bliss, and Sharp's prints.
"Thanks guys," she grumbled and covered the bodies back up. She turned and saw her supplies were gone. "What the hell?" She kicked a rock, but stopped.
There were cracks in the snow.
She bent down to look at them closer. She scooped up the white powder and threw it to the side. Sure enough, there were cracks on the cold, hard dirt. She snarled and jumped up, and began running. She skidded to a halt at a set of footprints. Valkyrie studied them intently, and decided they did not belong to her friends, or Sharp, for that matter. She ran a hand through her hand and sighed loudly.
"Come out, come out, come out wherever you are…" she whispered in the wind. Valkyrie looked to her right and to her left, but was suddenly attacked from behind. An arm came around her neck and squeezed tightly, and a leg knocked her off her feet. She fell on her knees and the person keeping her captive fell as well, gripping her neck tighter.
Valkyrie sniffed the air. It smelled of grease, sweat, and bad cologne.
"Billy-Ray Sanguine," she choked out, "great to see you again. Or smell you, really."
"Shaddap!" he snapped. "I don't wanna hear ya speak. Got it?"
"Crystal," she choked again.
Sanguine released his grip on her neck, but kept a hand on her shoulder. "So, what's been going on?" he asked casually.
"Well we've been investigating all these murders lately. These your doing?"
"Just a few," he smiled wistfully. "Well, sorry we don't really have a lot of time to talk, but I have some business to attend to." He kicked her in the back, and Valkyrie went sprawling forward. She groaned and picked herself back up. She turned and face Sanguine, who was waiting, razor at the ready.
"I'm sorry it has to end this way," he grinned. "I always wanted to kill ya with Mr. Funny-Bones watching. I wanted to see his face as he saw all your blood pour from your wounds…Sorry, silly fantasy a' mine." He tossed the straight razor from one hand to other. "Bye-bye Valkyrie!"
And he advanced at her.
CLIFFHANGER.
Like, really. This is the end. I'm sorry, but the next chapter will be purely fighting and blood. That's it. I will get working on it really soon, I promise. This does truly suck and I'm sorry for that. I've been sorta depressed. BUT I WILL MAKE UP FOR IT. It should all pick up soon...I hope. But I'm super excited for the end. I can't wait to get that writing.
Sorry for mistakes! :D
