Author note: Thank-you to those who have reviewed. Hope you like the second chapter. Please continue to provide feedback as the sorry progresses. If anything isn't clear or needs more emphasis, please tell me your thoughts! Sorry for previous problems with this chapter, there were some issues with uploading and editing that didn't work as planned.
Please note that all the names, save the Donnelly surname, are completely fabricated. There are books written on the "Black Donnelly's of Lucan" which are unfortunately true and horribly tragic. The clock has basis in both fact and nightmare. Hellboy, Abe and B.P.R.D. are not mine, they are Mignolas'.
Thank-you and enjoy!
The Hunt Begins
Abe touched Esther's hand, feeling no pulse.
"They'll be back. We just have to wait for them." Hellboy walked over to the old clock. "Settle in, blue, it's going to be a long night."
Hellboy gingerly opened the clock-case to reveal a motionless pendulum and a setting of 0100.
"It was moving and chiming when we came in," stated Abe.
"Hmmmm…" Hellboy felt the panels of the clock with his left hand, and then pulled the clock face with a firm pull. Only cobwebs lay within, not a single gear or weight.
"Most interesting. I would have to say that we haven't seen anything like this since Ireland, 1978. It was sewing machine, was it not?"
Hellboy nodded and continued to walk through the house. Hellboy stopped at the rickety stairwell to the upstairs and called out to Abe. "We're gonna need help on this one. Tonight, I stay here and ask questions."
"There is something old here, restlessness both inside and out." Abe felt the walls with his gloved hands. "There might be something outside, in the garden or forest. If you're going to stay here and smoke all night, I may as well look for something outdoors in the clean air."
Hellboy watched Abe walk out the door into the night.
As the evening wore on, Hellboy came to the realization that the amulet's constant tugging revealed a total of thirty-eight entities. He sat on the floor in the kitchen among the area of highest activity, staring at the clock in the living room. This was different than the sewing machine. The clock was evil, it was cursed. Just how remained unknown.
Abe Sapien walked through the bushes, pushing aside the lupines, which grew freely through the brambles and wild roses. His search had revealed nothing thus far. Two shallow streams and a lake, a few old trees and an owl. Nothing worth noting.
Suddenly, Abe noticed the birds no longer chirping. He looked around the forest to see multiple headstones in the bushes. Abe moved closer.
"Smith, 1803 – 1845; Williams 1899 – 1944; Florence Williams 1846 – 1904…"Abe read the names aloud as he walked through the undergrowth. His foot touched something smooth, a family plot. "Robert Williams 1889 – 1955, Constance Donnelly 1893-1955". Abe abandoned the forest and made his way back to the van. If his suspicions were right, this was bigger than a mere haunting.
Hellboy sat in the kitchen smoking a cigar. Cuban cigars were by far the best and easy to acquire in Canada. Agent Barker had stopped at a smoke shop and bought him half a dozen especially for this mission. No doubt he knew it would be a very long night.
The smoke curled from Hellboy's cigar, forming distinct white tendrils that shone in the pale moonlight. Hellboy stared at the smoke, admiring the images it formed. A delicate swirl, a circle, then a wolf. The wolf stepped out of the smoke and stood before him. It stood on it's hind legs, then took the shape of a man in wolf skin.
"I know why you come here, red warrior" spoke the wolf-man, his voice a mere whisper of wind, "our spirits have become restless."
The wolf-man circled the room, passing through tables and furniture as if they did not exist. With every passing second he became more solid, more real. His wind-voice shook the walls of the old house. He raised his arms and mist floated from all aspects of the house, up from the floor and between the boards. Soil began to push from every crack in the floor.
"Our people have been insulted, our land pillaged and our resting place desecrated. We have been patient and kind with the pale face. Yet this last insult has driven our spirits from peace."
Spirits filled the room, clothed in skins of deer, bear, horse and wolf. Hellboy watched them as they filled the house, both animals and people. He'd seen spirits fill a house before, yet never such a large number that weren't trying to harm him. He sensed they didn't know who, or what, he was. They cared not for the right hand of doom, Anung un Rama or the end of the world; these spirits onlywanted rest.
"What has happened?"
"Red brother. Our plight begins long after our death, when the great evil arrived to our resting place. It's screaming disturbs our slumber. We cannot ignore it's calling, it's endless noise." The wolf-man pointed towards the clock. "Nothing of this world can quiet it's call. Men have failed. Esther failed."
"What will end this evil?"
"The evilness must be destroyed at it's source, an evil that dwells in a place far from these lands. It is a walk of many moons." The wolf man and his people faded into the moonbeams that fell softly on the wooden floor.
"We'll do what we can..." His words fell into the darkness of an empty room.
Hellboy stared out the window at the pale moonlight and rustling trees. It was time to go. Agent Barker would contact the local police in the morning and ensure Esther was given a humane burial. There was noting else to do this night except research.
Abe and Hellboy stood in the van, pouring over pages of Canadian history and folklore. There were no records of cursed clocks. Numerous accounts of Native American burial grounds had been recorded, an issue they were clearly dealing with, yet this was not their primary concern. There was something more.
"The name Donnelly was written on some old tombstones in the woods", stated Abe "there could be a link to this family and Esther's home."
"Hmmm…" Hellboy thought aloud. "The Black Donnelly's of Ontario. That is quite some distance from here. All were violently murdered except for the daughter, Jenny. There could be a connection." Abe interjected.
"As I recall the family immigrated to Canada where they met with an unforgiving community. The situation became violent and a terrible feud started, resulting in a curse being placed on the entire family. Maybe some distant relation survived and managed to continue the curse.
"The wolf guy mentioned a great evil, a loud screaming presence. An evil no one has been able to destroy. Apparently removing the clockwork did nothing." Hellboy lightly punched Abe on the shoulder with his stone hand. "Brother blue? Looks like our friend John lives in the Donnelly Clock. Shall we pay him a visit?"
Further updates at the mercy of studies.