The continuation...

I told you it would be continued, not that I think many if any have viewed it. I know you have, Thief Queen. Gosh! My fingers are freezing in here! Why did I choose to sit here?


Mr. Landy, I hope you're reading this. I'm doing this more for you than for me. I have my own stories to write.

Also, I changed it a wee bit, so I started off a little before where I left off, because of the extra dialogue that helps it flow better.

Here you guys go. Please enjoy:

“What? You don’t think it could be real, Mr. ‘Imaginative’,” Stephanie laughed as she stood up and stretched.

“Frankly, no,” Skulduggery replied curtly as he stood up and straightened out his shirt some. He clicked his fingers together as he stretched them out, as if they were sore from being curled under his chin so long.

“You’re one to talk! If we were basing our opinions on what is real, you shouldn’t be here at all.”

Skulduggery paused in his finger exercises, still looking at his fingers. He curled them in ant out one final time before countering  in a very matter of fact tone, “Valkyrie, you honestly think that David Bowie is going to come through your window and whisk you away into a labyrinth full of goblins?” He placed his hands on his hips and leaned down to her level, eye-to-eye socket.

Stephanie leaned forward and looked back hard at him. “Stranger things have come through it,” she replied.

Skulduggery drew himself back up to his full height and looked away, putting his hand on his face as he sighed. “You never struck me as one to entertain such fantasies…”

“Not even with Uncle Gordon?” she quipped. At this Skulduggery had to pause. Again Stephanie found herself what he was looking at actually, so she kept the smug look of triumph and arched an eyebrow. “Skulduggery?” she prompted, looking between his fingers. He was looking at her, she was sure of it.

“I see your point,” he admitted reluctantly, but with a tone that refused to admit defeat. The house nearly shook with the chime of an old clock. Both looked up. Eleven o’clock.

“Is it really that late already?” Stephanie said more to herself.

“Indeed,” Skulduggery replied heedless. “I must be off then. Important things to do, people to see, villains to conquer, and all that jazz.” He started to pull on his coat.

“Without me?”

“Your leg is still mending. I don’t think you’re quite ready yet. Give it time.” He pat her on the head as he flung his scarf around his neck with his other hand. “Good night.” And with that said, he put on his hat and silently exited the room.

“Night,” Stephanie replied, but she doubted he had even heard her. She heard the front door close, just loud enough to be heard with its creaky hinges. She also heard Skulduggery mutter at how his nearly completely silent exit had been ruined by the door. Stephanie smirked and curled up on the couch again, the heaviness of sleep hitting her in the face like a fist and then oozing through her blood throughout her body. It was inevitable, unavoidable. She picked up the remote and started to rewind the cassette and the whole story started to play backwards on the screen in a blur of motion. In a blur of motion.

Something moved and she gasped sharply, her whole body jerking suddenly awake. The screen of the television was dark.

“I must have dozed off,” she muttered sleepily. She sat up and looked at the cassette player, but all the lights were off on it. It was off. She couldn’t remember turning it off, but, then again, she didn’t remember falling asleep either.

The sound came again from the other side of the room; a sort of shuffling, scattering sound.

“What the-” she started, but stopped herself and finished with an exasperated, “Is there seriously mice in here?”

A snicker. She blinked rapidly. Now there was skittering under the couch, on the bookshelf and various other places. And it was dark. “What the hell!” she shouted and snapped her fingers. Nothing happened. She snapped them again, desperately. “Come on!” she hissed. The skittering sounds were escalating. It sounded like a mouse invasion, not a mouse problem. “Come on!” she shouted at her fingers as she snapped them harder and harder. The couch moved slightly. She jumped up, standing on it. Now something was beating at her window.

“What the hell!” she screamed again. Finally a flame caught in her hand and flared, illuminating the entire room. The skittering abruptly ceased, but the tapping on the window continued. She breathed in deeply, trying to stop herself from hyperventilating. Sweat was already rolling down her face.

The snicker came from by the door. It didn’t sound like anyone she knew. “Skulduggery?” she called. Nothing.

“Tanith?” Nothing again. It had to be them, playing a joke on her. Hadn’t Skulduggery randomly dropped by to visit anyhow? It snickered again and skittered around some more. She hopped off the couch and advanced. She could see a shadow in the doorway.

“…Dad?”

Suddenly the window burst behind her. She leapt through the doorway, her flame extinguishing itself in the process. The moon was her only light now. She slid up against the door frame, hardly realizing that whatever was there before was gone now. All she was concerned about now was what had come through the window. She could hear it moving inside, the gentle roll of… boots? She peeked around the corner slowly so as not to reveal herself in case it had failed to notice her before.

“I know you’re behind there,” came an oddly familiar voice. One she had trouble believing she was actually hearing. She was frozen to the spot. Her body refused to move.

“Come on now,” it taunted.

She forced herself around the corner of the frame, just enough to confirm her doubts. Her eyes fell on the moonlit room, and the man standing in the middle of it, his back to her.

“David Bowie?” she whispered in disbelief.

He turned around slowly, the crystal ball easily moving between his hands. He maneuvered it in his right hand, turned his left, and then there were two, one in each hand. He tilted his head down and narrowed his eyes.

“You remind me of the babe,” he said smoothly lifting his chin, both the balls still moving and changing hands. He smiled at her and held one out.

"What babe?" she asked dumbfounded. The snickers erupted from around her, but as soon as she looked around it all ceased again. What is going on?

"The babe with the power."

"What-" but now she stopped herself. "What is going on?" The laughing seemed to seep from every nook and cranny, every dark corner in the room. Goblins. She thought. The little Brian Froud goblins. "Shut up!" she shouted. The laughing stopped again.


To be continued...