VALDUGGERY - catch me when I fall

Chapter Eleven ~ Fighting Yourself

Dead.

Technically Skulduggery couldn't die again, but it didn't stop Valkarie stumble around the remains of the burnt ravaged room until she found her own phone under the former sofa.

A terrified and barely audible phone call to Ghastly later, and the house was full of Cleavers, Sanctuary paramedics, Nye and Ghastly. They had all found her crouched over Skulduggery's body, his head back on her lap. It had taken five paramedics to yank her off him, but it was when Nye shook his head and announced that whatever had attacked him had unparalleled and highly damaging powers. That Valkarie had slumped in the strong arms that held her and broken down in unashamed tears.

When Skulduggery was carried past her on a stretcher with Nye scuttling behind, Valkarie had screamed, kicked and punched until someone sedated her. The last thing she was aware of, was feeling her senses shut down as she watched the stretcher being carried further and further away, then her head hit carpet and everything went black.

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...

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Valkarie opened her eyes again, shaking her head to clear away the memory of that haunting hour. She shifted on the thin bed with its crinkly covers and hard mattress, remembering the last time she'd been here. It had been Skulduggery that had woken her, and now she wondered if she would have to do the same for him now...

Desperate for a distraction, Valkarie looked around as if she hadn't already been here. The room was pristine, and with her bloody body she felt like a speck of dirt on a clean sheet of paper, so very noticeable. The injection had numbed out most of the pain, but she still ached. Grimly she dared another glance at her hand, but blanched.

Across the room hundreds of intricate silver instruments hung like an army across part of the wall on polished metal. Looking past a pair of impressive medical pliers and a long silver scalpel Valkarie could make out her own reflection. She looked beaten, and not just on the outside. Her dark eyes were distant and cold. She wondered if this was how she had looked the second Skulduggery's hand had fallen from he cheek.

There was a quiet click from across the room, and she turned in time to see Ghastly entered, followed by a girl Valkarie assumed was a new nurse. She strode over to Valkarie and the closer she got, the more noticeable her age became. She must be about fourteen, though tall for her age, slim with light brown skin and dark hair. Her long medical jacket was open to show a casual shirt and jeans, she looked nothing like a Sanctuary doctor.

The girl walked over to her with the air of one resisting the urge to bound, Valkarie leaned back slightly, trying to think of a reason that she would be here, wearing a doctors jacket, and holding what looked like a bowl of mud.

Valkarie turned to Ghatly, smiled, then tilted her head slightly in the girls direction, Ghastly smiled.

"This is Tarissa Dalis, a doctor from Australia." Valkarie must have looked confused because Ghastly continued. "Tarissa's family have had the raw potential of great adepts in their blood for millenniums. You've heard that magic slows ageing no doubt" he gestured to Tarissa. "She's over fifty years old."

"Fifty two" chirped Tarissa in a light Australian accent, instantly reminding Valkarie of Clarabelle, even more so when Tarissa began to him what sounded far too much like 'Three Little Piggies' as she plonked Valkarie's hand into the bowl of mud. Valkarie sighed as she felt her hand begin to heal, recognising the mud to have magical properties.

Then Valkarie remembered, she wasn't sure quite what made her remember, but something did. And before she knew it her vision had clouded slightly and the mud free hand was gripping Ghastly's wrist, tight. She didn't need to ask, he knew what she wanted. His eyes softened and he gently yet forcefully prised Valkarie's hand off him.