Skulduggery Pleasant/Nightmare Fuel

The High Octane Nightmare Fuel starts from almost the first page.

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• Skulduggery himself. An animated skeleton who is so crazy and untrustworthy that even his friends don't think Valkyrie should be around him.
• The water-soluble mook of Serpine's in the first book probably qualifies, too.
• The Grotesquery.
  • Which tears the scalp off of the Torment.
• Some of the more...graphic descriptions. See also Your Head Asplode.
• Tanith's torture and imprisonment in Dark Days. She was nailed to a chair for at least a day.
• The Remnants definitely qualify. Spirits that seem to be made of pure rage and black smoke and shove themselves down your throat in order to possess you.
  • The large amount of Squick and Fridge Horror involved with Remnant!Tanith definitely applies. She is being possessed by the same Remnant that nailed her to a chair. The Remnant (in her body) is in a romantic relationship with someone who wants to kill her friends and at one point fantasized about slitting her throat. She can't stop herself from doing anything. The conversation it has with Valkyrie (while her parents were there) was one of the more creepier parts of a very creepy book. Also? It's suggested to be permanent.
  • Remnant Clarabelle should get a special mention. The other Remnants are basically just evil versions of themselves. When Clarabelle gets possessed, she goes bat shit insane.
• In Mortal Coil, Valkyrie needs to have her true name sealed. The ensuing scene is not for the faint of heart.
  • Special mention goes to dead!Valkyrie, who is almost as creepy as Darquesse. 1) Dead people aren't supposed to be able to use Necromancy (which is a creepy discipline at the best of times). Not only can she use it, it's like the shadows are eager to do what she wants. She just thinks about stopping Nye from getting away and the shadows break his leg. 2) She scares the crap out of Nye who borders on High Octane Nightmare Fuel himself. 3) The emotionless way Valkyrie says that she'll kill Nye if he doesn't fix her is kind of disconcerting. 4) This all happens while she has her heart and other organs shoved in a bag. 5) The fact that she's Darquesse suddenly becomes a lot more believable. 6) Hallucination!Skulduggery is both terrifying and depressing. 7) The way the shadows are described gives the impression that they're sentient. "The shadows played with Valkyrie's hair." *shudder* Sweet dreams, people.
    • How about the surgery itself? The sounds described...

Hallucination Melissa: My Stephanie would never kill anyone.
Hallucination Desmond: My Stephanie would.

• Darquesse killing all those people.
• Doctor Nye in general. The fact that s/he's barely described makes it even worse.
  • Nye now works for the Sanctuary. Every time Sanctuary agents get hurt, they are patched up by a magic version of Josef Mengele.
• The Dullahan dragging off a random woman.
• Skulduggery again, in the beginning of Dark Days. When Valkyrie rescues him, he's so out of it that he mistakes her for a hallucination. There's just something really scary about how Skulduggery, a character who's seemed a bit odd so far but nothing really bad, is completely off his rocker and Valkyrie basically has to drag him back to their own world.
  • Pretty much any time Skulduggery loses his cool is High Octane Nightmare Fuel.
• Kenspeckle's death in Mortal Coil.
  • To expand on this, Clarabelle, the quirky, somewhat dim assistant, is possessed by a Remnant and is found sitting on top of him hold a scalpel and covered in blood. Remind me again why this is marketed towards kids?
• The Faceless Ones themselves, especially when the reader finds out that 'faceless' is not a metaphor. When a Faceless One possesses a vessel, the vessel's face melts off.
• The Jitter Girls. The name isn't very threatening compared to the likes of Nefarian Serpine and Lord Vile. They literally jitter... as in Japanese Horror movie jittering... and have a back story that crosses into the High Octane Nightmare Fuel section. When Skulduggery sees them, he backs against the wall and tells everyone to hide. Really.
  • The way the attack Valkyrie by literally putting a hand through her skull and rummaging around in her brain and her subsequent retaliation in which Darquesse, who has been awakened by the aforementioned brain-grabbing, curb stomps them and then threatens Skulduggery isn't much better either.
• The description of Mr. Bliss in the first book.
• Lord Vile, if only Skulduggery's reaction to seeing him at the end of Mortal Coil.
  • Ghastly talks to Tanith about his mother. The woman was Badass incarnate. She beat both Baron Vengeous and Serpine into retreat. Some of Mevolent's best men would see her and run. Her mistake was going against Lord Vile.
  • And now we know why Skulduggery freaked out... crap.
• The Torment. I like spiders and he scared the hell out of me.
• The Reflection. Let's face it, it's creepy as hell.
  • The Reflection beating the crap out of Moore. And then saying that they should kill him and get Skulduggery to help hide the body.
• Anathem Mire. And his house. Definitely his house.
• Finbar being possessed by the Faceless Ones.
  • Possibly made better (or even worse) by the fact that Finbar doesn't think it's that unusual.
• Caelan, anyone? I mean... he kisses (in a disturbingly passionate way) and stalks a sixteen year old. Comparisons to Twilight are fantastic Nightmare Retardant however.
• Everything about Lord Vile's battle with Darquesse. They're both evenly matched. Darquesse can heal. Lord Vile's armour makes him practically invincible. They're both incredibly powerful Omnicidal Maniacs so it's looking pretty dim for humanity. Also? Easily the bloodiest, most disturbing battle in the entire series (which is saying a lot) is technically between Valkyrie and Skulduggery.
  • Darquesse lets Vile gouge out her eye for an experiment. Deliberately making sure she feels the full pain of the experience. And when she determines she knows what its like to have her eye gouged out, she shuts the pain off and grows it right back. While flying.
• Valkyrie, after being tortured by Melancholia. She doesn't panic. She's confused about her hands not shaking. And then Darquesse starts whispering to her. Getting her to calm down.
  • Soon.
• Moore.
• The amount of pervy men who openly lust after the teenage Valkyrie throughout the series. The worst has to be Anathem Mire.
  • Not to mention Deacon Maybury using Ryan's body to try and kiss her in End of the World. He almost succeeds too.