Here's to Christmas - Skulduggery Pleasant FanFic

Chapter 12: A Different Life

Valkyrie woke up three days later at twenty past seven and started panicking because she was supposed to wake up at seven and she was late for work at Jamie's, so she launched herself out of bed, quickly showered and had half-changed into her uniform when she remembered her Christmas leave had started, so she sighed and got back into bed.

Her alarm went off just over an hour later at half past eight and she got up and casually got dressed before getting her bus pass. She was going to take the train to the nearest station near Roarhaven and catching the bus to the top of the town.

For the past two days, she and Skulduggery had been plotting what she had entitled Mission Octopus - because...octopus. But despite its strange name, Mission Octopus was difficult, delicate and very, very dangerous. The plan so far was to get into Lewin's files and rifle through her correspondents. Emails, letters, anything and everything would be saved onto a memory stick and investigated until there was a valid explanation for Evelyn Lewin's extensive knowledge.

The mission would take place in two days time.

Valkyrie walked to the train station (which was mercifully close). She was in good time. She sat on the bench and waited for her train to arrive.

The station reminded Valkyrie vaguely of a murder of crows; everyone pecking each other, desperate to find their platform, their train. Here and there were pockets of calm, patiently waiting for another flock of flustered men in suits or beanie hats to fill them as they hurriedly scrutinized the map, desperate to realise their location.

Valkyrie's eyes swept over the crowd and all of a sudden, spotted a bird like haircut, blonde streaks defying both gravity and reason, crystal eyes set deep in the sockets, a vacant smile playing on his innocent lips.

Fletcher.

She smiled broadly and stood up, ready to say hello, when she saw an equally familiar face next to him. It was, much to her horror, Stephanie Edgely.

Her heart sank into the pit of her stomach as Fletcher snaked an arm around her waist and mumbled what appeared to be deeply affectionate words in her ear, and she grinned.and bobbed up and planted a kiss on his lips, shortly proceeded by a return kiss from Fletcher.

Valkyrie's eyes teared and a lump formed in her throat. No. Not Stephanie. He wouldn't do that to her...would he? Could he? Would she?

She shook her head and turned her back on the two lovebirds and ran away as fast and as far from them and that life as she could, crying like a girl who just got dumped.

**************

Valkyrie found herself in the park, sitting in front of a lonely looking tree whose leaves had all fallen off and was covered in a light dusting of frost.

Stephanie. Stephanie had her old life, that life she so desperately craved and needed. She had her sweet, honest mother and her charming, hilarious father and her beautiful baby sister and now she'd taken Fletcher as well. It was like a slap in the face from both of them. They had to know she was struggling, drowning in this life  after  the deaths of Ghastly and Anton and she'd taken Fletcher as if he never mattered to her or she to him.

Her phone buzzed again for the fifth time in the last twenty minutes. The texts were all from Skulduggery.

Stuck in traffic?

Where r u?

...Hello???

Something's wrong, isn't it?

Your silence is a void I cannot fill with my witty humour.

She put her phone in front of her, screen black, silent, every intention of leaving it and sitting here all day. After about forty seconds, she picked up her phone and called Skulduggery.

"Hello, Valkyrie Cain."

That beautiful, soft voice. She swallowed another lump in her throat.

"Hi." Her words were barely audible.

"...Is everything ok?"

A terribly long silence followed and she started crying again as she shook her head.

"No."

"What's wrong? Talk to me."

She closed her eyes for a second and took a deep, shuddering breath.

"I miss my parents. And my little sister...and Ghastly and Anton....and, I...don't really want this life. And it bothers me that Stephanie can have the best of both worlds and I can only choose one...but mainly it's the cold that's making me feel bad and there's this lonely dead tree that's really depressing."

There was a short pause. "Well. I must see this tree of sorrow and despair myself."

And he hung up.

Skulduggery arrived in the park about twenty minutes later, stood next to her and put his hands on his hips.

"I completely agree. That is one depressing tree."

He then sat down next to her and tipped his hat up a little.

"So. What happened to make you question your faith in humanity?"

"I saw Fletcher at the train station. He was with Stephanie." Her voice waa quiet, like something unintelligible inside had been wounded.

Skulduggery nodded. "I know. During Darquesse, they were together."

She stared a the floor. "It's so unfair. It's just so God damned unfair. It's like...I was never good enough. Fletcher hasn't seen me once since I've been back. It's like...like..."

"Like he's replaced you."

She nodded, pursing her lips. "He's replaced me like I'm broken. Is he right?" She looked at him. "Am I broken?"

"No." Skulduggery said immediately. "You aren't broken." He wrapped a bony arm around her shoulders and she leant into his cold frame. "You're just a bit dented. And any dent can br hammered out."

She smiled and closed her eyes and she would have been happy staying there, in that moment, for the rest of her life.

"Don't worry about Fletcher." He continued. " If he can't see what makes you extraordinary, he can't have you."

"I'm not extraordinary."

"Yes you are, Valkyrie Cain. You are loyal to those you love and you know who you are and you are selfless when it counts and you are brave and you are more than what Fletcher could even hope to be."

She looked up at him. "Maybe. But I guess bravery like that isn't meant to last."

He shook his skull and then placed his hat on her head. She laughed. The wide brimmed hat made her blind, but she didn't mind.

********

Aww, Skul, you old sentimental fool...are you hiding something from Val?

Short chappy, sorry.

I HAVE BIG PLANS BUT I NEED FILLERS OR IT WON'T BE SO DRAMATIC.

MTWYS77