Part IV: Streamline
Chapter: Old Friends
They never got to Papa Giovanni's.
In BPRD, it hardly mattered that it was weekend, that it was their anniversary or that their kids were coming over. The monsters never cared for those kind of things, which was one reason for Margot to dislike them so much.
The other reason was, that they killed innocent people.
Luckily there was something she could do about it, she thought. She'd kicked some demon ass today, and felt ready to kick some more if there still was anyone brave - or fool - enough left to defy her.
It was the usual story. Demons in a mall, eating people and making general mess. How had they gotten there, nobody knew yet, and they might never now as it often was. But the baddies were to be taken care of, and that's where BPRD came in. Margot had just returned home from the bus station with Sean and Amy, when Myers had received the call.
"Mom, Dad, come on!" Sean had pleaded. "Can't they take care of it without you? With Kat and Red back, can't you take the night off?"
But Margot knew they couldn't. This wasn't really a work, as much as a lifestyle. When she had made the decision to return to field work when the twins had been two years old, she had sworn to herself two things. First - that she would never take a human life again, and second - that she would always be on call. If there were people to save, she would go and save them, or die trying.
It was the only way she could make peace with her own demons. It wasn't like she was counting, but she was pretty certain that she had saved more lives than she had taken. Not that human lives could be counted like chocolate bars, but still, it was something. Past hardly ever came to haunt her again.
Living like this had suited her well. She was happy, a thing she had rarely been in her life.
And she brought her happiness with her to work. It was in her graceful movements as she walked through the lobby in this empty mall, it was in the way she let her gaze move from shadow to shadow, in her mind as she scanned the floor to make sure that they had gotten everyone out.
Self confidence, another name for happiness.
There was no doubt in her gaze, when she stopped to take a last look of the vast lobby. A job well done - the the civilians evacuated, the monsters killed or captured. The place was dark and empty with no sign of any living thing. Time to go home. They might even make it to Papa Giovanni's if she hurried.
But then, a feeling, like a dark shadow in an even darker night, passed her mind. It wasn't an actual thought, more like a feeling, that there was something they hadn't noticed. She knew she had to check it out before calling it a day.
Slowly she headed into the empty Dior store, and it wasn't because of the gorgeous dresses that hang on the racks. Her black boots were silent on the tiled floor, and she moved like a feline, without a sound, as she followed the trail in her mind. It was like a cold, dark spot she felt in the darkness. Not a human, not a mind - but it's opposite. The absence of something that should've been there. Absence of life.
She had felt this before.
A vampire.
It was curious. There weren't that much vamps around, not now that there were two slayers in the US, and they were both feisty girls. Margot couldn't even remember when was the last time she had seen a vampire. But she was certain. She'd been around them often enough when she had been young. Too often, one might say.
"Come out." she stated. "I know you're in there."
Slow footsteps in the darkness. She saw a figure, dark against the darkness, the hem of a long leather jacket sweeped the floor.
She lowered her gun - it would do no good against a vamp, though it might slow it down. But to kill it, she'd need a stake, a wooden one, but where the hell would she get it?
She glanced around, but there was nothing useful in sight.
Great. Just my luck. Where the fuck are all the stakes when you need one?
She thought of calling Kat in her mind, but then decided against it when remembering that she had a crucifix in her pocket, as always. They often came in handy, when fighting the forces of evil.
She pulled it out with her left hand, her right still holding the gun.
"Show your face!" she commanded. "I haven't got whole day to wait out your sorry ass."
"Your anniversary, is it?" a cold, sweet voice answered. It was like frozen honey, a combination that chilled and enthralled at the same time.
"How do you know?" she hissed, raising the crucifix between herself and the voice.
"Now now, Margot." an amused chuckle. "A crucifix? You were never a believer, if I remember correctly."
She blinked a few times.
That voice. That dark, smooth velvet in the night, and suddenly she was 15 again, and all her self confidence vanished.
"Lucien…?" she breathed, and the figure stepped out of the shadows.
"Long time no see." the tall, blond man answered. "You have changed."
"You haven't." she lowered her gun, and took a look at the vampire.
It was more than a decade that she had seen him, and even then it had been barely more than a few words when bumping onto him by accident on a street in Brussels. But she remembered every inch of him, every dark thought that had crossed her mind, every forbidden feeling that had sprouted in her heart when she had been 15, and first met Lucien.
He was still as beautiful as then, for he would never age. His skin was flawless, white like porcelain, his lips full and regal, the arrogant look in his ice blue eyes the one of an aristocrat. His blond hair fell to his shoulders, and it seemed to be moving, flowing in the air around his face even now, even without any wind.
She still remembered how it felt to run her fingers through that hair. How those cold lips felt on her mouth.
It made her shiver.
"Why are you here?" she breathed.
"For you, of course."
"What do you want of me?"
"What I always wanted of you." there was a smile on his lips, and in his eyes, and Margot felt like falling. He was so beautiful, it took her breath away.
"I never knew what it was." she whispered. "I gave you more than I should have, I gave you all, and it was never enough."
"No need to be so dramatic." Lucien smiled. "I only ever wanted your life."
And then he shot her.
Margot felt the bullet go through her abdomen, before she heard the gunshot. And by that time, she was already on the floor.
Another shot, and the burning pain pierced her shoulder, and her right arm went limp. Her gun, goddamnit, her gun! She tried to grab it with her left hand, but before she could reach it, there was yet another shot and both of her arms were out of the game.
"Aaaanggh….!" she groaned, of pain and frustration.
She had another gun, on her thigh. Or did she? Suddenly she could not remember. She tried to feel it with her mind, to grab it telechinetichally, but her mind was slipping. She felt her powers flowing out of her, like her blood, with every weakening pulse of her heart.
The darkness was creeping to her from every corner, and there was no escaping it now. In the shadows she saw the faces of every person she had ever killed, and through the pain, through the blood, she knew it was time.
"No!" she croaked, blood on her tongue, on her lips. "I won't….!"
"You were always a feisty one." Lucien noted coolly. He had walked to her, and crouched by her side.
"Fuck you!" Margot was spitting blood now. With the last spark of her powers, she threw the crucifix on his face.
He cursed as it hit him, burning a scar on the ivory skin of his high cheek bone. But it had only won Margot a few seconds.
John! Kat! Help, help me!
She had just enough time to send the message before Lucien grabbed her hair, yanked her head back and she felt the coldness of his lips on her neck.
Myers turned on his heels, and ran back towards the entrance.
He didn't care about the agents guarding the front door, as he rushed past them. There was no time to explain, no time to stop and ask for help.
Margot's voice in his mind had been clear, as clear as the silence that had followed. It was all that he could think about now, that he didn't hear her anymore. That her voice had faded in his mind, and was followed only by silence that turned his heart into a lump of ice.
He ran up the escalator, two steps at a time.
His breathing was fast, he tasted blood on his lips. Acid and salt, the taste of fear.
"Margot…!" he cried out, but there was no answer. "Margot, where are you?!"
This was where he had last seen her, the lobby of the second floor. But now it was silent and empty, only the lights of the emergency exits illuminated the vast space, making every shadow look like a potential danger. But it was nothing, but an empty mall, even if rather eerie looking with the mannequins of the fashion boutiques staring back at him with their lifeless faces.
"Margot!" he called out, his voice cracking.
Still no answer, only the echo of his own voice.
And then he saw.
The Dior boutique, right in front of him. And on the floor, a figure lay on her back, in a pool of something dark. A pool of blood.
"No…!" the cry go stuck in his throat.
He was frozen. His feet were glued to the floor. Time stopped, it felt sticky and heavy in the air around him, and he was a fish on the ground, unable to move or even to breath.
"No..."
The taste of tears was like taste of blood, all salt and steel, and he felt like choking.
He didn't know how, but he managed to rush through the room, to break the curse that had frozen him, but as the time began to move again, it brought the pain and the fear, and he could not escape the reality anymore. It hit him on the stomach like a wrecking ball, and all air left his lungs as he fell to his knees by Margot's side and her blood soaked his clothes.
He knew she was dead, even before he touched her.
But still, he had to try.
He pressed his lips on hers, to breath air into her lungs, but it felt absurd. Touching her was… it was impossible. For it wasn't her anymore. There wasn't any spark of her mind left, she was gone, her soul, her essence, her spirit, all of it, had left her and all that was there, all that Myers felt when pressing his lips to hers, was a dead body. A dead body, a lump of meat, a shell of something that was now gone.
He couldn't continue the CPR, he knew it would do no good.
"Please, no…"
It was a wail, barely audible.
He sat back, and let go of her. There was blood, so much blood, that it was like an ocean of despair on the floor. It stained her angelic hair, her face that was pale as death. Her eyes stared lifelessly to the roof, and it was more than he could take.
He picked up his gun, that had fallen to the floor.
His hands were shaking, silent tears running down his face but he hardly noticed. He raised the gun to his temple, and closed his eyes.
Just pull the trigger and you'll see her again.
The steel was cold on his skin, but Margot's blood in his clothes was warm. He tasted fear, and love and despair, and he knew there was no going back. There was no version of the future where he could go on living without her.
His soul had been carved out of his chest, and how could a man live without a soul?
Pull the trigger.
You'll see her again.
You'll see her-
"Don't you even think about that!" Kat yelled.
For a moment she was more enraged than shocked, enraged that Myers would do something so utterly stupid, but then she let the scene in front of her eyes to sink in, and it took her breath away.
"Take another step, and I'll shoot my brain to the wall." Myers breathed.
The look in his eyes broke Kat's heart.
Hollow, haunted, broken. The man in front of her, was no longer the man she had known.
"You won't." She forced the words out of her mouth. "Give me the gun."
Myers was on his knees, still holding the gun on his head, his whole form shaking slightly, as if he was freezing to death. She didn't dare to turn her gaze from Myers' eyes, as she heard how Red's footsteps neared and stopped behind her.
After an endless silence, that was only interrupted by the hoarse sounds of Myers' uneven breathing, she heard how Hellboy spoke up.
"Myers, come on. Put the gun away."
Another eternity passed, and Myers did nothing, said nothing. He kept gripping the gun so hard, that his knuckles went withe. Like his life depended on it. Slowly Red walked past Kat, and without a word he gently took the gun from Myers. He didn't resist, as Red threw it away.
It seemed like Myers hardly noticed.
He stayed on his place, kneeling on the floor, swaying slowly as if there was a wind blowing right through him.