The girl woke up again during the night, thinking that she heard a noise. She looked over at her door and saw that it was open. Her hand began to turn the knob on her chest and she called out to see if anyone was in her room. No one said anything back, but suddenly she was grabbed by what felt like a normal arm and a stone, after that the rest of the night became only bits and pieces. She couldn't remember if she screamed, but something caught the attention of the man that she lived with, he tried sneaking up on the other that held her and what happened for the rest of that night was almost blank to her. Time didn't seem to exist during this whole event. Maybe it was her minds mechanism for trying to block out everything that was happening, by telling her that she could not possibly be stolen away to another place.
When she was able to register and rationalize what was going on, she found that she was wearing a large black t-shirt and a pair of pants that were a few sizes too big for her. She was sitting on a couch in what seemed to be a library from the amount of books everywhere. She stood up and noticed that one of the walls was actually a tank wall with four books in front of it. "Kroenen?..." She called out, expecting to see a man in a mask pop out from somewhere. "Kroenen?!" No reply.
She began to shake with fright, as far back as she could remember, Kroenen was always nearby. A large red figure then walked into the room through a doorway not too far away from her. He almost looks like a red ape, she thought. "Hey kid," he was smoking a cigar, "what'cha want to eat?"
"Where am I?" All of a sudden she looked fierce.
"Hold on, are you angry?" He looked at her as though she had three heads.
"Are we in Germany?"
"Nah," He almost laughed, "were you awake for any of that?"
"Where are we?" She was frightened and confused, which came out as anger.
"B.P.R.D."
"I've read Kroenen's notes about you...Hellboy...What do you want with me?"
"We were saving you from that crazy nazi son-of-a-bitch!" The girl then thought she saw something in the tank out of the corner of her eye and turned to look.
A blue, fish-like man was in the tank staring out at her. This was all too much for her. "Who are you?!"
"Abraham Sapien, and you are Kirsa right?"
"Yeah," Kirsa said and looked back at Hellboy, "Kroenen wasn't a crazy nazi son-of-a-bitch! He was only part of the nazi party so that he would have funding for his research!"
"Are you kidding me?!" Hellboy grew louder with each word.
"Hellboy..."Abe said as a signal for Hellboy to get control over himself. Abe then continued, "Kirsa, we got word that Kroenen had somehow managed to escape from the pit that he was impaled in. We also heard that he was doing his research and experiments on a young girl. So, we felt it our duty to try to save you." Hellboy rolled his eyes and seemed to nod in agreement.
Kirsa tried to regain her composure, like how Kroenen had taught her. She could not let these setbacks cause her to lose her train of thought. "As you may or may not know, I was there in the chamber with Kroenen." I was also the one to help him out, she said in her mind. "And please, do not let my appearance or the sound of my voice deceive you, I am much older than you think. It is true though, that I was a part of his research of the human anatomy." So that he could finalize his invention, the wind-up heart, she said to herself again.
"So, it's a good thing we got you outta' there." Hellboy looked over at Abe after he said this, but Abe looked worried.
I'll ask him what's up later..., Hellboy told himself. Hellboy looked back at Kirsa and saw that she was staring at him, "Eh, what?" He said this with attitude in his voice.
"Nothing." She was visually placing a chart on him of pressure points, in case she ever needed to use violence upon him.
"Alright, well, do you still want something to eat?"
"Just some water. I don't need food." She said going back to inspecting her clothes.
"You're one weird kid. Abe, keep an eye on her." Hellboy said while leaving the room.
Kirsa looked up at Abe from her clothes. "Is something wrong?" She walked towards the tank, suspicion was on her face.
She's up to something, I know it. Maybe this was not such a good idea to bring her here, Abe said inside himself. "No, but, could I bother you to turn the pages of those books?" He pointed to the four books in front of the tank.
"Yeah..." She went to each book and turned the pages, at the same time looking at the front covers to see what he was reading.
"If you just wanted to know what I was reading, you could have asked me."
"You're reading The Picture of Dorian Gray?" She flipped the page of the last book.
"Yes, it's one of my favorites."
"Me too." She balled up one of her fists, wanting to cry, but it was physically impossible for her to do that.
This story reminded her of her life back at that lovely house in Germany. She would sit there reading, while Kroenen stared at her curiously. He did so much for her, but they would not understand. Then, accidentally, she allowed the needles to pop out in her clenched fist. The needles penetrated the palms of her fist and thin lines of sand began to escape her hand as she pulled her needle fingers out of her palm. Abe noticed and his mouth dropped slightly, but quickly shut it again.
Kirsa turned around towards Abe. "Do you have a doctor, or someone who is very good with a needle and thread?" She raised her hand trying to stop the sand.
"I do most of the medical procedures here." Abe said, immediately climbing a ladder out of his tank into a room above her head.
He then walked out of a door onto a platform that had winding stairs beneath it. Abe was also placing a large device around his neck that seemed to have water inside of it. He was still only wearing a black pair of shorts. "Follow me please."
Kirsa walked up the stairs, almost tripping in her pants. Did they purposely give me things to wear that are impossible to move about in? She reached the landing and followed Abe through the door that he came through. She looked about her and saw that they were in a hallway of glass walls, some of the rooms had drapes closed within them as to not see into the room. He led her into a room that already had a drape closed within it. "Oh, Hellboy was supposed to bring you a cup of water wasn't he?" Abe said after Kirsa walked into the room.
"As I recall." She seated herself in what looked like a dentist's chair in the middle of the room.
"Hopefully he's not too worried when he gets back there." Abe opened a drawer and pulled out a straight, traumatic needle and absorbable sutures.
He threaded the needle and placed this upon a metal tray that he set on a stand that came out of the chair in which Kirsa sat. She stared at the needle. "That is like the ones Kroenen used to use..." Kirsa said quietly.
"Oh." Was the only reply that came from Abe.
Abe grabbed a chair and rolled it towards Kirsa, he sat down and looked at her gloved hands. "You need to take that glove off and I need to get anesthesia." Abe said, knowing he'd forgotten something.
"I don't think you'll need it." She said, removing the glove. "I don't act like others do when it comes to pain. Pain is turned into pleasure for me." Kirsa said bluntly.
"Would you explain this for me?" Abe almost couldn't believe what he was hearing.
"You know, pleasure. Hm, uh, what's a good word? Stimulation, arouse. But, I should probably have anesthesia then."
"Did Kroenen ever use anesthesia?" Abe was beginning to wonder what type of twisted relationship Kroenen and Kirsa had.
"Most of the time. Other times he...did not." Abe shuddered at the image of Kirsa on an operating table, panting or moaning, while Kroenen cut her open.
"I'll go get the anesthesia." Abe got up and opened another drawer, pulling out a syringe.
Another drawer was opened and out came a small glass vial of anesthesia. He stuck the needle into the glass vial and soon the needle had enough anesthesia in it so that Kirsa's hand would be numb. Abe placed the syringe on the metal tray and sat back in the chair.The needle was placed into Kirsa's hand. Abe could have sworn that when he stuck her with the needle he could see her smile slightly. "Numb?" She nodded.
The sewing of her hand did not take long, but Abe was constantly distracted by the shine of her metal fingertips. "Abe..." Kirsa began as she was led out of the room that her hand was fixed in, "do you think that I'll see Karl, I mean, Kroenen again?"
"I'm not sure. I think he has given you a very odd view of things, such as what is good, bad, and love."
"Why do you say love? Are you insinuating something?" She glared up at Abe.
"When I was sewing you up, the contact we had, allowed me to see some of your most prominent thoughts. You were thinking of Kroenen, and there was a feeling there, I think love."
"Shut-up!" The needles shot out of her fingers again and she immediately had the needles hanging over pressure points in Abe's body.
She didn't even realize what she was doing, her training with Kroenen caused her to act against her will. Abe stood frozen, not wanting move wrong and cause his own death. Kirsa withdrew the needles and stood looking at her hands. "I'm...sorry."
Abe looked at her, frightened. I don't want him to be afraid of me, Kirsa cried in her mind. "Please don't look at me like that. Abe." She choked out.
Abe's expression changed, but not by much. "Um, your sleeping quarters are not yet ready. So there should be a cot set-up in the library by now." They both walked onto the landing through the door.
Abe was right, there was a cot set-up and on a table beside it with a cup of water. She walked down the stairs quickly, leaving Abe to follow her. Kirsa quickly grabbed the cup of water and began to drink it in a slow stream. She set the empty cup down and reached up into her shirt to turn the knob. "What are you doing?" Abe stared at her.
"Winding up...wouldn't you know? Were you the one who dressed me?" Kirsa looked over at Abe while turning her wind-up heart.
"No, I think some of the agents did."
"I don't like these clothes much." She removed her hand from the knob and tugged on the black t-shirt.
"You might get new clothing. Well, I will be going off to my tank to sleep. Feel free to read the books. I'm usually the only one who reads them after the professor died..." Abe walked up the stairs.
"Wasn't Kroenen ordered to kill him?" Kirsa felt bad about this, but was not sure if this was true.
"Yes." Abe said and left through the door.
He was soon in the tank within the room. Kirsa couldn't help but observe his movements as he swam about. "Hey, Abe. If I start acting up in my sleep, please wake me up and wind my heart." Kirsa didn't bother to look if he nodded, but Abe didn't reply.
She climbed underneath the brown sheet on the cot and let sleep take her.