A Shadow Returns

Strike Two

"What are we going to do? How could she possibly have known that we were there?" Valkyrie banged her hands down on the table in frustration.
"Val calm down," Tanith said.
"How can I calm down? My life has been invaded by a monster!"
"I think you're exaggerating."
"How can I be exaggerating? You saw what was written on the window! I saw what was written on your mirror! Avril is bad news Tanith! I've had enough of her!"
"Val you need to talk to Skulduggery about this."
"No I can't."
"Why not?"
"Because Avril's got him wrapped around her little finger. He'll never listen to me."
"Well then we're just going to have to come up with something else."
"Like what?"
Tanith paused and Valkyrie sighed.
"Really?"
"I got nothing."
Valkyrie massaged her temples in frustration and groaned. "I'm going to have a shower. I need to think," she said, running up the stairs and into the bathroom. She ran her fingers through her dark hair, and felt how disgusting it was.
"Gross," she whispered. That was definitely getting a wash while she was in there. She grabbed a towel from the cupboard and locked the door so no one could walk in on her. She left her black clothes sitting on the sink and stood under the water for a few minutes, letting it refresh her.

She picked up the shampoo bottle and opened the lid, squeezing some of the contents onto her palm. That was odd. It didn't smell like shampoo. She smelled it again. That definitely wasn't shampoo. What the hell did Tanith have in this thing?

She quickly got out of the shower and wrapped the towel around herself. She picked up a piece of paper from the floor and opened the tiny bin that was near the toilet. Then she stopped, and gasped. An empty bottle of hair remover was jammed in the bottom of it, hidden from view.
"Avril," she sighed through gritted teeth. This had to stop right now. She smelled the bottle. It had the same smell as the stuff in the shampoo container. She threw the bottle back into the bin and stormed down the stairs to find Tanith cleaning her sword in the kitchen.
"Val."
"Tanith care to explain why you have hair remover in your shampoo?"
Tanith looked up with wide eyes.
"I don't have hair remover in my shampoo Val. What the hell?"
"There was a bottle of empty hair remover in the bin which smelt exactly the same as the stuff in the shampoo bottle."
"Ok whatever it is, I didn't do it."
"Come and I'll show you. The bottle is in your bin."
Valkyrie grabbed Tanith by the arm and almost dragged her sister up the stairs.
"Val really? What's the rush?"
Valkyrie ignored her, and opened the bathroom door, letting go of Tanith's arm and heading straight for the bin. She pulled open the lid and looked in. Her heart almost stopped. The bottle was gone.
"What?!" Valkyrie exclaimed.
"What?"
"The bottle! It's gone!"
"The bottle of hair remover?"
"Yes! Smell the shampoo!"
Tanith looked confused, but went to the shower and grabbed the shampoo bottle from the floor where Valkyrie had dropped it. She flicked the lid open and smelt it.
"Val this is how my shampoo always smells," she said.
Valkyrie's brow was furrowed as she took the bottle from Tanith and smelt it. Then she looked up.
"It's different."
"What's different?"
"The smell. It's not the same as it was two minutes ago."
"Maybe you were imagining it."
"No Tanith, I wasn't."