Chapter Two: Visions Come True
Disclaimer: Hellboy characters do not belong to me. However, Erica is mine.
Author's Notes: Lots of foreshadowing in this chapter, and a lot about Erica is revealed. Thanks for reviewing PsychoLlama! And everybody else reading this, please review! Praise, suggestions and constructive criticism are more than welcome!
After Miss Hawthorne's announcement that the play was postponed until winter, there was nothing left to do except clean up and put things away, and then take turns using each other's cell phones to call home and explain why they had to be picked up so early. Erica sat outside on the sidewalk with the other dejected students waiting for her mom to come get her. She was so gloomy that she didn't even notice the blood red sun starting to disappear over the horizon. I just knew it was going to happen, she thought, I could have stopped it. And now our play's been postponed…Well, I guess it could have been worse. That was when she saw her mom's car drive into the parking lot. Erica slung her backpack over her shoulder and walked slowly over to her mom's car.
"You did everything you could, it's not your fault Natalie fell off the stage." said Erica's dad at dinner when she told him about the disaster. "And at least you can be at your sister's middle school concert tomorrow night."
Brittany, her little blond-haired sister, who was in sixth grade, grinned happily.
"Come on Erica," she said, "You only have to wait for a little while, it's not as if your play's been totally canceled."
"Yeah, you're right." said Erica, smiling a little. She just loved how Brittany could cheer her up when she was sad.
After dinner, Erica took a shower, and when she was finished combing the knots out of her long hair, she went into her room and lay on her bed, grabbing a book off her floor to read. She read until she could barely keep her eyes open, and then she marked her place in her book and turned off the light.
In a few minutes, she fell asleep. Unfortunately, her sleep wasn't going to be peaceful this night, or for many, many nights after.
She was in a city. It was beautiful, clear night, so clear that she could see every star in the sky, winking at her like tiny white diamonds. Then the stars blurred, as if they were shivering. Erica stared up at the sky in confusion, and then the ground under her feet started to shake.
The ground buckled and jumped, knocking her off her feet. Buildings swayed ominously, and then began to topple with a terrible roar that made her ears ache.
Then, everything was still.
Suddenly, people were screaming. Close by, a fire was raging unchecked, the waves of heat making the cool night air shimmer and dance. She stood up, and discovered she was drenched, the streets around her were flooded.
CRAAAAACK!
Erica looked up. A huge chunk of a building ripped free and came hurtling down towards her. And there was nowhere to run.
Erica woke up, breathing hard. It was only a nightmare, she told herself. But she couldn't make those frightening images disappear. And she felt terrible, as if she was going to throw up. The feeling faded quickly, though, so she dismissed it. It's probably because of my nightmare, she thought. Erica glanced at the clock on her bedside table. 3 o'clock in the morning. She turned over, and in another moment, she was sound asleep.
Erica was walking through darkened corridors. She was totally lost, this place was like a maze! She came to a long hall with a high ceiling, at the other end, was a door.
At last! Erica thought. A way out! Now I can go home!
She ran towards it. Suddenly, the door changed into a huge widow. Through it, she could see a raging thunderstorm outside.
Something's wrong, Erica thought.
Erica stopped halfway down the hall. I have a bad feeling about this, she thought. Despite the storm outside, the hall was dead silent. So silent, she could hear a pin drop. Only, it wasn't a pin.
Erica could hear a soft, ticking sound, as if there was a clock somewhere nearby. She looked around, the hallway was empty. She was the only thing in it.
Erica approached the window slowly, feeling drawn to it somehow. As if, she had to look out of it, or, when she came to it, something important was going to happen. The window was only twenty feet away. The ticking grew louder. Fifteen feet. The ticking was louder, closer. Ten feet. The ticking was deafening, she could hear nothing else, it echoed off the walls, surrounding her. Erica stopped, standing in place, ten feet from the window, the ticking filling her ears.
It stopped. Everything was silent.
The air turned bitterly cold. The back of her neck prickled. Someone was behind her! She spun around to face the hall — but no one was there. She looked around uneasily. A bolt of lightning flashed outside the window, lighting the hall with an eerie, electric blue light. Thunder crashed behind her, startling her, and Erica spun around.
Someone was standing in front of her!
He was silhouetted against the storm outside the window, and was completely dressed in black. His face was covered in shadow, or maybe by a mask. He stood still, and she got the feeling he was staring at her, though she couldn't see his face. He was staring through her, his invisible gaze piercing her to the heart. He was searching for something. Something she had. And all she knew was that she was afraid of him. Erica couldn't move, she couldn't scream, she couldn't do anything, but feel that terrible, cold gaze on her.
He stood as still as a statue, watching her.
With a terrified shriek, Erica tore herself away, and ran down the hall, feeling that relentless gaze, that cold, dark, stare on her back, pursuing her as she ran, though he never moved. She had to get away, she couldn't let him catch her, couldn't let him see—
The darkness in the hall was closing in on her, trying to catch her, capture her—
Erica couldn't let the darkness catch her, couldn't—
BUUUUUUUZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!
Her alarm clock went off.
Erica's eyes flew open and she sat up with a jump, her heart hammering in her chest. She reached over and turned off the alarm, and then just sat on the edge of her bed. Saved by the bell, Erica thought.
She got up and got dressed, then brushed her hair and headed downstairs for breakfast. Her mom was already up, she was drinking coffee and watching the news in the kitchen.
"Good morning." she said, seeing Erica. "There's oranges and hard boiled eggs on the counter that you can have with breakfast."
"Thanks." Erica said, pouring herself a glass of milk and putting a bagel in the toaster.
She grabbed an orange and sat down at the table, unpeeling it and eating it while she waited for her bagel to finish toasting.
"You look tired this morning." her mother said.
"Yeah, I didn't sleep very well," Erica said, "I had nightmares all night."
"Sorry to hear that," she looked at the clock on the wall, "Is your sister up yet?"
"I think so." Erica said, even though she had no idea. She just didn't want to have to go wake Brittany up. Brittany was not a morning person.
Erica looked up at the TV. It was the same old news, traffic jams, some lady's purse had been stolen, who won the football game last night, boring.
She was just about to get her bagel out of the toaster, when:
"And now to our main story." announced the newscaster. "Last night, at about three o'clock in the morning, California was struck by a massive earthquake that ranked a 6 on the Richter scale—"
Erica stopped, her hand still reaching for her bagel, her full attention on the TV. An earthquake? she thought, Didn't I have a nightmare about that last night?
The newscaster continued.
"This earthquake has devastated California. The streets are flooded for miles, and a fire has completely destroyed several blocks…."
It's exactly like my dream. Erica thought, staring horrified at the television. The fires, the flooding, even the time! Didn't I wake up at three o'clock last night?
"That's terrible! Can you imagine, those poor people!" said her mother. She turned around and saw Erica staring at the TV.
"Erica, are you all right? You look sick."
Erica snapped back to reality.
"Yes. Fine. It's nothing." Erica said, forcing a smile.
"Well, I'm going to see if your sister's up yet and then get ready for work. Don't forget your lunch, it's on the counter. And Brittany's concert is tonight. Have a good day at school!"
"Thanks." said Erica, as her mother left the kitchen.
It's got to be a coincidence, Erica thought, looking back at the TV. Just a coincidence.
But somehow, she couldn't shake the feeling that it hadn't been a coincidence at all.
Even when she got to school she still felt uneasy. She kept thinking about her nightmare and the news about the earthquake. And then there was yesterday, when she had had a bad feeling about Mark putting that prop on the stage, she had just known that something bad was going to happen. And how had she known about the pop quiz? Could it have all been luck? Just coincidence?
"Erica!"
"What?" she said, suddenly realizing that someone was talking to her.
"Could you please summarize what I've been talking about for the past thirty minutes?" asked Mrs. Jones. "Or have you been devoting your class time to something you think is more interesting then Geometry?"
Erica's mind raced. What was she supposed to be doing?
"Well? Do you or do you not know what we've been talking about?"
"No." Erica answered finally.
"Remember to pay attention in the future, please. Now, if you'll all please copy the postulates on the board, you too Erica…"
"So, did you like the concert?" asked Brittany.
"It was wonderful." said Erica, "It was very impressive for middle school students."
They were standing outside of Brittany's middle school, waiting for their parents to finish talking to the band teacher and some of the other students' parents. The night air was chilly, and the stars twinkled overhead next to a pale, crescent moon. Seeing the shape of the moon, Erica involuntarily touched the crescent scar on her upper left arm. She had never found out how she'd gotten it, as far as she knew, she'd been born with it. Still, sometimes she wondered about it…
Brittany glanced back to where their mom and dad were standing with the other parents by the school's door, chatting in the night air.
"Think they'll ever finish?" Brittany asked.
"Of course they will." said Erica, shaking off her thoughts, "Why don't you introduce me to some of your friends in the meantime?"
Brittany led her over to one of the groups of students standing nearby in the school's parking lot.
"Emma, Ashley, Katrina," said Brittany, introducing some of them, "this is my sister Erica."
"Hi," said Erica. Suddenly she didn't feel very well.
"Hi." they answered back, then pulled Brittany closer and began chattering in lowered voices with occasional outbursts of giggling.
Erica stood on the sidewalk ignoring them, she was more concerned about the fact that she suddenly felt very sick, like she was going to throw up. Maybe I was wrong last night that I felt bad because of my nightmare. I'm probably getting the flu. she thought. And it's probably just as well that the play got postponed, I'd be useless feeling like this.
She looked up at her sister, about to call Brittany over to tell her they had to get their parents and go home right away, when something strange happened. Everything around her went out of focus and blurred around the edges. Then things started to sway dizzyingly around her.
Oh no, she thought, I'm definitely going to be sick now.
Just when she thought she was going to throw up, things went back to normal. Except that she had a really bad feeling in her stomach. She looked over to Brittany, when she saw a pair of headlights appear around the corner of the road. A car was coming.
"Brittany, get out of the road, a car's coming." said Erica.
Her sister continued talking with her friends as if she hadn't heard what Erica had said. Erica looked down the road again, the car was coming closer, and was driving way above the speed limit. And it was driving in the wrong lane.
"Brittany! Get out of the road!" Erica screamed.
No response, Brittany kept talking. The parents by the school door didn't seem to notice the commotion either. Erica looked down the road, the car was only a few meters away!
"Brittany!" she shrieked.
But it was too late, the car plowed straight into the group of girls!
Erica stood there staring, totally horrified. In fact, she was so shocked that time seemed to stand still, paused exactly at the moment as the car ran into her sister and the group of girls. But as she stood there staring, just waiting for time to start up again— it didn't. Erica looked around, confused. The scene around her blurred and then flickered. I've gone into shock. she thought. I'm going to faint. But she didn't. Instead, she suddenly found herself standing on the sidewalk in front of the school, and Brittany and her friends were standing in the parking lot talking, and totally unharmed, not a car in sight.
What the—? Erica thought.
The bad feeling was still in her stomach. Compulsively, she looked down the road. A pair of headlights appeared around the corner, on the wrong side of the road. Erica, didn't think, she simply acted.
"Get out of the road!" she screamed.
She dashed into the road and grabbed the girls, pulling them back to the safety of the sidewalk.
"What're you doing?" one of the girls yelled, trying to pull away. The commotion on the sidewalk attracted the parents' attention, and they looked toward Erica and the girls.
A second later, the car came screaming down the road and into the parking lot, its tires squealing. It ran right through where the girls had been standing a few seconds ago, drove off the side of the road, and crashed into a tree.
The parents by the door looked from the car to where Erica stood on the sidewalk, gripping Brittany and her friends tightly, and staring at the wrecked car, shaking.
"Oh my god!" a woman shouted, "That car almost hit them!"
The parents rushed in all directions, some to get their kids, others to the wreck, some to call the police, and the rest ran towards Erica and the girls.
Brittany looked up at her sister in awe. "You saved my life." Brittany said numbly.
Slowly, Erica let go of the girls, she was still staring at the wrecked car, and shaking uncontrollably. How did I—? Can I—? she thought. That was when her mom and dad got there with the other parents. Brittany's friends ran over to their parents.
"Are you guys alright?" asked their dad.
Erica didn't answer, staring vacantly into space as her mind raced.
"Yes, we're fine." said Brittany.
"Come on, let's go home." said their mother shakily. "Erica?"
My nightmare, she thought, my bad feeling about the play, the pop quiz — They all came true. How did I know? How can I know? Am I making these things happen? Or can I really see—
Erica slowly turned, tears sparkling in her eyes, to face her mother. That was when one of Brittany's friend's parents interrupted.
"Thank you for saving my daughter," he said, "you're very lucky."
"Yes, very lucky." said someone's mother. "How'd you know?"
Erica couldn't take it anymore. She was so confused, and scared, and — she burst into tears and ran towards their car in the parking lot.
"Let's go home." said her dad.
After they got home, Erica's parents had finally gotten her to calm down. Or, at least, they thought so. Inside, Erica was confused. There were too many questions, too many possibilities, too many "what if?"s running wild through her head. And somewhere, caught up in it all, was something she pushed away, not daring to think it or even consider it. It can't be, it just can't. Erica thought. Everything was changing, or already changed, or about to— if she dared think that— She shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts as she went upstairs to her room. She lay down on her bed, just staring at the wall and trying not to think at all. It'll all be better in the morning, she told herself as she turned out the light on her bedside table.
She lay there in the dark for what seemed like hours, just trying not to think. Soon, trying not to think turned into dozing, and dozing turned into sleep.
Erica was walking through dark corridors. She was totally lost, this place was a maze! She came to a long hall with a high ceiling, at the other end, was a door. She ran towards it. Suddenly, the door changed into a huge widow. Through it, she could see a raging thunderstorm outside.
Something's wrong, Erica thought.
Erica stopped halfway down the hall. I have a very bad feeling about this, she thought nervously. Despite the storm outside, the hall was quiet. So quiet that she could hear a soft, ticking sound, as if there was a clock somewhere nearby. She looked around, the hallway was empty. She was the only thing in it. Despite this, the ticking didn't stop, but continued very softly, seeming to come from near the window.
Erica approached the window slowly, feeling drawn to it somehow. As if, she had to look out of it, or, when she came to it, something important was going to happen.
The air turned bitterly cold, and the ticking got slightly louder the closer she walked to the window. The back of her neck prickled. Someone was behind her! She spun around to face the hall — but no one was there. She looked around uneasily. A bolt of lightning flashed outside the window, lighting the hall with an eerie, electric blue light. Thunder crashed behind her, startling her, and Erica spun around.
Someone was standing in front of her!
He was silhouetted against the storm outside the window, dressed in black, his face covered in a mask or hidden in shadow. Somehow, she knew the soft ticking was coming from him. He stared intently at her, his invisible gaze piercing her heart. He was searching for something. Something she had. She was terrified of him. Erica couldn't move, she couldn't scream, she couldn't do anything, but feel that terrible, cold gaze on her.
He stood as still as a statue, watching her.
With a terrified shriek, Erica tore herself away, and ran down the hall, feeling that relentless gaze, that cold, dark, stare on her back, pursuing her as she ran, though he never moved. She had to get away, she couldn't let him catch her, couldn't let him see—
The darkness in the hall was closing in on her, trying to catch her, capture her—
Erica couldn't let the darkness catch her, couldn't—
BUUUUUUUZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!
It was her alarm clock. Friday morning, time to get up and go to school.
Saved again, she thought, breathing hard, as if she had really been running. She shuddered, the dream was so, well, real. And it was really weird to have the same nightmare twice. Feeling disconcerted, she got up and got ready for school, brushing aside any thoughts about what had happened yesterday.
Unfortunately, Erica wasn't able to get away from what had happened yesterday night. Evidently some reporters had gotten a hold of the story, and it was on the front page of the Friday morning paper in bold headlines, which meant that her entire high school had found out about it. Everyone was talking about how she had saved the little girls from the drunk driver, and strangers in the hallways kept coming up to her and trying to ask her questions. The people in her classes whispered and pointed at her as if they thought she didn't notice. It was very distracting, and made it even harder to concentrate on her schoolwork, with her head already filled with so many questions. She tried to ignore them, but they just kept resurfacing. By third period she had given up doing anything for the rest of the day. She couldn't think straight, and all those questions she couldn't face were giving her a headache.
Lunch wasn't much better, she sat at the table half-heartedly toying with the food on her lunch tray, while her friends looked at her anxiously. Her next class was simply terrible, her teacher went on at length about how Erica was a hero. Erica sat at her desk, having slid down as far as she could in her seat, and blushing bright red with embarrassment. I wish I could just disappear, she thought miserably, her head aching. I can't wait to go home. I'm so glad we're off of school on Monday so we have a three day weekend. Maybe this'll all die down and things will go back to normal.
How wrong she was. Things would never be what she would call "normal" again.
"Did you have a good day at school?" asked her mom.
"No." Erica moaned, dropping her backpack by the door, "I've got a headache."
"Go take something for it and rest for a little." her mom said, "When you feel better you can start packing."
"Packing? Packing for what?" asked Erica, confused.
"For your train trip to Mandy's house," her mom said. Seeing that Erica was still confused, she elaborated. "You know, Mandy, your friend who moved two states away? You've been looking forward to this for weeks."
"Oh! Yeah, now I remember," said Erica, wondering how she had forgotten about it.
"That's if you're still going, you've been looking sick lately, and with what happened last night—"
"No, no. It's fine. I still want to go," she said, not wanting to hear another word about last night. "I'll go start packing."
Erica went upstairs to her room and pulled her suitcase out of her closet. She went to her dresser and started packing, double checking that she had everything she needed, because she wouldn't be back home until Monday night. For a time, she could just focus on what she was doing, and not have to think. Unnoticed, her headache gradually faded away. After she was finished packing, she ate dinner, then took a shower, laid out her clothes for the next day, and went to bed.
Just as she reached to turn out the light, she hesitated, remembering the nightmare she'd had for the past two nights in a row. And that nightmare brought back all her unanswered questions, the ones she couldn't think about—
"It's just a nightmare," she said aloud, as if this would make it true. "It can't hurt me. It's not real."
Feeling slightly reassured, she turned out the light. But the instant it went out, her reassurance began to die away. Her eyes darted around the room, staring at the shadows so hard that her eyes began to play tricks on her and she saw nameless things that she knew couldn't possibly be there.
I wish I had a nightlight, she thought, then, Am I really afraid of the dark? I'm acting like a kid! I'm not afraid of the dark!
But something inside her seemed to say that she ought to be, and that she should be afraid not only of the dark, but also what was hidden within in it.
Gradually, she fell into a restless sleep.
Kroenen's study was in an even worse state of disarray then it had been to begin with. Besides the piles of books, inkwells, and other clutter from his research, there were several new additions of arcane and bizarre looking objects that cast strange shadows over his already dim study. But Kroenen, who was normally fastidious in keeping his study neat, didn't care. He had nearly succeeded in tearing a hole through time, every night he had gotten closer to his goal, knew more about her. He even knew her name now, which would make it easier for him to pull her through the portal. Or, alternately, he could always try to trick her into coming through on her own. All that was left between him and that girl was a thin, transparent barrier. And through it, he could see her dreams, and in a way, she could see him, as her dream was really more of a warning to her, warning her to stay away from him, to try to prevent what was inevitably going to happen. He chuckled inwardly. Such an innocent, untrained novice like her would have no idea that her "dream" was even going to come true, let alone know it was also a warning. And that would make her extremely vulnerable to being persuaded into helping the Occult.
Why is this girl so important? he wondered. True, as both Ilsa and the book had said, the girl could or would be able to tell the future. But Grigory could do that, too. Perhaps she was important because she knew what was going to happen, after all, she was coming from their future. Searching for the answer, Kroenen picked up the black book on his desk, leafing through the pages until he came to the two pages with the words that glowed like fire. Behind his mask, his lidless eyes scanned down the text, until he found what he was looking for. Apparently, some of the things she could see would come true, but others were just possibilities of what might happen if events played out a certain way. Closing the book, he tossed it back onto his desk.
Silly little fool, he thought, remembering how she had tried to run away from him the past two nights. She couldn't escape him, not in her dreams, and not in reality.
He paced around a chalk circle marked on the floor, adding new symbols around the crescent in the center, and placing candles and different carved stones within it. As he lit the last candle, the huge, transparent, bubble-like barrier floating above the circle rippled. The ripples got bigger until the entire surface of the barrier was shuddering. Slowly, slowly, it began to pull apart, and the smallest of holes appeared in its surface. Gazing up at the bubble, Kroenen smirked behind his mask. He would stay just a bit longer to torment the girl's dreams, but after that, he was going to have to tell Ilsa to organize a search party to find the girl. After all, the rip in time only transported the girl to this time, it didn't specify exactly where in Germany it was going to drop her, which he found very amusing, picturing her landing in a lake. And if Ilsa had to search every corner of Germany looking for that girl, then Ilsa certainly deserved it for dumping this project on him. Except there was the chance that if she had to look for too long, that she'd make him help her.
"Not long now," he muttered, watching the small hole stretch as other rips appeared across the surface of the bubble.