"Is Nigel up yet?" he asked grumpily as he placed a zip locked back with peace of Ellie's umbilical cord on top of the table.
Jack was wiping his glasses, Frank just stood silently, Gabriel just seemed sad.
"Is he?" he asked.
"He's dead, John." said Frank somberly.
"What"
"He died last night"
"That's impossible."
John ran to the end of the shop where Nigel was supposed to be sleeping, he still lay there, his body slumped on the couch, a burned joint rested in his hand, a lighter was on the floor, a terrifying look of fear and confusion was spread all over his face.
"We think his joint was spliced with something." commented Jack.
"Nigel, wake up!" said John as he slapped Nigel's cheek, it was no use, he was not breathing and had no pulse; he was dead by all definitions.
John held back a stream of tears, then suddenly felt an over whelming urge to stalk the streets of L.A. and kill every drug dealer in sight.
"We should call the cops"
"They're on their way."
John turned to leave, but suddenly saw something written on the wall, it read 'Luke was here'.
The Devil did it.
"If someone wants out, now is the time to step aside." said John, when he looked back he saw that they were still there. They wanted to go all the way.
"Suit yourselves."
-------------------------------------------------------------
John walked down the stairs to club Midnite, flanked by Frank and Gabriel, the first had a baseball bat in hand.
"We're closed." said the bouncer.
"Would a Ben Franklin open you up?" asked John as he presented him with a hundred dollar bill.
"No." said the bouncer as he blocked his way.
"Too bad." said John as he went to punch him, the bouncer caught his fist as he learned his lesson from a year ago. He twisted John's arm but let go when Frank's bat smashed into his face.
"Thanks, Frank." said John as he nursed his fist.
"No problem, John." said Frank as he hit the bouncer again.
The three made their way to the storage room where a wooden monstrosity was stored.
"What in the name of pete is that?" asked Frank.
"The electric chair from sing-sing, 300-plus were sent to hell from that little bar stool." said John as he sat on top of it and removed his shoes and socks.
"I did mention that this is a dumb idea, right?" "Once or twice, watch the door, Frank."
Gabriel strapped John in and poured some water onto the floor till it touched John's feet, "Hey Gabriel," said John, "Don't get any crazy Ideas."
Gabriel opened the zip lock bag and placed it's contents into a silver bowl, her nose twitched at the disgusting smell, she added some peaces of tree bark and lit the mix, then placed it on John's lap.
"John," said Gabriel as she held a sparkling electric cable in her hand, "It's been a hoot knowing you."
Gabriel then thrust the cable forward into the pool of water and John screamed at the top of his lungs.
John felt like he was shot through the Club's walls and was barreling through the cosmos, hundreds of sights passed through him, he was eventually able to steady himself, he saw himself in the streets of Manhattan standing next to Eudaemon as he watched Ellie flirting with him a distance away, he moved ahead n time rapidly and saw them kissing their first forbidden kiss, moving ahead some more he saw Ellie's pregnancy develop and he finally was at the rundown building, he saw himself cuffed to the wall, Eudaemon slumped helplessly in the corner, the man with Silver hair was watching as Ellie was delivering the child on her own.
John never saw the man's face though, he moved on in time and saw the child being brought into a mansion, and placed in a crib in an underground room where the Silver haired man stood in the corner reading from a book, he was giving John his back. John gathered all of his energy and focused it into walking slowly towards that man, trying to turn around him and see his face, but he couldn't hold on, as the man was turning to look at his direction he lost focus and returned to the storage room.
"John, are you alive?" asked Gabriel.
"If I am, I sure don't feel like it." said John.
Gabriel unstraped John from the chair as Frank came to help him up and out of the club.
---------------------------------------------------
"I know where it is."
John and company were back at Jack's, he lit a cigarette as Jack sipped from his coffee.
"Did you see who it was?" asked Jack.
"Almost, he looked really familiar." said John who the scribbled down an address, "This is the address, I need you to find out who it belongs to."
John stepped to the outside for a smoke after Jack was getting dizzy from all the second hand smoke, he was met with an upset Midnite, arriving in a black Mercedes.
"Hey paps," said John, "Out for a drive and some old books?"
Midnite was in no mood for bullshit, he grabbed the smaller man from his shoulders and shoved him into a brick wall.
"Aaa! What's with you"
"You think I'm kidding when I asked you not to anything like you would normally do? That means no breaking into my club when I'm not around and using my possessions. You could have killed yourself"
"I didn't know you cared." John muttered as Midnite's fingers crushed his ribs.
"I don't, but your death would bring unwanted attention to my establishment"
"You need to put the cap on that rage." said John.
"You want to tell me to what were you doing"
"Nigel is dead"
"I heard."
Midnite backed off for a bit and John stood regaining his breaths.
"I'm sorry."
"The Devil did it." said John.
"Impossible"
"The walls had 'Luke was here' for crying out loud! Only I call him Luke"
"So? Have you considered the possibility it might have been done by someone called Luke?"
John paused for a second, it was possible.
"Know any lukes who could walk into Jack's shop without opening the door or breaking the window?"
Midnight glared at John, he was acting unreasonably.
"Fine, let's say you're right. Why didn't you come for my permission"
"Come on! I know what you were going to tell me, 'The Balance', 'I'm Neutral', 'I'm Switzerland'! Last year I thought you came to your senses, but you just stuck to bartending. And now the baby is on it's way to hell, and Nigel's already there!"
John kicked a garbage can hard and sent it rolling down the side walk and walked away, leaving Midnite thinking about what he said, He then got into his Mercedes and drove away.
--------------------------------------------------------------
John watched as the evening league competed at the 20 lane bowling ally. He had a brief memory of one time when he and Beeman were bowling and drinking all night and they eventually threw a bowling ball through the glass windows in the front.
He took out his cellphone and dialed a number, a few rings later the other side picked up.
"Lieutenant Dodson speaking."
John just listened and didn't say a thing.
"Is there anyone there? ... You should know that I'm a cop and could have you arrested you creep."
Angela hung up the phone, John stuck it back in his pocket but as he did so it rang again, he looked at the screen and saw it was Jack.
"Constantine." said John as he answered.
"John, I got the name, the mansion is registered under an Aaron Crowley."
"Come again"
"Aaron Crowley, is something wrong"
"Thank, Jack."
John hung up and left the bowling ally.
---------------------------------------------------------
John walked into the five star restaurant and head for the main hall.
"Your reservations, sir?" asked the host speaking with a French accent.
John glared at him and took out his wallet, flipped it open and produced a fake F.B.I. I.D. .
"Agent John Collier, FBI."
The man seemed not to believe.
"That am inside, Crowley"
"Yes, He's one of our most loyal customers"
"He works with us. I need to speak to him"
"Mr Crowley is a G-Man, that's ridiculous"
"I didn't he works for us, I said he's working with us. Now let me get to him"
"Sir, I'm going to ask you to leave..."
John grabbed the host by the collar and yelled at him, "Listen you little puke. The man has been marked there are me after him, he needs to speak with me! Now let me in or I'll call I.N.S. on you!"
The host seemed convinced and let John in.
"Good choice."
John walked over to where Crowley was sitting, dressed in Armani's best and eating an expensive dish. John sat across the table from him.
"Hello, Aaron." said John.
Aaron looked up at him, not the least surprised, he stared at Constantine for a bit to remember his features.
"John, Hi."
A waiter came by to take an order.
"Would the gentleman care to place an order"
"Go ahead, it's on me." said Crowley.
"Sure, how about a Pepsi and a Chili Dog?"
The waiter was insulted at the order, "We don't serve Sausages, Sir."
"Then fuck off."
The waiter went away muttering curses in French.
"I see you haven't changed much"
"You did," John said, "Is that really your hair"
"Yeah. Residual effects of an Egyptian sorcerer's Idea of a Joke"
"Nice suit, when we rolled together you only wore Jeans"
"I like yours too, It just keeps looking better year after year after year"
"Well, at least mine wasn't bought with the Devil's credit card."
Aaron took a bite of his stake and ignored the last sentence.
"Truth be told, John. Seeing you is not as nauseating as I would have expected"
"I'm flattered"
"What brings you here, John? Catch up on your old friend Aaron? Recall on our old war stories"
"We sure were a couple of Hell Raisers in our days. Us both AND the Gang. Do you see them often"
"Once in a while"
"Do pass my regards, Remember when we lived in Boston with no money and no Jobs, we had to Con our way into everything"
"Remember 'Mucous Membrane'? Man were we awful"
"Remember Greenwich Village?"
John froze as he remembered, Aaron was invoking a sore memory for both, what had happened in Greenwich Village was a sore Memory for both.
"You're never going to let that one go, are you?" asked John.
"Yes I have, believe me I forgot all about it." Aaron answered abruptly, "What have you done since we last met"
"The usual; Spent a few months in a New Zeland prison, spent a year in Morocco, died and was sent back again"
"I've recently been in Morocco. So tell me John, when did it all go wrong? When did we fall apart?"
"Umm, I think it was when you sold your soul to the devil in exchange for Arcane Knowledge."
Aaron smiled, "I knew you wanted to tackle that issue"
"I never could understand it Aaron, why you rolled with us. I needed to atone, North did it for the money, the others had reasons of their own to do it, but why did you get involved in that business?"
"The fun." said Crowley laconically.
"I knew it."
"Oh come on John," Crowley said, "Are you telling me you really wanted God to forgive you? You did it cause it made you feel good. It was like a drug, a year ago you got what you wanted, so why did you stay involved? You missed that feeling in your gut when you were going up against something too powerful for you. You couldn't just go through life pedaling relics with Midnite and running the bar with him. You need that crazy stuff cause you know it's out there and it's calling for you to dabble with it."
"You know nothing about me!" barked John, causing the discomfort of several partons, a security guard was about to kick John out if Aaron hadn't waved at him indicating it was okay.
"Just tell me one thing, Crowley." said John as he calmed down. "You already had the fun, why did you have to sell your soul to the devil? We were doing good, we were helping people who didn't have anyone. Why did you betray us?"
"Simple, It didn't feel right," said Crowley ad he sipped from his red wine.
"It didn't feel right"
"That's right. At first I felt good about myself, but it didn't last, at one point I did some soul searching and discovered something interesting about myself, I didn't like humanity. They're overrated if you ask me. And I sure as hell didn't like god or heaven or the Angels. I once botched an exorcism on purpose and I had such a tingling feeling, like I drowned and just as was dying I found my way to the surface."
A call for physical violence was building up inside John, he wanted to reach across the table and impale Aaron's head with the fork in his hand.
"I found the pursuit of evil more fulfilling, so I took it to the next level, I summoned a demon from hell and Balthazar arrived. How is Balthazar"
"You know I deported his ass"
"Actually I didn't, it's a shame. Any way I pledged my soul to the devil and he gave me all the knowledge I wanted, he gave me powerful tools, like the chain of Mephisto. I'll have to say, so far It's been a gas."
John was outraged by Crowley's smug smirk, his pompous attitude and his fist shot into Aaron's jaw.
The satanic Sorcerer fell to the ground and blood was pouring from his mouth.
"I WAN'T THE BABAY!" screamed John as restaurant security surrounded him and dragged him out of the restaurant, kicking and screaming, "YOU'RE A DEAD MAN, CROWLEY! YOU'LL MEET YOUR MASTER SOONER THAN YOU THINK! I'LL FINISH YOU OFF NO MATTER WHAT! NO MATTER WHAT!"
Crowley smirked from ear to ear as John was forced out, he wiped the blood off his mouth with the sleeve of his suit and chuckled, "I'd like to see you try."