"China!" Hissed Valkyrie. "What do you want?"
"I-I need a hideout…"
"What? You come for help off of me?"
"I-It's the only place I could think of!"
Her eyes were barely open and her outfit was torn, stained in scarlet. She was in a beautiful red dress, black designer heels and her hair was in a bun at the back of her head. Her hair was the opposite of neat, splayed out and unkept. She obviously hadn't had time to change before Skulduggery came after her.
She fell forwards, making a large BANG as she hit the floor.
Valkyrie ran to her side, suddenly worried.
"China?"
China groaned, flexing her left hand. "I'm okay, sweetie. I'm okay."
Valkyrie stood straight. She didn't need feelings for China. China had betrayed Skulduggery in such a way no-one could ever forgive her with any amount of ease at all.
China clambered to her feet, inspecting her tattered clothing.
"…Anything spare?"
"I have ordinary clothes in my dresser. I don't think I'm your size."
"Not to worry."
China disappeared up the stairs whereas Gordon reappeared beside Valkyrie.
"China?"
"Yeah…"
"If China's here-"
"-Skulduggery has to be here too. I know."
"What're you gonna do?"
"As said by some old twat, keep your friends close, but keep your enemies closer."
Gordon smiled, nodding. "Better make myself scarce again, right?"
"Right."
China wondered downstairs, wearing an old pair of purposely ripped jeans and a short-sleeved top. Her hair flowed down onto her left shoulder. Her un-natural beauty still went un-dampened, though.
"China, you know this is going to be the first place he looks."
"Actually, it won't be." She sat on the chair, opposite the sofa Valkyrie had placed herself on. "Skulduggery knows you would try to instantly kick me out or kill me, so I would stay away."
"Very clever."
"Indeed."
They sat in a few moments of silence.
"Well, what're you going to do?"
"Pleasant won't look here until he needs to. He knows he'll be putting you and the baby in danger."
"I can look after myself."
"That's not how he sees it."
"Pffft!" Valkyrie pushed herself up off the sofa and started pacing. "What happens when he does look here? I know him, China, he'll look here eventually."
"I'll scram."
Valkyrie scowled. "What about me and my little sister?"
"I'll set up symbols around your uncle's house."
Valkyrie stopped pacing and stared straight into her eyes. Her beautiful, dark eyes.
No! I mustn't fall into the trap of beauty again. Never again!
She shook her head, scattering her thoughts, as Tanith did in her story, only to re-gather them later.
-A Few Days Later-
China called up her team in Ireland and they were working on the house. China had to set up symbols all over the house. High and low, even a few underground. Skulduggery was a skilled elemental and necromancer. He could get over or even disable/destroy most symbols, and that's why she had her most skilled symbolists on the job but even they saw the look in China's eyes. Skulduggery was going to kill her. Her time had come, and she had accepted it. She shouldn't have sold him and his family down the river like she did so now she was going to pay the price. But this was China. She always remained calm whereas Skulduggery, Tanith, Ghastly and Valkyrie were much more aggressive. She was still going down with a fight.
"China, he's coming!" Valkyrie yelled.
"What? So soon?"
"He's right there!" Valkyrie gestured out of the window and as she said, Skulduggery was running towards the house, scarf up high and hat tilted low.
"He's early…"
"Well, we better pack up and move ou-"
"No."
Valkyrie stopped. "What?"
"No."
"He's going to kill you!"
"I know, Val. Make sure your sister is well looked after, okay?"
"W-What? China, you don't have to do this!"
"I have known Mr Pleasant for many years now. He needs revenge, and then he can be at peace once more."
Valkyrie processed all the things China had just said as quickly as she could. Basically, she was saving Skulduggery by giving him the revenge his soul needs to move on peacefully. He would be gone and there would be no way he could come back.
China had already gone out to meet him. Skulduggery removed his glove and threw it on the ground by her old ripped trainers. A duel.
Valkyrie ran out of the door, slamming it and then running down the path minding the already set up symbols.
"China, no!"
Skulduggery barely glanced at her. He had seemed too had lost the twinkle in his eyes… He wasn't himself. He couldn't be.
He'd changed.
China had readied herself as much as she could for her slow demise.
Skulduggery clicked, summoning sparks that burst into flames of red and orange. He hurled them at her, ferociously. You would never have known those two were allies. China tapped a symbol on her forearm, summoning a shield to deflect the flames and then she ran at him, doing some kind of Kung-Fu with fancy kicks and pushes. Skulduggery deflected them all with various arm blocks adding in his own special twists by ducking and spinning or pushing her backwards with a sneaky wall of air.
Valkyrie was helpless. All she could do was watch her former friend die by the hand of her partner in crime. There must have been something she could do…
That's it!
Skulduggery started taunting China, saying the most horrible things. "You son of a bitch." He said. "You don't deserve to live! You never deserved to live!"
China didn't look even slightly fazed. "Coming from a talking skeleton."
Skulduggery growled and ran at her, screaming a war cry of terrible magnitude, just like her story.
"Skulduggery! I'm begging you! Put your ego and your pride away! Leave her!"
He took no notice of Valkyrie's plead.
"I know how you see Miss Sorrows, Val." He stopped, standing still with his legs apart in a strong stance. "A beautiful, strong woman. She's not."
Valkyrie recognised the way he spoke. He spoke with a sour tone, mocking yet forceful. Just like when he was speaking to Ghastly about…
THAT'S IT! TANITH! Thank you, book!
She pulled her phone out, dialling Tanith's number.
Oh right. She broke her mobile. What now?
Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Skulduggery finally had the upper hand, aiming straight in-between the eyes of a certain Miss Sorrows with a revolver, like Sanguine's in her story... "You don't really care about lil' Miss Cain, do you, Pleasant? You never did."
His hand shook slightly, allowing the soft but terrible rattling of the chamber and bullets float to her ears.
Her head started to throb, images flashing into her head.
Tanith, back turned to Sanguine.
Sanguine aiming.
Sanguine in tears.
Tanith, looking depressed and thinking.
Valkyrie's brain ached, but then the idea came to her. She dialled again, but this time it was a different number.
A boy with light blonde hair appeared in the middle of Skulduggery and China. He yelped and kneeled on the floor, grasping his head.
"Not the hair! Not the hair!" He begged.
"Move, Fletcher." Skulduggery commanded.
Fletcher looked up slightly… "Val, what's going on?"
"You need to stop them, Fletch!" She exclaimed.
"Why?" He looked at Skulduggery's gun. "Oh."
He grabbed China's foot and then moments later they disappeared.
Valkyrie ran towards Skulduggery, pulling him around to face her.
She slapped him in the face, making his skull snap sideways.
"Ouch."
"What're you playing at, Skul?"
He remained silent, turning his skull to look her in the eyes. "You wouldn't understand."
"Try me."
He glared at her. "You wouldn't understand." He growled lowly through gritted teeth.
She sighed, pacing yet again. "You wanted to get revenge for the deaths of your wife and kid – which is totally understandable – so you kill the killer. When you find out China was the one who actually caused it in the first place you get the same thirst for revenge as you did with the killer himself. Right?"
He glared at her. "It's complicated."
"What more is there to tell?" She sighed.
He growled, walking at her in a faster pace than usual. She walked backwards out of instinct, hitting the closed front door of Uncle Edgley's house. She couldn't move as Skulduggery raised his hand and slammed it on the door by her head. He leaned in, breathing heavily with anger and trying to intimidate her.
Something strange is going on here. She thought. This stuff was in the book… Ghastly and Skulduggery were in exactly the same position as me and Skulduggery are now… And then, when Tanith was thinking about what happened with me and Fletcher, I had the idea to call Fletcher… Hm, so maybe, just maybe…
Her thoughts were interrupted by Skulduggery's velvet voice flowing through her ears. "Are you sure you understand? This isn't something the ordinary face. You are just ordinary. Just ordinary." He seemed to smirk at her. His words echoed through her brain.
Just ordinary. She felt like she wanted to break down and cry, but she knew how to get out of this situation without making it worse for him or her.
She forcefully pushed him away. "I'm sure. If you want my help, you need to respect me."
He laughed, head down and arms lowering themselves. "Your help?"
"China. She's a good woman. All you need is revenge, right?"
"Right."
"That's not meaning you need to kill her."
He thought for a moment.
"Ruin her life," she continued "and you have your revenge. And what is her whole life?"
"…Her library…"
"Exactly."
Valkyrie turned away from him, letting her devious smile sag into a silent "Phew".
She's just saved China Sorrow's life for now.
-Another few days later-
Skulduggery was waiting outside with Valkyrie. They were waiting for Fletcher, Tanith and Ghastly in a bus stop. It was raining, as usual. Valkyrie's soaked hair dripped but stayed straight and idle, seeming to always stay perfectly still, to the untrained eye. Skulduggery took off his hat and tipped it, letting the rain curse out his name as it crashed to the pavement.
They stood in silence.
Suddenly, the roaring of a motorbike smashed the quiet atmosphere. A young boy yelping could also be heard.
Valkyrie smirked.
Fletcher.
And sure enough, Tanith and a terrified Fletcher darted around the corner on a motorbike, Fletcher's arms suffocating Tanith's waist, his eyes tightly welded shut. Tanith smirked at Valkyrie, glancing at Fletcher and then back to Val. Skulduggery got no such warm welcome.
"Mr Pleasant." She nodded to him.
"Miss Low." He nodded back.
Valkyrie and Fletcher glanced between the both of them. They looked at each other, and Fletcher shrugged.
A few moments of awkward silence crawled past.
"Hey, where's Ghastly?" Said Valkyrie, breaking the atmosphere.
"He's got some important stuff to do at the Sanctuary."
"Elder stuff?"
"Yeah."
"So, why did you and Skulduggery just give each other a formal welcome…?"
"HE doesn't think I'm cured."
"I just don't trust her." Sighed the detective.
STOP USING MY STORY! Screamed Valkyrie's mind. She smirked, quickly thinking back to the argument they had before they were going to save her.
"Guys!"
"What?" They said, in sync.
"She might not be cured!" Whined Skulduggery.
"You can kill each other after, okay?" They both nodded slowly, glaring into each other's hate filled eyes.
"Look, just follow the plan." Tanith demanded, taking a grip on the handle of the conversation.
"What plan?" Chuckled Skulduggery, loosening her grip so to speak.
"Get in, destroy the library and get out." Valkyrie commented.
"Hey, what about me?" Said a flat haired Fletcher.
Tanith and Valkyrie grinned at him. Skulduggery pointed to his hair. He made a high pitched squealing sound as he glared in his hand mirror in his pocket. Moments later, he fainted with shock.
The whole gang started laughing, even Skulduggery.
Ha-ha! Sucker-
Valkyrie's head began to throb again, but this time the pain was more intense and spread around her body, rapidly. She gripped her head, grasping a few hairs and leaning on the wall of the bus shelter. She could see Tanith talking and Skulduggery's skull cocked in the way she recognised as "Concern" but it was like she was deaf…
Please don't say I'm deaf! She thought. Her mind felt like it had broken into a million pieces and then twisted itself into knots. She opened her mouth to speak, but the pain intensified and quickened.
"H-Help.. me.." She tried to say. Nothing came out.
Suddenly, she collapsed, her weak legs buckling under her weight.
Skulduggery rushed to her side, shaking her arm. Tanith took her heart rate and then tried to wake her.
Her eyes closed ever so slowly.
Her heart rate dropped fast.
Her breathing stopped.