Le Début |Skulduggery Pleasant

Chapter 17: A Fabulous Rescue Indeed

Belle Èclipse's POV:

I was laying down on the soft bed and was staring up at the ceiling, deep in thought. Skulduggery had stopped screaming a while ago, so my mind was a little more at ease. But now my thoughts kept going back and forth between what Cauchemar said to me. I sort of feel like she's right... That the Elders will only focus on saving Skulduggery and not me. After all, I am a danger to the Earth and everything on it.

She's such a bitch sometimes...

I sighed and moved so then my feet were hanging over the edge of the bed and I was sitting up. I had taken off my shoes before I began to lay down, so I looked down at my bare feet. I was zoned out of everything that was happening around me until I heard a slight banging sound from the distance. My head shot up, and I was trying to listen for the sound to happen again.

And it did.

At the second bang, I got off of the bed and ran to the door, beginning to bang on it. "Let me out!"

I heard footsteps running towards the door. I banged against it.

"Is that you, Belle?" I heard Ghastly's voice ask.

"Ghastly?!" I asked beginning to smile slightly.

"Step back, Belle," He said.

I moved back and the door flew off of its hinges. Ghastly was standing there so I ran up to him and hugged him. 

"Thank god you're here," I said softly. I stepped back and quickly put my shoes on and grabbed my weapons, excluding my gun. "Let's go then, Ghastly. I'm guessing that Stephanie is somewhere here with you." 

He nodded. "She and Tanith are looking for Skulduggery."

"I know where he is. I went there a couple times," I stated.

We began to run to where Skulduggery was being kept, me in the lead. My head hurt a lot and the whole world seemed like it was spinning, but I continued to run. When we got to the room where Skulduggery was being held, Stephanie was there, with her ear against the door.

"Stephanie, you're going to want to move aside," I said walking to the door with determination.

She quickly moved to the side and I walked to the door, and without missing a beat I kicked it down and walked in. The room was still spinning. 

Skulduggery stopped whistling and looked up, seeing the three of us here. "Oh. Hello. I know where the key to the caves is."

Ghastly went up to him and looked at the shackles holding him. "Quality workmanship."

"I thought you'd appreciate it. There's a binding spell woven into the metal."

"Nice. It'll take me a moment."

"I'm not going anywhere."

I gave a small smile at the exchange between the two friends. "Are you okay?" I asked him softly.

"I've been treated well," he answered with a nod. "Apart from all the torture. It's given me time to think, actually. I know where the key is."

"So you said," Stephanie said.

Ghastly stood up and the shackles fell to the ground.

"Is Meritorious here?" Skulduggery asked.

"He's telling the other Elders what's going on," Ghastly stated.

"Ah," Skulduggery said. "So you're doing this on your own."

"Tanith Low is here, but basically, yes."

I looked at Ghastly and smirked. "Tanith huh?"

Skulduggery shrugged. "I must admit, it's going rather fabulously so far."

"The key," Stephanie said. "Did you tell Serpine where it is?"

"I couldn't have, even if I'd wanted to. Just worked it out a few minutes ago. Simple, really. It was right in front of us." Skulduggery answered.

"We can talk about this later," Ghastly said. "We have to go."

"Will there be fighting?" Skulduggery asked.

"I hope not."

"I'm in the mood for some fighting," Skulduggery stated.

"So am I," I said as well.

"If there is," Stephanie said, handing him his gun, "Here's something you can use."

"Ah, bless, I've missed her. Do you have any bullets?" Skulduggery asked.

"Uh, no," Stephanie said slowly.

Skulduggery paused. "Excellent." He put the gun away.

"Let's go," Ghastly said, stepping out the door.

We all followed suit and began walking down a corridor and turned a corner, running into a group of hollow men. The hollow men froze mid-step and stared at us for a few moments.

"Yes," Skulduggery said. "A fabulous rescue indeed."

The hollow men came at us and Skulduggery, Ghastly and I went into action and began fighting. I took out one of my swords and began slashing at everything in my path. My head was still spinning slightly so I stumbled slightly, but managed to stay on my feet. From the corner of my eye, I could see Tanith joining in the fight from the ceiling. Within a matter of moments, the hollow men were all gone and Tanith flipped and landed on her feet on the ground.

"There are more coming. We should probably leave," She stated.

We reached the stairs without encountering any more opposition, but as we were running for the exit, two massive doors were kicked open ahead, and the hollow men reinforcements arrived.

Skulduggery and Ghastly stepped forward, clicking their fingers and hurling flames at the ground. I watched as they manipulated the flames creating a wall, keeping the hollow men at bay.

Tanith turned to Stephanie. "Coat."

"What?" Stephanie asked. 

I rolled my eyes and without giving an explanation I gripped the collar of Stephanie's coat and took it off of her, giving it to Tanith. Tanith took it and ran to the window, the coat covering her head. She jumped and crashed through the window. There was an explosion of glass.

"Oh," Stephanie murmured.

She ran over to the window, climbing through and Tanith handed her back her coat. 

"Thanks," Tanith said.

I walked over to the window and looked down to see that there was a big drop. I sighed and teleported down there, causing me to get even dizzier. I stumbled a bit and Tanith caught me.

"Are you okay?" She asked concerned.

I nodded, standing back up. 

"Watch out!" Ghastly yelled.

Stephanie, Tanith and I all moved to the side and watched as Skulduggery and Ghastly both jumped out of the window. Ghastly was lower down than Skulduggery and they hit the grass, rolling and coming up at the same time.

"Flee," Skulduggery said.

We ran to the wall that surrounded the castle. While we were running I saw a cleaver off to the side that looked like it was torn to pieces. When we got to the wall, Ghastly wrapped one of his arms around me and used the wind to lift us off of the ground and over the wall. Out feet touched the grass and Ghastly let me go. I felt my knees go weak and I fell down. 

"Belle?" Ghastly asked.

I felt my eyes close, but I didn't go unconscious. I felt boney arms lift me up and my head rested against Skulduggery's chest as he carried me. 

"What's wrong with her?" I heard Stephanie ask.

"She's just tired. She needs rest," Tanith answered.