From the Darkness

Welcome to the BPRD, do you have any Advil?

"Abe get your hand of the glass!" She yelled as Abe did as she had 'asked'. "Sorry, Abe. What did you see?"

"Just mountains, and blood."

"Don't tell father, please Abe. I want to be the one to tell him."

"I won't tell him, Nix." Abe promised as he went back to reading his books. Nix walked out of the library and headed to her room to write down what she remembered from the 'vision,' and to find something for her headache.

~2~

Doctors Office

Examination Room

Mechanized rollers transport X-Ray films over a backlit screen. A group of four Doctors studied the pictures and exchanged somber looks. Rain spattered the windows. One of the doctors glanced at the other ones.

"Have you told him yet?" The first doctor asked, while the second doctor looked through a glass partition at an aged, but dignified Professor Broom, who was slowly buttoning his shirt. Hanging from his wrist was his rosary. They walked into the room joining the Professor.

"Malignant sarcoma. In the lungs... the spine, liver..." The second doctor said.

"Approximately... how long?" He asked.

"Maybe... six weeks." The first doctor answered. Broom took the information in impassively.

"I can arrange for hospitalization, pain management. Make the time more bearable-" The second doctor suggested, while Broom pensively shuffled his tarot cards.

Shaking his head Broom said, " I'd rather... stay home, you know. I'll be making arrangements," he set down his tarot cards, " For my children."

"You can always get a second opinion."

Broom looked down at the first card off the deck: Death. "That won't be necessary."

~2~

Broom left the office building, leaves stirred on the pavement. All the stores were decorated for Halloween. Two kids dressed in costumes ran in front of Broom, carrying Jack-O-Lanterns. Leaning on a cane, Broom exited the building and walked toward a waiting black Mercedes. The driver, Agent Lime, opened the door. Broom paused to buy a dozen Baby Ruth bars and a dozen Crunch bars from a street vendor. In an electronics store, a wall of TV's revealed the image of a red, blurry shape, Hellboy.

"Tom Manning has been head of the Special Operations at the FBI, and he joins Pat in the studio tonight to go over the latest Hellboy sighting." A TV spokesman announced. On the screen Manning was sitting in a lounge chair, while the Host sat at his desk; behind them sat a screen with a blurry picture of Hellboy on it.

"There. That's the, uh... That's the tail," he pointed at a circled appendage on the screen with a pointer. "And, uh, these are the horns." He said pointing at the circle that was around the head area of the picture.

"I have a question. Why is it... in these pictures: the pictures of Aliens, UFO, the yeti, uh, Hellboy. Why is it that they're always out of focus?" Manning asked with laughter from the audience.

"Why don't you tell us about the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense?" The Host asked.

"I want to tell you, I want to tell the American public, uh, one thing. Now, this Bureau for the, um..." Manning began, looking toward the host.

"Paranormal Research and Defense-" the host supplied.

Manning turned toward the camera, leaned forward, and said, "There is no... such thing."