Do you believe?

Chapter 5

Valkyrie gasped as Duke opened the grand doors "This is the room of Challenge." Duke said and Valkyrie stepped into the room, it looked bigger than any other rooms that she had ventured through and higher, yet the room was still white but this time it had gold patterns lining the walls and the floor was made out of a beautiful marble colour and in the middle of the room stood a detailed statue of someone Valkyrie didn't recognise but she figured Duke did "Who's that?" she whispered and Duke chuckled "That my dear Valkyrie is the Elder Guardian."

"What does he do?" Duke grinned "Why don't you ask him?"

"Um...ok." Valkyrie stepped forward a few steps and looked at the statue "Um...Hello?"

"Hello young Valkyrie." The statue said in a low, elderly voice and Valkyrie stepped back in surprise "H...how can you talk?"

"Magic." the Elder Guardian chuckled and Valkyrie felt a sudden rush of guilt rush past her, she had remembered Skulduggery say that when he came to visit after beating Serpine. She missed him so much and she'd expected she had only been gone for about an hour "So...what must I do to find out what I am the bringer of?" she asked after recovering from her flash back "You will be given five challenges."

"When will the challenges begin?"

"Right now!" Before Valkyrie could reply everything around her went black around her and she was falling into a black abyss.

When she finally reached the bottom of the hole and she landed with a thump but strangely enough it didn't hurt it felt like she had landed on a bunch of pillows but she wasn't going to question it. She propped herself up on her elbows and looked around her, she looked like she was in a cell but on the outside of the cell was a stone room with torches mounted on the wall making it really eerily. She didn't know if trying to get out of the cell was her challenge or if there was some sort of puzzle she had to complete so she just waited for a while until she was given some sort of sign of what to do and eventually she heard the Elder Guardian talking to her "Valkyrie the aim of this challenge is to not interfere with anything that is going on. You must stay in the shadows or you will risk changing the future. Do you understand?" Valkyrie nodded her head "Good luck." the guardian said and she awaited for the challenge to begin.

A while of waiting later she heard muffled shouts coming from the other side of the door so she crawled into the shadows and looked out into the room outside her cell, the large metal door opened and a handsome man was thrown in by none other than Serpine. The man had messy jet black hair which hid his left eye as it flopped down over his young face, he had high cheekbones and a sharp jawline with beautiful emerald eyes which looked exactly like Arabellas. Serpine stalked over to the man and towered over him "You have been a very naughty boy." Serpine growled and the man just looked up at him with narrowed eyes "What are you going to do to me?" that voice. Valkyrie knew that perfectly velvet voice all to well, she had known it since she was twelve it was the unmistakable voice of none other than Skulduggery Pleasant. Valkyrie gasped as the conversation between the two carried on "Your a difficult man Mr Pleasant. Very difficult indeed and I think I have come up with a suitable punishment for you."

"What?" Skulduggery growled and Serpine stuck out his hand and pointed it at Skulduggery and he screamed in pain, Valkyrie could feel tears stinging her eyes she wanted to help him so much but she knew she couldn't so she hid further in the shadows as the watched the scene unfold. Once Skulduggery had collapsed Serpine grabbed him by the hair and hauled his up before unlocking the cell door and shoving him in while Valkyrie shuffled as far as she could backwards in the darkness "Bring them in!" Serpine screeched and the next thing Valkyrie saw was the metal door opening again and two girls being dragged in and Skulduggery's eyes widened as he hurriedly got up and shook the cell bars "NO!" he yelled and the two girls were strapped to seats in front of him. One of the girls had beautiful blonde hair that tumbled to her waist and beautiful blue eyes that glistened in the light with an angelic face. The other girl looked to be about five with the same features as Skulduggery, that's when Valkyrie realised it was Arabella, she felt bile rise in her stomach "NO! DONT YOU DARE TOUCH THEM!" Skulduggery screamed and tried desperately to reach out to them through the bars, Serpine chuckled "Do you really think you can do anything to stop me?" he asked and gripped his arm before twisted it making it pop out of its socket and Skulduggery hissed in pain "You leave them alone!" he growled but Serpine ignored him and stalked over to the blonde woman who was struggling against the shackles "Hello." Serpine grinned and the woman snarled at him "Don't you dare touch Arabella." she said so Serpine grinned and went over to Arabella first "Hello poppet." he said and Valkyrie watched as tears fell down Arabellas pale face "Oh, now theres no need to be scared." he cooed and Skulduggery growled "Get away from her!"

"Make me." Skulduggery tried desperately too reach him with his good arm but it was no use, the bars weren't going to break any time soon so Skulduggery started to cry "Don't hurt her! PLEASE DONT HURT HER!" he screamed, but Serpine didn't listen "Do you have anything to say to daddy before you go?"

"Where am I going?" Arabella whispered, Serpine laughed "Somewhere nice."

"Can daddy come with me?"

"No poppet, daddy is going to stay with me for a while with you mother."

"But I want daddy to come!" Arabella yelled and Serpine slapped her hard across the face mking her scream in pain along with Skulduggery "HOW DARE YOU! YOUR A SICK EVIL FREAK! DONT TOUCH ARABELLA AGIAN!"

"Oh and how are you going to stop me Pleasant? when he didn't get an answer he looked at the crying girl in front of his and lifted his hand "ARABELLA SWEETHEART! YOU ARE MY EVERYTHING I LOVE YOU BABY GIRL!" Skulduggery cried and before his daughter could reply purple tendrils shot out form Serpines red hand and enveloped her tiny body making her scream in agony "NO!" Skulduggerys wife yelled and Valkyrie noticed she was crying. Hard. How much she wanted to jump on Serpine and murder him but she couldn't and that was the worst part about it "SERPINE!" but by the time he got his name out Arabella was sat limp in the chair. Dead. "No. NO! ARABELLA WAKE UP BABY! WAKE UP!" he screamed and his wife had tears streaming down her face gasping for breath "How could you!" Skulduggery cried and collapsed to his knees and screamed into them "Oh its not over yet." Serpine grinned and Skulduggery looked up to where he was stood and his eyes grew wide, he had a blade against his wife's neck pressing down slightly spilling a bit of blood "No, YOU DARE HURT HER!"

"Its alright darling." her voice strained and Valkyrie almost choked on her tears "NO! Belle I failed you! I'm so sorry sweetheart! Please forgive me!"

"I forgive you Skulduggery, I love you baby."

"I LOVE YOU SO MUCH BELLE!" he screamed and Serpine brought the blade swiftly across Belle's neck and Skulduggery watched her gurgle and choke on her blood as he body went limp next to her daughters. They were both dead. Skulduggery screamed and cried harder than Valkyrie had seen anyone cry before and she was so close to coming out of hiding and comforting him but she kept her position and watched Skulduggery try and hold back the tears as she did the same with hers. She felt so sorry for Skulduggery, she wanted to reach out and hug him but she couldn't and she hated it "Well then I guess we better finish the show then don't we?" Serpine said and Skulduggery didn't pay attention he knew what was coming and there was nothing her could do to stop it so he just cried so Serpine pointed his hand out to him and the same purple tendrils shot out and Skulduggery screamed out so loud Valkyrie though her ear drums were going to burst. Soon enough the screaming stopped and Skulduggery fell limp to the floor and Valkyrie's tears were falling freely down her face and he tried not to make a noise through it all otherwise Serpine will see her and will kill her. Serpine nodded to himself before walking back out the room and Valkyrie was alone so she collapsed to her knees and cried for Arabella. For Belle. And for Skulduggery.

A while of crying later she felt a hand on her shoulder so she lifted her head and noticed she was back in the palace and Arabella looked sympathetically at her so Valkyrie shot up and ran towards her pulling her into a massive hug "I'm so sorry." Valkyrie whispered and sobbed into Arabella's shoulder "Its ok Val, its ok."