The Midnight Game - Skulduggery Pleasant Fanfiction

Chapter 2 - 00:36

Nothing happened for about half an hour. Valkyrie had to admit, she was beginning to doubt this was real.

But the fear was 100% real, and that was enough to keep her moving. Part of her was moving to avoid the Midnight Man. The other part was moving to find the others. If she could find even just one of them, maybe this wouldn't be so frightening.

Another contributing factor to the fear was the old, creepy house. She could only see a few feet around her because the candle wasn't particularly bright, and she had to be careful. A couple of times she had almost tripped over loose carpeting or boxes. And that would cause her candle to go out. And she really didn't want that.

With every move she made, something creaked. The wind was starting to pick up outside and it buffeted against the house, howling in anguish. It seemed fitting. Just like a horror movie.

Just like a horror movie.

Valkyrie took a right where the hallway came to a T-junction and frowned. The hallway came to a dead end where there was what appeared to be a bathroom. She didn't really want to loop back on herself - that would make her easier to find. She took a few steps down the corridor and saw that there was a door adjacent to the bathroom. That door could be just another room...or it could offer her somewhere else to go.

She advanced down the hallway and the closer she got to that bathroom, the more afraid she became. For no particular reason, she shuddered. She felt cold all of a sudden, like all the happiness had been drained from the world. She quickened her pace - she had to get to that door quicker, but the faster she moved the more likely it was her candle would burn out.

She reached the adjacent door and put her hand on it, every intention of just pushing it open and wandering in, but something made her pause. Something made her turn. Something made her look right where she didn't want to look; in the corner of her eye.

Behind the shower curtain in the bathroom stood a motionless, dark figure. And it was watching her.

Without even contemplating the logic in her decision, she abandoned the door and half sprinted back down the hallway, partly slowing down so her candle wouldn't go out, partly slowing down because she didn't want that figure to surprise her round the corner. Her heart seemed to be trapped in her throat and she was shaking. She checked herself when she was sure no one was about to jump out at her. Candle, lighter and salt. All there. Dignity and confidence? Maybe not present, but she could live without them. Any doubt in her mind that this was real had well and truly vanished. That dark figure had to be the Midnight Man.

She checked her watch. It was only 36 minutes past midnight. She had another three hours to go.  Three hours. Three hours of running from something she had no power over, something she had no way of fighting.

As she came to another set of stairs, this time leading down, she wondered where the others were and if they were okay. She'd thought just a few minutes ago that it was far too early for anything to really have happened, but based on what she'd just seen she realised that right now, any one of them could be dead. Any one of them could be suffering terrible hallucinations. The Dead Men, at this point in time, could be one less.

Valkyrie tried not to linger on the thought. The idea of Skulduggery gone for good was something she'd rather not imagine.

She followed the stairs down so she was back on the ground floor. It made her feel safer, for some reason. She'd always felt vulnerable when upstairs. Like there was nowhere to run.

Run. That was what her brain kept telling her, over and over. Run away. Kick that God damn door down and just run as far into the trees as possible...but the instructions had told her not to. Even though it didn't specify what would happen if she did, she was certain it wasn't going to end with rainbow unicorns and angels farting stars.

And then her candle went out.

"Fuck." She said aloud, fumbling with the lighter. She could hear the clock, hear the ticking of the second hand. She managed to relight her candle in a short enough space of time and she breathed out, moving downstairs quickly, legs trembling, heart thumping against her ribcage, demanding release, threatening to explode otherwise. She told herself to move faster - moving as slowly as she did had caused him to find her.

She moved with absolutely no plan now, taking random turns, doubling back on herself at dead ends. If there were any open doors she didn't look in, just in case he was there. She could feel her mind melting, losing all rational thought and logic. There was no confidence left in her body. Sure enough, this house was slowly making her go crazy. She needed to find one of the others. How could they have been walking for this long and not have so much as heard each other? It occured to her that if they were all moving around, they were probably crossing over each other at different levels of the house. She assumed there were more than two floors. Four floors, actually, if she'd counted correctly at the initiation of the game.

At some point, Valkyrie found herself back on the first floor and near the bathroom again. She was torn. She didn't want to look in case he was there...but the temptation to peek was so strong. Why? Why, when something is remotely inadvisable, do humans find it so tempting to disobey?

She did it - she peeked, and the shower curtain was just a shower curtain. No sinister figure, no chilled fingers tickling her spine. She wasn't sure whether to be relieved or afraid; relieved because he wasn't there...or afraid, because...

Where was he now?

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Three hours left.

Will Valkyrie be okay? Where are the Dead Men right now?

Vote and comment darlings x

Magic xxx