It had now been five days. Five days of torture, insomnia, depression, and rivers of tears. Five days of moans and screams of pain as well as begging. Five days of hope to be saved and taken away from this hell...

Valkyrie caught herself staring up at the ceiling where she lay on the blood-soaked mattress in the room that was her prison. She had no idea how long she had been laying there and stared. Over the past two days she had disappeared into herself and woke up far later without knowing how much time had passed or what had happened while she had been gone.

"I am getting crazy, aren't I?" she asked herself lowly. "I am about to become a ghost version of myself.IfI get out of this nightmare, nobody is going to recognize me. I will look like my usual self, walk like my usual self, and talk like my usual self but I will do it without any feelings."

The door to her prison cell opened and in stepped Elizabeth with a sea of shadows surrounding her. For the sake of unusualness, she had no smile on her face but instead looked worried. Valkyrie wondered what could have made Elizabeth change mood, but dared not ask. She had been able to rest last night and hoped she would get to rest for the rest of the day as well.

Elizabeth walked over to Valkyrie and kneeled in front of her. She still said nothing but just looked at Valkyrie with a thoughtful look as if she was a phenomenon that Elizabeth was trying to understand.

A shadow loosened from the others and stretched away a strand of hair from her face. The gesture was so unexpected that Valkyrie stared with big eyes on Elizabeth. She could not stop herself, but heard how she asked, "Why did you do that?"

"I'm trying to find out what Skulduggery sees in you, little girl. It is obvious that he cares for you very much, even with Skulduggery's measurements. He has never been such a person who shows his feelings openly, but as soon as you are near him or is mentioned, his body language changes. I never think I've seen Skulduggery as happy as he is when he has you by his side.

You have awakened something within him, as I think nobody else could have done. You complement him. When I see you two together, it's like seeing two lost souls that have finally found each other after years of separation. I think you are the person he has been waiting for all his life. The person who can help him to atone for all the horrible crimes he has committed during the 400 years he has lived."

Valkyrie became speechless. Never before had Elizabeth said so much to her at one and the same time. For the most part, she had tortured Valkyrie in silence, with some single words about how much she liked to hear her screaming or how much she liked hurting her or how she would look after she was done with her.

Never before had she talked about her and Skulduggery's relationship or some more details about why she had kidnapped Valkyrie.

"These reasons are, of course, one of the reasons why I've kidnapped you. I want to see Skulduggery suffer and give back some of the pain that he caused me when he abandoned Lord Vile and recovered himself. If he had not found himself, we could have controlled the mortals by now! We could have done what we wanted when we wanted it! We could have lived in freedom to exert our magic how we wanted!" Elizabeth stared straight ahead, and, in her eyes, Valkyrie could see the hatred she felt against Skulduggery because he had taken away from her a future where she could control and cause as much pain she could have wished for.

Valkyrie shivered and thought back on all the pain she had needed to endure during her stay here. No wonder Elizabeth tortured her with such intensity if she felt such a strong hatred towards Skulduggery. Valkyrie suspected Elizabeth knew that the chance was extremely small that she could catch Skulduggery and torture him herself, which was why she spent so much time on Valkyrie.

As if she could read her thoughts, Elizabeth turned to her with a crazy smile on her face. Now Valkyrie recognized her. Now she was the old ordinary Elizabeth who loved to exert pain against others. She leaned so close to Valkyrie that their noses touched each other and if Valkyrie had not been so jaded from all the torture, she would probably have withdrawn from the crazy look Elizabeth gave her.

As it was now, all that happened was that Valkyrie felt how a shiver was crawling up along her spine.

"You understand what I'm talking about, don't you, Valkyrie? I have seen how you behave when you are with him. I have seen how close you are to him; the gazes you give him and the way you move when he is with you. You are totally filled with admiration for Skulduggery and him with you."

"I do not know what you..."

Elizabeth laughed and shook her head. "Oh, Valkyrie... You sure do, you just do not want to admit it to yourself since you're afraid of how Skulduggery would react if he found out. You are afraid he will not feel the same for you and that nothing will ever be the same between you two if your feelings aren't reciprocated. You're afraid he'll abandon you if he finds out the truth, right?"

Valkyrie did not answer. She just wanted to crawl into a small ball and disappear into herself. God how she wished that all this could just be a horrible nightmare that she would soon wake up from!

The shadows came from nowhere and wrapped around her throat. She tried in vain to get some air into her lungs but couldn't. Panic went through her, and she clawed at the shadows in a futile attempt to remove them from her throat. Black dots began to dance in front of her eyes, and she made some choking sounds that made Elizabeth laugh again. She released her grip a bit and Valkyrie drew air into her lungs before she felt how Elizabeth lifted her up in the air, so she hung above Elizabeth.

More shadows came and grabbed her arms and legs. She could not move at all, and Elizabeth stood up so she could see Valkyrie in the eyes. She leaned her head the same way as Skulduggery, and also Lord Vile, used to do. She let her shadows stroke along Valkyrie's lingerie and before Valkyrie had time to react, Elizabeth's shadows had torn them apart.

She now hung completely naked in front of Elizabeth.

"Oh, you are even more beautiful than I thought. No wonder Skulduggery likes you so much! I am surprised that he has not made any advances on you yet. He's really missing out... I think I'll tell him that next time I see him, or what do you think?"

"Please do not do this..." Valkyrie felt how tears of embarrassment, shame and fear wanted to get out, but she kept them back.

Elizabeth did not answer but let one of her shadows pick up the phone that she had replaced with Valkyrie's and backed a few steps. She was just thinking about taking a picture when Valkyrie bent down her head. She did not want Skulduggery to see the tears that she desperately tried to hold back and the pain in her eyes. The shadow that lay around her neck tightened its grip on her while another one raised her head by pulling her hair.

"Smile for the camera, are you so kind. You do not want to make Skulduggery disappointed, do you?" Elizabeth smiled an evil smile and snapped several photos before she was happy. "Now that Skulduggery has a chance to see what a beauty you are, it's time to show him what kind of fun he is missing out on."

"What do you…?" Valkyrie began saying but became quiet when she felt how a couple of shadows started to stroke her breasts, buttocks, and the inside of her thighs. "No, please! Don't do it!"

"Relax and it won't hurt. That much," Elizabeth said before she laughed and pushed play on the recording.

Now Valkyrie could no longer hold back the tears, and she was forced to look straight into the camera lens while Elizabeth let her shadows stroke her body and force themselves inside of her repeatedly. She wanted to scream and beg, but she did neither. She was a strong woman who had been through a lot, and she would not let Elizabeth be the person who would break her down.

"Skulduggery, how come you have not done this towards Valkyrie? Surely you are aware of her true feelings for you, are you not? You are a clever man who can read people like an open book and why should Valkyrie be any different? I can tell from the way that my shadows are enjoying this, that she is an exceptionally fine young woman who would have no problem satisfying you in bed. She even might be a better sex partner than your late wife. If you manage to find her before I kill her, I suggest that you take her for a ride," Elizabeth said while her shadows defiled Valkyrie.

When Elizabeth felt satisfied, she withdrew her shadows and lay down Valkyrie back on the mattress before she ended the recording. She instantly sent the photos and the video to Skulduggery with a giant grin on her face. She turned around to go but turned back around just before she left the room. "That's right, I almost forgot."

Elizabeth threw a blanket to Valkyrie as she quickly wrapped around herself to hold back the coldness that began to drip into her naked body. She knew she was about to go into shock, and it was important that she kept herself warm.

"Sleep well, Valkyrie," Elizabeth whispered before she walked out of the room.

At the same time as the door closed, the tears started to flow without restraint. She felt humiliated, defiled, and worst of all, she had been raped. She could never see Skulduggery in the eyes again after this. The only thing she could think of was that every time she would see him after this -if there was any afterwards- she would only think that he had seen her when she was most vulnerable. The only thing she would be able to think about was that he had seen her be defiled by the same kind of magic which he himself once had been using full time.

She knew that he would blame himself because he had not been able to rescue her before any of this had happened. She also knew that he might be afraid to be around her, because there could be a chance, even how small it was, that if Vile took control, he could do the same thing towards her as Elizabeth just had done. Because Vile had no care for others, the only thing he wanted to do was cause mayhem and hurt others in the most brutal way possible.

A ringtone echoed in the small room and made Valkyrie twitch. It took her a few seconds to realize that the sound came from the phone she had received from Elizabeth. She picked it up and immediately recognized Skulduggery's number. A slight smile played on her lips, despite what she just had been forced to endure.

Before she thought about what she was doing, she answered the call and gasped out "Skulduggery!"

"Valkyrie! Is that really you?"

"Yes! Oh, if you knew how much..." A sob interrupted her before she could continue. "How much I've longed to hear your voice!"

"Me too, Valkyrie. Me too."

It was quiet for a few seconds. There was so much Valkyrie wanted to tell Skulduggery, but the words would not come out of her mouth. She opened and closed her mouth repeatedly, but it was Skulduggery that talked first.

"I… I saw the photos and video Elizabeth sent."

Valkyrie did not answer. She felt sick to her stomach and all she wanted to do was disappear from this earth and never come back. She had no idea of what went through Skulduggerys head right now and she did not even know if she wanted to.

As if Skulduggery could read her thoughts, he sighed deeply before saying "Valkyrie, I'm so sorry for what you are going through. If I just had been faster or kept a better watch... I could have stopped this; I know I could have! I was not strong enough…"

"Skulduggery, stop. You did your best. Rather, I should apologize for not saying anything before. If I had done that, we could have set up a strategy and figured out that it was Elizabeth and could have stopped her."

"Valkyrie, this is not your fault. None of this is your fault. The only person to blame is myself because I was not strong enough to say no to the addictive power that is Necromancy. You know yourself how easy it is to use and what it does to you if you use it to much and start to lean increasingly on it. If I had not put on that armour all those years ago, you would not be in this situation right now."

"Skulduggery… I…"

"I understand why you chose not to say anything now that I have had a chance to think about it," Skulduggery continued, as if he had not heard Valkyrie. "The reason I reacted as I did is because I worry about you and..." Skulduggery hesitated. "And I know that this is the worst time to tell you this, but I must force myself to say these words in case the worst were to happen, and I can't find you in time. I care about you. I love you, Valkyrie."

Valkyrie's eyes filled with new tears, but these were tears of joy. "I know you do, Skulduggery. I love you too. Until the end."

It became silent for a minute. It was not an embarrassing silence, but an understanding silence. Suddenly it occurred to Valkyriehow muchSkulduggery cared for her. She had heard it in his voice, in the way he had said "I love you." She was filled with such a happy feeling in her whole body that she thought she could fly. She was also filled with brand new hope. Now she knew that Skulduggery would do everything in his power to get her back.

So, he once again would be able to hold her in his arms and tell her to her face how much she truly meant to him.

"Valkyrie, it's important that you listen to me now. I want you to understandwhyElizabeth has caught you. I want you to understandwhyshe feels so upset. You cannot interrupt me while I tell you unless I say otherwise, understood?"

"Yes, I understand. Hurry up, Skulduggery. I do not know how long we can talk before Elizabeth returns. She said goodnight to me when she walked out, but that does not mean she's not close by and listens in on us."

Skulduggery snorted. "Would not surprise me the least... Okay, I will be brief. It all started with me just killing Abyssinia and had started thinking about returning to the 'good side' when we started losing ground. Then Elizabeth came to us and suddenly I had someone else on my side who was almost as bloodthirsty as I and Abyssinia had been. It gave Mevolent's troops new hope and a new chance for me to spill a bit more blood.

Thanks to Elizabeth, the fighting once again turned to our advantage and so it continued for a long time. Ghastly and the others began losing hope of ever winning the war when I suddenly decided that I did not want to be evil anymore and changed side."

"Just like that?" Valkyrie asked and could not help laughing. When Skulduggery responded, Valkyrie could hear that he was smiling as well.

"Yes, just like that. I had started to become a bit bored, since there was no one else but Mevolent who really was any threat to me and if I should take him down, I wanted it to be on my own turns and not because of my power as a Necromancer, since I knew that the fighting would be to my advantage and that I probably could win without too much effort.

When I came back, Mevolent's army began to lose ground and this time they did not get it back. After months of fighting, I met Elizabeth on the battlefield and she knew, in some way, that I was Vile. She was furious at me, wondering how I could voluntarily give up the power that was Vile. I told her how it was, that I simply wanted to go back to the good guys and atone for my crimes and that I had started getting bored. There was no one who could defeat me on the battlefield.

She became as you may understand furious, and we fought. It became a bloody mess before I finally stood as the winner. In view of the damage she had received, I thought she could never survive so I left her where she fell. Now afterwards I should have double-checked, or even triple-checked, that she was truly dead."

The silence once again broke out between them. Valkyrie thought about what Skulduggery just had told her. She was not surprised but had guessed a lot of what he had told her during the days she had been kept captured. "Elizabeth spoke of a dream she had. That you crushed her dream. She wants to control the mortals just like Ravel wanted, right?"

"Yes. She believes that if I had not turned back, we would have won the war and could have enslaved all humankind, like in the way we saw in the alternative dimension where Mevolent is still alive and I'm still Lord Vile."

"I suspected that. She has not told that much, but of the little she has said, I guessed a similar scenario of what you just told me."

"You learn, I hear. I am impressed and you if anyone knows how hard it is to impress me."

Valkyrie laughed and felt how a warmth spread inside her body. Skulduggery always knew what he would say to make her feel better when everything else around her felt dark. "That I truly know, but then I have also learned from the best."

Skulduggery laughed and Valkyrie closed her eyes. If she concentrated hard enough, she could pretend that she sat in the Bentley with Skulduggery on her right side and that they had this conversation while on their way to the Sanctuary or elsewhere, maybe heading home to him after a hard workday.

It was as if Skulduggery could once again read her thoughts. His voice had now become soft with a splash of desperation. "Oh, Valkyrie... If I could only turn back the clock... I should have protected you better. I find myself waiting for you to drop one of your silly comments when I'm in my car or when I'm at home and talking to myself. I miss you so much..."

To Valkyrie's surprise and horror, she heard Skulduggery exclaim something that sounded like a sob and when she realized that he was crying - or doing what was the closest to cry that he could come - she became very cold inside. She had no idea that Skulduggery was so tormented by her absence, and it caused her blood to boil.

Who did Elizabeth think she was?! How did she think she could get away with this? Nobody attacked the people she cared for and loved without having to pay for it!

"Skulduggery do not worry. I'll take care of this in some way. You will soon get to embrace me again, I promise."

"Valkyrie, don't do anything hasty!" Skulduggery stopped crying and instead sounded panic-stricken. "You are weak after all the torture you have had to endure. You can hurt yourself more than Elizabeth can. You can lose yourself if you exercise too much magic at the same time!"

Valkyrie twitched at Skulduggery's words. She had not thought that magic could also be dangerous to the practitioner. Surely, she had heard and seen examples of magicians who had exploded or had fallen dead after exercising enough magic at one and the same time, but she had never reflected overwhythey died.

"If I were you, I would listen to what the skeleton has to say," Elizabeth said, stepping out of the shadows with a smile on her lips.

In case you wonder why I chose to change Skulduggery in this chapter, it's because I thought it would be nice to see him break down for once. I think that Derek Landy should show more of Skulduggery's "soft side" in the books, since I am sure he can be soft when he wants to :)