I Cut My Hand In A Piece Of Glass And I Hope The Scar Last

You Were A Bandit, And I Was A Car Wreck

It's cold outside.

Valkyrie Cain is just outside of the sanctuary, sitting on the hard ground, back supported by the concrete wall, looking over at the lake and all the kinds of different trees that surround it, there are leaves on the ground, there is not even one tree that survived the forceful wind that comes all winters.

She likes the cold. Makes her feel less numb.

There is a spider on the nearest tree to her.

It's about the size of Valkyrie's hand, fingers as long as its thin and hairy legs. It walks confidently, quickly crawling down the tree towards the ground like it has a purpose.

Maybe it wants to frighten her, get her away of its territory.

"I could kill you," Valkyrie warns. "Fry you."

The spider follows its journey. Valkyrie narrows her eyes as she watches the spider walk to the girl's boot, clambering over her buckles and laces towards the tip of her toes. She wonders wheter the tiny animal understands what it's walking on, a thing that could easily squash it.

The spider stays there. It's perched on the tip of the girl's boot, perfectly content after the long track to the top.

Valkyrie stares at it for a long time, just watching it exist.

She doesn't think she can do it, living life like before Darquesse, like before she killed all that unknown and known people, like before she killed her sister.

She doesn't remember how she did it before, how she used to turn off and on the switch whenever she wanted to. Skulduggery had taught that to her a long time ago. There's a switch inside everyone's minds and when you have to do bad things, when you don't have time to think what the moral thing would be, when it's you or them, you need to turn that switch on because there are people depending on you. You can't hesitate or someone could die. It's you or them. And it's always going to be us. Has to be us.

Now, it only works sometimes.

She has to prepare for it and concentrate. Before, it was like blinking, came natural to her. But she needs to be ready. She won't be able to stand watching someone else she knows die, won't let it happen again.

Her phone rings.

She shakes her head and leans it against the wall while answering the phone, it's Skulduggery Pleasant.

He's meeting her at the Bentley in 5 minutes. They have a new case.

She closes her eyes for a few seconds, she doesn't want to get up, she feels safe when she is close to the ground, sitting, laying down, crouched. Doesn't matter.

The girl looks at the spider again. It is still there. She doesn't want to disturb it. It seems peaceful on the tip of her boot.

Valkyrie sighs. She moves her boot from left to right and the spider sways with it, unbothered.

"I'll fuck you up, you know," Valkyrie tells the spider on her boot. "That what you want? I could make it a good death, you'll never see it coming. Well I think you have like a million eyes or something, maybe you'll see it coming. Maybe dying it's painful no matter how you die. Who knows right? It's not like the people I know had painless deaths."

The spider doesn't react.

Her phone rings againg, the five minutes she had have passed away.

She doesn't pick up, lets it ring until it stops. Then she reaches out and brushes the spider off her boot before standing up.

"Duty's calling. We'll talk another time," she walks away.

. . .

An hour later they are parked in the middle of a forest within eyesight of the 3 story house of Malnan Gili. It looks like nobody lives in there anymore.