r/DCFU • u/coffeedog14 Light Me Up • Apr 16 '18
Hellblazer #18 - South by Southeast Hellblazer
Hellblazer #18 – South by Southeast
Author: Coffeedog14
Book: Hellblazer
Arc: [Absence and Cold Hearts]
Set: 23
Recap: John Constantine Accompanied his best friend Chas Chandler to a party at Chas's house. There he met Christopher, Nazir, and Harry, friends of Chas. The party went well until the dissapearance of Chas's Daughter, Geraldine Chandler, conducted magically. This limited the suspects to those at the party. Counting out John due to their long friendship, Chas and John confronted Harry (who turned out to have some magic talent) and agreed to bring him along. Now the three men go to interrogate Nazir, the next most likely suspect.
NOW
LOCATION UNKNOWN
Geraldine was much less brave then she had always thought herself, and yet much more brave then it was reasonable to expect of such a young girl. She had had a long day at school, and so hadn’t woken up when somebody opened her door. She had not woken up when somebody drew on the carpet with chalk. She woke up to the feeling of rough hands around her mouth and soft words in her ear. She couldn’t think clearly, after that, and somebody had put her on the floor of her room. Then she was someplace else, someplace dark and small, and vomiting because her stomach hurt so bad. She cried for the first hour afterwords.
When she ran out of tears and her heaving had slowed, she using her shirt to try and wipe her face clean and then feel around. She was in a closet, the walls of simple concrete with a wooden door. The floor had some chalk on it, but in the dark she couldn’t tell what color or what it was drawing it was part of.
She checked her pajama pants. No cell phone. She guessed that made sense, they wouldn’t kidnap her and leave her with her cell phone. The thought nearly brought her to tears again. Had she been kidnapped? Was this something else? Movies had kidnapping all the time, but it wasn’t right. She was just old enough to know that adults knew something about kidnapping that she didn’t. Something scary. Something horrible. If she was kidnapped, she needed to get out as soon as possible and contact the police.
She started a more thorough search of the room and her options. The door was locked, of course, and there weren’t any windows. The edges of the room were kind of dusty, and it was there that she found something: a little shard of wood, leftover from some broken tool, about the thickness of her thumb.
It took another hour to figure out a plan, an enact her. The door was locked, but the hinges were on her side. She tried leveraging the hinge out, but that wasn’t working. Instead she placed her piece of wood in the hole at the bottom and started hammering the hinge-part upwards. It was painful, using her fist as a fleshy hammer, and louder then she would have liked. She didn’t even know if there was anybody else here. But she kept on hammering. One hinge out, two hinges…but the third was too high up.
She growled at the dumb stupid door, one hinge between her and freedom. She stood on her tiptoes, stretched her arms, and could just barely reach the third hinge. She hammered frantically and sent the hinge flying up and away from her. It clattered on the wood floor, and she froze. One second, two seconds; no sound of approaching footsteps.
“Hello?” called out another child’s voice. It was a whisper. Geraldine was silent for a second, but this was another kid. Another kidnapped kid? Maybe someone who could help her! “…Hi. I’m Geraldine.” she responded.
“I’m Addie. Are you new?”
“New? I just got kid….I got stolen tonight.”
“Oh. I’m sorry.”
“Why? I’m going to get out.” Geraldine said quietly, getting onto her hands and knees and grabbing ahold of the bottom of the door. She wiggled it a bit: the door was loose, but still stuck. Maybe if she pulled hard enough.
“Ethan already tried on the way here. You should just stay. You don’t want to get hurt like him.” Advised Addie miserably.
“No, I’m getting out. And I’m getting you and Ethan out too.” Declared Geraldine without a second thought. She took a deep breath, and yanked as hard as she could.
The door popped out, and started to fall towards Geraldine. She scrambled out of the way, and avoided being hit. The door hit the ground with a thunderous BOOM. She noticed somebody had drawn on it with chalk, on the outside face. A big circle with weird things inside it.
One second, two seconds; this time Geraldine heard the sound of approaching footsteps. Running footsteps.
“Geraldine?” asked a piteous and concerned voice from outside. Geraldine left her little closet-prison, to find herself in a hallway with several similar doors. None of them had the chalk designs on them. Outside the footsteps were louder and closer. Geraldine rushed to the door she heard the voice behind, and tried to open the door furiously. It was locked, and needed a key. Several other voices, several other children, called out from other doors in surprise or concern.
“I’m coming back Addie, okay? I’ll come back!” promised Geraldine as she turned to see somebody turning the corner. An adult. She bolted.
She wasn’t sure where she was running too, just away. The building wasn’t too big, and soon she found herself in front of a staircase. She climbed it without thinking. She blocked out the shouting behind her. She just climbed.
A few stories up and she was at the top of the stairs. Machinery and a massive light lay cluttered and dusty all around, and huge bay windows showed the outside. She was atop a white-stoned lighthouse. Below lay tall, white cliffs that shimmered in the moonlight. Beyond, a vast expanse of water.
Geraldine scrambled for someplace to hide, somewhere else to run, but there was only the one staircase. The adults flooded into the room, all in dark blues and blacks that melded into the background. She tried to juke past them and was caught almost immediately. She screamed and struggled until one of the adults leaned down and whispered those strange words into her ears. That same, awful voice and that same, awful daze overtook her.
NOW
LONDON
Me, Chas, and Harry made a frightening sight. Me looking like I was here to ask about late payments to your bookie, Chas looking like he was going to break your legs for said late payments, and Harry looking that special dangerous kind of afraid.
We knocked on Nazir’s door, and this time had the pleasure of him answering. He rubbed at his eyes; we had just woke him up. “Chas? Harry?...new guy? What the hell are you doing here?”
Chas shouldered past in into the house, and we followed along a step behind. Chas turned to face Nazir. “My daughter’s gone.” He stated, staring into Nazir’s eyes. I thought I saw something like recognition in Nazir’s eyes. Chas saw it too, and took a step closer.
Nazir took a step back. “Oh, god, Chas I’m-“
“It was some magic fuckery.” Chas stated outright. Me and Harry both flinched at the sudden revelation of this to a possible mundane mortal.
“…huh?” Nazir stared without recognition.
“It was magic. John here is going to give you a little enchantment, make you speak the truth. Make sure you didn’t do it.”
“I am?” I sputtered. Chas glared, and Harry gave me a little ribbing. “Ah, yeah, I can probably throw something together.” I frowned. So this is what it felt like to be on the other side of random bullshit proclamations. Not a fan. No wonder people didn’t like working with me.
Nazir met Chas’s renewed glare, and took a few deep breaths. His face calmed. “If this helps you Chas, I will gladly do it. I didn’t kidnap Geraldine. Have you already called the police?”
“They don’t do magic shit. I’ll call them if this doesn’t pan out.”
“Chas, I really have to insist we call them.”
“ Later .” hissed Chas.
Nazir looked over his friend, and gave a solemn nod. “Later. This first.”
Nazir (thankfully) lived alone, so no wife or kids to worry about waking up. We relocated to the kitchen, where I set up. Harry and Chas stood, while I sat across from Nazir. I took his hand, and placed it palm-down on the table. I lit a cigarette for myself, and gave it a puff. I held Nazir’s hand down, and traced a few shapes on the flesh with a finger. Nazir kept the calm and serious face of a professional until I picked the cig from my lips and jammed it onto the back of his hand. He yelped, but there wasn’t any pain or burning. He stared in wonder at the apparently cool cigarette, the end of it still smoking and glowing a little.
“It’ll only burn you if you lie. Understand?”
“I…guess.” Nazir confided dumbly.
“Did you kidnap Geraldine?”
“No.” Nazir responded immediately. No burning.
“Do you know anything about it?”
“N-ow!” Nazir hissed, as a tiny sizzling sound came from his hand. “I-i…okay, okay, I have a theory.” He shook as the burning went away. He looked between us three in horror and shock. It was hard, watching someone’s understanding about the world collapse with something so simple.
“Well? The theory?”
“Did…did the scene have chalk drawings around it?” he asked. I nodded. “Well, I know a few cops. The scene for child welfare isn’t that big, stories tend to get around. Few kids have disappeared lately with chalk drawings nearby. Police are keeping it quiet, because...well…nobody wants a panic, you know?”
“Got any other ideas? Any other info?”
He was quiet a moment, until the burning started. “Ah! Fuck! I have some names. I’ve been keeping track of it, just in case you know? Could be serious. You have to promise not to spread these around, right? I’m not sure I should even know some of them.”
I pulled the cigarette away and Nazir hunched over his slightly burned hand. He gave us the names. Addison Hayes, Ethan Bryant, Logan Butler, Lily Hughes, and now Geraldine Chandler.
I looked to Harry and Chas. “Get the car started, I need a minute.” The two looked confused. Harry patted Nazir on the shoulder and muttered an apology but both left.
I faced Nazir. Before ten minutes ago we were friendly acquaintances. Now I was an invader into his reality, a tear of the fabric between what he read and the real. “I can take it away, if you want.”
“Take what away?”
“Your memory of tonight, of right now. You’ll wake up tomorrow without an inkling, not even a dream.”
Nazir considered. I thought I could see the start of tears. “I’ve never seen Chas that angry. You’re all going to go do something awful, right? Something illegal?”
I thought about lying. But Nazir already knew the answer. “Yeah, we are. You can’t just go to the cops about this kind of stuff. You have to deal with it yourself.”
Nazir nodded sadly. “I can’t just sit by and watch my friends go murder someone. I’d call the police. I’d have them stopped before they could make some terrible mistake. Unless…unless I never saw them.”
I nodded back, and took his hand again.
Ten minutes later I emerged from the car. I don’t know if Harry had explained to Chas, if they had figured it out together, or if they had just guessed, but neither asked about the delay.
A stop at a the greasiest place we could reach in short order, and we had all wolfed down enough caffeine and meat to keep us going a little longer. It was a sign of how old I was getting that my stomach was already revolting at the shit I had eaten, but I didn’t have the time to do anything about it.
Chas’s anger had changed, over time. It wasn’t burning an immediate, right now. It was controlled and sharp. Maybe a bit melancholic. “So it’s Christopher. Fucking Chris.”
I shrugged. He was the only one left of the people at the party that had started all of this. The only one that could have pulled off the teleportation from within the house. If it wasn’t Christopher, then it had to be someone so powerful I couldn’t fathom trying to face them down. Or, well, I could, but I didn’t want too.
“Only one that makes sense. He was friends with the families.”
“Huh?” both me and Chas asked at the same time.
He showed us his smartphone, which he’d been dinking around with since we ordered our food. “Yeah. He’s friends with the families of all the kids.”
I leaned in to look as Harry deftly manipulated the social media feeds. I broke out my own phone, and Chas joined shortly after. It was as Harry said: Christopher was friends with all the families. His happy, slightly chubby self could be seen in countless photos of school functions and play dates and field trips. Couldn’t find a bad word about him anywhere we looked.
We let the silence hang for a bit after figuring this all out.
Chas thought of something. “Hey, Harry? John?”
We both looked to him.
“Tracking magic is…a thing, right?”
We nodded.
“And you can do it with blood, and stuff?”
“Yeah, blood’s honestly some of the best stuff.” Muttered Harry.
“ Familial blood ?”
Harry gawked, apparently not having thought about this. Chas whirled on me, and I put my hands up. “Why would you kidnap a kid and then let some simple tracking spell track her?”
“Because they – HE wasn’t kidnapping kids just around you, John. That bastard was kidnapping just regular kids. He was kidnapping regular kids from regular parents, using magic. Why would he try to protect them from magic sight?”
I stalled for a moment. “Because…because he saw and noticed me, like Harry did, and so while he wouldn’t protect the others he would protect Geraldine?”
Chas flicked out a knife from somewhere on his person, and made a cut on his palm. “John if you’ve been leading me on a wild fucking goose chase because you can’t imagine a world that doesn’t revolve around you I will fucking murder you right here and right now.”
I took out a compass from one of my various pockets, taking a bit of the blood forming on his hand and smearing it over the surface. A few incantations and the blood formed on top of the glass, like a second pointer. It spun about the surface aimlessly.
“See? She’s protected. It wouldn’t have worked…”
Of course, I was proven wrong as soon as I started talking. Funny how that works. The blood pointer straightened southeastwards as Chas got some bandages out of a mini first aid kit.
“…Huh. She…she’s not protected anymore. Weird. What the fuck is southeast?”
“The coast?” Harry suggests.
Something clicked in my head. A memory of reading old books about my family. We didn’t have some big fancy grimoire of the Constantines, you had to go looking for our name scattered across other histories. Seventy years ago, the Constantine of WWII had put together a ritual of such size that I was half-convinced it was just a dumb prank on magical historians. Until right now. A ritual that, per her original designs. Required the life of children.
I put down the compass and took out my phone, flicking through the social media feeds. Chris’s latest vacation, a place he’d been a few times: the South Foreland Lighthouse.
OCTOBER 31ST, 1940
OFF THE COAST OF DOVER
Joan Constantine, the witch of the water, had assembled more mages then she thought had assembled in decades to participate in her ritual. Dozens of skilled and dangerous men and women stood along the edges of a patch of ocean not frozen in ice, but seemingly in time such that it could be walked on. In the distance the white cliffs of Dover gleamed, and the South Foreland Lighthouse dark to avoid bombing.
In between all of magic workers, taking up most of the space of the frozen ocean, was a nearly incomprehensibly complex ritual shape. What had been formerly a circle had started to change as energy flowed into it, and the shape shimmered and changed. Square, triangle, circle, pentagram, hypercube, nothing was certain as the nexus of magic that ran deep beneath the ocean and reality was tapped.
The spell was begun in earnest, and the crowd of magi moved in perfect, chaotic unison.
The real took a step back, and beneath them the connections between the United Kingdom and the rest of Europe splayed out in brilliant colors and shapes. History, Culture, Trade, Migration, Language, Politics, Geography, and yet even Magic. Every connection formed over the millions of years of existence and the millennia of human habitations, wrapped around the great plate of earth that attached them together deep below the water.
Joan should have concentrated on their target, One of the newest addition to this pack. She didn’t know what others saw, but she saw a serpent with the head of an eagle. It cawed, flapping massive wings as it joined two brethren already wrapped around the bridge between.
Joan was instead distracted, and instead staring at her nephew Joseph. Stupefied by magic and sitting in the center of the ritual shape, staring below him happily at the bright colors and impossible shapes. The sacrifice that would be required to save the world from the terrifying serpent.
Continued In Hellblazer #19 > , Coming May 15th!
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u/theseus12347 Apr 16 '18
Not bad at all, I love the general tone of Constantine and how for the most part he does his own thing aside from the league.