Skulduggery Pleasant - Imagine this

                                                                    Chapter 1: Normal?

It had been weeks, Valkyrie hadn’t heard from him yet, she was starting to get worried. She had faith in Skulduggery and knew he would be able to fight his way out of any situation but she didn’t like not fighting alongside him. He went to investigate the murder of a mortal, of course the mortal hadn’t been ‘mortally’ murdered, after all that’s why they sent him to investigate, Valkyrie didn’t like the idea that the Elders didn’t want to tell her anything about the case and she had tried to get it out of Ghastly but all he said was “You’ll know when the time is right”.

Skulduggery had never been sent on a private mission before and it was eating her insides. She knew it wasn’t her safety they were worried about, after all she’s twenty years old now and her fighting and magic skills have improved rapidly, heck she could kick Skulduggery’s ass if she wanted to. She decided to drop the issue for the night and went downstairs to make herself a cup of hot chocolate before she sat down in the study with one of Gordon’s books. Gordon, her late uncle was a magnificent writer she had to admit, she enjoyed his stories more than anything and a lot of them reminded her of her own adventures with Skulduggery. She remembered the day she had met him, with that silly disguise he used to wear. He came to her at Gordon’s funeral, she knew he was odd but she’d never have guessed he was a skeleton, Valkyrie laughed at the memory. She had so many of them, good memories, bad ones and even a few great ones. Her life had changed a lot since she met Skulduggery. She had gone from Stephanie Edgley to Valkyrie Cain to Darquesse and back to Valkyrie Cain. Skulduggery was the only one to know her Darquesse secret, but Skulduggery also had a secret, he is Lord Vile. Valkyrie knew she had to keep that secret for as long as she lived, Vile had killed millions during the war with Mevolent and if it ever got out that Skulduggery is Vile he would be arrested on the spot and maybe even tortured. Vile and Darquesse had helped on two previous cases, Valkyrie knows she’s a lot stronger when she’s Darquesse but she was afraid to let her out again, after all Darquesse was going to kill her parents, she couldn’t let that happen. She was careful and so was Skulduggery, he didn’t want his Vile secret to ever unfold. Skulduggery and Valkyrie may have two friends on the council of Elders but she doubted even Ghastly would look the other way after what Lord Vile had done during the war, Vile had killed Ghastly’s mother and if he ever found out Skulduggery was to blame he could be in grave danger. Valkyrie often thought about how much she and Skulduggery were alike, sometimes it scared her but in another way it also made her smile. No one else knew of her and Skulduggery’s world killer secrets, except those three mortal teenagers, Kitana, Doran and Sean, but who’s going to believe those murdering psychos?

They’re not even sure what they had witnessed. No, Valkyrie knew as long as Skulduggery was the only one to know about it, her secret was safe. And she knew he thought the same about her. She remembered when she was younger and she just got introduced to the world of magic, she used to be so eager to go on cases with Skulduggery just for the excitement of it all. She remembered how she used to get nervous before a case, wondering what kind of evil monster or demented sorcerer she was going up against. Her job was exciting, that was never going to change, it’s always been exciting. Except when stuff like this happens she thought to herself. Situations like these weren’t exciting at all, they were stressful and annoying but what could she do? She had the night all to herself and she was going to spend it like a normal twenty year old would, not that she wants to but she doesn’t really have a choice in the matter.

It had been four hours, Valkyrie had fallen asleep in the study. Her head was resting on the desk and her arms were hanging by her sides, a funny sleeping position Skulduggery thought but then again Valkyrie is a very funny person. Skulduggery stood next to her and nudged her arm, no response. He softly called her name with that velvety voice of his while tugging at her sleeve, which also didn’t work. After about ten minutes of trying to wake her up Skulduggery decided that he had tried the quiet approach and it wasn’t working. He shoved her, hard, and she collided with the cold, hard floor. She jumped up with a shocked expression, readying herself to fight when she realised it was just him. She muttered under her breath as her body started to relax.