OK, before you start cursing my existance, just hear me out on this: I am really sorry I haven't updated in so long. I know it was like four and a half weeks or something, but you've got to cut me some slack. You have no idea how busy I've been.
First: both my grandparents were in hospital.
Second: my copy of Death Bringer I ordered finally arrived (I was so excited! I read it in two days and I read it again.) along with The Hunger Games trilogy (That I actually think I now preffer to Skulduggery Pleasant. And yes, you have the right to call me a traitor.) and read that.
Third: (obviously) school.
Fourth: my dad's cousin's daughter (Her name's Maria-João. I would give you the surname but you would use that to track her and me with it. Stalkers... And besides, I couldn't because I honestly don't know what it is), Maria João's German husband (No, I am not living in Germany. Her husband just happens to be German), my dad's other cousin's daughter (I don't remember her name, all I remember was thar it was 'something'-Maria. Yes, my family's got a lot of Marias), my dad's same cousin's other daughter's (Who lives in America) husband (His Merican accent is so weird. He had to come without her because apparently she's very ill), me and my family and my freshly out of hospital grandparents all had a big family reunion (I hate socializing. I'm the kind of girl that would rather have books than friends any day) together (It was awful and the dining room was too small. Everyone was packed in there like sardines).
Fifth: the fact that I wrote a really awesome chapter that was supposed to be this one but then I realized that the story wouldn't sound good if I used it straight away, so I had to come up with something else and safe that one for later.
Sixth: my brother kept hogging the computer so I didn't have any time to write.
Seventh: when I did finally manage to get a turn the computer kept crashing (Luckily my dad was able to fix it or both the computers in my house would be broken).
And eighth: there was something else that was going to add but I just can't remember it now.

OK, I think that's enough of listing all the reasons why I updated so late. You came here to read the story, not to listen to me babbling on nonsesically.

PLEASE R&R!

Alex's eyes fluttered open dreamily. Sunlight was pouring into her room from the window and she pulled her blanket over her head to block it out. She heard a voice speak to her in a mixture of sarcasm, mocking and laughter.

"So you're afraid of sun now, are you?" the voice said playfully.

Alex knew who it was instantly. Her best friend, Ronny. "Ronny, what're doing here? I'm trying to sleep." She pulled the blanket back off her head and looked at her through half-closed eyes. She had her brown hair done back in a delicately made plait and was wearing jeans, trainers and a pretty orange and yellow long-sleeved shirt with the words 'Don't hate me 'cause I'm beautiful' neatly in bold lettering. She sat on a chair beside Alex's bed, looking a little annoyed.
Alex was in no mood for her bubbly friend at the time. She knew spending time with Ronny was going to be awful. She hated keeping secrets from her. They always told each other everything. And even worse, Alex was terrible at keeping them and a bad liar. She knew that she going to blurt out everything she had learned about magic, about how she had powers, could shape shift and apparently move things with her mind. Of how she wanted to do symbol magic but already had so much on her pallet with having found out she could do telekinesis. She wanted to tell Ronny everything but knew she couldn't. Keeping her second life secret was going to be harder than she thought. Alex was brought back from her daydream by Ronny's answer.

"Did you forget? It's a public holiday. You said we were going to go out."

"Yeah, but. How does that sentence include 'barge into my house and wake me up annoyingly'?"

"No, it doesn't. And I didn't barge into your house. I grabbed your spare key that I'm not supposed to know about from under that rock, opened your door, ran up the stairs and woke you rudely."

"That's called barging into someone's house."

Ronny faked a look of surprise. "Is it?"

"Yes. It is. It's trespassing as well."

"Oh. Well then I have a lot of people to apologize to." She smirked sarcastically at Alex.

"Yes, you do. So if you wouldn't mind, could you go and apologize to them now, while I sleep peacefully?"

"Of course, whatever you say." She smirked again, not getting up from her seat.

"You know, usually when somebody says they're going to leave, they leave."

"Well, my name isn't somebody, is it?" Again, with the smirking.

"Stop doing that." Alex said grumpily.

"Stop doing what?" Ronny said in that annoyingly playful and sarcastic voice.

"You just did it again."

"Did what?"

The voice at the back Alex's head spoke. "Just punch her already! That'll get her to shut up, right?" But Alex just ignored it. "That thing. With the sarcastic-ness and the smirking. It's really annoying. Stop it."

"Why, I have no idea what on earth you're talking about." she said, doing it once again.

"Don't make me hurt you Ronny." Alex's voice was becoming serious.

Ronny held her hands up in mock-cry. "Ah! She's so scary!" she said to no one at all in particular. "Don't let her hurt me! I'm too young to die!"

"Seriously," said the voice, "just punch her already. She's getting on your nerves. People shouldn't be allowed to get on your nerves. It should be illegal or something."

Alex smiled to the voice in agreement, then turned back to Ronny. "If you insist." she said, mimicking to perfection Ronny's annoying smirk. She clenched her hand into a fist and sent it at Ronny. It touched down on Ronny's arm softly.

"What?" the voice asked. "That's it? You're just going to give her a little tap on the arm? That's not a punch! That's practically a friendly gesture!"

"Shutup." Alex told it.

"Hey!" Ronny exclaimed in a feeble attempt of looking like she was wounded as rubbed the spot where Alex's fist had landed. "She's begun her attack! God save us!"

Alex rolled her eyes, pulling the blanket back over her head.

"Hey! Come on! I didn't come all the way here just to watch you sleep. Get up!"

"First, it's not 'all the way here'. You live around the corner. It's an incredibly short walk. Second, no. And third, leave me alone."

"Ooh, someone's cranky. Did you forget to drink your coffee? You probably did."

"You're forgetting that I don't drink coffee. And I'm not cranky. I'm just tired."

"Crank equals tired. They're the same thing. Not get up." Ronny ripped the blanket off Alex and pulled her out of bed, grunting with the effort. Once she had Alex lying on the floor looking up at her, Ronny hauled her to her feet. "Now get dressed. I'm going to go make myself some tea."

"I haven't given you permission to use my kettle, my tea-bags, my sugar, my tea-spoons or my cups. Therefore, you can't make yourself some tea."

"Don't care." she said merrily, and skipped off out of Alex's room.

Alex mumbled something about why she'd ever become best friends with Ronny in the first place then went to her closet to pick something out. She grabbed her usual comfy favourite: her red and grey Timberland trainers; a pair of jeans and her hot pink long sleeved shirt with a picture of a skeleton with giant baby blue sparkly sunglasses, an ipod plugged into where it's ears should be and the words 'NO MUSIC' written at the top and the words 'NO LIFE' written at the bottom. She'd grown to like this one in particular since she'd met Skulduggery, it reminded her of him.

(A/N: I actually do have this outfit. Skeleton shirt and all. It makes me laugh every time I look at it. I wore it to school on Friday. Friday was the 16-12-2011 for me, by the way.)

Alex combed her long, wavy blonde hair, brushed her teeth and trotted down the stairs to the kitchen where she found Ronny staring at the kettle impatiently while she waited for the little 'ding!' that signaled that it had finished boiling.

"Ronny, you do realize that the kettle isn't even plugged in?" Alex asked.

Ronny turned to Alex, a look of horror and anger on her face. "It isn't?" She seemed like she was about to burst into tears.

"Yeah, it isn't. How could you not notice that?"

Her eyes moved from side to side awkwardly. "I… uh… Because I'm a dumb blonde?"

"You're a brunette."

"Oh… dammit… uh… Because I'm dumb anyway?"

"Yeah, that's probably it."

Ronny smiled sheepishly, grabbing the kettle's plug and stuffing into the socket. She flicked the 'ON' switch and started waiting again.

Alex rolled her eyes and walked over the counter and made herself a bowl of muesli. After picking out all the little bits of fruit – she hated the little bits of fruit – and put them back in the box. She sat down at the table and dug in. She hadn't noticed how starving she'd been. Her reflection had eaten her dinner for her and the last time she'd eaten was the day before at breakfast time. Her stomach was growling and thanked her gratefully when she started eating. She ate half of it, then looked up to see Ronny sitting in front of her, slowly sipping tea from a pretty blue and white porcelain mug.

"That's my mum's favourite mug," Alex calmly. "If you break it I'll kill you."

Ronny shrugged. "Like I said earlier, I don't care."

"But I care."

"And I don't care if you care." She shrugged again, taking another sip of tea.

"She'll make you pay for it."

"So?"

"It's an expensive mug."

"And I'm an expensive gal."

"But I doubt you're parents will give you the money after our designer shoe debt thing." Alex's voice was still calm, as if she didn't really care but she knew it would be better if she informed Ronny.

"Well then I'll pay for it with my own money."

"You don't have any money. All your money goes to paying for those shoes."

Ronny paused, taking this into consideration. "Then I'll blame it on you." she said smugly, smirking mischievously.

"If you blame it on me I'll hurt you."

"And you really expect me to be scared of that threat when you used it fifteen minutes ago and all you did was pat me?"

"But that was then. I was messing around then. Now I'm serious. Break it and blame it on me and I'll hurt you for real."

Ronny laughed. "Please. Get real."

"I am real. Very much so. I have skin, muscles, tendons, blood, bones, a heart etc. I've got the whole shebang. So, I say again. I am real."

"I didn't mean it like that."

"But you said it like that."

"Get to the point."

"I already have."

"And that is...?"

"That I will hurt you and it will hurt."

"That doesn't sound very scary."

"It should, coming from me."

"And why is that?"

"Because you forgetting something."

"And what could I possibly be forgetting?"

"That I'm a black belt in martial arts."

"Oh… right… that…"

"And I will warn you one more time. If you break the mug, you die. If you break the mug and blame it on me, I'll break you and allow you to remain broken for the rest of your pitiful life – which I doubt will be very long if the ambulance doesn't arrive on time."

"Meep." Ronny said nervously.

"Meep indeed. And I hope you realize that the second option is far more terrifying than the first."

Ronny gulped.

"So which will it be?"

Ronny froze, gently placing the pretty blue and white porcelain mug on the table and pushing away from herself slowly. She stayed frozen in time for a few seconds longer, then answered, sounding weak. "Neither."

"Excellent. I see we both understand each other in this matter. No?"

"Y-yes."

"Lovely. Now, we will forget this ever happened and go back to the usual state of norm. Agreed?"

"Agreed." Ronny confirmed in a shaky voice.

"Perfect."

Alex went back to eating her cereal, while Ronny carefully took very cautious sips of tea from the mug. Once finished, Alex picked the bowl up and put it in the sink. She turned to go and sit at the table when her cellphone rang. She looked down at the caller ID. Valkyrie. "Excuse me a minute." she said to Ronny and walked into the bathroom and took the call.

"What is it, Valkyrie?" Alex asked.

"Oh, nothing really." Valkyrie said casually. "I just wanted to point out that you can be very scary when you want to be."

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about just now. You threatening that 'Ronny' person."

"First, her name isn't 'that 'Ronny' person', she's my best friend, named 'Ronny'. And second, how the hell did you know that happened?"

"It's very simple actually. I've been watching you."

All colour drained from Alex's face. "What?"

"I said I've been watching you."

"But why?"

"Safety precautions. Trust me, I don't want to be doing this. I'd much rather be doing other things, but Skulduggery told me to."

"Why would he tell you to do something like that?"

"Well, you are the last telekinetic. I'm sure plenty of people would want you dead."

"That isn't very comforting."

"I know. I'm looking at you now, by the way."

"From where?"

"Your neighbour's roof."

Alex's head shot to the window, where she could make out a figure in black, holding a cellphone in one hand and holding a pair of binoculars up to her eyes with the other. Alex jumped back when she saw Valkyrie crouching there, shocked.

Alex heard Valkyrie laughing through the phone. "Oh God! You should have seen the look on your face! It was priceless!"

"Ha ha ha, very funny, Val. I'm sure I looked comical."

"You did!"

"And Valkyrie, how could you hear me talking to Ronny? You're all the way over there and we're all the way over here."

"Oh, I planted listening devices all over your house last night. You don't mind, do you?"

"Of course I mind! You're invading my privacy!"

"If it helps, it's for your best interest."

"And I wouldn't care if you were doing it to save the world!"

"OK, OK. Calm down. I'll talk to him about it. But there's nothing I can do about it now."

Alex took a deep breath. In through the nose, out through the mouth. Allowed her thoughts to go together and make more sense. "Valkyrie, why didn't Skulduggery just come here and 'watch me' himself? Why did he tell you to doit?"

"He got assigned to a new case. And also, a girl in black hovering over someone's roof with a pair of binoculars, spying on someone else is bad enough, but a talking skeleton hovering over someone's roof with a pair of binoculars, spying on someone else is just too suspicious."

"I see your point... A case, eh? About what?"

"Some French guy and his American helper were found dead last night."

"Who is he?"

"They identified the corpse as Francisco Monet. He's apparently an illegal immigrant. Also a black market dealer. He's on the international most wanted list."

"Well all that's lovely, but what's that got to do with people like you?"

"Because he was apart of the magic community. Which makes his death apart of our business."

"So what else do you know?"

"Well, we know that magic was used. But rather little of it. Skulduggery was unable to identify what kind of magic, though. Which is a bit unfortunate. We haven't really found any clues other than that. The killer seemed to have to have made sure that they didn't leave a single trace of themselves."

"So what you're saying is finding them is going to be a little beyond impossible."

"Something along the lines of that, yes."

Alex paused for a moment, thinking. She didn't want to sound too eager, so trying to sound as casual as possible, like she had just plucked the thought out of thin air, "So, could I by any chance help you with the investigation?" she asked.

After a while of silence, Valkyrie answered. "Highly unlikely. And I doubt you'd be of much help, either. You'd probably just get in our way."

Alex sagged, but didn't reply.

"You're sagging, aren't you."

"I am."

"Why?"

"Why do you think?"

"Because I told you that you couldn't help?"

"Mmhm."

"Alex, no matter how much you sag and appear to have hurt feelings, I'm not going to say yes. Forget it. You're not helping. Anyway, you have other things going for you. You've got the Assassins Creed thing. You can't afford to start wanting to be a detective now. Not when you've got to do that or you'll just be moping around like some lost fart all day."

"Maybe you're right."

"I know I'm right."

"Yeah, you probably are. I guess I'll just forget that I ever had the idea in the first place." Alex sighed.

"Yeah, you do that."

"Wait, what?"

"What?"

"When someone says something like that you have to say yes, it's the laws of communication."

"Then I must be some kind of rebel then."

"Ohcomeon!" Alex whined.

"No. That's my final answer. Now I suggest you end this call and go back to hanging out with your friend. We're starting to sound a bit suspicious."

"Ugh, fine."

And before Alex could say any more, Valkyrie hung up. Alex looked out the window and across to Valkyrie who just shrugged and went back to watching her. Alex shook her fist in the air for Valkyrie to see, then stormed off. The last glimpse she caught from the window was of Valkyrie doubling over in laughter. "I'llmakehersorry." she thought.
Alex stood outside the kitchen door, her face looking furious. She took a moment to breathe again, then forced a smile and walked back to sit with Ronny.

"Who was it?" Ronny asked.

Alex hesitated, trying to come up with a reasonable excuse. "Uh… I guess I'd call them a 'friend'. Not really. An… annoying acquaintance, perhaps."

"Yeah, but who?"

Alex couldn't think of a fake name. The only words that came to her were; "A girl from school. I don't think you know her. Her names Stephanie, Stephanie Edgley."

Ronny looked astonished. "Her?" she asked, her voice clearly surprised.

"Y-yeah, her."

"But she's such a… weirdo."

"So she does know who she is… Crap." she Alex could think of doing was going along with whatever Ronny said."I know! But, like I said, she's just an annoying acquaintance."

"Why would she call you, of all people?"

"Dammit. Hard question." "Oh, uh… she was asking if our science test was this week or next week. She'd forgotten, figured I would know."

"Oh, well, I guess there's nothing wrong with that. How did she get your number?"

"I don't know myself. Probably from the class list. They still give us the other kids' numbers on it, right?"

"I think so. Not sure." Ronny took a second to jog her memory. "They used to do it when we were younger. I can't remember if they do it now, though."

"Must have."

"Yeah, must have."

Alex faked a look of boredom and started examining her fingernails, while waiting for Ronny to ever so agonizingly slowly finish the precious cup of tea. She hated lying to her. All she wanted to do at that moment was tell Ronny everything, but couldn't. She thought it would be better if she could somehow get her to go away. A diversion. Something that would force Ronny to suddenly leave. That way Alex wouldn't have to deal with lying to her. She thought of just asking her to go away, come back another time, but things were never that straightforward . There'd be questions. Questions she couldn't answer. And unanswered questions would arouse suspicion. And suspicion wasn't something she could afford from someone as close to her as Ronny.

She stifled a sigh and looked up at Ronny. "Ron, when you said we were going to 'go out', did you mean this?"

Ronny thought back a bit, then answered. "No, definitely not."

"Then why are we sitting here looking pretty?"

Ronny shrugged. "I don't know. You tell me."

"Because I'm waiting for you."

"Oh right. But I have to finish the tea. Without breaking the mug."

"Forget the tea, let's go,"

"Yeah, OK. That's sounds good to me."

Ronny got up, her elbow gently scraping the mug. It toppled over, rolling off the edge of the table, while at the same time spilling the remains off the tea all over it. It plummeted, beginning it descent to the tiled floor. Suddenly, everything was in slow-motion, and the only things in the world were Ronny, the mug and the floor. "Noooooooooooooooooooo!" she shouted. Ronny dived for it, her arms splayed out before her in a desperate attempt at catching this now precious object, that's safety meant life or death. Her arms wrapped around the mug, hugging it close to her chest. She slid on the floor, stopping at Alex's feet. "Got it." She stood up to face a horrifying Alex, smiling nervously. "The mug's alright. Not a scratch on it." She handed it to Alex, holding it out for her to take.

Though her expression was unwavering. Alex did not smile, nor frown. Her face stayed completely emotionless. Her brow did not furrow. Nothing. But it was in her eyes, those striking hazel eyes, that it showed. A look that would drive a tsunami back into the depths, shivering with fear. A gaze that would make a tornado hurry back in the opposite direction. A glare that would make onions cry. Something so terrifying, that it could bring all of natures catastrophes down on you, with nothing but a single glance. There was something about the way she looked at Ronny, which just made you want to curl up in a ball and cry. It was like she was stabbing her soul, killing it off slowly, basking in the glory of her screams. Alex's expression remained, and with each moment it felt like she was cutting chunks out of Ronny's with her bare hands.

Alex snatched the cup from Ronny, placing it firmly on the counter next to her. She rolled back her right sleeve up to her elbow, then she swung, and her palm slammed into Ronny's cheek with such force it could bring a house down.

Ronny stumbled back upon impact, losing her footing and tumbling to the ground. She clutched her cheek, crying out it pain. "Hey!" she shouted. "You said you'd only hurt me if I broke the mug! The mug is clearly unharmed!"

Alex did not answer. That same petrifying look in her eyes said it all.

"What was that for!"

Finally, Alex spoke. "For fun, of course." Then she turned on her heel on walked away, grinning inwardly.

I may have forgotten to mention (Well I did in the old summary but I changed it now) that I based Alex on myself. Though I do stress based. She's not exactly like me. I don't have any dye in my hair (But I would like to, though) and I by no means have a black belt in martial arts. Things like that. Her personality is slightly different from mine, because she has to be going on adventures all the time and will soon be beating up bad guys. Unlike myself, who is a mild mannered girl who is addicted to computers and writes stories of what she wished she could be like and happens to be rather lazy. Oh, and seeing that she is at least based on me, I'm going to have to go over some things about her appearance to match mine. You know in the first chapter when I said she had long blonde golden hair? I may have forgotten to stress how long. My hair is ridiculously long, so hers has to be as well. Which means that her hair has to reach her waste, because my hair reaches my waste. (I have really long hair. I've been growing it since I was seven. It's so long that I have to tie it up every time I go to the toilet or it'll... land up being like toilet-paper or something. Which would be gross, because I really don't fancy the idea of getting pee in my hair.) So just remember that she has really really really long hair. I'm planning on doing something with that later so I need you to realize how long it is for it to work.
Thank you for your time.

PLEEEEEEEEAAAASSE REVIEW!