Synopsis

Baltimore shelters a woman on the run from a possessed dead man and the witch playing his puppet master.

From Hellboy creator Mike Mignola!

Number 21 in a Series

Plot Summary

February 2, 1920, Estonia: After hearing rumors of witchcraft, Henry Baltimore, Harish, Thomas Childress and Quigley make their way across the Estonia countryside. As they approach the village of Harju, they come across a young woman, being chased by an undead monster. The monster seems unstoppable and kills Quigley by snapping his neck. After that the troop of monster hunters are able to chase off the zombie thus saving the woman.

While Harish and Thomas go to get a cart to carry Quigley's dead body to Harju, Henry speaks with the woman and learns her name is Sofia Valk and the undead monster was her husband, Villem. Sofia tells Henry about how Villem was an abusive husband and Sofia wasn't too sad when he got sick and died. But then while preparing for the funeral, a black cat with red eyes appeared over Villem's body. This was viewed as a dark omen and on the day of the funeral, Villem came back to life and started murdering towns folk trying to get to Sofia. This led Sofia to Henry and his group, and her story comes to an end.

When the others retuned they invited Sofia to stay with them, so they could continue protecting her from the undead Villem, and head off to the inn in Harju.

In the village the innkeeper tells the group of the legend of the local witch, of how she tortured a local man to death and her symbol, a blood red bird, has been painted all over town ever since, including the funeral where Sofia’s husband rose from the dead. That night Henry stood guard of Sofia and in the morning the group goes to check on Sofia's village.

At the village they find everyone dead and the blood red birds painted everywhere. Finding nothing else there the group checks on Quigley's body. On the way there the group passes more blood red bird symbols and when they get to the funeral home they find Quigley body and a black cat with red eyes standing over top their deceased friends body.