A/N: I'm still not getting many reviews (insert sad face here). Please review. Anything would be nice. Even a one word review would be good. As long as its something that let's me know people are actually reading this, I'll be happy.
As I said last time, if the characters seem OOC, please let me know and I'll do my best to fix the issue.
Also, thanks to my two reviewers. Jett, I can always count on you! And Pashtess, thank you for the support. I figured Abe might be curious and momentarily forget his manners ) As for having me on your alert list; thanks again. I didn't realize people are still waiting for updates on those. Haha.
Enjoy. PLEASE R&R!
As the World Falls Down
Chapter Two
"What do you think," Myers asked Abe when he reentered the library where he had left the two 'freaks'. Serena was in her room and hoped that she would stay there at least until he had a chance to tell his superior about her.
Swimming up to the glass window of his tank, Abe replied. "She was telling the truth." He thought back to the quick reading he had gotten when he touched her hand and remembered the vivid image of Serena in tears as her friend screamed from the other end of the phone. "She doesn't know what happened to them but she has a strong feeling that it's not good."
"I always thought being kidnapped would be fun," Hellboy put in sarcastically.
Ignoring his friend, Abe continued. "For someone under so much stress her thoughts were fairly calm. She believes that whoever is kidnapping her friends is either specifically targeting psychics or those who have been to this haven."
"I'll have to go talk to Manning about helping her," Myers said, tiredly. He really wasn't looking forward to a visit with his boss. "Once he gives the okay we'll go to her friend's apartment and see if we can find anything."
Myers quickly turned to leave. He secretly hoped that if he managed to get out of the library fast enough, Hellboy would forget that he was going to threaten him. He had no such luck.
"Myers," barked Hellboy. John stopped dead in his tracks. "Where'd all my Baby Ruth's go?"
John sighed. It was going to be a long day.
Once John Myers had left, Serena looked around the small room. It had no windows but was still well lit. The entire room seemed to be white washed, all the way from the white walls and carpeting to the small white dresser that sat in a corner. It had all the furniture of a hotel room, just not the color.
With a sigh, Serena planted her right hand on one of the walls and closed her eyes. She concentrated for a moment and when she opened her eyes, a light blue was spreading out from her hand, consuming the stark white walls and changing the color of the paint.
Removing her hand, she stood back and admired her work. It was always interesting to watch paint change color like that. She had "repainted" her apartment many times when she was bored, just because she like the way the color spread and tainted everything it touched.
When the walls were all a robin's egg color, Serena turned to the dresser in the corner and touched a fingertip to it. Almost immediately, the white plastic turned to a light sea green which seemed to match oddly with the robin's egg color of the walls.
Fifteen minutes later, after trying different shades on different surfaces, Serena stood back, satisfied with her new room. The walls were and dresser were still the first colors she had tried on them. The carpet was a swirl of light green and light blue and the nightstand and lamp had been changed to pastel shades of blue. Her bed had taken the most time. Serena had changed the white bedspread to the perfect teal with flowers of different shades of blue covering it. She briefly wondered where the theme had come from but quickly brushed the thought aside.
Sitting on the bed, Serena rubbed her eyes. Redecorating had only lasted so long and now her mind was drifting back to her friends. Where were they? Were they hurt? Were they even alive? Was their kidnapper going to kill them if they were still alive? Could she get there in time? Her entire world was falling apart, crumbling and turning to dust around her and she felt completely helpless.
The frustration seemed to build with every question until her lamp began to rattle on the nightstand. Realizing that her emotions were getting the better of her, Serena took a calming breath and the lamp stopped shaking. She needed to get out of the room. She desperately needed a distraction. Maybe a good book would help her.
It didn't take long for her to navigate the halls of the B.P.R.D. Within three minutes she had found her way to the library again. It seemed to be empty and silent which was how she liked libraries.
She began to browse the shelves. Many of the books were about the occult but the library seemed to have everything a normal public library would have, save a children's section. She found books ranging from Shakespeare and Jane Austin to Freud and Thoreau with everything in between. Serena even found a section dedicated to ancient texts, most of which were in languages she didn't understand or even recognize.
"Enjoying the selection?" The voice came out of nowhere and took Serena by surprise. She spun around with a look like a child caught with her hand in the cookie jar.
Immediately she began to apologize. "I'm sorry. I…" she trailed off when she didn't see anyone. Her eyes narrowed slightly. "Where are you?"
"Here," said the voice and Abe appeared at one of the windows of the fish tank.
Serena approached, stopping beside four book stands, each with an open book. "Is that where you sleep?"
"Yes," he replied, watching her. He blinked, his eyelids coming from the sides of his eyes and Serena smiled slightly. "You find me amusing." It was a gentle statement, not accusing or angry. Just a simple statement as if he were pointing out that it was raining.
Feeling slightly ashamed, Serena looked at the book stand beside her. "Not amusing so much as… interesting." she looked back to him with a small smile. "It's not every day you get to meet a merman."
"Merman," Abe repeated, thoughtfully. He mulled the word over for a minute. "That's something I haven't been called before."
"Glad to be the first then," Serena grinned at him. Her eyes fell on a small sign near the tank. "Icthyo Sapien?" She looked back up to him questioningly.
"When the B.P.R.D. found me, there was only a slip of paper identifying me as an Icthyo Sapien and with the date, April 14th, 1865."
For a minute Serena thought about the date and remembered its significance. "The day of Abraham Lincoln's assassination?" He nodded. "Wow. That's pretty impressive." She settled down into a chair that was facing Abe's tank. "So, what exactly can you do? I mean, I know you're telepathic but I have a feeling it doesn't end there."
Before he answered, Abe drifted backwards before coming back to the glass window. "Well, psychometry for one."
Serena's eyebrows raised slightly. "The ability to see an object or a person's past, present, and future, through a single touch. What kind of reading did you get when you touched my hand earlier?"
Abe briefly wondered if it had been wise to tell her of his ability. He brushed the thought aside and answered her question. "I merely wanted to see if you were being truthful and if you knew anymore information than you were telling us."
Slowly, she nodded. She could understand that they didn't exactly trust her. She certainly wouldn't have trusted a stranger if they appeared at her door asking for help. At least now they had been assured she was, in fact, sincere.
For a few minutes they were both silent. Serena looked up from her thoughts and saw that Abe was still floating near the glass. His attention wasn't on her though. "Turn the pages, please," he requested, looking up from the four books in front of his tank.
"All four of them," asked Serena.
"Yes, please." He confirmed so she lazily waved her hand in the direction of the books. The four pages turned slowly and Abe continued to read after he thanked her.
Getting up from the comfy chair, Serena returned to the bookshelves and began to browse them once again. She came across Homer's Odyssey which she brought back to the chair. She had always wanted to read it but never seemed to find the time.
As she settled down and opened the book, Abe made another bizarre request. "Egg, please."
For a moment Serena could only blink at him. "Egg?"
He gestured to the covered dish of what looked like rotten eggs. "Egg, please," he repeated.
Thanking all he lucky stars, individually and by name, for her telekinesis, Serena used her mind to lift the cover of the dish. A single green egg lifted from the dish and floated over to the tube. The second it entered the tube it shot up and out of sight, only to reappear again in Abe's tank.
The merman did a loop-the-loop in the water, catching the egg in his mouth. With a smile, Serena clapped lightly. "You put Shamoo to shame," she joked.
Chuckling softly, Abe said, "I try." His gaze returned to the four books and he began reading again. Serena took his lead.
Every so often, Abe would politely ask her to turn the pages. Without looking up from her book, Serena would comply. Abe would thank her and then they'd fall into silence again. It was quite relaxing and Serena was grateful that her mind was no longer dwelling on her missing friends.
"There you are," Myers breathed with relief when he walked into the library and saw Serena curled up on a chair with a thick book. "I've been looking for you."
"I'm sorry," Serena said, getting up and putting the book down. "I should have stayed in my room."
The mention of Serena's room made him remember when he poked his head in, five minutes prior. He was stunned to find that it had been redecorated. The shock was quickly replaced by panic when he realized Serena was gone. Myers had prayed that she hadn't left the building.
"How did change your room," he asked, forgetting the reason why he had searched for her.
"I'm sorry." Serena briefly marveled at how many times in the past hour she had apologized. "I can go change it back if you want."
"No, no," Myers said quickly. "It was just a shock to see it." He remembered what Manning had told him and inwardly grimaced. "Ms. Williams I-"
"Please, call me Serena," she interrupted.
Nodding, Myers continued. "Serena, I spoke with the director of the agency, Tom Manning, and he said that we can't start investigating until the doctors here have run a few quick tests on you."
Serena stiffened slightly. When she was young and living at the haven, her friend Martina had told her stories of tests that had been run on her. They had poked and prodded the young girl and forced her to use her powers. When Serena was younger she often had nightmares of men in white coats performing the same painful tests on her. She didn't like where Myers was going with this proposition.
"What kind of tests," she asked warily.
"The doctors will just draw some blood and probably ask for a demonstration of your powers." Myers's voice was kind as he spoke and Serena reluctantly trusted him. If anything, she would go through with the 'tests' for the sake of her friends.
"Alright," she said with a sigh. "Let's get this over with."
Myers began to lead Serena out of the library and she gave one last halfhearted smile to Abe. As the large doors to the library closed behind her, Serena turned the pages of Abe's books one last time.
Before Myers had a chance to get through the doors, Abe had skimmed the surface of the young agent's mind. He immediately picked up on his conversation with Manning and he was surprised to find that Serena's friends weren't the only psychics that had gone missing in the last two months. Abe floated gracefully around his tank as he pondered this new revelation, and wondered how the B.P.R.D. hadn't picked up on something so important.
"Professor Druce!" A slightly raspy, woman's voice echoed through the cavernous room as she sauntered down the center isle. A muscular bald man walked alongside her, his large strides easily keeping pace with her quick purposeful gait. "How many more do we need?" she demanded, coming to stand in front of another man.
The man, Professor Druce, was thin and tall, with short graying hair. The spectacles that perched on the bridge of his nose and covered his eyes, reflected light and barred everyone's view of the cold eyes below. If possible the eerie reflection of light made his level gaze seem even colder and more piercing than it was.
"We have all the sacrifices we need," he said, his voice low and emotionless.
The woman's dark eyes gleamed with barely suppressed excitement. "Then we can begin the ritual." She turned to leave, the muscular ready to go with her.
"Danessa." At the sound of Druce's voice, she turned back to him. "I acquired more information from the psychic woman, before her mind gave out completely."
Danessa's dark eyes narrowed as she stepped closer to him, her hands on her hips. "And," she questioned expectantly.
"It appears as though our texts had been misinterpreted," he said slowly, irritating the woman further. "The creature can posses anyone but it can only sustain life in the body of a psychic. If it were to manifest in a non-psychic host, the strain would be great for that body and it would inevitably be destroyed."
Again, Danessa took a step closer, peering at the man. "What are you saying?"
"You cannot be the host." This simple statement earned a loud shout of anger from the woman.
"You better make this work," she yelled at the sadistic occult expert before turning and storming off. The large muscular man stood still, glaring at Druce who returned the gaze levelly. "Raghnall," shouted Danessa over her shoulder. "Come on!"
Turning away from the smaller man, Raghnall followed Danessa out of the room. Turning away from the pair, Druce turned his expressionless gaze back to the two even lines of water-filled tubes that lined the center isle of the room. The tubes all had the same strange marking on the glass, in blood.
There were two dozen of these tubes, and in each one floated an unconscious man or woman. They all had a strange device around their head which kept their psychic powers in check. Inwardly, Druce wished he could use his tools of torture on these people. He long for it, but he knew he couldn't. Besides, Danessa had promised him an ample supply of 'patients' once his work for her was complete.