The Dead Men tales: part 1

 Ghastly walked in between the rows of tents, hurrying to the command tent at the other end of camp, He was joined by Anton Shudder, who asked;

“Any idea what Corrival has cooked up for us now?”

“Unfortunately, no, but I hope it’s interesting”

“Has there ever been an un-interesting Dead Men mission?”

“You have a point…” they had reached the big tent that was the command center for the Dead Men and Anton pushed aside the flap that served as a door. Skulduggery, Erskine and Dexter where already there, along with Corrival, who was showing them some maps

“Ahh, Ghastly, Anton, its good that you’re here. I need you lot to infiltrate Castle Bancrook…”

“That’s it? Boring” interrupted Dexter and Corrival shot him a glare

“That’s not all; you need to infiltrate Bancrook while protecting a charming young lady by the name of Bone. She is going to see if she can find evidence of the so called ‘super weapon’ the Barron Vengeance is said to be designing.” A girl pushed her way through the door and smiled at them all

“Sorry I’m late” she said cheerfully “I’m Bone” she had wide green eyes, freckles, a mass of curly red hair and looked young, only about thirteen or fourteen. Dexter took one look at her and then turned to Corrival with a pained expression.

“Can’t you just tell us what we’re looking for? Then we can sneak in and out without anyone noticing us.”

“You can’t do that,” said Bone, still cheerful “I’m the smartest person in camp right now, only I know what to look for”

“At least you’re modest about it” muttered Skulduggery and she glared at him

“Simply repeating facts, Mr. Pleasant” she said haughtily “now I suggest we get a move on” Three hours later, the Dead Men plus Bone where hiding in a clump of trees, discussing how to get into the castle.

“I say take out the guards at the front gate and head in that way” Said Dexter, cracking his knuckles

“You heard Corrival, the front guards are very powerful long range adepts, they would take us use before we got into range to through fireballs” said Erskine

“Then what do you suggest?”

“I’m sorry, gentlemen, but our hand has been forced” Skulduggery said and everyone looked up. While the men folk had been talking about how to get in, Bone had slipped away and was now walking boldly up the path to the castle. The guards saw her and held out their hands, but then lowered them as the saw it was only one, unarmed girl.

“What the hell is she doing?” whispered Anton to Ghastly, who shrugged. Bone had reached the top of the small hill castle Bancrook was set on and walked up to the gates. The guards stepped so they where standing shoulder to shoulder, blocking her way.

“What gives?” she asked, looking up at the two much taller men

“Who are you and what is your business here?” asked the guard on the right and Bone smiled. All the Dead Men winced as the guards skulls cracked together, Bone leaned down and pulled the keys off one guy’s belt, then she jingled them in the direction of the slightly astonished men.

“Show off” Erskine said, taking the keys from Bone and proceeding to unlock the gates

“It’s all in the way you act, if you act like you belong, people will think you belong.” Dexter examined the guards, then looked up at Bone, rather shocked

“They’re dead, you shattered they’re skulls completely”

“Oh did I now?” Bone sounded slightly bemused at Dexter’s astonishment “well, better them then me”

“You are a very dangerous young lady” said Anton, shaking his head

“Compliments will get you nowhere” the gates clicked open and Erskine gestured them in,

“Stop talking, start walking” he ordered

Random Pictures!

 Tada! random pictures that i did. i want honest opinion on the drawings please.

 

 Yay! it's Bridget and Anarchy. Anarchy just exploded something and is unaware that

her life span just shortened by three years.

 Doodle of Anarchy, i messed up her nose and had to use whiteout on it

 it's Italy from Hetilia! he has is tomato and is very happy not to be yelled at by Germany.

Google "Hetilia" it if you have no idea what im talking about.

 More Hetilia fanart! it's the things that Russia loves; sunflowers, Vodka, and his pipe thingy

 this is a concept sketch of a non Skulduggery OC i thought up. her name is Lilith and she's a vampire hunter

 Behold the awesomeness of my notebook! i printed the picture of the Skulduggery web site in black and white and then colored it with my watercolor pencils

 cool pic of the trees by my house

 

cute pic of my dog Gambit (those are my legs btw)

Fear 15: The Pointless End

This is the pointless end of Fear, i wanted to do something nice for Bridget because she was tortured so much during the story. thanks for reading!

PS see if you can guess who Rueben's dad is (hint: skul-man!)

Valkyrie sighed, the twins being away was bittersweet; she was constantly worrying about them and whether or not they where okay, or even alive. On the other hand she had the house to herself and Fletcher. A roar razed her from her thoughts and she ran outside to see the plane landing in the back yard. The engines cut, the doors opened, and Jodi fell out of the doors and landed on her face.

“I hate planes” she muttered as Leo helped her to her feet. Kallista, Mary, Tanya and Anarchy where all laughing so hard they fell out too, then Skylara transformed into a tabby and sat on top of the pile of giggling girls (with Leo on the bottom).

“Hi mom, we’re home” Aoife said in a tone that suggested she had just gotten off the bus from school, not a plane from Russia. The twins hopped down and maneuvered their way around the giggle pile so they could hug Valkyrie. Sarthacus and Israel were laughing at Leo and Necros was actually smiling. Florence descended from the plane in the most dignified manner yet, making a set of stairs out of shadows and walking down those. Caelan helped Bridget down and they all walked into the house, well, Bridget limped, everyone else walked.

“What happened?” asked Valkyrie once everyone was seated in the kitchen

“mumph-aruugga KA-FOOM” Anarchy explained around a mouthful of a sandwich she had found in the fridge, ducking crumbs, Tanya translated:

“The castle went ka-boom”

“What?! How?!” Anarchy swallowed

“I blew it up with a bomb. It was wonderful” she said

“So pretty” agreed Aoife

“Much better then fireworks” said Scathach.

“And the Brie cannon” finished Aoife, slapping Anarchy a high-five. Valkyrie looked at her watch,

“You two are both going to school tomorrow, get to bed now or the jet lag will kill you.” The twins looked at her like she had three arms and two heads

“Can you make us reflections?” asked Scathach

“No, tough it out till summer break” Valkyrie gestured and a gust of air sent the twins skidding across the floor and into the hall “good-night” she said pointedly.

(The next day)

Aoife and Scathach (or should I say Molly and Maggie?) walked across the quad on the way toward the bus stop. Today at school had been terrible and the twins where very tiered.

“Hey Moll! Hey Mags!” Rueben waved at them and jogged over “hey, I haven’t seen you two trouble makers in a while, where ya been?” Scathach shrugged

“Family troubles, you know the deal” the lie came easy

“I most certainly do, what with Sharon divorcing my dad and all, and the custody battle because she said that a tattoo parlor wasn’t the best place for a kid to grow up and then-” Aoife cut him off

“You’ve told us many, many”

“Many!” interjected Scathach

“Many times” finished Aoife. they had crossed the quad and where making there way to the bus stop when Rueben said

“Whoa, who is that” the twins looked to where he was pointing.

“That, my dear Rueben,” said Scathach, unable to contain the grin that was spreading across her face “is our ride” Tanya sat on the hood of her lovely blue Mustang convertible, smiling and waving at all the year 12 guys that where staring at the car

“Hey guys” she smiled and hopped of the hood as they approached “I was in the area and I wanted to stop by and give you a ride”

“Translation; you wanted to show off your car” Scathach said as she slipped into the front seat

“Maybe a little bit of that to, you want a ride?” the last was said to Rueben

“Naw, I like walking, thanks though. See you two tomorrow” said Rueben, turning away

“Don’t remind me!” called Aoife from the backseat and he laughed

“Learn anything about Russia today?” asked Tanya as she leaned on the horn to make all the fan boys move

“NO, is that all that interests you?”

“Yes. Hmm, it would all be lies any ways, lies I tell you lies!”

“Lay off the sugar Tanya” said Aoife

“Humph, fine, I shut up and drive” fifteen minutes later they pulled up outside the mansion

“Where are all the cars?” asked Scathach, only a few cars where still left in the driveway.

“Everyone left; the only people still here are Mary, Leo and Florence ” Said Tanya, slamming the door to her car and walking into the house. The twins followed, lugging their book bags along behind them, they dumped their books on the kitchen table and started to walk upstairs.

“If you finish your homework I’ll show you how to fire my Dragonov” Tanya called and instantly the twins where sitting at the table with pens in hand. Tanya smirked and popped open a Coke. Five minutes later, Aoife asked

“Do you know any German, Tanya?” Tanya looked up from spiking her Coke with Anarchy’s vodka

“Ja, ich weiß ein bisschen”

"Come again?" 

"Yes, I know a bit"

"Translate this part please"  Scathach held up her world language worksheet

"I didn't say I could read it, I said I could speak it. Go ask Bridget"

"So much help," Muttered Aoife, jogging up the stairs after Scathach, to the guest room Bridget was using.

"Hey Bridget!" Scathach slammed open the doors "we need- whoa" Bridget and Caelan stood by the window, wrapped around each other so completely that they hadn't heard the twins storming up the stairs. Bridget pulled away and glared at them with eyes a color that was normally reserved for fire-engines

"You have two seconds" she said in a terrible whisper and the twins ran, half screaming and half laughing, from the room.

Fear 14 : Dreams

(You guessed it; this is still Bridget’s P.O.V)

My leg was all stitched up now, and the bruises on my face where fading fast thanks to the sweet smelling cream that I had put on them. We still had an hour left to fly to get back to Ireland, so I reclined my seat and closed my eyes. When a vampire dreams, they see things that have happened to them before, memories, so as Bridget drifted off, her mind kicked into high gear. She was standing on a battle field, with the dead and wounded all around her. She heard a noise and turned to see Alexander, her little brother lying on the ground. She picked him up and held him, and as she did she saw the wound on his the back of his head. She rocked him back and forth, humming.

“Do you want me to sing for you?” I asked him quietly and his eyes lit up

“I will sing your favorite song” I whispered to him

“Little soldier boy,

Marching by,

Little soldier boy,

You’re going to die.”

“The war is long,

Ten thousand gone,

Still you march,

On and on” she saw his eyes slowly start to close, but kept singing.

“Snow and ice,

Sleet and hail,

Still you march,

Towards the hills.”

“The battle’s started,

Fire those guns,

Fight for your life,

And those you love.” He looked up at me and smiled slightly, then closed his eyes and went limp, I choked back a sob and keep singing, softly.

“Soldier boy fires,

Something goes wrong,

His gun explodes,

Soldier boy’s gone.” I unwrapped the scarf from around my neck and draped it over Alexander’s peaceful face. I stood for a moment over him, and then started to run. If Alexander was here, then mum would be close by, I jumped over a wounded man and then stumbled and fell. I was lying in the dirt next to a dead man with a something clutched in his fingers. I pried his still warm fingers off the necklace that my dad had giving my mum, just a simple gold chain with a cross hanging from it. Mum never took it off. I got up and ran,

“Isabelle, Isabelle!” the only person who new my real name was mum, I veered towards the sound of her voice. I found her, almost cut in half with a sword and delirious.

“There you are, where’s Alexander? And your father?”

“You’ll see them soon mum” I was close to breaking down and sobbing, but I held on. I sat on the earth stained with her blood and pillowed her head on my lap.

“Here mum, I found this” I fixed the necklace around her neck

“Thank you honey, oh! I see them! It’s your dad and Alexander on the other side of the field!” she smiled a little smile “there coming for me. Now remember, I will always love my little girl” the spark faded from her eyes. I stood over the body of one of my family for the second time today. I reached down and slid mum eyelids down, then pulled the sword out of her stomach.

“Rest in peace, my family…” I said

“Bridget!” the voice was far away and faint “Bridget! Hey, Bridget wake up!” some one was shaking me “are you awake now?”

“No” I muttered, but I sat up and glared at Kallista

“We’re going to be landing soon, buckle up” I sighed and pulled the belt over my lap.

“Wow, you’re grumpier then usual, did I wake you up from a good dream?” I thought about the battle field

“No” I said softly “it wasn’t a dream”

the song is by me, its called "The Soldier Boy's Lament". you sing it very slow and sad

Fear 13 : Past

(Still from Bridget’s P.O.V)

We stood by the pit that used to be the castle and the surrounding catacombs, watching for any sine of life.

“Flo?” I asked gesturing to the pit “anyone still alive?”

“Yes, one person is still- never mind.”

“How many dead?”

“Fourteen” I quickly did a count in my head, 5 Fears, at least 7 servants, maybe 2 prisoners…

“Fifteen” make that 3 prisoners.

“Good god, Anarchy” Skylara stared down in the pit “Good god” she said it again because there was really nothing more she could say.

“Come on, we need to move now” I grabbed the twins by their shoulders and steered them towards the snowmobiles, everyone mounted their snowmobiles and we took off. After about an hour we reached a small shack at the edges of Moscow. Tanya returned the snowmobiles and then led the way to the landing strip that the plane was waiting on. It was close to midnight now, and the best inside me wanted to get out and hunt, with so many humans so close by, the smell was mouth watering. No one saw us as we got a board the plane and prepared for takeoff. I took Tanya’s first aide kit and retreated to the back corner of the plane, I put a leaf in my mouth and the numbness spread quickly so I could stitch up my wounds without any more pain. My broken arm would haft to wait till we where on the ground, but I could take care of the slash on my thigh now. I carefully pulled the flaps of skin together with my good arm, then started to stitch them closed with a black needle. Leo walked over cautiously and sat on the seat across from her

“Bridget,” he said “don’t take this the wrong way but, are you evil?” I stared at him, so naïve.

“There is no such thing as good and evil,” he stared to protest but I cut him off “you think good and evil are equal forces, marching against each other on a level playing field? You think that one side is all white and the other is all black? There so no such thing. The battle field has potholes and chasms and mountains to climb and there are many groups all fighting, not just good and evil.”

“But all those people you killed…”

“What do you think I should do something to gain redemption?” the thought was so funny I threw back my head and laughed

“Well, yes” Leo said very quietly

“I have done what the Christians call ‘purgatory’ ten thousand times over. I sang to my little 5 year old brother as he fell into an eternal sleep. I comforted my mother as she died for a hole as big as your head in her stomach. I…” I bit my lip to keep from saying anything more and tasted blood. Once I had gained control and I wouldn’t go spilling out my live story to everyone, I continued;

“You can’t live for over three thousand years without killing, you would never last. It’s a survival of the fittest world we live in, even if you haven’t noticed. Actually, I was surprised that anyone came for me, you where so lucky that the Fears where away. If it had been any other day you would have been killed before the castle even came into sight.” Ignoring the stares of everyone that had been listening in, I went back to stitching.

Fear 12 : Explosion!

(This is from Bridget’s P.O.V)

Every step I took hurt like hell, but I kept walking, thinking about how odd it was that my little rescue team hadn’t encountered anyone. I sifted through memories that I hadn’t needed in three thousand year, trying to remember which was the best way to get out. Memories of me drinking, memories of me killing, and memories of me sneaking around, memories that weren’t helpful, at least not right now. Just then, I remembered, the Fears weren’t around tonight because tonight was the full moon. Every month at the full moon everyone gathered in the catacombs and a calf was sacrificed at Gustavo’s orders. Weird, yes, but really quite good luck for my little rescue team. They had reached a broken window and everyone was climbing through, but when I lifted my leg to put through the window, the pain was so bad I nearly cried. Huh, I hadn’t cried since… I don’t know when, a long time I guess.

“Need help?” Caelan’s voice was so soft only a vampire could hear it

“No” I hissed at him, swinging my other leg through the window and muffing my cry of pain. He just sort of smiled at me and climbed out after me. All the other were already outside and getting on there snowmobiles.

“You can ride with me” Caelan said and I shelved my pride and sat behind him. It was easier than sitting behind a human and being temped to bite them for the entire ride back.

“Hey, Bridget! Catch!” Anarchy tossed a little remote to me and I snagged it out of the air

“What’s this?” I asked

“If you push the little button, the castle goes BOOM” I stared at the little remote for a few seconds, then looked around at then all.

“What, I don’t get a count down?” Aoife and Scathach grinned crazy-like and started counting, well, more like bellowing numbers at the tops of their lungs.

“Five!”

“Four!”

“Three!”

“Two!”

“ONE!” I allowed myself a small grin and pushed the button. The castle exploded with such force that I felt myself being pushed backwards. It was quite for a second or two, and then Anarchy started laughing so hard she fell into a snow bank, which made her laugh harder.

“What the hell was in that thing?” asked Jodi, staring at the flaming place where the castle used to be. Anarchy shrugged

“A bit of C4, some plastic explosives… and a little something else”

“What’s the ‘something else’?”

“Ask me no questions and I shall tell you no lies”

“MOVE!” yelled Israel suddenly and a second later a rumbling noise started. Everyone got on their snowmobiles and the sudden roar of the engines starting was deafening. As we zoomed away, I looked back and saw something odd. It looked like the ground was disappearing, then I got it. The catacombs where collapsing!

Fear 11.5

Bridget limped out of the throne room, supported by Caelan, and led the way down the halls.

“Israel, is this way safe?” she demanded and he shook his head

“10 or 15 golems are that way”

“It’s the fastest way out, anyone up for a fight?” no one had any problems with dispatching a few golems and so they went down that way, with knives drawn and guns at the ready. They turned the corner and saw a group of golems guarding a door and Bridget suddenly paled, making all her bruises stick out even more

“Back up, back up, back up!” she hissed and they all retreated around the corner “this way is better,” she pointed to a different corridor “ that way leads to where everyone sleeps and we do not want to wake up anyone”

“I thought you would know your way around” muttered Leo, but Bridget heard him and gave him a withering glare

“I haven’t been here in about three thousand years, give me a break” she continued limping along, ignoring everyone staring at her

“Three thousand years?” Skylara said

“That’s what I said”

“Good God Bridget!” Said Sarthacus, staring at her

“Yes, I’m old, get over it and move!” everyone got moving again, except for Anarchy, who was hanging behind.

“Come on” said Scathach and Anarchy ran a little to catch up. No one noticed the little black box she left behind, a tiny light on the box started to flash red.

yes, this part is tiny. but i really wanted to leave you hanging  with the little black box :D i call it 11.5 because its so small