Chapter Text
“Every solution to every problem is simple. It’s the distance between the two wherein the mystery lies”.
They turned off the light and climbed the stairs out of the dank mustiness of the cellar. They walked into the living room and a man in a suit, a suit that looked almost Victorian in design, turned to them.
He had black hair, thin lips and his right hand, which was skinless, glistened with blood and wet muscle. Before she could even register surprise, Skulduggery was pulling the gun from his jacket. The man moved as the gunshots filled the room, stepping to one side and waving his right hand. She didn’t know what he did, but it worked, and no bullets hit him.
“Run”!
Skulduggery said, pushing her out of the room. Stephanie stumbled and something moved beside her, she turned as another man came at her. There was something wrong with him – something wrong with his skin, with his features – they didn’t look real. They looked almost papery. She tried to hit it, but it was like punching a bag of air.
A fist swung at her, but unlike its body the fist was heavy and solid, and it snapped her head back. She staggered and it reached for her, but Skulduggery was there, hurling it away. Three more of them came through the front door. As she ran to the stairs, Skulduggery covering her escape. Halfway up she looked back as the man in the suit strolled into the hall.
She shouted a warning and Skulduggery turned to face him and ducked. Purple vapor gathered in the man’s left palm, and he released it in a stream that would have almost touched Skulduggery chalky white skull. As the vapor didn’t find its target it was flowing back into the man’s hand. His face almost showed a hint of surprise.
Stephanie had focused entirely on what was happening in front of her. There was another one of these odd figures, standing on the other end of the stairs. For a second she contemplated whether she should just run up the staircase and try to attack it.
But then it had already noticed her and began moving towards her. She had no other choice but to turn back around, hurling down the steps. A look over her shoulder and she could see the ‘thing’ marching down the stairs behind her. She saw Skulduggery, who was only focused on the man in front of him. But before he could turn around to help Stephanie he was torn away.
Hands that seemingly appeared out of the floor dragged him down, away from her. She could see how Skulduggery landed on the floor, hands – or what looked to be, were pushing him down.
Skulduggery’s gun slipped out of his grip and the man, with his off-putting hand stepped forward. Just as fixated as Skulduggery had been on him, he stopped in front of the skeleton, completely ignoring Stephanie. She could use that as her advantage, Skulduggery didn’t appear as if he would stand back up again, and the man had his back turned to her. Running back up the stairs was no option, that ‘thing’ was still blocking her way. Stephanie could only proceed forward. She glanced at the gun that was lying just a few feet away from her. She had no weapon, she had no magic and maybe it would just be enough of a distraction for Skulduggery to get back up. She had to try, jolting forward she reached for the revolver, wanting to pick it up, not thinking about what she would do next with it and-
A noise made its way to her through the air, reaching her via sound waves. Those terrible existing sound waves that gave her the ability to hear and perceive what had been spoken.
“Stephanie” She stopped. Why did she stop? Maybe she expected Skulduggery back on his feet, already being in charge of the situation. Or maybe she was just hoping for that to be the case, because the voice didn’t sound like him at all.
The man had turned towards her, having seemingly decided that Skulduggery was not to worry about. “Wouldn’t you be so kind and hand over that gun.”
Stephanie felt cold, it was an awful feeling that mixed in with the hot embarrassment of doing the exact thing she was expected to do, even if every cell in her body told her not to. This was not a question she could deny. One she couldn’t object. She couldn’t protest or do anything against. Why wasn’t she using the gun that she still held in her hands? Why wasn’t she doing at least something.
As she moved and could feel her face grow red with hot embarrassing anger, she already knew what this was. This was what Skulduggery had told her would happen. Her given name. Being used against her. And somehow this man, this stranger knew it and there was nothing she could do. The gun felt heavy in her hand and as she gave it away, she saw just the slightest smile flash over the man’s face. Why wasn’t Skulduggery saying anything? Why wasn’t he doing anything?!
He was pressed against the floor, if it had been possible, he would have surely been pulled further down, into the floorboards. She searched for something, a reassurance that he wasn’t leaving her alone here, but before anything else happened the man spoke again. His voice nearly monotone if not for the small hint of satisfaction. Stephanie hated being talked down too, the way teachers spoke with the knowledge that they held a certain authority over her. A certain power. And now she couldn’t even withstand something as simple as words. She wanted to turn around, to yell or do anything but before her mind had even found the right words Stephanie could feel herself moving. Where was she going? Why was this happening?
The chill air hit her like a wave. It shouldn’t have felt so cold, it was a normal summer night. But Stephanie had no time to appreciate the warm weather. She was outside. The door shut close behind her. Had she closed it? Had she been ordered to do so? It was all silent around her, and she stopped moving. She couldn’t turn back around; it felt like her mind wouldn’t let her.
This could have been avoided. If she had taken this world serious and had taken a name. Had even just entertained the thought of getting a name. One to protect her from this exact situation. So many warnings about this world. And she, in her stupid naivety, hadn’t found them important. Weren’t vampires, ready to rip her apart, enough to make her understand how real and how dangerous this world, full of magic, was? What did all the magic bring her when she had no name to protect herself? She couldn’t even do magic. All she did was ogle at this world. Those people. Was she expecting them to take her inability to yet do magic into consideration? That nothing would happen to her, simply because she had done nothing wrong? Stephanie had done nothing wrong except been foolishly ignorant. And now her own name was being used against her. A punishment for her stupidity. She wasn’t just stupid, she was helpless. She could do nothing but wait around here. And for what exactly?
Any other thought, and more blame she could throw at herself was suddenly erased from her mind as the silence was cut short. A gunshot, then another one shortly after. Her head snapped towards the main entrance. It must have been Skulduggery. He had gotten the upper hand again and taken his revolver back. It had to be, he would appear just now, and it would all be fine.
But it wasn’t. Skulduggery didn’t come out of the door. He didn’t put away his revolver while making a sarcastic comment or joke about the situation. Instead, a man in a suit stepped out, his right-hand glinting slightly and he looked all too complacent with himself.