Valkyrie has a gun

Need to live

"Skulduggery. Hey Skul?" 

Automatically I reached into my jacket trying to find my gun with my right hand and clicked my left hand into a flaming fireball. 

"AGH!!!! MY HAIR!!!!" 

I sat up and looked around. Fletcher was standing very far away from me, his hands on his hair that was so full of hair gel just being around my fireball was very dangerous to his health. Ghastly was kneeling down next to me and Kenspeckle was next to me glaring at me like I had the gall to live. 

"Could you not set me on fire?!" Fletcher yelled. 

I extinguished the flame in my hand and tilted my head at Ghastly. 

"What is going on?" I asked. 

Ghastly looked concerned. "Uh that is what I was going to ask you," he said slowly. 

"Where is Valkyrie?" Kenspeckle demanded holding up his medical kit. "If you look this bad, she has got to be in need of immediate medical attention." 

"Valkyrie," I thought. "How do I explain this?" I looked over at the burning pile of Wreath's remains and said, "How did you know where to find us?" 

Ghastly held up his phone. "Valkyrie called me. She was hysterical. She kept screaming you were dead and that Darquesses was winning. I got this location out of her before the line went dead." 

I stood up and immediately felt a searing pain in my skull. 

"Whoa there detective," Kenspeckle said, jumping up to help steady me. "You look like you have been through the wringer." I looked down at my arms and could see blacked bones and tiny hairline cracks. "That's where Darquesse held my arms," I thought. There was also a green goo that was coating the bones. 

"Is this your work Kenspeckle?" I said pointing at my arms. 

"Yes of course it is. I am a doctor and no matter how much I hate you, I still can't stand to see someone in too much pain," he grumbled. 

I nodded. "How very generous of you." 

"Uh Skulduggery you still haven't answered Kenspeckle's question of where Valkyrie is?" Fletcher said. I looked back at him and that is when I saw it. 

"Well when were you guys going to mention that?" I said pointing at the smoking city behind him. 

Ghastly put his hand on my shoulder and said, "There are reports coming in that Darquesse is finally here and destroying the city." 

"So Darquesse must have pushed Valkyrie back after she thought I had died. Or maybe she made Valkyrie think that I died," I muttered. 

"What was that?" Ghastly asked. I looked at the three of them and realized that with Valkyrie/Darquesse destroying the city, they were bound to find out sooner or later. 

"Valkyrie is going to be ok guys. We just have to get her back from Darquesse." 

Fletcher's face grew grim. "Darquesse has Valkyrie?" I looked at him and realized he still loved her even though she had told me multiple times that she did not love him back. 

"Valkyrie is Darquesse," I said. I bent down and picked up my gun. Not looking at the others, I started to load the gun while talking. "She found out awhile back and told me one day. I told her that we would find a way to stop Darquesse from taking over and hurting anyone. We came here today to talk to Wreath but as you can see there..." I gestured over to Wreath's body. "Darquesse did not like Wreath...what a shocker. Anyways..." I looked up at everyone. "I told her that we would make sure that we would stop Darquesse. I failed in that promise to her." I put my gun back into my jacket. "I am not going to fail her again." 

Ghastly's face was calm and cool. He seemed to be upset and I was sure it was about the secret I had just told them all but he nodded and said, "We won't fail her." Kenspeckle and Fletcher on the other hand were exploding with anger and many expletives. 

"Skeleton!!!! I blame all of this on you!!!!" Kenspeckle shouted. Fletcher charged at me, anger on his face and tried to throw a punch. I easily dodged his attack and splayed my hands out and forced him back with the air. 

"This is all your fault Skulduggery!" Fletcher yelled. He vanished from in front of me. "She is in this mess because of you. You always get her into some kind of trouble then act like the hero while trying to rescue her!! You don't care about her!!" 

I whirled around and my fist caught his face as he tried to jump me from a mid air teleportation. My punch knocked him back and he fell hard onto the ground. I raced over and grabbed him by his shirt. 

"Skulduggery!" I heard Ghastly call out, but I didn't care. My voice was murderous. 

"I care for Valkyrie more than you could ever know," I said, putting my skull close to his face. "You will never know how much it hurts me to see her suffering like this. How I blame myself every waking moment for this pain that she is enduring." I clenched my hands tighter on his shirt. "She is alone out there right now and I am not able to help her, to comfort her, to give her the strength that she has always given me. And that makes me very angry right now. And you dare to tell me everything I already know and even accuse me of not caring about her?!" Fletcher's face was full of anger and I could see that he wanted to argue with me. "Don't you ever tell me that I don't care about her," I whispered. "I love that girl, more than you ever could!" I threw Fletcher to the ground and turned around and started walking toward the burning city. 

"Skulduggery!" I heard Ghastly run up next to me. 

"Not now Ghastly," I muttered. 

"Hey you are going to need the help getting her back," he said as we walked past the Bentley. "I figure as your closest friend I help you save the woman you love." I looked over at him and said, "Thanks Ghastly." He nodded. 

"Hey you two hooligans wait up." Kenspeckle came running over to us. "Don't you two dare to think that you could leave me behind when my favorite patient is probably in need of medical help." I caught a glimpse of Ghastly rolling his eyes. I nodded and said, "Absolutely professor. Just know that it is going to get dangerous though." I looked back to where we had left Fletcher but he was nowhere in sight. 

"He already flittered out of sight detective," Kenspeckle said. I sighed and turned back around. 

"Did he say anything?" Ghastly asked. 

"Come to think of it I heard a lot of profanity being used in conjunction with your name skeleton. Something about you better not get in his way," Kenspeckle chuckled. I sighed again as we continued making our way to the heart of the city. 

"He will never understand," I said.....