Skulduggery Pleasant One Shots

Death By... (Part 3)

"She...She's...d-dead-" Blurted out Vile. Dexter looked plain afraid now. Excellent. Dexter went to stand up but Vile pushed down his shoulder, cutting off his sobs and drying his face using water manipulation.

"Not so fast." Vile said his voice now even and cold but not as cold as his heart. Vile watched in delight as he saw the confusion leap onto his face and become friends with all the other feelings fighting for room on his face. "You're not going anywhere. Ever."

"But Ghas-" Dexters plea was cut short at the same time as his life. Vile smirked. Dexter really should have listened to Ghastly's desperate pleas to run away from him.

"Oh wait. He can't hear you. Whoops." Thought Vile back to an extremely distressed Ghastly. There were enough people and noise that nobody saw Dexters lifeless body hit the ground. No body cared.

"I never really liked you anyway." Lord Vile said to the shell of man Dexter used to be before putting his depressed facade back up and slouching back into the crowd. Dexter died thinking Ghastly had betrayed them all. That Ghastly killed Valkyrie. Perfect. As Ghastlys body neared Ravel and Tanith he silently swore that Dexter would have the most peaceful death out of everyone in the room.

"One by one they will all fall." Thought Vile, Ghastlys pathetic little yelps of distress music to his ears in much the same fashion as his familys was to Serpines and Ghastlys mothers was to his.

Ravel turned his head slowly around upon hearing Ghastly's footsteps and smiled. Ghastly would be excellent company, all Tanith wanted to talk about was leather and steak. Ravel tilted his head in thought, a trait he had picked up from Skul- Lord Vile. So, she essentially just wanted to talk about dead cows. Weird. Worry crept in when he saw Ghastly looking so... so panicked and depressed. Like he had just done something unspeakable. Ghastly stumbled over closer and Ravel rushed forward and caught Ghastly just before he fell over. Ravel could feel the damp from Ghastly's tears spreading like a bloodstain on his crisp white shirt. Something has seriously wrong if Ghastly would dare dirty this shirt.

Ghastly collapsed forward onto Ravel shuddering, crying, not bothering to hold himself up. "Ghastly! What happened?!" Ravel yelled panicked. He had not seen Ghastly like this since, well, Hopeless or Skulduggery died. He was Skulduggery then. A good and noble man who had lost everything. As far as Ravel was concerned their friend died at the same time as his family and the husk that came back was Lord Vile.

Ghastly tiredly raised his head, still chocking on his sobs he was barely holding back. His eyes glinted with what Ravel assumed was tears but look suspiciously like malice. Later Ravel learnt he should never assume anything.

"I killed Dexter." Ravel very slowly released his hold on Ghastly and looked at him very seriously. Ghastly had stopped crying. Now, he seemed perfectly fine. He remembered seeing Ghastly talking to Dexter at the bar. Ravel quickly glanced over too where they were chatting and noticed Dexter wasn't there. He could have just gone to the bathroom. His eyes glanced down and saw something he would never forget. The body of Dexter Vex. Ravel backed away from Ghastly his hands up. This was the first in a long time he was genuinely afraid.

"What? What are you talking about?" Questioned Erskine, his voice beginning to quiver. He didn't even want to know what Tanith looked like now, Ghastly's evil smirk was enough to overwhelm him. He didn't think he wanted to know the answer.

"Well, I went over, and my new friend killed him. At the time my friend was an enemy and I desperately tried to stop them killing Dexter. But when Dexter was killed by the thing possessing my body, something in me snapped. I realised how much fun watching things burn and squirm and curl up and die is. I'm me right now but as soon as I get bored of you, I'm going to let you meet my little friend." Ghastly calmly explained, delivering the death threat to one of his oldest friends in the same tone you would use to invite them to drink coffee. Ghastly had changed, Ravel knew that much, but who was responsible for this was still a mystery. When he got his hands on that person, they would pay for turning Ghastly into some demented version of Serpine. Ravel had to know who this person was.