Chapter 4

Disclaimer: Hardly any of this is mine. Most of it is from the chapter Derek Landy himself wrote. I only wrote a few different perspectives and what COULD have been happening, that Mr Landy didn't mention. Okay? Also note; the Skulster uses some wisdom in this one! Yay! Some detective work! Now I'll begin.

Skulduggery yelled from the driver's seat.

"Ghastly, let's go!"

Ghastly, tackling the White Cleaver on the ground, punched him hard in his visored face and rolled to his feet, getting up to run to the Bentley. He saw it, straight ahead, parked down at the end of the alleyway, Skulduggery shouting and Valkyrie's eyes widening and Tanith kicking open the back door to let him jump in.

He would have made it. He would have been safe, if it hadn't been for the Cleaver's foot snaking out at the last minute and kicking his legs from under him. Ghastly fell to the ground again, and looked up just in time for the White Cleaver to smack him across the jaw with the end of his scythe. Ghastly tasted blood and spat it on the ground, pain exploding in his head as he gasped for air, being hit again and again by the wooden staff.

"Ghastly!" he heard Valkyrie scream from what seemed like so far away. He looked up to see Skulduggery make to get out. No, he thought. It was too late for him, the Cleaver was about to finish him off, but if Skulduggery got involved then that would be two deaths, one which could have been avoided.

Tanith's words suddenly echoed through his head:

"Sacrifice...true sacrifice, like giving up yourself to let everyone else get away, is something that I've never had to do. It's beyond me. I wouldn't be able to do it..."

Those words made sense to him now, and he knew what he had to do. He shook his head slowly.

"We're not leaving you!" Skulduggery roared. Ghastly looked at his friend, looked at the emotionless skull that was his face, and yet almost trembled at the anger and fear that radiated from it. At Valkyrie, that brave young girl, with her brown eyes widened and both hands clapped over her mouth, and then at Tanith. Oh Tanith, he thought as he looked at her sadly. He hadn't been sure about her reaction, whether she would care or not, forgetting that little kiss on his cheek. But her dark-rimmed eyes were widened at the horror of what she thought was going to happen, and unknown to Skulduggery and Valkyrie, she shook her blonde curls vigoriously in the back seat, mouthing "No,no," over and over again.

Oh, how badly he wanted to be there beside her right now, to hold her hand, to tell her it was alright. How badly he wanted the four of them to just drive away from this old, crumbling street and the menace that was standing over him, to drive off to face whatever was thrown at them, to face their destiny. But that couldn't happen. It just couldn't.

The Cleaver got ready to swing its scythe, to take his head.

"You have to," Ghastly said softly as he stared sadly at the three in the car. Tanith's eyes widening in despair and then she shut them tight, bowing her head. Ghastly sighed and looked up at the night sky, one last time. He knew what he had to do. This wasn't the end, it was time to use his last defense as an Elemental. But before that, he muttered wistfully with his last breath, one word;

"Tanith."

He lowered his head and clenched his fists, eyes closed, ready to use the Earth power.

GXTXGXTXGXTXGXTXGXTXGXTXGXTXGXTXGXTXGXTXGXTXGXTXGXTXGXTXGXTXGXTXGXGXTXGXTXGXTXGXTXGXTXGXTXGXTXGXTXGXTXGXTXGXTXGXTXGXTXGXTXGXTXGXTXGXTXGXTXGXTXGXTX

As Skulduggery Pleasant watched his dearest friend turn into a statue before his eyes (or rather, his eye-sockets) he felt strangely cold inside, as if it were he that was forced to his knees, cement creeping up from the pavement, turning his outer body grey, his organs to stone...

Skulduggery slammed his foot on the accelerator and drove away from the awful scene, leaving the White Cleaver staring blankly after them. As he drove he glanced at Valkyrie beside him. She was staring at her knees, lips slightly parted as she inhaled through her mouth, brown eyes wide and haunted. If he had a heart he felt it could have broken at that moment. He had told Valkyrie that the Earth power was something that she should never have to see, and yet in her first week as part of the world of horror and adventure and sorcery, she had to see a good friend use the defensive power, the power that an Elemental should only have to use as a last resort.

He felt like shivering, but his ghost of a nervous system wouldn't allow for that. He thought back to that moment that Ghastly had closed his eyes and gotten ready to change himself. Had anyone else seen it? He didn't want to ask Valkyrie, at least not until later. He didn't think she had; if she were to even blink she could have missed it. Skulduggery, however, could not blink, so he saw everything. But he wondered...

Skulduggery looked in his mirror at Tanith, who sat in the backseat, even more crouched over than Valkyrie, her blonde hair veiling her pretty face. Had Ghastly...could he really have fallen for this girl? All signs pointed to that; the girl was attractive, she was one of the few women that didn't cringe away from Ghastly's face, and Ghastly had a soft heart. After a day, he could have fallen for her. But how did she feel about him, was Skulduggery's question. She had bowed her head before Ghastly changed, so she hadn't seen his last words. So she wouldn't know unless someone told her, how Ghastly had felt.

She rocked slightly as the car sped along, and Skulduggery could only see a fraction of her face. Her lips her closed in a sad pout, and he could have sworn, though through the hair it was hard to tell, that he saw something wet glistening on her cheek...

Skulduggery glanched at his fuel tank accidently. Damn, they would need to stop somewhere and fill up pretty soon. Despite everything, despite their loss of a friend and the fact that they were off to face unimaginable danger, Skulduggery let this trivial thing bother him.

A/N: And that, dear readers, is the story of Ghastly's fall.

Now keep reading to hear the rest of the goddamn story!