Le Début |Skulduggery Pleasant

Chapter 31: Feelings Revealed

Belle Èclipse's POV:

I straightened out my dress while looking in the full-length mirror that was in my bedroom. I was nervous about what was going to happen within the next couple hours. 

I'm going to tell Skulduggery about how I really feel about him...

I moved away from the mirror and towards the dressing table that was on the far side of my fairly plain bedroom. I picked up my favourite perfume and sprayed it on my neck. I knew that Skulduggery couldn't smell anything, but I still felt the weird need to put it on in order to impress him. 

I always felt the need to impress him.

I looked around my bedroom one final time to see if I was forgetting anything. It didn't seem like I was, so I took a deep breath and then teleported to Skulduggery's house. I didn't exactly know what 'going out for dinner' meant when a skeleton asked you, but I sort of expected it to be at his house. 

Apparently, I was wrong. 

When I first teleported into his loungeroom, he was nowhere in sight. I looked around at my surroundings and took in the little things that I loved about Skulduggery's house. Like the way that there's dust on some surfaces, but then on some others, they were spotless; whenever I use to come here, I would always clean up his house, he never really put in the effort into cleaning. 

"Skulduggery?" I called out. 

"Just a second, Belle," he called out from his bedroom.

I looked around the room again and decided to sit down on the sofa. I smoothed out the skirt of my dress as I sat down, I suddenly felt awkward in a house that I've spent so many years in. I looked down at my hands that were sitting in my lap. They were wrapped in bandages from my training earlier today which had caused all of my hands to split open. I knew that they were going to scare badly.

Skulduggery came out of his bedroom wearing a suit that I've never seen him in before. I stood up and turned my body in order to face him. 

"You look lovely, Belle," Skulduggery complimented me.

I could feel myself begin to blush. "Thank you, Skulduggery," I paused for a second. "You look nice as well."

He nodded once. "Thank you, Belle."

"So where are we going? I'm guessing nowhere overly public since you're not wearing your disguise, and you don't eat."

"You'll see, Belle."

I tilted my head slightly but followed him outside his front door and to the Bentley.  For the first couple of minutes of driving, we were in silence, I was looking out the window just watching the trees pass by in a slight blur before it clicked in my head where he was driving us.

"We're going to Ghastly's," I stated, turning my head to look at the skeleton next to me.

He nodded. "That we are. I knew that it wouldn't be long before you figured it out."

"So, why Ghastly's? Why didn't we just stay at your house?" I questioned, narrowing my eyes at him slightly.

His shoulders moved slightly as if he was sighing at me. "Because Belle, I know that you need a break from everything, and nobody would expect us to go to Ghastly's shop without him being there."

I didn't continue the conversation from there, sometimes I wish that I had have, that I had have taken every opportunity that I had to talk to him. But instead, I just continued to look out the window at the trees and a few buildings pass by.

After I don't even know how long we arrived at Ghastly's shop. Skulduggery stopped the car and quickly walked around the car to open the door for me to get out.

I smiled at him, feeling my cheeks turn pink slightly. "Thank you."

He nodded as I got out of the car and he held his arm out for me to hold as we walked into the shop. There was a different smell as we entered, usually, Ghastly's shop would smell of materials and it was always slightly musty, but tonight as we entered, it smelt of something else, something delicious.

Skulduggery led me up the stairs to the roof, where instead of an empty space with a training mat in the centre, it had a table and two chairs with one place set and the other blank.

"I know that it's stupid, but I think I'll feel weird eating in front of you while you're not," I stated as we sat down.

He laughed slightly. "Belle, I'm a skeleton, don't feel bad for eating in front of me. Besides, you've done it many times before."

I shrugged with a small smile on my face. "Yeah, I know that. But it was never just us to sitting down and talking. It was always either at your house or my house while we looked over case files, or me with my head out of the window because you don't like people eating or drinking anything in the Bentley."

He nodded his head. "True. But we're just two friends sitting down and talking while you just happen to be eating."

I sighed and shook my head. "Fine. Was there anything, in particular, you wanted to talk about?"

He shrugged. "Well there's no point in beating around the bush now is there? I know that deep down you still loved Serpine and that when I killed him, it must've hurt to see the one you love die."

"Ah, that's where you're wrong, my dear detective. I haven't loved Nefarian in a long time."

Skulduggery tilted his head to the side slightly. "But you were so worried. You even teleported ahead of us in order to try and change the events that you had seen."

I gave him a small smile. "I honestly and truly hope that Nefarian Serpine is burning in the darkest depths of whatever hell he went to," I paused for a second. "And besides, I teleported ahead because I had seen something else, it was in some kind of alternate timeline. But I knew that no matter what happened to me, I needed to stop it from happening."

"What did you see?"

"I saw you die. But then I killed Nefarian from the furry I felt."

"Why were you so mad about me dying?"

I laughed slightly and closed my eyes. I opened them after a second and began talking again. "And here I was sitting thinking that you knew everything. You're actually really oblivious considering you're the 'Great Skeleton Detective'."

"Whatever are you talking about, Belle?"

"I haven't loved Nefarian in years. I got mad in my vision because Nefarian had killed the one that I truly love!"

"What?"

My eyes widened at what I had said and I shook my head. "Forget about it. Thank you for distracting me for a couple moments," I paused. "Also, I've decided to take the job at the Sanctuary. I sadly won't be on any cases with you anymore, Skulduggery."

"Wait. Belle."

"Goodbye, Skulduggery."

I teleported away from the rooftop. And away from my love.

Who am I kidding?

He was never my love.