Family From Hell ~ A Skulduggery Pleasant fanfic

Dreams

"In fact I want to help you," the woman continued.

"How do I know I can trust you?"

"You don't, but quite frankly you don't have much of a choice."

"Yeah, thanks but no thanks. So I'm going to tell you what's going to happen, I'm going to walk out that door and I'm going to go home to my friend while you crawl back into whatever hole you came out of."

The woman sighed and gestured towards the door. "Be my guest dear, but it won't get you very far."

Valkyrie frowned at the mysterious woman and made her way towards the door. Upon opening the door however, Valkyrie was hit with a blistering wind and as she looked out the door, she realised there was nowhere to go. Valkyrie was standing on the edge of a cliff and at the bottom, the ocean crashed against sharp rocks.

The woman came up beside Valkyrie and started to stroke her hair, "I do recommend that you take a seat inside the drawing room. I am sure it would be much more comfortable than the long drop and very painful stop."

Valkyrie stepped out of the woman's embraced and stood in the centre of the drawing room and observed the woman. She had long chestnut hair that went down to her waist that enhanced the vibrant violet of her eyes. Her deep red lips, an extreme contrast to the white dress that hung from her slender pale frame. Something was very unnatural about her and she was beautiful, in a terrifying eerie sort of way. The woman closed the door and glided across the room to sit in one of the chairs. The woman looked Valkyrie dead in the eyes and gave a small sad smile that was soon followed by a small sigh.

"I am guessing you would like to know where you are."

"That would be nice."

"Strictly speaking you are still sitting in the armchair at Mr. Pleasant's house. You are merely dreaming. This room is from one of the many manors that my family owns and I have formed this meeting that memory. I am what some may call a dream walker, I can enter and manipulate people's dreams. Hence why the letter opener you grabbed will be useless against me."

"So if I wanted to I could end this, meeting as you put it, simply by waking up?"

"I'm afraid not. The dream world is mine to command. You all asleep when I deem fit. You awake when I deem fit. You dream what I deem fit. I allow some people to have a little sway over their dreams sometimes when I get bored but other than that I am in complete control."

"What of other dream walkers? I somehow doubt they allow you to control everyone like that."

"They get no say in the matter. Just like how the vampires bend to the will of the very person you are hunting."

"She didn't look like a person to me."

"That is because she has been thrown off her rightful course. She can't control what she is doing. I know her, she does not enjoy being this monster, just as you did not enjoy being Darquesse."

For a moment the two women just looked at each other in a sullen silence. Then Valkyrie frowned, realising that she did not even know the name of the woman in front of her and yet the woman seemed to know everything about Valkyrie and if what this mysterious woman was saying was true, Valkyrie could get all the answers that she was yearning after for the past few days.

"OK. I am going to ask you some questions and you are going to give me straight answers. No fucking me around with any riddles or any shit like that. No lies either. If you really want me to help your friend you will give me the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes."

"First of all, what is your name?"

"Katrina."

"What is the name of the thing we are after?"

"Malefica. And she's not a thing she is just having difficulties controlling her demons."

"Then what is she?"

"A hybrid, a cross between human and dragon."

"The same as Lucifer," Valkyrie whispered. "It was mentioned that this has happened before. What triggered it and how was she stopped?"

"She was lonely. She was constantly falling in love and her lovers kept growing old and dying. So she tried to create immortality. It never even occurred to her that she should try it on animals or something first, she just jumped straight to experimenting on humans. She was at it for years. Combing our blood, mixing it with her subject than killing that through some form. If they came back or didn't fully die she gave the subject immortality. But something always went wrong. She created many species in the process. Vampires, werewolves, zombies, you name it she probably accidentally created it. Her abominations worshiped her like a deity, but it was never enough for her, because she couldn't create the perfect immortal. Even breeding didn't work. Her experiments were what broke her the first time round. She went insane and lost control of every cohesive thought. Never before had I seen her so vulnerable." Katrina trailed off with a pained expression, lost in her own memories.

"How did you stop her?" Valkyrie asked again, a little more gently this time.

Katrina looked up slightly startled, as if she had forgotten that Valkyrie was standing before her. "We encased her in a tomb of iron and molten lava and sent her deep into the earths mantle layer. We had to ensure she could not escape. The iron drained her physically and magically and the molten lava ensured the tomb was impenetrable, resulting in no chance of rescue. By sending her so deep into the earth no one could find her unless they knew exactly where she was. It took three years for her to calm down enough to allow us to release her from her tomb, and another ten for her to recover from the mental damage, but she never recovered fully. Ever since she has had very fragile mind and always made sure to keep her creations in check."

"How did the iron weaken her so greatly?"

"It is her only physical weakness. Iron is the bane of all magical creatures from fairies to dragons, even the hybrids."

"Do you still have the iron tomb?"

"Of course, Malefica told us not to destroy it, we did not question her."

"Skulduggery said she died but Dusk said she never left. What really happened?"

"She died in Skulduggery's arms. Or so that's what he thought. She was tortured and her body was failing her. Physically she died, but because of the curse her body regenerated itself. You could shoot that girl in the temple and she would go down, but only for a minute, then she would get back up really pissed. But she was told that Skulduggery could not know about the curse, so once she had reawakened Malefica had to disappear from his life forever."

"So there is no escaped soul that we are hunting down?"

"No, there is not."

"So then why did Lucifer say there was?"

"To prevent Skulduggery from finding out about the curse."

"If there is so much secrecy from Skulduggery why try to get his attention?"

"Because Lucifer is losing his touch. The connection between Malefica and Lucifer is so weak now, we don't think he will be able to stop her, not this time. Skulduggery may be the only person who can get her inside the iron tomb."

Valkyrie frowned, "Why do you think that"

"They have always had a strong connection. He always seemed to be able to reach her when no one else could. We are hopping that hasn't changed through the years he thought her dead."

"Who was she to him?" Katerina hesitated and Valkyrie could tell that the woman in front of her did not want to answer her question. "Katerina, who was she to him?" She repeated, pausing after each word.

"It really isn't my place to say."

"You promised to answer every single question, and I expect you to keep that promise."

Katrina smoothed out some creases in the skirt of her dress and took a deep breath to steady herself. She looked Valkyrie in the eyes and said ever so quietly, "Malefica was Skulduggery's wife."