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Lost Flame: Chapter Eight

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:bulletorange: Skuludggery Pleasant: Lost Flame :bulletorange:

Chapter Eight: The Ascension of a Star





"How does she get me into situations like this?" Skulduggery wondered as he took off his coat and folded it neatly on his seat.

"Hurry up Skully," Luny shouted impatiently. "We're burning daylight and Cainey needs us!"

Skulduggery muttered something about killing his sister, when Alanna walked over to him briskly. The delicate woman turned the skeleton around to face her.

"Alanna," he said quietly eyeing her carefully, as if the red haired mage was a ticking time bomb.

Her eyes were still wet from tears, but instead of being red rimed and weepy they sparkled beautifully in the sunlight. Not that there were many sun rays left, as it was seven o'clock. Alanna stared at him for a moment before she took his skull in her hands and kissed his skeletal face.

Skulduggery gently pulled back after a moment, cupping her heart-shaped face in his skeletal fingers. The living skeleton leaned his forehead against hers and sighed deeply, taking in the smell of her, remembering the life he had had.

"Why can't things be the way that they were?" Alanna said remorsefully, wrapping her hands around Skulduggery's waist.

"Because good things never last," Skulduggery answered, hugging her small body to his as he gently stroked her hair.

They remained silent for a moment before Alanna let go of him and looked up into his eye-sockets. "I know that if it comes down to a decision you will choose Valkyrie."

Skulduggery began to protest, but she placed her pointer finger over his mouth region.

"Please. . . Don't hesitate." She whispered much to the living skeleton's surprise.

"What?"

"Neither Celina or I, are truly living Skulduggery. I live in fear, a shadow of what I once was. And Celina lives only for vengeance and pain. If you make a choice, choose Valkyrie Cain."

She took his long hand in her own and squeezed it reassuringly. "We have nothing more to give this world, you must let us pass on into the next."

Skulduggery pulled her back into a hug, "That is not true Alanna. There will always be more to give and more to take. You're just giving up."

"Maybe I am," she said with a sad little smile. "But at least I know where I stand. I trust you to make the right decision when the time comes."

"How can I choose between two people that I love, Lann? How can I take one and let go of the other? What if I make the wrong decision?" He rambled, unshed tears coming out in his voice.

"You'll know what to do. You always have in the past, my love." Alanna said, nuzzling him tenderly.

"Are you guys gonna snuggle, or are we going to save Valkyrie tonight?" Luny called over to them, tapping her foot in annoyance. "Come on, let's go!"

Alanna smiled looking to Skulduggery, "Shall we?"

Skulduggery nodded, "Let's go."

They walked over to where Ghastly and Luny stood, still holding hands; the long skeletal one encased within the smooth one made of flesh.

"How do we get in," Ghastly asked looking down into the depths of the lake warily.

"Why Ghastly, we swim, of course." Luny said with a giggle as she plunged head first into the cold water.

"She really needs some help." Skulduggery muttered.

"That she does," Ghastly agreed before he jumped in after her.

"Ladies first," Skulduggery said gesturing for her to enter the lake.

Alanna smiled at him and did a back flip into the almost black water.

Skulduggery took one last look at the setting sun, before he dived after his friends, into the water.




Valkyrie slumped against the wall where she had been tied up, again. And her cheek was bleeding profusely after the skinning it had just received and she wanted nothing more then to turn the knife back on Celina. She wanted to struggle, to put up a fight, but the knife had done something to her. The second it had pierced her skin, she had lost all energy. It was almost as if her body had been . . . poisoned.

"Do you know what kind of knife this is, Miss Cain?" Celina asked as she polished the wicked blade with care.

When Valkyrie didn't answer the girl continued, "It's a Tramiquian Blade."

Somewhere in the back of her mind, Valkyrie knew she had heard that name before. Then after a moment of hard thought, it hit her. A Tramiquian Blade was the same type of knife Celina had been injured with when Alanna had thought she was dead.

"I suppose you using the same type of knife that nearly killed you, has a purpose?" Valkyrie asked in a hoarse whisper.

"You're not as dumb as you seem, Cain." Celina said nodding. "I figure that the skeleton Detective will suffer immensely if he finds you stabbed to death with the same instrument that murdered me."

"But it didn't murder you," Valkyrie spat, willing her arms to move. She got them to twitch, but besides that there was no other movement.

"Oh, but my dear Valkyrie," Celina drawled her name like it was painful to say. "I did die. I just came back, unlike most. Didn't my father tell you all about me?"

"No," Valkyrie said truthfully.

"That's right," Celina sneered angrily. "He wouldn't tell you that I was a natural born necromancer would he? Working with him, you know how much Skulduggery hates dark magic, so try imagining living with him as his daughter if you were one."

"But he loves you," Valkyrie said, feeling a pang of despair as she said it. 'I wish he loved me, like he loves you.' She thought.

"When he thought I had died, yes, he did love me. But when I needed him most, when I needed someone to support me and tell me everything was going to be okay, where was he?"

Valkyrie didn't say anything, for there was nothing she could say.

"He never said anything to my face," Celina said and her soft voice broke into a harsh hiss. "But I saw the disgust in his eyes. I saw the shame and the fear and the loathing."

"I don't think you know him as well as you think," a voice whispered suddenly, emerging from the shadows.

Celina spun around and her face contorted in fury. "Didn't anyone ever tell you it's rude to eavesdrop?" She asked as Skulduggery walked towards them, followed by Alanna Memoria, Luny, and Ghastly.

"I'm a detective, Celina. Snooping is my job," He shot back with humor tinting his voice.

"Celina," Alanna said stepping forward, reaching out to her daughter. "What happened to you?"

"I learned a few tricks." She said walking out of her mother's reach, and going to stand over by Valkyrie.

The Skeleton Detective's eyes fell on the knife his daughter was holding in her hand, and he cocked his head to the side. "A Tramiquian Knife?"

Celina Pleasant nodded before she brought the blade down to rest at Valkyrie's throat. She grinned up at him devilishly, her eyes turning completely black.

"Time to pay the piper, Skeleton," she said yanking back Valkyrie's head to expose her neck more.

"What crime have I committed?" Skulduggery asked quietly, his voice barely above audible now.

Celina faltered, her hands shaking slightly as she answered. "You didn't save us . . . you left us to die."

"I tried to save you and your mother." Skulduggery said sorrowfully. "But I wasn't strong enough. I didn't have enough time. I thought you were dead."

"You could have come looking for us!" Celina yelled, as her grip hardened on Valkyrie's throat, making her gasp for breath.

"Please lovely, don't do this." Luny begged from her place at the doorway. "It won't make the past go away."

"I know it won't." Celina snapped.

"Then why do it?" Ghastly asked in his raspy voice.

"Because I can't stand the way you look at her!" The young girl cried, glaring at her father. "I see the truth! I know that you love her more than you ever loved me!"

"I share love for you both Celina. I love you because you are my child. I love Valkyrie because she is my partner. They are different kinds of love."

"You shouldn't share your love! I should be first in your eyes!" She screamed.

"You are," Skulduggery said calmly, taking a step forward. "Please let me prove it to you."

Celina shook her head, her black tresses flopping everywhere. "No. No more talk. It is time for you to feel my pain."

Alanna who had been quiet up until now, walked over to her daughter and knelt before her. Gently she reached out her hands and placed them on either side of her child's face.

"Do you truly know what the meaning of pain is, Celina?"

The girl began to cry as her mother looked up at her intently, their matching light green eyes meeting and an understanding passing between them.

"The meaning of pain. . . is loss." She answered her eyes never leaving her mother's.

Alanna nodded, and with one swift movement that was nearly too fast to see, she grabbed the knife from her daughter and plunged it into her child's heart. Celina let out a choked scream and fell to the ground, blood already beginning to pour from the wound.

Skulduggery was at his daughter's side in seconds, and his body was shaking with dry sobs.

"Celina," He cried, grabbed her face and stroking it gently.

Alanna pulled the knife out of her daughter's chest and looked at the blade for a moment, her eyes dry of tears as she studied it.

"In the end you didn't have to choose my love," she said. "I made the decision for you." She reached out and brushed Skulduggery's skeletal chin with her thumb. "I love you, Skulduggery."

"I love you too, Lann." He replied, holding onto one of her hands.

The red haired beauty smiled at him then. "I know. . . I've always known." Then Alanna Memoria brought the knife up and stabbed herself directly in her heart, falling to the sand within a mere matter of seconds.

Skulduggery yelled, a broken, heart wrenching sound that reverberated around the room,  and sobbed violently as his wife and child lay on the floor of the sand room: the past repeating itself once again. The skeleton carefully pulled Celina onto his lap, and placed both of her hands to where his cheeks would have been if he'd had skin.

"Celina Estelle, look at me." He pleaded.

Slowly her green eyes focused on the skeleton.

"Daddy. . ."

Skulduggery nodded, water dripping from his empty eye sockets. "I'm so sorry."

She smiled at him softly, and all the hate had left her eyes. "I am too, father."

"I'm sorry that I wasn't there to protect you." Skulduggery voice cracked as he held onto his daughter, with a gentleness and strength that almost seemed to counter one-another.

"None of that matters now," Celina said squeezing his hands that held hers to his face.

Skulduggery brushed her forehead with his fingertips, "You were never second, my little flame."

The girl choked, as she tried to breathe, but her lungs were filling with blood, and she was going fast. Her words were hard to make out but Skulduggery managed.

"I-I never stopped . . . car-caring about you." She said as she began to slip away, her breathing becoming shallow.

"Celina, don't leave me alone." Skulduggery begged desperately. "Please . . . don't leave me."

"Goodbye daddy," She wheezed quietly as she took her last breath and her heart stopped fighting.

Skulduggery hugged the young girl to him, crying her name over and over again, his sounds of agony filling the sandy room. He cried for his dead daughter and for his dead wife. He cried for his failed attempts to save them. And he cried in relief, that his daughter had forgiven him.

And after what seemed like hours, Skulduggery Pleasant laid his daughter to rest. He placed Celina's body beside her mother's, ever so gently, like she was sleeping, and he then rested his forehead against each of theirs for several minutes, as a way of fairwell before he straightened up.  

Luny walked over to her twin brother and wrapped her arms around him whispering, "Don't cry, Skully. Our Star has ascended."


I cried when I wrote this chapter. It killed me, (in a good way.) Poor Skulduggery. . . :tears:

There is only one more chapter in this story, sadly. Please leave me a comment, and tell me what you thought of the story. I always love to hear from you. :D

Sorry for any grammar or spelling mistakes. . . :hmm:

:bulletorange: By the way, Celina's middle name, 'Estelle' means 'Star' in French. Hence the nickname "Starchild," and the name of the chapter.

Cover was created by the wonderful :icon1idiz:
© 2011 - 2024 Tarnisis
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NikiMaweird's avatar
Now I'm really crying. snuggy sob