Cross Your Ts [Valduggery, Skulduggery Pleasant Fanfiction]

Puddles

Valkyrie was on the floor, and someone kicked her. Her body curled around the heavy boot and the breath left her. She managed to look up; all she saw was a man towering over her, face blurry and vague. He drew his foot back, and Valkyrie struggled to roll away.

Someone moved behind the man kicking her. She saw him strolling away. He wasn't holding paper. Why had she even noticed?

The foot swished over her stomach, she was on her back, covered in dust and looking at a net hanging over the floodlights. Another man fell nearby, and she heard Skulduggery's quick strides as he followed after the paperless man.

"It looks like another vampire did this," she said.

Skulduggery looked to his left, where Valkyrie supposed she was standing. Where she should be standing, but she was on the ground, next to a vampire. It didn't look like a vampire, it looked like a guy who drank tea and read books, and his throat was ripped open.

Valkyrie hopped up and frowned at the vampire.

"I still don't think we're even necessary," Skulduggery said, nudging the vampire with his foot. "No one complains when rats kill other rats."

"Wow, you're grumpy today."

Skulduggery opened his mouth, but the ground disappeared and Valkyrie dropped away from where Skulduggery was standing in thin air. Valkyrie yelled as she fell like a stone towards the water, the blue, blue water. It was suddenly a thousand degrees.

She hit the water and went under. Instead of white sand, there was endless, murky darkness. Hands clamped around her ankles and yanked her downwards. She held her breath as long as she was able, but water flooded her throat and she panicked. She could breathe under water as the stars became more distant.

Whatever was pulling her reached the bottom of the lake, and Valkyrie feet hit the mud. She blinked and she was in Ghastly's shop. Skulduggery was pulling out one of the rolls of fabric, holding it up to where Valkyrie was standing.

"You need to get a maid," Valkyrie heard herself say.

Ghastly's shop had grown a screen in the back, and the fuzzy remake ofCasablanca was playing. Skulduggery stood next to her and watched the actors gather around the piano. She had been asleep for this. A man wandered through the back of the scene, looking like he was illuminated with a stage light.

"You're going to rewatch the original. I know what you're going to do. And you're going to feel empty."

"You're really annoying."

Valkyrie looked over. It was dark, the streetlights playing orange across Skulduggery's façade. Someone in the back let out a muffled curse, and there was the wheezing of broken ribs. A terrible guitar played a note or two on the radio at random intervals.

"How can he look at you?"

The words made Valkyrie want to curl into a ball and cry. Skulduggery tensed next to her, and something about the movement made Valkyrie feel sick.

Skulduggery leaned forward and turned on the lamp on the dashboard. Valkyrie reclined her seat and her head found a pillow. She blinked up Skulduggery sitting at her side, and his head was tilted like he was listening for something.

"I know you don't sleep, but you don't have to mess up my sleep cycle too."

"I was meditating."

"So?"

He didn't answer, but he sagged. Valkyrie sat up, reached out—

The bed lurched violently, and Valkyrie fell awkwardly to her knees as the world rearranged itself around her.