With a click, the noise almost completely stops. I can still hear it in the distance, but it's far enough away now that it doesn't feel like my ears are about to explode. I lie there panting as the throbbing in my head slowly eases. After a while I'm able to open my eyes and see where I am.
I quickly realize that I'm in the back of the garbage truck. Sitting up, I look around and see Sharon lying on the floor next to me. She's just starting to open her eyes. She slowly sits up and looks around in bewilderment.
"Where are we?" she asks in a hushed tone.
"In the back of the garbage truck," I answer just as quietly.
She now has a look of total confusion on her face. I carefully stand up, not sure that my legs will hold me yet. I'm still feeling a bit fuzzy. I look around some more and see a window I hadn't noticed the last time I was in here. I see words written in reverse and I realize it must be a one way mirror I'm looking through.
I look past the words and see those women again, but now they're surrounded by probably close to 30 or 40 men. I can also see Liz, Abe and Hellboy between us and the crowd.
All of a sudden, one of the women takes flight. Where the heck did those wings come from? The top she had been wearing is falling off of her in tattered pieces. She's not even wearing a bra. She's heading straight for Abe. At first I'm afraid that she's about to attack him, but then I see her act in a rather inviting manner.
"Why that little…" I start to growl.
"MAGGIE!" Sharon gasps in surprise from behind me. "You weren't just about to do what I think you were about to do, were you?"
It takes my brain a moment to process that question.
"Sorry," I say sheepishly, looking back at her.
"If Grandmother was here, she'd have had washed your mouth out with soap three times over by now," she admonishes as she stands up.
"Hey, I said I was sorry," I retort.
I see Sharon look past me and at the scene outside. I see a book lying open on the counter behind her. I go over to it and look at the open page.
"What are those things?" she asks.
"Sirens," I answer and I start to read out loud. "'Sweetly singing enchantresses, part woman, part bird, who lured sailors to their doom. While their song can enchant men, it has the opposite effect on women. They are also believed to be sisters. Some say the Sirens had been given their wings in order to help Demeter search for her daughter Persephone, who was abducted by the King of the Underworld. They feed on the souls of drowned men.'"
"So what are they doing in Manhattan?" she asks.
"Why don't you go out and ask one?" I ask her sarcastically. "How should I know?"
She gives me a dirty look and then turns back to the window.
"That explains the topless women, but what about those other things?" she asks. "The red one and the blue one?"
"Um," is all I can manage to come up with in response.
How do I explain to her that one of those 'things' I happen to be engaged too? Wait a minute, did she say topless women? I come back to the window and look back outside.
Sure enough, there's at least a half dozen sirens surrounding Abe. Some are on the ground and the others are in the air and they're all topless. They're all reaching for him like they were his lovers. Abe at least is trying to fend them off, bless him. Hellboy and Liz look like they're trying to get clean shots at these things, but with Abe in the way, they don't dare.
I can feel the blood rising to my face. How dare they touch him? He's mine. Then one of them manages to get behind Abe and grabs him a place that only I should be allowed to touch. And that's when I lose my temper.