And The Darkness Rained Upon Her (ON HOLD)

Into the Unknown

Skulduggery dodged the attack, barely. On cue, Hollow men entered the room. Skulduggery was tackling Serpine to the ground when he yelled: "Valkyrie, Run!!".

She ran.

She turned and sprinted. She ran into the hallway again (The last time she'll be doing this, I promise) and heard the paper creatures behind her. She took a sharp turn and looked back to see some of the paper creatures slam against a wall before once more being hot on her trail.

From somewhere within the house she heard loud crashes and thuds and breaking of glass and she hoped that they were coming from Skulduggery beating Serpine up and not vice versa.

She reached a staircase and climbed it. All this running was taking a toll on her. She opened a door, and entered a room. It was her uncle's study. She grabbed whatever furniture there was, desk, sofa, chair and used it to jam the door.

The door was being slammed at and a part of Valkyrie's mind wondered how papery creatures could have enough mass to even make a tiny little thud on the door let alone almost blow it off its hinges. She was looking around to try and find a place to hide. There wasn't any place good enough though.

Her eyes then fell upon the window which she opened and kept open before she drew back the desk from the door, and turned it around so that the open side of the desk was facing the wall and the closed side of the desk was facing outwards before she slipped in underneath the desk and made sure it was pressed firmly against the wall.

(If you are wondering what kind of desk I'm talking about, it's the ones with three of its sides closed but one of them is open so you can tuck your chair in or hide when paper-like men want to kill you)

The door flew open and the furniture was shoved to a side. The Hollowmen entered the room and they spread out, searching for the dark-haired 12-year-old. Valkyrie couldn't see them, she couldn't hear their footsteps and she couldn't smell them.

Her heart was pounding, adrenaline was ready to help when running would once more be necessary and her breath was slowed down in order for it to be quiet. She tried to hear them. She tried to hear anything that would give them away. And then she did.

In a time of crisis, it is said that one's senses are heightened to allow them a better chance of survival. This allowed Valkryie to hear the bearly audible sounds of the rustling of paper. The rustle stopped a few times and started again before the sound of rustling became distant until they could be heard no more.

Valkyrie peeked up from her hiding place to see that the room was empty and the door was wide open. She got up and walked slowly towards the door, relief washing over her. She poked her head outside the door and looked both ways. No one there.

The house had gotten eerily quiet as Valkyrie made her way down the staircase. She passed the glass door that led to the garden. It was open. They probably thought she jumped out the window. She had trouble believing how dumb they were.

She crept back to the living room to find a supposedly unconscious Skulduggery lying on the floor in shackles. Serpine stood over Skulduggery and was talking to a Hollowman or talking to himself because the Hollowman gave no response.

"You LOST her?!" snarled Serpine.

Pause.

"How can you lose a child?!"

Pause.

"You are doing what?!"

pause.

"You imbecile, how can a child jump off a building and run far enough to escape a group of creature who was basically built for killing?"

Pause.

"She is probably still in this house. Go and look for her and don't come back empty-handed or else..." Serpine's hand glowed with purple light and the hollow man went to find the rest of them to let them know what their boss had said, probably

Serpine rubbed the bridge of his nose and went to the kitchen, probably to make some tea or something as he grabbed a bag of tea, a cup, a kettle, some sugar and a spoon.

While he was busy making tea, Valkyrie crept up to Skulduggery and nudged him.

"Psst!" she whisper-yelled. "Skulduggery!" Skulduggery stirred.

Valkyrie shook him gently. Skulduggery moaned in pain. Valkyrie looked up and heard Serpine returning and she hid behind the sofa.

Serpine approached Skulduggery's body and saw him stirring. He kicked him hard enough to get him rolling. When Skulduggery's rolling stopped, his stirring did too. Valkyrie stopped herself from launching herself onto the green-eyed man and stabbing him to death with a pencil.

Serpine turned, muttering something about Skulduggery having a thick skull, and was heading back to the kitchen when his eye found the mirror.

Valkyrie found her own eyes moving towards the mirror as well. Valkyrie froze as their eyes made contact.

Valkyrie looked at Serpine. Serpine snarled at Valkyrie.

Valkyrie backed away from the sofa as Serpine turned. Serpine looked at her and smiled before raising his arm but before he could end her, Skulduggery threw a vase at him. It smashed upon impact.

"And I have a thick skull?" yelled Skulduggery.

Serpine cursed and Valkyrie saw this as a perfect opportunity to get the fuck away from there.

She backed away, feeling kind of guilty when she heard Skulduggery's grunts and cries and went for the first door she could see. She ran in whilst looking back at the two and her lack of mindfulness came back to bite her. Turns out, she had opened the door to the basement. She stumbled and fell down the stairs.

When her rolling came to a stop, she got up, groaning, and was about to climb up the stairs when she heard footsteps approaching her.

Valkyrie started to panic. If she went up she would be killed was all that registered in her mind and all her mind wanted to do was to move in the opposite direction of where Serpine was.

She was scared. No, she was terrified. She was going to die and she knew it.

She entered the basement part of the basement and then paused for a millisecond. The door to the cave was open. Skulduggery must have forgotten to close it. A part of her mind was telling her to go in while the other disagreed saying that it was too dangerous.

It all changed when she heard feet hit the steps. She had made her decision.

She put her big girl pants on and ran into the unknown.

Serpine reached the end of the stairs just in time to see Valkyrie hurry into The Void. He wasn't going to follow her. Of course, he wasn't. Only a fool would enter The Void unprepared. Besides, the quicker he gets Pleasant locked up the better. If one thing their long history together has taught Serpine, it's that Pleasant can be a very resourceful man. 

Serpine walked over to the key and pulled it out and the door to the Void closed shut. He would come back later to get the Sceptre of the Ancients when he has a larger stack of Hollowmen with him (Get it? stack? As in stack of paper?) but for now he will return to his castle and get Pleasant chained up.

And with that, he was gone.