Just to let you all know all economic depressions/recessions used in here are completely made up. I need them for the story, but I'm way too lazy to figure out the years and how they correspond to the story XD Except for the Great Depression. That kind of happened.
Entry #18: Written July 14th
Dear Diary,
I deserve a medal for being so awesome.
I figured out quite a few things about the Nottinghams and their motives, but we'll touch on that eventually. I just want to wrap up the night mentioned in the previous entry.
Skulduggery and I just wandered a little, and we actually ran into Fletcher, who had miraculously found a French girl that spoke pretty good English.
One guess as to who you think the girl is, Diary!
It was Lythia. (Doctor Jacques' assistant, in case you forgot, Diary.) She said that she was given the night off, and there was nothing better to do than go out and see the city. Fletcher had gotten along with her at Doctor Jacques' place, and he found her out and about, so that just made him so giggly and happy. I hadn't seen him like that…in ever.
I think I saw Tanith and Ghastly sneaking around the city rooftops, occasionally stopping to steal a kiss, but no one else saw them. The only people we didn't see were China and Mr. Bliss, but that wasn't too surprising. They've got the keeping-out-of-sight thing down pat.
But the craziest thing that night (besides the weird conversations Skulduggery and I had) was the fact that I could have sworn on my life that I saw Colette. Skulduggery and I were sitting on a bench near the Arc de Triomphe. I looked up for just a second and I saw the ball that Colette had been playing with in the park when we first met them. It flew up into the air, and fell back down, and then I didn't see it again. What I did see was the small crowd, near where the ball was, disperse and Colette walk through. She gave a sharp grin and her eyes lit up dangerously. My eyes widened and I yanked on Skulduggery's coat and pulled him to where Colette was.
"What? What?" he asked frantically. "What do you see?"
"I saw the creeper teenager, Colette!" I shouted. "She was there." I pointed to the bench, now empty, where she was previously sitting.
"Are you sure?"
"I saw that ball she was playing with when we first met them. It was being thrown into the air. I assume she caught it, because then the crowd right there spread out to let her through. She smiled creepily at me, and then I went to grab you."
"Which way did she go?"
"Down the street the opposite way," I said.
He nodded and began marching where we had just come from. I quickly followed and we searched for a little less than an hour.
"Could it have been another person who vaguely resembled her?"
"It could have," I replied, "but why would they look at me like a psycho and then completely disappear?"
Skulduggery paused and placed his gloved hand to my forehead. "Are you feeling alright? You look a little pale."
"I feel fine," I growled. "I'm not delusional. I know that I saw her. She's stalking us."
"Who is?"
Both Skulduggery and I shouted and jumped back. China Sorrows rolled her pretty eyes, while Mr. Bliss rose an eyebrow.
"Maniacs," China mumbled. "But who's stalking you?"
"Besides you two," Skulduggery said unhappily, "the teenager, Colette Nottingham. She's obviously one of our main 'villains'. She's an adept, with elasticity as her magical ability."
"Did she say anything to you? And, Valkyrie, you saw her?" Mr. Bliss asked. (I miss him and his stern-ness.) It would make sense that he'd be all caught up with him being kind of important when it comes to Sanctuaries.
"No," I replied, "she didn't say anything. I saw her, and then I went to grab Skulduggery. We couldn't find her; it's like she disappeared. And now Skulduggery thinks I'm insane."
"I don't think you're insane," he grumbled. "I was just curious as to whether or not you were feeling alright, since you looked pretty tired and worn. Excuse me, princess."
But you know, Diary, when Skulduggery mentioned it, I realized I felt just a little funny. Like…There was this weirdo feeling in my stomach. It was like borderline between hunger and queasy, you know?
Anyway, Mr. Bliss said he'd quick call Madame Gabs and Demetrius Lithium (remember him?) and let them know. China kept saying that we should go home, but Skulduggery lovingly pointed out that we only had one car between everyone. China shrugged it off and told us to take the car that Bliss took here, and if we didn't take it, she'd personally see that we were shipped back to Ireland, without getting to solve this case.
CURSE HER.
Skulduggery and I waltzed over to the fancy-shmancy car that was about fifteen minute's walk from where we were at the time. He hopped into the driver's seat and I gingerly sat in the passenger's.
"You're positive you're feeling alright?" Skulduggery asked as we drove away from the city.
I shrugged. "I don't even know if you're real or not," I replied, "so I'm not going to answer that."
Skulduggery nodded and accelerated the car and we sped back to the villa. He parked the car at the curb and opened my door for me. He held out his hand for me, and I grabbed it, and he helped me out of the car.
After this, I went straight to bed. I was awoken at nine the next morning by my cell phone ringing. I flung my hand over to the side table to grab my phone, but I hit something else.
I groaned something weird out, and sat up to look at what I hit.
"Hello?" Skulduggery said. He was the one who grabbed my cell phone. "Yes, she's right here, but she was asleep, so I grabbed the phone. …We can be there by 10:30, yes. …Just Fletcher, Valkyrie, and myself? …Right, we'll be there."
He hung up and placed the phone on the table softly. I flipped my head over to look at him. Skulduggery bent down and rested his arms on the mattress and placed his skull on his arms.
"Good morning, Sleeping Beauty," he whispered.
"Morning," I replied sleepily. "Who called?"
"Monsieur Rhett. He said that the Sanctuary is having a meeting about what to do, and they want Fletcher, you, and I to be there."
"Fletcher and I because we were the ones taken?"
He nodded. "I assume, but they didn't really say. I said 10:30, thinking an hour or so would be enough time for you to wake up, etc."
I cleared my throat and tried sitting up, but instead just fell back down onto the bed. I flung the blankets to cover my face, but Skulduggery pulled them back down after a few minutes.
I growled at him and stalked into the bathroom. After washing my face and all that good stuff, I came back out. Skulduggery wasn't there this time. I quickly got dressed and marched downstairs.
Everyone was congregated in the kitchen, including Mr. Bliss and Gordon. I greeted them all, and they all greeted me back.
"Did you actually see that crazy Colette chick?" Tanith asked incredulously.
I shrugged. "It sure as heck looked like her, that's for sure," I replied. "I lost sight of her after 30 seconds, but I'm almost positive it was her."
"So that leaves us to wonder why the heck we don't just go down to their hideout and arrest them all there!" Skulduggery grumbled.
"I'm sure Madame Gabs will point out a reason why we can't arrest them," Ghastly sullenly replied. "She would be a great politician when it came to debating random crap in the world. She scares me."
Tanith laughed and patted his hand. (Ooh la la.) Fletcher grimaced and pretending to gag himself, but China stepped on his foot hard and he moaned in pain.
"Fletcher," Skulduggery announced to him, "you, Valkyrie, and I are going to the Sanctuary at 10:30. Please stop whining and make yourself pretty."
Fletcher scoffed. "Excuse me, I'm always pretty."
Everyone groaned at his remark. He grumpily stomped up the stairs and disappeared into his room. He came back out thirty minutes later. He's such a girl on the inside.
Okay, I'm just fast-forwarding. This is boring. Skulduggery, Fletcher, and I all piled into the Bentley and we got to the Sanctuary quickly. We approached the Catacombs entrance, and Skulduggery whipped the little pass out to show the guard-man thing. He nodded sternly and let us pass through. I led the way through the winding walls of skulls, and I stopped at the far end. Fletcher pulled the skull because he kept begging to, and Skulduggery glided through the wall first, then me, then Fletcher. Skulduggery slid the pass through the slot in the door, and it instantly swung open.
"Bonjour!" Monsieur Rhett greeted us happily. "Thank goodness you're all doing well. Have you fully recovered from your visit with the Nottinghams?" he asked as he began sauntering down the corridors.
Fletcher tensed slightly, but I saved him by saying, "Yeah, it's not like the completely abused us. We just needed some sleep and Doctor Jacques' medicine."
"I imagine Monsieur Pleasant must have been worried for you both," Monsieur Rhett replied sneakily, stopping at a grand door to look at us all.
"Nah, he just wanted to make sure we were alright so he could keep verbally abusing us both," Fletcher said.
Skulduggery threw his sunglasses at him.
"And physically abuse us!" he shouted as Skulduggery's wig hit his face. Monsieur Rhett smiled at us. He knocked at the large door, and it swung open grandly. Monsieur Spar stood there, holding the door open for us. We passed through, and he shut it loudly when Fletcher stopped gawking at the whole place.
There was a large wooden, round table centered in the room. At each corner, there was a computer, with wires running all around it and up into the ceiling. Around the table were chairs. Madame Gabs, Aya, Mr. Bliss, and Demetrius were all sitting at the table all ready. Monsieur Spar gestured for us to sit. He took his place next to Madame Gabs, and Monsieur Rhett sat next to his sister, who was typing on a laptop again. Fletcher sat next to Mr. Bliss, me next to him, and Skulduggery took the last seat.
"Finally," Madame Gabs muttered. She stood up and placed her hands on the table. "We're all here to figure the heck out why the Nottingham family is doing what they're doing. We need to find out (1, why they've suddenly surfaced again, (2, how they got gargoyles as their pets, (3, how those Sand Men were created, and (4, they're motives. Mademoiselle Robin has researched the family, but she hasn't come up with much, even after hacking into government databases around the world. The Nottinghams are secretive people, and revealing information is something villains don't like to do, unless it's the climactic final battle, when they began monologue-ing.
"The floor is open for discussion," she finished.
Monsieur Rhett immediately stood up. He grabbed a file that Aya handed to him and opened it.
"Though they seem to pop up at random times through the world," he started out, "I believe that there's actually a reason why they appear at the odd years. 56 years ago, when they first became known, it was when The Grand Crash of Canada, when their economy collapsed. While no attacks or anything was reported in Canada, the gargoyles still came up and about. Then again, when the Depression of Australia struck 23 years ago, they came back. It seems as though when there's a major financial crisis, they appear."
"So why didn't they come when the Great Depression occurred?" Skulduggery questioned.
Monsieur Rhett held up a defiant finger. "The way I figure it is that Neva Nottingham wasn't born at the time, or she hadn't realized her powers and hadn't take control of the gargoyles."
"But…Doesn't the time-line not make sense?" Fletcher wondered, trying to do the calculations in his head.
"It makes sense if you think about it," Monsieur Rhett said happily. "If you find a flaw, Monsieur Renn, do tell me.
"Anyway, continuing," he…continued, "I also believe that whenever there's just any old crisis in the world, something or someone will disappear. Take World War II, for example. As Japan was bombing the United States, a massacre occurred all around the world. Now, this was not a people massacre. Hundreds of goats were killed, instead. Farmers woke up the next morning to find all of their goats either dead on the ground, or just gone. Blood has been found, as well as heads. Thanks to Aya's research, she told me that a farmer described the scene like 'a tornado had ripped through my farm.'
"There were pictures all across the Internet, and Aya showed me one of a huge claw mark in the ground in a small village in Chile. People believed it was just a very giant animal, but from the marks that our agents found in the Nottingham Hideout, they looked to be gargoyle marks. So, a crisis will equal gargoyles. Simple."
He sat down quietly, and Mr. Bliss tilted his head in thought. He suddenly stood up.
"Alchemy," he said simply.
"What about it?" Monsieur Spar grumbled.
"The gargoyles and Sand Men were created using alchemy. While alchemy has been primarily used for turning metals into gold and immortality, it can be warped to create new things."
"Nothing in any history book or anything on the Internet has said anything about that, Monsieur Bliss," Aya snorted condescendingly.
He held his hands behind his back. "Possibly because I read it once in a book my sister owns. Written by an ancient sorcerer, he detailed his experiments, and how he came across the ability to make and shape new living things."
"I don't believe it," Aya mumbled.
"Did you believe in gargoyles coming to life before?" Monsieur Rhett snapped at her. "Now shush and let him finish." She grimaced and took to her laptop again.
Mr. Bliss gave a hesitant nod to Monsieur Rhett and continued. "The plausible explanation for this is that the Nottingham family has some connection with the ancient sorcerer who wrote the book. He must have left notes laying around somewhere, and one of the members of the family must have found them. Perhaps it could be one of Neva's relatives that taught it to her, but she most likely learned it from someone close."
Mr. Bliss sat back down, folded his arms, and kept his face level. Now was the time to keep your mouth shut and not go up against him. I'm pretty used to him, but it seemed like everyone but Skulduggery and I were a little uneasy around him. Heck, he still scares me occasionally.
Madame Gabs nodded once, like she approved of the explanation, then stood up. "I'd like to see that book, if possible," she directed at Mr. Bliss.
"It's back in Ireland where my sister's library is," he said back.
She shrugged. "I'll have it delivered. What's the title?"
Mr. Bliss shrugged his massive shoulders and stood up. "Let me call my sister. Excusez-moi."
He whipped out his cell phone and left the room swiftly. The only sound was Aya's laptop clicking away furiously. Skulduggery sat back in his chair, fingering his hat brim and tapping his foot. Fletcher put his hands together and stared at the ceiling. Monsieur Spar and Madame Gabs were whispering to each other, while Aya was showing Monsieur Rhett something on her computer.
Suddenly, I had a realization.
"Skulduggery?" I turned to him.
He slowly turned his skull to me. "Yes?"
"What does 'vous vierge stupide' mean?"
All the French speakers stopped what they were doing to stare at us.
"Where did you hear that?" Skulduggery asked urgently.
"This weird guy was taunting me while Fletcher and I were chained to walls. He just wandered down there and started ranting and shouting in French. He said that particular phrase with a really terrible sounding tone, so I'm curious. Is it an insult or something?"
Madame Gabs sat up dramatically. "It translates to, 'you stupid virgin.' Why would an evil guy even say that at all?"
"There were three other people in our cell at the beginning," I said quickly. "But they kind of killed right away. I don't know why they were chosen, but they were killed alright."
Skulduggery tilted his head. "How cliché would it be if they wanted virgin sacrifices?" he jokingly said.
Everyone was quiet.
"I'm a virgin," I muttered.
"How come they didn't capture me, then?" Madame Gabs asked loudly. "I'm a virgin, obviously."
"They probably ran out of time," Monsieur Rhett said slowly. "We began attacking them the second Neva Nottingham shoved Valkyrie off the Eiffel Tower. Monsieur Renn stayed back, near Gautier and Colette, so they were able to grab him…" Monsieur Rhett stopped and stared at Fletcher.
LE GASP.
"Fletcher!" I shouted, standing up, pointing a finger at him. "Are you still a virgin?"
He bit his lip and stared at the table before giving a nod.
"But what about all those stories about you in Russia or Mexico or whatever? I thought you went around and-" I was cut off when Madame Gabs stood up, her chair scraping across the floor.
"Forgive me for asking," she said, "but Monsieur Pleasant, are you still a virgin?"
He shrugged. "Technically no, but with the skeleton thing, I don't know how it counts."
She nodded and faced Monsieur Rhett and Aya. She gave them both a look. The twins shook their heads. Monsieur Spar shook his head as well when she asked the same question.
"It seems the only virgins in here are myself, Mademoiselle Cain, and Monsieur Renn. This has been, surprisingly, a good meeting. I expected for us to just sit here, looking dumbfounded. Monsieur Spar, could you get me some tea and meet my in my office?" She pushed her chair in gracefully and bypassed us all. She opened the door just as Mr. Bliss was coming back in. She beckoned for him to follow her, though it was clear he'd rather stay with us.
Alright, that was pretty much it. After this, the three of us just drove back home and sat around, explaining what happened. Tanith and I had a tennis ball that we kept throwing at each other. Tanith sat on the roof, while I remained on the ground. I'd launch it to her, and she'd catch it, then throw it back to me. It was actually pretty fun.
The only bad thing was that Fletcher seemed so put out. I tried talking to him, but he kept brushing me off. Like…is being a virgin such a terrible thing to him? Is he ashamed that he's been lying about all the girls he's gotten over his years? He seemed so sad.
But then, Skulduggery kept giving me these strange looks. I was going to make a sarcastic remark about it, but China pulled him away the second we got home. Tell me if I'm imagining it, but it seems like she's freaking me out on purpose.
~Valkyrie
Alright. So, based on the results from the poll that I had up (thanks for voting!) you guys all want me to start a new story. Unfortunately, I'm having tons of plot problems for it, and I need a lot of time to get it all plotted out and nice. I want this upcoming story to be fleshed out and plot-y. Yep.
So, I have no idea when it'll be posted. This one finishes at 25 chapters, and then I might work on The Immortal Rescue, but I'm not sure. That's my lowest-priority as of now. There's the possibility I might contact some of you, begging for ideas on how to make this new story work out nicely, but we'll see how that goes.
Okay, so if you read that giant note, I thank you. Sorry for any mistakes and thanks for reading! :D
