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Lines of Shadow: Sequel to Somewhere Between	By : AceMaxwell Category: G through L > Hellboy Views: 4117 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Hellboy or any related character and make no money off this story.

Chapter List
- 1-Prophecies
- 2-Reunion
- 3-Artifact
- 4-Inferno
- 5-Flightless
- 6-Valhalla
- 7-Fate
- 8-Broken
- 9-Seduction
- 10-Unleashed
- 11-Traitor
- 12-Overrun
- 13-Vows
- 14-Escape
- 15-War
- 16-Humanity
- 17-Ragnarok
- 18-Judgment
- 9
- 10
- 11
- John

Something jars me awake. For a few groggy moments, I can't figure out what it was. Red is in a different position on top of me, but him shifting around at night stopped waking up decades ago. It had to be something else. The sound registers in my subconscious the way a slight itch would. I feel it in my nerve endings before I can even hear it properly. All of my hair on the back of my neck stands on end and my flesh breaks out in goose bumps.

I ease out from underneath Red, wincing as my body protests the movement. It's a sharp pain now, but it'll be a dull ache within a few hours, so I brush it out of my head. The sound is much more important. I can't quite figure out what it is. It's a low, deep swell of noise, almost like the hum of a generator as it heats up.

I pad across the floor, following the din to one of the curtained walls. There aren't any seams on the cloth that I can see, so I pick it up by the bottom edge. Warm orange light spills from underneath it. It must be hiding a window. I slip under the curtain and let it drop involuntarily, frozen in shock by what I see.

We must be in a building several stories tall because the view that greets me is both wide and terrifying. We're in a cave made of very dark rock with massive stalagmites jutting up from the floor like teeth. There aren't any stalactites coming to meet them. In place of a ceiling, there's fire that licks downward. In the fire, there are human bodies writhing, far too many to count. From here, I can see their flesh bubbling from the heat. The fire has eaten away their hair, their clothes, their eyes… all that's left is their bodies, burning without burning. I tear my face away before I can figure out if any of them are turning to ash.

The only other thing I can look at is the hoard of creatures gathered at the base of the building. It's a giant mass of horns and teeth and claws and rotting skin and erotic dancing. The loud noise I heard is coming from them. In one voice, they're calling out, "Anung un Rama, Anung un Rama, Anung un Rama!"

My heart pounding, I back away from the window so quickly that I get tangled in the curtain. It catches on my heel and I fall, ripping the whole thing down with me. The sickly orange light fills the room. Shadows flicker and dance in the corners in a mocking version of the human souls trapped in the fire.

I scramble to throw the curtain off so I can get farther away from the window. My stomach is churning with fear, with revulsion, with panic. When I manage to get out of the knot of heavy velvet, I run to the bed and shake Red.

"Hellboy, wake up!" I'm practically screaming. "We've got to get out of here, now!"

His eyes flash open and I see all of his muscles cord up in response to my panic. He rolls out of the bed on high alert, planting himself between me and the rest of the room. Instinctually, he puts his flesh hand back to maneuver me behind him, his right hand curling into a fist. There's no trace of sleep in his voice when he asks, "What's going on?"

I move around his hand to grab my pants off the floor and frantically haul them on, "We've got to get out of here. We're in Hell, Red, and not in the metaphorical way."

"I know."

I pause, my torn shirt clutched in my hand. "What?"

Red looks over his shoulder at me with a smirk that has a lot of jumbled emotions hiding in it, "I came down here to get'cha, didn't I?"

We stare at each other while that processes. He came all the way into hell to pull me out, to save me. That understanding comes with other, less pleasant insights. My eyes stray to the floor and the burned edge of bloodstain peeking out from around the corner of the bed. "Then who the fuck was that?" I barely manage to whisper, fear clutching at my insides.

HB's walking towards the window as he answers me, "Lucifer." His voice is distant.

My legs get weak. I was lured into Hell by Lucifer himself and I survived. I should buy a fucking lottery ticket right now, because my luck will never be better.

I have to brace my hand on the bed as I move around to look at the body of the original fallen angel. Thing is, there isn't much of a body left to look at. Centered in the scorch marks is a sack of flesh that has been ripped open like a grotesque Christmas present, but instead of the organs and bones you would expect to see, there's nothing. The skin is empty.

Moving away from the ribbons of tissue is a single, bloody trail. It's smeared along the carpet in a wide patch that leads under the bed. My stomach knots up as I realize that SOMETHING either ate Lucifer or came out of him and it's still hiding in this room.

I start to back away from the bed before I realize that Michael's armor is perched in the middle of the mess of coagulated blood and hair and skin. Taking a shallow breath and holding it, I dash forward to snag the disk out of Lucifer's remains. The blood makes it slick. My fingers slide over the metal and I have to grip it with both hands to avoid losing it.

I don't want to tear my eyes off the thin slit of shadow underneath the bed, so I backpedal towards Hellboy awkwardly, feeling the way with my feet. "Red, there's something in here," I groan, my eyebrows knitting together.

I keep my voice low, but I can't hide my fear. Nothing in this place is right. I want to get out, to go anywhere that's not here. I would even settle for backwater hick country as long as I don't have to listen to the chanting and the screaming and the howling and my panicked heartbeat.

My back finally touches HB's broad frame and I reach back to lace my fingers in his hand. Why isn't he saying anything? I regrettably turn away from the bed so I can tug at Red's hand, "Please, Red, can we… get… out…" I trail off, my dread mounting.

HB's irises are gone. His eyes are solid yellow and his horns are in the middle of growing to their full height. Something sears the hand I have wound in his and I jerk back with a shout. His father's rosary is melting off his wrist. The cross and beads are white-hot, small bits of molten metal dripping from the chain. As the metal hits the ground, it keeps burning. I doubt that anything holy is meant to survive here.

The hoard outside is getting louder, screaming his true name in a voice that is a hundred-thousand strong. I don't know how to combat it. In Russia, it was one voice that made him this way. After I was raped, it was rage that made him this way. Each time, I got him to come back to himself, but this is different. I don't think my voice is loud enough to be heard.

"Hellboy," I whisper.

Down the hall, something crashes. It's loud enough to make me cringe away from the door. The shouting is inside now. The demons are coming to us. My breathing comes in shallow pants. I back into the corner of the room, only stopping once my back encounters the velvet curtain and the stone behind it.

Hellboy is just standing at the window, staring out at the crowd.

I clutch the disk to my chest as I scream at him, "Wake up, Red!"

When he doesn't move, my 'fight' instincts start kicking in. I slap the armor onto my back and let the warm metal spread around me. Calm shoots through my panic as the helmet clanks into place and the sword slides down my palm. By sheer numbers, I know I'm screwed, but I'm going to fight them off as long as I can. I have to give Red more time to regain control.

Pushing off the wall, I stride towards the door and slash through the first gaping mouth that comes careening around the corner. The demon falls at my feet in a fountain of black blood. Its heavy, chalk-colored flesh twitches as it dies.

The second one is smaller, but its claws are as thick and as long as railroad spikes. It lets out a screech that makes my eye twitch and lunges for me. Almost without my conscious decision, my body spins out of the way. The sword lands in the middle of its back with a crunch I can feel more than hear. A strong odor like the smell of the eggs Abe eats invades my helmet. I grit my teeth against my gag and rip the blade out of the demon's spine. Blood flies off the tip to splatter across the wall.

They start coming in masses after that. I try to hold them at the door, but they get past me. They crawl into the room on the ceiling and the wall, their thick claws gripping the stone. My arm shakes with blow after blow as I rip into anything near me. I can feel them tearing at the armor, but the holy metal burns their skin. Silently, I pray that the armor doesn't fall to the same forces that melted HB's rosary.

Even with the advantage the armor is giving me, I'm starting to get overwhelmed. "Red!" I shout frantically. "I need you! Remember, you have a choice!"

I reach down into my core and pull on my power as hard as I can, pushing it outwards. A bright flash of light moves through them in a shockwave. All those near me vaporize instantly, their skeletons remain a second longer in a shadowy echo of their bodies. The light doesn't quite reach the corners of the room and new demons just pour in to take the places of the ones I've obliterated.

In the brief moment between onslaughts, I get my first look at Red since this chaos descended. He's covered in black blood. It's not just splattered on him, one of the demons had to have deliberately painted on his skin with the blood of the dead. There are intricate patterns that follow then continue the scrolling on his shoulder and bicep. Two smaller demons leap onto him the moment they enter the room, their hands already dripping blood.

A savage scream rips out of my throat before I can stop it and I charge. I bat one of the little monstrosities off of his shoulder with the tip of my blade. The other crawls across his chest, chattering like an angry monkey. I snatch its thin, hairless tail and chunk it at the door. I can't explain how, but I know what these symbols mean. If they finish, Hellboy will be gone. All that will remain is Anung un Rama.

Very large, very strong hands grip me around the middle and throw me across the room much the same way I'd just chunked the smaller demon. I crash through the chandelier and hit the wall. Pain reverberates through me. I land with a grunt on the floor. For a few seconds, I can't do anything but lay there. My limbs feel rubbery. When I hear the scratches of clawed feet getting closer, I force myself to shake it off and scramble to get upright.

A massive demon fills my vision. Unlike the others, his skin is a ruddy reddish-brown and he has ram horns curving down over his ears. Saliva drips from his under bite, making the teeth overlapping his thick upper lip glisten. He doesn't look very bright, but he definitely has enough muscle to kick my ass.

I sling the sword at him fast and hard, opening up a series of deep gashes on his chest. He looks down at the wounds stupidly, but when I try to dive past him, one of his gigantic ham-shaped fists bats me out of the air. I collide with the carpet hard enough to make my teeth rattle. A sharp sting darts through my skull, originating at my mouth. Pretty sure I just busted a lip.

I roll to one side and feel the reverberations of something extremely heavy striking the ground near me. The other, lesser demons have gathered around the edges of the room, their eyes glinting with hunger as they watch the giant and I go at it. They remind me of a pack of wolves waiting for the kill to be brought down so they can all feast on it.

Over by the window, the agile, monkey demons are back at work on Hellboy. The crevices in his stone hand are glowing like there's a fire burning inside of it. They've spread symbols and marks all over him. Even from here, I can see them on his chest, sprawling down his bare stomach, over the sides of his face and across his forehead, circling his horns and eyes.

The gigantic demon smashes me while I'm distracted. The blow lands in the middle of my chest, throwing me back with enough force that I fly over the bed and land on the other side. Dozens of claws are ripping at the armor the moment I'm on the ground. They slip into the seams, gouging my skin. I gasp for breath while I flail at them. My sword catches at least one of them and they scatter backwards, leaving a small circle around me.

Heavy footsteps shake the ground. That thing is coming to finish me off. I push myself up with shaking arms, trying to find any reserve of energy I have left. That flash of incinerating light left me pretty drained. As I reach down into my power, calling it, nothing answers. I manage to get my feet beneath me and stagger to them, turning my helm so I can see the approaching behemoth.

A loud snarl draws his attention to the door. I can't waste the opportunity. With a spurt of energy I didn't know I had, I charge and drive my sword into the side of the demon's neck. Arterial spray splashes my helmet and chest as I drive the blade forward. It sticks but the monstrosity is still moving, so I grit my teeth and put my weight into it. Whatever it was stuck on gives way with a sickening crunch I never want to hear again and the blade slides through the other side of his throat. The demon gurgles and falls to his knees. I yank my sword clear just before he topples.

All of the smaller demons start screeching as a three-headed dog barrels into their midst. My stomach sinks. I don't have enough strength left to deal with this. The dog is the size of a small horse. However, the new arrival seems more interested in the demons than he is in me. He lunges more agilely that I would've expected, crunching the little imps in its three mouths, tossing them into the air, pushing them down with his weight and stepping on them.

Just behind the dog, a woman comes rushing into the room. Her eyes catch on Hellboy for a moment and then she focuses on me. As she crosses towards me, the imps flee from her path. Most of them crowd around Hellboy, either to protect him from the dog or to keep us from getting to him. I tighten my grip on my sword, uncertain about everything.

The woman grabs my arm and yanks me towards the door, "I will not be able to hold them off long. We must go."

What sets off my alarm bells is that, even though she's surrounded by demons in hell, this woman's voice is perfectly calm. She reminds me of Abe in a crisis. I pull away, going towards the wall of creatures between HB and me. Arms that are much stronger than I excepted circle my waist. Her thin hands clutch at my armor as she holds me back.

"No, we don't have time," she states sharply, the slightest edge of alarm creeping into her dead tone.

"Red! Wake up!" I push at her hands, not wanting to hurt her but needed to get to my lover. "Let go! I'm not leaving without him."

As we argue, the number of demons in the room swells to unmanageable levels. Even with the massive dog snapping and biting at them, the circle of clear space we have is thinning rapidly. They stare at us with eyes filled with unholy fire. Looking into those eyes is like peering into the purest embodiment of hatred. It rolls off them in tangible waves. I can feel their desire to pull us into tiny pieces and suck the marrow out of our bones.

"You will die here trying to save what is already lost," the woman says, pushing Red's coat against my chest.

I clutch it tightly, watching HB's face for any sign of familiarity, for any sign that he's conscious beneath Anung un Rama. He blinks and rolls his neck with a formidable crack. When he breaths out, he breaths steam. My heart wrenches as I realize that the woman is right. Hellboy is lost.

She gives one last tug to my arm and I finally follow. The demons part for us to avoid getting devoured by the three-headed dog. Some of them still snap at our hands and heels, but none of them dare get close enough to do real damage.

We run down the hall towards a wall of thorns that's holding back a hoard of demons a few hundred strong. It's spread from floor to ceiling, the vines coming out from between stones and bricks. The vines are so thick that they've pushed the rock aside. The smaller demons are still crawling between the thorny growths, but the larger, more terrifying breeds are throwing themselves at the wall. There's a slick of blood covering the ground on both sides.

Just before the thorns, the woman yanks me to the left, into a small room. The dog darts into a stairwell that looks like it's been carved out of solid rock. She shoves me towards the staircase.

"Go, I will close it behind us."

There didn't seem to be any door that I could see. I stumble up the first few steps and turn. The woman crouches on the ground just inside the entrance, pressing her fingers to the rock. Wild howling and screaming is getting louder, I can only assume that the demons are going to break through the wall of thorns any moment. I'm about to ask what the hell she's trying to do when something sprouts from the solid rock. The crack it managed to squeeze through separates with a sound so loud I slap my hands to the sides of my helmet. It doesn't help deafen it any.

My eyes go wide as the tiny sprout leaps upward and slams into the ceiling. The ground shakes. More sprouts join the first until there's a wall much like the one outside her room. Except it doesn't stop growing. The tendrils of green claw their way into the ceiling, dragging down hunks of stone that clatter and smash around her tiny frame. She doesn't seem concerned, but I can't watch her get crushed.

When the sprouts are thick enough to be considered trees and the cavern is collapsing around us, I grab the back of her dress and haul her away. We run up the stairs, chunks of roof falling in our wake. The rumbling slowly subsides but we keep running. We run until my gasps knife into my lungs and my legs seem to be moving on their own. We run until we see daylight.

I'm sitting on a rock curled up in HB's jacket since I don't have a shirt to wear. Spread out in front of me is the foulest smelling lake I've ever encountered. It's like breathing liquid rotten eggs. Abe has already told me that it's because the lake has high sulfur content, but I really don't care. My mind flickers ceaselessly over what just happened in Hell.

The woman who rescued me is called Persephone. I know she's one of the Grecian goddesses, but I haven't got much of a clue about her beyond that. She took us straight to this horrid lake where we found Athena and Abe. She and Athena have been talking in lowered voices ever since.

Right now, Abe is in the water. I think Athena said that their gate to the underworld was at the bottom of the lake and she's having Abe check it over, to make sure everything is still sealed. I could tell that Abe wanted to stay on the surface with me. I can only imagine what I must look like. I'm battered, bruised… broken. Not just my bones. I feel broken in every sense of the word.

I can't believe I left him in Hell…

I clutch his jacket tighter, pulling the lapels up to my face. Breathing his scent doesn't help, it really just makes it worse, but I do it anyway. I'm too exhausted to cry. My eyes sting like there are tears to shed, I just don't have anything to give.

As I lightly rub one of the lapels against my face, a tiny tinkling sound reaches my ears. It's almost like a small bell. I lower the jacket and pull it open, staring at the plethora of pockets. They're full of all manner of trinkets and charms so it's no surprise that there are things clinking together, but there's something about this noise that makes me slip my fingers into each pocket in turn.

The first four pockets yield trinkets I've seen before, some of which I actually know the purpose of. As the tips of my fingers find the bottom of the fifth pocket, my eyes widen and my breath catches in my throat. I don't have to pull them out to know what they are. I close my hand around the bands of metal and hold them out to the sun. On my trembling palm are two simple platinum rings. One is almost twice the size of the other, so big that the smaller ring can fit snuggly inside it. They're covered in a dusting of tiny scratches, as if they've spent months, or even years, bouncing around inside his jacket.

I wonder when he bought them. It had to have been when we were still on base since he couldn't have gone out to get them himself. I can only imagine how many threats he would've made on the agent that went out to get them, probably telling him that he would squash him if he told anyone about the errand, afraid it would get back to me.

"Oh, Red," I whisper, lightly running pad of my thumb over the edges of the bigger ring.

I slip the human-sized band onto my ring finger and smile bitterly at the perfect fit. I close my hand over the larger band. Gripping HB's ring in my fist until my knuckles are white, I bite back a sob and make a few silent vows, for him and for myself. I push his ring into the pocket of my jeans. Maybe after the world has ended, I'll get a chain for it.

"It was almost a year and a half ago."

I blink up at Abe, confused. He's standing right next to me, but I didn't hear him come up. Abe really isn't sneaky, especially when he's dripping water like a faucet, so I suppose that means I'm more than a little distracted.

I'm shocked by how level my voice is when I ask, "A year and a half?"

Abe sits on the rock next to me, putting enough distance between us that the water soaking into the rock doesn't get me wet. "Yes. He ordered them online and had them shipped to me, nervous that you would see the package if he had it sent to himself." Abe shakes his head slowly, "He had plans to give them to you and, well… You know Red better than anyone, so it would be no surprise to you that he started second guessing his decision."

"He was afraid I would think it was cheesy." I can almost hear the argument he would've had with himself about it. Expressing his emotions has never been something that came easily to Red. Dragging a genuine "I love you" out of him is like pulling teeth, it practically takes an act of God.

"I tried to explain that you found heartfelt sentiment to be endearing, but he had already made up his mind by the time I spoke with him," Abe says with a dismissive wave.

My smile is thin and pained. "That's Red for you," I conclude regrettably. "But he kept them and I know what that means."

"Yes, that is an action that speaks the volumes that he cannot."

I look up at Athena and Persephone. Compared to the tiny woman from Hell, Athena is so animated and intense. It could just be made more extreme because Persephone is the complete opposite. Persephone is almost more of a doll than a person. Her face holds no expression, it's just as empty as her voice.

Even with all of these gods and immortals on our side, how are we going to win this?

Almost as soon as the thought takes shape in my head, Abe answers me, "With perseverance. The one thing I have noted about mankind in all the years I have lived at the edges of society is that it is extremely resilient. A wild animal will fight if it is cornered, but when mankind is wounded, it doesn't just fight, it rallies. I think you will find humans more than a force to be reckoned with in these coming days."

"Humans?" I try not to sound skeptical.

It's been a long time since I've been human, but I know firsthand the difference between fighting as a man and fighting as a wolf and as an angel. If I went back to just being human, I would never survive any of this. And, knowing what I do know, I never would've launched myself into the missions next to Hellboy. Humans are delicate… frail… Which is why HB has such a hard time even now with me running into battle. He's stuck on that first impression, on the fact that I was extremely breakable when I started in this business.

"You were never as frail as you think. Are you aware of what happens to almost every other species in the world if they get bitten by a werewolf?"

"No."

"They die. You survived even though your wounds were enough to take a lesser man. You fought through the most hellish and painful transformation that has ever been documented and you came through it with sound mind, which is almost unheard of. You were never frail, John."

A little heat rushes to my face at the compliment. If it had come from anyone else, I would take it as a good-natured attempt to help alleviate my pain, but Blue is always straightforward. When Blue says something it's because he means it.

"Thanks, Abe."

"I do hope it quells your hurt, even if it wasn't my intention," Abe says with a half-smile. "Oh, yes, I think I might have something you need. If we get into a battle anytime soon, you're going to lose the other ring and Red will be very angry." His fingers waggle a bit above the numerous utility pouches on his belt before he settles on one. He draws a length of black cord out of it.

I take the cord and pull HB's ring out of my pocket, threading it through. The string is thick with water and it's difficult to force it into a knot behind my head. After I struggle with it for a moment, Abe leans over to help. His deft fingers get it tied in a second and the ring falls heavily against my sternum. I pick it up, letting it slide onto my thumb as I examine it. My chest constricts and my breathing staggers.

"Do you think we'll ever see him again?"

Abe shrugs gingerly as he refastens the pouch, "Red has come back from things that I never imagined he could, so I hesitate to make a judgment call at this point."

I open my mouth to answer and Anubis comes stumbling out of the bushes before I can make a peep. He's bleeding heavily from a number of long gouges across his back and chest and arms. Abe and I jump to our feet and rush over as he collapses. The goddesses race around the lake to join us. In a flourish of growing flowers, Persephone falls to her knees beside Anubis, laying her hands across his back carefully.

"Report," Athena snaps.

I glare up at her, "Give him a minute."

"We might not have a minute. What if this threat is about to be at our throats?"

I can't stop the conclusion I come to: This woman needs to get laid. I don't think I've ever met someone so uptight before. Abe catches my thought and he actually snorts with barely suppressed laughter. My eyes go wide, both in fear that he's going to explain to Athena why his chuckling, and in shock that his impeccably calm personality actually broke for a split second. Before anything can happen in either direction, Abe composes himself.

The gouges on Anubis's skin start shrinking. I guess Persephone's abilities don't stop at helping plants grow. As the bleeding lessens, Anubis sits up as slowly as an old man with arthritis. Everything is hurting him. He must've taken a massive beating. When the gouges are just thin, pink scars, Persephone places her hands in her lap and stares at Anubis.

He takes a deep breath, something snapping back into place inside him, and he opens his eyes. His words are quiet and filled with dread, "The gate in New York is open. Hell has been unleashed."

- TBC

So, this chapter was actually supposed to end in a totally different spot, but it was already getting too long. I decided to cut it into two slightly smaller chapters to give y'all something to read now as opposed to making you wait.
- 9
- 10
- 11
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Lines of Shadow: Sequel to Somewhere Between