Skulduggery Pleasant- Daughter Of Darkness

LITTLES GIRLS, ALL ALONE P3

Roselyn heard Stephanie scream as strong hands grabbed her from behind, Stephanie screamed again as she was lifted off the ground and carried back , she started kicking, the man grunted and let go of her, Roselyn quickly grabbed the poker from Stephanie's tight grasp and swung the poker into the mans face but he caught it and pulled it from her grasp, one of the mans hand swung out, back handing her hard across the face causing her to fall to the floor, Roselyn saw the man grab Stephanie by the throat. She could see Stephanie was struggling to breathe as the man forced her back into the living room, Roselyn was back up on her feet, running at the man, without thinking she jumped onto the mans back, causing him to let Stephanie go, who slumped to the floor trying to catch her breath,

The man easily pulled Roselyn off him and threw her to the ground, kicking her in her stomach. Roselyn's breath left her as he pushed Stephanie into an armchair and leaned over her, Grabbing Roselyn's arm in a painfully tight grasp, then threw her next to her sister.

"Now then," the man said, his mouth contouring into a sneer, "why don't you just give me the key, little girlies?"

And that's when the front door flung off its hinges and Skulduggery moved straight to him and hit him so hard they thought the man's head might come off.

He hit the ground and tumbled backwards, but rolled to his feet as Skulduggery moved in again.

The man launched himself forward. They both collided and went backwards over the couch and Skulduggery lost his hat, The girls saw a flash of white above the scarf.

They got to their feet, grappling, and the man swung a punch that knocked Skulduggery's sunglasses to the other side of the room. skulduggery responded by moving

in low, grabbing the man around the waist and twisting his hip into him. The man was flipped to the floor, hard.

He cursed a little more, then remembered the girls and made for them, Both of the girls leaped out of the chair, but before he could reach them, Skulduggery was there,

kicking the mans legs out from under him. The man hit a small coffee table with his chin and howled in pain.

"You think you can stop me?" he screamed as he tried to stand. His knees seemed shaky.

"Do you know who I am?"

"Haven't the foggiest." Skulduggery said.

the man spat blood and grinned defiantly. "Well, I know about you." he said. "My master told me all about you, detective, and you're going to have to do a lot more than that to stop me."

Skulduggery shrugged and the sisters watched in amazement as a ball of fire flared up in his hand and he hurled it and the man was suddenly covered in flame. But

instead of screaming, the man tilted his head back and roared with laughter. The fire may have engulfed him, but it wasn't burning him.

"More!" he laughed. "Give me more!"

"If you insist."

And then Skulduggery took an old-fashioned revolver from his jacket and fired, the gun buckling slightly with the recoil. The bullet hit the man in the shoulder and he screamed, then tried to run and tripped. He scrambled for the doorway, ducking and dodging lest he get shot again, the flames obstructing his vision so much that he hit a wall on his way out.

And then he was gone.

Roselyn and Stephanie stared at the door, trying to make sense of the impossible.

"Well," Skulduggery said, "that's something you don't see every day."

When his hat came off, his hair come off too. In the confusion all they had seen was a chalk-white scalp, so when they turned, they expected to see a bald albino maybe,

but no. With his sunglasses gone and his scarf hanging down, there was no denying the fact that he had no flesh, he had no skin, he had no eyes and he had no face.

All he had was a skull for a head.