independent and selective VALKYRIE CAIN from the Skulduggery Pleasant series by Derek Landy; as written by caine ( ally ). blog was originally established in feb2013, and rebooted in mar2016.
You silly little girl,
you think
you’ve survived so long
survival shouldn’t hurt anymore.
You keep trying to turn
your body bulletproof.
You keep trying to turn your heart
bomb shelter.
Stop, darling.
You are soft and alive.
You bruise and heal. Cherish it.
It is what you were born to do.
It will not be beautiful,
but the truth never is.
Come now,
you promised yourself.
You promised
you’d live through this.
There was no signature, but instead a tag from the Iliad, in Greek. It was from the eleventh book, when Odysseus, cut off from his friends, finds himself alone and on enemy territory. - Donna Tartt (1992)
his words cause a tightening in her stomach, and she feels like jumping into his arms at that moment and forgetting everything else, even if it was just for a little while and hugging him… because she knew him, and she knew how much it had taken him to actually be able to say those words out loud, and to her no less.. but she couldn’t do that, not right now; not in her current situation. not after she had been used to torment Skulduggery by the very men they had been looking for, not when she’d been so slow and allowed herself to be caught, not when she had put him in DANGER, or more danger than he’d been facing before anyway.. but most of all, she couldn’t get up and hug him like she so wanted to do, because the doctors at the sanctuary had banned her from moving… something about a leg broken in two places– though she really didn’t see why it meant she couldn’t move, she had a second, perfectly not broken leg to hobble about on.. but they were strict, and she could see one of the doctors watching her closely from the other side of the lab; ready to kick Skulduggery out if Valkyrie tried to get up.. so instead she’d taken to asking questions to distract herself from her sentence of lying on a bed forever.. and she’d carelessly thrown out one ‘why didn’t you leave me there? why didn’t you pretend not to care?’ and she hadn’t expected that answer from him, she’d never seen that answer coming.. she hadn’t even expected any kind of genuine answer; she’d expected to be met with SARCASM… instead… she didn’t know how to react to that without moving..
i can’t not care about youthere’s a part of her that said he could have pretended, he could have gotten out and not put himself in danger, he could have stopped himself from being an idiot; but instead he’d jumped right in to save her. if she was an author she’d have said it was because he was trying to save the woman he loved– or perhaps the piece to a puzzle, a person who knew something.. but she knew neither of them were true… even if she wished they were. ❝ SKULDUGGERY. ❞ his name’s out of her mouth as her gaze quickly flicks towards him; and she carefully, slowly, lifts both her arms, keeping an eye on the doctor that would kick Skulduggery out as soon as she could ( she wasn’t going to give her a chance to kick out her partner ), her hands make a grabbing motion at him before pausing. ❝ come hug me. ❞ because she can’t get up and start the hug herself– and really if he refused, she’d look like an idiot..
❛ oh, so that was what you were doing ? you had me confused between the all the —- getting punched and thrown around.❜
skulduggery considered his gloved palm and flexed his fingers until the metacarpal bone shifted into place with an unpleasant ‘pop’ and a dull flare of pain ———- but, as the discomfort faded, the detective was quite sure he was in ‘one piece’. the same couldn’t be said for his suit ( or their surroundings, but priorities, priorities ) ——– his lovely navy-blue suit. he inspected his ragged wardrobe and poked a gloved finger through a newly torn hole in his jacket with a sad sigh … his hat was nowhere to be seen.
& the skeleton patted valkyrie’s shoulder ❛ well, it was a valiant effort, i’m sure.❜
“I let it go. It’s like swimming against the current. It exhausts you. After a while, whoever you are, you just have to let go, and the river brings you home.”