Chapter 1
Three days later.
The Coroner opened the door and pulled out the drawer with the shrouded body on it. He then glanced up at the couple.
"I must warn you," he said, "It won't be pretty."
The man glanced at his wife. She turned her gaze from the sheet to the Coroner and nodded. The Coroner reached up and pulled the sheet back, revealing the body's face.
The wife quickly buried her face in her husband's shoulder. The husband's only reaction was to inhale sharply.
In life, the body before him had been his son, his only child. Considering the forces that wished him dead, to have a wife, let alone a child had been very dangerous.
But then again he liked to think it pissed fate off when he did the unexpected.
The Coroner looked at the husband curiously as he looked closer at his son. His son's eyes were closed, but he could still see the faint traces of blood that had leaked from them. There was also the faint scent of sulfur. The husband finally looked back at the Coroner.
"It is him." The husband finally said.
The Coroner nodded and gently put the shroud back into place. He then pushed the drawer closed and shut the door.
"I am sorry for your loss Mrs. Constantine, Mr. Constantine." The Coroner stated, "It is never easy to lose one's child, especially this way."
John Constantine only nodded as he gently led his wife, Angela out of the morgue.
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"He wouldn't have killed himself." Angela muttered as she drove them back to the hotel. "He wouldn't."
"I know." Constantine replied. He was busy looking through the coroner's report as well as the police report. Having a wife who was ex-LAPD was a great help in getting the files. "I think he had help."
Angela glanced at her husband before turning her eyes back to the road.
"Someone wanting to get back at him?" she asked.
"Possibly," Constantine replied, "Or they wanted to send me a message." He glanced over at her. "I smelled sulfur."
Angela frowned.
"But it's been years since we've had any problems from Demons." She said.
"I know." Constantine said, still reading the file. "Not since we moved and Mark took over." He paused for a moment, thinking about his son. "Forget the Hotel." He finally said. "We need to see Midnite."
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Constantine and Angela paused only briefly before the bouncer, naming the tarot card the bouncer held before he had even drawn it. The bar hadn't changed much. Minor Angels and Demons in human form still drank and partied the night away. All who glanced at him did so with glowing red or white eyes. He could feel their hostility towards him, and in a few cases, fear. Only one actually approached him.
"John! Long time no see!" the young woman said, "You up for partying?"
"Hi Ellie." Constantine replied. Angela glanced at him curiously. Constantine spotted this from the corner of his eye. He quickly raised his hand, showing off the ring. "Sorry, I'm married now. Can't party like before."
Ellie eyed the ring casually.
"Not like that matters much." She pointed out.
"It does to me Ellie."
"You were a lot more fun when you were damned to Hell." She muttered.
Constantine smirked.
"Speaking of Hell," he began, "didn't I send you back there."
Ellie's eyes narrowed.
"Thank you for bringing up a very traumatic experience." She growled, "And I thought we were friends." She turned and left in a huff, her tail swinging behind her.
Constantine smirked and turned to find his way blocked by Angela.
"And who was that?" she asked.
"Old girlfriend." He replied, "Sent her to Hell right before Mammon tried to break free."
"Oh." She said, "Any other Demons in your closet?"
"Besides the usual ones, no." Constantine replied as he moved past Angela and down a back hall.
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Constantine and Angela had barely arrived at the doors to Midnite's office when they opened. They entered, the doors closing behind them.
"Hello John." The Haitian Witch Doctor called out from behind his desk, "What brings you and the Mrs. to my establishment this evening?"
Constantine paused and glanced at the brass orrey of the forces of the universe, then looked back at Midnite.
"My son is dead."
Midnite's eyes widened.
"I hadn't heard that." He said, looking at the orrey. "He was a good man. Respected by both sides."
"He was murdered." Constantine interrupted, "Killed by a Demon."
Midnite leaned over his desk.
"That's not possible. They don't work that way."
"Don't they?" Constantine snorted, "I seem to remember being attacked multiple times when Mammon was trying to get out."
"Those were Mammon's followers." Midnite pointed out, "His Dad wasn't even aware of what was going on."
"The fact remains that my son is now laying in a morgue, and a Demon put him there." Constantine tossed the files on his son from the morgue onto Midnite's desk. "Take a look at those! It was a botched possession and even you would have to admit it!"
Midnite glanced through the files. When he was finished, he looked back up.
"Suppose your right," he said, "What do you want me to do?"
"Keep an ear out for anyone bragging about this. Somehow I don't expect them to keep quiet."
"Demons do like to mouth off." Midnite noted, "Anything else?"
"Mark was working with someone." Angela said, "Who was it?"
"A ex-Priest." Midnite replied, "Goes by the name McLintok."
"Ex-Priest?" Angela asked curiously.
"He dabbled a bit in the black arts." Midnite explained, "He was trying to understand them in order to fight them. He was found out and cast out of the Priesthood."
"Where do we find this McLintok?" Constantine asked.
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Constantine and Angela stepped out of the car at the place Midnite had said McLintok could be found.
An old cemetery.
"You always said when we got married, you'd take me places." Angela said, looking at the gravestones.
"Cute." Constantine mumbled, "Real cute."
The two walked into the cemetery and headed towards the caretaker's home. Reaching the door, Constantine knocked. After a few moments, footsteps could be heard. The door opened, revealing a small bald man in rumpled clothes.
"Yes?" he asked.
"Hello." Constantine said, "My name is John. This is Angela."
"So?"
"We were told you worked with our son." Angela said, "Mark."
"Ah, that explains it."
"Explains what?" Constantine asked.
"What you're doing in a graveyard in the middle of the night." The man replied, "Come in." He turned and vanished into the house.
Constantine raised an eyebrow at Angela, then both followed the man in.
"Name's McLintok." The man said, as he moved deeper into the house. "But I guess you already knew that."
Constantine looked around as they walked through the house. Something was bothering him. Everything looked like a normal house, nothing out of the ordinary that he could see.
McLintok led them into the kitchen, then down the basement stairs. There they found the walls covered in religious icons and artifacts. Several bookshelves contained hundreds of books, files, as well as more artifacts. Artifacts even covered a table set up in the middle of the room. McLintok swept them off to the floor with his arm, clearing out a spot. He then pulled out a file.
"Mark was working on a case at the local college." McLintok explained, "For the past ten, twenty years or so, students have turned up dead. Oh there are the usual things, alcohol poisoning, hazing gone wrong, traffic accidents, even the one student who was so depressed over her grades she jumped off a building. These deaths were different."
"How so?" Constantine asked. Angela was listening, but had been walking along the wall, trying to identify the multitude of religious icons.
"These students were found with their hearts removed." McLintok explained, opening the file. He handed Constantine pictures. The pictures contained crime scene photos of numerous students with giant gaping holes in their chests. Constantine flipped through the photos, then tossed them on the table.
"This means nothing." He said, "There could be any number of reasons their hearts were removed. They could have been the victims of someone who'd seen the 'Temple of Doom' to many times."
"Yes well," McLintok replied, "All the victims were from the college………"
"Many of whom are unattached and are away from home for the first time." Constantine pointed out.
"…….besides the removal of the heart," McLintok continued, "nothing else was found by the police, until a year ago." He pulled an object from the file and set it on the table. It was a necklace. At the end of the chain was a stone with a rune carved into it. Constantine picked it up and looked at the stone, as did Angela over his shoulder.
"What is that?" she asked.
"It's the necklace of a high priest." Constantine said, "Used to identify themselves to the God or Demon that they worship."
"A rare find indeed." McLintok replied, "Can you identify the Rune Constantine?"
Constantine looked at the rune, his mind running through years and years of countless years of knowledge of the arcane and ancient arts. The rune however defied him and remained silent.
"I don't know." He finally said reluctantly.
"That's good." McLintok replied, "I didn't either." He turned and walked up to the bookshelves. "Mark and I spent many a night going through books, trying to identify this rune." He began to run his hands along the volumes of books, apparently trying to identify one specific book. "None of the usual texts had anything close." He paused and glanced back at Constantine. "We even tried the Bible of Hell. No luck." McLintok went back to the books and soon let out an 'Ahh' as he found what he was looking for. He set the book on the table and brought out a magnifying glass. "Took us a year to find out we were looking too far back."
Constantine looked down at the book. It was of old Norse legends and history. The page McLintok had opened it to contained a picture of a large carving, apparently done on a wall. The caption under the picture stated that the carving had been done in the 10th century. Yet had been destroyed during World War 2. Grabbing the magnifying glass, Constantine could make out several figures and runes. Most of the runes didn't look anywhere close to the one on the stone, though all looked similar in design. Three of the runes seemed to stand out from the others.
"What are these three runes?" Constantine asked.
"Sharp eye. Mark looked at those as well." McLintok said, "Those three runes signify the Past, the Present, and the Future."
That triggered an old memory in Constantine's head.
"The Norns?" he asked, "The Fates?"
"Exactly." McLintok said.
"The what?" Angela asked, confused.
"The Fates were three women in charge of a person's destiny according to the Norse." Constantine explained, "One for each period of time, past, present, and future." He turned back to the rune. "But that doesn't help identify this."
"It does though." McLintok replied, "The carving on that stone is similar to those in that picture. So we concentrated all our efforts around that time period, and in the Norse inhabited areas." McLintok went back to the file and pulled out a paper. "This is where we encountered something strange."
"What?" Constantine asked.
"I had to call an old friend in Norway." McLintok said, "He's the foremost authority on the Old Norse Gods." McLintok stated, "The rune is Norse in style, but not in that language. It's in Demonic." He set the paper down. On it were many different types of runes, including the mystery one. He pointed at the Rune. "What we have here is the Demonic rune for 'Fate'."
"A Demonic Fate?" Constantine asked with a frown.
McLintok nodded. "That's what we thought, and it does make sense. There must be balance in the world. So, it the Norse Gods had three people in charge of time……"
"So did the Demons." Constantine grumbled, "So we have a person running around a campus ripping out hearts in then name of a Demon?"
"We thought that initially." McLintok said, "But then Mark went to one of the more recent killings. He came back saying he could smell a slight hint of sulfur, and sensed a bit of darkness."
"Demons." Constantine muttered.
"Yes." McLintok pulled out a photo and set it on the table. "I give you your Demon."
Constantine and Angela leaned over and stared at the photo. It was of a twenty something college girl with auburn hair and green eyes. She seemed to be having a conversation with a shorter girl with red hair. Both appeared to be of Japanese descent.
"Mark identified her." McLintok said, "He followed her all over campus, trying to determine her routine." He sighed. "He was going to 'deport' her after that exorcism. But he didn't make it." He looked down at the photo. "And I think she was involved."
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"We know nothing about her!" Angela shouted as they drove back to the hotel. "You only have that man's word!"
Constantine kept his concentration on the road.
"We both know what Demons are capable of." He said, "Between the two of us, we can even identify them psychically. So could Mark. But it works both ways. If he pegged her as a Demon……."
"Then she marked him as a threat." Angela finished, "What is our plan?"
Constantine glanced at his wife before looking back at the road.
"We go to the college and mingle, see if we can't find that girl."
"And if we do?"
"Well obviously we check to see if she is either possessed, which is possible, or that she's a Demon like Balthazar." He explained "If she's possessed, we do an exorcism."
"And if she isn't?"
A grim look appeared on Constantine's face.
"We deport her."
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Angela looked around at the students walking past her. They looked so young! These were college students?
She and Constantine had waited until the following afternoon to go to the college. Since his face was well known to many in Hell, Constantine had taken up a spot on the tallest building on campus, the Science tower. Angela herself would do the initial approach, to see if the girl was a demon.
"Have I ever mentioned how beautiful you look?" came a voice in the small earpiece she wore.
Angela smiled and looked towards the Science tower.
"You're just trying to distract me." She said into the hidden microphone. "You're really looking at all these young college girls."
"Why would I go after a girl when I have you?" came Constantine's reply.
Angela just smiled. Her smile faded slightly as she looked at a building whose classes were just letting out.
"Hold on John." She said, "I think I see her."
In the approaching crowd, she caught a few glimpses of auburn hair. As the students began to spread out and disperse, the girl came into view.
"I see her." came Constantine's voice, "It's her."
"Right." Angela took a deep breath and stood up. She started in the general direction of the girl. She was quite nervous the closer she got to the girl. It had been a long time since she'd faced a demon, the last of course being Mammon when he had possessed her.
The girl in question seemed to be scowling at a paper in her hands. As she got closer, Angela discovered it was a math test.
"Stupid Calc." She heard the girl mutter.
Angela put on her best smile.
"Excuse me?" she called out.
The girl paused and turned her green eyes quizzically towards Angela. She was quite beautiful, Angela admitted, and there was no sign on her face of being possessed.
"Yes?" the girl said.
"I'm slightly lost." Angela replied, moving closer. As she did, the faint smell of sulfur reached her nose. There was something odd with the girl. Normally, Angela was able you use her psychic feelers to identify various feelings and get a general sense about someone. Constantine had taught her well in this.
This girl was virtually undetectable. It was like she wasn't there.
"I'm looking for the administrative building." Angela said.
The girl turned and pointed.
"Take this sidewalk, then go right." The girl said, "You can't miss it."
"Thank you Miss……?"
"Kirishima." The girl replied before she turned and headed off.
Angela started off in the direction the girl had indicated.
"Well?" she asked.
"Didn't look possessed." Constantine replied.
"There was a hint of sulfur." Angela said.
"Don't suppose she has a science class?"
"She was coming from Calculus."
"Sense anything?"
"Nothing. It's like she wasn't even there."
Constantine frowned from his perch on the roof as he followed the girl through his binoculars. He'd been able to feel something from Balthazar, and Angela was more powerful psychically then he was. For her to be unable to sense the girl………
"Ok." He said, "See if you can't figure out where Miss Kirishima lives, what her last class is and when."
"What are you going to do?"
"I'm heading back to the car." He replied, "I need to get ready to 'deport' her."
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Night had fallen over the campus.
Constantine was standing quietly beside a building, slightly hidden by bushes from the sidewalk. He was chewing gum, which had replaced his smoking habit years ago. A small pile of gum wrappers beside him spoke of how long he'd been waiting there. Some distance away, Angela was waiting in the car.
After all, one doesn't fire a weapon on a college campus unnoticed.
Many students had walked past him on their way to the dorms. None had seen him. Constantine checked his watch again. The class should have let out almost forty minutes ago. Where the hell was this girl?
Movement on the sidewalk caught his eye. Auburn hair caught light from a nearby street lamp. Constantine watched as the girl moved past his position, grumbling to herself about someone named Chiyo. Like Angela that afternoon, he smelt the traces of sulfur. He also tried to reach out with his psychic feelers, and found nothing.
He stepped out onto the sidewalk and pulled out a small spherical object.
"Demon!" he shouted out as he tossed the sphere.
The girl stopped in her tracks and turned at the sound of his voice. Her eyes caught sight of the object hurtling towards her. She was barely able to throw up her arms and let out a shriek before the sphere hit her and exploded, covering her in holy water. The water was still cascading over the girl as Constantine reached into his jacket and pulled out a golden cross-shaped gun. He loaded one of the large shells, made from melted down holy relics, into the chamber and took aim.
The gun roared as he pulled the trigger. The massive shell slammed into the girl's left shoulder, spinning her around as she screamed. A second shot roared from the gun, but the girl was already falling. That shell ripped through her bag. The girl landed on the ground in a heap, her bag landed nearby.
Constantine loaded another shell and walked up to the girl. The holy water would cause the skin of their mortal 'shell' to peel back, revealing the demon hidden within. Thus weakened, most demons only took one or two shots before their earthy bodies collapsed into dust, returning their 'soul' back into Hell.
Ellie had been one such Demon he had 'deported' this way.
Constantine leveled the gun at the girl. She was sobbing in pain, facing the ground. He reached out with his foot and kicked her, forcing her face up. Tears were streaking down the girl's face as she clutched her bloody shoulder.
Bloody…….
Constantine's eyes went wide. The holy water hadn't done anything to the girl. No skin had peeled back revealing demonic flesh. The holy shell hadn't burned demon flesh. It had only created a massive bloody hole.
"Oh no…..Oh no…." Constantine rambled, "Fuck no….."
He grabbed at his head, staring down as the girl's blood flowed out onto the sidewalk. He could hear the shouts of other people beginning to approach.
"Fuck!" he stared at the girl one last time before running towards the parking lot.
Had he turned back one more time, he would have seen the girl rise up slightly and grab her bag.
Right before she vanished.
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Constantine flung the gun into the back seat as he climbed into the car.
"Drive!" he said.
Angela wasted no time in getting the car out of the parking lot.
"Fuck fuck fuck!" Constantine swore.
"What is it?" Angela asked, "Did you get her?"
"Yeah," Constantine said, "I got her. Only I don't think she was a demon."
Angela turned her head over and stared at her husband.
"What!" she asked.
"I think I shot a human."