Chapter 19: The House of Mystery

The wooden floorboards of the House of Mystery gave an eerie squeak as the group stepped into the large mansion and found themselves facing what appeared to be the living room. The room had an old-fashioned look to it; complemented by Victorian-style furniture and a roaring fireplace. Hellboy thought that the mansion had an unnatural atmosphere to it as the roaring flame only provided illumination for the living room while the other parts of the mansion remained in the shadows.

"What is this place?" asked a curious Agent Clay as Constantine led the group towards the Victorian-styled living room, "It looks like it was built a very long time ago."

"The House of Mystery is, as the name implies, a mystery." answered Constantine as he took a seat on one of the armchairs; motioning towards the others to do the same, "No one knows when it was built or why it was built. The only thing I know is that the House has a mind of its own and it can travel between realms as well as time and space. Very convenient for when you need a quick place to get away from some undesirable people."

Hellboy took a seat on another armchair while Agent Myers and Agent Clay shared the lounge seat. The three Bureau agents found the furniture surprisingly comfortable.

"Chas," Constantine said to the stout taxi driver who had chosen to stand by the Liverpuldian's armchair, "Be a dear and get something to wet our whistles. Also, see if you can scrounge up some maps of the UK."

Chas nodded and proceeded to walk towards one of the dimly lit areas of the mansion.

"Cheers, mate!" Constantine yelled as Chas disappeared into the shadows.

"Aren't you worried he might get lost?" asked Hellboy nonchalantly but with a hint of concern, "I mean I would get lost considering how massive this place is."

"Nah," Constantine replied confidently, "Chas has been here many times before and the House knows him well enough to leave him alone. Unlike the poor sod that tried to break in here a few weeks ago."

Hellboy was slightly confused at the Liverpuldian occult detective's statement before being startled by a loud shriek that resonated through the mansion. The three B.P.R.D. agents anxiously looked around for the source of the shriek but found nothing.

"No need to get your knickers in a twist, lads." Constantine said, addressing the startled agents, "There's nothing to be worried about. It's just the bloke that I mentioned earlier."

The three Bureau agents turned to the Liverpuldian occult detective with perplexed looks on their faces.

"You see," Constantine explained, "The House of Mystery changes its structure periodically. Any room you enter could disappear and you'd be forever trapped here with no hope of ever escaping. To this date, I still can't find the screaming bastard. I don't even know whether he's upstairs or downstairs."

The three B.P.R.D. agents looked to each other with a worried look on their face as another shriek reverberated through the House of Mystery. If they weren't careful around the mansion, they could end up with a similar fate as the screaming man.

"Anyway," Constantine said as he clapped his hands and made his way to a bookshelf next to the fireplace, "While we wait for Chas to return with the drinks and before the screaming becomes intolerable, let's get acquainted with our targets."

The three B.P.R.D agents watched as the Liverpuldian occult detective scanned through the bookshelf before removing a thick manuscript.

"Here you go, mate." said Constantine as he tossed the manuscript towards Agent Myers, "The unpublished manuscript of what was to be the last work of the late Francis Barrett."

"Francis Barrett?" Hellboy said with intrigue, "Well-known English occultist and author of The Magus?"

"The same." replied Constantine as he walked back to his armchair, "The old man was working on an encyclopaedia on magical artefacts before he buggered off to the afterlife. There's an entry for the Helmet of Fate but it only contains a written physical description of it."

Agent Clay and Agent Myers scanned through the manuscript until they found Barrett's entry on the Helmet of Fate. Meanwhile, Constantine produced a folder from inside his trenchcoat. Hellboy noticed that the folder has the B.P.R.D. symbol stamped on it.

"As for Klarion," Constantine spoke with a smirk on his face as he handed the red-skinned paranormal investigator the folder, "Here's a file on him, courtesy of the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defence."

"Where did you get this?" Hellboy asked, even though he already knew the answer.

"Nicked it on my way out." Constantine replied smugly, "Thought it'd be a more useful way of telling you blokes who he was and save me the trouble of explaining it to you."

Hellboy opened the folder and studied its contents. Similar to the Bureau's folder on Constantine, Klarion's folder contained a picture of the witch-boy (including his cat, Teekl) as well as the standard B.P.R.D. report. By this time, Agent Myers and Agent Clay had finished reading Barrett's description of the Helmet of Fate and were staring curiously at the stolen B.P.R.D. folder in Hellboy's hands. The red-skinned paranormal investigator scanned through the B.P.R.D. report, noting that Klarion's origins was marked unknown and that he was responsible for several global incidents that occurred many years ago, before handing the folder to Agent Clay. The two Bureau agents went through the report as Chas suddenly appeared from the darkness; holding a tray with five beer bottles in one hand and several rolled up large pieces of paper in the other. The stout taxi driver handed each member of the group a beer bottle before placing the rolled up papers on the living room table.

"Right," announced Constantine as he opened his beer bottle while Chas spread one of the rolled up papers open; revealing a map of the United Kingdom, "Now that I've got myself a drink and Chas has brought us some maps, we can begin our search for that bleeding little witch-boy."

"How do you suppose we find him?" asked Agent Myers, looking at the picture of Klarion, "He could be anywhere in the world by now."

"True," answered Constantine as he rummaged through his trenchcoat pocket, "But Klarion probably hasn't gone out of the country since he's got the Helmet of Fate in his devilish little hands."

"Why do you say that?" asked Agent Clay as he placed the B.P.R.D. folder aside and took a sip of his beer, "The report stated that he's a very powerful magic-user. What's stopping him from just using magic to leave the country?"

"Klarion's a young boy," Constantine replied as he pulled out a cigarette pack, a pen and a ball of string from his trenchcoat pocket, "And like all young boys on Christmas day, he'll waste no time in trying out his new toy."

"Question now is," Hellboy asked, taking a swill from his beer bottle, "Where would he be?"

"Perhaps a little divination would help." Constantine replied as he tied the string around the cigarette pack and the pen to make a makeshift pendulum.

Everyone watched as Constantine dangled the crudely-made pendulum over the map of the United Kingdom as he began reciting a spell:

"Bith a bhi na m'bhial, bladh a bhi nam'chainn,

Siubhal Choire, Siubhal Choille, Siubhal Fradine Fada, Fas,

Is math a gabhas mi mo rann!"

The crude pendulum suddenly began to swing in a circle around the map. Agent Myers stared in amazement whilst Agent Clay and Hellboy watched the circling pendulum closely. Slowly, the circle of the swinging pendulum began to shrink until it came to a complete halt. Agent Clay, Hellboy and Constantine looked at the area of the map that the pendulum had stopped over which was revealed to be Greater London.

"Well, that's some well-needed good news," Agent Clay remarked with elation, "At least Klarion's still somewhere in the UK."

"That's not good enough." said Chas, slightly frustrated, "Greater London's still a big area for him to hide in. We need to know which part of Greater London he's in."

"Looks like we'll need a better map." Constantine said as he removed the pendulum and took a swill of his beer.

Hellboy watched as Chas replaced the map of the United Kingdom with the map of the Greater London area.

"This is gonna take a while." he muttered, taking another swill of beer as Constantine once again dangled the pendulum over the map.

Gerald yawned with boredom as he watched the clock slowly tick towards half past five. During the eight hours he had been here, not a single customer had entered the shop. Perhaps the lack of customers was due to the fact that he was selling exotic antiques that no one was interested in, let alone wanted buy them.

Gerald gave a heavy sigh as he began to shut off all the lights in the shop. He should have listened to his wife when she tried to stop him from opening the damned shop in the first place. Now, not only was he under a mountain of debt but his wife had stopped talking to him entirely. Gerald gave another heavy sigh as he put on his anorak jacket and headed for the door at exactly half past five.

However, as he opened the door to exit his shop, Gerald was greeted by a young boy holding a striped cat. Gerald thought that the boy was dressed rather peculiarly but what he found more peculiar was the boy's hairstyle which gave him the appearance of horns protruding out of his head.

"May I help you?" Gerald asked politely, unsure of the youth's intentions, "I'm about to close shop."

"Oh, yes." the young boy said with a sinister grin on his face, "You most definitely can."

Gerald felt slightly unnerved by both the youth's smile and response. Before he could utter another word, the young boy suddenly stretched out his right hand towards him. The last thing that Gerald saw was a bright flash of red light before everything went dark.