>>>>> Interlude
Abe and Clay leaned in close to a small black and white monitor. Inside the attached VCR played the recording that was taken from the security camera found in Myers’ ward unit. The two had been watching the tape for the past 25 minutes now, and they’re currently reviewing it again for the fourth time.
For the most part the tape showed the agent sleeping peacefully. When John began to exhibit signs of physical agitation the recording was slowed to a frame-by-frame playback. John's unease continued in a minor way; the man’s head turned from side to side, and the hands and feet twitched slightly. This behaviour continued for several minutes before it began to dramatically worsen. The bodily agitations were becoming more erratic, John’s mouth could be seen moving in speech, and there was a very evident look of pain on the man’s face.
Doctors and nurses were seen rushing in and out of the room. Many attempts were made to wake the agent up, but to no avail. One doctor even went as far as to shake John by the shoulders, yet still the sleeping man continued to convulse.
When the recording finally reached the moment Hellboy and Abe entered the room, Clay suddenly yelled for the tape to freeze frame and he pointed at the fuzzy screen.
“Right there, when you guys were watching Myers strangle himself.” Clay tapped repeatedly at the monitor. “I think he’s erect at this point. You can’t really tell because his legs are flailing around but see when his legs go down again?” Abe peered closer to the monitor and watched as the image flickered from one frame to the next. The other agent was right, there was a very subtle bulge right where John’s groin was.
“What could possibly be the cause of an erection while in a state of distress?” Abe mumbled to himself. When Clay looked at him blankly he felt compelled to explain. “The human body functions on two nervous systems… well, actually three but that is a topic for another day. We have the parasympathetic and the sympathetic nervous systems, the PNS and SNS respectively.
“The PNS is responsible for the human erection. However, when someone is in a state of mental distress, like John is in this case, the SNS overwhelms the body, making it nearly impossible to achieve an arousal.” Abe scratched the side of his head, deep in thought.
“So, there’s no way around that?” Clay asked. “What about in the case of rape where the victim responds to erogenous stimulation?”
“That is one of the few exceptions. A victim responds bodily to a rape because of the physical stimulus. But there was no one touching John in such a way. Whatever it was, it was subconscious. And there is only one thing that I can think of that can cause such a response.” Abe frowned in disappointment.
“Oh yeah? What’s that?”
The merman stood up and knew that he had to head into the library right away. “A succubus. It is a female demon that seduces men in their sleep.” He paused to look at the agent. “Will you please tell Red that I am in the library and that I would like to see him?”
“Sure thing, Blue.” Clay watched him go and glanced back at the screen in front of him. He worried about his younger coworker and was concerned about all the phenomenal events that seemed to evolve around the man lately. “I sure hope Blue figures something out for you Myers,” he muttered under his breath in sympathy. Slowly, as if suddenly exhausted, Clay stood up and made his way towards the health ward.
>>>>>
“What happened then?” Hellboy asked, trying not to sound too rushed. He was desperate to know what was the cause behind his lover’s previous episode so that he could try to eliminate it. He did not want to have John screaming at him again, it was not an experience Hellboy cared for.
“I had this dream, and you were in it. It started off really nice, you were kissing me and touching me in places.” John paused and smiled shyly up at the demon. Then he began to draw light circles on Hellboy’s chest as he thought about the scene that followed. “You were making me feel so good one minute, then the next it was as if you didn’t care anymore. In my dream you were doing to me whatever you wanted to, like I was just a body to you and nothing more.” Strong hands tightened further around his waist and Myers stroked the arms that were attached to calm its owner.
“And?” Hellboy asked tightly. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to know what happened next.
“You kept trying to make me come. I remember it was painful and you wouldn’t stop, even when I told you to. In the end you began to suffocate me and that’s when I finally blanked out.” John took in a deep breath when he realised that he was gasping for air suddenly. “Sorry, it was so real,” he apologised. Hellboy nuzzled his face close to his neck in response. “All I could remember seeing were these bright glowing eyes. They were all that I could see. The next thing I remember was seeing you in the room again with Abe.”
Hellboy pulled his head back and stared down at John. “You know that wasn’t me though right?” he demanded. “You know that I would never purposely hurt you like that?”
Myers glared up at him. “Of course I know that, Red. Give me some credit will ya? But you can’t blame me for being confused when I was barely even awake after having such a traumatic nightmare.”
“I know, but geez ‘Scout. I just can’t stand the thought of you being in pain because I was in the same room as you.” The two lovers embraced again in silence as they thought about what was just said. Together, they stood like that for several more minutes until a knock on the door brought their attention back to the present.
They turned their heads to see Clay standing, sheepishly, at the door. “Sorry to interrupt guys,” he mumbled. He was embarrassed for having walked in to what was clearly an intimate moment between the two. “But Blue told me to ask you to meet him in the library, Red.”
“Did he say what he wanted?” John asked.
“We think we might know what happened to you today, Myers.” Clay desperately tried to maintain eye contact with his younger supervisor, but he found this gaze wanting to linger lower to the swollen abdomen. “He’s probably in there right now researching on it as we speak.” John stepped out of Hellboy’s embrace and began to walk past the other agent. “Uh, Myers? Blue only wanted to see Hellboy.”
Clay began to shift uncomfortably where he stood as he was subjected to the hard scrutiny of the younger man. Luckily for him, Hellboy stepped in between them to embrace John once more. “I’ll go find out what the deal is and we’ll brief you in on it as soon as you feel better,” Hellboy soothed.
“ As soon as I feel better?” Myers exclaimed indignantly. ‘I’m absolutely fine.
“Just humour me here please?” Hellboy pleaded.
John glared harder but quickly softened his look when he finally gazed up to see his lover’s worried expression. “Okay,” he finally conceded.
Red grinned and quickly left, not wanting to allow the chance for the man to change his mind. “Clay, you stay here to watch after him,” he shouted over his shoulder as he closed the door shut behind him.
Before his instinct to widen his eyes in a state of mild horror managed to kick in, the seasoned agent trained his face to look calm as he made eye contact with Myers. The two men stared at each other in an awkward silence, neither saying anything.
It was John that finally broke the monotony. “I need to change,” he simply said.
Clay nodded curtly and quickly stepped out of the bathroom to allow the other man his privacy. As he closed the door behind him, he could feel his face flushing for unexplainable reasons. He’d seen the other man naked before, in the showers and change rooms. Clay couldn’t understand why the sudden though of seeing Myers change now made him feel like a voyeur.
He stiffened and straightened his posture when he heard the door behind him open. John was dressed in a fresh set of white scrubs and he walked past him and towards the bed.
“So how you feeling, Myers?” Clay pulled a nearby seat up to the side of the bed and slouched into it.
“I’ve had better days,” John groused as he tried to get himself comfortable. It was finally when he settled for an inclined position did he close his eyes, suddenly tired. The older agent allowed his eyes to briefly scan across the swelling mound of Myers’ abdomen. He saw a slender hand unconsciously rubbing over it and he wondered what exactly it was that John was going through.
“You can go now,” Myers spoke out quietly, his eyes still closed. “I’m just gonna fall asleep any minute now anyways; no point in you wasting your time with me playing babysitter.”
Clay continued to gaze at the moving hand. “Nah, I’ll stay here. Red will have my hide if he returns to find you alone. Besides, this way I get to slack off for a few more minutes.”
“Mmphm,” John replied non-committally. When the hand had stopped its movement, Clay knew that his supervisor had fallen asleep.
Feeling confident now, his gaze traveled up onto the face of the younger man and allowed himself the luxury to study it. Clay was never one to think of other men in terms of attractiveness. No sir, he was a full-blown heterosexual through and through. But looking at Myers’ face he couldn’t help but notice how soft the skin looked, or how peaceful and serene the man appeared. He doubted that Myers had shaved lately, and yet there was no sign of stubble or growth. Even the brown hair looked softer and richer, and the sudden urge to run his fingers through it concerned him only slightly.
In the recent few weeks due to the shortage of staff he knew that Myers had been working constant overtime. The man was always looking fatigued and lacked energy. But now the dark shadows that used to colour under the man’s eyes were gone, and the tired, pale skin was replaced with a healthy, fresh glow.
Clay wasn’t sure how much time he spent staring at his supervisor, and snapped to alertness when the door to the ward suddenly opened without any warning. He tried to not look guilty, not to look like the proverbial boy caught with his hand in the cookie jar, when a nurse walked in.
“Good evening Agent Clay,” the older lady pleasantly greeted him as she moved around to the other side of John. “And how is our patient doing tonight?” she asked. She placed the dinner tray she was holding onto a nearby side table and efficiently went about checking for the pulse and temperature of the slumbering man.
“Myers’ good so far. He fell asleep a while ago and I’m just here doing my duty as babysitter,” he joked.
“As per Mr Hellboy’s requests I’m sure,” she chuckled back. “Well, I’ll just let him be then. He needs his rest more than he needs this dinner.” She puttered around some more and jotted some notes into a folder she pulled out from the end of the bed. “I’ll be back in an hour to wake him,” she said before smiling at Clay and leaving.
Curious, the agent stood up and lifted the lid off of the tray. There were slices of what looked like poached chicken breasts and steamed vegetables staring up at him. It looked very bland and, making a face, he covered up the dish again. A plastic carton of apple juice sat beside the plate on the tray, along with a plain roll. No wonder the nurse wasn’t too concerned with the food not being eaten right away, he doubted that food would taste any worse cold than warm.
>>>>>
Hellboy poked his head through the doors of the library and instantly spotted Abe. He strolled over to his friend and sat down across from him. “What the good word?”
The merman didn’t look up from the page he was reading and asked instead, “How is young John doing?”
“He’s doing good, hopefully in bed,” Hellboy muttered. “John told me everything he remembered.” Abe looked up now and stared at Hellboy expectantly, waiting. He listened carefully to the details as Hellboy told him everything he knew.
“That only serves to prove my final conclusion,” Abe finally said as he leaned back to digest everything he heard. “What John went through fits the description of a succubus. I suspect that this is an after effect of an encounter with Lilith.”
“How’s that?” Hellboy asked, leaning back in his chair also to prop his feet up onto the tabletop.
“I assume that I need not remind you about the origins of Lilith?” Abe raised an eyebrow up and ignored the dismissive gesture that Hellboy made. “During her time at the Red Sea, she spawned numerous lesser demons called lilims. The lilim became spirits of the night, which seduced, and perhaps had intercourse, with sleeping men in order to sustain themselves.
“By definition, this makes lilims the succubi. The very word succubus derives from the Latin word succubae, which means prostitute. And it’s not always just one lilim at work at a time. Although the number of incubi vastly outnumbers the succubi, I’m afraid that there may be a great deal at work here. John may experience an assault from a succubus until we figure out a way to eliminate them.”
Hellboy sat up, his body tense. “How do we do that? Please tell me it’s as simple as pulverising them with my Samaritan,” he pleaded. The half demon had the desperate need to physically destroy the creatures responsible for his lover’s suffering with his own hands.
Abe shook his head in regret. “I am sorry, Red. Everything that I have come across so far indicates that prayer is the only way to get rid of these demons. A succubus is not something that we can see as a physical entity, instead they seem to inhabit the victim’s unconsciousness.”
“Goddammit,” Hellboy swore as he pounded his fist onto the tabletop with his flesh hand, and therefore leaving an indent on the wooden surface. “Blue, he doesn’t need this kind of stress right now. He should be resting in peace and letting me take care of him so that his pregnancy goes smoothly. How is that going to happen when sex demons are attacking him in his sleep?” He stopped his tirade momentarily as he dropped his head into his hands, rubbing his face tiredly. “Why does it seem like all these bad things are happening to Myers… and only Myers?” he asked quietly.
Abe leaned over to rub a hand soothingly over the red half demon’s shoulder in sympathy. “I wonder that myself, Hellboy. But we will find a way to eliminate this new harm that has come across John. Do not worry, in a few more months you will be taking care of a young crying child in the middle of the night and wishing that you are running around town hunting down creatures instead.”
Hellboy snorted and gratefully looked up at his friend, the twinkle now back in his yellow eyes. “I really hope so, Blue. And thanks, I needed to hear that.”
“Just remember that we all care for John,” Abe gently reminded him.
Red nodded thoughtfully before finally sitting up straighter in his seat. “So, now what?”
The merman closed the tomes and texts around him. “I suggest we speak to a man of faith about this subject to see if he would have any ideas on how to exorcise the succubi.” He reached over for a notebook and flipped through several pages. “A few days ago John had spoken to a local Rabbi, who offered invaluable help in defeating Lilith. Perhaps we can contact him again for his insight on our new situation.”
“Gimme his name, I’ll get one of our new probies to interview the guy.”
“The recently transferred men are all highly qualified agents from their own respective federal branches,” Abe lectured.
“Probies,” Hellboy confidently repeated himself and stood up. “I’m gonna go check in on John. Just to make sure he’s comfortable and hasn’t torn Clay into pieces by now.”
“Sounds good. I shall accompany you,” Abe decided as he scribbled down something onto a piece of paper. He gave the scrap to Hellboy and started to stack the thick books around him into neat piles.
Hellboy glanced down at the paper before pocketing it. “I’ll make sure the probie reports directly to you after meeting with this Rabbi Hillel,” he said.
Blue nodded in agreement and together the two strolled towards the health ward.
>>>>>TBC
References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Succubus
http://www.monster.gemsoft.co.uk/Iniquity/demonology.html
http://www.cyodine.com/succubus/History.htm
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