This is my first ever Fan fiction hopefully it won't be too awful.

General P.O.V.

The time was 5:08am when Valkyrie's phone started buzzing next to her. Anyone should know by now that waking up Valkyrie, or any other 15 year old for that matter, really early in the morning is never a good thing if you want to survive much longer than a day. Lazily, Valkyrie reached over and looked at who was calling… and of course it was Skulduggery Pleasant. No surprise there then. Valkyrie thought about answering the call but decided against it to get more sleep.

Why does he always need to call me, why not someone else like Ghastly who would most likely already be awake by now?Valkyrie thought to herself.

Slowly Valkyrie swiped across the screen and ignored the call then happily accepted the welcoming arms of sleep.

Valkyrie's P.O.V.

Tap, Tap, Tap

I awoke to the sight of a skeleton tapping on my bedroom window.

"What do you want now?" I moaned, looking at my clock, 10:43.

At least I got a bit more sleep, but I really didn't need to be woken up twice in one day!

Once I opened the window, Skulduggery replied "Good morning to you too."

"Yeh, yeh, good morning, so I repeat what do you want now?" I pushed on.

"Geez Val, can't we just talk like normal friends do?" Skulduggery said clearly exasperated.

"Firstly, we are the least bit normal. Second, since when did I think you as a friend-" I could tell that that hurt his feelings, but then again he hadn't let her finish before jumping to conclusions.

"Oh, I thought we were friends. I thought-" I then jumped in saying.

"-because you are clearly not just my friend but my best friend. I don't know what you were going to say, but it doesn't matter at the moment. And going back to what I was saying before, when do best friends call each other at 5 IN THE MORNING!" I didn't realise I was shouting the last bit, but it got the message across anyway.

"Yeh, sorry for calling you so early, but I received another case file earlier this morning and I thought you might want to join in." Skulduggery said. I really appreciated this thought. But could he really not have waited until it was a reasonable time in the morning to tell me!

"Thank you for including me in this case but next time I wouldn't mind waking up at a normal time." I replied.

"I said I was sorry!" Silence "Do you want to hear what has happened or not?"

"Sure, I'm up now anyway, might as well hear it." Valkyrie replied slowly letting out her anger.

"Okay, do you want to hear the good news first or the bad news first?" Skulduggery asked.

"I really don't care," He tilted his head in that way that I have come to know and love. I knew he was looking for an answer "fine, good news."

"Okay then. The good news is that you won't have to deal with Fletcher for some time," He joked, and that's when I realised that there wasn't really any good news therefore I was in trouble.

What have you got yourself into now? My mind (otherwise known as Darquesse) questioned me.

"SHUT UP!" I replied to Darquesse, not realising that I had shouted it out loud.

Oh now you've done it!Darquesse said sarcastically.

"Are you okay Valkyrie?" Skulduggery asked, worried that something was wrong. I sat down on my bed, brought my legs up to my chest and rested my head on my knees whilst repeating what I had just shouted to myself / Darquesse. "Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Just leave me alone"

As Skulduggery walked up to me, he put an arm around my shoulder and brought me into his strong embrace. He was really warm and comforting "Val, what's wrong?" He asked. His velvety voice more as a calm whisper into my ear.

Is someone blushing about a certain skeleton now? Darquesse mocked.

I gripped my head and started rocking back and forth "Leave me alone. Leave me alone. Please leave me alone." I said more as a whisper to myself. Unfortunately, Skulduggery being who he is, heard me.

Skulduggery's P.O.V.

Val continued to rock back and forth in my arms. She was really starting to scare me because I had no idea what was going on. Slowly, I lifted her chin so that she was now facing me. "Please tell me what's wrong? You're really making me worried."

Valkyrie shook her head and buried her head into my chest (or ribs, I don't really care what you image it to be)and said one word. I almost didn't hear it. But with my impeccable sense of hearing I could tell that what she said was "Darquesse." That was all I needed to hear to know that she wasn't okay.

"Val, look at me," for once she did as she was told "Don't let Darquesse get to you. By getting upset about it you are giving her the result that she was looking for."

Valkyrie then smiled and giggled to herself. That's right, she giggled. I have never known Valkyrie Cain to giggle in the 3 years that I have known her "What's so funny?" I asked, clearly wanting to know what was so amusing.

"You sound just like parents when they were telling me about not letting my bullies get to me." At this I tilted my head.

"You were bullied." I asked, taken back by the comment she had just made.

"Yeh," she paused for a moment, I saw a single tear go down her cheek "But it was a long time ago, I try not to think about it much. Because when I do, I do terrible things like, when I killed the faceless ones, I was thinking about it then or when we were about to kill Serpine." This surprised me. When I thought about it, I really didn't know much about Val at all. However there was one question that kept bugging me.

"Val? ... When you said it was a long time ago, how old were you? Because your only 15, so a long time isn't actually much time at all."

She looked down at the carpet, suddenly finding it the most interesting thing in the room. "12, a bit when I was 13." At this she started to cry.

"But, you were with me at the time. Why didn't you tell me?" I asked now wanting to know who would do this.

"Well how could I?" She half screamed half whispered. "We were off on investigations and when we weren't we would go our separate ways and go back to our normal lives for me that was a mortal life. I went through more in those few months as a mortal then I have with you in 3 years! With you, I have broken all my bones at least twice and have nearly died more times than I have fingers and thumbs! I went through more mental and physical pain when I wasn't with you!" I am not entirely sure what I was expecting Val to say, but I don't think anyone would have expected that…

Then a thought occurred to me. All those times I called her for another mystery and she might turn up in tears and she would tell me something like she had an argument and I believed her. How stupid was I to not notice something as big as this. So I asked "Val, all those times you would turn up at the sanctuary and you were crying, why were you really crying? I know you said it was because of arguments but that isn't true is it?" She looked up at me.

"When I wasn't with you I went through really bad times. I self harmed both physically and mentally. I would cut myself and I didn't eat for days at a time, trying to convince myself that the food wasn't good for me. Don't worry I am fine now. Once the bullying stopped I went back to normal. I still have scars from the self-harming but I always hid it from everyone. Even Kenspeckle (I can't remember if he is still alive or not at this point, but just pretend that he is) doesn't know about it." She replied

"Val, where did you cut yourself?" I asked partially afraid of the answer she would give. But she didn't say anything instead she stood up and turned her back to me as she took off her top revealing at least 20 different scars across her back when I saw this I started to freak "Val." I stood up and turned her around not caring that she was only wearing her lacy… sexy… bra… now I am getting distracted.I thought.

However when she was facing me with her arms crossed across her chest, I only just realised how bad this bullying thing had been. There were words across her skin, now scars, that covered her entire front as well as on her shoulders and down her arms… That's why she never came to the beach and uncovered. Now that I think about it, she always covers up. I guess now I know why.

She looked up into my eyes and then said "There are ways I can disguise it. I have a cream and tablets with can make them temporarily hide the scars. But now you know this... Can you leave me now, I don't feel like going out or talking to anyone. You can go on the investigation, I will just call in sick today at the sanctuary."

I briefly thought about it then nodded. Quietly, I left through the window and left her to settle down.

This is my first fan fiction, please be nice in reviews :) I know the chapters aren't perfect so sorry for any mistakes, and there are more chapters to go with this story. Warning, it might be a bit long. And the characters aren't quite as they are in the books.

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

-Z