Author Note: This is the final chapter of "Lotus". Been a while in updating due to a very, very busy schedule. Same disclaimer as always, I do not own any of the BPRD characters. The ones who never appeared in any BPRD or Hellboy comic are my own creation.

Ni hao

Fang Yin caught, from the corner of her gaze, a hint of an excited smile from Feng. The red man was back, the tall man that Huang hoped was her precious Feng. Yan Yan sat bedside her on the bench, her head lowered, fiddling with the suddenly torn and ragged embroidery of her lotus shoe. Yin stared back into the pool, at the fish and her twisted feet hovering in a black pool of nothingness. As she focused her attention downward she swore she could see her own decaying bones reflecting in the pale light.

Yin did not move her eyes from the water; she could feel the warm presence of the man as he approached. It was finally over, the lie was dissolving and she finally understood. The water rippled out in large rings as Huang entered it. Water neither splashed nor wet her silk-clad form as she passed through to the other side to meet Feng. Yin choked on her own musty breath, suffering not a tear to fall, as she faded to dust.

Hellboy stood at the waters' edge, unarmed aside from a canteen and St Florians' dried ear stored in sea salt. The ear-filled vile swayed at the end of a long chain, millimeters over the silent fishpond. St. Florians ear cast an eerie yellow shadow over the water, a light which penetrated to the very bottom on the pond. The fish and ducks vanished with the glow. Bones lay at the bottom; horses and humans filled the murky depths beneath the brightly coloured lily pads.

Huang continued to approach Hellboy, the water to her waist as she approached. The yellow light reflected off the crushed phalanges, brown and ravaged with age, of her feet. Hellboy stared into her dark eyes, young beautiful eyes full of love. As she came toward him, he could not help but pity her tortured soul. He moved his hooves away from the edge of the water; Huang may not take the light of reality in a kindly manner.

Huang stood merely an arms' length away from Hellboy when she emerged from the water. She was dry, her clothes, makeup and hair pristine and perfect.

"My dearest Feng. You have come at last to rescue me. How long it has been."

Huang closed her eyes as she leaned toward the imaginary Feng. She leaned into Hellboy's side, falling as she tripped on Hellboy's pointed hoof. Hellboy gently grasped her right arm to stop her fall, yet Huang silently fell onto the muddy ground. She looked up at Hellboy with pleading eyes, struggling to stand. Huangs' arm and hand, a mere shred of rotten leather over browned and mouldy bones, lay in the light grip of Hellboy's left hand.

"Nǐ shì shéi"

Hellboy could do nothing but stare at the girl as she opened he eyes to the yellow glow that surrounded her, turning her world into a dead and soiled reality. She stared at her broken arm and the bright red arm that held it. She fell back onto the mud, lifting her left arm to her hollow face, crying into a weakly formed fist.

"What have you done with Feng? Feng, oh Feng!!!"

The girl began to cry tears, tears that soaked into her dried skin and dissolved it. As her eyes turned to thin mud, she took one last look to her friends, who had sat moments ago on the bench. Crumbled stones blanketed in thick moss sat in their place, a mere shadow of what had been long ago. She leaned forward into Hellboys' leg, grasping his half-boot with a single weak hand. Hellboy shifted his weight at her touch. She crumbled to dust.

Hellboy shook the last of Huang from his boots, into the stagnant pond water. A pair of small shoes the only solid evidence the of the evening's encounter. Hellboy gently placed them into an empty lunchbag.

Jxiao Chen faked a smile, yet groaned as she watched a large, red demon walk into her garden. Hellboy laughed to himself as he passed through the garden, by the fountain and to the clear babbling brook. No apples, no more sick children.

"Mind if I use your phone?"

"Right away, Mister Hellboy." Chen disappeared into her house.

Hellboy was quick to dial BRPD headquarters.

"Yeah, Manning? Taken care of, could you send one of the boys over with a chopper? Hong KongÉ Yeah, I can wait a bit. I'm getting sick of cruel-arses and spungee."

Huang awoke in a brightly lit garden, standing tall and firm on the short grass. She sighed with relief as she dug her toes into the cool, plush grass. Birds with brightly coloured feathers and sweet voices surrounded her.

Lifting her dress ever slightly, she walked lightly toward the sound and heightening vibration of hoofbeats. Her heart lifted inside her, it raced. A chestnut horse thundered out of the trees beyond the garden, it's rider steady in the saddle.

"Feng!"

The horse slid to a stop before Huang, who cried streams of tears as she saw the face of her true love. Feng lifted her effortlessly into the saddle infront of her and caressed her raven hair and porcelain face.

"I've been waiting for you, my love. It's been a very long time."

"I love you."

Huang leaned into her precious Feng.

Feng spurred the horse forward into a gallop and the raced through the garden and into the apple-blossom sky.

I hope everyone liked this one. Feel bad for having lost interest in it for so long after it was such a vivid dream last year. Please R&R. :)