Author note: Hellboy ain't mine, nor is BPRD etc... Hopefully this will just continue to get creepier and more disturbing as the chapters continue. Thank-you very much to all who have submitted reviews, your feedback is much appreciated:) Updates will continue as I find free time to write them.
At the centaur
Kate watched as Hellboy disappeared into the crumbling building, her arm blocking a step forward by Liz.
"He'll be fine; this is nothing unusual for him."
Liz didn't say anything, but threw her cigarette to the ground and smeared it across the cobbles with her boot. "We can't just wait here waiting for something to happen."
Kate tossed Liz an iron cross on a chain. The cross was heavy and well made, yet rough and unfinished.
"While Hellboy works from the inside, we'll look for the BSRPA agents."
Kate and Liz walked away from the gate of the convent and into the convoluted streets of Owsgmina, the faint pattering of naked feet closely behind them.
The inside of the convent walls appeared as the streets outside. The only difference being thick brown chunks of paper that lay strewn upon the ground. Hellboy lifted a larger chunk with his right hand, examining it between stone fingers. It was leather, human leather, and it stank. The source was inside. Hellboy began to ascend the long set of rough steps that led into the convent.
Mildew and dust met Hellboys' nose as he stepped lightly inside. Between his hooves, the crypts below were plainly visible. He trod lightly, hoping the aged structure could hold his weight. Dust and torn cobwebs filled the interior of the convent. Broken religious statues lay strewn about the floor, some reassembled into freakishly deformed figures.
The vacant hallway eventually led to a dilapidated altar. Jesus and Mary stood beaten and crumbled, their eyes chipped out and their arms missing. Partially dried blood clots filled the cracks of the masonry, leading to a large flat stone bearing gleaming white human bones, shiny and licked clean.
Hellboy stepped closer only to feel a large piece of cartilage slip between his hooves. It was a meniscus. As Hellboy kneeled to remove it, a small cold object fell onto his neck then quietly rolled beside its mate. Hellboy slowly reached for the Samaritan as a low growl reached his ears from above.
Liz and Kate walked to the top of the hill and stood in the middle of the street. Liz's eye followed a shadow into an old building, the "Centaur Inn", on the left side of the street. Both followed.
Inside the building sat dust, broken furniture and dehydrated food. Mummified dogs and cats littered the wooden floor, yet not a human bone among them. Kate shone her light onto the body of a large breed dog. Its skin and hair were intact and it appeared as though every drop of fluid had been drained from its body. As the beam moved across the floor, there was a faint hissing.
Liz aimed her maglite into the shadows and turned it on. Pale, hairless, decomposed faces without eyes stood crouched in the darkness. Liz took a step back, frantically turning the end of the light. The light got brighter, the creatures advanced. Gunshots and shattering glass echoed within the building. Liz dropped the light. Guttural moans were followed closely by fierce growling and scrambling on the floor. The air suddenly turned to dust. Liz felt teeth sink into her shin when hands grabbed her from behind. She turned to see Dr. Corrigan, who quickly forced her to run from the building with her.
The creature lowered itself to Hellboys' side, watching him from a respectful distance. Its' voice was wet and throaty, the words a slurred and bastardized Latin. Hellboy turned his head and watched the creature, without moving his body. There were more of them, at least a dozen, directly above his head.
"Us come to hell you take. Taste us of your followers."
A curtain of dust drew itself around Hellboy as more creatures lowered themselves from the exposed rafters. Hellboy stood slowly, the dust, cobwebs and dried human remains rolling off his duster, through the floor and into the crypt below. Through the haze of dust, twenty or so twisted figures stood with hungry jowls and sharpened teeth. Empty eye sockets followed every movement. They licked their mummified lips with dry blackened tongues.
"Feed us."
Hellboy cocked his gun.
"Feed us."
The creatures approached.
"Feed us."
Hellboy could feel their clawed hands grasping his tail and at his pockets. He quickly drew his tail under his coat. They began to chew at his right hand, which until now had been lowered.
"Screw this."
The handle of the gun smashed down onto the decaying head of one of the creatures.
"Sister... sisss…"The body hit the floor, an arm breaking off and falling into the crypt. It returned to its' feet and hissed, this time in a much older language that Hellboy knew all too well.
"Oh, crap!"
"Take him!"