okay, we need a lot of explanations here.

Lilith is supposedly the first woman before Eve. She refused to be submissive to Adam, and was therefore kicked out of heaven. I've added some relish here to make her sound more like the villain than the victim. Plus, according to legend, she ended up having a fling with the Devil anyway. In this particular story, I'm sticking with that idea, and adding some more of my own legend.

The moon is her symbol and she's supposed to have wings, so I combined the two to make a symbol for her.

The story of Lilith's amulet is semi-true. The stuff on the net isn't very clear about it, so I kind of tweaked the mythology to make more sense for the story.


Chapter Four-Seeing Midnite

Constantine walked hurriedly down the steps and into the red lit lobby. The big biker-type bouncer was there, guarding the ropes with a pack of Zenner cards in hand. John didn't even pause-the guy knew him well enough by now.

"A bear in between two stars," He said briskly as he went by. Per usual, he was right.

The club music, also per usual, was at eardrum obliterating level. And the lights were seizure-inducing to boot.

Constantine paused for a moment in the doorway, overlooking the crowd. Half-breeds, mostly demonic, danced in shadow and light. If you just walked into the scene though, you'd never guess the clubbers' true species. They look normal…unless they let you see their red and green eyes. Some, mostly the ones who were lounging off to the side, glared at Constantine with their enchanting eyes. They knew him; he had taken many of their brethren.

But when he finally started moving through the club, they didn't make a move. They only glared.

Midnite was lounging in his backroom, feet propped up on a desk while he read the paper. The front page hosted a color photo of a crime scene-the one John Constantine had dropped in on the other night-and in the bottom right was a smaller picture, one of Kristi Rolleti, prior to her death. 'BRUTAL SIN DISTRICT MURDERER KILLS AGAIN' bold, black letters announced. The witch doctor didn't look up when Constantine, who made no attempt to be quiet of not disturb anyone, entered.

"'Bout time you came by," Midnite said as Constantine sat down in a near by chair, "What took ya? Thought you'd be here after that first girl was killed."

"Had to make sure it was a half-breed," John replied coolly.

Midnite looked over his newspaper at the demon fighter. "What tipped you off?" he asked cynically as he pushed the front page over to John. A smaller column near the blaring headline read: 'Killer Ripped Arms Off of Latest Victim'.

John made no remark regarding Midnite's statement. Instead, he asked, "You hear anything about what's been going on?"

Midnite shook his head. "No one knows what's going on. Some are pissed, cause the murders are attracting too much attention. Others-most of whom you're already acquainted with-"

"Balthazar," John said in a low growl.

"Now I didn't say that," Midnite said in half-denial. John got pissed when Midnite defended the bastard. He knew Balthazar was a client of Midnite's, "But anyway, some are kind of relishing it, you know? After all, hasn't been much interesting activity in the Sin District for-"

"You call it interesting?" John asked as he took a drag. He didn't say it accusingly, more like conversational interest.

Midnite shrugged. "I'm just sayin'."

John blew out some smoke-in a rare show of courtesy, away from Midnite's face. Then he took out the pendant from his pocket and put it on the table.

"What can you tell me about this?" he asked.

Midnite raised an eyebrow at the pendant. "Why don't you ask Beeman? More his line of work anyhow."

"Beeman's raised his price," John said as he took out a cigarette and lighter in a practiced motion.

"Rough economy these days," Midnite replied.

"Yeah, so I've heard," John said, choosing to ignore Midnite's hint, "Now what can you tell me about this?"

Midnite picked it up and examined the carvings. His eyes caught the winged moon and his gaze moved to John with an odd look in them. John shot him a threatening look, and the witch doctor went back to the rest of the pendant.

When Midnite didn't say much for a while, John said, "Look, just tell me who it might belong to."

Midnite looked at him skeptically. "That might prove difficult."

"You've got sources," John replied tersely as he inhaled more tobacco.

"That's not what I meant," Midnite replied, a little annoyed.

Constantine fixed him with a look of confusion. "What d'you mean?" he asked.

Midnite held up the pendant by the broken black string. "The Hebrew's probably been scratched off, but the symbols are plain as day otherwise."

"Hebrew?"

"This is an imitation piece," Midnite paused for a moment, cautious of finishing his sentence, "…of Lilith's amulet."

Constantine paused. The one name he hadn't wanted to hear…

Midnite went on, "They got kind of popular in the 60s and 70s-the hippy and feminist movements and all that shit. Looked just like this one."

"All right," John said, straightening "What's it mean?"

Midnite gave John a look that he couldn't decipher. The witch doctor went on, "Well, you know the beginning of Lilith's story: first woman created, out of dust just like Adam. But she wanted to be better than Adam-"

"I know that already," John said in a low voice as he took a drag.

"Right," Midnite said in a tone that John didn't really like, "Well, since Lilith was such a bitch, you-know-who creates Eve. Adam's more than happy to have just about anyone other than Lilith. This makes Lilith even more pissed off. So, she says she'll kill every one of Adam and Eve's children. But three angels: Senoy, Sansenoy, and Semangelof, basically kick her out of Eden and therefore damning her for eternity. Still, even after that Lilith says she'll kill Adam and Eve's children.

"So then she's cursed. Lilith can kill Adam and Eve's children, unless they're protected by an amulet baring the names of the three angels that kicked her out of heaven. In addition to that, Lilith is cursed to kill her own human children, unless they too have an amulet baring the names of the three angels."

"Nice story," John said curtly, "But what does it have to do with that?" He gestured to the pendant.

"Well, the winged moon, as you know," Midnite added the 'as you know' with an impertinent tone, "is Lilith's symbol. The snake around the egg represents corrupted birth. So this amulet was made to protect Lilith's half-breed children."

John nodded. "Well, where's the Hebrew?" he asked. He'd looked over the amulet himself-no sign of any writing.

Midnite handed the amulet back over to John. "Probably got rubbed off over the years-like I said, things were popular in the 60s. You know, time's turned Lilith into a feminist icon. Whaddaya think of that, John?"

John glared at him, then went back to the amulet. "So there's no Hebrew here…"

Midnite nodded. "But it had to have been at one time. Amulet's useless without the three angels' names."

"Maybe that's the idea," Constantine said quietly.


that's all for this chapt. I know they've been short lately, but don't sweat it. the next one should be pretty long. thanks for all the reviews guys!