Children were huddled up behind Valkyrie; some of them were crying- the older ones, but the younger ones could not yet comprehend their situation, and Valkyrie couldn't help but feel a bit jealous of their ignorance. "I don't know where it is!" Valkyrie whispered, trying to be as quiet as possible. The worst thing she could do would be to send the children into a panic. She looked behind her shoulder; some of the children were only a year or two younger than her.
"I'll be there in 5 minutes" Skulduggery's voice sounded from her phone, almost panicked.
"That's not enough time!" Valkyrie whisper-shouted. Her eyes were darting in every direction, desperately searching for any sign of a bomb, "He's messing with us, Skul."
"Exactly, he's messing with us, okay?" Skulduggery said, "He's going to leave it somewhere that he knows will affect us."
"In plain sight…" Valkyrie trailed off, trying to focus on her surroundings, "We would never forgive ourselves if the bomb was right in front of us the entire time." She took deep breaths. She needed to calm herself, or her eyes would continue to aimlessly dart around the room, missing the bomb. She could feel her heartbeat pounding in her chest and her hands were shaking, but she tried to ignore it. If she focused on that, she would surely go back into a state of panic.
And then her eyes caught sight of something, a small flashing light- so small she thought she'd imagined it. But when she doubled back to look, it flashed again. Her heart leaped, and she ran to the light. "I think I found it!" she exclaimed. The flashing was behind a pile of debris, and frantically she threw the pieces to the side. As she got closer to the flashing, she heard beeping, becoming louder and louder. Hopefulness was sitting with her as she dug, and it grew larger and then-
Everything stopped. The bomb- where was the fucking bomb!? She picked up the flashing object; a smiley face was drawn on it, taunting her. She had been tricked. "Shit, shit, no, shit," she cursed, turning around to run to the children. "What happened?!" Skulduggery cried. She ignored him, running towards the children. She shouted at them to RUN, but before it even left her mouth, a loud booming noise erupted in her ears. The children didn't have time to scream before the bomb erupted beneath them, not nearly as big as Valkyrie expected. Blood splattered everywhere, on the ground and walls and on Valkyrie, drenching her. She slipped on the puddles of blood, and fell. She gasped and jerked forward. She spread her hands out and looked for something to grasp, something to ground herself, because blood covered her face and she couldn't fucking see. She felt something; it was hard and long and- she rubbed her eyes and when she could finally see, she looked down and she was holding a leg- just a leg- it was detached from whatever body it belonged to. Valkyrie put her hand over her mouth and screamed.
She scrambled to her feet. "Oh god," she whimpered, stumbling away from the mess. She passed clumps of human flesh and insides. She swore she saw organs. Dizzily, she looked for an exit, somewhere without blood or severed limbs, but she felt so nauseous, and her head was throbbing. Throw-up bubbled in her throat, but she fought it down. Instead, she tried to focus on her steps. Left foot… right foot… left foot- something crunched beneath her foot, and she fell over it. Her foot bent backwards and cracked, and she cried out. She peered down at what she had tripped on. Lifeless eyes stared at her, and Valkyrie widened her eyes. She strained to prop herself onto her elbows, and vomited, the image of the decapitated head lingering resentfully in her mind.
