Here's to Christmas - Skulduggery Pleasant FanFic

Chapter 8: Some Mysteries to Solve

Natalie was slim and smiley and pretty. She had blonde pixie hair and an ever so slightly(for want of a better word) dorky personality, but that made her even funnier and very likeable. She and Valkyrie had become good friends and Valkyrie really trusted her.

On her break, Valkyrie wandered into the staff bathroom softly humming If These Sheets Were the States (All Time Low) and heard the sound of someone dry retching. She stopped humming and listened closer.

"Natty? Are you ok?" she said to the closed toilet door.

"I'm fine." Natalie replied. Her voice sounded weak and husky, and not a second after she said it there was the sound of someone throwing up.

"Sweetie, you don't sound ok."

The toilet flushed and the bolt slid back and a pale, sweaty Natalie emerged. She opened her mouth to say something to her and rushed to the sink, where she threw up once again. Valkyrie rubbed her back until she was fairly sure she was done.

"Go home, Natalie. I'll cover your shift, ok?"

Natalie nodded and rinsed the sink and her mouth out.

"Yeah. Ok."

Valkyrie made sure Natalie had all her stuff and a receptacle, just in case. By the time she put her in a taxi and had told the driver to go easy on the turns, there was a little colour back in her cheeks. As she drove away, Valkyrie frowned. Was it just her or...were her pupils slightly larger than normal?

She went back to the staff toilet to make sure the area was clean. It was, except for two silver, waxy looking sweet type wrappers in the toilet. That was when she noticed a smell; not the smell of vomit, but a sickly sweet, rusty smell. She frowned again and flushed the toilet, but the wrappers remained. She tried again, but to no avail, so she carefully fished them out and rinsed her hands thoroughly. Her hand hovered over the bin, but something stopped her releasing the wrappers. She shook her head, placed them on the edge of the basin and took a picture. She then posted a question on Yahoo Answers.

Found these at work. Wouldn't flush away when I tried. Sort of waxy. What are they?

*********

Valkyrie got home from work a few hours later and saw the others sitting on her sofa watching her TV. She stood in the doorway as they turned and greeted her.

"I gave you that key for emergencies." She scolded, her hands on her hips. Saracen blinked.

"I didn't pay my cable bill and the All Ireland Championship is about to start," Dexter explained. Valkyrie sighed, though she was glad for their company. She plonked herself down on the sofa and took a handful of crisps from the bowl on the coffee table.

"The All Ireland Championship, huh?" She asked. "Wow. I have to say my memories of the AIC aren't that great."

"Don't blame you." Skulduggery laughed.

"Why?" Saracen asked.

"Because the first and last time I went I got beat up by Springheeled Jack, bitten by Dusk and Thurid Guild almost murdered eighty thousand people in front of the unsuspecting Irish populous."

A silence had settled over the room. She blinked at the others, noting their baffled expressions.

"Oh...kay..." Dexter said slowly. She shrugged.

"True story."

"Oh, I believe you."

They sat back and watched the game. Valkyrie couldn't help laughing at Saracen. Any time the ball went anywhere near anyone's goal, Saracen half leapt out of his chair and started shouting angrily. She shook her head.

This was the first time she'd ever enjoyed football. At half time, Saracen and Dexter went to go to the toilet. She thought about the tens of thousands of people who were going to the toilet right now, anxious not to miss even a second of the game.

The side they were supporting lost. Dexter and Saracen were both fuming. Skulduggery and Valkyrie were, by this point completely disinterested.

"Anyone else see a bunch of morons kicking each other?"

Skulduggery weakly raised a hand and she laughed.

"We better get going." Dexter said. They nodded and stood up to go to tge toilet again - throughout the game, they'd gone through several cans of diet coke.

"So how was work?" Skulduggery asked. Valkyrie recounted her uneventful day (skipping over Natalie's sudden illness and the mystery wrappers) whilst Skulduggery paced behind her. She stopped speaking.

"Is everything ok?" she asked. Skulduggery shut the living room door.

"Actually, there's something I need to ask you."

"Ok. Go ahead."

Skulduggery sat down next to her and switched off the TV.

"There's a huge caseload I've been given and I've enlisted Dexter and Saracen as my assistants, and I have to say they're terrible detectives."

"Well. Yeah. What's the case?"

"We're trying to crack an international drug lord. He's causing a lot of havoc in the magical community. We got close to finding him once, but he's a slippery fish and...we're going to need another pair of hands."

"No." Valkyrie got up and walked away from the sofa.

"Please, Valkyrie. We're going to lose this case if we -"

"Well that's nothing to do with me!" Her voice began yo climb. "In case you've forgotten, I've left that life behind. I won't have anything to do with it anymore."

Skulduggery stood up and tilted his head.

"You've forgotten, Valkyrie. You've forgotten who you are. A very large part of your heart lies in Roarhaven, in that sanctuary. You say that you'll never go back but you never left."

"Don't!" she said, pointing her finger at him. "Just don't. Don't start saying those things. You know I'm not ready. You know I can't. I can't. I can't can't can't can't can't! "

"Ok." Skulduggery said softly, pulling her into a hug. "Ok."

She did, in actual fact, feel guilty. She didn't want to cause problems; but she just couldn't go back. She wasn't ready. Would she ever be ready? She didn't know. But even the thought of going back to Roarhaven made her stomach churn with nerves and anxiety.

Dexter and Saracen went and sat in the car and Skulduggery sat with Valkyrie on her sofa for a while. At ten thirty, he got up to leave and stood in front of her.

"I'm sorry." He said softly. "I shouldn't have asked."

"It's ok." She whispered and squeezed his bony hand.

After he left, the house felt empty. She felt even more guilty now he'd gone. She didn't want them to lose the case.

But she was selfish, and she knew that going back would, essentially destroy her.

And then there was Natalie and the mysterious wrappers in the toilet that wouldn't flush away. She checked her notifications. As of yet, no reply.