Sarah's Apartment 10:58 PM

Hellboy and Abe enter the apartment building through a back entrance followed by John Myers, the agent assigned to Hellboy. They walk into the small lobby and are met by Liz and Dr. Manning, director of the BPRD. Various agents wander around making sure the place is secure.

"Ok, the building has been evacuated except for the apartment with the infestation," Manning starts. "Agents Myers and Sherman will go in first to try and get the boy out. After that, Hellboy will go in and remove the problem. Try not to cause too much damage this time, Hellboy. The government is getting tired of paying for your messes."

"Is it my fault if the monsters don't come quietly?" Red asks rhetorically.

"The apartment is 3R," Manning continues. "There's no elevator, so we're going to have to walk it."

With that, people start to head for the stairs. John and Abe get to the staircase first and lead the way side by side. Hellboy allows Liz to precede him, but cuts Manning off before heading up the stairs himself. Due to his sheer size, no one can walk beside him on the stairs. Manning and several more agents follow the demon up the stairs but several steps behind so as to avoid being hit with the red tail in front of them.

Shortly, they are standing in a poorly lit hallway in front of apartment 3R where they can hear a TV playing rather loudly. Abe removes one of his gloves and places a webbed hand on the door trying to avoid the worst of the peeling and chipping paint. After a few moments, Abe removes his hand, placing his hand back in the glove; he turns back to the others.

"The boy is watching TV," he says. "There are six goblins."

"Well, kid, you better go in and say 'hi,'" Hellboy says to John. "Don't worry, Liz will protect you."

"Yeah, thanks," John replies sarcastically. Then he turns to Liz. "Are you ready?"

"I guess so," she answers with a shrug.

Hellboy and Abe move a safe distance away so as not to be seen as John and Liz step up to the door. John knocks softly at first, but tries again a bit harder when there's no response. After trying a couple of more times, Hellboy gets ready to pound on the door. Knowing that this will probably cause the door to collapse, Abe stops him. Putting his hand on the knob, Abe turns it and opens the door. With a graceful wave of his hand, he steps out of the way as John and Liz enter the sparsely furnished apartment.

As they step in, they can hear things moving in the shadows. A boy of about ten years of age with dirty blond hair is sitting on the couch watch a music video channel so loudly it's amazing that his ears aren't bleeding. Liz goes over to the TV and turns it off.

"Hey!" the kid yells. "I was watching that!"

He looks at the two adults staring at him. His blue eyes fill with anger at being interrupted.

"What are you doing here?" he asks snidely. "How'd you get in? Haven't you ever heard of knocking?"

"Hi, I'm John and this is Liz," John starts as he squats down next to the couch while Liz tries to look into the shadows of the room. "What's your name?"

"Toby," the kid answers sullenly.

"We're looking for Sarah Williams," John continues. "Do you know her?"

"Yeah, she's my half sister," he answers with a smirk. "She's not here. She's not coming back either, so you might as well just go away and turn the TV back on before you leave."

"Do you know where she went?" John asks calmly.

Liz is impressed with John's ability to stay so cool with this kid. She'd probably have given the kid a good singeing by now. Something moves in her peripheral vision and turns to look at it, but it's gone. When she looks back, she can see the door opening quietly allowing a tall, thin blue figure and a very large red figure to move silently into the room.

"I wished her away to the goblins," the kid answers smugly. "And the goblins came and took her and then their king showed up and said that I wouldn't ever have to see her again. That's ok with me because she never lets me do any of the stuff that I want to do and she never has anything good to eat here and I hate it when my parents make me come here and stay with her."

"How did you wish her away?" John questions as he tries to keep his blood pressure from rising.

"I just said the words and they came," Toby huffs like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "So she's not here, so you can go away now too. Or I can wish you away like I did her."

"Where did you learn the words?" John asks as he ignores the sounds of slithering in the dark corners of the room.

"A voice told me," Toby replies with a shrug. "It told me where to find the book and then it told me the words to say."

"What book?"

"That one," Toby responds as he points to a little red book with gold lettering that reads 'The Labyrinth.'

"So why did you say them?" John presses on.

"Because Sarah wouldn't let me stay up and watch TV," he sulks. "Go away or I'll say the words again."

"Now, Toby, that wouldn't be very nice," John says. "We're just trying to help."

"Help do what?" Toby asks heatedly. "Are you trying to get her back? Because you can't and I won't let you."

"Toby…" John tries to reason.

"I wish the goblins would come and take you away right now!" Toby yells.

Giggling and rustling can be heard throughout the shadows of the room. Hellboy pulls out the Samaritan and starts pointing it at the shadows. He keeps changing his aim, trying to keep up with the sounds. Liz and Abe immediately flank John in hopes of protecting him from any oncoming attacks.

"Hey, why aren't you taking them away?" Toby yells at the shadows.

"Can't do that," a giggling shadow answers from by the kitchen.

"Only one to a customer," sniggers another shadow near the window.

"What do you mean 'only one to a customer'?" Toby shouts as he stands on the couch looking into the shadows.

"Can only wish one person away," answers a voice by the bookcase.

"It's the rules," says another voice from behind the TV.

"THAT'S NOT FAIR!" Toby screams.

He's answered by uproarious laughter, as if it was the funniest thing the hidden goblins have ever heard. Toby continues to yell at the goblins to take John away, seemingly unaware of the new arrivals. Abe picks up the little book on the couch. Taking a glove off, he allows the book to tell him what happened earlier that evening. Walking back over to Hellboy, Abe lays a hand on his shoulder. Hellboy all but knocks Abe down when he suddenly spins around.

"You have a death wish, Abe?" HB growls rhetorically.

"He really did wish his sister away to the Goblin King," Abe says.

"Oh, come on," Hellboy scoffs. "Just by saying, 'I wish the goblins would come and take you away right now?'"

"Oh dear," is the last thing anyone hears Abe say as the lights go out, a cold wind blows through the room and what seems to be dozens of voices laughing high pitched insane giggles. A moment later, a barn owl flies into the room and in a cloud of glitter turns into the Goblin King complete in his black royal garb. Hellboy's burning amber eyes narrow as he levels the Samaritan at the newcomer.

"Who are you?" Hellboy asks. "Puff the Magic Drag Queen?"