Hi! Thank you to those who reviewed! I Have edited the last two chapters, mainly in layout, and if you want to glance at it, and tell me if its a improvement or I need to think of something else to make reading easier, please tell me!

Chapter 3

It was almost ten at night. Valkyrie thought about what it would be like if she had a normal life. She defiantly wouldn't be doing things like this, that's for sure. Probably be doing homework or revising if she was normal. She was so glad that she wasn't.

She and Skulduggery were by the back of Museum, waiting for movement. They were cameras all over the building and people observing them. The second something happened, they would get a call. They were hidden in the bushes, with a view of the right side and back of the Museum, the best place they could find. The Cleavers were positioned in the places that the gang were most likely to exit, not enter, however there were a few extra that were put in direct line in order to slow them down. Skulduggery had explained that even if they didn't catch them in the act of going in or getting the Jug, at very least the Cleavers will get them on their way out. All in all, one of their better plans.

She glanced at Skulduggery. He was a statue of tranquillity, perfectly still and patience. She was as still as she could be, and whilst she had patience, she had little of it. If anyone looked, they would see a skeleton in an exquisitely tailored suit, and a teenage girl in black, sulking, sitting crossed legged on the ground.

She heard a sound and her head snapped in its direction. She saw nothing, though there was enough faint light to see all around them. She just stared in its direction, even though Skulduggery was back to looking the other way. She was about to look away too, when she saw what looked like a thin man, Darron Variance, jump over the wall. Wane Fiend came next, the only Elemental of the group and Abattoir Banal followed.
They all varied in height, but the last two were muscular and broad shouldered. She tapped Skulduggery and he looked at her, as she started to get up, and then looked the way she was looking. Squatting and waited for the criminals to get in through the window, before they followed.

They were in. Again. He didn't like going back to the same place again. He didn't like Museums. But at the moment, what he didn't like most of all, was Variance. Last night, when they were about to get into the artefacts room, he tripped. He fell over his own shoe lace, for God's sake! They heard the Cleavers coming and they ran. Somehow, they managed to escape, but only just. He didn't like Cleavers. When they got back to the safe house, he was practically seething. He shouted at Variance for at least two hours, and Variance looked rather pale by the end of it.

They went through the shadows of the building in silence. They knew the way there. It was the same as last night, same ways, and times, and the exit would be the same too. Easy as pie. He didn't like pie.

They got to the second floor without disturbance. They stopped at the end of a corridor. There, standing in the middle of the hall, was a Cleaver. Banal, which happened to be up front, turned and looked back at the other two men. Banal pointed at Variance, who got up and started to walk into the corridor, all swagger and strut. Smugness was coming off him in what seemed like waves. The other two looked into the convenient mirror on the opposite wall, giving them a view into the corridor.

Variance walked straight at the Cleaver, without hurry, and the Cleaver looked at him. Probably thought the guy was mad. Well, mad was defiantly the right term. Right to think so. The Cleaver stepped into the middle of the corridor and looked straight at Variance, with his scythe in hand, and legs slightly apart. He was going to use lethal force. That meant the Elders knew that they were onto something pretty big, not looking for fairy tales. When Variance was a few strides away, he stopped, and looked at his opponent.
Then, with surprising speed for someone quite so thin and short, he rushed the Cleaver. The Cleaver hadn't expected it, but only took a fraction of a second to recover; swinging the scythe in an arc, but Variance just stepped slightly to the side. Variance grabbed the scythe and pulled it out of the Cleavers hand, throwing it behind him, to the end of the corridor, at least sixty metres away, where it hit the wall and shattered the blade and splintered the handle.

The Cleaver, seeming unable to be shocked, simply tried to punch Variance in the head. When the fist collided with the head, there was a sickening crunch. The Cleaver's fist had shattered.

Variance grabbed the Cleavers shoulder with his left hand and used the other to smash the Cleavers head in. The Cleaver was out cold after the first punch, but Variance kept hitting until the Cleaver was well and truly dead. Letting the body fall to the floor, he wiped his hand on his trousers. He waved at the other two with impatience, like destroying a Cleaver was something he did for fun.

They ran to the end of the corridor, and went straight to the double doors. They looked at each other, then opened the doors quietly and sneaked in. The room, there it was. Different artefacts lined the walls. All very neat. He didn't like neat. He walked straight for the left side of the room. Fourth shelf up, ninth from the wall, was this jug. The Jug! Here it was, right in front of him. He kept licking his bottom lip until it was pink and shiny, and then narrowed his eyes. This was the difficult part. To get into the glass surrounding the artefacts, without kicking up a fuss, and alerting the Cleavers. Also, if the glass smashed inwards, then it could damage the Jug.

Then he heard a sound. It wasn't by Banal or Variance. They were standing still and this was the sound of a floor board creaking. He looked into the corridor the same time the Skeleton Detective cursed and ran in.

Ooooh! Cliff hanger! Thank you to DarkAntidote and TheOracleOfDelphi for telling the previous chapter looked weird. I wouldn't have checked...

Yes Charlseeyy. I am. =