Two chapters left to choose…

Mystery man

"I hate the winter." Alice muttered when she got picked up.

"Hey, at least only your face is frozen." Valkyrie joked. The Coupe revved and Skulduggery dove to the Sanctuary. "And you're going to be fifteen soon, live with it."

"Fine, that's the only reason why I like winter."

"What about me?"

"Right, you're turning thirty-two, cheers." she shrugged.

"Isn't it funny that your birthday is the fourteenth?"

Alice clicked her tongue, "Valentines Day." she murmured, "But why that day?"

"What's wrong with it?"

"It's on a day where people fall in love and crap like that."

Valkyrie smiled, "Are you lonely?" she teased in a sappy voice.

"No," she defended, "I mean, sure, everyone I now know is dating. Except Rife."

"Must we?" Skulduggery whined.

"Hey, it's not my fault you don't like him and he's gay, Skulduggery."

He grunted in disbelief.

Alice bolted inside. Valkyrie and Skulduggery walked it. Inside, she quickly got to Rife's office and knocked; nothing. Tried again, nothing.

"Rife? Vendetta?" she jiggled the locked knob and walked back to find her sister.

"You know she dissed you, Skulduggery." Valkyrie teased.

"I'm not saying she didn't, she was right." he vaguely admitted.

"Huh."

Alice ran through the hallways and finally found her.

"There you are." Alice breathed.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing, really. I just can't find Vendetta and Rife. I wonder if she brought Sanguine with her." she slightly shivered. "You know, he calls 'Scars' it's just creepy. And he calls Vendetta 'Scales' where did he get that from?"

"I sincerely don't know," Valkyrie lied, "But he calls Skulduggery Bones and sometimes on special occasion, Funny Bones."

Alice clamped her mouth shut from laughter. "Laugh it up." Skulduggery mumbled.

"Hey, I'm gonna check outside quickly. Rife might be buried again." Alice headed for the door and shuffled out.

"I'm not even going to comment." He said.

"Rife? Are you out here?" she yelled out, though the winds weren't strong, just cold.

She ventured through the knee-high snow. She found someone laying in the snow facedown. Oh, God, she thought. She tapped on the persons' shoulder. Nothing. She achieved flipping them over. He was wearing a toque that was pulled down over his eyes. The jacket wasn't that big, not even meant for this weather. Panicking, she grabs the first person she can pull out to the man in the snow.

"What is it?" Ghastly asked, surprised. She looked at him.

"There's some guy unconscious over there." she let go and pointed to him. Ghastly squinted from the bright snow and waddled over the snow to get to him. He checked the mans' pulse, not reading anything.

"Emera, get help."

"OK." she ran back to the door, not cold anymore. "Ghastly needs help outside." she addressed everyone in the foyer, "There's a guy out there, he said for me to call for help." they quickly glanced at her and ran outside.

"What happened?" Tanith asked later. The people were swarming around Ghastly who was carrying the man. Nurses with a gurney hoisted him onto it and rushed his to the infirmary.

"Who was he?" Alice asked Ghastly, "Did you get a look of his face?"

"Beats me."

Alice had nothing better to do than just wait to see who this man is. Rife and Vendetta haven't shown up yet, so she sat in a waiting room chair. She waited for about an hour when Clarabelle stepped out.

"Who is he?" she asked immediately.

"Who is who? Who am I?" She giggled.

"That unconscious guy from the snow, who is he?"

"Do you want to see him?"

"Is he alive?"

"Yes! No. Maybe." Clarabelle gestured Alice in and the mystery man was revealed. Fletcher. Alice ran over to him, not knowing why.

"Fletcher? Are you awake?"

He didn't move. It wasn't much help because there was no heart rate monitor to keep progress.