Chapter 2: Non Est Asylum Part 1
Warning: Characters are most
Show and stuff
Morning came to fast for some. An alarm blared throughout the building. The horrid and invading sound jerked them out of their slumber. Their annoyance was made perfectly clear. They were wearing the same as they were yesterday as no change of clothes had been provided. Whilst this was unfortunate, they dealt with it. The Brightside did show itself soon enough. This came in the shape of a kitchen. Anna Marie looked at a clock on the wall. They had around fifteen minutes before the show would start. She made this known. Needless to say, they didn't have a long breakfast.
"All right. Gather round. Let's get this over with so we can get home." Sara said as she entered the room.
The group slowly made their way into the room with the TV. There were multiple couches and chairs scattered around it. Everyone dropped down onto one. John had a seat to himself. Technically it had the capacity for three but he had laid across it like a bed. Chas and Renee sat in a two person couch next to his. Anna-Marie and Zed were left to sit together. They took up one side of the room. On the other sat the remaining occupants. Rip sat alone on a squishy red chair. Carter and Kendra sat together as did Jax and Stein. The remaining members sat spread out and understandably so.
Eventually they all became comfortable. The TV flickered on. A quick notice revealed that the show would pause every time a person spoke. After that, without any warning, it began to play.
The show began outside of an insane asylum in Northern England. The scene quickly changes to John strapped to a bed. He is wearing a hospital type gown.
"Well, this is a lovely way to start..." John trails off, remembering that day. He was just glad that they didn't start earlier. He wouldn't get his hopes up however as there was still much to go.
"Make them nice and tight Love." he tells one of the nurses. They do and tighten the straps. John takes a deep breath before nodding to one. A button is pressed and 150 Volts are released. He thrashes around.
"Believe it or not, I came here voluntarily. My name is John Constantine and I'm an exorcist. In my line of work, there are days you just need to forget. But some you never will." He says from off screen. The scene switches to John sitting behind other patients. The other patients begin to fight. The title Constantine appears on the screen.
"Why would you voluntarily sign yourself up for this?" Kendra asks. Questions run through everybody's minds. What was it that he wanted to forget was the most prominent.
"You witnessed the murder of a girl. Talking can help you realize that it wasn't your fault." A man explains.
More than one person gasped at the revelation. Rip adopted a sad expression. He knew what it was like, losing a child.
"That would be a neat trick. Let's get to that part." John replies as he sits back in his chair.
"You can start by telling me what happened that night at Newcastle. Do you remember the killer?" The therapist asks.
"What's Newcastle?" Ray asked. It seemed a perfectly reasonable question. John didn't respond.
"See that demon every time I close my eyes." John replies. His voice seems to waver ever so slightly.
"By demon you mean murderer?" The therapist asks.
"By demon I mean a bloody demon." John replies. He is clearly getting frustrated with the man. He swivels his chair. "A foul creature. Smelled like a slaughterhouse." He continues. This time he chokes up on a few words.
Chas sees John's expression and walks over. When John refuses to move his feet he pulls them off and drags the man into a sitting position. Zed goes and sits on his other side. She may not have been there but she'd heard plenty about it. John leaned his head against Chas. Said makeshift pillow didn't notice as the displeased glare sent to John by Renee. He may not have seen it, but that doesn't mean the Legends-to-be didn't. Both thieves shared a look.
"You see what's happening, John?" The man begins before continuing "You feel guilty for being unable to protect the girl, so you turned her killer into the embodiment of evil." he pauses and gives what could be interpreted as a slight chuckle. "We're all powerless against demons."
Rip considered this. John's position seemed awfully similar to his own.
"Not all of us, chief." John says with a slight smirk. That would soon vanish.
"That's right. Before you checked yourself in here three months ago, you were working as an "Exorcist, Demonologist, and Master of the Dark Arts." The man states as he reads off of a business card.
"I really need to get that changed…" John mumbled, mostly speaking to himself but causing many quiet chuckles from the others.
"That says master does it? Well, I should really change that to petty dabbler. I hate to put on airs." John replies. He seems to become more frustrated. His voice tightens as if trying to suppress rage. This emotion is not helped by what the therapist says next.
"Oh really? Are you certain about that John?" Anna Marie asked with raised eyebrow.
"You wouldn't have been able to prevent the girl's death." He says before being cut off.
"That was probably not the right thing to say." Jax said. It was the first time he had spoken since they had started watching the show. Snart thought about how it would feel if he had lost Lisa and wouldn't have been able to protect her.
"Astra!" John exclaims in anger. The therapist looks at him. "Her name was Astra." John grinds out before continuing. "And I can handle her death. It's her damnation that's eating me alive. Dragged to hell."
"Nine years old… That's horrible..." Kendra whispered.
"Lovely observation." John shot back without looking up.
"John, it's time to face the truth." The man cuts off John before being cut off himself.
"Nine years old, and suffering for all eternity." John continues. His voice drips with the feelings of sorrow and guilt. The therapist leans forward.
"The only one suffering here is you."
"That's on me, mate."
"There are no demons." The therapist says. This is the wrong thing to say.
"So you keep telling me!" John exclaims as he stands. He leans on the desk and looks the man in the eyes and continues "Now make me believe." He shrugs his shoulders and asks him one thing before leaving. "It's what I'm paying you for, isn't it?"
"I'm so sorry. Sorry doesn't even begin to cut it. I can't imagine what it would be like." Kendra spoke what was on everyone's mind once more. John was looking down and mumbling something inaudible.
The scene changes. John sits in a circle with multiple other patents. One man is speaking.
"My goal today was to break my habit rituals. Like, I make a cup of tea and then I stir it nine times." the man explains. John leans back, boredom evident. The man continues "And then I've got nine minutes to drink it in. So it's nine sips in nine minutes. Everything is in multiples of nine. Keeps bad things away, you know?"
The man's explanation fades off as John turns towards the door. A roach is skittering across the floor. John gets up and follows it. He exits the room. More and more roaches appear. One person sits sobbing in the hall against a door as he passes. John takes a flight of stairs into a large room. A woman stands there painting. Roaches are all around.
"You'd think they'd keep the place more sanitary. Don't they have some sort of safety inspections?" Stein asked. He was appalled at the state that the asylum was kept in.
"Ah miss, whatever you're painting, there, you might want to stop now." He calls as he comes closer to the mysterious painter. She continues to do so, brushing away the roaches that come to close. The scene changes to show her face. Her eyes are a milky white. John walks up to look at her. "Miss?" He asks before pausing. He notices her eyes and his face shows shock. "No. No. No, no, no, no, no. This is not my problem." He turns to leave. He makes it a few steps before stopping, a look of resignation evident and mutters under his breath "Ah, bollocks." Before he does a 180 turn. He walks up to the possessed woman.
"I assume your hesitance is because of this incident at Newcastle." Rip asked. It came out as a statement instead of the question it was meant to be.
"I'm addressing the entity inside. Who are you? Tell me your name." His voice takes on a more forceful tone as he continues to speak. The woman turns her head to stare. He holds out his hand. She, or it, is sent back. John begins to speak once more, "Hear my words! In the name of the Creator, you are hereby commanded to leave this place! By the blood of man, be not, and be gone!" As he does so the sounds of screaming and snarling are heard. John began to chant "Ab insidiis diaboli! Libera nos, Domine!" The woman screamed and fell to the ground.
"You're doing an exorcism I presume?" Stein asked. John shot him a look that screamed 'what-do-you-think?' at him. Stein mimicked a fish for a few seconds before replying. "Astonishing. To see an actual exor-"he was interrupted by Ray shushing him.
"Oh, oh." She let out a gasp of surprise at her current situation.
"Don't worry, Luv. It's just paint." John said as she sat up. Looking at it, it was quite obvious it was not paint.
"You lied to her?" Jax asked.
"Well, would you rather have told her she was painting was in blood?" John replied with a question.
"Oh, yeah. Good point."
"What happened?"
"An exorcism."
"Snart. I'm asking you as nicely as I can. Will you please shut up?" A voice spoke up. Surprisingly, it came from Renee. She was intrigued now. She still didn't change her opinion of John. It would take much more to change it.
"A spirit took your body for a spin." He explains. She gives off a shocked noise. "To send me a message by the look of it." He continued.
"That's one way to put it…" Sara mumbled
"What's it mean?" She asked when she regained the ability to talk. John looked at her.
"It means I've been wasting my time here. I've got work to do." He said. He stood and made his way out. He passed through multiple staff who were looking at the scene before them.
"She did it."
"Yeah, blame it on her. You do know that you played a part in the destruction, right?"
"I wasn't the one who was possessed. I fail to see how I'm at fault here. If I hadn't done what I did, things could've gotten worse." John replied. Renee glared. Anna Marie just sighed and rolled her eyes at his argument. Perfect John Constantine logic right there.
End Chapter
So... Enjoyed it? The characters are most likely completely OOC. Yikes. You can probably tell that I'm not a huge fan of Renee. Probably because of her opinion on John. Also, I SUCK at writing any and all forms of dialogue. It's painful. Like, really painful. Anyways, hope you did. Review? IDK if that actually works but yeah. I'm far from a good writer...