Chapter 4: Non Est Asylum Part 3

Liv sleeps. A glaring spotlight passes over her face. She awakens and shields her eyes from the brightness of the light. She sits up. It turns out a helicopter is passing by for reasons unknown.

Liv, wearing a robe, opens the door to find the hallway busy with crime scene personnel. A young, black Assistant Medical Examiner with a friendly face pushes a collapsible gurney past her doorway and into Talia's apartment across the hall. At Talia's door, a Forensic Tech dusts the frame for prints.

"How did she not awaken when the investigation first began?" Zed asked.

"What's going on?" Liv asks as she steps closer to see what is happening.

"Exactly what it looks like. A crime scene." Came Snart's drawling voice.

Liv steps closer and peers into Talia's apartment in mounting horror to see a smear of blood on the wall and Talia's body on the ground below, head grotesquely twisted. The Assistant M.E. lowers the gurney to load the body. Liv freaks.

"My God. Sickening." Stein exclaims, turning slightly green. A sound of someone heaving is heard behind the professor. No one looks back to see who. Their eyes are stuck to the screen, staring it horror at the gruesome depiction.

"Talia! Oh my God, Talia…" She cries out as she sees her friend. She tries to enter the scene but a Homicide Detective physically guides her away and back into the hall. He uses his body to block her view of Talia's corpse.

"Oh. Thank God." Kendra whispers, thankful that the scene was blocked. Carter puts an arm around her.

Renee leans up from the bucket that had randomly appeared at her sudden heaving. She agreed with Kendra on a large scale. All that had happened had proved her point. John was dangerous. Some color had begun to return to her. She was glad that whoever had brought them here had left their daughter at home. A hand touched her shoulder and she jumped in shock. She turned. She was semi surprised when she saw who was behind her.

"Are you alright?" Chas asks her quietly and she nods. He sends her an understanding look. Not everyone was cut out for his lifestyle.

"You can't be here ma'am." He says sternly.

"I live across the hall. She's my friend. What happened?!" She exclaims. She resists the Detective's efforts to remove her but he finally prevails and escorts her to her door.

"Stay in your apartment. For your safety. We'll come talk to you." He says.

Liv steps back into her apartment. She is in tears. Her foot scuffs against something. She looks down to see the now disturbed salt line by her doorway. When live raises her head to walk inside, she sees the sign that had been carved into her door. With skyrocketing concern, she runs her hand over the symbol. Outside the Assistant M.E. slides the body bag into the back of his van and slams and locks the rear doors.

As the Assistant M.E. drives, he hears a dull thumping noise coming from the back of the van. He turns down the radio and does in fact hear the distinct thumping. Something was alive back there. He parks under a graffiti riddled underpass.

"Why would you park underneath there? It's no doubt crawling with lawbreakers. This is just asking for trouble." Jax asks the screen.

"Something is alive in that van. The girl, Talia, must've somehow survived." Stein spoke to himself. John rolled his eyes. Nobody but Zed saw him. She sent the Exorcist a hidden glare.

He hurries around the side and opens the back door. The body bag that held Talia's body had ripped free of its straps and was thrashing about. It was bashing against walls, throwing itself in the air, and rolling around among other things. The Assistant M.E. steps into the van.

"And this is how a horror movie starts…" Sara states. She has somehow gotten popcorn.

"Hold on! Hold still and I'll get you out of there!" he calls. At the sound of his voice, the body bag reacts and holds creepily still. The M.E. enters and begins to slowly unzip the bag. As he starts the electricity dies in the vehicle and plunges it into complete darkness. The M.E. fumbles to find the flashlight somewhere in the van. He finds it and switches it on. When he points it at the bag he sees that it is empty and unzipped. He turns and the flashlight beam falls directly on the supposedly dead Talia. She is right beside him. Her neck is broken and dangling sideways and she has milky white eyes. The man screams as she grabs his face. Dents appear in the sides of the van and screams follow. Suddenly silence falls.

"And you're basically watching a horror movie as you see this right now. Trust me, it only gets worse." John says. He has taken to glaring at his shoes and cursing his luck. This show was revealing far too much about his past. Now it was showing more about those who died. Those whose deaths he had inadvertently caused when they stepped into his world.

The next morning an Atlanta P.D. Sedan pulls into the lot. Liv exits it and waves thanks to the cop car which soon departs. She is still quite shaken at the events from the night before. As she heads to her office, she notices a certain Yellow Cab parked nearby. John leans against the hood. She approaches him.

"You always carpool with the cops?" John asks.

"It's been a long morning. My friend was killed last night." Liv answers. John adopts what could be considered a sympathetic look.

"I'm sorry to hear that. She wasn't the target." He says.

"You could've phrased that better you know." Carter says.

"Are you suggesting I'm the one who got Talia killed?" Liv says, shock the expression painted on her face and slight anger seeping into her voice.

"No, that would be impolite." He answers her accusation. He smiles. Liv only becomes more infuriated. She pulls out her phone and shows him a picture of the symbol on her door.

"Seriously? Impolite? When has politeness ever stopped you from saying things?" Zed asked him. He shrugged.

"I found this on my door. What is it?" She asks. Quite accusingly as well.

"The Eye of Horus. It's a symbol of protection. Or so they say." He answers calmly.

"Well, it didn't work. There was a man in my hallway last night. I think he killed Talia." She explained. John taps the cab roof behind him. The door opens. The tall man from the night before steps out. Liv shrinks back.

"What? Why would I do such a thing?" The semi immortal man asked from where he sat by his wife.

"Liv, meet Chas. My oldest mate. He didn't kill your friend. He made that carving that kept you safe." John explained. Chas returns to his seat as the driver and closes the door. John looks over at Liv.

"Not a big talker, that one. Now, down to business. If we don't get you somewhere safe, bodies will keep piling up." He explains.

"Why would anyone want me dead? I'm a nobody." Liv exclaims as she fights back the tear threatening to fall.

"Hate to burst your bubble, but you ain't a nobody. I knew your father, Jasper Winters." John explains once more.

"That's not possible. My dad died before I was born." Liv denied what Constantine was saying.

"Whoever told you that has been lying. Jasper died just last year. He was a good man, too." He corrected her as he reached into his trench coat to retrieve something. That something turned out to be a small velvet satchel. He holds it out to Liv who takes it. "Open this. It belonged to him."

Before Liv can open the satchel, the unmistakable roar of a car engine is heard. The turn and see the M.E. van speed straight towards the office. They are across the lot and are unable to do anything but watch as the van would inevitably crash into the office.

"No." Liv whispered as the van barrels through the glass windows and into the building. It disappears from view as it plows deeper into the open office space. John and Liv take off at a run towards the office. Chas follows them. They duck inside, careful of the glass in the area.

Those inside are checking on each other to make sure they were all safe. They were and nobody was hit by the vehicle. John marches down the path of destruction and is followed by Chas and Liv.

"Everyone out! It could blow!" John shouts before turning to Chas and whispering "Get 'em out.". Chas starts helping and herding people out. John reaches the van and finds it lodged in the desk that Liv should've been occupying. She sees and is filled with dread.

"At least she wasn't sitting there. She would have been killed for sure."

"Thank you for stating the obvious Mr. Palmer." Rip replied to Ray.

"And this is what happens when you are near John Constantine." Renee announces.

"That's my desk. I should've been sitting there."

"But you weren't and that's what matters." Ray said. More than one person glared at him.

"Whatever's after you can feel your energy. Can track it." John says as he looks around. Both of them pause as sounds come from the front of the van.

Strangled choking as well as an odd rhythmic slapping. Liv steps forward, but John grabs her ar. He cautiously lets of of her and peers forward. He seed Talia. She has been thrown through the front window. Her eyes still white and her neck still broken. The snapped neck results in her head dangling grotesquely to the side. This limits her vision so her hands blindly slap around for purchase against the glass. John hears a scream behind him. He turns.

"Why do so few people listen to me? I tell her to stay back to spare her the view and what does she do? She looks anyways." John exasperatedly said. Chas had a hard time keeping a grin off of his face.

"Talia! She's alive!" Liv all but screams as she steps forward and stares at Talia with shock.

"No. Something's using her. This is all wrong. They never operate in the open like his." John said to himself.

"I don't understand… what's happening?" Liv asks him as John leans in as close as he dared to Talia.

"Who are you?" He asked the demon infested corpse. Talia rotates her eyes to look at him. "Who sent you?" he asks again. The only response was Talia uttering a low pitched laugh. The laughter stops quite abruptly. Talia falls limp and the demon flees. All the desk lamps blow out, the Endeavor sign on the wall explodes, and the overhead fluorescents pop like fireworks all at once. John turns to see if Liv is ok. The only problem? She's nowhere to be seen. "Liv? Brilliant." He called out to her before realizing she had gone.

"And she's gone."

"Thanks captain obvious. We all are totally blind and need someone to tell us when something happens." Snart glares at the mechanic.

Liv was driving fast through a small neighborhood of houses. She breaks hard and turns into one of the driveways. She quickly parks and exits the car. She rushes to the front door and bursts in, extremely upset.

"Mom?" She calls out.

"Kitchen!" Her mother, Georgia Aberdine, calls to her. Liv enters the kitchen. Her mother sees her and greets her. "Liv, I'm glad you're here. I want to paper the guest bathro-" only to be cut off.

"When did my dad die?" She interrupted her mother as she entered. Georgia sees how upset her daughter is.

"What's wrong, honey? What happened?" She asks, concerned for her child.

"Answer the question." Liv spoke as she stood in front of her mother.

"He died a few months after you were conceived. You know that."

"Look me in the eyes and tell me again." Liv practically demanded. Georgia reluctantly met her eyes. "It's true. You've been lying."

"I'm not prepared to talk about this."

"You denied me a father my entire life. I don't care what you want right now. Who was he?" Liv exclaimed. Georgia had feared this day. She takes a deep breath.

"Just some boy I met at a concert. He didn't have any interest in seeing you after you were born. And Lord knows your Nana, rest her soul, and didn't encourage it-"

"But why would you lie about it?" Liv interrupted once more. Her eyes met her mother's.

"I wanted to protect you. You need to trust me on that, Liv."

"Trust you? Why would I ever trust you again?!" Liv asks in disbelief. Georgia starts crying, guilty but relieved.

"He left us and I knew he was never coming back. I just thought if he were dead you could still go on believing he loved you."

"Well he's dead now, so you can relax."

"How do you know?"

"A friend of his tracked me down."

"I don't see how. Jasper didn't even know where we live."

Liv reached into her pocket and removes the satchel. She dumps a primitive looking pendant into her hand. It was a tribal fusion of stone and metal and gems.

"Is it really a smart idea to be waving that around in public? Even if it is in your own house, you shouldn't have it out unless absolutely necessary." Rip all but groans. This seemed to be a running theme with people. Always doing things that would cause a large amount of harm, even if it wasn't meant to.

"The man I met said this belonged to him. Does it look familiar to you?" Liv asks as she lifts the pendant by its chain for her mother to see. She lets out a cry of astonishment and shock as the decrepit ghost of an old woman appeared. She had tendrils of black veins under parchment white skin. She stood behind Georgia and lovingly brushed her hair. Georgia, oblivious to the specter hovering behind her, looked at Liv with unmasked concern.

"Holy Shit!"

"This really is turning into a horror film…"

"Why? Just why?"

"I'm about to get hit by a train."

Silence immediately takes over as John utters the last sentence. He looks around with a 'What?' look on his face. Those who have spent time with him roll their eyes.

"What's the matter, baby?" She asked.

"A lot…"

"Nana?" Liv whispers in disbelief.

The gaunt and wretched figure raises her head towards her and reveals empty black hollows where the eye sockets should be. When she smiles a black liquid leaks from her mouth. Liv turns and runs. The woman is gone and Georgia rises to her feet.

"Liv? What's wrong? Liv!" She cries at the daughter in question. Liv is gone.

"And this is why you don't hold magical items out in the open. Bad things will follow." Rip stated.

"At least someone gets what the words hands off means….."

"You're one to talk John."

"What's this about being hit by a train?" Sara breaks into the conversation.

End Chapter