Didn't I just post something? The answer is yes I did. I still feel bad for being gone so long. Here's one more chapter to satisfy the readers. Keep up. ;)
"The puppet ghost." Manning stated. An agent passed around copies of the suspects file and I grabbed one to look at it. Abe read it for everyone in the room. "The entity traps and controls its victims, testing their will to survive and forcing them to compete in a series of unknown obstacles."
"Sounds like Saw." Everyone glanced at Rai and she looked back blankly.
"What none of you have ever seen that movie?" She asked. No one responded so I guessed that was a no to her question.
"The entity can possess people's minds and bodies so we have taken to calling it the puppet ghost. Other than that we have no information. It has already killed fourteen people, four of which were only teenagers. Only partial remains have been found."
"We have no witnesses so I can't give you an accurate description of what you are up against." Manning said looking at the group seriously. I raised my hand and Manning nodded in my direction. "Liz?"
"Where exactly is this thing?" I asked.
"There is an abandoned circus right outside the limits of the city. That's where you will be heading." I shuddered. Abandoned circus… creepy. Lots of scary movies came to mind and I shuddered again.
"So how do we go about capturing it?" Rai asked. Manning stared at us for a second and then shrugged his shoulders.
"Are you serious!" She demanded.
Everyone turned when they heard a gun cock. Hellboy stood with his Samaritan in hand and a cigar in his mouth. "That's the fun part kid."
That was that and now here we were, in this big, creepy, abandoned circus tent.
Liz kicked over an old rusty trash can and I jumped with a yelp. "Sorry." Liz apologized. Hellboy's gruff laugh pierced the silence and I shined my flashlight over at his face to blind him in revenge. I grumbled a curse and went back to searching the center ring of the tent. Abe stood near Liz as they searched the stands of the arena and Hellboy browsed the opposite end of the tent, where there would have been a back stage if the curtain hadn't been torn away.
Agents could be heard outside as other areas of the circus were investigated.
"Do you think it's really a ghost, Abe?" I asked. He shook his head. "No. Ghosts are generally peaceful creatures." He explained.
Hellboy barked a laugh. "Peaceful? The last ghost we met tried to throw me through a wall." He said. Abe nodded.
"Yes, but you did insult her grandson." Abe replied in his matter-of-fact tone.
"This thing is suppose to trap it's victims through thought so if anyone starts picking up something make sure you report." Liz said into her radio, ending the boys' conversation.
"Well if this thing penetrates and holds onto thought I guess the only one that's safe here is Hellboy. After all, there's nothing to hold onto in that big fat head." I smirked at him when he shined his flashlight at me.
A squeaking metallic sound on the opposite side of the circus tent made me jump and scream. Hellboy laughed at me again.
"Is the little kitten afraid?" Hellboy asked before laughing harder and continued to investigate the room. I growled at him and tried to not jump when I heard another squeak.
"Is someone there?" I shouted into the abandoned space, shinning the flashlight around the room.
"Obviously there isn't anyone here." Hellboy grumbled. I glared at him.
"I heard something, alright? Stop acting like you know everything."
"Then stop acting like you know everything." He barked back.
"I'm not. I'm just saying that there might be someone here."
"Oh dear, mommy and daddy are fighting again." Clay's voice on the radio made everyone in the room jump. Hellboy and I opened our mouths to snap at him through our radios but a chill ran through the room and all of us froze in our tracks.
I shuddered under the cold and then noticed our flashlights start to flutter.
"What the hell?" Hellboy snapped before the lights died all together.
I quickly forced my voltage to illuminate the room. I screamed the minute I could see again. The room was no longer in my view. All I could see was mirrors. The entire room was full of mirrors. I saw myself, the reflective silver glass, and nothing else.
The illusion set fear in motion. I felt alone and screamed again as stared at my frightened reflection. After my throat was raw from the second scream, I stepped towards the glass and placed my hands against it. I shoved but it didn't move. I went in a circle trying to find an escape and found that one of the walls wasn't really there. I found an opening and turned a corner to find more mirrors.
A maze of mirrors. That's what this was. I hated mazes. They always made me feel lost and abandoned. I forced my way further into the maze and prayed I'd find someone, anyone. A second later I regretted the wish. I heard the metallic squeak again and whipped around. I found a mirror where there hadn't been one before. I couldn't retrace my steps because the path was cut off.
The never ending reflections started to make me feel claustrophobic. I hadn't had a panic attack since I was a little girl and had accidently locked myself in my father's suitcase in an attempt to win at hide and seek. Now seemed like a plausible, yet inconvenient time to have another one.
I ran for what felt like hours. In reality it may have only been twenty minutes. After some time, I became more frantic and hit one of the mirrors as hard as I could. It fractured and I almost felt relieved. A second later I had to watch in horror as the fracture sealed it's self and smoothed out.
"No way." I whispered. I shook my head and moved as fast as I could through the maze.
The circus scared me enough before but now I was terrified. The faces staring back at me were just my own but the feeling of being stared at started to become overwhelming. I heard Rai scream again, this time louder. I started feeling feverish and jittery.
"Please no. Not here." I whispered to myself. I held my head and tried to keep my temperature from rising. I needed to find someone. A familiar face would calm me down. The faces I was seeing now looked frightened, horrified. I needed help.
I moved as slowly as possible to keep myself under control. I placed a hand on one of the mirrors to steady myself and watched as the glass melted. I smiled thinking that maybe this could help me but to my dismay the glass began to grow back. I frowned at my reflection and continued through the maze.
"Rai! Hellboy! Abe! Is anyone there?" I called out in panic. I took a few more steps and then fell to my knees.
"Please don't freak out. Please don't freak out." I chanted it like a mantra and tried to remember all of the things Rai had told me about keeping control. I was terrified more of myself than this ghost.
"Calm down Liz. Just calm down." I sat on the ground and prayed one of the others would solve this.
I needed to get out of this field of work. It wasn't for me. For Hellboy and Abe it was their lives and they were good at it. For Rai it was an adventure and a place to belong. For others it was a pay check. But for me? I didn't feel like I belonged. I felt like I should be one of the creatures locked up. I was dangerous, if not to anyone else than to myself.
I shuddered and tried to stay in control while the mirrors stared down at me.
Rai's screams concerned me. I tried to switch on my radio to contact the others and possibly Rai, but all I received was static. After a minute of thought I decided to inspect the mirrors. I was in a maze of these glass mirrors and realized that they were impossible to get a reading out of. They were cold but not completely empty, I felt a pulse in the cold surface but then it would disappear for exactly 50 seconds and reappear for 500.
I contemplated these facts but then shook my head. I needed to find the others. I kept my hands on the glass and looked for the continuation of the maze. This Puppet Ghost was clever. The mirrors shifted every time that the pulse was gone. What exactly did he plan to do with us? And how was he doing this?
I took precaution with each step through the maze and then spotted something around one of the mirrors. It wasn't a reflection. It was real. Something was sitting on the ground, huddled in a ball. It was shaking and as I stepped closer I heard a voice.
"Calm down Liz. Just calm down."
"Liz." Her head shot up when I called her name and she jumped to her feet quickly. "Abe!" She cried. She ran towards me but at the last second a mirror slid in between us.
"Abe! Abe, can you hear me?" She shouted, sounding as though she was on the verge of tears.
"I'm here Liz. Calm down. Are you hurt?" I asked with worry.
"Abe I'm losing control. I don't know what to do. Please." Her voice shook. "It's ok Liz. Just breathe. I'm right here. Stay calm." I did my best to talk her down but I wasn't sure how long she would last in here. We needed to get out.
Sparky's scream was bone chilling. I tried to keep myself from feeling worried but when she screamed again I stopped trying and simply let myself care. After about a half hour of investigating and navigating the glass maze I decided this shit wasn't worth my time.
I lifted my right fist to punch the glass but the minute I smashed the thing, it regenerated. Damn. I shattered it a few more times before I gave up.
"So what is this, huh? You want something from us? Tell me what you want." I shouted into my reflection. I heard footsteps to my left and turned just in time to catch a glimpse of red as something hurled itself towards me.
Arms locked around my waist and I found Rai holding onto me as though her life depended on it. Isolation had driven her to the point of tears and she buried her leaking face into my shirt. I stood in shock and stared down at her with wide eyes. My left hand settled down on her back without me thinking about it and I held her as I looked around at the mirrors.
A loud growl came from behind one of the mirrors. I pulled out my Samaritan and pulled Rai to my side, putting myself between her and the mirror. The sound became louder and suddenly the maze shifted again. This particular mirror slid out of the way and revealed a living corps standing behind the glass.
"Ah Crap." Was all I was able to say before it launched itself at me. I shoved Rai to the ground and fired at the reanimated body, blowing it head clean off. Unfortunately, it had friends. Rai pulled herself to her feet and reached for her gun.
"Forget it!" I shouted. "Run!"
She hesitated for a minute and then took off down another hall of mirrors. I wasn't worried about having zombies bite me but if they sunk their teeth into Sparky there was nothing that I could do to save her. I blew off another zombie's head before following Rai down the hall.
The living dead weren't done with us yet. They charged after us in frenzy, crawling over one another in hopes of getting fresh food.
Rai suddenly stopped and turned back to me. I was about to order her to keep moving when I realized what the problem was. The mirrors moved again this time blocking my path to her.
"Shit!" I growled and then decided to screw it. I increased my speed and threw myself through the mirror. It shattered but I was able to make it through before it started to regenerate.
"Hellboy!" I rolled over on the broken pieces of glass and winced. "Damn." I grumbled. Rai offered me a hand and helped me to my feet.
"You ok?" She asked, a hint of worry creeping into her voice.
"Yeah, you?" I asked. She nodded and then stared at the mirror behind which a group of hungry zombies waited.
"Do you think the others are ok?" Rai asked.
"They're smart. They can handle themselves. We have to get out of here and find out where these bastards came from."
"They came from a cemetery." A voice interrupted. Rai screamed, grabbed onto my stone arm, and spun me around so that she could hide behind me.
An ugly little goblin stood by what seemed to be one of the colorful fabric walls of the circus tent. He looked ancient with a white beard that reached down to his stomach and a metal contraption replacing his missing left leg. Rai stared at him in disgust before staring at the wall in shock.
"Where did the mirrors go?" She whispered.
"You removed them." I said, guessing that the goblin had something to do with it. The goblin hobbled forward, squeaking with each step, and leaned on a colorful wooden cane.
"I did not remove the mirrors. I removed you." He said. Rai released my arm and turned around.
"Hellboy." She whispered in a terrified voice. I turned around and found the scenery had changed back to its original form of the circus arena. There was no sign of the mirrors and even the broken mirror shards were gone.
"It was an illusion." I said, again guessing as I turned back to the goblin. He shook his head and wheezed a laugh.
"An illusion? No. Paralleled paradox is what it's called. I named it the "Puppet Ghost's workshop". My nifty little contraption and is it popular. Or at least it use to be popular. A few years playing with dark arts magic and suddenly you make twenty bodies come to life. Who would have thought that a circus would be built on an old cemetery? No wonder those dead are so angry. They just had to eat all those people and I'm to blame. What a load of troll pies? I'm the one keeping those things locked up. True there is a glitch every once in a while but those zombies always end up getting trapped in the maze again. It's not what I originally built it for but it's the best I have to keep those beasts from eating all my tourists. People show up here looking for fear. How can I scare them into their graves if they are already dead? I just don't know. " The goblin was rambling and Rai watched him with a look of confusion on her face.
As he continued babbling about the zombies I noticed another thing that was missing from the room.
"Where are Abe and Liz?" I asked. The goblin stopped talking and gave me a questioning look. "Our friends were here with us when we got trapped in the maze. Where did they go?" Rai asked. The goblin shrugged. "I reckon they're still in there. It's a shame really but I suppose there's nothing we can do for it." He replied.
"No! You're going to get them out of there!" Rai shouted before I could say the same exact thing.
"Are you mad? I can't do that. Releasing the maze from the inside could tear the whole thing apart and then we'd be left with more than two dozen zombies on our hands!" There was no need for him to shout at us. We were the ones who had every right to be pissed.
"It doesn't matter. Get them out now!" I shouted, brandishing my Samaritan to get my point across to the ugly little monster in front of me. He flinched at the sight of the gun and then waved his cane at me.
"Don't you threaten me sunny. All you had to do was ask politely." He barked. Rai sighed in frustration and massaged her temples.
"Will you PLEASE release our friends?" She asked, trying to sound polite. The goblin placed a hand on his beard and began to think. "You still want me to do it even if it means releasing all of those monsters?" He asked, looking thoughtfully at Rai. She nodded her head quickly at the old coot.
"Abe you need to run!" Liz shouted as her control started to slip. "Liz you can beat this." I said encouragingly. I felt the heat through the mirror in front of me. Maybe she couldn't, but where was I suppose to go. I wouldn't be able to track the others or find my way out.
"Abe!" Liz started to cry and I knew it was because she was worried about hurting me or one of the others. She was scared. If Rai or Hellboy had been here maybe they would have been able to comfort her better. I was out of my league.
"Liz, hold on just a little longer." I silently pleaded. I doubt that she even heard me. The heat grew worse and I thought that there might be some advantage to running. Liz's element could seriously wound me and not only would she feel awful for doing it but I might die. I took a few steps back to escape the heat. I didn't want to abandon her; she was my friend. The mirrors started to melt and the temperature became too hot for the glass to regenerate fast enough.
"Liz?" I asked aloud hoping she was still alright. "You should be running." Her voice said softly from behind the molten glass. I decided she was right this time and turned to run.
The heat followed close behind but at a lesser temperature. I rounded the next corner and stopped dead in my tracks, which is a poor choice of words considering what I found.
There must have been twenty beings before me. All of them turned to look at me dumbly. Twenty bodies, about thirty six eyes (the closest two missing their heads), and all looked hungry. For once I chose not to think and simply turned back the way I came and, as the others would say, 'ran like hell'.
I wasn't a fan of zombies. The living dead were interesting but not when you meet them 'in the flesh'. They were frightening and I did not enjoy being pushed back towards the heat.
I knew from the stench and the screeching sounds that they were scrambling after me. Depending on how long they had been here, they would tear each other apart to get to a fresh body. I listened to their howls and grunts to predict how far behind me they were but refused to turn around and witness the terrible sight.
I found myself sweating as I got closer to where Liz was. I felt guilt settle in my stomach as I realized I was leading them straight to her but, seeing as there was only one direction I could go, I continued forward with no desire to go back. After a few more seconds of running I started to see melting glass. Liz was visible as I got closer and so was a large mass of flames.
I thought about what I was more afraid of: zombies or fire.
It was defiantly zombies.
"Liz!" I shouted through the dry air. She was sitting with her knees hugged to her chest and looked up when she heard her name.
"Abe? No! What are you doing?" She screamed to me.
I didn't stop as I sprinted towards the hot glass that was still dripping from its frame. Liz screamed my name once more as I dived through the frame of the mirror and rolled across the floor. I felt the skin on my back and arms burn but tried to ignore the pain. I pulled myself to my feet and kept running in order get away from Liz's flames.
She saw the mass of hungry zombies without having me announce their presence. "Abe keep running!" She shouted and I didn't question her. I knew what she had planned and decided it best to just try to get as far away as possible.
I hope you guys enjoyed both chapters today. I don't ever do this so consider it a gift, a very rare one. I just hope you will all forgive me. I hate not posting and leaving all you hanging. Sends some reviews! Love you all!