Family From Hell ~ A Skulduggery Pleasant fanfic

An Unpleasant Conversation

Valkyrie raised an eyebrow and eyed him with suspicion. "How'd you know we were coming?" Lucifer dropped his grin and looked at Valkyrie with a steady cold glare and almost snarled at her question.

"It was kind of obvious that you would show up. After she...escaped, the connection I had grew weaker. Every now and then I get a glimpse of what she is about to do but unfortunately I can't stop her from killing."

Once Lucifer had stopped talking Lilith's eyes grow wide and her jaw dropped, "Is that why we have had more deaths recently? Because you let a soul escape!" she screamed at her husband.

While Skulduggery was enjoying watching the scene unravel in front of him, he had it in his best interests to get out of this city of the dead as soon as possible. He needed this case to end before it tore him apart.

"I would hate to interrupt, but we did come here for a reason. You let a soul escape Lucifer and we need your help to bring her back here before we are all at her mercy."

Lucifer let out a small chuckle and observed Skulduggery with curious eyes, as though it was the first time he was meeting the skeleton but is was what he said that had Valkyrie stumped.

"You recognised her didn't you, Skulduggery. Tell me did it tear you apart to see her killing like that? To see her in her natural state, ripping people apart limb by limb? Her primal instincts kicking in, returning her to the state she was in before she killed her mother?"

"SHUT UP!" Skulduggery shouted at the man taunting him, if he had blood it would surly be boiling. Skulduggery took a moment to calm down before he stated talking again, "We did not come here to quarrel, we simply want to stop this lost soul from killing everything on this planet. Are you going to help us or not? From what I have gathered she got out because of you, the least you can do is take responsibility for your actions."

Lucifer let out a loud laugh. Gee for someone who is incapable of emotions he seems rather joyous Skulduggery thought.

"Oh Mr. Pleasant you have got it all wrong. This rouge soul was no accident, it was simply just a way to get your attention. I mean seriously, did you really think it was a coincidence that out of all the souls 'living' here it was her that got out? Come on Skulduggery, I thought you were better than that. I wanted to give you the hope that the one person who gave you everything, friends, a safe place where you and your family could live without being shamed, she even gave you a horse. She turned your life around for the better when your family ran to the safety of her town back in 1620, I wanted to give you the hope that she could return from the dead, I wanted to give you the hope that you could maybe fix your past mistakes that caused her death. Your mistakes that lead her sons to be orphans. They had already lost their father years before, but it was you who left them without a mother." Lucifer stopped talking with a massive grin plastered on his face.

"So I take it you are not going to help us then. Well it's not that I don't love our little chats it's just... I don't like them, so if you don't mind we will be going. C'mon Valkyrie, this was a waste of our time coming here." Skulduggery turned around and headed for the door without waiting for his extremely confused partner.

"You really think I was up top killing a few mortals for sport?" Lucifer shouted after them, "Sacrifices had to be made Skulduggery, otherwise she wouldn't be what we all needed."

Once it registered in Valkyrie's head that she and Skulduggery were leaving, Skulduggery was already at the boat waiting for her to catch up. Silently she boarded the boat and waited awkwardly for Skulduggery to break the silence, hoping that he would enlighten her on what had just happened in the throne room. When Valkyrie realised that Skulduggery wasn't going to talk she took this chance to look around her.

As they floated back to the forest Valkyrie noticed that Hell did not look anything like it was commonly described as with fire everywhere and crying souls begging for release. In fact it was quite peaceful, in a creepy sort of way. There was a full moon with only the occasional drifting cloud. The smell of fresh rain hung heavily in the air. Below them there was a few rocky mountains with a slither of a creek weaving through the rocky terrain and in the distance the edge of the dark cold forest could be seen sitting upon the edge of it's cliff. There was an eerie silence smothering everything, as though there was some sort of blanket covering everything, protecting the realm from every sound on the other side.

The boat reached a stop at the clearing of the forest where they first boarded Charon's boat. Valkyrie was the first to get off, shortly followed by Skulduggery. As he hopped off the boat Charon extended his arm and put a hand on Skulduggery's shoulder.

For the first time Charon spoke up, "You know strictly speaking I should keep you here. You are dead Mr. Pleasant. You belong here with us, in the realm of the dead." Charon had the kind of voice that would make anyone trust or even fall in love with him. Which is really useful when it comes to taking the dead to a better place, otherwise they would end up either roaming earth as a ghost or getting lost in the endless forest for all of eternity.

"I have a job to do Charon, it is not my time just yet."

"You will be a lot happier here, you could be reunited with your wife and daughter" Upon hearing those words Valkyrie spun wildly around to face the other two, half expecting Skulduggery to take up Charon's offer.