Untill the end of time

Disclaimer: First things first --> I do not own Hellboy, Abe or any other character from the movie hellboy. I am afraid they belong to Mike Mignola, but as long as I can play around with them for my amusement, that's fine with me. The two original characters in the story are mine, all mine, and all mine to play with :D

Chapter one has been beta'd now, should be easier to read. still not really pleased with it. please review and let me know what you think, suggestions, tips, critisism, all is welcome. Second and Third chapter are up, but have not been beta'd yet.
Title: Until the end of time....

Chapter one: Intro

Hellboy woke up with the alarm bells ringing in his ears. Not the ideal sound to wake up with. He launched out of bed, and quickly grabbed some clothes together. Before running out the door
he grabbed the Samaritan, securing it in its holster and slamming the door shut. He almost ran into Abe when rounding the first corner, lucky enough Abe had heard the demon approaching and could just jump out of his way. Abe brought his red friend rapidly up to date and Hellboy tried to take in the information he told him. Not too easy if you just got out of bed.

"Several bodies have turned up in the local woods, they have been mutilated beyond recognition. The authorities thought it to be a serial killer in the first couple of weeks, but the body count is rising and a strange being has been sighted. We have no idea yet what it could be."

They reached the truck and got in, they settled down and as they were waiting for the rest of the team to join them, Abe continued.

"From the information I received from the morgue it sounds to me like something big, clawed and fanged. However this still leaves us with numerous possibilities. Could be anything from a werewolf to hundreds of other types of demon."

John entered the truck last, but just caught Abe's last phrase and gave Hellboy a nervous look.

Hellboy grunted. "So in short you have no idea what we're up against."

Abe slowly shook his head. "I am afraid so, my friend."

Hellboy thought it over for a moment. "Okay. What do you propose we do? Run into the woods and hope it will show itself?"

Abe was looking over some notes. "Not very likely it will just show up and give us a wave. The local authorities have searched the woods several times and found nothing. So I think we need a different plan. I'll go to the morgue and have a look at the bodies myself, and hope I can find out what it is we are after."

Hellboy sat back and closed his eyes. Not very likely he would catch some sleep, but hopefully everybody would leave him in peace that way.

***************************

When they stopped at the morgue, the present staff was send home and the Bureau took over for the day so Abe could have a closer look at the corpses. Hellboy followed because there was not much more to do. The air inside the morgue was cold and smelled chemical, Hellboy frowned when the smell hit his nose, but followed Abe nonetheless, who didn't seem to notice. Abe walked up to the first of five tables lined up in the long windowless room and when he removed the sheet from the first body, a slight smell of decay mingled with the chemical smelling air. Not a very pleasant perfume. The body itself was not pleasant sight either. There was not much left of what must
have been a man once, or a woman, you couldn't really tell. Even though the body was cleaned up it was one big bloody mass. The face along with a part of the skull was gone, as well as most of the skin. The flesh showed deep cuts like those made by claws, the arms were twisted in a very unnatural position and there was a bone sticking out of the right arm just above the elbow. It looked like they were yanked out of their sockets with tremendous force. Hellboy took it all in and then turned away. He had seen a lot, but this was sickening.

"Whatever it was, it was terribly strong and without remorse." Abe looked the body over, sometimes taking a better look at some of the injuries. Without any commentary he went over the other four bodies present. Hellboy walked to the only chair in the room and sat down. He didn't really have to see the rest of those corpses or rather what was left of them.
Abe finished after a good two hours and covered all the bodies up again. He had taken some notes and some tests. They left the morgue and made their way up to the laboratory, to check out the tests.

“So what have you found out fish-face?" Hellboy asked.

"Nothing what points out what we are looking for, I'm afraid." Abe replied, not reacting to his not too charming nickname.

Hellboy sighed. Great. Just great. Abe checked out the tests he took. Nothing. No poison, no other DNA than that of the victims and one or two human hairs from different persons, could have been from anyone. Abe was at a loss.

"I seriously have no clue what we're after. I only know it has large claws, fangs, is probably around seven feet tall and it must be incredibly strong, judging from its victims. The only remarkable thing I found, was that the bodies were drained." Abe clarified himself when he saw the puzzled look on HB's face. "Drained of all blood I mean, there was not a drop left."

Hellboy frowned. "Sounds like a malicious band of vampires to me."

Abe shook his head "There is no point for a vampire to mutilate a body like that. A vampire doesn't have claws like that either."

Hellboy thought it over. "But what if a vampire wants to make it look like something else did it?"

Abe shook his head again "Not very likely, even though vampires are strong creatures, I think it simply lacks the strength to do something like this."

Hellboy sat back again. "You think it lacks the strength?"

Abe nodded "Indeed, even though there are numerous books about vampires, they’re all simply fiction, and strange as it may sound, we don't have a lot of accurate information on vampires".

Hellboy grinned "Probably the most well known demon and we don't have good information on it, how convenient." Hellboy turned serious again "But now what? Any bright ideas mister I-know-everything-so-well?"

Abe shrugged his shoulders. "Patrolling is my best idea at the time. Sun is going doing and all murders were at night, so the best chance to run into our killer is now."

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Hellboy insisted on going alone, as long as he didn't know what he was up against. This way there would be not a chance he had to worry about something other than himself. John protested a while, but a very angry look from Hellboy ended this protest pretty soon.
Packed with enough ammo to kill of a complete army he made his way through the woods.
Wind rustled the trees lightly, but that was the only sound audible. The old trees stood close together and the moon had disappeared behind the clouds, so it was ink dark, even Hellboy couldn't see very far. So he relied on his ears and nose, but there was nothing to hear and nothing to smell either, well at least nothing which would lead him to his mysterious killer.

After a couple of hours walking around, nothing had happened and it started to rain a little. Hellboy let out a long sigh, there was nothing happening here, he was walking around for hours and now he was going to get wet as well. He decided he had enough of it for the night and started to walk slowly back to the truck. He wasn't far from the truck when he heard a high-pitched scream from behind him. It wasn't really close but it was clearly audible. It sounded like a woman. Hellboy didn't hesitate for even a moment and started running in the direction the sound had come from.

He growled in his earpiece that he heard something while running, trying to avoid twigs slapping in his face. He had not really a clue what to expect, but from the sound of the scream, it wasn't anything pleasant . After a few minutes he stopped and listened, he should have reached the place where the sound came from by now. It was dead quiet, too quiet for his liking, silence was usually not a good signal in such a case. Just as he wanted to move a little further he heard a rustle in the bushes a short distance before him. Hellboy debated, should he just run up there not knowing what he was getting into or try the more stealthy way? Well, as stealthy a man his size
could be.
He chose the second, and moved slowly towards the bushes, the Samaritan ready to fire. When he came closer and could see more he concluded that the bushes weren't very dense. There was nothing. He wanted to walk through them when he saw the leaves glistening, that was no water. Shit, blood. And lots of it.
Hellboy crouched down and found more blood, the smell of it rising from the leaves. This was turning worse by the minute. On top of that he heard backup coming up from behind. He had told them to stay put, but then again, they never listened to him. He thought it might be better to give himself a little head start and find whatever they were looking for before they did. He followed the trail of blood, which wasn't very hard, considering the amounts of it. After a short distance he stopped dead in his tracks, just a few feet away from him lay a pale, but bloodied figure in the leaves.

Hellboy didn't hesitate any further and stormed over there, hoping that the killer wouldn't jump him from behind. When he kneeled next to the woman, he saw immediately there was nothing more he could do. She was naked and her entire body was cut and bruised, her neck was in a very unnatural position. By the time his followers caught up with him he had covered up her body with his trench coat and was investigating the surroundings, but even he hadn't a clue in which direction the attacker had left. There was nothing, no trail, no sent and sound. He returned to the unlucky victim where the rest of the team was already all over the woman.

Abe had thrown back the trench coat and stood upright staring at the corpse. "There is something wrong with her, but I am not sure what."

Hellboy raised his eyebrows. "Uhm yeah, she is dead, that's what wrong with her!"

Abe didn't look up "No that is not it. It is something..."

And before he could finish his sentence the dead woman seemed to dissolve into nothing, a couple of seconds later there was nothing left, save for a little ash. Abe turned around to look at Hellboy.

“Well, I know what was wrong with her. She was a vampire. So there goes your theory about vampires, if I didn't convince you already."

Hellboy just growled something back and picked up his trench coat, brushing the
ashes off. Nice, very nice indeed. This thing didn't just kill humans, but vampires as well. This wasn't good, not good at all.
Hellboy and Abe spent a while looking for tracks, but as they expected there was nothing. They decided they would have another try by daylight and returned to the truck, which would also be their hotel for the remainder of the night.

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The night was way too short and very uncomfortable, not very positive for Hellboy’s mood. There was not much talk during breakfast. Breakfast wasn't much either, but it would have to do. After breakfast Hellboy went back to the scene of the murder. The sun had come out and the woods gave a much friendlier impression. When he arrived at the place he thought he had been last night there was nothing to see. Even the blood had disappeared. Was he in the right place? Where had the blood gone? There had been lots of it and now there wasn't a drop. Abe had come up behind and startled him.
"The blood you are looking for disappeared with the vampire when she died." Hellboy turned around "That is great, now there is absolutely nothing to find here. I don't know Abe, but I have a really bad feeling `bout this. I don't like it one bit we have no clue what is running around here, we don't even have the slightest idea what it is capable of." Abe looked down. "I know, my friend, I know."

**********************************

Daylight didn't help in any way and they soon returned to the truck. The team decided to make a nearby motel their home base as it looked like they were going to be there for a while.
At night Hellboy patrolled the woods, but nothing happened and he was growing weary of it. During the day they all searched the woods for their mysterious creature, which also turned up nothing. Hellboy thought the creature was aware of their presence and probably took off to some other place, not taking any risks. Couldn't blame him. Big red guy with filed of horns and a guy with gills is very frightening indeed. However Abe wasn't really convinced. He was pretty sure the creature was still present, just waiting for a chance to strike. So they stayed. Why did nobody listen to him?

***********************************

That night there was a full moon. Hellboy grinned "If this thing isn't coming out tonight I don't know what will bring him out. Full moon, how appropriate."
Abe was unsure "It is very light outside, because of the moon. Wouldn't be very smart to come out now. But we'll see."
Hellboy geared up again, made sure the earpiece worked and took of again. "Looks like another wasted night." he muttered to himself.
The moon was really bright and he could see very clearly. It was quiet, like every night and no interesting smell other than those you expect in a forest, like every night as well. It was well beyond five in the morning and in two hours the sun would rise. Hellboy figured that if it was a creature of the night, it would have made it’s strike a while ago. And who would it go after? There was no one in these woods, civilians were not going anywhere near them after the murders. So it would have to come after him, not very likely. He rested against a tree, with the all intention of lighting a cigar when heard a soft noise to his right. It was pretty far off, but loud enough and near enough for Hellboy to hear. Sounded like a muffled scream. Cigar would have to wait and he took of in the direction where the sound came from, but it was pretty far away. He was running on full speed, but this was taking way too long. He tried to orientate while running. He was running along a small river, he knew the stream would bring him to a large pit, or small valley, depending on how you look at it. He had been there before when patrolling the woods, it was an open spot and the moon would shine brightly there. He managed to bark some directions to the team. He would have overlooked the situation long before the team would arrive, it would take them a good while to get there.

He almost took a fall over the edge of the pit, but managed to scramble up again. He crouched down to overlook the situation in the pit and the situation didn't look good at all. To the far side of the pit was a man trying to protect a figure lying in the mud behind him from something that resembled a large prehistoric man, even though that wasn't the right description either. By the looks of it, the smaller man was losing terrain and he was losing it fast. What was left of his clothes looked like it was dyed crimson red. Hellboy could clearly see the cuts and gashes all over his body, he was clearly weakened and probably was left standing fuelled by pure desperation. The `prehistoric man' was about 10 feet away from his smaller opponent and it seemed like he was waiting for his opponent to give up. He or it was standing at least seven feet tall and had claws to match his size. Hellboy wasn't sure what it was, it might be a man, but he could actually find nothing human about it.

It was wearing a pair of tattered pants and it stood upright, but that was the only similarity he could find. He was heavily muscled, and his arms seemed too long for his body, probably also due to the long claws at the end of every of his five fingers. His face was more like that of a prehistoric man. Heavy brow with deep-set eyes, the upsetting thing was that they burned red. Very disturbing.
Before Hellboy could move the creature decided he waited long enough and lunged at the man in the pit. One of the claws hit home on one side of the man's ribcage, who let out a low howl of pain. The man was still standing and tried to take a swing at his attacker, however the creature with its long arms was perfectly able to keep himself out of reach.

Hellboy knew there was no time to think this over and jumped down. While landing he pulled out the Samaritan and aimed. Luckily the man wasn't in his line and with a bit of good aiming he would be able to take this thing out. He tried to remember which ammo he loaded the gun with. Right, silver. Hopefully this was going to work and he pulled the trigger. He hit the creature right trough the chest, it howled and turned around, dropping his victim on the ground, like it was nothing more than a toy. Hellboy aimed again and shot him right through the head. The creature grabbed his head and stumbled a few steps back, but after a few seconds it lifted its head again and started moving towards him again. Part of its skull had disappeared, but this seemed to make no difference to this thing. Apparently it had no use of its brain and could do perfectly well without it. Hellboy was preparing to get hand-to-hand with this thing, when he saw something move from the corner of his eye. The wounded man had righted himself a little and was trying to speak. Hellboy couldn't make out everything, but clearly heard the word "heart".

Before he had time to aim the monster lunged at him and he felt the large claws ripping through the flesh on his chest. The pain immediately kicked in, Hellboy howled and tried to get rid of his attacker, but the creature was tremendously strong.
The claws kept ripping away and he heard teeth snapping close to his neck. Hellboy feverishly tried to keep the thing from biting his neck, when suddenly he realized that he was still holding his gun, he was too close to aim for the heart but he could try to shoot and try to put some distance between him and the whatever it was. The thing was still trying to sink its teeth in his neck, but he managed to nudge the gun between him and the monstrosity on top of him, and pulled the trigger. He heard the creature screech in surprise and pain, releasing its grip just enough for Hellboy to get away from it.
He swiftly moved back, just far enough to take a descent aim and just when the creature was scrambling up again he pulled the trigger. Perfect shot, the bullet went straight to its heart. The thing gave a last high-pitched screech and dropped to its knees. The red light in its eyes seemed to die out and it dropped to floor. A few moments later it turned to dust and a few seconds later there was nothing left.

Hellboy slumped down on the ground, now that the adrenaline was leaving his body he really started to feel the pain. The thing had done some serious damage, hopefully his body would start regenerating fast, because he was losing a lot of blood. His head began to swim and just before he blacked out he saw the team appearing on the edge of the pit.