Roman

Roman's Archive

_{Location: Liverpool - England}

#1.04

^{_{_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________}}

Chas was currently taking his third phone call of the last ninety minutes, chatting away with the air of politeness held by someone who was only talking to the other because they wanted something, and to get it they had to grin and bear the pleasantries. He'd dropped some texts to old contacts, dealers he used to bargain with - hoping that someone had had recent tradings with Gary, or at least knew someone else who had. The first two hadn't known anything and had at least half-suspected Chas to be part of some narc sting, especially as they'd not heard from him in the last two years - those calls had been swift and un-enlightening, quickly shut down. The third though - more forthcoming. Gave Chas the benefit of the doubt; he was either cocky or thick, but it didn't really matter which, as long as he had the information they wanted. In the Before Times, the guy had been an infrequent backup when other dealers fell through, or the group was in a pinch. He had been reliable, and near-always available - Chas just didn't like him, because he had a habit of trying to push harder stuff than just the weed they wanted, and when they turned him down, he had a petty tendency to mark up what they'd actually came for. He was an opportunist with little scruples, and Chas expected that not to have changed.

Chas finally got off the phone and turned to John, who looked sullen, but was actually just bored.
"You alright?"
"I can hear Cheryl." John answered, gravitas filling his voice. Chas looked panicked for a moment, quickly sitting beside John and putting a hand to his shoulder.
"You can?" He asked, urgency in his tone.
"Yeah. She's saying I should have brought a book."
John smirked as Chas pushed off him, his face swapping from concern to aggravation.
"Bastard." Chas said, then looked at his phone as it pinged. "Alright, I have good news and bad news."
"Good news, please. Need some of that."
"Fella dealt to Gary pretty recently. Knows where he was staying. Gaz might still be there."
John's face perked up, excited at this positive development. Cautiously, he asked:
"And bad news?"
"He sold Gary a lot. Like, a lot a lot. Like, what did you do to get this cash and why are you making a swan-song purchase, a lot."
"Ah."
"Yeah. And he's not heard from him since, either. Maybe Gary was just buying in bulk like a sensible consumer...or maybe..."
"Or maybe he shot up everything he had and we're gonna find him on his back with a faceful of his own vomit." John finished the thought. "If the coppers haven't already bagged him."

He sat back and sighed. Every step forward seemed matched by another one back.
"But the guy has the address, and he just sent me the meet spot. We just have to bring cash."
"Bastard."
"Yup. Regular entrepeneur." Chas agreed, bouncing his leg and staring off into the setting sun. "What do you want to do?"
John dragged his hands down his face. Despite the cool temperatures of the encroaching evening he felt sweaty and unsettled.
"Fuck it, let's go. It's the best lead we have. If this falls through we'll just have to call it. Maybe one day he'll find us instead."
"The only thing Gary's finding is a vein he hasn't blown through." Chas remarked in a low, cynical voice. All the same, he slapped his knees and stood up. "Alright. It's not too far. You got cash on you?"
John put a hand into his pocket and pulled out the notes inside, counting them up in his head. He felt a knot in his stomach as he thought about what was left of this month's Universal Credit. It'd have to do. They couldn't turn away now.
"Yeah, but not enough if I remember this guy's prices right. I'll have to get more."
"Bank machine on the way." Chas said, already walking off. "Let's get moving."

---

It all felt a bit cliche to John. They'd crossed to the city outskirts and snuck through a roundabout to underneath the motorway bypass, great concrete pillars holding aloft the hundreds of cars that roared past overhead. The rough ground around them was littered with rubbish discarded by drivers above, and roadkill that had been flung over the roadside barriers; birds, mostly, popped into split-open carcasses and clouds of feathers, but also the odd squirrel or rat that had made the poorly-fated climb. John could see all had been gnawed at indiscriminately, and some of the bursted corpses made his stomach turn. Ahead of them where the bypass rose was a flat cement wall that marked the end of the initial ramp; it was against this surface that he and Chas could make out the dim figure of their rendevous partner, illuminated only by the faint orange glow of his cigarette. John itched to look at it, and almost instinctively reached for his own pack, sparking up and puffing away as they approached.

Beverly Hughes was an unfortunate man. His name had caused him no end of grief most of his life, but at this point he had become inured to it, and even much preferred it to the other moniker that had been attached to him. You see, Beverly was a misshapen fellow, rotund and bottom-heavy with an awkward, rolling gait. He was also quite short, and pronouncedly hairy, and his face, while large and round, had all its main features converging to a point on his wide nose, with a small mouth hanging beneath and a pair of prominent front teeth completing the picture. The resemblance was as uncanny as it was undeniable. That the maligned sobriquet fit quite neatly against Beverly's actual name was just a petty joke played by God.
"Alright, Beaver?" Chas called out as they neared, attempting a friendly, jovial air - but Christ, even at a distance and in this fading light, John could tell he didn't half put his foot in it.
"Very bad start..." John murmured low so only his friend could hear. Chas just waved dismissively.
"Fuck off, Chandler." Was Beverly's only reply, his rodential face immediately darkening. Chas opened his mouth to speak once more, but John pulled the cig from between his lips with one hand while fishing the cash from his pocket with the other, stepping in front and across Chas to interrupt him before he blundered again.

"I've got the money." John announced, taking the attention of Beverly's squirrelly little eyes away from the gesticulating Chas. Beverly lashed a hand out to seize the wad from John's grip, and then passed back a small scrap of folded paper. John opened it carefully. Scrawled in biro was an address - an address John had heard before. It was one many 'roommates' from his hostel wound up in. He could've slapped himself.
"When did you last see him?" He asked, tucking the paper away. Beverly didn't look up as he thumbed through the notes, counting it was all there.
"Mmmm...three weeks, maybe?" He answered, non-committal. "More than a fortnight, less than a month."
"Anything unusual?"
"Nah. More paranoid than usual but who isn't these days. He's been a pretty regular customer past two years. Would have expected to hear from him again by now."
"And you haven't?"
"I told Chas over the phone. Gaz bought big last time. You're probably looking for a corpse."
"We're staying optimistic." John growled, Beaver's flippant nature and ugly face beginning to grate on him.
"Well good luck, but I'd say you're wasting your time. Guy's been looking for the will to kill himself for two years, and you ask me, he just found it. He's been fucked up ever since that girl he was sweet on disappeared."

John screwed his eyes shut, but not before he saw Chas tense up as well. Beverly didn't notice either of them shift in demeanour, and carried on shoving his foot in his mouth.
"Never did figure out what happened, not for lack of trying bless him. Well, as much as shooting smack up to your eyeballs can be called 'trying', anyway. I did tell him to forget it. She probably just ran away. Shit town, shit fam, shit mates, who wouldn't! Either that or the silly bint got herself snatched, or killed, or both. Any day now, they'll dredge her skeleton out of the Ter-"

Beaver did not manage to finish his sentence. There was a dull smack, the sound of flesh hitting flesh, then a couple more, and then the addition of leather into cloth as boots wailed against the fallen figure.

John opened his eyes. To his own surprise, it had not been him to lay into Beverly. Chas was standing over the groaning huddle of Beaver, his shoulders heaving. Chas bent down and ripped the cash from Beverly's fist.
"Chas..." John said, almost a whisper. Chas turned to look at him, a frightening expression of tranquil and deliberate rage painted across his face. John pointed at a bush off to their right. "...do you see Cheryl over there?"
Chas followed John's arm, took a long look at the indicated shrubbery, and then returned his eyes to John's as his face softened.
"No, John, I don't." He answered. "How's our old girl looking?"
John took another look. Cheryl stood with her arms twisted and stretched out toward them. Her hair was matted with dirt and grease and some viscous ooze; it fell across her face and obscured her expression, except for her mouth, warped into a screaming maw roaring in some unheard black tongue. He tried not to look at her belly, torn and ragged and hanging off in loose strips of flesh beneath a shredded, blood-stained blouse.
"Fine." John lied. "We need to get out of here."
Chas nodded, giving Beverly's writhing form a final kick for good measure.
"Yes lad, I would say we do."

---

John and Gary sat in John's kitchen, the steady rain pattering at the window as the hallway clock's ticking melded with the raindrops into an off-kilter rhythm that set John's teeth on edge. The pair were quiet aside from the slight clinking of glass bottles being lifted from the table to their lips and back down again. John had opened his dad's case of Becks and deemed it free for pilfering; he'd pay Hell for it later, when Thomas returned from work late that evening, but right now he didn't care. The belt was normal by now; there wasn't any point to fearing something that had become so routine. With any luck, between the Becks and the plastic bottle of voddy he'd stolen, he'd be drunk enough by then to barely feel it anyway.

It had been a fortnight since any of them had heard from Cheryl, and a week since John had reported her missing to the police. Six days since he'd sat at this very table under very different circumstances, pinned between a stern police officer and a reticent Thomas, pertinent questions asked and guarded answers given. All he'd wanted to do then was seize the baton from the back of the officer's belt and pulp his father's head with it until he gave up what he'd done to his sister; now, that suspicion had crept away. Thomas just didn't seem to care all that much. There had been a time, distant and fading from memory, that Thomas Constantine had loved his daughter - but since the day John killed his brother and mother, Thomas' hatred of his surviving son had stained everything else. Cheryl defended John, protected him, looked after him, cared for him unconditionally; so by her actions she was deemed tainted by their father, an extension of John's rot. Another thing he'd taken from Thomas. Another threshold carved on the boundary between Before and After John. John felt the encroaching spectre of his own defining delineation; he looked back on With Cheryl with deep fondness, despite its own hardships. He could not fathom a life Without.

John cleared his throat, breaking the silence. Gary didn't react, just swayed slightly in his seat as he carried on drinking. When John spoke, his voice was scratchy and hoarse from under-use.
"Coppers said they'd be able to crack her phone in a day or two."
This was the latest development in the case. Truthfully, it was the first proper forward direction since the missing persons report had been filed. The police had rifled through Cheryl's room for any indicators of where or when or why; they'd discovered more an absence of items than a presence of anything meaningful or incriminating, but the phone was at least significant, an opportunity to review recent activity and potentially monitor anything new.
"Then we can see if she's been threatened, or pissed off some creep. Find a suspect, maybe."
Gary grunted, a dry noise of acknowledgement but little else.
"When I get my hands on whoever took her..." John mused, mostly to himself but still loud enough for Gary to hear. An empty promise, made by the desperate - unable to mount a rescue, so reduced to vowing retribution instead. For a micro-instant, Gary frowned, a dark anger passing across his face; John almost missed it, the expression so brief and Gary's face falling back into drunken fugue so quickly that he wasn't sure it had ever occurred to begin with.
"I think I see her sometimes." John continued, picking at the label on his half-empty bottle. He drained it and opened another. "Catch her face in a crowd, or a whiff of her perfume, or hear her chuckle. But when I turn to look, or run after it, it's not her. It's never her..." he trailed off, taking another long sip of lager. It wasn't working half as fast as he needed it to.

This time, Gary's dark expression lasted longer, and he leant forwards in his chair. The plastic creaked beneath him.
"Wishful thinking," he replied, pointing at John with the neck of his bottle, "or a guilty conscience."
"What?"
"Which is it, Johnny-boy?"
Gary didn't budge; John was stunned, but he felt outrage bubble within him. He set his own bottle aside.
"What the fuck is that supposed to mean, Gary?"
John was raising his voice. Gary retracted his bottle and finished the beer, standing up and looming over John from across the table.
"You've been consorting with devils, John Constantine."
John slammed the table; bottles jumped and toppled, his own drink splashing to the floor as the fallen beer rolled to the edge of the table and tumbled off. He stood, pointing his own aggressive, accusatory finger in Gary's face, trembling slightly.
"Have you gone fucking mental, Lester? Like, have you actually lost your marbles? Say what you fucking mean to say."
There was a long moment of quiet, a stand-off between the two boys. The hallway clock had stopped ticking.

Eventually, Gary blinked, and he stepped out from the table, unhooking his jacket off the back of the chair as he went.
"I'm leaving. Thomas is going to beat you raw when he gets home."
John sat down, shaking, retrieving his spilt beer. "Get the fuck out of my house, cunt."
"Raw, Johnny. But not half as much as you deserve."
Suddenly the bottle in John's hand sailed through the air at a vicious speed; it passed within a hair's breadth of Gary's temple, and obliterated itself against the kitchen wall. Glass shards and lager oozed down the plaster.
"I said get the fuck OUT!"

Gary left. John stared at the wall for a while, and then he wept and wept.

---

John's last words to Gary lingered in his mind as he and Chas arrived at the address on the scrap of paper Beaver had given them. They were both anxious and fidgety; the remnants of adrenaline still coursed through their systems from their altercation with Beverly, and they were also aware that Bev knew exactly where they were going and who they were looking for - now, they were against the clock, racing to find Gary before Beaver did, or before he caught up with them, or both. The place looked promising, at least. John knew of it off-hand from some ex-residents of his own hovel, and as they approached, a vagrant-looking young man watched them suspiciously from the first-floor window. John looked up, trying to discern if their observer was also their quarry; whoever it was, they darted away from the glass before he could make them out. He briefly thought he saw the outline of Cheryl's rough-cut bob past the fluttering net curtains, but brushed the notion away quickly. Since he'd opened up to Chas, he felt elucidated; the visions were not so all-consuming, easier to dismiss. Reality felt more within his gift. It was a feeling he had forgotten, and not one he wanted to give up or take for granted again.

"Your turn I think." John said, his voice low while the pair surveyed the despondent building before them. Chas looked back at him and raised an eyebrow; John could only shrug, looking kite-like with his hands in his jacket pockets. "Last time Gary and I spoke...last time we ever spoke - we didn't exactly leave it on good terms."
"And what if it's not Gary that answers? Got bad blood with all of Liverpool?"
John wouldn't be surprised if he had. "My track record with strangers not so great either."
Chas couldn't argue with that, so he huffed and stomped up the front path, delivering several heavy blows to the flimsy plywood door. His knocks peeled out like thunder, and John couldn't help but feel overcome with a deep sense of ill omen. They waited. There was murmured commotion within the house. John hoped this would be the last strange home they would need to cold-call; and then, finally, the door opened.

Chas backed away immediately, suddenly throwing his hands up and open, palms flat and facing out, making calm and steady movements. John couldn't see anything at first, but as the door swung open completely, the flickering streetlight illuminated the doorway and caught the glinting metal of a blade, brandished waist-height toward Chas. He felt a surge of panic, but daren't move; sudden action would be a very poor decision at this juncture.

The wielder of the kitchen knife - a rather large kitchen knife, John noted with another pang of fear - stepped fully into the light; he was scratty, agitated, greasy and dirty and littered with trackmarks up his arms. Chas kept his distance, and spoke with a gentle tone, slouching his posture and bending his knees slightly to reduce his height as much as he could and appear as non-threatening as possible. The doorman looked jumpy, and no one needed hospitals or police involved.
"Easy, fella. Not here on any bad business. My friend and I are just looking for someone."
Chas pointed back at John, who pulled his own hands out of his pockets to hold them up and show empty palms as well, throwing in a slight wave at the same time.
"That's my friend," Chas continued, "his name is John. I'm Chas. We're looking for Gary."
The doorman's face dropped, his eyes going wide and skin pale. The hand holding the knife dropped, arm slack at his side, to which both Chas and John breathed a slight sigh of relief.
"W-what d'ya want w-with him?" He asked, fear and urgency filling his voice.

There was something electric in the air. The question felt leading, like the answer was already known and expected, he just needed Chas to say it. All of a sudden, John wanted deeply and darkly to abandon his mission, give up on his search; he and Chas needed to leave, to go home, to watch some shit telly and depart for London in the morning. No good would come of pushing even one more step down this path.

It was too late. Chas was already answering.

"We, uh - we want to put things right."
The knife clattered to the floor, released from its grip in shock.
"That's what he said you'd say." The man hissed, and Chas shot John a worried look. John could only return it in kind.
"Yeah, he's been here. Out of his mind, man. Talking about devil worship and black magic for weeks. Thought it was just the drugs, but he wouldn't stop, man, just kept talking and shooting up more than I've ever seen anyone shoot. Yeah, he mentioned you two as well. Said you were looking for him. Hunting him down. Called your 'friend' all sorts, a warlock, a sorceror, a demon in disguise - and you, man, you, he called you a pet, a husk, a meat bag puppeted around-"
"I mean I've put on a few pounds sure but-" Chas tried to lighten the mood, calm the frightened man down, but he was cut off with a look of deep terror and dread that belied the gravity of Gary's lunatic ravings.
"He said you'd arrive. Tonight. And he said you'd say exactly what you did say."
"Look mate, why don't we step in, get this all sorted-"
"NO!" The man shouted, and suddenly the knife was back in hand and raised once more. John's heartrate spiked and Chas put a few more steps between him and the blade. "You're not coming in here. Gary ain't here. He left this morning and he left you a message: if you're looking for him, if you really wanna 'make it right', then you go to the bridge so you can try again."

Powerful horror gripped John, and Chas went rigid.
"Now fuck off. Gary might be mad, but I'm not taking any chances anymore. You take whatever bad voodoo you're carrying away from here."

The door slammed shut; neither Chas nor John had any desire to try it again. They stared at each other for stretched-out seconds, letting something dark and unnerving take root in their bones; and then, all at once and without a word, turned toward the River Mersey and the fateful bridge that spanned it.

Roman's Archive

_{Location: Liverpool - England}

#1.03

^{_{_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________}}

John and Chas stood on the other side of the street, leaning on a lamppost as they looked up at the home Chas had lead them to. The sun was out today but did little to dispel the Autumn nip in the air, and as John cast his eyes over the front of the terraced house he pulled his jacket a little tighter around himself, feeling the temperature dip another one or two degrees. John only had vague recollections of this building, this street; the colour of the brick and the row of gates and low walls certainly felt familiar, but he could summon no memories of the house's interior. They must have spent time here - between Thomas' drunken abuse and Chas' ogre of a mother, the Lester household was the only calm home the four of them had known - but it all escaped him now. Instead, he could only linger on the state of disrepair the house had fallen into. The garden wall was chipped and cracked, faded graffiti marking the front side; the gate hung limply off one hinge, the wood rotted; the front door was scuffed and scratched up its entire height, and a piece of roughtly-cut plywood had been nailed across one of the window panes. What little grass there was in the front yard was overgrown and yellow in patches, and the ground that could be seen was littered with cigarette butts. There was a dark sense of portent about the place; it loomed over them even from across the road, shadows stretching out toward them. John had a feeling like he and Chas were carcasses, splayed out across the asphalt, and the house were some starving, feral creature, desperate to eat and without the luxury of finding a better meal. He suppressed a shiver.
"You sure this is the place, Chas?" John asked, secretly hoping it wasn't, but he knew already.
"Not certain, no. But I know it's not the wrong place." Chas answered, cryptically, but John had no need to clarify. He knew exactly what Chas meant. He felt it too.
"On with ya, then." Chas said, sweeping his arm to usher John over the road. John looked from him to the house and back again, nervous; his carotid throbbed against his neck as his heartrate quickened.
"Me?"
"Yes, you. Your crusade, ain't it?"
John shrugged slightly, non-committal. He hadn't thought as far ahead as actually finding Gary, and certainly hadn't spent any time on what he might say on seeing him again. The phone call to Chas had had that degree of disconnection to make things easier - but he'd have no such advantages meeting Gary face to face.
Chas elbowed him in the back.
"Yeah alright mate. I'm going."

John hopped briskly across the street and picked his way through broken glass and ciggie butts to the house's front door. He hesitated for a couple seconds, his fist hanging in the air, before finally bringing it to bear against the solid wood, three sharp raps on the door ringing out into the building beyond. There was a pause; a long pause, long enough to think no one was in, and as John didn't hear sound or movement from inside the house he almost assumed it had all been a failed endeavour and made to turn away, pre-empting a shrug to Chas - but then there were footsteps on the other side, and locks clicked and chains rattled and the door opened. Stood in the doorway was a young woman - older than Chas or John, but still young - dressed in a velour tracksuit and bearing an expression of thunderous defiance; yet still tempered around the edges by a look of quiet fear, as her gaze darted from John, to Chas across the street, and back to John, two strange men on her doorstep. They didn't know her either.
"Yeah? What you want?" She said, demanding but shakey. John realized he has stood silent for a few more seconds than was appropriate. He cleared his throat and tried a friendly smile; the scrunched-up scowl he got in response did not bode well.
"Um, we're l-looking for, uh, G-Gary? Gary Lester? O-or at least his, um, his m-mum. She lives- lived here. Uh..." John floundered, unable for the life of him to remember Gary's mum's name. "...Mrs. Lester?" He settled on, wincing as he said it. The girl looked him up and down, and John felt familiar feelings of being weighed and measured against some obscured metric.
"Don't know no Gary. But old bat who lived here last was Helen Lester."
John's face lit up at that - 'Helen' rang dusty old bells. The girl must have read his expression, because she continued: "She left a forwarding address. D'ya want it?"
"Yes, please. Thank you." John answered, in his best attempt at a friendly and deferential tone.
"Alright. Two ticks. Stay here."
"No problem."

The girl stepped away, retreating back down the hallway into the depths of the house, disappearing around a corner at the end of the hall. John let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding, and turned back to look at Chas. He flashed a thumbs-up to his friend, which Chas half-heartedly returned, and then John pivoted back to the door to the house-

Cheryl walked across the end of the hallway and vanished around the same corner as the girl had gone previously.

John didn't hesitate. He stepped into the house and took quick, fevered steps down that corridor, his mind consumed by the singular purpose of finding his sister. He reached the end and peered around the corner in the direction he's seen her but there was only more hallway; yet he couldn't let himself be deterred. He barreled around the turn, picking up his pace, footsteps stomping down vinyl flooring as he investigated doorways, cupboards, peered into offshoot rooms; the hallway went on and one, twisting into the bowels of the earth. John had crossed the threshold, already far deeper into this expanding corridor than he knew he could be - the house wasn't this deep, didn't turn like this, the floorplan was laid out all wrong - but he paid it no mind. It didn't matter. Cheryl was in here.

He turned another corner and there she was, idly fidgeting with some bits of paper, back turned to him. He was overcome with emotion, happiness and relief blossoming within him but also a deep anger: that she'd been fine this whole time, that she'd hidden from him, that she'd caused all this pain for him and his friends and had just been living in this run-down old house - he clapped his hand down on her shoulder, twisting her around and ready to embrace, to confront, to weep and prostrate before his lost sister...

It wasn't her. It was the girl who'd answered the door. The winding halls were gone and they were stood just around the corner off the end of the main hallway from the front door.
"John?! John!" Chas was hollering from the entryway. The girl's eyes were wide with fear.
"Get the fuck offa me!" She shrieked, and then the whole house erupted.

John was a panicking mess; he oscillated between profuse apology and stuttering explanation, trying to clarify what he'd seen and the reasons behind his actions to a deaf audience. Chas barreled in, committing his own trespass in order to pull John out, hooking him under the arms to yank full-bodied back down the hallway toward the front door, spilling his own apologies as he tugged and wrestled against John's flailing limbs. The girl herself was shrieking and hurling expletives, bursting with anger born of fear, and in the ruckus her partner had appeared - a large and ill-tempered man who now turned to violence in defense of his loved one, shoving and jostling and poking harsh fingers into John's chest. His temper only grew hotter and his face redder in the wake of John's babbling, and quickly he took a fistful of collar as John tried to wrench away from his arms, accusing fingers escalating to slaps and light blows. Above all this, Chas just kept apologising, kept pulling John out the door, and eventually they crossed back out through the entryway and, with a final shove from the boyfriend, tumbled to the ground in a dishevelled heap. The irate man stood in the doorway, a singular arm gesturing a strong warning to John:
"Your sister's fucking dead!"
John's ears rang. Part of him refused to believe he'd heard those words. "W-what did you just say to me?!" He demanded, which only stoked the fire; it would seem that only the woman's grip on his other arm prevented the man from continuing his beatings.
"I said I ever see your face again, you're fucking. DEAD!" He screamed back, and then slammed the door on them.

"C'mon, John." Chas said quietly as the street returned to stillness around them. The two picked themselves up, John pulling a couple small shards of glass and asphalt out of his palms, and they slowly walked back down the road the way they'd came.

---

John, Cheryl, Chas, and Gary all sat in a circle on the carpet in Gary's bedroom. The evening twilight cast dappled, purple-orange sunset rays through the window, and the lamp in the corner produced a warm ambience that kept the group cosy and coddled. Chas pulled a few puffs from a half-smoked joint and held his breath, counting the seconds down until he finally released, blowing smoke rings before expelling the rest and handing the spliff to John. The smoke hung in a thin layer from the ceiling, and only served to further the gloaming atmosphere that sought to swaddle them. John's effort with the joint was less heroic, but enjoyed all the same, and the depleting bifter next went to Cheryl, then Gary, and then the circle repeated until they were smoking the remnants of the roach. Cheryl made the call, stubbing the smouldering remains out on the sole of her boot before dumping the stub in an empty can. The four relaxed, sitting quietly in their collective high, soaking in what was left of the ambient smoke.

Cheryl swigged a can of Irn Bru, wrinkling her nose slightly as she swallowed. She reached for the snacks in the center of the circle - the group was idly picking at Haribo, Twiglets, a half-empty packet of stale Hobnobs - and shoved a fistful into her face before swigging again.
"Shit ain't been the same since sugar tax." She said, breaking the silence and with it the hazy spell the boys had fallen under. John reached for the can, sniffing the opening suspiciously before taking a sip for himself. He produced his own grimace and passed it back.
"Seems just as vile as it's always been." He replied, and Cheryl only smirked in answer. Chas stood up, swaying on his feet slightly before steadying himself and traipsing over to a coolbox in the corner of the room; he lifted the lid, retrieved three cans of Stella, and rejoined the circle. He, Gary, and John all cracked their tabs and drank while Cheryl watched over the rim of her soda. John finished two-thirds of his can in one pull, and when he set it down, his sister picked it up and shook it a little, feeling the weight of it in her hand. She didn't say anything, but they were both thinking of Thomas.

Gary rolled another joint and around it went again. The boys made their way through the eight-pack Cheryl had bought them from the offy - John declined a third can, conscious of his father in him, and instead let Chas and Gary polish off the odd two at the end of the case - and John zoned out to the stereo, Two Coffins' lyrics wrapping round and around his head as he sunk into the smog. One day soon, there'll be nothing left of you and me. Or you, or you. Counting off his only friends on his fingers. Four coffins for sleep.

His daze was interrupted by Gary's quick shift upright and onto his feet, darting over to the stero to switch it off. The sudden absence of music felt like a cold plunge, and John blinked hard as he came back to earth.
"White Crosses was so much better than this." Gary said, running a finger over his stack of CDs to pick something new. "And no politics getting in the way either."
Gary shouted as he was suddenly pelted with empty cans and one not-so-quite empty one that splashed its dregs up the nape of his neck. He whipped around, already holding his hands up in surrender while stumbling out a quick apology.
"Shut the fuck up, Lester." John answered, dropping the next can he'd scooped up as ammo. "Dysphoria Blues is a masterpiece, and you're an arsehole."
"They're both decent," Chas interjected, "but 'masterpiece' is a bit strong."
John waved him away dismissively. "What do you know anyway. You can't pick your Against Me's from your Rise Against's."
Chas shrugged, not really having a horse in the race. John was the only one in the group to get this worked up about music.
"Cheryl, you have to back me on this. TBD over Crosses any day."
Cheryl gave her own shrug, showing John a wry smirk.
"I like Shape Shift." She said, and to this, Gary and John both jeered.

"Doesn't matter anyway." Said Gary, diverting the conversation. "Talking 'bout the wrong band."
He finally fished a CD from the rack and loaded it into the player, and suddenly powerful strums began to pulse from the speakers and swell into the room. John bounced his leg as the chorus exploded forth; Gary, meanwhile, disappeared downstairs and returned with more beer. John declined initially, but Gary insisted, pressing the can into his hands. John looked at Cheryl, torn; she just shrugged again.
"Thomas won't notice anyway." She offered, and Gary chuckled.
"Thomas ain't expectin' ya!" He announced excitedly, and John and Cheryl exchanged quizzical looks. "Had me ma cover. Said we was all workin' on a group project."
John rolled his eyes. "In the clink for the night would've been more believable, Gaz." He remarked. Cheryl hushed him and raised an eyebrow to Gary.
"What're you planning, Gary Lester?" She asked, lucid and to the point. Her eyes glistened with a hopeful suspicion. At this, Gary grinned wider than ever, and stuck his hand underneath his mattress to rummage around, pulling out a large brown envelope that he tossed to the group's feet. Chas swept it up and peeked inside.
"Fuck off." He said. Impatient, John snatched the envelope for himself and pulled out the contents.
"Fuck off!"

In his outstretched arm John held four tickets for Frank Carter & the Rattlesnakes, live at the O2 Academy that very night.
"How the fuck d'you manage that, you cunt?!" John shouted, punching the now-laughing Gary in the arm before giving him a solid hug and joining in the laughter. He stepped back and cracked the fresh can Gary had fetched, raising it up while the others followed suit.
"Well fucking done, lad." John toasted, Chas giving Gary a fond slap on the back. "Let's go get fucked!"

---

John and Chas sat outside a Costa in the declining afternoon sun, thick silence hanging between them. John wrapped his still-shaking hands around the cardboard cup of milky, over-sweetened tea, focusing on the heat against his palms and the smell of the steam to try and ground himself. He replayed the incident in his head over and over and over, poring over every detail: the house, the girl, the Cheryl who was there and then wasn't, and then the rolling disaster afterwards. He had seen Cheryl; he had delved deep into impossible, twisting hallways; he had found her, seen her hair, smelled her perfume, heard her soft hums. And then he hadn't. He rubbed his eyes, pushing back a burgeoning headache. He couldn't let this happen again. Seeing things that weren't there, unable to trust his own senses, walking into warped realities. It wasn't fair. He was trying now. He fumbled for a cigarette, struggling to hold his lighter steady to spark up.

"I can't do this again, John." Chas declared. "You called me to patch things up and I gave you the benefit of the doubt. But I'm not sticking around if you're just gonna regress. I won't watch you jump off the Runcorn again."
There was a long stretch where all John did was smoke and cradle his drink and avoid eye contact. Chas grew increasingly frustrated, ignoring his own cooling coffee, and eventually he pushed his chair back to stand and storm off-
"When Cheryl first went missing we thought it'd just be a couple days. We all did, right?"
Chas sat back down.
"Sure. She knew people all over Liverpool. Manc and Blackpool too. Not like she hadn't taken breaks from Thomas before."
"Exactly. Couple days and she'd reappear, like normal. We just got on in the meantime, us lads. Business as usual. Duck my dad and head down the park for some bevs."
John sat forward, dragging on his cigarette, sipping his tea, feeling the warmth from both cascade down his throat and pool in his lungs and belly.
"We only filed with the pigs after a week because she hadn't even texted. Dad couldn't give a fuck but couple of the old bills knew him from noise complaints and an old social services visit so they actually took it serious when we reported. God they looked into him right quick and they were right to as well, the cunt. Wasn't him though. Even I believe that now. No evidence of foul play at all - that's why it was all so slow. Nothing broken, no other suspects. Even her phone was clean when they found it; no funny calls or texts or emails or nothing. So when it turned up her little cash hidey-hole was cleaned out and her earings and necklaces'd been sold and there was a missing suitcase and empty hangers in her wardrobe..."

John trailed off. This was known to Chas; he was just recounting history, setting the scene, working up to the meat of the matter.
"And then I started seeing her." John said, his burden revealed. "I started seeing her everywhere. And I'd run after her, because of course I did, who wouldn't? I wanted to find her, wanted to bring her home. I wanted to see my sister again. Didn't want to be alone in that house with Thomas anymore. And when I was alone, I'd screw my eyes shut, and I'd hear her instead. Gasps. Whispers. Little, little fragments of a sentence that I couldn't quite make out. Didn't tell anyone. Didn't say anything. Couldn't let you all know I was going completely fucking mental. You and Gaz were struggling anyway, I couldn't make it worse. And then when the coppers gave up...so did I. And I was just drifting, drifting, right up to the edge of the Runcorn Railway. And I saw Cheryl again on the way down, waving to me."
There was a break. Chas' nose and eyes were red and he blinked furiously. John himself felt oddly serene.
"Anyway. Was only after they fished me out of the Mersey most-of-the-way-dead that I actually got sat down in front of someone trained to hear this kinda thing. They called it a psychotic break and said I was a danger to myself. Suppose I was, given the jaunt they'd just pulled me from. Plus dear old dad had done a runner by then, so that was that. Committed. Marched me into Ravenscar and never looked back. Nurses in there threw pills and all sorts else at me for months and months. I did stop seeing things, hearing things, to be fair, but I completely shut down. Two years later they thought I could give the whole 'living' thing another go and let me out. Conditionally. They needed the bed space, I think. And here we are. Wasn't seeing Cheryl, but wasn't doing much else either."
"Jesus, John..."
"And then today I saw Cheryl again. And Chas, God help me it feels so real. I just fixate on it."
"John..." Chas sighed. He was reeling, torn, shredding his conscious to pieces wanting to help his oldest friend, but also desperately aware of a need to protect himself as well. He was stunned. John just soldiered on.
"Everyone's like, 'healing isn't linear', like that makes it easier when things get fucked up. It doesn't, but it's not wrong. I am getting better. I want to get better, which is a few steps up from even only a couple days ago. But I might stumble. Hell, not might, I did. And I'm sorry! I'll always be sorry. I'll never not be sorry, for all of it, for all the ways everything got fucked up and ruined. But I promise - I promise - I am not going to try and hurt myself again. And I'm going to ignore what I can't trust. And when we find Gary, and I can apologise, and I can at least try to make things right with him as well - I'll give up on this city. I'll give up on Cheryl. Fuck Liverpool. Never did me no good. If you'll have me, I'll come back with you to London, and I'll start over. I'll leave it all behind."

John sat back, his spiel over, his confession made. His cigarette had burnt out but his tea was still lukewarm, and he finished it before lighting another stick. A weight felt lifted. Chas maintained his silence. John waited for him to get up and walk away; there was still time to catch a train back to London and not lose the entire evening.

"I got one last lead on Lester we can try. After that, we might just have to accept he's gone. Hope he's somewhere peaceful with your sister."
John tried to smile as he began to weep.
"Thanks, Francis."
"Don't mention it, Johnny."

Roman's Archive

_{Location: Liverpool - England}

#1.02

^{_{_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________}}

John was ten, Cheryl fourteen. It was Summer in Liverpool, or at least as much Summer as Liverpool could allow; though warm, the sky was still covered by a pallid shroud of gray clouds, the sun smothered behind them. The Constantine siblings were collecting change - running through the streets, spotting shrapnel on the floor, swiping cash from abandoned tables, rattling for coins in phoneboxes and vending machines, even scooping coins out of fountains. John's pockets clinked melodically with copper and silver scrap as he joked, jostled, teasted and cracked wise, no leg unpulled, no wool left without eyes to cover. Every hoodwink would receive an eyeroll from Cheryl, but then she'd turn away and hide her face as she giggled, tittering at John's uncharacteristic rambunctiousness; this was the only audience John cared about, the only performance he was moved to put on. An afternoon to forget their troubles and gallavant about town unfettered, acting every inch the children they were supposed to be.

At a dockside cafe, Cheryl distracted the owner with meandering, protracted questions about the menu and the coffee and pointless childish musings that the recipient was far too polite to halt; meanwhile, John dipped his hand into the tip jar and came up with a fistful of silvers, surreptitiously slipped into his pocket as he picked a table outside. His sister ordered cola and sandwiches, plus one packet of crisps that they shared, littering the insides of their doorstop slices with the bag's contents - and then, when the owner was once again distracted serving another customer, the pair ran, laughing at themselves and each other as the frustrated shouts faded into the distance behind them.

Back to the high street and the duo ducked into a Boots and found a disposable camera. At the tills, John emptied his pockets onto the counter so that Cheryl could dutifully count out the correct amount, pushing the small pile of coins when finished toward the beleaguered cashier and returning what was left to John's trousers. They unwrapped it there and then, leaving the plastic behind before running off with their prize. The pair filled the roll in only a couple short hours, coming back to the same Boots to develop the film as soon as the last shutter clicked closed and the finished film rattled inside the camera. John turned out his pockets again to cover the fee, and when his remaining change came up short he and Cheryl made a show of digging in pockets and socks and purses, hemming and hawing while the attendant at the counter huffed and puffed in growing exasperation, until their combined performance become too tedious to deal with any longer, and the oustanding amount was waived entirely.

With the sunlight fading and the day coming to a close, but neither child prepared to surrender to the onset of evening even amidst shuttering businesses signalling them to go home, John and Cheryl sat on a high street bench and thumbed eagerly through their envelope of photographs. Many of the pictures were marred by poor lighting, or an unfortunate lens glare, or even intrusion from John's clumsy fingers across the shutter as he'd played with the camera, but one photo stood out: Cherly was standing center-frame, the Royal Albert Docks positioned neatly behind her, smiling and laughing at the John behind the camera. The clouds had opened up in a moment of serendipity to free the sun and stream rays down onto the water, which bounced off the dappled surface to light up the picture from behind. The created effect sillhouetted Cheryl near-perfectly, and she was outlined in a way that looked evocative of the gold-flaked paintings of saints by the old masters. To John, the photo was remarkable, perhaps the singular accomplishment of his young life so far; it captured a paradoxically fleeting and infinite moment of serenity, and seemed to encapsulate an angelic quality about Cheryl. It was a glowing representation of John's sister though John's eyes. He loved it, and her, and they spent the rest of the evening delaying their inevitable return home by any means necessary.

---

John's eyes could burn a hole through the photograph, such was the intensity of his stare. He'd not stopped stealing glances since he'd left the house, his hand dipping almost reflexively at intervals into the inside pocket of his jacket - pulling it out, unfolding it, swallowing all the emotion it projected for the scant few seconds he could bare, before putting it back away. He'd held it between his fingers whilst on the payphone, moral support to make the call; he'd held it flat in his palm as he'd stood in front of the fridge in the corner shop and chosen a Ribena instead of a Red Stripe; and now, he held it pinched between the thumb and forefinger of each hand, sat on the steps in front of Liverpool Lime Street station, waiting for a train to get in but not sure which or when. He was still having trouble believing it even existed, even against the evidence of his senses; the picture must have been at least a decade old by now, and he hadn't thought of it since even before going away to Ravenscar - yet here it was, unmarred save for creases down the fold lines and a scuffed corner. There it had appeared in his jacket pocket, John himself struck by nothing less than a bolt of divine inspiration to check a wallet he hadn't opened in years and truthfully had forgotten he even possessed. Such strange and terrible dreams he was having, to be followed by the rediscovery of what amounted to a personal sacred relic.

John felt, just out of sight - just down the road, around the corner...he couldn't be sure, and the feeling passed with such haste; and yet, a lingering sense of a hand proffered, a guide down an unknown path...

His stupour was interrupted by a swift kick to his side just beneath the ribs, a jolt of shock more than of pain but flash-in-the-pan anger rearing up all the same - he whipped his head up, scowl set and ready, only for the bubble to burst immediately as he clapped eyes on the one responsible.
"Hi, John."
"Hi, Chas."

There was a pregnant pause. Chas loomed over John; he was a tall man anyway, having the better part of a full foot over John, and from his standing position above his friend's seated perch he towered, blotting out the sun as John squinted up at him. In two years Chas had grown and changed; taller, sure, but the way he held himself had shifted too, more cautious now, guarded by default. His hair had grown out, and the mussed waves were struggling against a plain cap that attempted to tame the wild strands, while his hands, pockmarked and tan, idly scratched at a rough, couple-days-unshaven beard. Chas' eyes looked older than John knew he was. Overall, John was struck by how grown-up Chas looked. He wondered how he himself held up under his old friend's gaze.
"Didn't realise you'd gotten out. Could have met you at the gate."
John looked back at the photo one last time before stowing it away and standing up.
"No you wouldn't have." He replied. If Chas was offended, John couldn't tell. His face was inscrutable.
"Can't believe you remembered my phone number." Chas said instead, changing track.
"I can't believe you haven't changed it."
"I figured at least one of us should have stayed reachable for everyone else 'round these ends."

There was a sharpness to that last jab that did not pass John by. He counted off people in his head: Cheryl disappeared. His dad up and left as soon as he was cleared as a preliminary suspect. Gary dived into vice, and John...well, John went diving too. In the midst of the maelstrom, Chas had moved to London to escape it all - but apparently couldn't stop himself laying at least one lifeline for those left behind. It was good-hearted nobility that John remembered as characteristic of Chas, if even just a sliver of it. There was another pause in the exchange as John computed and processed everything through the brain-fog.
"You look like shit, John," Chas finally said, but with a tone of compassion rather than derision. "But at least you're out."
He gestured off to John's side, signalling toward the station-side Wetherspoons.
"Lunch?"

---

They'd eaten, and Chas had had a pint while John sipped on a glass of Pepsi. Chas had the tact to notice John's quick glances at his ale and feigned distaste for a second drink once he'd drained his glass. Instead, they departed to wander the high street, window shopping in the ONE Mall until John grew weary of the security guard side-eyes; they stopped at Greggs on the way back, and as John chewed on great mouthfuls of sausage roll he realized with a dual twinge of guilt and regret that today had been the best he'd eaten since commitment to the asylum, and more than that it had all been on Chas' coin. He couldn't come up with the words to thank him, but hoped Chas would understand. Chas did, though equally he would not voice anything out loud. Eventually they called it, both feeling the fatigue of the day but for different reasons, and parted company with a follow-up rendevous agreed for the morning.

That very morning arrived quicker than either expected and they found themselves on a bench in the Rupert Lane rec ground with the early-morning mist coiling about their ankles and sipping on hot tea from paper cups once again emblazoned with the Greggs logo - this time John's treat in some honour-bound attempt at repayment for Chas' inadvertant charity the day prior. They exchanged idle pleasantries as the hot liquid scorched their bellies and brought them around to the day awaiting them, but these tapered away as hastily as the last vapours of tea, and the pair lapsed into an uncomfortable silence. Tension hung in the air, the atmosphere thick with all the thoughts and questions neither of them knew how to address. Eventually, Chas was the first to cross into the no-man's land that spanned the gap between them.

"Why'd you call me, John?" Chas asked.
John was disarmed, thrown askew by the question. It carried all the tone of a man finally shedding his burden, choosing to damn all consequence rather than bear the weight another second. John slow-turned to look at Chas, who did not return his gaze, only keeping his eyes locked on some distant horizon. After a minute, John answered:
"I said on the phone. Apologize. Make amends. See how you were getting on."
Chas sighed, the slightest hint of frustration in the motion.
"I meant, why'd you call me now?"
At this John was lost; the expression on his face must have said it all, because this time Chas did look at him before clarifying:
"Why now, two years later, and not then, before you threw yourself off that bridge?"

And there it was. The question hit John like a knife, sliding neatly between his ribs and popping his lungs like a balloon. His breath left him completely and his vision pulsed. He tried to stammer out an answer, willing the shaking in his hands to cease.
"You...you'd gone to London...Gary gone too - didn't, didn't want to bother you - you'd gone for a reason, thought it'd just all be neater if I..."
"I'd have come back. You know I would have. Hell, John, I came back yesterday. You could have said anything and I've have come back. You should have said something."
Tears welled behind John's eyes. He floundered for words, tripping over his own panicking mind.
"I understand why you didn't come with me. I understand you couldn't just give up on her. But to do that instead... I was still there for you, John. I'm still still here for you."

At that, the tears flowed freely; they were a stready stream, like a tap left on behind John's eyes, forgoing the wracking sobs for simple quiet, awkward weeping.
"I just..."
Through shaking breaths, John gathered what composure he could find, and considered his words before reciting them.
"Our friendship - you, Gary, Ch-Cheryl...it was - is - the only good, pure thing of my life. I just- if I was going to live, going to carry on? If I didn't want to end up face down in the Mersey again...I needed that back. However splintered, however small a part of it remained. I needed a light."
He patted his pockets, searching for the box he'd purchased that morning before meeting Chas, almost in anticipation of a conversation much like this one. He found it, and quickly put a cigarette to his lips, offering the box to Chas as well; he held up a hand to decline, but also raised a lighter in the other to spark John up. John took a few deep drags, and began to feel the knot in his chest loosen.
"I know I hurt you and Gary when you were already hurting over...over Cheryl. It wasn't fair. I'm sorry."
What else was there to say?

Chas sipped what must have been the cold and unpleasant dregs of his tea, stretching out the silence. John wiped his eyes on the sleeve of his jacket as the flow of tears slowed to a halt. He felt lighter, adrift in the post-emotion calm that came after a good cry.
"Okay." Chas finally answered, anti-climactic as all get-out.
"Okay?" John replied, not sure whether this was a good or bad response.
"I can't say I like being back here. I'm not going to sit here and lie and say seeing this town and these old haunts don't bring back hard, hurting memories. I can't even say looking at you at all is easy, like you aren't wearing the same stained tshirt you had on yesterday, or weighing twenty kilos less than you should. It's all painful, and that's the truth of it. It's all why I went to London in the first place."
Now Chas did look at John, and he rested a warm hand on his old pal's shoulder as he continued.
"But it's good to see you alive. Cognizant. Rejoining the rest of the world, instead of running away from it. I guess, John, what I'm saying, is that however tricky this whole thing is...I'm glad to be here. With you."

They embraced, ever-so-briefly, with all the stuttering, stilted movement of two young men poorly attempting to express their affection and emotions.

When they parted, they both cleared their throats, and set eyes straight forward toward that far-off invisible point once more.
"Did you keep in touch with Gary at all?" John asked, changing the subject and happy not to linger on that prior topic any longer. "Or keep tabs on him at all? It...it would be good to see him again as well. To apologize."
Chas shook his head in John's peripheral, an expected answer despite the hope that had crept in to the corners of the question.
"No. He went dark even before I moved, and after you went away- Lester may as well have dropped off the planet.""
John nodded absently, and then jumped as Chas suddenly stood and darted to a nearby bin to chuck his empty cup. He whirled around and looked at John with a face that said 'A-ha!', to which he could not help but return a slight smile.
"But," Chas said, "I do remember where his old ma used to live. I figure that's as good a place to start as any."

He stretched a hand to John, who studied it before seizing it and wrenched himself up off the bench.
"Alright then fella," he said, "lead the way."

Roman's Archive

_{Location: Liverpool - England}

#1.01

^{_{_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________}}

<sub>^{A DREAM}
I am curled into a fetal ball, spinning and kicking aimlessly in a void of soft-light nothingness. I cannot see - my senses are blinded, numbed - but all around me, pressing against my skin, I feel colour and light flow through this shared liminal space and onwards toward the seams in reality. Claustrophobia settles in as the pressure maintains and my discomfort only builds as the space begins to shrink and trap me; my muscles scream against themselves as I push back against the encroaching darkness, attempting to divert or at least postpone my fate, but all efforts are ultimately futile. The void holds my chest in place, unable to expand and draw breath into my lungs - pressure, pressure, inside and out, on the verge of suffocation, lungs wailing and heart thundering for air, air, sweet air! - then the nothingness open beneath me and spits me out, a wad of primordial ooze, a stain upon the carpet. A cold mire clings to my skin. There is nothing here, just myself and the mud, a bog that spans as far as the horizon and further still.

With some difficulty, I stand, knee-high in thick black mud. I stand for years. Sunless days pass me by and I gaze up at starless night skies, straining every sense I have for a single sign of life. It takes several lifetimes, but eventually I hear it: a blunt, rhythmic thudding, somewhere in the distance beyond the mud. I cannot see a source - but the thudding is all there is, and so I move toward it.</sub>

---

John Constantine's room was a shithole.

It was, at least, in keeping with the rest of the house - a council hostel for deprived and houseless persons, suffering from budget cuts and the lack of care from its rotating cast of residents, most of whom were recent releases from either the prison or Ravenscar. Some left the city; some just left the hostel to find some other derelict to haunt. Others still just found themselves remanded back into penal custody. John had only been here a couple weeks, shown in with little more than a blanket and a few pairs of jeans to his name, and he'd already seen three other residents of varying stability come and go. He expected a new replacement any day now.

He rubbed his eyes, pushing off lingering drowsiness, which only gave way to a burgeoning hangover. Cans of Tennent's Super littered the floor, and his mouth was rank and dry with the aftertaste of cigarettes and lager. Gods but his head pounded, sounding a throbbing beat that seemed to swell and warp the walls. He could barely face the thought of moving, but a tiny voice, breaching the surface of his booze-fuelled oblivion ever-so-briefly, demanded water - to drink, to bathe, and Christ, to piss. John started slow and carefully pushed himself up on matchstick arms to a sitting position; the change in temperature as the duvet fell off his body was barely noticed, both because of the thin ineffectiveness of the sheets in the first place, but also because the movement pushed waves of nausea through him. He quickly became sweaty and clammy as his body prepared to vacate its contents, but no such luck, as welcome a purge might be; he instead just dry-heaved and tasted bile in the back of his throat. A plastic bag hung looped around one leg of the bedframe, an impromptu bin, and John hocked thing phlegm into it. The need for water overwhelmed him, and he could ignore his bladder no longer; he fished a stained pair of jeans from the corner of the bed and pulled them on as he hopped strategically through litter, cigarette butts, and dirty laundry to his room door, before making a quick dash down the hallway to the bathroom to shower and piss and drink gluttonously from the tap. His hangover, a fetid miasma of muscle ache, migraine, and nausea, crashed laboriously against him in waves - but with his pills, a handful of ibuprofen, and a couple slices of stale bread standing in for breakfast, he attempted to soldier through it.

Two hours later, out of the house and in the sunshine and lighting his third cigarette, the hangover had eased off; he'd sweated most of it out, and the smell clung to him, at least somewhat masked by tobacco. Still, though John had showered, the same could not be said for his clothes - jeans and a plain t-shirt beneath a Harrington jacket, an ensemble he had worn all week. Today, though - today was Universal Credit day, which meant today was also launderette day, and refilling his prescription day, and getting some more cigarettes day. All of that he stumbled through with heavy footsteps and a lulling head, pausing only briefly to enjoy a meal deal in the park as he waited for the pharmacy to re-open after lunch: an egg mayo sandwich and a full-fat coke were ambrosia in his hands. John found a moment of stillness on the bench after eating, another cigarette idly burning between his fingers, and he seized upon a fleeting feeling of peace - only for it to be broken just as quickly as the world rushed back in. Shrieking children and bluetooth speakers and obnoxious estate agents taking an early finish all pulled him back to a reality he had been trying to escape, or at least tune out; instead, he resolved to collect his pills, and then dash into the co-op on the way back to stock up, before he retreated back to his room to wile away the hours until sleep claimed him once more.

---

<sub>^{ANOTHER DREAM}
The thudding persists, and so do I. Slowly at first, every step demanding all my body has to give just to wrench my foot free of the mire, placing it forward and plunging it back into the muck just to repeat the motion, over and over in a monumentous effort that feels further out of reach every second...and yet, I glide effortlessly across the bog without movement, the mud motionless around me as I sail across the surface without a ripple, pulled forward along an invisible track. I see both; I do both; the thudding grows ever-louder as I strive onward.

I find myself, all of a sudden, in the centre of the swamp. There is a small grove of scorched trees here, their trunks charred and cracked, limbs twisted, split and blackened. They form a crude circle around a singular mound of dirt, upon which rests a great wooden block, stained with all manner of blood, muck, ooze, and foul scum and viscera. The thudding is at its loudest here, crescendoing in a violent volume that slams against me, and as I listen I can begin to discern shadowy, obscured figures surrounding the block. They look roughly human in a crude, unfinished sort of way; their outlines frayed and warping, faces blank and featureless yet radiating malice. Each of them clutches a cleaver, chopping incessantly at something upon that filty slab. The scene hurts to look at, but I cannot avert my gaze, cannot resist peering closer, desperate to see the meat they are butchering; when I finally make it out, I simply faint.</sub>

---

John was cold when he awoke. Almost feverish; he could feel the sweat clinging to his flesh, gluing sheets to skin, but there was a draught through his room that carried away all heat. His door was slightly open and drifting voices filtered through the gap - some manner of conversation, two stern voices and one self-affacing one. John knew immediately what was playing out beneath him: police visit, having either returned a runaway, delivered a new tenant, or just here to question around an existing one. Any way you sliced it, John was not interested. He reached for clothes and pulled on a clean pair of jeans and a shirt from a carefully folded-and-stacked pile atop a chair in the corner, then once more quietly padded down the hallway to the bathroom. He'd hoped he could just sit on the bog until the voices beneath him stopped and left, and then continue his day unassailed, but the squeaking bathroom door had already betrayed him; footsteps came up the stairs, and John listened to them tread past the lavatory to the doorway on his room, and then back again. They paused at the closed door, and then several light knocks sounded that let him know the jig was up; he stood, flushed, and prepared to meet whichever pig on the other side wanted to ruin his day before it had even begun.

John opened the door to be face-to-face with some wet-behind-the-ears PCSO, a young lad who looked only slightly less scrawny and slightly less pre-pubescent than John did himself. John ignored his introduction, as well as the timid wavers in his voice, to peer around him instead, noticing the broken window at the end of the hall. The shattered edges of the pane had been taped over, and a towel hastily hung across the opening, but this was clearly where the draught was coming from - and judging by the wiped-away remnants of fresh blood staining the sill and yet to be scrubbed out of the carpet immediately below, this was the likely catalyst for the current police presence. John sighed, an affectation the young faux-officer in front of him did not appreciate, before he was lead downstairs to join the actual police officer and the only other present resident of the house for 'questioning' in the form of a righteous and bullying lecture.

Lectures were the theme of the day; it opened with the porcine duo, John only permitted to make his escape after an hour in that uncomfortable kitchen, and then he was on his way to receive another at the local job centre. He was lucky enough to get only a brief dressing down from the receptionist, before sitting for another hour and then being called for a more expansive diatribe from his appointed case worker. He left that onerous meeting and the depressing, brutalist building that played host to it with a mixture of relief and dread swilling in the pit of his stomach; his next agenda item was the worst of the week - his therapist. He'd not opted for CBT when presented with a choice by the nurse overseeing his release from Ravenscar; such an active course, requiring such conscious and actionable behaviour from him, seemed an unconquerable mountain. Instead, he'd chosen what seemed to be the less arduous of the treatments offered, and so it was he was locked into a six-month minimum of guided counselling. This was to be only his third session, but already the urge to play truant had blossomed within him; only the looming spectre of the asylum battled the feeling, a forced remand back to that hostile cage and its darkened corridors the ever-present consequence of failure to comply with his mandated release conditions. So it was he would indeed attend the third floor of a city-centre office building, and sit beneath buzzing fluorescent lights as a well-meaning, but ultimately ineffectual practitioner nodded solemnly along as John played association games with his own train of thought. Occassionally his therapist would scribble something down in a notepad, or attempt to pry further past the surface level John kept them on, efforts recognized and halted quickly. These were the worst lectures: the ones John gave himself, forced for fifty minutes a week to talk around events he'd rather pretend never happened, faltering under the eye of some blasé, courts-assigned third party - and all while he inwardly berated himself for being incapable of seizing the opportunity for healing and resolution and a pathway toward being even an small percentage closer to a human being with worth and purpose.

The weekly impotent rattling of his own bars, slamming against the walls of a cage he had constructed around himself - it all exhausted him. These were the booze nights, the trudging journey back to the house intermissioned only by a stop at the offy for as much as alcohol as the cash in his pocket would get him, the only question in his mind whether to aim for greater liquid volume or percentage potency. After making his purchase he returned to his room and closed his door, stuffing a towel underneath to block the draught, and drank himself into oblivion once again.

---

<sub>^{A FINAL DREAM}
I am lying on my back, strapped to the slab by great leather belts that restrain my limbs and body and head so tightly all I can do is wriggle my digits and whip my eyes around in their sockets, searching in the dark for an escape or a perpetrator. There is nothing, only an expansive pitch darkness and a chill in the air that cascades goosebumps across my skin and puts a bitter cold in my bones. Then, suddenly, they're there - the shadows, holding their terrible cleavers, gathered on all sides and pulsing with hatred. The cleavers rise in unison; and then the thudding begins again.

Over and over the cleavers rise and fall, carving away at my body. They start at my feet and I cannot move as every falling blade bloodlessly hacks away a sliver of flesh, only for the blows to keep coming, the steady rhythm of their cutting and carving never ceasing, never slowing. A shadow looming at the base of the slab deftly plucks away each hewn strip of flesh and tosses it over its shoulder, discarded into a pit dug in the mid behind it. I thrash and struggle and attempt to break my ties with all my might, but it's no use; I am bound so thoroughly that my efforts are futile, and instead I can only strain my eyes to watch as the thudding grows louder and the cleavers move up my body until the noise and glint of the blades is all there is. I am portioned up neatly and thrown away. The last cleaver falls across my eyes. I am returned to the dark.

Everything melts away as the pit swells and opens up, swallowing the world. The figures, the trees, the slab and the mud - all dissolves as I fall, now little more than scattered remnants of a spirit long-forgotten. My descent is slow and gentle, a slow sink, but eventually it ceases and my ethereal feet stand on solid inky blank. In front of me is a woman, softly humming and cooing a soothing melody, her refrains interspersed with lilting sobs. She is clutching something to her chest, rocking ever-so-slightly; in front of her lies a bloodied pile of gore and viscera, the scraps of my body cut and quartered. I reach out with ghostly hands to console her, to ease whatever burden troubles her so - but my hands fall through her. She turns. She has my sister's face. I see through her eyes as she raises her own arms to clutch my neck, watching as she slowly strangles what is left of me.</sub>

---

John woke with a franticness he hadn't experienced in years, if ever. He tore off his bedsheets and tossed clothes around his room and kicked litter and cans around the floor, ripping through his surroundings in desperate search for a piece of himself he'd deliberately buried; a piece that now, in a waking fugue, he feverishly sought to exhume. He dug through jean pockets and cuffed shirt sleeves and discarded cigarette packets, and then, in a moment of clarity - it was so obvious, why didn't he try there first? - he went to his Harrington and fished in the inside pocket for a cheap velcro wallet, empty save for some rolling papers and years-old receipts and-

His quarry. He got goosebumps again as his fingers pinched the glossy paper, and pulled out a folded photo that every neuron in his limbic system told him to stop, put it away, don't look, you don't need to, don't want to, shouldn't, can't - the tips of his fingers found the edges of the paper regardless and unfolded the square.

John barely glanced at the old photograph before he dropped it reflexively and cast his gaze away; his whole body flinched before going rigid. He was dumbfounded, all thought functions having seized up and clattered to a halt. His vision swam and his heart and lungs sped up involuntarily as the surroundings seemed to swell against him. He sat back upon the bed, half-collapsing as his legs buckled beneath him; he screwed his eyes shut hard enough to hurt, blood pounding in his ears. John was breathing but he felt suffocated - his chest was like a spring wound tighter and tighter, twisting his innards into a tense ball, every gasp for air a renewed threat that the whole thing would burst and punch a hole clean through John's sternum. It would kill him and set loose every devil and fear, every insecurity and bad thought he'd ever had, an endless tide of poison to spread and burn and rot and everyone would see and recoil, ridicule, flee and ostracize-

There was the briefest sensation of a kindly hand rested upon his shoulder, and then it was all over. The coil unwound, slowly but surely, and John opened his eyes as his breath came back to him. He let go of the bedframe he'd been unconsciously clenching, his knuckles brilliant white and hands aching, and carefully, deliberately, picked up two pill boxes that sat alone atop his singular chest of drawers. He pulled a foil rack from each and pop-pop released the pills he needed into his waiting palm, briefly reading the words 'citalopram' and 'clozapine' with glazed-over eyes as he put the boxes back and swallowed the pills dry. With gathered resolve and steady, controlled breathing, John bent to retrieve the photograph from where he'd dropped it, holding it open with two hands as he stood. The photo was of a young girl, center-frame, an expanse of water behind her and the light of the sun reflecting off it to illuminate the subject from behind, giving her an ethereal golden outline. He pushed back tears as he studied the photo.

He finally tore his eyes away to dress, pulling on his jacket before he pocketed his pills and carefully re-folded the photo and tucked that away too. He checked what cash he had and then, downstairs, drank a pot of tea without milk or sugar and put away half a pack of digestives before heading for the front door.

John's hand felt heavy on the doorknob, and he hesitated. His other hand went to his jacket pocket and brushed fingers over the folded photograph of his sister.

With a short breath, and a resolute nod to himself, he left.

Absolute Comics: Odyssey [Invite Only]

C H A R A C T E R P O R T R A I T C H A R A C T E R P O R T R A I T _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ C H A R A C T E R S U M M A R Y C H A R A C T E R S U M M A R Y _________________________________________________________ John Thomas Constantine _________________________________________________________ 21 | Single _________________________________________________________ Independent | English A L L I E S & A N T A G O N I S T S A L L I E S & A N T A G O N I S T S _________________________________________________________ - A L L I E S ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ FRANCIS 'CHAS' CHANDLER - Best Friend ◼ CHERYL CONSTANTINE - Sister (Severed from Causality) ◼ GARY LESTER - Friend (Deceased) ◼ ASTRA - Lost Girl ◼ EMMA FROST - Mutant Matriarch A N T A G O N I S T S ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ THOMAS CONSTANTINE - Father (Missing) ◼ THE LAUGHING MAGICIANS - Ancestral Constantines (Banished) ◼ JACOB CONSTANTINE - Stillborn Brother (Taken by Nergal) ◼ NERGLE - Demon (Slain by Mammon) ◼ MAMMON - Demon Lord of Avarice ◼ BEVERLY 'BEAVER' HUGHES - Drug Dealer ◼ THE HOUSE - ?????? ◼ THE GENTRY - Appetite - - P O S T C A T A L O G U E P O S T C A T A L O G U E _________________________________________________________ VOLUME ONE: Original Sin 1.01 - Malice Aforethought 1.02 - According to Some 1.03 - Radical Notions 1.04 - Youth Today 1.05 - Lifelong Friends 1.06 - If Anyone Asks 1.07 - Valuable Lesson 1.08 - Eager to Die 1.09 - Salt the Earth 1.10 - . VOLUME TWO: Every Room A Mouth 2.01 - Vol. 2 Part 1 2.02 - Vol. 2 Part 2 2.03 - Vol. 2 Part 3 2.04 - Vol. 2 Part 4 2.05 - Vol. 2 Part 5 (Feat. Emma Frost)

T H E S T O R Y S O F A R... T H E S T O R Y S O F A R... __________________________________________________________________________________ John was born May 10th 2006 to Mary-Anne and Thomas Constantine, alongside his stillborn twin brother, Jacob. Mary-Anne died during childbirth, and Thomas, now a widower with a dead son, never forgave John. Hatred was seeded at John's very first moments of life, and his only reprieve would be his older sister Cheryl, who devoted herself to protecting John from their drunken and abusive father. The bond between Cheryl and John was unbreakable, even in the face of Thomas' misplaced wrath, and for seventeen years they would bulwark one another against the injustice of their father's wrath, bolstered further by their deep friendships with Francis 'Chas' Chandler and Gary Lester. The four found safe harbour and common ground in each other, and formed a strong unit based on compassion; until Cheryl disappeared, and the vanishing of one splintered those who were left behind. Unbeknownst to John, Jacob had been destined before his birth to be the next incarnation of a powerful sorcerer known as the Laughing Magician, an individual born over and over throughout the history of the Constantine bloodline. With Jacob's death in the womb through horrific accident, the ancestral Constantines hatched a plan to both rebirth Jacob as fated using Cheryl as an incubator, and also exact revenge on John as their chosen 'vessel' for Jacob's soul. Their plan was too successful, fracturing John's mind, and after they were forced to mitigate a suicide attempt, John spent two years in Ravenscar Psychiatric Hospital. Francis fled to London. Gary turned to drugs. When John got out, his ancestor's plans were set back in motion. Subtly guiding him to reconnect with Chas and Gary, they ended up once again on the fateful Runcorn Railway Bridge. John killed Gary in self-defence, and then it all went to Hell: first figuratively, when the demon known as Nergal appeared and explained the terrible conspiracy John had been caught up in, and then literally, when John forged a bargain with Nergal to take him to Hell where Cheryl was being kept. In Hell, John managed to cut a deal with Mammon, Lord of Avarice for his assistance in dealing with his rogue 'family'. Between John, Nergal, and Mammon, Jacob and the Laughing Magicians were defeated, Cheryl was freed, and John returned to Earth to be with his sister again, now dubbed by Mammon himself the true and last Laughing Magician, the last Constantine of his line. After returning home, John found a new world opening up to him, one mysterious and layered but also unfortunately, inevitably, dangerous. Having created new enemies and inherited old ones, John couldn't risk the target on his back extending to his now-saved sister, and made the difficult decision to leave her behind to keep her safe. Now, Cheryl is protected from forces that would do her harm to get to John, and John has abandoned England entirely, nothing left to keep him around. He and Chas have moved to Chicago; Chas trying to scrape a living, and John trying not to think about how much his misses his sister, how guilty he feels over Gary's murder, and how his soul is currently inevitably bound for Hell when his time comes. P L O T ( S ) & G O A L ( S ) P L O T ( S ) & G O A L ( S ) ___________________________________________________________________________________ I brought John back in a previous RP in a bid to rekindle my drive for writing in general after a severe and ongoing depressive period that indirectly brought about a decision to leave my job. With suddenly oodles of time, I directed what energy I could into re-writing, and following through on, what I felt/feel was/is one of, if not my best stories across the many years of this hobby, one I'd had rattling around my head for at least six years. I wrote that story, start to finish, and I had a blast doing do, and it brought back some old writing mojo I'd lost in the last half-decade or so, and got a lot of very positive feedback in the process. In the end, I was quite pleased with what I'd managed and how successful the experiment had been, how I now officially had my stamp on Hellblazer forever, and left my stint as John in that RP there. Originally I didn't have a follow-up arc to carry on writing with. Six years is a long time to stew on a story and to come up with something that could stand up alongside a story I'd built up so much in my own head felt very daunting, and this got a little bit harder when the reception was so positive that I began to feel like I was teetering on a pedestal and liable to crash to the ground at any moment. However, in doing some research, I was struck with inspiration, and with the mojo returned from writing the original story in the first place, keeping that momentum felt a lot easier than screeching to a halt and pivoting to a different character and story completely. Between that and straight-up bonafide requests that I continue, it felt like we'd naturally moved on to the second experiment: now that the passion was re-ignited, could I carry on, continue enjoying myself, let myself play it a little faster and a little looser, but maintain consistency in both quality and engagement? Absolute Hellblazer Volume Two, Haunted House Boogaloo. Let's find out.

---

Roman's Scrapbin

Imagery fragments

Hammering a rope and anchor into the floor
Climbing down something realizing you can’t get back up the same way
Corridors lined with cells looping on themselves
Ringing phones all answering the same way
Opening a door to a room that is the room you came from except there’s a hole
Ironic objects being found behind doors as if the house is cracking a joke

Worlds Collide: A Merged Universe Superhero Roleplay

With Absolute Hellblazer Issue #10 we conclude the story I set out to tell of this version of John Constantine and his journey toward the Laughing Magician title he's known for.

I want to thank @Half Pint for accepting my sheet early on and letting me just play in my weird, depresso little corner writing my weird, depresso little story, and also @Lord Wraith for coming up with the Absolute Hellblazer graphic featured on the header of my posts. Also thank you to the many of you who read along with me and provided no end of kind and encouraging words (you know who you are), most of which I remain unconvinced I deserve.

Some of you already know, but I've had this Constantine story knocking about for at least six years now, so being able to finally get it all down and out, especially to a guaranteed audience - even if there are still elements I'm not entirely happy with (will anyone ever be 100% happy with their own work?) - has been massively enjoyable, extremely cathartic, and revived a passion for writing and story-telling that had previously fizzled out. The experiment was certainly a success, and I've had plenty of ideas spilling out of my very strange-feeling head about what I might go on to do next, whether here, elsewhere, or off the Guild entirely.

My sheet's post catalogue is now updated with the full arc and even post titles! To those who've read along, or are just picking it up, I welcome criticism, complaints, or compliments. It's listed in the character tab, but for those extra-lazy (like me!) I will also link it here for convenience. You might even notice a sneakily-updated faceclaim for John while you're there!

To everyone else, thank you for having me; I think at this stage, I will gracefully bow out of the game, having completed what I set out to do, and plink away at other ideas and concepts or even something original. I wish you all the very best.

Worlds Collide: A Merged Universe Superhero Roleplay

_{Location: Hell}

#1.10

^{_{_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________}}

"You know, John, I have lived for over forty-nine thousand years. Nearly fifty centuries stretch out behind me. I've walked Earth since the first great cradle of civilisation and seen nearly everything there is to see upon that rock. But over the course of those millenia, I think I have learnt one lesson above all others: humans are so surprising."

Nergal crept forwards out of the dark, appearing with no more aplomb than a vulture landing softly beside a starving man. He bore a wicked smile, and leant over John's dead body to neatly pluck the bloodstained cross and rosary from what remained of his ragged throat.
"So dramatic of you, John, but I can't deny its efficacy." He mused, running a black tongue across the surface of the wooden icon, lapping up John's blood. Nergal sighed, sated and satisfied. "That Constantine vintage does have such a uniqueness to it."
All the while, John watched on with a faint spectral awareness; he perceived Nergal simultaneously looming over him like a fat child over a freshly-opened packet of crisps, and also from behind the demon, regarding his unfurled wings and flicking tail and the way he stooped and twitched his fingers in anticipation. Nergal hadn't let a single second go to waste - John's corpse was still warm, rivulets of blood still trickling from his throat down his chest and face, staining his features with streaks of crimson until John could barely recognize himself. Oddly, John found himself compelled to speak, drawing breath into ethereal lungs and producing sound from lips that did not move.
"Quick on the draw, Nergal."
Nergal smiled wider, continuing to address the cadaver even as the words echoed around him from all directions and none.
"Oh, hello Johnny. Good to see you're still with us for the foreseeable. Hell is tricky in that way. Yes, I never miss my opportunity; though you've done far better than I expected. Family is oh-so-complicated, isn't it? I think you'd know more that more than most by now."

𝕋ℍ𝕀𝕊 𝕀𝕊 𝔹𝕌𝕋 𝔸 𝕄𝕀ℕ𝕆ℝ 𝕊𝔼𝕋𝔹𝔸ℂ𝕂-

"Do pack it in. You've no horse left in the race now; the prodigal son has been slain by the other prodigal son. A nice straight-forward gambit played out well, and now you've got nothing. You're just a pack of ghosts."

𝕋ℍ𝔼 𝕃𝔸𝕌𝔾ℍ𝕀ℕ𝔾 𝕄𝔸𝔾𝕀ℂ𝕀𝔸ℕ 𝕎𝕀𝕃𝕃 ℝ𝕀𝕊𝔼 𝕐𝔼𝕋-

"Hell is tired of you, dears. We've our own machinations to be getting on with. Now, do fuck off. I've business to attend to."
Nergal clapped his hands in two short sharp raps, and there was a strange slurping, sucking sound; and then a pop in John's dead ears as the atmosphere shifted, and he was left with the feeling of a sudden absence.

"So what now?" John asked, feeling lighter and lighter by the minute. The blood flowing from his body's neck had finally ceased, and now what little heat remained in his cadaver was leeching out into the ground. Nergal rubbed his hands together greedily.
"Oh, quite simple, John. I collect, and that's the end of the whole mess. I'm impressed with how far you came, I have to admit; I'm almost tempted to grant you reprieve. Ah, alas - a deal is a deal."
"Certainly is," John replied, non-chalant, "and I don't want anyone saying I don't make good on my debts. So - here you go. One Constantine soul."

Nergal licked his lips, bending low and repeating once more the brushing motion across John's body like he'd done so with Gary's on the bridge, so many lifetimes ago - and came away with a misshapen, speckled, dimly-lit orb of...something. Nergal inspected it, and his features lost the slimy smile he'd been sporting, his expression twisting into one of contemptuous rage.
"What do you think you're doing?!" He demanded, and somewhere off in the distance, John picked up the grin Nergal had discarded.
"I promised a Constantine soul, musha. Not mine. Jacob's is as perfectly good as the next one - take it or leave it. Maybe if you'd had the good sense to be a little more precise..." John replied, revelling in parroting Nergal's facetiousness back at him in this small moment of triumph.

Nergal raged. Apoplexy took him over, and he thrashed about, flailing his limbs and clawing the ground and tearing the trees of the grove up by their roots. He slammed a fist against the stone block Cheryl had laid upon mere moments ago, and the entire thing split in half, sundered by the force of the blow. The demon slumped over the cleaved rock, furious and beaten. He heaved breaths in and out, and eventually raised his head to look at John's body over the lip of the slap with a terrible wicked gleam in his eye; slowly, carefully, he drew himself up, marching on the corpse with malevolence in his gait.
"Think you're clever, do you? Think because you're a Constantine and you got one over on your disgusting undead fetus of a brother you can play hopscotch with Hell? You are a speck, John Constantine, and you are playing with powers far, far above your station."
"We made a deal. We both made good on the terms set out."
"Undoubtedly. A bargain struck and a debt paid. But you're dead, Johnny-boy, and you've got a litany of missteps on your soul that He does not look kindly on. Suicide. Murder. Another suicide. So debt paid or not, you'll find that you're due down here, and if you're going to insist on being so insolent about it, I think I'll just ferry everything along and take what's mine in the process. After all - what can you do to stop me?"
"Not much," John admitted, watching Nergal raise himself to full height, splaying his wings in a show of force, brandishing a vicious claw to strike John's spirit down for good, once and for all, and claim it as his own, absconding with it into the dark corners of Hell to inflict atrocity after atrocity upon it as due recompensive for perceived slights...except none of that happened. Instead, there was the briefest of flashes through Nergal's upright figure, and he made an odd, strangled, throttled coughing nose; and then his body peeled apart from tip to taint, bile and blood splashing out of the newly-bifurcated halves. Mammon rose out of the mud, ooze already scouring itself from his distinct scarlet hide, those golden spikes already shining through. In his hand he hefted a magnificent greatsword, gilded and jewel-encrusted and as wide and tall as John was himself.
"He might have something to say, though."

Mammon picked one half of Nergal from where it had collapsed in the muck and regarded it with open disdain, an expression matched by the bisection of Nergal's face as the singular eye whipped around to spy its slayer.
"Most ill-mannered miscreant," Mammon rebuked, carefully running the edge of his blade between the skin and flesh of the portion he held. "Even in the bowels of Hell, a bargain struck must be duly honoured. 'Tis the only thing left that remains holy. Befoul my kingdom no longer, wretch."
The blade finished its smooth motion, cleaving Nergal's hide from his body, and Mammon dropped the flayed muscle back in the dirt as he began to fashion his leathery skin between delicate claws. Once finished, Mammon held a longcoat out before him; the mud had stained Nergal's once soft-red skin an earthy, clay-like tan, and when Mammon concluded inspecting his work he nodded satisfactorily.

John watched him cautiously from his diaphanous, far-off hiding place, feeling the call of some deeper misery pulling him away, try as he might to resist; and then Mammon snapped his fingers again, and there was a powerful wrenching sensation, something seizing upon the absolute base foundations of John's very being - and then he woke up, dragging air desperately into his lungs in great ragged breaths through the tear in his throat that gurgled and spasmed as it knitted itself back together. John sat up, shaky and disconcerted, wary of Mammon. Mammon simply tossed him the coat.
"Thou hast impressed and amused me two-fold, John Constantine. Once with thy promised vanquishing of thine detestable kin, and once more with thine trickery of Nergal. Rare is the human who gambols with devils and exits favourably. Thou hast truly blazed through Hell like so few before thee."
John sat in the mud, pulling the coat on over his cold, sodden arms. It sat comfortable and warm against his skin, exuding a faint sense of bolstering. From the inside pocket, an eyeless lid batted fruitlessly back at him.
"So what's the deal? Back to life and a new coat to say, 'thanks for kicking those arseholes out my front yard'?"
It was, but Mammon would never admit it.
"Believe what thou wilt. I need give no reason." He replied, in a tone that told John not to question him further. John was more than happy to oblige, not wanting to look a gift demon in the mouth. "Thou art still stained in your soul, John Constantine, and bound hither when next your fate arrives; of that, Nergal didst spake truth. But until then - there hast ne'er been a Laughing Magician so entertaining. Thine predecessors were all so frightfully dull. If thou art to be truly the last of thy line - Hell would benefit from what trouble thou canst yet conjure."
"Then I'll thank you once again, Lord Mammon." John answered, aware he'd pushed his luck as far as it would go. "You have been most gracious."
"Indeed. My magnanimity hast reached its boundaries. Get thee gone, wastrel; I wouldst say thine business here is concluded, and mine with it. Shouldst we meet once more, be assured - I shalt not indulge thee thusly again."

And with that, Mammon clapped; John blinked; and when his eyes fluttered open, he was back on the bridge, having returned from Hell with a coat, a scar, and a sister once more.

---

_{^{TWO WEEKS LATER}}
John, Cheryl, and Chas all sat around Chas' kitchen table in his flat in London, steam drifting up from each of their mugs, fresh tea cooling off in the ambient air. On the countertop next to the kettle sat a small ceramic urn filled with ashes. John felt a squeeze around his fingers as his gaze lingered on it, his sister reaching across to him. He dropped his eyes from it and looked at her instead, taking in every pore of her soft, warm features. In the two weeks since she'd woken back up on the bridge in Chas' arms, she'd been struggling to re-adjust, as well as re-align with all that had happened in her two years away; yet, slowly but surely, she was coming back to reality, able to leave the flat and be among people again, even if John made it a point to never let her out of his sight. She couldn't blame him for it. His story had been bizarre and difficult to swallow at first, but Chas corroborated as much of it as he could, and the rest of the tale John told with such solemn conviction that Cheryl didn't have it in her heart to disbelieve him. The scars across his neck and the coat that never left his back both seemed to endorse his apparent odyssey, and from what little he'd revealed about those two peculiarities, Cheryl was reluctant to probe further. Fragments of awful feelings and memories flitted through her mind when she did, and down that path lay Ravenscar. She was just happy to be home again; happy to know he'd never given up on her. Happy to see him again.

The wistful smile that had crept across her face as she'd looked over John faded as he pulled his hand back, cradling his mug with both palms and clearing his throat. His eyes fell to stare at his wrists as he began difficult, painful words.
"When it was teenage practitioners asking for sigiled autographs, or dumb yanks in suits begging for a quick transmutation, or even some half-breed with a few choice swear words, it was almost funny. A bit of notoriety. Splashing the surface of a new pool and seeing what came up to check out the ripples. But today...today an honest-to-God devil, no half-anything about it, came to me with a message from Nergal. And when you're wearing the skin of the demon that's sent someone to deliver a threat - it's no longer funny. It's something we need to take seriously. It's something I should have been taking seriously."

It had been almost enjoyable on first return; John's escapade and the things he'd come back with - trophies, titles, knowledge of hidden things - had illuminated a secret world previously darkened to him, a new layer and depth revealed that made everything seem so alive in a way he'd not thought possible before. Mammon naming him as some historically-significant figure certainly hadn't hurt, either; who would turn their nose up if they'd landed in some strange and fantastical new land, much like their old world but not quite, and at the same time some mighty king had declared them powerful and famous? John was but a man, and could not help himself revelling in it, even if just a little bit. But then, that devil had approached him with horrible intent, bearing a vengeful portent from Nergal and it had been like sinking into an ice bath. The mantle of the Laughing Magician was not merely one of fame; it bore with it a target pointed squarely at his head, and today he had been reminded that he'd already made at least one powerful enemy, and more than likely had inherited several more.

"So what's your point, Johnny?" Chas asked, taking measured sips from his mug while he watched John over the rim with a careful gaze. John met his stare, equally steady.
"I'm dangerous. I've got a target on my back, and I don't think anyone - anything - coming after me is going to care about collateral damage. I'm a bomb. I've got a blast radius. And you two are both in it."
The three of them shifted uncomfortably as John paused and looked pointedly at the urn on the counter. Even before his jaunt, John's curse had claimed one of their number already. The silence was clear; he wasn't about to risk what was left.
"I should have a say in this," Cheryl announced. "You spent two years ruining yourself coming after me, and now you, what, want me and Chas to hit the road? Or fuck off yourself and leave us behind? We're meant to help you, John. Protect you. That's what friends do."
John smiled. God, he loved her.
"You spent seventeen years protecting me, Cheryl. Ever since the first night Dad brought me home. I think it's my turn now. I spent all that time searching for you and I found you. I can't accept, after all that, that I might be responsible for you getting hurt. Even accidentally."
Chas huffed, and both Constantines looked at him.
"What's even your plan? You can't just tell us to fuck off. This is my flat. And if you think you're gonna start living rough again I will drag you back here. Unconscious if I have to."
John chuckled, but he knew Chas was serious.
"I've scraped every account I've ever had. Pooled all my cash. Pumped the last out of my UC payments. Even got into some of Dad's money, which I really hope he's going ballistic about somewhere. And I bought myself a ticket."

John put a hand in the inside pocket of his coat and pulled out a small white envelope. He opened it up and fished out the contents, laying it in the center of the table: a one-way plane ticket from Heathrow to New York City. It was leaving tomorrow.
"Oh, you bastard." Cheryl said, exasperated. Chas raised an eyebrow.
"How were you planning on getting to Heathrow with no money left?" He asked. John cleared his throat, seeming to shrink in his seat.
"Well, uh, I um, I thought you might be able to give me a lift...?" He answered sheepishly. Chas huffed again, and then stuck his hand in his own jacket pocket; in one quick motion, like playing a game of cards, he slapped his own ticket down on top of John's.
"You ain't as slick as you think, fancy title or no."
"Oh, you bastard!" Cheryl yelled. "And what the bloody fuck am I supposed to do?"
Chas stood up, walking to the front door of the flat and unhooking his keys from a little rack that hung on the wall. He tossed them to Cheryl, who fumbled as she caught them and then looked dumbfoundedly back up at Chas.
"As the only one of us who got a job after everything went to fuck two years ago, I had savings. Last week I paid a year upfront and stuck your name on the lease. John's got a right to protect you, but that doesn't mean the little spunk-stain can't have anyone to look out for him."

Cheryl stood wordlessly and moved to hug Chas, who welcomed her in with outstretched arms. After a moment, John stood up too, and the three of them embraced quietly, no more words needed.

---

♫

The next day, John and Chas hefted hastily-packed rucksacks over their shoulders as they scanned the departures board for their gate number. Cheryl sat quietly nearby, picking nervously at the skin around her fingernails while she bounced a leg.
"There it is," Chas said, breaking the tension. "B47. We're up."

This was it. John exhaled a deep breath, trying to steady his emotions. Beyond the glass walls of the terminal building, the sun was beginning to set, and John couldn't stop the feeling that the light was fading from a life he'd only half-lived for twenty years, and would now never have the chance to do properly. Beside him, Cheryl stood up, and though John had tried to steel himself, the wetness in her eyes as he turned cracked through him until, in all of a single deleterious second, they were sobbing in each other's embrace.

"H-harder than I th-thought it'd be." John choked out, and Cheryl just squeezed him in response. He squeezed back, and in that moment, focused for an instant; between them, something ethereal and invisible snapped, a hidden tether severed and cast away. Synchronicity - the silent power of the Laughing Magician. Without having to worry about causality, Cheryl would be safe. She could be happy.
"No one's finding you now unless you want them to. You'll be safe. For good." He said, pressing his forehead against hers. She nodded and wiped her cheeks.
"I'll miss you two." She said. John felt a hand on his shoulder.
"We'd better not miss it." Chas said, and John nodded.

On the steps up to the cabin, John looked back, just for a second, to the window at the terminal gate. Cheryl waved, and for a tiny calamitous moment, John was seized with the overwhelming urge to dive from the stairs, hit the tarmac, drop his bag and sprint from here back into the building, see her one last time, give her one last hug, share with her one last goodbye; and then someone walked in front of her, and once they passed, she was gone.
"C'mon, Houdini." Chas said, stood above him up the steps at the cabin door, holding a hand out. "Let's go."
"Alright, mate." John, answered, taking the hand offered in his own. "Let's go."

Worlds Collide: A Merged Universe Superhero Roleplay

If Micki were to step down as Batman I'd rather I take on the role and make it a team sheet since my Robin's directly connected to the story and character already written.

@King Kindred

Considering your last Gotham Academy post was over three weeks again this feels less like a solution and more like just replacing the person not posting as Batman with a different person also not posting as Batman.

Also I'm a no for a game discord, I can't farm laugh reacts in chat.

In general though I don't have a horse in any race, really. I've been completely non-interactive the whole game, and I have one more post to finish until Absolute Hellblazer is complete and I'm left trying to figure out what I want to do, if I want to do anything anyway.

Roman's Scrapbin

Season 2 haunted house murder mystery time loop shenanigans use Astra make John get himself stuck in the loop going after her to save her after accidentally condemning her to it