Skulduggery Pleasant - Becoming Whole (Valduggery)

11

True feeling

Skulduggery lead his 'band of merry men', as he had started to call them against their will, into the darkness of the woods. Owls cooed and tress creaked against the wind, and the merry men did little else but complain contrary to their group name. "How much further now, Mr Pleasant." Asked the graduate with the London accent who insisted his chosen name was Jack Black.

"Jack, if you ask me that question one more time, I may be compelled to hit you with this stick." Skulduggery turned to face him holding a meter long stick.

"You wouldn't dare, China will-"

"China will what? You're all useless." He sighed to himself. "You should just let me put you all out of your misery. Surely I would be doing you a favour, would I not?"

All of the merry men chuckled under their breaths.

"Come on. We haven't even been walking long." He spoke as he began to walk.

"It's been four hours." The new vampire spoke up. "I'm getting hungry, and Jack is beginning to look very appetising." She stared over at him and drooled so Jack moved out of reach.

Skulduggery did little else but stare, "Jack hasn't annoyed me enough to become food yet. Now hurry up before I leave you all behind."

"Fine but I'd better be getting experience marks for this." Jack spoke.

"Experience marks?" Skulduggery questioned.

"If we find what you are looking for, the grand Mage says we get marks which we can add onto our CV's. You know? In case we want to become detectives like you and miss Cain."

"You need a CV now to become a detective for the high sanctuary? What a load of sh-"

"She also said we could use you as a reference, should anyone need one."

"She did what? I never agreed to this." He declared.

"So no reference then?"

"I'm afraid not, Jack."

"So all of this was pointless really." His head sagged as he kicked a load of dirt.

"If you call saving Valkyrie pointless then I suppose yes, it was pointless." Anger in Skulduggery's voice.

"I mean, Skull dude," The male vampire spoke up. "It's not as if we even know who this chic is. So why should we even bother saving her? I don't think she's worth all of this." He gestured around the woods. At this point, Skulduggery's temper wavered, he shot across to the vampire causing him to loose balance and fall to the ground, his hat leaving his head. Before the vampire even knew what was happening he had a gun pressed firmly against his temple. The rest of the merry men gasped in shock.

"This 'chic' as you so gracefully called her, has saved your life more times than you know. In fact, she's saved all of your lives and the rest of the worlds. I'm not even afraid to admit she's saved mine so many times and in many ways, so don't you dare say that she is not worth the hassle." Skulduggery shouted.

"Jeez sorry, Skull dude." The vampire held his dirty hands in the air for surrender. "I didn't realise she meant so much to you."

Skulduggery didn't move his gun neither did he make an attempt to move himself off the vampire. All he did was stare into his eyes.

"Hey, come on. I apologised!" The vampire tried.

"Yeah, come on Skulduggery, put the gun away." Jack spoke up whilst motioning his hands down to the ground. And then, almost as if a light had been switched, he put the gun away and stood up. Skulduggery then carried on in the direction they were headed as if nothing had happened, leaving the vampire on the floor confused.

"You not even going to apologise? I mean what the hell was that?" The vampire began to stand up and brushed the dirt from off his black clothes before picking back up His hat and putting it on his head. "If I had known she was your girlfriend I wouldn't have said anything."

Skulduggery didn't turn, he didn't correct the vampire or speak at all, he just kept forward hiding the pain he was feeling. His mind wandered to Valkyrie and pondered on what she could be doing. So he fumbled for his phone and opened his and hers texts. He typed out a message.

'Just checking in since you haven't checked in yourself. Are you managing to stay awake?'

Five minutes past before he received a reply from her.

'Sorry, I didn't want to interrupt you whilst you were out. I've been in the shower to try stay awake. How's it going with the people China recruited?'

'In all honesty, they're terrible.'

'Knew you wouldn't be able to replace me.'

Skulduggery would have smiled if he was able.
'Replace you? Never.'