Skulduggery Pleasant - The Fanclub Unites

// xiii

Warning: Gore. You may skip this chapter if you are uncomfortable with violence and gore. Thank you xx

sassy-pants

Darquesse sat on the edge of a cliff-face, wind whipping her hair behind her as smoke rose from the dead town underneath. She couldn't be bothered going to another dimension. Mevolent would take care of them.

Plus, she liked seeing them try. And they all had a habit of managing to get out of any situation fast. That's why they had been called the Dead Men.

The sky was orange. Not because of a sunset. It was midday.

It was from the fire.

Darquesse had found herself bored when the Dead Men plus a few had left her dimension. Mortals were no fun, The Sanctuary was, literally, pulled apart, and spending time shooting down the airplanes that still dared to fly had gotten dull.

So she set a fire.

But it wasn't a small one, by no means was this a simple, one town fire.

Hell, it wasn't even a one city fire.

Darquesse had decided to spice up the lives of the British by setting their entire continent on fire.

It wasn't hard. A few well-placed fires, a million or so dead mortals, and it was raging.

But Darquesse had gotten bored again.

So she left Britain to it and went back to Ireland, set fire to another village, and watched the mortals running for their lives, hearing screams echo up from the valley they lived in.

Screams made her happy.

A sharp pain stabbed at Darquesse's head and she winced. A voice echoed up from the depths of her mind.

'I want to leave...' a weak voice.

The girl still wasn't dead. Darquesse sighed and shut that part of her mind away, behind a wall. Immediately Cain began to fight it, weakly, and getting weaker.

Every few months or so the wall blocking Cain from Darquesse broke down, and the girl would start complaining. Darquesse found it a small nuisance, but one she wouldn't have to put up with for much longer. She probably wouldn't even have the energy to speak next time the wall broke, and after that, Cain would be gone and Darquesse would be truly invincible.

A smile spread over the Goddess's face as excitement rushed through her. It was so close now.

She looked down at the burnt village and a new wave of giddiness made her leap down and start falling towards it. She got the air underneath her and started to fly through the rubble-filled streets, turning corners too fast to be seen and doing a loop-de-loop.

The surviving village folk watched in wonder and fear as she flew towards them at top speed, stopping right in front of them and slowly lowering herself to the ground, bare feet standing on broken glass and sharpened pieces of wood without injury.

A man and woman held each other's hands tightly, grime, dust and dirt streaked on their faces and clothes. A teenager with black hair ducked behind a piece of rubble, piggybacking a child. A boy sat on his own, bawling, blood covering a scraped knee. Nobody went to help him.

All eyes were on her.

Darquesse reached an arm out and tendrils of shadow travelled down it, curling and twisting, until they reached her last finger and shot out in a spike, stabbing the man holding his wife's hand in the stomach. The man jolted backwards, and blood dripped from his mouth.

When he was dead, she turned to the woman, pinning her arm to a piece of rubble. She screamed, but as soon as Darquesse shot a wayward look her way, the screams turned to whimpers. She looked towards the crying boy, who had since gotten louder. She went over to him, bobbed down and lifted his head. Immediately the scraped knee healed. The boy stared up at her and Darquesse smiled.

Then his head burst open.

Blood splattering her face, Darquesse wiped a particularly large piece of brain off of her cheek and turned towards the teenager.

She stared at Darquesse defiantly.

"You killed my family." The girl stood and stepped right up to Darquesse. She couldn't sense any magic coming from the teen.

"Well, you're an angry one, aren't you?" Darquesse asked.

"And you are an evil, evil person," the girl replied.

She was brave, Darquesse could give her that. The girl stepped closer, too close for comfort.

"Personal space invasion," Darquesse whispered.

"I know," the girl replied. Gods, her breath stank.

"Step back a little, sweetie," Darquesse said, sickly sweet smile on her face.

"No." The girl's dark eyes seemed to stare into Darquesse's soul.

"Are you trying to defy a Goddess?"

"We will win. We will overpower you." The girl finally stepped back, and Darquesse took the chance to have a look at her. She was pretty, slim and fit, with dark skin and a ripped T-shirt.

"You know," Darquesse began.

"No. I don't know." The girl replied.

"I've taken quite a liking to you. You can stay." Darquesse smiled again at the girl and made to move past her. The girl blocked her way.

"My name is Shima. I'm 18 years old, and I'm not afraid of you." The girl pushed Darquesse back.

Oh, now that was a bad idea.

With a flick of her wrist, Shima was thrown against a piece of rubble. She let out a gasp, coughed, and lifted her arm, pushing off the rubble. Darquesse slammed her arm back against it and stalked over to her. Shima was glaring at her.

"I gave you a chance." Darquesse looked at Shima's arm and it snapped. Shima screamed, the sound echoing throughout the valley.

"You could have lived." The Goddess looked at Shima's leg and it dislocated itself. She shattered the nerves in the leg and Shima's screams reached new pitches.

"You mortals-" Shima's wrist snapped in half, "-are honestly-" every single one of Shima's fingers and toes shattered, "-so-" she bashed Shima's skull in enough to cause her pain, "-stupid." Every single one of Shima's ribs cracked and caved in on her chest, piercing her heart and killing her instantly. Shima's face was left in an image of pure agony and terror.

Darquesse let her go and the broken girl crumpled to the ground, a cold shell.

She spun around, ready to get the girl's sibling, and to finally kill that woman, but to her dismay, both of them were gone.

"Tch," Darquesse flew upwards, looking for them, but there was no one as far as the eye could see.

Darquesse gave up and flew to the top of the valley. She stared down at the village for a few seconds longer, before turning away, looking towards Britain.

Guess it was a good time to check on that fire.

💀💀
"Doors are for people with no imagination."
- Derek Landy