Family From Hell ~ A Skulduggery Pleasant fanfic

The Trip Home

"Charon, I appreciate the offer but I have a job to do, before anyone else gets killed," Skulduggery told the decomposing man whilst turning to face Valkyrie so they could go home.

"Very well, you know how to find us if you change your mind."

After hearing Skulduggery's response Valkyrie let out a breath she didn't know she was holding, relieved that Skulduggery wouldn't leave her in the middle of nowhere with no idea how to get home. Skulduggery walked up to Valkyrie, looked at her for a moment and continue to walk into the deep forest. A silent follow me.

Skulduggery continued to walk through the forest, thankful that his father taught him how to basically live off the woods from a very young age. Every now and then Skulduggery would feel the air around him so he could be sure of two things; that Valkyrie was still following him and to make sure that they would have no unwanted company jump out at them from behind the trees.

After a few minutes of walking in silence Skulduggery's thoughts started to wonder. Okay so Lucifer is definitely not going to help us, Lilith might if she is in an alright mood but the chances of that are extremely thin. What am I going to do? She's killing everything she can right now, this is not her normal behaviour. What am I going to do? As much as I hate to admit it Lucifer was right, she has done this before, but that was only a couple of deaths, nothing this big. What am I going to do? What if she can't control herself just like last time? What am I going to do? Could Lucifer be making her do this again? What am I going to do? If this is like last time she could go into hiding again once she realises what she's done. What am I going to do? If she goes into hiding we will never be able to find her and she could easily start killing again. What am I going to do? What am I going to do? What am I going to do?

"Skulduggery, stop. I can hear the incoherent whine of your IQ. What on Earth or even Hell is going through that head of yours?" Valkyrie stopped walking and glared daggers at Skulduggery's back. Skulduggery stopped and turned his head to the side in a half effort to face his partner.

"We are nearly at the exit point we just need to walk a little further."

"No, Skulduggery you are going to tell me what the hell just happened back there. I am your partner, my life is in your hands on a regular daily basis I think I have a right to know what is going on. You obviously know something about this case that I don't. Hell, the only things that I do know about this case is that this thing that is killing everyone is an escaped dead thing, you recognised the creature, apparently you even used to be friends with it, Lucifer is supposedly responsible for all of this mess and oh let's not forget the fact that this has all happened before!"

After her little rant Valkyrie was bursting at the seams with anger. She was fed up with Skulduggery's secrecy. After all the years that the two had been working together Valkyrie had thought that she could be trusted with his secrets. She had kept his secret about him being Lord Vile hadn't she? So what could be so bad about this case that Skulduggery won't even talk to her.

Skulduggery sighed, he knew that he would have to tell Valkyrie what was going on but now was not the right time or place to tell her. So instead of telling Valkyrie anything Skulduggery started walking again.

They walked for another ten minutes before finally coming to a stop in a small clearing. Skulduggery put his hand on Valkyrie's shoulder and whispered something under his breath that just sounded like a bunch of gurgling noises from the back of the throat. Then a swarm of shadows surrounded them so they could no longer see the forest around them. Once the shadows cleared they were standing in the middle of the old ramshackled hut. As soon as they got their wits about them they started the long journey back to the Bentley.

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When they got back to Grimwood House Skulduggery dropped Valkyrie off and wished her goodnight before driving off into the night. As she unlocked to her door Valkyrie kept on wondering about the strange conversation between Skulduggery and Lucifer. Skulduggery was close friends with the mystery woman. Valkyrie knew that much. She also knew that the red-haired woman was responsible for her mother's death and that Skulduggery was responsible for her death. From what Valkyrie also gathered from the horrid conversation was that the scaled woman also had sons. Valkyrie was too engrossed in trying to sort through the information from a few hours before she didn't notice she was being watched.

He watched her from the shadows as she unlocked her door. He couldn't help but be amused at what her reaction would be if he disturbed her from her thoughts. Would she scream and run inside or would she try to kill him? More than likely the latter he thought. Once he had heard about the monster killing anything it could get its hands on he knew exactly who it was. In fact all vampires knew who it was, and they were worried. The man stepped out of the shadows to stand behind Valkyrie, bracing himself for her attack. Valkyrie turned when she saw the man come to a stop in her peripheral vision, all thoughts she had about the conversation between Skulduggery and Lucifer evaporating into nothing. She clenched her fists getting ready to attack the horrid freak of nature in front of her.

"Dusk," she said through clenched teeth.