The Sparrow Flies North for the Summer (Valduggery)

Entrance #1

An hour and a half of senseless driving later, Valkyrie heard a groan come from the back seat.
She quickly pulled over, ignoring the horns that blared at her. She had reached a motorway a while back, and had unconsciously started to follow the signs leading her to Dublin. Leading her home.
Unfortunately, this route was taken by many a car each day, and so she couldn't be lazy about indicating and obeying the speed limit; this wasn't her first time being beeped at this trip.

Scowling at the rain, and holding an apologetic hand up for anyone who cared, she crawled into the backseat with a now-sitting Skulduggery.

"Hey!" She said, closing the door behind her.

He was sitting straight, rigid, on the middle seat (A/N just realised I gave a mini back seats... but DONT QUESTION IT ITS MAGIC). He was staring out of the front window, jaw slightly slack, hat in hand.

He didn't respond to her.

"Hellooooo? Skulduggery?" She waved a hand in front of his face.

He still didn't respond to her.

She looked sadly at her best friend, sitting there, obviously in shock after the recent events, clearly delicate, needing her utmost patience and a caring hand-

She zapped him with her magic.

"OW!" He jumped, looking around wildly. "Wha- Where am I? What happened? Are you okay? Am I okay?"
He ran his hands over himself, looking for injuries. Trust him to be egotistical, even when flustered.

"Calm down, Skul! You're fine, we're in the car-"

"How?" He croaked.

"You- I... it's a story even I don't understand."

He nodded, slowly returning to himself. "Well, the last thing I remember was... was... um..."

His head tilted, and not in the smiley way.

"I don't know what I remember..."

"It's okay, don't worry- come up front, I'll tell you what happened while driving."

So they did just that. He was unusually stiff, not as graceful as normal. But he managed to get into the front seat unscathed, luckily.

She recounted her tale, eyes never leaving the road; she wasn't as good at driving as him, and couldn't afford to look away. But she felt him looking at her as she told him about the monster, her mother, sister, the shadows...

By the time she had finished, he was completely back to normal; he was even commenting on her driving.

She preferred him when he was quiet.

"Well, we'll have to go back there, see if it left any sign of what it was- oh, come on Val, no one obeys the speed limit! Live a little!"

She felt for his arm with her hand before hitting it.

"Ow - again! Anyway, I'd say it was a result of necromancy; the shadows suggest it, at least. But how it managed to change shape..."

"You don't think that... that it was real, do you?"

By 'it' she meant her monster.

He shook his head.

"No, I don't," he hesitated, "but the way you describe it... it's almost as if the shadow-thing could read your mind. How else -you were meant to indicate- how else could it assume the shapes of things unique to you?"

"But what about Alice? I haven't seen her since she was a baby..."

"She may not even look like what the thing showed you; just how you imagined her. Mind reading seems to be the only logical explanation... especially since it knew about Al... about the Sceptre."