Epilogue

Shadow:

I am playing a rousing game of wrapper soccer, and Alley is lying down in the basket, resting. When the big metal door opens, we join the other cats in greeting Hellboy, Liz, Abe, and Myers. Alley climbs right up Hellboy's pant leg until she reaches his belt. I wrap myself around Abe's ankles. Hellboy plucks Alley off his hip as Abe picks me up before I can trip him. I immediately start trying to catch those bubbles floating past those little windows in Abe's collar.

"I'm glad you two didn't manage to sneak into the truck with us," says HB sighing as he scratches Alley's ears. "That was one bizarre case."

"It was very unusual," says Abe as he watches me in amusement.

"Yeah," says Myers. "Just what did that guy think he was doing?"

"The same thing every nut case tries to do," says Liz. "He decides he needs to make a point or something, and doesn't care who gets hurt in the process. In this case it looks like he was looking for revenge on a former employer."

"I still can't believe that idiot would try to make a pack of demon dogs to do his bidding," says Myers. "How was he planning on controlling them? For that matter, how did he even get hold of that particular demon's body?"

"He summoned the demon and then killed it before it could kill him," answers Abe, sitting at the table. I climb up onto his shoulder trying to get a better position on those little windows.

"Ok, Blue," says Hellboy as he sits on the edge of the bed, "how come the dogs didn't change shape like that rat did?"

"I was wondering that myself," Liz says as she sits down next to him and starts petting Alley too.

"It depends on how much was eaten," replies Abe, keeping his hand close to me so I don't fall. "The more that is eaten, the more aspects of the demon are taken on."

"So let me get this straight," says Myers, he's still standing by the door. "This guy decides he wants to get back at his ex-boss for firing him. He gets a bunch of dogs from wherever. He then summons a demon, kills it, and then starts feeding it to these dogs, making sure not to give them too much so they can't change shape. That guy was seriously disturbed."

"He probably was," says HB. "To bad for him the dogs turned on him."

"It's a good thing that we got there when we did. They had almost broken out of the compound," says Abe.

"It's still hard to believe that the one you killed the other day was the smallest one," says Myers to Hellboy.

"That's why it got out," says Abe. "It was small enough to squeeze through a hole under the fence; the others were much too big. Though, they were making good progress in enlarging the hole when we got there."

"It's too bad all those dogs had to be destroyed," says Myers.

"There was no other choice," says Abe. "Once they were transformed, they couldn't be changed back."

"Yeah, I know," says Myers. "Well, I'm sure your dinner is ready, Red, so I'll just go and get it now."

As Myers leaves, Abe takes me off his shoulder, gets up and hands me to HB.

"I think I'll head back to my tank now," he says. "I have some reading to catch up on."

Once Abe is gone, Hellboy turns to Liz and says, "How about a movie?"

"Sounds good," she replies. "Which one?"

"How about 'City Lights?'" he asks as he puts Alley and me back in our basket.

"Ok," answers Liz as she settles back on the bed.

As Hellboy rummages around in a cabinet for the movie, Alley and I jump back on the bed and settle down next to Liz. Liz chuckles and starts petting us. HB finds what he's looking for and puts it into some machine. He comes back to the bed and stops short.

"Hey, you two," he says laughing. "Stop hogging the girlfriend."

We just look at him and purr. He laughs again and lies down next to Liz. They cuddle together as we cuddle up to him. He is really warm. He pushes a button on a funny little plastic box that has buttons all down one side. One of the TVs comes to life and start showing words and pictures. There's music but no one speaks and the pictures don't have any color to them. I fall asleep to images of a funny little man with a mustache and a cane. I've never been happier in all of my little life.

The End