Valkyrie stared at her reflection in the mirror for a while before touching it. A wave of memories flooded her mind, the reflection had had a pretty boring day of maths, business, double Japanese, study of Religion and Science classes, but wait, what was that? Valkyrie had felt something strange tingling in the back of her mind. She searched her memories and tried to grasp onto one in particular. The reflection was talking to a man who was dressed all in black. The way he stood, unnaturally still, gave away that he was a vampire. She saw the refection talking to the man and suddenly it stopped. It was like a glitch in the reflection the scene kept jumping skipping parts and replaying. She looked up at the reflection who had just stepped out of the mirror and the reflection greeted her with, "Hello Valkyrie, good bye Valkyrie!" and it threw a surprisingly strong punch at her nose which made a terrible crack.

"What the hell are you doing?! That hurt like hell!" Valkyrie yelled at the reflection holding her nose.
"Well, let's just say that I've gone rogue," it said as it tried and failed to punch her again in the gut. This time however, she was ready, and grabbed her fist and spun it around in a painful position.
"Okay, that is just about the dumbest thing I think I've ever heard. You have absolutely no powers whatsoever, you're completely ordinary, plain and stupid. Besides, we don't need 2 evil versions of me running around. What's the point of all this," she asked bewildered.
"You'll find out," it said. And then it vanished out of thin air. Poof. Gone. Valkyrie heard a strange noise coming from directly above her and looked up. Really, she thought, it's on the roof now. How the heck did it even get there? One minute it was being held captive in a pretty difficult lock position and now it was on the roof. It then shot a beam of white light at Valkyrie that she certainly didn't see coming. Luckily it missed, but then the reflection leapt off the ceiling and lunged towards her tackling her to the ground. A knife materialised out of nowhere into it's hand and it swung it's sharp edge at Valkyrie who was not so lucky this time and got struck in the chest. She cried out in pain, and fell to her hands and knees clutching her stomach. The pain was so unbearable, it didn't feel like a knife had stabbed her but a chainsaw that had stabbed her, like the chainsaw was on fire too. She turned her head at the reflection who winked at Valkyrie and jumped out of her open window. Valkyrie clutched at the pocket in her pants, trying to dig out her phone. Every movement she made was painful. Finally she managed to grab her iPhone from her pocket and called the first person she could think of which was Skulduggery. She waited while the phone started ringing. Pick up the phone, come on and just pick it up, she thought desperately. Eventually he did and she whispered into the phone with a croaky voice and with all the strength she could muster, "Skulduggery, help, at Gordon's," and then she let the darkness overcome her and drag her down into unconsciousness.

When she woke up she was in the medical bay in the Sanctuary. To her surprise, Caelan and Skulduggery were sitting together quietly talking outside. It seemed strange as Skulduggery hated Caelan and would normally have kicked him out of the hospital by now but no such luck. She sat up and Skulduggery and Caelan noticed her and came over to her bed.

"Are you okay?" Caelan said at the same time as Skulduggery. He glared at him.
"That's my line," Skulduggery grumbled.
"I'll survive, I'm a bit peeved off at the reflection. Look I know it's just a reflection, but it was different, sort of like we were friends," she said sadly. She coughed and grimaced at the pain in her chest.

"Valkyrie, that knife had very strong magical capabilities," Caelan said worriedly.
"Well duh, no normal knife could have hurt that much," She said getting frustrated.
"I know, but it could be permanent," he said patiently.
"What? I'll never be able to wear a bikini again? Damn," she said with a hint of sarcasm.
"Valkyrie this is serious. We don't know what kind of effects it'll have on you. It could kill you," Skulduggery said.
"Well it can't be that bad," she said. Skulduggery tilted his head at her. "If it was going to kill me, Darquesse would have stepped in, but she didn't. I couldn't even hear her voice."

"Hold on a second! The reflection had magic. Frickin' magic! Maybe Darquesse has somehow become a part of the reflection!" she gasped.

Skulduggery looked at Caelan and they both nodded.

"Well this sucks," she sighed.
"It does and by the way, your chest is glowing bright orange," Skulduggery said worriedly.
"WHAT! Why were you looking that direction anyway?!" said Valkyrie.
"Well, you were stabbed with an enchanted sword and it is a REALLY bright orange, like an Oompa Loompa," he said.
"You are so immature," she said getting up and then screamed.

She felt the worst pain she had ever felt, in her chest. She thrashed around and howled in pain, tears blurring her vision. The pain was like a thousand knives on fire twisting inside her chest. Caelan rushed to her side and when he touched her shoulder all that terrible pain went away. She sighed in relief, maybe she was just going mad. Wait . . . how can you JUST be mad? You can't, she smiled inwardly. Caelan let go and the pain suddenly kicked in twice as worse. He touched her and the pain went away.

"Are you all right?" Caelan said concerned.
"Okay but for the love of whatever God you believe in, DON'T LET GO," she said, "Why though?"
Skulduggery didn't say anything but stared into space.
"Skulduggery? What do you think," she said. He finally looked up.
"Can I please try touching you?" Skulduggery said.
"Err . . . yeah," she said, "I guess you can try."
"3,2,1," he counted down.
Caelan let go and Skulduggery placed his hand on her shoulder. It felt like she had been hit by a truck, she screamed and Caelan placed his hand back on her shoulder. Skulduggery looked somewhat upset.

"Sorry for hurting you," he said.
"The pain was different this time, it was like being hit by a truck," she said. This didn't make Skulduggery feel any better. He turned to Caelan.

"You're going to have to stay with her 24/7. Don't try anything . . . unnecessary," he glared at Caelan walking out of the hospital swiftly.

"Wait! Skulduggery!" she called out.
"It's ok, obviously, you need him more than me now," he growled then said in a softer tone, "Sorry Valkyrie, even though there are no hormones floating around this skeleton body, it still happens."

Valkyrie didn't know what to say but turned around holding Caelan's hand feeling worms having a disco in her stomach at his touch, why was she suddenly all fluttery around him? And started walking home.