A/N Finally, I've written Ghanith. But it's way more depressing than I intended :( Also, don't read unless you've read LSODM. Enjoy ;)

Ghastly Bespoke opened his eyes. Where was he? Bright lights hurt his eyes, so he squinted as he sat up. His head protested violently and he had to grip the bedpost for a moment. Wait. A bedpost? Why was he in a bed?

"You're awake," a smooth voice said, and he saw Skulduggery standing in the corner, his hat tipped over his eyes.

Ghastly lay back down, feeling confused. He'd been in the van, talking to Tanith. How had he got here? He surveyed the sterile white room. He was in a medical wing somewhere, then.

"Skulduggery, what happened?"

Skulduggery hesitated. "Ghastly…"

Ghastly looked around, suddenly worried. "Are the others OK? What happened to the Remnants? Where am I? How did I get here?"

"You got possessed," Skulduggery explained, his voice gentle. "One of the Remnants got into you. We got it out, along with most the other Remnants, but you and thousands of others were unconscious. I have to admit, I was getting worried. Everyone else is awake by now."

Ghastly paused, trying to take it all in. He'd been possessed. The Remnants were gone. The world was safe. Everyone was alright. Except, of course, for his wicked headache. And, of course, he had a date with Tanith tomorrow. Tanith.

"How's Tanith?" he asked.

Something changed in Skulduggery's eye sockets, making them darker and emptier than ever.

"I'm sorry, Ghastly," he began, but Ghastly interrupted.

"What happened to her? Is she… she can't be…" He couldn't believe, wouldn't believe that Tanith was dead. He started to get up, but Skulduggery put a bony hand on his shoulder.

"Ghastly," he said in the gentle tone that the skeleton reserved for really bad news. A horrible feeling rose up from Ghastly's stomach and made black spots dance in front of his eyes.

"No-"

"She's possessed, Ghastly. They couldn't get the Remnant out."

Wild hope rose up in his stomach. She wasn't dead. That was something. "How long has she been possessed?" Ghastly demanded, trying to get out of bed. He was dizzy with worry. Skulduggery pushed him back against the pillows and forced Ghastly to look at him.

"Four days," he replied quietly.

It was really like he'd been hit. His mind went blank and there was nothing, nothing but an all-consuming sense of loss. Then pain that seemed to ache from every part of the soul.

Tanith, he whispered in is mind, I'm sorry.

He lay back and they stayed like that, in silence, as people rushed around them and the world continued on without the woman he loved. No time to stop for one more loss, one more heart broken.

At last, Ghastly found his voice.

"I'll get her back."

Skulduggery didn't look at him. "I'm sure you will."

Ghastly closed his eyes, suddenly incredibly tired. All he wanted was to sleep. But there was something he needed to do first.

"Can you get me pen and paper, Skulduggery?" The sound of his own voice worried him. He sounded too quiet, too lost. "I think I'd like to write a letter."

"Of course," Skulduggery said smoothly, sliding to his feet. "Anything else?"

Ghastly shook his head mutely. In his mind, he began to plan what he would write.

Dear Tanith…

-TIME SKIP- THREE YEARS LATER-

The world was spinning, dipping and diving around Tanith. There were black spots filling her vision as she gasped for air, staggering, smashing into a wall that hadn't been there three seconds ago.

She tried to scream, to call for Billy-Ray, but her throat was on fire and there was no air in her lungs. The sky above was swirling, a vortex of blackness above her. So why was she being sucked down?

Down

Down

Down…

Her eyes closed and Tanith's head rolled back, resting against the wall. No-one was there to notice the barely-alive figure, slumped and small. So no-one was there to see a dark cloud floating around her head, slowly solidifying into a Remnant, who flitted around her head and danced away in the night.

XxXxX

Bright lights hurt her eyes as she squinted. Where was she? What was going on?

Slowly, she became aware of the hum of electric light bulbs and the crisp, clean feeling of linen sheets covering her. There was a pounding in her head worse than any hangover. Tanith groaned and blinked her leaden blue eyes, struggling to slowly prop herself up on her elbows.

Another wave of nausea hit, but it was worth it. Now she could see across the room to lines of perfectly white hospital beds underneath equally perfect white walls. Her clouded mind cleared slightly as her eyes adjusted to the glow. Suddenly she could think again.

There was a steady, low beeping somewhere to her right. She turned her aching head to see a machine connected to her wrist.

The pieces were starting to come together. For whatever reason, she was in a hospital. The pale blue garment she was wearing was a hospital gown. Was she in the Sanctuary? What had happened?

Tanith swung her legs out of bed, jolting at the shock of the cold floor on her bare feet. She gasped, and that was when she saw him.

Skulduggery was leaning against the door, quietly watching her.

"Skulduggery?" the confused sorcerer asked. Her throat was raw and her voice crackled, so she tried again. "Have you been watching me the whole time?" She leaned back against the pillows, exhausted suddenly. Talking was wearing her out. Her voice was still croaky and it hurt. "That's a little stalkerish, don't you think?"

Skulduggery's unmoving, unreadable skull was in shadow as he reached one gloved hand into his jacket pocket and drew his gun.

Her heart stopped and her breath caught in her throat.

The skeletal figure took a few steps out of the shadows, the gun completely level. "Show me I can trust you," he slowly stated in a calm, empty tone.

Tanith's hands tightened around her pillow. Reflexively, she searched the corners of her vision for anything that might count as a weapon, but there was nothing.

"What?" she managed to croak. Coughing over took her and she bent over. Splatters of blood appeared on her hand, but the fit subsided.

Skulduggery raised his gun a little higher, warily taking a step towards her.

The broken, defeated woman lowered her head, blond strands covering her tightly shut eyes. At any second, she expected a bullet through the skull, and there was nothing she could do about it.

Ghastly, I'm sorry, she thought.

"Tanith?" Skulduggery asked again, a little slower. He took another step towards her and his gun hand wavered slightly. There was distrust in his tone, but something else too. Confusion? Disbelief? Maybe even a little hope?

She blinked and raised her head a little. "What?" she barely whispered.

"It's you," Skulduggery whispered, almost to himself. His gun sunk down to point at the floor as his eye sockets fixed on her. "It's really you."

Tanith simply blinked at him again, confused. The incessant humming of those stupid lights was annoying her. "Skulduggery-" her throat protested and she winced. "Why wouldn't I be me, for God's sake?"

He hesitated, then holstered his gun. She realised for the first time how tired and stressed the Skeleton Detective looked. He looked broken beyond repair.

"Tanith," Skulduggery said gently as he elegantly lowered himself onto the bed across the corridor. "There are some things we need to talk about."

XxXxX

She found the letter later.

Skulduggery had given her some space. She didn't want space. She wanted to be back at Ghastly's shop, with him and Valkyrie and Fletcher and Erskine doing his annoying flirting with her-

She wanted to kill him. She wanted to kill Erskine Ravel more than she'd ever wanted to kill anyone else.

The blue card envelope was soft in her hand as she thumbed it open and held the letter for a moment, just letting it sit in her hands. These were the last words Ghastly had ever addressed to her. These were the words he'd never said.

Tanith unfolded the paper and read the words slowly, savouring each curl and letter that only seemed to intensify the emptiness inside her. She could hear his comforting, friendly voice in every word, as if he was really speaking through the pages.

Dear Tanith,

I know you will never read this. I hope to say these words in person someday, whether you slap me or walk away from me or never say them back. But this is a test run, a way to write down how I feel right now. Who knows? Maybe you will read this someday. I will find you again, and cure you. I swear that here and now.

Certain things just strike you in life. You might notice a particularly blue sky, or the only flower in a field of grass. You might talk to someone on the train and later remember their favourite colour, the names of their pets, the brand of phone they were using, the exact accent they had, the story of what happened to them when they were four in detail- but not have a clue what their name was.

You struck me. The moment I saw you for the first time, I couldn't think. I couldn't speak. I couldn't breathe. You were, still are, the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.

But you were always, first and foremost, my friend. I love talking to you, listening to you. You understand what I say- or at least try to. I loved you all the more for being friends with me, for not caring how I looked or that my face is disfigured by scars. You became my closest friend, and over the years, I slowly grew to love you.

This world of magic, this life of heartbreak, none of this is ever easy. I have spent centuries, trying to struggle through it alone. But you are the first person that's ever given me not just a reason to survive, but a reason to live. You make my world brighter. You make it easier to continue. We (you, me, Skulduggery and Valkyrie) stride into hell together. Yet thanks to each other, we somehow make it out the other side.

Not today, I suppose.

Did our time just run out? Will I really never see you again? It would be a cruel irony if that is true, that I finally got what I wanted more than anything else in the world, only to lose it again. We had our last stand and you fell, but not in the way we had ever imagined. I lost you to something worse than death.

But I will get you back again.

Look, I've never been good with words. I'm better with tea. And steak. But I have to tell you this now, here in this letter, because I don't know if I'll ever get the courage to write it or say it ever again;

I love the way your golden hair glows in the sunlight. I love the colour of your eyes, the way your face looks when you're laughing. I love the fierce side of you that comes out in a fight, daunting and strong. I love the way you take care of Valkyrie, the things you two get up to. I love watching movies with you until you fall asleep on my shoulder and I wrap one arm around you and ghost a kiss across your forehead, afraid of waking you. I love the way you listen with that thoughtful look in your beautiful eyes, mature and perfect in every single way. I love your confidence, your wit, your smile and your glare. I love your accent, listening to you talk and gesture until I'm laughing out loud. I love how you stuck by me while I was a statue, and the natural, loving grin you gave me when I woke up. Until today, you were the only bright point in my life, the only thing I had to lose.

And now I have lost you.

What I'm trying to say is that I love you, Tanith, with every part of my heart. Someday, I'll bring you back and tell you these words. But for now, they'll stay locked up in my heart.

Forevermore,

Ghastly Bespoke

A/N Crap.

That was way, way more depressing than I intended :'( GHANITH.

I have a theory, by the way. I have a theory that Darquesse will bring Ghastly back.

She'd better -_-

Btw, I started this story a long time ago, but my school took away my laptop for complicated reasons. It drove me insane :S

Anyway, please, please review! Reviews mean quicker updates :)

Lots of love,

Saph