Le Début |Skulduggery Pleasant

Chapter 11: The Little Bit of Crime

Author's Note:

On the outfit pictured above it's meant to be from chapters 11-17 when she's not with Serpine (you'll see in future chapters).

!DISCLAIMER!

I DO NOT OWN ANY OF THE SKULDUGGERY PLEASANT CHARACTERS, PLOT LINE, DIALOG, MONOLOGUE, ETC. I ONLY OWN MY ORIGINAL CHARACTERS, THEIR PLOT LINES, BACKSTORIES, DIALOG NOT INCLUDED IN THE BOOKS, ETC.

Belle Éclipse's POV:

From our vantage point, parked across the road, they watched the vampires, once again in their blue overalls, walk up the steps and enter the gleaming art gallery. The vampires were chatting and didn't look intimidating at all. A few minutes later the staff and day-shift security started to trickle out of the building. When every one of them was accounted for, Skulduggery reached into the backseat and brought the black bag into his lap.

"We're going now?" Stephanie asked, looking at the sky. "But it's still bright."

"That's why we're going now, Stephanie. Twenty minutes from now, there'll be two bloodthirsty vampires who will. Skulduggery wants to get in and find out how to destroy the Scepter and then get out. With no messes to clean up," I stated.

"Ah, probably wise," Stephanie said. "Why did you only say Skulduggery? Where are you going?" 

"I am going to go to Gordon's and see if there's anything that he has on the Scepter," I said.

"Oh okay," she said.

We all got out of the car. "Well, I guess I could stay to help... We are dealing with two vampires after all."

We got to the side of the building and Stephanie looked up the top. Making sure they wouldn't be seen, Skulduggery put the bag over his shoulder and started to climb. Stephanie jumped for the lowest branch, grabbed it, and started climbing up after him. I sighed and started climbing after her. Stephanie hoisted herself up onto a branch and sat there, I climbed up past her, now right behind Skulduggery.

"You sure I can't come with you?" She asked.

"We need you here in case something goes terribly, terribly wrong," Skulduggery answered.

"Like what?" She questioned.

"There's a number of things that could go wrong. One of them is a death that involves a lot of blood and screaming, the blood being mine obviously," I answered.

"Fills me with confidence that," She replied sarcastically.

Skulduggery maneuvered himself onto the longest branch and then walked, bent-legged and stooped over, along its length. His balance was unnatural. Without pausing, he sprang forward off the branch. He brought his arms up, and a tremendous gust of wind buffeted him over to the rooftop. I took a deep breath and graciously walked across the branch and jumped, the gap was wider than I expected, so I had to quickly grab onto the edge of the roof, tucking my feet slightly, bringing my knees to my chest, I pushed my self up, doing a flip before I landed.

Skulduggery and I looked back to Stephanie who was still in the tree.

"The gallery is outfitted with the most elaborate security system," Skulduggery said as he opened the black bag he had with him. "But because of the vampires, the alarms on the outer corridors are never set, so once we get past the main hall, it should be smooth sailing, as they say."

"As who say?" Stephanie questioned.

"I don't know. People who sail, presumably," He took out a harness and started to strap himself into it. "Where was I?"

I went to the black bad and pulled out another harness. "The plan."

"Oh yes, my cunning plan. We need to access a control panel on the east wall. From there, we can disable everything. The floor is pressure-sensitive, so we're going to have to stay off it, but that shouldn't be a problem for someone of my natural grace and agility," He paused and looked at me. "Belle, however, may have some trouble."

I playfully glared at him and hit his shoulder. "Thanks," I said sarcastically.

"You're very impressed with yourself, aren't you?" Stephanie asked him.

"Exceedingly so," He secured a thin wire onto a ventilation duct, looped it through his harness and led it back to the skylights.

I did the same with mine, setting everything up, tuning out of their conversation. I kept thinking about my vision that I had before the crash. To be honest, ever since seeing that, I've been a bit wary about letting Stephanie join us. But Skulduggery's word is final, and he seems to think that taking Stephanie along for the ride is the best option.

"Belle?" I heard Skulduggery asked. 

I snapped out of my trance and looked to Skulduggery, eyes wide. "What?"

"Are you coming?" He asked.

I nodded and went and sat beside him, my legs over the side. We began lowering ourselves down, both of us stopping and Skulduggery began to turn off the alarms. I suddenly saw that Skulduggery jolted down slightly, then it began happening to me too. I held my breath and tried to make myself balance, Skulduggery doing the same.

It kept doing it a few more times until it stopped. Skulduggery and I were both only centimetres from the ground, arms splayed out. I took a deep breath and looked at Skulduggery, glad that my hair was up instead of out like it usually was, he had his arms splayed out, but the control was in one hand, where he couldn't use it. We suddenly began moving back up and when we were in a safe position, we looked up to see Stephanie kneeling down, looking at us. Skulduggery gave her a thumbs up.

He took control of his harness and positioned himself next to a panel on the wall, beginning to turn off the alarm. He spun himself gently and lowered himself down, his feet touching the ground softly. He took off his harness and lowered me down, I also took off my harness as my feet touched the ground. We looked up at Stephanie and after a moment, Skulduggery motioned for her to come down with us. Stephanie recalled a harness back to her and strapped herself in, lowering herself down. I walked over to her and helped her unstrap from the harness.

"I suppose we could use a little bit of backup," Skulduggery whispered, causing Stephanie to smile.

The gallery was big and spacious and white. There were huge glass sections in the walls. The main hall was full of paintings and sculptures, artfully arranged so that it was neither cluttered nor sparse.

We moved to the double doors and listened intently. Skulduggery opened one of the doors, checked outside, and nodded to Stephanie and I. They crept out, closing the door behind them. We followed him through the white corridors, around turns and through archways. I caught him glancing out the windows as they passed. The night was coming.

We got to a small alcove, away from the main hub of the gallery. Within this alcove was a heavy wooden door, crisscrossed by a grid of bolted steel. Skulduggery whispered for Stephanie to keep watch and then he and I hurried to the door, Skulduggery taking something from his pocket.

Skulduggery began working on picking the lock and I looked out the window, the sun was now fully down. 

"What do we do if we actually have to face one or both of those vampires?" I asked him quietly.

"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it," He muttered. The lock clicked and he stood back up. "Done."

He turned around to see Stephanie looking around the corner, a shocked look on her face. He put his hand on her shoulder and pulled her back a fraction. Stephanie followed Skulduggery over to the door and we all entered, closing the door behind us. Skulduggery and I were no longer creeping. Skulduggery and I led the way down the steps, him having a flame in his hand to light the way. It was cold down here, but not as cold as it would've been if I wasn't wearing the clothes that Ghastly had made me. We were now in a dark hallway, with heavy doors either side of us, we continued to walk until we came to a door with a crest engraved on it - a shield and a bear. Skulduggery raised his hands and lowered his head, standing in the position for almost a minute.

The door clicked open and we stepped in.