Valkyrie gazed at her hands where they lay in the dirt next to her. Her fingers were curled slightly. She laboriously dragged her eyes to her wrists.

They were unbound.

Excitement surged. She could escape from here, wherever here was. It took too much energy to recall that small detail, so instead Valkyrie focused on movement. She tried to pull her arms in closer, to push herself to a standing position.

Nothing happened.

All of a sudden, they looked too far away. Miles stretched into the distance between her brain and her fingers. She turned her face to the sky and closed her eyes.

A man stepped into the room. He glanced briefly at the realistically painted walls and ceiling, then snapped off the light. His footsteps retreated.

Fletcher tried not to think of the mud that was clogging his socks and ruining his jeans. He didn't dwell on the icy wind stinging his nose. He just thought of the warm Australian sun and of helping out Valkyrie - yet again - and of getting back to Myra. A small smile curled across his face.

He noticed Ghastly watching and quickly wiped the smile from his face.

Ghastly turned away from Fletcher and instead focused on Tanith as she walked in front and to the left of him. Ghastly obviously wasn't very good at watching subtly because she too noticed. She smiled and held out her hand to him. He grasped it and smiled back at her. They walked on, hand in hand.

Skulduggery stalked back and forth through the wreckage of the shed as he waited for the others to arrive. China walked up, closely followed by Ghastly and Tanith, holding hands. Skulduggery cocked his head slightly, and the two let go of each other. Tanith's face burned and Ghastly shifted from foot to foot awkwardly. Last to arrive was Fletcher.

Skulduggery motioned at the shoes hanging around Fletcher's neck. "Made a scarf, have you?"

Fletcher looked down at the mud oozing over his socked feet and considered admitting to the real purpose of the shoes over his shoulders, but rejected it immediately. They would never stop teasing him for wanting to keep his shoes clean.

"It's a new weapon I'm trying out. You wave it around like this," Fletcher whirled the Nikes, tied at the shoelaces, above his head, "and then you let 'em fly!" With a ninja-like war cry, he released the shoes.

They soared through the air, spinning wildly, and wrapped themselves around China's ankles as she attempted to get out of the way. China overbalanced, slipped in the muck, and fell with an oof.

Fletcher looked horrified. He scrambled towards her to help her up as Tanith howled with laughter. China sat up slowly. With deliberate motions, she unwrapped the shoes from her ankles and tossed them away from her.

"Fletcher...there is mud under three of my fingernails. One of them is cracked," China continued as Fletcher winced, "There is more in my hair. And in my sweater. Did you know that this was hand knitted by the descendants of the Furies themselves?"

Fletcher cringed. "China, I...I'm really sorry."

She stared him down.

"Um. Also. There's some mud on your cheek."

Tanith was rolling on the ground in silence at this point.

China shot up and lunged at Fletcher, taking him off his feet. He landed sprawled in the mud, and she knelt on his back and began rubbing mud in his face. He gagged, and China dropped a dollop of filth in his hair. Then she stood up and brushed herself off.

"I hate you all," she mused, and flipped her hair over her shoulder in time to catch Fletcher full in the face. He sputtered and dropped.

Even Skulduggery's head tilted in a smile at that.

Ghastly chuckled. "That's exactly what Valkyrie would say."

Instantly, everyone sobered.

"Let's move."