As I was writing chapter 13, the thought came to me that I should just see if I can wrap this story up this weekend.
LET'S DO THIS.
Valkyrie, still in Eshara's body, grimaced and groaned. She backed away from the group, allowing the others to back up with her, giving them more room to fight off these half-dead things. She exclaimed in surprise when she bumped into someone, and then promptly fell over on her face. Eshara, in Valkyrie's body, stopped in her tracks and collapsed on the ground as well. Elian Ford and Rin Marlow waved happily.
"Hello!" Elian greeted them. "You triggered our alarm system. It's useful. Thank goodness I thought of it. But anyway, because you've gone and alerted every single creature in this house, I'm afraid that they're all out to kill you guys. So, we're going to leave for a while, and then come back to see how you all fared, okay?" He and Rin nodded and they disappeared in a vibrating shimmer.
Tanith screamed in shock as a blank-faced man reached out to grab her arm. It yanked on her hard, and she tried shaking him off, but he wouldn't budge or even loosen his grip. Tanith finally called out to Ghastly to throw her a knife from a kitchen drawer. He nodded and sped off to examine all the drawers. He found a huge meat cleaver and called out her name, and he sent it hurling through the air. Tanith caught it perfectly in her hand and sliced off the arm that was holding her.
The zombie type creature flailed about, but didn't die. He kept pursuing her, but he was trampled over by more zombie things parading up the stairs. Tanith, Ghastly, and Fletcher shouted that they would lead a group of them away. Wreath acknowledged them and he pressed his shadows up against the door and intertwined them in the wood, creating a sturdy reinforcement, so no more beings could get through. He turned, and was instantly met with a punch to the face. He stumbled backwards and glared at Eshara, who looked a little possessed, literally.
Solomon Wreath pursed his lips again and aimed a few well crafted shadows over to her feet, but she jumped and avoided them all, miraculously. She bent down and kicked his shin, but he blocked it with his cane. Eshara snarled and she yanked down on his coat and slammed him into the ground, snapping a few floor boards in the process.
Over a few feet, Skulduggery and Lyra had taken on Valkyrie. Her face had been set into a perpetual smirk, and she had been jumping and dodging everything sent at her. Lyra frowned as Valkyrie landed gracefully on the kitchen counters, smashing a few water glasses and plates.
Lyra reached for an undamaged plate and jumped on another nearby counter. Lyra stepped carefully, avoiding the forks that littered the granite surface. Valkyrie kept smirking, stepping closer and closer, a giant knife in her hand. Suddenly, however, Skulduggery's hand shot out and gripped Valkyrie's ankle, pulling her towards him, and putting her into a headlock. He nodded once at Lyra, who stepped from the cooking surfaces and broke the plate on the edges. She handed a large glass shard to her father, who held it up against Valkyrie.
Eshara screamed in frustration as Wreath coiled shadow after shadow around her body. Both females struggled about their bonds, but Skulduggery wouldn't let his grip loosen on Valkyrie for a second.
"I'll go see how everyone else is doing," Lyra announced, racing through the kitchen, and following the path of destruction her aunt and uncles made. She ended up outside, by the back of the house. Tanith and Ghastly were wrestling a large female, while Fletcher kept disappearing and reappearing with different weapons. She watched him leave, then return with a stapler. He smashed it to the forehead of the struggling person Tanith and Ghastly were fighting. They moaned in pain and Tanith reached up and wrapped her arm around the neck. Ghastly drew to full height and pinched the nose and covered the mouth. Within a few moments, the person toppled over, unconscious. Lyra shouted at Fletcher, who hadn't been watching, to get out of the way, but Elian Ford came suddenly charging towards them with a dagger. He tried aiming for Fletcher's chest, but he missed and grazed his side.
The back door suddenly burst open. Rin Marlow was lugging Eshara and Valkyrie on two arms. A window nearby shattered and Skulduggery and Wreath jumped through. Skulduggery drew his gun and Wreath's shadows went haywire around his cane.
"If you shoot us," Rin said, "then we won't be able to everyone, and I think that's what you'd want, right? Just give us around twenty minutes, and we could have your friends perfectly healthy."
Skulduggery frowned, but he didn't waver his gun.
Elian shrugged and strode to help Rin. He grabbed Eshara and laid her on the ground, while Rin put Valkyrie next to her. Elian wiped his dagger of Fletcher's blood, and he bent down next to Eshara's body. He opened her shirt a little, and reached in with the dagger and made an incision.
"What are you doing?" Tanith shrieked.
"What needs to be done!" Rin shouted back. She got her own knife out and did the same thing to Valkyrie's body. They both flexed their hands and dove into the flesh of the women. Everyone else grimaced at the site. Rin pulled her hand out delicately, dripping blood over everything. In her hand, the group noticed, was a beating heart. Elian did the same, and his hand revealed another heart. Rin nodded to him and handed him Eshara's real heart, while she received Valkyrie's. They placed the objects into both chests, and connected everything. They waited a moment for the blood to start pumping out gradually, and then they sealed the little incision wounds.
Rin and Elian stood up, blood dripping from their hands. "Happy, everyone?" Rin asked, irritated. "Now, how about we have a good fight? Fists against fists?" Both of them situated into a fighting stance, while everyone else took theirs.
"Ah, but not all of you," Elian said, and gave a wave of his hand. Within a second, Tanith, Ghastly, Fletcher, and Wreath collapsed onto the grass. Only Lyra and Skulduggery remained.
"I'll take the girl," Rin said and gave a rush up to Lyra.
Rin began by darting to the ground and giving a swift kick to Lyra's knees. Lyra cried out in shock, but recovered quickly by landing on her hands and swinging her leg around to catch Rin's abdomen. She stood quickly and dodged a punch, but couldn't avoid the other one. Rin's fist connected with Lyra's nose and she stumbled back. But suddenly, a black streak appeared in front of Lyra and reached out and launched their arm and elbow into Rin's face.
"Only I get to break my daughter's nose, thank you!" Valkyrie grumbled, gripping Rin's shirt and pulling her upwards. Valkyrie held her ground as Rin tried kicking her. But Rin finally landed a blow into Valkyrie's knee. She dropped Rin and clutched her injured knee cap. Lyra staggered up and kicked and punched as hard as she could. She landed an elbow onto Rin's neck. Lyra swung her leg up and booted her in the stomach.
Valkyrie nodded gravely and raced over to Skulduggery, who was hitting Elian with his fist repeatedly. She dunked her hand into his coat pocket and fished around for a bit.
"What exactly are you doing?" he asked skeptically.
"I'm looking for you hand cuffs!" she replied, bringing her hand back out and waving them in his face. She marched back to Rin, who was being held back by Lyra's tight grip on her injured jaw. Valkyrie reached and grabbed Rin's hand and attached the cuffs to them.
Eshara wandered up happily, dragging a bloody and bruised Elian with her. She had awoken at the same time Valkyrie had, and joined her brother in fighting off the boy. She stuck his hand out and Valkyrie cheerfully cuffed him as well. Skulduggery had meandered over to their unconscious friends and roused them awake.
"Dang it!" Tanith shouted. "We missed it, didn't we?"
Valkyrie shrugged. "You can treat them really roughly when we get them to the Sanctuary," she said.
Tanith laughed, then stopped, then smiled. She ran to hug her regular best friend, who had finally returned to normal.
Thanks for reading and sorry for mistakes! :D
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