"I can't believe you let it get away, HB!"

Abe grimaced. Really, in this nicely-shaped auditorium, everything echoed and there was no reason for Liz to be yelling like that.

"It ain't my fault!"

Neither did Hellboy for that matter.

The auditorium was nice - clearly, this school valued either the performing arts or the teacher to keep the place looking in such pristine condition. The seats were green and soft, the steps and aisles were carpeted, and the stage was clean and had the look of recent paint.

Of course, it would've looked better if there wasn't a dead girl sprawled in the middle of it.

Abe strode up to the body and looked down at it sadly. She had long mousy brown hair and scars on her face (no doubt from acne of some sort) and - there really was no nice way to say this - was a bit on the pudgy side (she had to be nearly two-hundred pounds, easy). Her shirt was large and black, displaying movie art from a recent horror movie, and her corduroy pants were maroon for some reason. Her fingernails were unpainted and dirty, her shoes were old and falling apart, and she had the look of a basically unkempt teenage girl.

Except for her eyes. They were bright blue. Not sky blue - these were two dark for that. The color of the sky as the sun went down, that darkened blue that still looked bright. They were wide opened, and were staring at the thing that killed her.

The only thing that he could get from the students was that it was a large shadow-thing with red eyes. They were all in shock, and after he (mostly Liz) had talked to them, the police had them taken home.

But the teacher was still here. He was skinny, with thinning brown hair and deep-set wrinkles and glasses. Sitting behind his desk, he hadn't moved or spoke since they had arrived.

Abe finally walked up to the man and lay a gentle hand on his shoulder (thank God he still had his gloves - one touch of this man would've driven him mad). "Sir, I know this is very hard for you," he said quietly, "But it would help us greatly if you could tell us what you saw."

The man didn't say anything for a moment, but then he said, "She . . . she . . . she wouldn't . . . she wouldn't run . . . she stared at it . . . . stared . . . like . . . she knew . . . . she knew it . . ."

She knew what killed her? "Was she . . . eccentric?" Abe asked. "Did she show any proficiency in prestidigitation or anything of the like?" Often, children with ESP or psychic skills resorted to simple magic tricks to get the attention of their peers. He'd seen it before.

The man shook his head. "She . . . didn't . . . . run . . ." he repeated. It seemed to be the only thing he could say.

Abe sighed. Nothing more could be gained here.

"Liz?" he called gently. "Do you see anything over there?"

"I thought I did," she snapped, "But Red scared it off!"

Abe rolled his eyes. The honeymoon period had wore off these two at least a year ago, and the "new babies" buzz had wore off a couple weeks ago. Now they were a couple arguing and making up at odd intervals. In many ways, it was awkward. In even more ways, they scared more people fighting than with looking at them (for a change).

Abe looked back at the body, and knew he had no choice - if he wanted an accurate description of what had happened here, he'd have to touch something of hers.

He strode over to the body and bent down for a closer look (he avoided her staring eyes; even dead, they still seemed to pierce his soul). There was something in her pocket - something quite large. He worked at it for a moment, and finally pulled out a hard plastic-covered piece of equipment with headphones - an iPod. Like every other teen in the world.

He carefully pulled off one of his gloves and gently place his bare hand on it.

Woosh! Like a corporeal wind, the memories that the device had held hit him. Not only did he get a good look at what killed the girl (it was exactly like everyone described it - large, shadowy, red eyes), he got whatever load of emotion the thing was holding.

-Pirating-

-Bopping her head in the car-

-dishes-

-anger-

-frustration-

-depression-

Abe tore his hand away from it and let the thing fall to the floor with a loud crack! The girl had carried this thing like a security blanket - it was so overloaded with memories and feelings, it was like a personal backup to her brain.

He got up and pulled out a small notebook from his pants pocket (actual pants, not the shorts he was so used to - Red had said that the less exposed skin in this weather, the better). When they had left the BPRD, he hadn't gotten to go back and take any of his books, so he had found a cheap notebook and had written down everything he could remember. Oh, damn it all! How he missed those books!

Unsurprisingly, he couldn't find anything in his notebook about shadow creatures. Nothing at all.

"Abe!" Liz shouted as she got closer (really now, did she have to be so loud?). "What killed her?"

He turned to her, and said, "I don't know."

For the first time in his career, he was flying blind.

Wow, two chappies! I hope you guys enjoy this!

On a more serious note, please keep the people of Japan in your thoughts when you read this - they need our help and our money, and if you're like me, you're totally broke until you can go panhandle somewhere downtown.

So goodnight, all. R+R if you could, pulease.