Hey there. This is my first Constantine fic so any hints, tips, ideas or just general constructive criticism would be greatly appreciated. It's set just after the film, though this prologue takes place three years prior to it (I'm assuming that the film was set around modern day? If not lemme know). Just introducing a couple of characters going to be important throughout this fic. Not sure how far I'm gonna get with it, or where it's going but I was sorely tempted to write it and eventually gave in to the urges. Not much is happening really in this chap but John should make an appearance in the first chapter and Angela will be back. This is eventually going to be a John/Angela fic so for those of you concerned about me doing a John/OFC fic no need to fear. Though it will probably take a while for them to get there, and who knows? I may change my mind…
Well, not much else to say other that I do not own anything to do with Constantine save for Fee, Nathan and Oren for the moment, perhaps more characters if and when they come along. I will say though, that the original John Constantine from the comic Hellblazer is a Scouser like me so yeah, that's my one and only feeble link to him.
Sorry it's so short, the chapters will get longer.
Hope someone out there likes!
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Revelation.
Prologue.
August, 2002.
It was late. Past midnight and the boy, sat beside her on the back row of the number 11 night bus, lolled his head against her shoulder in an exhausted slumber, snatching precious moments of peace while he could. His hair was murky brown, like her own was underneath the peroxide blond that had grown out at least three inches in the past four or five months, leaving darker roots at her scalp and centre part. Their hair was both similarly clumped together in messy knots, almost dreadlock-like, with sweat and dirt and rain. They hadn't stay in one place long enough to get a decent wash, not since the social services had tried to split them up. Thing was that the opportunities for a cute, angelic little boy of seven years old to get a new family, a new shot at a better life, were good, hell they were great. He'd had people queuing up around the block to offer him a good life. Her options, however, were not so hot. No one wanted a crazy seventeen year old girl who dabbled in controversial art. She was more trouble than she was worth. And so they had left. People just didn't understand them, didn't see that without one, the other would not be able to live. It was their gift, to always be together, never alone, and yet it was their curse, some things a seven year old child needed not to see, needed not to know. Some things even a seventeen year old should never have to go through. But know they both did and deal with it they did together.
"You're thinkin' 'gain, Fee. I know it." his sleepy voice mumbled from where his head still rested against her and his eyes still remained closed. "You think too loud. You can tell me, y'know."
She smiled at that, smoothing a had over his filthy, lengthening hair as they swayed in time with the movements of the bus.
"Go back asleep, Nathan." she replied, turning her stare to the pitch black of the window, her own thin, drawn face staring back at her in a blurred, distorted visage of her true self. "You let me think 'bout the grown up things."
Nathan murmured something unintelligible before she sensed that sleep had taken him over again and she sighed with relief. At least in his dreams he was safe…for the time being.
Glancing out again at the flashes of darkness and light that constituted the City of Los Angeles, Fee couldn't help but hope that somehow, this place would be different. She's heard rumours among the circles of the occult that L.A was the place to go if you were seeking out a place to disappear, a place where you didn't have to hide who you really where. Neither she nor Nathan deserved to live a life pretending to be something that they were not and so she had brought them here, to the City of Angels, to the City of Demons, in search of absolution.
"You go see Papa Midnite, Girlie. He won't judge you none." a voice wheezed at her from three rows in front. She hadn't even known that he was there, sitting body twisted around so that he face her almost completely.
His face was wrinkled, age and care worn and coloured by the sun's rays. Freckles scattered across his leathery cheeks and white tufts of hair ringed his skull leaving the crown bare, skin shining in the dim light.
"Pardon?" she queried, remembering to remain polite. She didn't want to get herself into anymore trouble, especially not at that time of the night, and to be perfectly honest, she needed all the help that she could get.
"Said, Papa Midnite. He help you out wi' yo'…special gift, no?" his dark eyes smiled at her from beneath bushy white eyebrows, rogue hairs that were longer then the rest of the brow, curling out at odd angles.
Fee clutched Nathan a little tighter to her side and painted a slightly perplexed smile upon her face.
"I dunno what you talkin' 'bout, Grandpa. All I need is a place to stay, Keep my head down for a couple o' nights and keep the boy here off the streets." she watched the old man carefully as he leaned forwards in contemplation of her words, lacing his long tanned fingers together languidly. "This Papa guy, he can help me out with this, yeah?"
The man's smile widened and he nodded earnestly, taking a pen from his coat pocket and tearing the corner off a nearby, discarded newspaper from several days previous.
"Girlie goes to this place, tells the man at the door that Oren sent her and then asks fo' Papa. You tell him whatcha need and he be happy to help…fo' a price." his finger and thumb held the scrap of paper tightly, moving it towards her slowly and Fee watched it warily as if it was liable to leap up and bite her.
"I ain't got no money and I ain't that kinda girl, old man." she warned him, though she reached out for the paper nonetheless.
He shrugged stuffing his hands into his pocket when she had snatch away the offered information.
"Papa ain't that kinda man." he replied standing as the bus lurched to one side and the lights dimmed almost to pitch blackness. The pupils of his eyes shimmered an iridescent ruby red for the split second that the lights were out and Fee blinked suddenly, trying to clear her tired gaze. Perhaps she was seeing things in her exhausted state?
He laughed out loud at her obvious discomfort, leaning down close and giving her shoulder a firm squeeze.
"I'da thought you'da gotten used to us by now, Girlie." he chuckled pulling away again and tossing her a wink. "You see Papa an' he find something fo' you to do fo' payment." and with that away he swaggered, down the rocking public transport to the doors, waiting patiently as the driver pulled to a stop and opened those doors with a his. One final wink was offered in Fee's direction before he was away, lost in the blackness outside, an inky blackness that she herself wished that she could disappear into and find some solace at least.
"Who was that man?" Nathan asked blearily, rubbing a small fist into his squinting eyes and Fee sighed, turning her attention back onto her little charge entirely.
"No one for you to worry about, Nath." she responded gently. "Now, thought I told you to go back to sleep?"
"You never tell me anything!" Nathan grumbled a little but was stopped mid-way by a wide yawn that drew a chuckle from Fee's lips.
He was asleep again in seconds and Fee allowed her deep blue eyes to slip shut, just for a few moments she told herself, and the gentle motion of the bus lulled her troubled mind if not into a peaceful sleep then into the nearest semblance of it that she'd had in years.
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I'd really like to know what you think, good, bad or mediocre? Lemme 'ave it, I need to know so I can make it better! Thankies!