Here's to Christmas - Skulduggery Pleasant FanFic

Chapter 14: 20th December

Valkyrie hadn't been lying. She took the case to the very top of the Supreme Council and the hearing took place on 20th December, just five short days before Christmas. Lucas Flint was found in a small bedsit in Cookstown. Apparently, he'd been on the run after receiving word from Lewin that their cover was blown. 

Both Anna Reise and Evelyn Lewin were found guilty of fraud, treason and drug dealing. Lewin was sacked, Anna Reise forcefully removed from the position of Grand Mage. Once again, Ireland was without a Grand Mage, and Valkyrie couldn't help feeling disappointed.

She'd had a small amount of faith in Reise. She didn't like her, not really. She was a bit too bossy and a bit too narrow minded, but Valkyrie had respected her because she thought she had good motivation and good ideas and a good, decisive attitude. As far as the favouring of Lewin was concerned, she'd assumed a personal connection; not that they were partners in crime.

She hoped she'd done Natalie proud.

A meeting was being held on New Year's Eve to determine the new Grand Mage, but Valkyrie, for some reason, wasn't even worrying. She wasn't even thinking about it. She hadn't returned to the Sanctuary since Mission Octopus. Skulduggery had told her that she was a legend, that all of Roarhaven was thankful for her action, for her commitment and bravery. She refused to believe that. They were still afraid of her, nothing more and nothing less. 

And she wasn't brave or selfless or anything - she was just stupid. She didn't rush into things for the good of others - she just rushed into things, end of. She refused to accept any praise or reward, because she was still trying to atone for her dark actions, and deep down she knew she never would.

She flicked open her laptop, put her headphones on and hit shuffle on her Bands playlist. All Time Low now officially dominated all of the music on her phone and she couldn't get enough of them. She watched videos of them being interviewed, of them performing live (Therapy live always made her cry), anything and everything that had remotely anything to do with them.

She opened up Google and typed in All Time Low concerts in the search engine. She hit the first link, the one that was now highlighted in purple, and stared at the screen which showed her All Time Low's tour dates for Dublin, and the concert that was so close to where she lived, and the tickets that she couldn't afford because of her Goddamn boiler. And, of course, the troublesome taxes.

She sighed and shut her computer again and just listened to her music. There were so many things that she wanted to do that she simply couldn't do. She couldn't go to see All Time Low, she couldn't work to pass the time and she couldn't confess to Skulduggery the one thing that had been crossing her frazzled mind for so long, and now had settled in an impressive lump, demanding acknowledgement.

That feeling - it just came out of nowhere, literally nowhere, like a big red bus and hit her very hard in the face and it made her heart ache like nothing she'd ever experienced. She couldn't look at him because when she did, she stared and she saw that side of him; the side he hid from the rest of the world.

But she knew that even though he had done terrible things just like her, she could live a thousand lifetimes and never deserve to actually be with him.

To suit her depressing demenour, she changed the track on her phone to Terrible Things by Mayday Parade.

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The next day, the post fell through the letterbox and she reluctantly picked it up, dreading what the gas company and electric company and the tax man wanted from her. Yep. Bills, bills, advert, bills...and a postcard.