Le Début |Skulduggery Pleasant

Chapter 2: The Will

We have to go to the reading of the Gordon's will. We walked up a flight of old, rickerty stairs to a small office. When we entered, Gordon's family turned and stared at us quizzically.

"Sorry we're late," Skulduggery said, closing the door behind us. "It was unavoidable I'm afraid."

Everyone in the room continued to stare at us, probably wondering who the hell we were.

The soliciter cleared his throat and looked down at the piece of paper in his hands. "Belle Éclipse and Skulduggery Pleasant?"

I smiled at him. "At your service."

I noticed that Gordon's brother, Desmond, was looking at us uncertainly. When he noticed that I had noticed him, he gave us a polite nod and turned back to look at the soliciter. Gordon's other brother, Fergus, and his wife, Beryl, were still staring at Skulduggery.

"Do you have something wrong with your face?" Beryl asked.

I glared at her, and there was an awkward silence across the room. Skulduggery subtly put his hand on the crook of my elbow, holding it. I calmed down and took a deep breath.

The solicitor cleared his throat again and in my head, I secretly wanted to give him water to make him stop doing that.

"Okay then, let's get down to business, now that we're all here. Excellent. Good." You could tell he was nervous. "This, of course, being the last will and testament of Gordon Edgley, revised last almost one year ago. Gordon has been a client of mine for the past twenty years, and in that time, I got to know him well, so let me pass my deepest-" He got cut off by Fergus.

"Yes, yes, yes," Fergus said, waving his hand in the air. "Can we just skip this part? We're already running behind schedule. Let's go to the part where we get stuff. Who gets the house? And who gets the villa?"

"Who gets the fortune?" Beryl asked, leaning forward in her seat.

"The royalties," Fergus said. "Who gets the royalties from the books?"

I rolled my eyes at their selfishness and could feel familiar eyes on me. I felt Skulduggery take his hand off of my elbow and grabbed my hand and put the other in his pocket. I felt the eyes leave us.

The solicitor picked a page up from his desk and read from it. "To my brother Fergus and his beautiful wife Beryl. I leave my car, and my boat, and a gift."

"His car?" Fergus asked. "His boat? Why would he leave me his boat?"

"You hate the water," Beryl said, her voice rising. "You get sea sick."

"I do get sea sick." Fergus snapped. "And he knew that."

"And we already have a car," Beryl said.

"And we already have a car!" Fergus repeated.

"This gift," Beryl said, her voice low and threatening, she was almost sitting on the desk. "Is it fortune?"

The solicitor coughed nervously and took a small box from his desk drawer and slipped it towards them. They looked at the box for a few moments before they both reached for it. I watched them slap at each other's hands, rolling my eyes at them. Beryl eventually snatched the box off of the desk and tore the lid off.

"What is it?" Fergus asked in a small voice. "Is it a key to a safety deposit box? Is it, is it an account number? Is it, what is it? Wife, what is it?"

Beryl's face had hilariously drained of all of its colours and her hands were shaking, she was blinking hard. She turned the box for the rest of us to look at what was inside and I almost laughed when I saw it. It was a brooch, about the size of a drinks coaster, nestled in a plush cushion.

"It doesn't even have any jewels on it," Beryl stated in a shaky voice.

Fergus looked like a startled fish. "What else do we get?" He asked panicking.

The solicitor tried to give them a small smile. "Your, uh, brother's love?" He questioned.

I heard a high-pitched whine that sounded like an animal dying and it took me a couple seconds to process that it was Beryl.

"To my good friend and guide, Skulduggery Pleasant, I leave the following advice. Your path is your own, and I have no wish to sway you, but sometimes the greatest enemy we can face is ourselves, and the greatest battle is against the darkness within. There is a storm coming, and sometimes the key to safe harbour is hidden from us, and sometimes it is right before our eyes." He paused for a second. "And to my good friend, Belle Éclipse, there's a storm coming, as I told Skulduggery, you already know what's going to happen. You'll soon have to face your worst nightmare in order to resolve the issues. Always remember the ones you love the most and that'll be your key to get out of the darkness."

My eyes had widened and I had gripped Skulduggery's hand tighter when he said the word nightmare. By the time he had finished everyone in the room was staring at us. I dipped my head down and my hair covered my face.

Was Gordon saying that I would have to turn into Cauchemar?

I thought about what Gordon said to both Skulduggery and I until I heard the solicitor say that the house, fortune and royalties are going to go to Stephanie. I looked at her and smiled, Skulduggery pulled me behind him as he led me out of the room. We stopped behind Stephanie and he put his other hand on her shoulder.

"Congratulations." He said, then continued to pull me to the door.

When I closed the door behind us I heard Beryl yell at Stephanie.

We walked down the stairs and to the Bently. "They're going to go to Gordon's house tonight. You know... we have to protect her." I stated.

"Of course. Especially if who we think is behind this actually is." Skulduggery replied.

I hesitated slightly. "Do you think that Gordon meant... her? When he said nightmare?"

He hessitated slightly on his answer, but nodded. "Probably."

I nodded and left the conversation at that.