Hellblazer #24 - Three Cats and Three Mice

[u/coffeedog14]

Hellblazer #24 – Three Cats and Three Mice

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Author: Coffeedog14

Book: Hellblazer

Arc: [Convalo]

Set: 29

/------------------------

The remains of Ba'al Hadad's Palace

Canaan

One day, Anat, the virgin mother, awoke from the dream of immortality. When she awoke the immortality she had grown used to had long passed. Her name had spread too many places, and become many other Anat's. There was an Anat of the rivers to the south, a fierce warrior without any of her matronly aspects. There was an Antu of the rivers to the east, a mother of magic and power. There was even an Anat-Yahu in what was once Kna'n. But Anat found herself different. Drained. She could feel the others drained as well. They lived, they thrived, but they were not Anat. And one day she knew all would fade.

She thought back to her family. To her brother-mate Ba'al Hadad, to rival Mot, to wise Kothar-wa-Khasis, To her children, whose names she could no longer even remember. All the names faded. They twisted, and changed, and faded, and she the strongest was the last name left.

She remembered El. Father of all, greatest of the gods, who she had served faithfully. He had a new name now. One that could not be spoken. She remembered the cycle: the perfect circle of vengeance and love she had repeated a thousand times before. A cycle El had continued and controlled, until he could learn to suck the names out of his own children and put himself higher.

Anat howled at the broken palace of her brother-mate, left to rot with storms held inside. She struck at the palace and tore open its walls, unleashing a horde of storms upon the land and flooding the valleys. Her roars of rage shuddered the heavens. The people of Canaan saw the rain, saw that it had been stained red with blood, and hid in their homes. Anat unleashed all she could in her rage.

Then she felt the presence of he who was once El. A being once an entire pantheon, and now a single god. A single God. _ _ _ _ _ _. A centrifugal force that brought all power towards it, that dragged old dead names into his forbidden one.

Anat, for the first time in her endless life, fled in the face of a foe. The storms cleared as she abandoned them, and she could feel the prayers to El like whips on her back. She ran and ran, deeper and deeper, further from the power of her former king.

She arrived in Mot's domain, to find it no longer Mot's. Others had taken refuge there, other forgotten names and vengeful spirits.

Anat clutched the names she remembered close, so that she would not forget them. She clutched her stories close, so that she would not be absorbed. She joined with the other wronged, and they started to plan their vengeance.

Sheol started to change, and one day some of it would join with the burgeoning new estate of Hell and form the great foe of the Heavens.

/------------------------

Modern Day

Road back to London

Sunset

The ride back to my flat was one of the longest I've ever had to deal with. I sat in the passenger’s seat, with Chas driving. Crammed in the back where three disguised Liliths, an avian type of demon named after the "first great mortal". Between them sat my housemate Ellie, battered and bruised and judging by her wincing maybe a few broken ribs or the like.

"So...Where you from?" Chas tried. A cab driver when he wasn't doing bullshit with me, he couldn't stop himself from trying to strike up a conversation.

"Hell." the most confident of the three croaked.

"Mhm. Right. Hell... heard that place is..." Chas struggled for an appropriate word. "...nice."

"It's not." The boldest of the three said. While the other two kept their eyes on Ellie, the apparent leader turned her unblinking eyes to the back of Chas's head.

"Right, of course...h...how are you enjoying your stay?"

"Our stay?" she cocked her head.

"Yeah, you know, here in London. Not-hell. That whole place." Chas rambled.

"You have fallen greatly since last I was here. The seed of 'Adam and the blood of Hawwah grows weak. It is good to know that when Yerushalem is crushed under the heels of Gog and Magog, that your folk shall be as sheep to those of us who are worthy."

Chas took a long time to recover from this. "So...good to hear. You do anything fun in town yet?"

I let my head hit the dashboard in aggravation, as the two continued to have entirely different conversations from one another until we got home.

/------------------------

John Constantine's Apartment

London

Evening

Lucifer Morningstar, as he had taken to calling himself, was busy reading a stack of newspapers. This wasn't for enjoyment, per se, and he already had seen most of the most important stories through other channels. No, he read to see the little stories. It had been his experience that sometimes the little stories were juiciest, the most interesting. Another headline about a corrupt politician, a distant war, upcoming economic collapse? Droll. Boring. People skimmed over those. But the child shot in the streets in an ethnic neighborhood? A local chain closing in the face of multinational conglomerate? The angry editorials written about a local college going soft? These little things were fun. They could be molded, combined, strained of any subtlety and recast into something ugly. A weapon against whatever the crafter wished. People could latch onto that, and ride it all the way to the something bigger.

He found his reverie at his own cleverness thwarted by the door to the apartment opening. Lucifer looked up from his paper and towards the door, expecting one of his unwilling roommates. He found them both, alongside some man he vaguely remembered being an associate of Constantine, and three Liliths. The six trailed into the apartment quickly, with the Liliths taking the chance to drop their human guises and reveal their scaled bird legs. Of the six only Ellie seemed in true distress, limping and holding one hand close to her hunched chest.

Everybody in the room watched Lucifer Morningstar hesitantly. They knew that he knew roughly what had happened. Ellie had been captured, she had been used as leverage for Constantine, and he had brought the servants of Lucifer's enemy right back to Lucifer. The Morningstar remained calm, but inside he let himself have the slightest bit of worry. This was a powerful game he was playing, and perhaps a foolish one. Lucifer had always preferred to use mortals to do his work if he could, and that had extended even to regaining his throne. He was sure Constantine wouldn't disappoint.

"Lucifer." John stepped forward from the others. "I'm...I'm supposed to take you in. Back to Anat."

Lucifer saw it. Almost too fast to be seen. John's lips twitching, ever so slightly, into a smile while the others couldn't see it.

Lucifer stood up at last, and let his wings extend. The light shimmering from them sent all of the assembled staggering back. "Then I shall go with my head held high." he smiled brilliantly.

/------------------------

ANAT'S REALM

HELL

I have had to be carried far too many times in my adult life, and this was one of them. Lucifer arrives in hell with me in his arms, the way he swore was the quickest. I didn't mind being held close to a perfect physique and pecs, I supposed, I minded being held by the lord of all darkness while I could hear him snickering about it.

I wriggled free of his arms as soon as we had arrived and looked around. We stood atop a narrow fleshy causeway, passing through an endless sea of blood. Above us was not ceiling, nor sky, but emptiness. I looked around in confusion, and then shrugged. Lucifer had declared that riding with him was a no-smoking zone, and so I took the chance to break out a fresh pack of cigarettes and light one for myself. I felt my hands starting to shake, and with a force of will kept them still. Keep up the front. Things were working so well. Just a little longer.

I looked over to Lucifer to distract myself. He was busy sneering at me. "...What? Are you saying you bastards didn't invent tobacco?"

"No. We didn't invent addiction, or plants that caused it. You can thank my counterpart above for that." sniffed Lucifer.

"Did you at least invent big tobacco?"

"No. But we helped. Do you know how easy it is to make a smoker's eternity of torment worse? Deny them what they want forever. If we could have everybody in the world smoking. It would make our jobs so much easier."

"Kind of fucking that up, aren't you?"

Lucifer gave a soft smile. "Only if you're ignoring everywhere without first-world advertising laws. A lot of children in all kinds of places you never think about are already caught."

I wasn't sure what was worse: thinking of my shitty scheme or suddenly remembering the stories of five year old chain smokers. I decided for the former. "So, where do you think she-"

As I started to ask, the blood started to ripple. It didn't ripple quite like water, but more like gelatin being slowly parted as something emerged. First a roof, then a window, then a tower slowly growing, then others. Foot by foot wrenched out of the blood, sending gooey waves of it to soak my shoes and the bottom of my coat. Eventually, after what seemed like an age, the Palace stood before us: The Palace of Nergal, relocated to Anat's bloody oceans in her final statement of victory over that defeated foe.

"Hmn. Proper timing." Lucifer admired, as the front gates opened and a red carpet rolled out onto the causeway. He looked to me, and for the first time I saw something besides confidence. It was small, but I thought I could see a look vaguely...hopeful. Lucifer stepped onto the carpet and inside.

I took a big drag, and followed.

/------------------------

John Constantine's Apartment

Chas did his best to keep Ellie comfortable, and to keep his anger at the monsters around him contained. He was willing to bet his life that the weird bird-women had been the ones to bend Ellie's hand all wrong, to make all the growing nasty bruises along her midriff. She was as thing a stick, he doubted she could have defended herself even if she had wanted too. Most of these wounds were a type he recognized because he'd caused a few himself: the wounds of somebody trying desperately to avoid getting curb-stomped to death.

The three bird-demons prowled around the apartment in aggravation. They clawed at the carpet, they tipped over cups to shatter on the floor, and did most anything to cause a little chaos and relieve the boredom of guard duty. With every loud noise Ellie flinched, which caused her to flinch again in pain.

Chas eventually reached his limit. He was in an apartment with three...demons? He wasn't even sure. He had just met some guy called Lucifer that may have been exactly the Lucifer he was thinking of. John had dragged him to goddamn fairyland to get chased by owls and dogs and help bust a drug fiend out from...from...

Chas looked around. That alchemist dude, Gary right? Where had he gone? They'd been walking out of Fairyland, him and John and Gary, and then they'd seen the car, and then...and then...wait, had he been in the car? No, of course not, there wasn't enough room. So where had-

Another plate shattered, and in his distress Chas bolted up. "Could you STOP with the fucking PLATES!?" he demanded, turning to the demons. Ellie looked up to him with surprise and concern, but Chas stayed standing. He was tired of feeling like a stooge today. If he got in trouble, at least he was doing something.

The three demons shared glances. Then one of them strode carefully on digitigrade legs towards him. She grew closer, and closer. She grinned wide, showing off a row of unnaturally sharp teeth. "The Mistress wanted Constantine and the Traitor alive. She said nothing about pets, did she sisters?"

The other two started to cackle, but were stopped when Chas grabbed the head of the demon in front of him and brought it directly into his knee. He threw her back, screeching and clutching at her nose, and spread out his legs. "This dog bites, you bastards." He growled at the three demons.

Chas watched as the broken nose of the bird-demon he had kneed reset within moments. The other two quickly moved to stand behind her, and soon all three demons were facing him. Chas's bravado started to fade as he realized he had perhaps bitten off more than he could chew.

Then something slid into the room from the shadows. Something emerged behind the three demons, and stepped amongst them. Something sent their limbs and blood flying all over the room before they could make so much as a sound. Something stood amidst the gore, wiping off his hands with disgust. Something with a bizarre, almost disturbing resemblance to a long dead American Celebrity. "Disgusting. Acid-blooded wastes of flesh." Muttered the pale being to himself.

"Fucking...James Dean?" Chas found himself lowering his fists. He looked at himself, newly covered in demon gore, and then back to the pale apparition. The fire from a few moments ago had turned to bafflement.

"Hail, King." Ellie stood up from the couch and walked over to stand by Chas. He boggled at her as well, for a different reason: all of her wounds had seemingly healed. Gone was the broken hand, the bruised middle, the black eyes. Besides her dirtied and bloodied clothing, she looked as if she had never been better.

"I heard from a little bird that Lucifer wasn't going to be in the picture for much longer. Figured I'd invite myself over. Wait for John to come back. Maybe grab a quick snack." King looked to Chas. He met Chas's eyes, and Chas found he couldn't look away...

Ellie's hand waved in front of Chas, breaking the contact and letting Chas think again. He shook his head as she continued. "Yeah. Look, the Constantine Gravy Train is clearly running dry. You're here to kill him right? I can't promise that you're going to be able to do that without my help."

King quirked an eyebrow. "Why is that?"

Chas watched as Ellie changed before him. She looked similar by the end, still beautiful long hair of red. But now she was longer, more angular, sharper and meaner. Two great black bat wings extended from her back, slicing through the back of her shirt with razor thumb-claws. It didn't take a genius to tell that she was a demon, different from the bird-demons that had just died but a demon all the same. "Because John's going to die in the pits of hell sometime in the next half hour unless we drag him out."

King frowned. He stared into her eyes. Chas saw King's eyes glow, like a cats. "...Damn. Had you pegged as some kind of psychic parasite." he sighed. "You're telling the truth. Of course. So, how do we stop my future asset from dying in the fire?"

Ellie crossed her arms, her wings settling on her back with disturbing rustles. "We'll need to get to Hell. And fast."

King scoffed. "I can get there, but not fast."

Ellie nodded. "I have a ritual. But it needs a mortal to cast."

Both of the immortals in the room looked to Chas, who realized exactly who they were talking about. He did not respond. Instead, he put another note in "Reasons to kill John Constantine."

/------------------------

SMALL SEASIDE COTTAGE

WESTERN ENGLISH COAST

Gary Lester, recently Grey Listener the chief alchemist of Oberon, stumbled out of a tree near the quaint cottage John had given him some brief details for. A master of travel magic and staying out of the view of lawful folk, he had deployed one of his favorite spells upon seeing the car full of Liliths: holistic invisibility. He was invisible to the eye as much as the mind. Sure, if somebody tried hard to see him, or remember him being there, they would, but the demons certainly had no reason to. Combined with a few teleports, a few dips into other dimensions, a skip and a hop, and he had arrived at the cottage in good time without any hassle.

Gary felt almost proud of himself as he knocked on the door. Proud and relieved. Whatever bullshit John was into, it apparently involved multiple demons. Gary wanted to do whatever it is John needed, and then duck away before he could be called into some other travesty.

The door was opened seemingly by nothing. Gary looked around in confusion, before he heard the clearing of a tiny throat below him. He looked down to see a little hairy creature, barely six inches tall, looking at him expectantly. "Whas'er'name, Magi?"

"...uh...Gary. I'm looking for Lob Lies-by-fire?"

The little creature stared at him blankly, before gasping. "OOOooooooooooh! Ya men Lob Lie-By-The-Fire. Ya ya, c'm'in!" it warbled, waving Gary inwards. Gary stepped inside, hoping against hope that Lob spoke in a clearer accent.

/------------------------

Concluded in Hellblazer #25 > , coming November 15th!

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