Hellboy: The God Machine by Thomas E. Sniegoski Read Free Book Online

was barely keeping up with expenses as it was.
    "Coming!" he called out in his loudest voice, just to be on the safe side.
    Franklin reached the top of the stairs and exhaled loudly. It seemed to take a little more out of him every day. He glanced into the mirror on the wall of the foyer and ran his fingers through his head of thinning gray hair as the doorbell rang yet again.
    He turned the crystal knob on the heavy oak door. Pulling it open, he found a tall, thin man standing on the stoop.
    "Sorry about the wait," Franklin said as he opened the storm door and stepped back for the man to enter. "I was working downstairs." He held up his cane. "Not as quick as I used to be."
    Franklin shut the door and turned back to the stranger. There was something vaguely familiar about him. "Have we met before?"
    The man nodded. "But it was a long time ago--I barely look the same." He extended his hand. "You're Franklin Massie."
    Franklin took the man's hand in his own, and they shook. "I'm afraid you have me at a disadvantage, sir."
    "I am Absolom Spearz, Franklin," the man replied, a strange twinkle in his eyes. "Do you remember me?"
    The funeral director rolled the name around in his mind for a few seconds. "The name's familiar, but I can't..."
    "Your father and I were close for a time."
    Franklin chuckled. "My father passed away a long time ago, I doubt you were even born then."
    The stranger smiled again, and Franklin felt a sick sensation in the pit of his stomach.
    "Do you remember the Band of Electricizers?" he asked.
    Franklin blinked, the name dragging long-forgotten memories to the forefront of his mind. He had been young--no more than five or six. There had been a man who used to visit his father, a preacher of some kind. Absolom Spearz and his so-called congregation had been called the Electricizers. Yes, he remembered. He had thought it was a funny name, even when he was five.
    "I do remember them," the old man said, shaking his head, a bit bemused. "But that was seventy years ago."
    Absolom clasped his hands in front of him, tilting his head strangely to one side. "My how the years have flown," he said. "It seems like only yesterday that I watched you sitting on the floor of this very hallway playing with your tin soldiers."
    Franklin smiled uneasily. "You remember me playing in the hall, do you? There must be some really good genes in your family."
    The man calling himself Absolom Spearz looked around the foyer of the funeral home. "It really hasn't changed much," he said casually. "Your father would be pleased. The business was very important to him."
    "What exactly can I do for you, Mr. Spearz?" Franklin asked, a hint of annoyance in his voice. He leaned heavily on his cane. His hips had begun to throb even more painfully than before, and he wanted nothing more than to sit down.
    "The last time I was here I made a proposition to your father," Absolom said, checking his reflection in the hall mirror before turning his gaze back to Franklin. "It was refused, quite vehemently I might add."
    Franklin's stomach roiled, and the agony in his hips pulsed with the beat of his heart. He remembered his father's voice now, screaming in anger, yelling at Spearz to get out and never return. He'd asked his father about it later that evening, but his inquiries were met with a beating and bed without supper. Spearz was never mentioned again, nor thought of--until now.
    "Look, Mr. Spearz...or whoever you are, I have a pretty busy day ahead of me. I'd appreciate it if you would get to the point of this visit."
    The man smiled. "The apple didn't fall far from the tree, did it, Franklin? Will you evict me from this place as your father did?"
    The mortician blinked.
    "Yes, Franklin, the vessel in which my spirit resided then was different, but I am the same Absolom Spearz." He took a step toward the funeral director, and Franklin tried to back away, but his hips balked sharply, and he fell backward to the floor. "And now I come to you, adorned