Liz walked in on him while he was in the middle of going through the rest of the girl's documents. She had already started writing a sequel (called The Rising and The Risen, which seemed sort of lame to him), and it was proving to be darker than the initial novel.
"What's that?" Liz shouted. "Abe, did you steal a laptop!"
"No!" Abe snapped. "This belonged to the dead girl. I'm just . . . investigating."
"Still?" Liz put her hands on her hips. "Abe, I thought we talked about this already!"
He was going to retort, but Liz had darted forward and taken the laptop out of his hands. And before his eyes, she had set the hunk of plastic on fire.
"NO!"
It was too late to save it, but Abe sure as hell tried. He was going to take it from her and beat the flames out, but Liz threw it into his full tub of water, extinguishing the flame with a loud HIIISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!
Abe kept looking from the lump of burned plastic that used to be a computer to Liz. It felt like his insides just froze. He couldn't speak - not at first - but when he found his voice . . . well . . .
"I cannot believe you just did that! HOW COULD YOU?"
"Abe, this thing is gonna come after us!"
"You won't even let me explain it!"
"WHAT THE HELL IS GOIN' ON?"
That was Hellboy, coming home from Harkins's house. Needless to say, he didn't appreciate walking in on his best friend yelling at the mother of his unborn children.
"Abe's still investigating on that case!" Liz snapped.
Hellboy glared at him. "I thought we said we were done!" he growled.
Abe looked back and forth between the two. "I'm close to figuring out the entire story!" he tried to explain. "So close!"
Liz gave a harsh sigh. "Look, Blue, we can't have this . . . thing around here. I do not want this thing near here."
"Will you let me explain? I do not think that this nephilim will come after us," he said.
"What makes you say that?" she snapped.
"The only reason that it went after her was because she revealed their secrets in her book," he explained.
"So, they run Mob-style?" Hellboy asked.
"A bit like that, yes. But it's more like a tribe protecting its people. She was dangerous to them . . . and she had to be neutralized."
Liz shook her head, walked over to the kitchen and grabbed the ancient corded phone off of the wall.
"Liz, who you callin'?" Hellboy asked.
"Ghostbusters," she said with a sarcastic roll of her eyes.
"Cool," Hellboy grinned. "Get their autographs for me."
"I cannot believe you have waited zis long to call," Johann stated.
Liz had called Johann and told him to meet them at the high school. When Abe asked why he couldn't just meet them at the apartment, Liz stated, "Because we're nipping this in the bud, Abe, and she's not hanging around here."
Johann had agreed, and there they were. Liz and Hellboy refused to go, (their reasoning being that this was his problem, not theirs), but they expected a full report (from both Abe and Johann).
"I did not think that it was going to get to this," Abe admitted.
"So you vish to speak vith ze dead girl?" Johann asked.
"Yes," Abe nodded. "I need to find out a couple things."
Johann gave a robotic nod. "Very vell."
Inside of the auditorium, instead of the class that had been there the last time, it was empty. Not even the teacher could be found.
"I don't-" Abe started to say.
"Hush," Johann interrupted, and paused. "Do you hear zat?"
"What?"
"A trumpet."
Abe gave the auditorium a puzzled look, and then strained to hear what Johann was talking about. After about five minutes of silence, he could just make out the sounds of a trumpet blaring.
"Is zat her?" Johann asked.
"I think so . . ." Abe gave a small shrug - from what he'd seen of her, she'd never held a trumpet or played one. "So . . . should I try to speak with her?"
Johann gave another robotic nod, and Abe ventured forth to the middle of the stage. He gave Johann a backwards glance, who waved him forward, and finally said, "I know you're here, and I know you've been leading me to all those places. Now show your face."
There was a silence that rang out in the auditorium, and then . . .
"I . . . I remember you. You were there the day I died." There was another pause. "Obviously, I'd appear to you, but I'm still new to this whole "being-a-ghost" thing. God, where's Sally when you flippin' need her?"
"Zat, I can help vith," Johann said as he walked up. He opened one of the many holes in his suit, and his ectoplasm began to flow.
"Whoa, dude,that's nice!" The ectoplasm started to gather and mold itself into the dead girl's image. The only difference was that this time, she had a trumpet in her hands and a broad smile across her face. "Now the playing field's leveled, eh?"
"Why did you show me those things?" Abe demanded. "The writing on the mirror? And your home?"
"Whoa, man, I only wrote some stuff on your mirror," the girl stated. "Anything else is from your own mind." She gave a toot on the trumpet. "I swear, the only thing I ask for is an iPod, and I get a trumpet. What the deuce? What did I do to deserve it? But anyways, yeah, I left you a message on your mirror. So what?"
"Why?" Abe demanded.
"Dude, you think I want what happened to me to happen to you?" the girl snapped. "This ain't fun, man. Not fun at all. And besides . . . if you keep off of Scarecrow's radar, you'll stay off all their radars."
"Vy vould any of zese zings come near zem?" Johann asked, sounding puzzled.
"You shine," she stated simply. "You guys shine like frickin' lanterns in this place. The other guys - the red guy, and the black-haired chick who talks too loud - they shine too. Her especially. But mostly . . . mostly from the inside." A beat. "She's pregnant, isn't she? That shine o' hers is her kid's, too?"
Mutely, Abe nodded.
"Then you gotta make sure they don't mess with her," the girl ordered. "They might get attached to her. Like he did with me."
"So that's what happened?" Abe asked. "He got attached to you, and had to kill you?"
"A little," she shrugged. "But he's not the only one who got attached. It's . . . partially my fault, too." She heaved a heavy sigh. "But that's not the point. He got . . . attracted to my shine. And when the nephilim get too close to a shine, they feel the need to make it theirs. And there's only one way to do it."
"By killing zem," Johann stated.
"Yes. Scarecrow, on the other hand, felt like he couldn't do it. He tried to prolong my life. And as you can see, it didn't work out too well."
"How can I talk to him? Can I contact him?"
"You don't. Most likely, he'll contact you."
Wow, have you guys missed me? Sorry I took so damn long - my computer had that weird security virus, and I couldn't do anything until it went away. But it's all better now, so happy days, right? Enjoy this wee chappie, R+R (Yeah, Zipper, I'm back!), and wish me luck - I have SCHOOL now, and extra work shifts. *sigh*
~Izzy