The Purple Haired Craze

In Which A Tactical Error Is Made

"Which room are you in, Erskine?" Valkyrie asked the golden eyed boy, who was still red in the face with anger.

"Four Zero Eight," he mumbled. She steered him down the cold corridor to the other end and he pulled out the key from his front pocket. Unlocking the door, she guided him through into the empty room and laid him down on the bed she presumed to be his; the one that was covered in boys clothes rather than the pristine one.

"Thanks, Valkyrie," he murmured, the rage dying in his eyes. "I overreacted a bit, didn't I?"

"Not as bad as you could have done," she consoled him. "I generally punch people, but you didn't do that, did you?"

"I suppose not."

"See? You are okay."

Erskine sat up, looking a lot better and less annoyed. "I'll go wash my face."

"You do that," she said, perching on the chair in the corner of the room. "I'll wait here and then we can go back downstairs. When you are ready."

He wandered off into the backroom and Valkyrie kicked some of his underwear under the bed so it was out of her sight. She didn't really want to be looking at it. She passed the time by humming "Love Bites" by Halestorm, realising that it was the first time in a month since she had heard some of her favourite rock music. The classical music of the era was beginning to give her a headache.

There were lots of little things about the 21st Century that she desperately missed. For one, the music, because she had never been a classical fan, always into the rock, bordering the gothic genre. She also hated the toilet arrangements, being used to flushing toilets and nice toilet paper. She hated toilets enough in the future (or past, whatever) without them being little holes in the ground outside in a cold wooden shed.

Every week she would find a new thing that she realised she couldn't actually do anymore, like eat takeouts or have a ride in the Bentley (or even a car, for that matter). But she was managing. It wasn't hell, like she had initially been expecting it to be.

Erskine walked out of the backroom, breaking her trance and she stood up really quickly. "You want to go back down to the ball?"

He nodded. She linked arms with him again and they headed out the room again.

They were near the duelling hall and Valkyrie had been chatting idly to Saracen, talking about how her theory lessons had been when the golden eyed boy suddenly pulled her into an alcove near a window. There was a light snow falling that she could just see by the light of the dim candle that was shining from the wall opposite. He pulled her really close by the waist and he was suddenly kissing her.

It wasn't a chaste kiss, which is all Valkyrie had ever really done with her previous boyfriends, so she was completely flummoxed when Erskine started to move his lips against hers in an overly passionate manner. As soon as she got herself to realise that she did not want to be kissing Erskine at all, she began to struggle out of his grip. He clung onto her dress tightly and she hit her head against the wall behind her as she tried to pull away from him.

"Stop!" she finally managed to gasp out when they finally broke apart. "What are you doing?" Her protests were ignored and he tried to dive back in for another kiss, but she got herself to pull him into an arm lock, pushing him up against the other wall. "When I say stop, you stop," she ground out, her blood boiling in anger. "If you try to kiss me again, you will probably find yourself being thrown through a window. Understand?"

Erskine struggled to nod and he was beginning to whimper in pain. She let go of his arm and ran down to the big double doors that led to the duelling hall, tears threatening to spill over.

Liv looked up to see Valkyrie racing through the doors of the hall and knew instantly what had happened. She leapt up, dashing over to the girl who was now crying freely and tried to lead her back out.

"Don't," she whispered. "He's still out there."

"Okay." She shifted her course, dragging her to a private corner and waited for Erskine to walk through the doors. She ignored the looks she was getting from Skulduggery, the girls and the other Dead Men, concentrating on getting Valkyrie up to her room without having to confront Erskine yet.

Erskine marched in not long after, looking a little bit ruffled and sullen. He didn't notice the two of them as she stood Valkyrie up again and when they slipped through the double doors behind him.

"Don't worry, Val. It's going to be okay."

"But is it really?" the girl half yelled. "So far, I've managed to piss off China, Erskine and Skulduggery, never mind the fact that I made up with Skul, and you are telling me it is going to be okay? It just sounds like I'm messing everything up?"

Liv looked down, knowing that the question Valkyrie desperately needed the answer to was not one that she could tell her.

"Why am I here, Liv? Why am I supposed to be going to school with younger versions of the Dead Men in the middle of the stupid War?"

"I can't... I can't tell you."

"YES, YOU CAN!"

"No, I really can't!"

"Then why not?" Valkyrie said, exasperated.

Liv sighed, heavily. "You are very important, Val," she started. "More important in the history of magic than the average person is. The decision you are going to make will change everything and without it, the future would not be anywhere close to how you currently remember it to be. But I can't tell you want the decision is, otherwise that will hinder it completely; I know this because I consulted a Sensitive to see what the possible futures could be."

"I can't be that important," she scoffed.

Liv gave her a look. "You are one of the vital players in this next step, Val. Believe it and trust me."