Skulduggery Pleasant - Night of the Dying Rose

Chapter 25- Forgotten

Skulduggery lunged, grabbing Valkyrie's arm and flinging her up as spears of darkness slammed into the ground at where she had just been, Little Rose giggled, the shadows convulsing with her laughter, and she slowly followed Skulduggery and Valkyrie as they broke into a sprint, they had no idea where they were going. Away from Rose was the main thing in their minds. They zigzagged through corridors, Valkyrie's lungs already screaming, and they tried to reach the exit, but of course it was impossible. Little Rose shadow-walked in front of them, cutting them off, toying with them with a grin beneath the shadow mask.

"Lower levels, go!" Skulduggery pushed Valkyrie, and she half stumbled down the steps close to them. Little Rose shadow-walked every other few steps, but she never caught them, she always appeared just a step away, giggling every time she did.

"She's leading us somewhere, but where?" Valkyrie panted.

"I'm sure we'll find out soon enough." Skulduggery replied as he ran.

"Do we even have a plan?!"

"Not in the slightest, but I'll improvise, I'm good at that, now run faster!"

Valkyrie did so, but she didn't stop shouting. "We can't beat her without a plan!"

"Of course we can, we're us!"

Valkyrie grumbled, and piled on speed even more, Skulduggery keeping up, but the running was short lived as they came across one room, and a dead end.

Little Rose shadow-walked into the one room as they halted, grinning. "Looks like you're cut off." Shadows rose, blocking the way they had come from, well there was no going back now.

Skulduggery slowly straightened, and he looked at Little Rose for a few moments. And then his head tilted in that way when Valkyrie knew he had formulated an idea, one that would most likely succeed, So Skulduggery stared down Little Rose, sliding his hands into his pockets. "So it may seem." Skulduggery replied breezily, Valkyrie frowned at his care-free tone.

Little Rose tilted her head, sitting on a clump of shadows, floating a few feet in the air. "You don't seem too afraid." She mused.

Skulduggery shrugged. "That is true, but it's more because I'm trying not to laugh at your errors and stupidity Maisie."

Little Rose paused, glaring at Skulduggery from beneath her mask. "I'm not Maisie anymore, she's long gone, and how in the world am I stupid, and why would you wish to tread on even thinner ice?"

Skulduggery straightened his tie, giving Valkyrie a warning squeeze on her shoulder, for a moment, Valkyrie frowned, but then, she understood.

Skulduggery began to walk forwards towards Little Rose, and the armour grew spikes in warning, he didn't falter. "Did you love your parents Maisie?"

Little Rose narrowed her eyes. "One, stop calling me that, and Two, If I loved them, would I have killed them?"

Skulduggery shrugged on shoulder. "Love can be portrayed in many ways, you could kill them so they are waiting for you in Hell, so you can suffer punishments from only them, or you wanted to remove them from this world because of its misery and corruption, or you just wanted to protect them from other parents. Whatever the case may be, I am still willing to bet that you loved your parents at some point Maisie, if all the time."

Little Rose stepped off the shadows, and they began to convulse in deadly tendrils as her anger rose. "Stop. Calling me. That."

"I'm right though aren't I? Your parents, you loved them, they just didn't love you, didn't understand you, you just want to be understood, is that right Maisie?"

Little Rose clenched her fists, the shadows growing larger. "Shut. Up."

What Little Rose didn't notice, was how tight the armour was getting around her with each moment her anger rose.

"Or what Maisie? You will grind my bones to dust like you tried before? I doubt that'll work, you didn't follow through on it, you like having us alive, because you're not truly trying to get the Book of Names. You're lonely. You wanted me to play this game with you, and kill Valkyrie to make sure she's out of the way of it, you're still a little girl playing tag or hide and seek with magic. You seem to forget, that you're just a troubled child Maisie."

"SHUT UP!" Little Rose yelled, and the shadows burst forth, but they stopped before they hit Skulduggery, Little Rose's eyes widened in surprise.

"What...?" She whispered, then went back to yelling. "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!"

Skulduggery shook his head. "I haven't done anything Maisie, you seem to have forgotten that I created the armour, that I myself am Lord Vile even without the armour. You seem to forget that my anger hones that armour. Not yours...so what happens if the armour doesn't recognise your anger...and is suddenly attacked?"

Valkyrie shot forth, white lightning bursting from her fingertips, striking Little Rose square in the chest, she screamed as the shadows exploded, and caved in on her. Skulduggery tackled Valkyrie to the ground to avoid the shadows from turning them to ribbons, and they could only watch as the armour tore Little Rose apart. Magic against magic never lead to any good results. Little Rose screamed once more, and Valkyrie could see tears cascading down her cheeks, not just from pain, but from also her life flashing before her eyes within her last moments. She couldn't help but feel a pang of guilt for aiding in the death of a child. Rose sobbed once more, before a shadow slashed, and her head came apart from her body, and what was left of her crumpled to the ground. The head rolled, coming to a stop before Skulduggery and Valkyrie, it blinked, the tears blinding her sight, and she whispered her final word. 

"Mummy..." And then she was still.