Alice was staying at her sister's estate along with said sister. She had heard about how Stephanie had acquired the mansion in the will of the uncle Alice had never met.
At the moment, Alice and Stephanie were curled up on the sofa watching 'Titanic'. They had brought the spare duvet down and had it placed on their laps keeping them sheltered from the frosty winter air. A bowl of half-eaten popcorn had been placed on the coffee table and a box of tissues had been sat on each of their laps. They had just gotten to the part where Rose woke up to find Jack dead from hypothermia. Alice had silent tears streaming down her face whereas Stephanie was full on sobbing with mascara stains down her cheeks. She latched onto Alice's hand and didn't let go. Alice squeezed it back for comfort, though more for herself than her older sister.
A while later the film had finished and Stephanie turned to Alice only to fall into her arms so the two crying wrecks had someone to lean on.
FIVE MINUTES OF CRYING LATER…
They parted and looked at each other then began to laugh hysterically. Both girls had smudged mascara down their cheeks and red puffy eyes. In turn they grabbed a tissue and wiped their face free of make-up.
"Okay, so we've had a soppy movie, how about a scary movie?" Stephanie asked the fifteen year old next to her with a creepy grin on her face. Alice laughed at her older sister's manic grin and said, "Let's do this!" this resulted with them sitting like they were before, curled up on the sofa with the duvet protecting them from the world outside of it and fresh toffee popcorn on the coffee table. This also resulted in Stephanie holding onto Alice's hand for dear life. 'Titanic' had been replaced with 'The Grudge', this film always terrified both girls to their cores. Stephanie had battled Warlocks, Ghosts, Gods and Witches, so some dead girl that killed her victims by looking them in the eye and removing their lower mandible shouldn't terrify her. However, it did. Alice didn't know about the double life she led, however, her parents did and they knew that she'd never have Alice in harm's way.
The film had gotten to the part where Yoko was opening the wardrobe and climbing into the hatch that led to the attic. The tension for something to happen was thick in the air as Yoko was turning around on the spot to come face to face with the creepy woman herself. A/N OMG I WAS WATCHING THIS AS I WAS WRITING THIS AND I HAD TO COVER MY EYES AND EARS I WAS SO SCARED! IS IT JUST ME OR IS ANYONE ELSE OUT THERE SCARED OF THE GRUDGE? AND OMG SOMETHING IN THE HALLWAY JUST FELL AND NOW IM TOO SCARED TO LEAVE THE COMFORT OF MY ROOM AND IM JUST INTERUPTING THE DRABBLE NOW AND THAT CANT BE GOING DOWN SO IM JUST GOING TO HIDE IN MY WARDROBE WTH MY LAPTOP- NOPE, NOPE I AINT GOING ANYWHERE NEAR MY WADROBE, I'LL JUST HIDE UNDER MY BLANKETS ON MY BED WITH MY LAPTOP AND DIE OF CLAUSTROPHOBIA. BYEE! LOVE YOU ALL! AND PLEASE CAN SOMEONE TELL MY SISTER THAT HER BUTTERFLY SCARF IS IN THE BOX UNDER MY BED?! THANK YOU!) Alice screamed and buried herself in Stephanie's neck as she did the same to Alice.
ABOUT AN HOUR AND TEN MINUTES LATER…
The film had finished but all the girls could do was just sit there.
They hadn't moved and when the credits had ended the main menu came back on which made Stephanie and Alice shriek in fright as it had an image of the grudge herself on it. Stephanie felt around for the remote and switched the TV and DVD player off plunging them into pitch blackness. Alice scooted over to Stephanie's arms in which, Stephanie hugged her close. They sat like that for what felt like an eternity both of them too scared to leave the sofa. Stephanie pulled the blanket over their heads so it was like a tent that failed at being a tent and got her phone out. She turned it on just as it rang. Stephanie and Alice screamed in fright and jumped, like, a foot into the air. After they calmed down a bit, Stephanie answered.
"Hello?" she asked with a shaky tone.
"Val? Are you oka-"Skulduggery's worried voice was cut off by the grudge noise booming into her ear. She screamed and dropped the phone. Alice looked at the phone in wonder at what could possible scare her big sister like that and stupidly picked it up and held it to her ear where she too heard the noise and pulled the blanket down to throw the phone on the floor at the other end of the room then proceeded to pull the blanket back over her head and then bury herself in Stephanie's awaiting arms. They sat in silence too afraid to make a sound or do anything.
xXx
"Hello?" Skulduggery heard Valkyrie's shaky voice and then his turned worried. "Val, are you okay?" She screamed down the phone and then a thud occurred like she had dropped it. "Valkyrie? VAL!" there was movement down the line and then a different shriek and more movement then a bang, like the phone had been thrown. He hung up in a hurry, jumped into the Bentley and sped all the way to Valkyrie's estate. He wasn't too far away as he was just buying her some ice-cream and was ringing to see what flavour she wanted.
It was around midnight so there wasn't anyone on the roads apart from the occasional few that loitered around at night for odd reasons. This meant that he didn't have to put up his façade.
He arrived at Valkyrie's place within four minutes and legged it up to the side of the mansion where he then manipulated the air to lift his weight to the window that Valkyrie always kept open for him as he refused to use doors with people that he knew or was trying to sneak up on. Gracefully, he tiptoed down the stairs and crept into the living room to find a failed tent hiding two people. He walked round to the front of the sofa and pulled the duvet off of the two girls of which then greeted him with a shriek.
"Val! Calm down! It's just me!" he yelled over the two screaming girls in front of him. She stopped screaming but Alice carried on screaming and buried her head into Valkyrie's neck.
Valkyrie looked up at Skulduggery in horror as he hurried to put his façade in place. A head of waxy brown waves formed with equally as waxy brown eyes. Valkyrie eased Alice off of her and flung herself at the tall man in the exquisite suit. She pulled away quickly and stamped on his foot. Pain shot through his foot that he didn't think was imaginable as he doubled over. "What was that for!?"
Valkyrie sat back down and pulled a confused and still scared Alice into her arms.
"That was for scaring the crap out of me!"
"Language!"
"I'll show you bloody language!"
Skulduggery straightened up and rolled his eyes.
Valkyrie looked down at Alice see her staring up at Skulduggery in wonder.
"Who are you?" she asked in a shaky voice at having being scared.
"I, my dear, am Skulduggery Pleasant, Sanctuary detective and overall, a very amazing man." A cocky grin was clear on his face but a scowl took over when Valkyrie said, "As well as an ego maniac." Valkyrie rolled her eyes at his scowl and then suddenly a look of horror hit her face as a thought entered her messed up mind.
"Skulduggery! Why did you scare us?" She asked with a glare.
His fake face turned into that of a confused idiot.
"Wha-?"
"The grudge noise?! You know how much it creeps the heck out of me!" Skulduggery just frowned at her and shook his head. "I-I didn't do that Val. There was no grudge noise down the phone. Just the amazing, moi, asking if you were okay and then you both screamed and I came running. And besides! You said that you wasn't going to watch it again without me or Ghastly! Much less your fifteen year old sister!"
"We were fine! Weren't we Ally?" Beside her, Alice nodded her head and looked up at the two.
"But, guys, if he didn't make the noise then who did?"
Half a mile away at the Sanctuary, Tanith's cackles could be heard by everyone there…
A/N I don't think it was wise to watch that film whilst writing this as it did, indeed, scare the life outta me. Pleeeease review! And just in case you hadn't figured out that Tanith was remnant free, well, she was remnant free…
And is it me or is the Skulduggery fandom kinda dying out?
Please don't leave me!
Peace out ma peeps!
xxx