He stiffened and felt as if his body had grown into the stone floor. In front of him, Valkyrie hung from a pair of handcuffs that were attached to the ceiling. She stood on her toes and her body leaned forward a little, as if she couldn't keep herself upright. Her entire body was covered in both dried and fresh blood, bruises, knife wounds and scourging marks. Her hair hung down in front of her eyes, but he had no problem seeing that one of her eyes was swollen shut and that she probably couldn't see anything with it.
He managed to tear his gaze from Valkyrie's mangled body to the man standing next to her. His archenemy, the person he had hunted for so many years. The person who had taken his wife and child from him. The person who was now in the process of trying to take away from him the woman he was in love with and who he only now understood had begun to love.
Nefarian Serpine stood with his back to him and sideways next to Valkyrie. He held a knife in his hand that he had positioned in front of Valkyrie's healthy eye, as if he was about to pluck it out of its eye socket. He had a sadistic smile plastered on his lips and his eyes glittered with excitement.
He forced his body to move, and he managed to take a step forward. The moment he started moving, Valkyrie lifted her head, and their gazes met each other. She widened her good eye and opened her mouth, as if she was trying to say something, but no words came out. She couldn't believe what she was seeing. It couldn't be Skulduggery Pleasant standing before her. It must be her tired brain playing tricks on her. She must be hallucinating; this couldn't be real! How was it possible that Skulduggery was here? How could he have found her so quickly?
She was barely aware of Serpine who also turned his head and swore loudly. He twisted the knife away from her eye and pointed it at Skulduggery instead. He said something Valkyrie's clouded mind didn't catch before lunging forward at Skulduggery, knife raised above his head. Only then did she understand:
This was no hallucination. Skulduggery was indeed in front of her!
Their eye contact was broken when Skulduggery turned his gaze towards Serpine. He stood perfectly still until Serpine was right on top of him. Just as Serpine swung the knife down towards Skulduggery, he stepped to the side and grabbed Serpine's wrist. The knife stopped inches from his cheek and Skulduggery let it hang there for a few seconds before he punched Serpine across the jaw causing Serpine to take a few steps back. Skulduggery never let go of Serpine but followed him as he retreated. Serpine tried to pull his hand away, but when he realized that it wasn't working, he bent his knees and let one of his legs sweep over Skulduggery's feet.
Skulduggery fell to the floor and lost his grip on the knife. Serpine seized the opportunity and swiped the knife across Skulduggery's forearm. The knife cut through Skulduggery's skin as easily as if it had been butter. Warm blood began to run down Skulduggery's arm and onto the floor. He screamed at the sharp pain but didn't let it get the better of him. Skulduggery rolled around on the floor to give himself some breathing space before standing up.
"You've gotten slower over the years, Pleasant."
"This is just the warm-up, Serpine."
Serpine laughed and the two archenemies began to circle each other. Neither of them said anything, but just looked into each other's eyes. They could see the hatred they felt for the other reflected in each other's eyes and they both knew that one of them would not make it out of this battle alive. Today was the day they had both been waiting five years for.
Skulduggery lunged forward and raised his fist as if to strike Serpine, who raised his arm to block the blow, but realized too late that it had only been a feint on Skulduggery's part. Instead of hitting him, Skulduggery bent to his knees and let his one foot kick the hand holding the knife. Serpine screamed in pain and dropped the knife. It fell at Skulduggery's feet, and he kicked it across the room. "Now you are weapon less, Nefarian. We both know you've never been very good at close combat, so I daresay I'll be the one to emerge victorious from this battle."
Serpine laughed and slipped his hand under the jacket he was wearing. When he took it out again, he was holding a gun and aiming it at Skulduggery. "Never underestimate your enemy, Skulduggery Pleasant."
"No!" Valkyrie screamed, pulling desperately at the cuffs that held her prisoner. "Serpine, no! Don't kill him!"
"Do not worry, Cain. After I am done with Mister Pleasant here, I will put a bullet in you as well. It hurts me that I did not get to spend more time with you, but to be honest, I don't think that you would have survived much longer anyway." Serpine grinned and unsecured the pistol.
The moment Serpine put his finger on the trigger, Skulduggery lunged forward and pushed Serpine down onto the floor. They rolled around on the floor for a while where they wrestled for the gun. They were moving so fast that Valkyrie had no idea which of the men had the upper hand, if any of them now had one. The only thing she could hope for was that Skulduggery was the stronger of the two and that he would manage to gain the upper hand.
Skulduggery and Serpine separated and as both men rose to their knees Valkyrie could see the gun in Skulduggery's hands. He closed one eye, raised the gun in front of his face, took aim and let his finger squeeze the trigger. Serpine's head was thrown back and a wave of blood spurted from the back of his head. He fell to the ground with a thud, his body twitching uncontrollably for a few seconds before it went still.
Skulduggery threw the gun away and ran up to Valkyrie. The moment he reached her he saw her only healthy eye roll backwards towards her skull and as his arms closed around her mangled body, he felt how she fell into the black abyss of unconsciousness. He shook her and called out her name, but he got no response. Skulduggery cursed and ran back to Serpine's dead body. He began searching the corpse's jacket pockets and it wasn't long before he found a key.
"Valkyrie, I'm here now. I will take you down from here and I will take you to the hospital where they will help you. Do you hear me, Valkyrie? You are safe now. I have you and I'm not going to let you die. Can you hear me? I love you, Valkyrie Cain," Skulduggery told Valkyrie as he unlocked the cuffs.
He got no answer. He could feel the fear beginning to envelop him, but he forced himself to push it away deep inside his mind to a small room that he closed the door on. He had only one task right now and that was to get Valkyrie out of here and get her the help she so desperately needed.
Skulduggery Pleasant picked up Valkyrie Cain in his arms and ran as fast as he could through the maple aisle, up the stone steps and into the small room behind the church aisle where his best friend, ex-girlfriend and Valkyrie's best friend were waiting for them…
"Young woman with serious – possibly life-threatening – injuries. Unknown how many injuries she has, but we can probably count on a few broken bones and possible internal bleedings. She is unconscious and has been for close to 30 minutes now. She has lost a lot of blood and is bleeding at the moment, but not much due to said blood loss. She needs to go into surgery immediately. Prepare an operating room sister and bring as many as you need to get the job done as quickly as possible. This woman will not survive the night unless we start operating within the next half hour."
Skulduggery, Ghastly, and Tanith stood in a semi-circle and watched as Valkyrie was carried away on a stretcher by a doctor and two nurses. They had sped to the hospital in the Bentley. Skulduggery had sat in the back seat with Valkyrie in his arms while Ghastly drove and Tanith, who was sitting next to him, called the hospital and alerted the staff of their arrival. China had remained in Roarhaven with Creed, waiting for the Cleavers to take him to the Sanctuary to await his sentence. She had promised all three of them that she would come to the hospital as soon as she had locked Creed in his cell.
"Do you think she'll make it?" Tanith asked with a trembling voice as she hugged Ghastly tightly.
"She is in good hands, and they will do everything in their power to save her life," Ghastly replied, kissing Tanith's forehead.
Skulduggery said nothing but continued to look down the hall where the hospital staff had disappeared with Valkyrie. The image of her torn and tortured body did not want to leave him. His mind conjured up that image again and again, no matter how hard he tried to push it away. All those bruises that covered her entire body. The wounds from the scourging that covered her entire back and front. The burns on her arms and legs. The stab wounds that covered her entire torso and face. Not to mention her broken leg.
He didn't know exactly how many broken bones Valkyrie had, other than a few ribs and a broken foot he'd discovered when he'd held her in his arms on the drive to the hospital. Not to mention other injuries Serpine could have inflicted on her that could not be seen on the outside…
Skulduggery turned on his heel and was heading out the doors when Ghastly called after him "Skul, where are you going?"
"Make a phone call," Skulduggery replied and walked out of the hospital. He sat down on one of the benches outside the hospital entrance doors and dialled a number. "Desmond Edgley? Good, then I've come to the right place. My name is Skulduggery Pleasant, and I am calling regarding your daughter, Stephanie Edgley. I regret to inform you that Stephanie is in the hospital. The doctors are currently preparing to begin surgery on your daughter as she has been tortured by Nefarian Serpine. Could you, your wife and younger daughter come down here as soon as possible? I think Stephanie will need your presence when she wakes up from the operation. Good, see you soon."
Skulduggery ended the call and put the phone back in his pocket. His head fell forward towards his knees, and he put his hands over his face. He took a few deep breaths to try to calm his pounding heart. Valkyrie would be fine. She was a strong woman who fought to the end. She would get out of this situation with her life intact. She had to, because if she didn't, he didn't know what to do.
He simply couldn't have been too late!
When Desmond, Melissa and Alice Edgley pulled up to the front doors of the hospital fifteen minutes later, Skulduggery was still sitting on the same bench with his hands over his face. Hearing footsteps approaching he looked up and when he saw Valkyrie's family he stood up. Melissa was the one who saw him first and she walked up to him. "Skulduggery?" she asked.
"Yes, nice to meet you all, although I wish it was under better circumstances."
"What about our daughter?" Melissa asked, grabbing Skulduggery's arm. "You said on the phone that she had been…tortured?"
"Nefarian Serpine kidnapped her outside your house yesterday afternoon and took her to his hideout. There he tortured her for an unknown number of hours before I found her about an hour and a half ago."
Melissa gasped and put her free hand in front of her mouth. She would have fallen to the ground if her husband had not caught her and pressed her against his chest. "Oh my God… My little darling…"
Alice looked from her parents to the unknown man in front of her. She had tears in her eyes and stood with clasped hands. Skulduggery bent down so he was level with Alice's face and looked into her bright blue eyes. "Don't worry, Alice. Your sister is in good hands and the doctors are doing everything they can to save her."
"Okay." Alice sobbed and Skulduggery put his arms around her. He stroked her hair and back slowly as she cried. After she had calmed down, she rubbed her eyes and looked at the unknown man in front of her again. "Who are you? How do you know my sister? Are you the male friend that she can't decide if you are her boyfriend or if you are just really good friends?"
Despite the situation they were in, Skulduggery couldn't help but laugh. He gave Alice another hug before answering her. "Yes, it's me. My name is Skulduggery Pleasant."
Alice was about to answer when Ghastly and Tanith came up to them. They shook Melissa and Desmond's hands and introduced themselves. They said, just as Skulduggery had said, that it was unpleasant that they should meet under such circumstances. Melissa and Desmond demanded they tell everything they knew, and Skulduggery thought they should go inside where it was much warmer. "We can tell you everything in the waiting room while we wait for updates on Valkyrie's surgery from the doctor."
And that's exactly what they did. It was mostly Tanith and Skulduggery who spoke, as Ghastly hadn't been involved until Valkyrie was kidnapped. They chose to leave out the details of Valkyrie's condition as it had been when Skulduggery had found her, as they did not want to scare Alice.
"Oh my God…" Melissa muttered when they had finished talking. "My God, what has my little Stephanie gotten herself into..."
Desmond held his wife and daughter. He let his gaze sweep over Tanith, Ghastly and finally Skulduggery. "I want to thank you for managing to find our daughter in what I hope with all my heart was in time, Mr. Pleasant."
"Call me Skulduggery and it was the least I could do. I may not have known your daughter for so many days, but in this short time I can say without a doubt that she has changed my life for the better. You have raised a beautiful, stubborn, caring, strong and strong-willed young lady Desmond and Melissa."
Desmond smiled weakly. "Thank you, Skulduggery."
They sat in silence most of the evening as they waited to hear any news regarding Valkyrie's condition. Tanith went off and bought food for everyone which was eaten in silence and after dinner was eaten Alice fell asleep on her mother's lap. It wasn't long before Melissa was asleep too, exhausted as she was from having to worry about her daughter hovering between life and death for several hours.
When it had been close to six hours since they arrived at the hospital, a doctor wearing green surgical gowns approached them. She pulled off the mask and gave them all a small reassuring smile. "My name is Reverie Synecdoche, and I am the one who operated on your daughter and friend during these hours."
"How is she?" Desmond asked. "Will Stephanie make it?"
"She is stable for now but is still in a critical condition. We have managed to stop the internal bleedings, so she is no longer in the risk of dying. It is too early to say if she has suffered any irreversible damage. Time will tell. We also sewed up all her wounds, bandaged her burns and plastered her broken foot. She also had some broken ribs, and they will all heal on their own."
"Is she awake?"
Synecdoche shook her head. "We have put her in a medically induced coma so that she can heal in peace because of all the injuries she has sustained. I'll be honest with you: if you hadn't come in with her when you did, she wouldn't be alive now."
Tanith sobbed and took Ghastly's hand before turning to Skulduggery. "Thanks. Had you not found her when you did…"
"Thank Ghastly for managing to get us here as quickly as he did."
"Tanith is right, Skulduggery," Desmond said, standing up. He put his arms around Skulduggery and hugged him tightly. "I know we've already thanked you, but I'm going to thank you one more time. Without you, we would have only had one daughter left. How will we ever repay you?"
Skulduggery gave a small smile and placed his hand on Desmond's back. "I was just doing my job, Desmond."
"If you want, you can go in and see her, but not all at once. You can go in three by three and remember not to make any loud noises, as Stephanie needs peace and quiet right now to heal from her injuries."
"You should be the ones to go in first"" Skulduggery said. "After all, you are her family and I believe she needs to hear your voices and feel your presence. She needs to know that you are safe, as it was her biggest fear that something would happen to you."
Desmond nodded and woke his wife and daughter. When Melissa saw Synecdoche, she started to cry. Desmond told them that their daughter was out of danger, that she was in a coma right now, and that they could go in and say hello to her. Melissa hugged Synecdoche and thanked her for saving their daughter, which made Synecdoche smile.
"I was just doing my job, Melissa. If you have any questions, just tell the reception and I will come and talk to you. When you're done inside Stephanie's room, I'd like you to sign some papers, if it's something you think you can handle?"
"Of course, anything to help you provide the best care you can for my daughter," Melissa replied, taking Alice's hand. "Come Alice, now we're going to say hello to your sister."
Valkyrie's family followed Synecdoche. When they were out of both sight and hearing, Tanith sank into the visitor's chair she had been sitting in for the past few hours. Tears of relief ran down her cheeks and she smiled for the first time in over a day. "Thank God that Valkyrie will be okay..."
"I agree, Tanith. Now we just must hope that she gets away with a few scars and no other ailments for the rest of her life," Ghastly said, sitting down next to his girlfriend and taking her hand in his.
Skulduggery said nothing but paced back and forth in the waiting room. He couldn't sit still. It felt like his whole body was full of electricity and like he was going to explode at any moment. He wanted to scream, fight, break things. He was so angry, mostly at himself for not having gone to Roarhaven himself the moment he learned Valkyrie was there. If he had, Valkyrie wouldn't be in a coma now with a mangled body that would forever be covered in scars.
What if Serpine had hurt her so badly that she would never wake up? And if she did wake up, what was to say that she would be able to go on with her life as usual after she healed? The physical injuries might have healed well, but what about the psychological ones? Could Valkyrie go back to continuing to work as a detective for the Sanctuary, now that she knew the danger she was in every day?
He didn't know how much time had passed, but he stopped pacing back and forth in the waiting room when he heard the sound of footsteps approaching. He looked up to see Valkyrie's family walking towards them with relieved expressions on their faces. Ghastly and Tanith stood up.
"How is she?" Tanith asked, taking Melissa's hand.
"Good considering the circumstances. She's breathing on her own and her vitals looks good, Synecdoche said. She is wearing a green hospital gown and is under several layers of blankets to keep her warm." Melissa sobbed before continuing. "But I must warn you that the parts of Stephanie that are visible are covered in… in bruises, stitches and plasters. I don't want to think about what the rest of her body looks like…"
Desmond hugged his wife with one arm while holding Alice's hand with the other. He started to lead his wife and daughter towards the exit but turned to Skulduggery, Tanith and Ghastly seconds before they exited. "Thank you once again for saving our daughter. We will go home and rest now. After we've slept and eaten a bit, we'll come back here tomorrow. You do what you want, but you should know that you have done more than enough already."
Tanith smiled and waved at Desmond, Melissa and Alice as they exited the hospital. She then turned to Ghastly and Skulduggery. "Shall we?"
All three walked over to Valkyrie's room. Skulduggery put his hand around the handle and pushed it down. The moment the three of them entered the room, they were greeted by the sound of beeping machines monitoring Valkyrie's heart rate, pulse and blood pressure. Everything seemed stable for now, as the machines gave off a regular beeping sound.
The room was half-sized and consisted of a toilet, a wardrobe, a window, a table, two chairs and a bed. The bed was under the window and in the bed lay Valkyrie. The only thing that was visible of her was her face, neck and shoulders. Her eyes were closed, and she had a band-aid across one cheek, bandages around her neck and shoulders, and bruises over her cheek that didn't have a band-aid, on her forehead and on her neck. Black stitches could be made out under the patch on her cheek. Despite all these injuries, she looked peaceful as she lay in bed, breathing on her own with slow, regular breaths.
Tanith let go of Ghastly's hand and ran over to her friend. She placed her hand over one of Valkyrie's cheeks and kissed her forehead. "Oh, Valkyrie…" Tears began to flow again and fell on Valkyrie's face. "Forgive us for not coming to you sooner..."
Ghastly remained in the doorway next to Skulduggery. Neither man said anything, just looked at the young woman in the hospital bed. Ghastly put his hand on Skulduggery's shoulder and squeezed it. Skulduggery put his hand over Ghastly's and pushed back. So, they stood while Tanith cried out her grief.
After a moment, Tanith managed to tear herself away from Valkyrie and looked at Skulduggery. She held out her hand to him and Skulduggery walked over to the bed. He took Valkyrie's other hand and squeezed it gently. Standing this close to Valkyrie and being able to see the work the hospital staff had done on her, he was filled with even more regret, shame and anger than he had felt in the visiting room.
"I should have come after you the moment I found out Serpine had brought you to Roarhaven, Valkyrie… I should have rescued you right away instead of waiting for that damn search warrant! Forgive me… I…" Skulduggery cut himself off when he felt a faint pressure on his hand. He looked down at his and Valkyrie's intertwined hands. Valkyrie had wrapped her hand around his! Could it be that she… heard him?
Another push and a faint hiss could be heard from Valkyrie's lips. Her eyelids moved as if she were dreaming something and then she went still again. No one said anything for several minutes, but when Valkyrie hadn't made any more movements or made any more sounds, Skulduggery let go of her hand and walked out of the hospital room.
He could not stay there one more second!
Days passed and Valkyrie's body slowly began to heal. Her bruises were gone, and her cuts were healing nicely. A few more days and the stitches would fall out on their own. Her legs still needed a few more weeks to fully heal, but Synecdoche had told Melissa, Desmond, Ghastly, Tanith, and China that they were healing as they should.
Skulduggery no one had seen since the day he'd stormed out of Valkyrie's hospital room, nor had he answered any of their phone calls. Ghastly had told Tanith and China to let him be. "He needs some time to himself right now. He blames Valkyrie's condition on himself, despite doing everything he could to save her. He knows deep down that if he had charged in himself as he had wanted there was always the risk that he would get not only Valkyrie killed, but himself as well."
Although neither Tanith nor China had liked that explanation and Tanith thought that Skulduggery acted extremely selfish, they had been forced to accept the situation as it was. They had instead chosen to put all their energy into watching over Valkyrie as often as they could, as Synecdoche had recommended that they talk to her several times a day and tell her about their day and what was going on around her even though she couldn't hear or see it for herself.
When nearly three weeks had passed and Synecdoche hadn't woken Valkyrie from her coma, Melissa began to worry. "Why is Stephanie still in a coma? She is healing well and out of danger and has been for many days now. Why don't you wake her up?"
"I understand your concern, Melissa. The main reason we allow her to remain in a coma is because we don't know exactly how intense the torture she endured was. We also don't know how much Stephanie will remember when she wakes up. We believe that the most important thing for her right now is to heal in peace. The less pain she has when she wakes up, the better," explained Synecdoche.
"But won't she be in pain when she wakes up after lying still for so long?"
"She will be quite stiff in the body, yes. Stephanie will also need a lot of physical therapy when she wakes up as her muscles will be weakened from being still for so long. I also strongly suspect that she will need a lot of help from a therapist, as we have no idea how she will feel psychologically. There is a big risk that she will suffer from PTSD."
Melissa nodded to show she understood and thanked Synecdoche. She turned to her daughter and squeezed her hand. "Rest, Stephanie. We will be here when you open your eyes."
Another five weeks passed, and Valkyrie had now been in a coma for two months. It was a Wednesday in early December and Haggard had just received its first snow. Melissa, Desmond and Alice had just eaten lunch inside Valkyrie's room and Melissa was in the middle of clearing away the dishes when Valkyrie opened her eyes. No one in her family discovered it at first and Valkyrie said nothing.
She watched her family, trying to figure out where she was. She felt like she was lying in a bed, and she could hear a beeping sound from one or more machines on her left side. Her body felt stiff and heavy, and she had a severe headache that was on the verge of turning into a migraine. She tried taking a deep breath and was surprised that it didn't hurt to breathe. She didn't know why she found it surprising, since she couldn't remember what she had been through.
"Mom, Dad, Alice… Where am I? What has happened?" she asked, shocked at how weak her voice was. It was barely above a whisper.
"Stephanie honey, you're awake!" her mother exclaimed, walking up to her daughter. She wrapped her arms around Valkyrie in a gentle embrace.
"Mom, where am I?" Valkyrie asked again, feeling panic creep up her spine.
"Stephanie, what's the last thing you remember?" Melissa asked and Valkyrie frowned.
"What do you mean, mum? What happened to…" she began but cut herself off as memories began to rush through her aching head.
She saw Serpine's smiling face in front of her as he tortured her. She remembered the pain from the whip, the knife, the hammer, his punches and kicks... She remembered the young woman who had given her water and soup. She remembered the look on Skulduggery's face as he had stood in the opening to the secret torture room. She remembered his and Serpine's fight. That Serpine had pulled a gun from his jacket pocket and how he and Skulduggery had fought over it. She remembered Skulduggery getting hold of the gun and turning it on Serpine…
The severe headache now turned into a full-blown migraine and Valkyrie screamed in pain while wrapping her hands around her head. She curled up in the foetal position. "Disappear! Make it disappear!"
"Stephanie?" Melissa put her hand on her daughter's shoulder. "What is it, honey?"
"I'm raising the alarm!" Desmond shouted, pressing the red alarm button above Valkyrie's bed. A red light lit above the door to Valkyrie's room, and it wasn't long before Synecdoche came rushing in.
She only needed to glance at Valkyrie's huddled body and hear her desperate screams to understand what had happened. She walked over to Valkyrie's drip stand and took something out of one of the pockets of her hospital gown. She waited a little while and it was only when Valkyrie had stopped screaming that she looked down at her patient.
The sedative had done what it was supposed to. Valkyrie now slept peacefully and dreamlessly.
