She was panicking. Adrenaline swirled through her body, and her hands were shaking. Every breath felt like she was sucking in water. Her eyes felt hot, dangerously close to spilling tears. Her throat was tight.
Valkyrie was panicking, and she had no idea why.
Skulduggery was quiet in the seat next to her, but she could see his head inch towards her and back to the road every minute. He was looking at her out of the corner of his eye. She wanted to hide her face in her hands.
"I'm having Déjà vu," Skulduggery said softly.
Valkyrie swallowed. "Me, too."
He nodded.
His fingers tapped against the steering wheel, nonsense patterns, ceaseless. Valkyrie felt the same way.
When they pulled up to Temple Bar, Valkyrie took a shuddering breath and stood on the sidewalk while Skulduggery found a place to park. Her eyes flicked around, and she felt like she was looking for someone.
Temple Bar wasn't busy this early in the morning. There were a few people sweeping out front of the bars, some people jogging through, a family letting their toddler dip his feet into the fountain. It would get some business now that the rain had cooled things off.
Skulduggery strolled up to her, façade tight-lipped and brooding. They walked toward Finbar's parlor. They went slowly, scanning the area. Skulduggery whistled, and Valkyrie was petrified he would stop, let her know something was wrong.
For a second, she relaxed. She was overworked. She had imagined this fear. Built it up to be something it wasn't. Paranoia.
Her heart lurched when she caught sight of a man sitting at a table. She stopped walking, stared at him, and terror robbed her of any action. She could only look up.
Reality did a strange thing. It bent out, and all Valkyrie could think about was someone pushing a projector screen forward, warping the image. The clouds seemed to lap over one another, stretch forward to a point.
And then a hand broke through. It dragged the tear down, revealed dark, red skies, an arm cloaked in black. And then a woman with Valkyrie's face peered out.
Skulduggery's gun leapt into his hand, and he pulled the trigger three times in neat succession. They disappeared through the hole, and the other Valkyrie didn't even seem fazed. Her body didn't jerk back as the bullets hit her.
Valkyrie's mouth ran dry.
Darquesse looked at her and smiled. "Hey, Val."
…
Valkyrie jolted out of bed, soaked in sweat, and collapsed to her knees. Sobs racked her frame, and she curled up on the floor as she cried. She wanted to become part of the wood. She sobbed, sobbed, sobbed.
She had done something bad. Bad bad bad.
Valkyrie Cain was not a good person, and she knew this down to her core. She banged her head once against the ground, and the pain felt good. She cried until she felt empty inside, and then she just lay on the ground.
Her phone buzzed, and she whipped it out before she could think. Alice had texted her, and something in Valkyrie recoiled. She dropped the phone, and she rolled away, took a few deep breaths.
A thought, cool and clear, cut through.
Why are you doing this?
Valkyrie frowned, gritted her teeth, and sat up. Think.
She had been with Skulduggery. They had been going to see Finbar. There had been a man there. Valkyrie's frowned deepened. There had been a man, wearing a cheap sports coat and three days' worth of stubble.
Valkyrie checked the time on her phone. She blinked—it was almost noon. She stood, realized she was already dressed, and hurried downstairs.
"Skulduggery?"
There was a bang from the living room, and Skulduggery strode out. He took her shoulders in his hands, held her at arm's length, looked her in the eye. Valkyrie blinked, rattled because he was.
"Valkyrie." He sounded relieved.
"Skulduggery, what happened?"
His head tilted. "I'm not sure. I've—I'm missing time. I think we've been missing time. I think today was just what tipped us off. I've been running the past few weeks over in my head, trying to create a timeline, and there are entire days I can't account for. What's today?"
Valkyrie checked her phone again. "Friday."
"What did we do yesterday?"
It took Valkyrie longer than she would have liked. "The murder. The," she motioned with her hand, frustrated. "We talked with Dane. Zalla Dane, about her girlfriend. Bea."
Valkyrie realized she was starving.
"And then what?"
"What do you mean?"
Skulduggery squeezed her shoulders. "That barely took up half the day. What did we do after going to her apartment?"
"I… We…" Valkyrie's head hurt. "I don't remember."
"I got a phone call. That's the most I can remember. We left her apartment, and we were arguing whether or not we should go to Finbar's. And then I got a phone call from China, and we went to the Sanctuary. The rest of the day is gone. Next thing you remember?"
Valkyrie chews on her lip. "I woke up." She frowned. "I woke up, and my entire body hurt. It's like someone had slammed me against a wall. Was yesterday Thursday?" She reached up to rub her head, and Skulduggery released her shoulders.
"It was. You woke up in the middle of the night and came downstairs. That's the next thing I remember. Before I was…" He looked at the kitchen.
"You were what?"
His head snapped back to her. "I've been having some intrusive thoughts lately."
She raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"
Skulduggery reached up to adjust his tie. "About my family."
Valkyrie blinked. "I… Uh, well… What sort of thoughts about them?"
Skulduggery moved on to his gloves, tugging them further down. "Intrusive ones."
A flicker of irritation. "Look, I don't care, I just want to figure this out, okay?"
"I know you don't care. Silly, stupid thoughts about them. My child running down the hallway, my wife in the kitchen. They aren't my thoughts—my wife abhorred cooking. It's how someone would imagine a perfect family to be, and then used my wife and child as their actors in my head."
Valkyrie nodded. "Someone is messing with our thoughts."
"It appears so." Skulduggery was very still. "You woke up in the middle of the night. What happened next?"
"You were being weird, and I went back to bed. Then…" Valkyrie blanched. "Gordon's books. I forgot. Someone's targeting us. Then we…" Valkyrie wanted to cry again. "We went to see Finbar."
"What did we speak to Finbar about?"
"I—I don't remember." Valkyrie swallowed. "Something bad. I…"
"Something bad," he agreed. "I'm missing three bullets in my gun. Can you think of anything else of significance from the last twenty-four hours?"
Valkyrie's head spun. "A man."
"A man?"
"He's just… He was just familiar. I've seen him before, and he was sitting somewhere nearby when we were there."
Skulduggery filed this away. "Any distinguishing features?"
Valkyrie shook her head. "No, nothing. Stubble, a coat, I think he had a notebook or something. I just remember him. When I saw him, I think I… knew something was going to happen." She closed her eyes. "I think…"
"Right." He walked back into the living room, and Valkyrie followed behind him. He took a blank legal pad off of his desk and handed it to her. "From now on, we write down everything we do, the time, and the date. We can't keep losing things."
Valkyrie grabbed a pen from the desk.
12.07 PM – discussed memory loss, Skul. living room
"We need to have our memories evaluated."
"Again," Valkyrie said.
Skulduggery looked at her. "When was the last time we had our memories examined?"
"Do you really expect me to remember, especially after all this?" She tapped the pen against the paper. "Janet. Janet did it. I have no idea when, or why, but it was her."
Skulduggery pulled out his phone. "Then I suppose we know who to call."
Valkyrie dug through the kitchen for food as Skulduggery talked. Everything was stale or rotting. Valkyrie wondered how much time they had last shopped as she munched on a box of stale cereal. It was the only thing that was even remotely edible.
She wasn't very hungry, but she knew her body was physically starving.
12.20 - Val ate gross cereal, Skul talked to Janet
Skulduggery popped his head in. "It was her day off, but she agreed to meet us at the Sanctuary. She didn't want to."
Valkyrie frowned, shoved another handful of cereal into her mouth. "Why not?"
Skulduggery shrugged. "She isn't exactly the best at articulating her thoughts, is she? However, she's talented, and she's already been in your head. She'll understand how things work up in there."
Valkyrie grabbed one last handful.
Skulduggery tilted his head. "You can bring the box."
Valkyrie grunted and threw the box back in the cabinet. "Let's go."
12.33 - Drove to Roarhaven
They were quiet in the car. There wasn't much to talk about, and Valkyrie wasn't much in the mood. She kept unlocking and locking her phone, but she felt sick whenever she contemplated texting Alice.
In the end, she sent a text to Tanith, who responded with a rainbow emote.
"Do you think this is affecting Tanith? Or Ghastly?"
"Ghastly hasn't mentioned anything."
They lapsed into silence. In the end, Valkyrie rested her head against the window. Everything hurt; her head, hear stomach, her back, her legs. And something swirled inside of her, something that she wanted to ignore. Because that would hurt the worst.
The Sanctuary shone in the afternoon light as they pulled into their parking space. Valkyrie stepped out, and she wished it wasn't so pretty. She hated getting bad news on pretty days. There was something so wrong about it.
12.54 - Arrive at Roarhaven
The Sanctuary was deserted, the workers having escaped to happier places. Their footsteps echoed faintly.
"What if it's really bad?" she asked softly.
Skulduggery looked at her.
"What if whatever I did was really bad?"
"How are you so sure it's only you?"
"I just do." Valkyrie shook her head. "I can just tell."
"I'm going to abandon you on the side of the road like a stray dog. You could do just about anything, Valkyrie, and I wouldn't much care. And there's no use in dreading the future. Let's see what Convivial has to say."
And there she was, twisting her hands in her lap, looking like they were her executioners.
"Skulduggery," she said, standing. "Valkyrie," she choked out. "Diving back into your head?"
Skulduggery nodded. "You are. We appreciate this, Convivial. Valkyrie here is a little grumpy, but she's happy you agreed to do this, as well."
Convivial nodded, but her eyes kept flicking back to Valkyrie, and she could see her hands shaking, twisting, clawing at her skirt.
"Right. I just… Don't be… How far back are we going?"
Valkyrie glanced at Skulduggery, handed him the legal pad.
"A year," she decided.
"Right." Convivial shook out her hands. "Okay. I…"
Valkyrie didn't want to sit down. She didn't want to see Convivial's face, pale and drawn, and she didn't want to see Skulduggery watching every movement. Valkyrie didn't want to be here, she wanted to go home and go for a run, and she didn't want Convival's hands, cold and clammy, against her temples, and she didn't
Thanks to Blufox03, RedIvySparrow, 343 guilty spark, and Heslen for your reviews! 3
The sequel is gonna' be way different in tone! I haven't really started plotting for it, but know it's in the works.