Darkness gripped the city like the jaws of some unseen beast, slowly squeezing the life out of the decrepit metropolis while a shroud of mist suffocated the neon lights that feebly tried to light the street. The duo of mystery and suspicion spread rapidly across the labyrinth of snaking alleys and twisting streets that cowered from the buildings on either side that threatened to swallow them up. It ran rampant across the district and muffled everything making it difficult to hear the noises that would usually reassure the people of its vitality. Somewhere, a taxi rattled down the uneven cobbles paying no heed to any drunkard that staggered into its path. There was a strange feeling to the alleyways causing the few, lone people who walked them to pull their hats low over their faces and shrug their coats round them as they anxiously watched out for the latest terror that was latching onto the fear of the people; the red devil.
Far above them however, standing on a rooftop far from the pitiful humans and their fear, a cigar lit up. The swell of amber light burnt into the darkness like a glowing eye and shone a lone glow of light onto a brown leather coat stretched across a bare chest and a heavy leather holster laden with a large gun; too large for any mortal man. Smoke rushed through his torso, filling his lungs and lingering in his mouth as for a moment he stopped breathing; savouring the flavour...Then, with a flood of acrid smells, it flowed out between gritted teeth.
"Red bloody devil..." Hellboy snarled. "Typical." A wisp of smoke snaked its way into the night and Liz's slim, pale hand brushed over Hellboy's shoulder. She stood beside him and smiled, resting her head by his shoulder.
"Oh don't complain, you love it really, all the attention." Hellboy grumbled a disagreement under his breath but Liz had ceased to listen. Her eyes were fixed Aurora who was staring intensely at the city spread out in front of them like a map of an extraordinary rabbit warren. Of course, the ghost like mist that was coming up from the Thames made it near impossible to make out any detail but to some degree you could make out the rough outline of London.
"-We'll have to head down to Soho and then make our way to the passage..." she was saying in a hushed, formal voice much like that of someone an architect pitching an idea, "And from there, we'll find the entrance, it shouldn't be too difficult. And once we're inside I'm sure we can locate them and make sure they are swiftly…eradiated…"
Hellboy nodded taking another breath from his cigar. "Or we could not write a full blown report and just go kill them all...I mean, come on, this is stupid. We could just run from here to there, find the blood-sucking beasties, put a bullet through their heads and be done with it. Simple."
Aurora looked at him, half in a scowl half in a smile; she brushed her white hair out of her sharp blue eyes. "We have to do it there proper way, remember what happened last time you headed out? Because if I remember rightly, that's why you're the "Red Devil"." Hellboy's eyes narrowed.
"That wasn't my fault. How was I to know that god dam man was would freak out so easily? And the children...I swear that time it definitely wasn't my fault."
"Back me up, Liz." Aurora pleaded, taking her eyes pale from Hellboy and glancing over towards her dark figure with a look of half desperation. "Tell him that we have to follow the rules." Liz folded her arms shivering in the cold and glanced out at the night apprehensively before letting a small smile creep onto her lips.
"Well..." she said slowly. "If we're going to do this, I think we should just do it..." Aurora eyes widened in disbelief as she saw her defeat and Hellboy grinned.
"I win." He said with triumphant smirk. "So let's stop dawdling and get the hell outta here and thrash some vampires." He whistled as though calling for a dog and suddenly scampering out of the shadows, there came a hunched figure. Scuttling on all fours, a girl raced up towards Hellboy. She couldn't have been any older than 9. Her body was clad in weaponry, guns the size of forearms. She stopped at his big, black boots and looked up defiantly; beaming.
"Horns." her voice was small and child-like but there was something rather powerful about it.
"Trigger." Hellboy's face split. A smile spread rapidly across his face; a huge childish grin. Trigger scampered forwards, her bare feet clung to his huge stone-like hand and she began to climb all the way up to his shoulders, where her tiny frame sat; perching by his head like some sort of a tame monkey. Her black hair hung limp about her face and framed a pair of startling purple eyes that glowed sharply in the night. "Let's go kill some god dam vampires" She said her voice buzzing with a violent excitement worthy of a psychopathic killer.
"You brought her along?" Aurora's cut through the air and there was a small crack as she popped her knuckles angrily. "You were told not to bring her. I specifically made a point of telling you not to. She's too young; you can't do this; you agreed!" Her face raged and in her eyes there was a steadily growing anger.
Hellboy turned round and his shoulders slumped with annoyance. "She wanted to! I couldn't leave her; anyway, she's not too young!"
"Hellboy! I'm being serious!"
"I want to come." Trigger's voice seemed to rise up above the others with a degree of authority. She stood up proudly on Hellboy's shoulders and stared at Aurora her eyes blazing a sort of madness. "I can look after myself; I'm no mere defenceless mortal." She announced. Hellboy looked at Aurora with his new-found proof shrugging innocently as if the argument had been settled.
"See!"
"Fine!" Aurora scoffed angrily and throwing her hands up in the air dramatically, "Whatever, but if you get hurt, I'm not explaining. You can deal with them by yourself" She spun on her heals crossly and began to stride forward. Hellboy and Trigger began to titter and Liz nudged him hard in the ribs, mouthing: Stop it! This isn't funny but her own face was cracking into a smile as well. Aurora turned round sharply her white hair swirling round her face like a blizzard.
"I can hear you!" She called back trying desperately to keep her scowl but something about the surrealistic scene of the three of them was, much to her annoyance, making her chuckle too.
Hellboy took his gun from his holster and laughed "Well come on then, let's go kill some god dam vampires."