Skulduggery Pleasant - Night of the Dying Rose

Chapter Two-Gore

Skulduggery and Valkyrie walked quickly to the murder scene, both preparing themselves for a distressing sight. Valkyrie especially. They had no idea what to truly expect or what to inspect and both of them were on edge. Valkyrie especially.

"Are you worried?" Valkyrie asked.

"Worried? No. We deal with these sort of things all the time, more worse than others I must admit." Skulduggery replied.

"So...are you wary then?"

"Possibly."

"Just checking, I wouldn't want to be the only one."

"How thoughtful of you my dear Valkyrie."

They reached the murder scene, Skulduggery took out his revolver, opening the door and stepping in first.

"Dear god." Skulduggery muttered. The body parts were everywhere, the bones lazily strewn about without a second care. The blood plastered the walls and the flesh decorated the floor, the faces of the victims were unrecognisable, completely hacked off. Organs were thrown out or just missing, it was a brutal and undeserved death for everyone in the room. Valkyrie darted out of the room, throwing up in a nearby bin, her face as white as death and her eyes full of tears. This was even worse than the murder scene she saw when she was seventeen, people had been torn about but the organs were still inside and the blood wasn't so far spread. She was still thankful to this day that Doran Plurcell, Sean Mackin and Kitana Kellaway were locked away behind bars. Valkyrie retched again and again, sobbing inbetween it. She felt a comforting hand on her back. Skulduggery.

"Take deep breaths." He said gently, his voice quiet and full of clearly read shock.

Valkyrie sobbed again but managed to take a deeper breath, and another one. Her heart was smashing against her chest rapidly. Fear and anger, that's what it was, fear and anger.

"There. Feeling better?" Skulduggery asked.

"Not really." Valkyrie admitted.

"I don't blame you, this is truly horrific, and I have seen many horrific things in my time."

"Who would do such a thing?" Valkyrie breathed.

"Someone who has no care for this world, who wants to destroy it instead of letting it thrive. We're dealing with someone who has nothing to lose and a lot to gain. This person does it for their own entertainment and has no regrets about it."

"That's sick...that's just so sick." Valkyrie sobbed.

"Yes...Yes it is." Skulduggery replied quietly. Valkyrie straightened, wiping her mouth. Skulduggery gave her a reassuring pat, before looking back at the murder scene. "We have to search for clues I'm afraid."

"No, I can't spend another minute in there." Valkyrie replied feebly.

"I'm afraid you have to, I'm sorry but it's necessary, don't do this for yourself, do this for the families that has just lost their loved one to a psychopathic being."

"Alright then..." Valkyrie sighed.

"That's my girl." Skulduggery walked back to the scene, Valkyrie hesitated, before following, already feeling bile in her throat from the sheer gore and brutality of it all.

"Start searching for anything useful." Skulduggery said.

"All I see is blood, is that useful?" Valkyrie grumbled.

"Not this time, since we can still identify the victims by their clothing."

"Brilliant." Valkyrie muttered.

They spent over thirty minutes searching the area, checking high and low for any clues about who the killer was and if they had a trademark. For a while they had no luck, and Valkyrie grew more and more sick, and more and more grumpy. Valkyrie was just about to snap at Skulduggery that she couldn't take this anymore until;

"I've found something." Skulduggery said. Valkyrie walked to him, looking over his shoulder, and she frowned at what he had found. A music box.

"Why in the ass would there be a music box at a murder scene?" She snapped.

Skulduggery looked at her. "Because this would give us two clues, that this is what the killers trademark is, and it may also tell us, that the killer either likes toys, or the killer is a child."

Valkyrie's eyes widened. "A CHILD did this?!"

"It's highly likely."

"But...but why?!" Valkyrie demanded.

"There could be many reasons, a terrible past leading to an unhinged mind. Born with an unhinged mind, all alone and finds comfort in killing, and other things, what confuses me the most is why the would leave such an obvious clue for us when they did this so silently."

"Yeah right now, I'm thinking the same thing." Valkyrie snarled.

"And it's a good thing too, because you're about to find out." A small girls voice said from behind them. Skulduggery and Valkyrie whirled, and they saw a little girl no older than eight years old standing there. Dressed like a rag doll with flaming red hair tied into pigtails with a bow, her eyes were a stunning emerald green and they were fixed on them both. The girl grinned, showing her pearly white, straight teeth.

"Hello Skulduggery Pleasant and Valkyrie Cain." She chirped.

End OF CHAPTER TWO- Stay tuned for the next chapter!