Drop Dead Gorgeous

Engulfed and Intimidated

Valkyrie gasped as the smoke swirled around her. She willed for Skulduggery to come back, to rescue her. But he didn't come. She looked uselessly into the gloom as her vision clouded over into blackness.

The 21st Century:

Skulduggery whirled on Ghastly.

"What did you say?" He demanded. Ghastly stiffened. Skulduggery had become very intimidating lately, and very, very frightening. He'd scared the crap out of Clarabelle when she'd asked after Valkyrie. And now, Ghastly was sure that he was threatening him.

"I said maybe you could ask China or Echo Gordon for advice on how to get Valkyrie back," Ghastly answered, worried that he'd said the wrong thing.

"I don't want advice, I want results," Skulduggery snapped, striding away back to the Bentley. Ghastly sighed.

They still had no leads as to what had happened to Valkyrie, and everything was falling apart at the Sanctuary. Cases were going unsolved, and Ghastly had been forced to let Remus Crux take over as head detective, as Skulduggery had focused all his attention on capturing Grave and finding Valkyrie. And if he didn't find them soon, Ghastly knew that the anger raging inside his friend, was going to be the death of everyone.

The 1600's:

Asaria scrambled into the courtyard followed closely by Dexter. She coughed violently, as Louisa and Anton appeared through the smoke. The sound of teachers and students screaming were the only things that Asaria could hear above the sound of the fire. By now, the entire school had gone up in flames, and Asaria was frantically looking around for her friends.

Louisa, Dexter, Erskine, Ghastly, Saracen, Ambry, China and Anton had all gotten out safely. Then Asaria gasped. Valkyrie and Skulduggery! There were still in there!
She turned to Dexter, her eyes wide with fear.

"Where are they?!" She screamed, her eyes watering from the smoke. Dexter didn't say anything as a fireball exploded, right where her friends' room was.

"No!" She screamed, covering her eyes. Dexter wrapped her in a hug as the entire building was engulfed in smoke and fire.

***

Skulduggery turned as he came through the door, his emerald green eyes watering. When he didn't see Valkyrie behind him, he panicked.

"Valkyrie!" He coughed. No answer.

He quickly scrambled back into the room. Fire had engulfed two whole sides of the room, and Skulduggery could see the girl lying on the floor. He crawled quickly to her, and picked her up quickly, getting to his feet. He put the sleeve of her dress up and over her nose and mouth, and did the same thing to himself, before he ran. He got to the end of the corridor before the room exploded into flames.

Asaria cried into Dexter's shirt as the screams of Louisa and Ghastly echoed through the courtyard. She didn't blame them. They'd just lost one of their best friends, and his crush. Teachers did a head count in the chaos, and Mr Finlay tried hard not to break down as realised that Skulduggery and the pretty girl with the brown eyes were missing. Dexter tried to comfort his girlfriend as the chaos continued around them. Then his eyes widened.

"Sari," he whispered. She sniffled, and looked up, and gasped. Skulduggery was running through the smoke, carrying a lifeless Valkyrie in his arms. Asaria broke away from Dexter, and joined the teachers as Skulduggery reached the courtyard, where he gently placed the unconscious Valkyrie on the ground, and collapsed.