Skulduggery Pleasent: Reversed

Part 6

There wasn’t a whole lot of talking for the trip but with the help of Dexter the mood was always light and on the happier side. Valkyrie and Dexter did most of the talking while Ghastly chimed in occasionally. Skulduggery was mainly quiet but that’s because he was still reading through files. Although Skulduggery would interject every time Dexter tried to tell a story about him, regardless of whether it happened to the flesh Skulduggery or the skeleton Skulduggery.
When they finally pulled up to the old farm everyone was eager to get of the van. Valkyrie stretched a little then started moving towards the rundown house.
“So what’s the plan?” asked Dexter
“If Era’s in there we capture him then interrogate him. If he’s not in there then we look for clues as to what he might be doing”
Dexter nodded, “I’ll look for footprints”
Skulduggery pulled out his gun and peered into the window. “Clear” he said then Dexter checked the other window.
“Clear” said Dexter and with that Ghastly blew down the door using a blast of air. Valkyrie and Ghastly were the first through the door and quickly scanned the room for any signs of life. Other than couple of pot plant there was no life and even then Valkyrie suspected that they were fake. By the time that Skulduggery and Dexter entered the room Valkyrie and Ghastly were already moving to check the other rooms. Once they all gave the all clear Skulduggery and Valkyrie began looking for clues and Dexter looked for footprints. While Ghastly decided to poke around the outside of the house. They hunted around for several minutes and when Ghastly came inside Skulduggery told everyone the conclusion that he had come to.
“Someone has definitely been her recently, more specifically I believe that there was two people.”
“You think that he had an associate?” asked Dexter
“Whoever was here made food for two people but I’m not sure if the second ever entered the house” said Skulduggery
“Then should we check the barn?” asked Ghastly, “The tire tracks ended closer to the barn so I think it’s safe to say that checking the barn would be appropriate”
“The barn would be a great place to hide things and the second person could have been keeping watch over whatever was in there” said Skulduggery. Everyone walked over to the barn but Valkyrie halted in her tracks several meters before it.
Everyone noticed that she stopped walking and turned to face her.
“Val, what’s wrong?” asked Dexter gently
“The barn, there’s death all over it” said Valkyrie as she clutched her ring, “My ring is ice cold”
The three dead men nodded and their faces turned grim. The all approached the barn with caution. Energy crackled in Dexter’s hands while Ghastly held fire. Valkyrie clutched the shadows in one hand and was ready to click her fingers with the other and Skulduggery simply held his gun thumbing back the trigger. When they reached the barn door Skulduggery grabbed the handle and flung the door open while quickly spinning inside. Ghastly, Dexter and Valkyrie were hot on Skulduggery’s tail and jumped in straight after him. They all spun when they heard the clanking of metal and the crunching of straw. Sitting there shackled and wide eyed with fear was a woman. Finally four of them noticed the smell.
“Holly!” said Dexter as he wrinkled his nose, “This place stinks”
“They’re all corpses” said Skulduggery as he gestured to the bodies that were strewn all over the floor.
“I never would have guessed” resorted Dexter dryly.
Ghastly and Valkyrie cautiously walked over to the woman in shackles. Ghastly extinguished his fire then snapped his fingers again and all of the oil lamps lit up revealing the true horror of the room. The woman squinted in the light and Valkyrie recognised her.
“It’s Amelia!” exclaimed Valkyrie. Amelia looked up at her name and made a muffled cry of relief when she noticed who it was. Then Amelia eyes widened and her muffles turned desperate, like she was trying to warn them. Skulduggery and Dexter didn’t like the tone of her voice and they immediately spun around looking for the threat.
“Shh, here let me get that off” hushed Ghastly as he started to untie her gag. Valkyrie inspected Amelia’s shackles then started to look for a key. Valkyrie quickly gave up.
“Skulduggery, can you pick the lock on these shackles?” asked Valkyrie, who didn’t notice Amelia look at her in surprise.
“Sure” replied Skulduggery then he strolled over and crouched down to inspect the shackles. After quickly inspecting then Skulduggery rummaged around in his pockets and let out a satisfied sound when he pulled out his lock picking equipment. Finally Ghastly gently tugged off the gag.
“You, you’re Skulduggery?” asked Amelia her voice husky.
Skulduggery nodded and briefly looked up from the shackles, “Skulduggery Pleasant at your service”
“So then he got you too” said Amelia
“If my got to me you mean Era reversing me then yes, he did get to me.” Replied Skulduggery as he fiddled with the lock.
“So do you remember everything?” asked Amelia
Skulduggery gave her a questioning look. “What did you do the day before?” asked Amelia
“I think I was working with Valkyrie on a case, to be honest I’m not sure. I don’t remember anything except for things that happened over two hundred years ago apparently”
Fear seeped onto Amelia’s face, then she curled in on herself and screamed as she flickered, changing into her younger self.
“Ah, that was my next question” said Skulduggery, the younger Amelia stared at him for a second.
“You have to stop him!” she said her voice covered in worry, “You’re a success, if he gets another success then, then” said Amelia then her voice failed her,
“Then what?” asked Valkyrie gently,
“He’s going to bring back Mevolent!” Amelia almost yelled. What came after that was a sickening science.
“Who is?” asked Dexter, he was dead serious.
“Era, he- he said that he was going to reverse all the wrong that had been done to him. He’s even going to bring back his generals! You have to stop him! Please” Amelia ended in a whisper
“Don’t worry” said Skulduggery as the shackles clicked and fell from around Amelia’s wrists, “We’ll stop him”

[Sorry that I took forever to do this but I had other things to do such as University work :P Anyway yay! Action!! :D I have a pretty clear idea of what I want to do with this FanFic and how to finish it, I've just got to actually do it ^^; Anyway I hope that you have a great day and sorry again for taking a while with this chapter!
If you spot any errors feel free to tell me! Thanks!]