Chapter 18: The Devils Vinyl Part 2

AN: Once more I thank Vumanchu for helping with the character reactions. You are a big help!
Zed Martin drives warily, studying the mill house through her windshield. The taxi sits on blocks, undergoing body work.

"Hold it right there." Startled, Zed sees Chas approaching, a shotgun aimed at her. "You Zed?" seeing her nervous nod, Chas continued, "John said you might show up. Kinda hoped you wouldn't."

"I gathered that, seeing as how he didn't actually give me an address."

"How'd you find us?"

"Stalker..." Said Kendra in a sing-song voice.

Zed produces a sketch book from her shoulder bag and flips to a page, revealing a sketch of the mill house. "Can I get out?" she asks.

"It's not like we could've stopped you anyways." John chuckled.

Zed had the decency to blush, looking away.

Chas stands back and Zed exits the car. She starts towards the mill house. Chas trots to keep up. "John did say you were persistent."

"That's one way of putting it." Chas replied to his past self.

"I found a place to live downtown, so you better get used to me."

"Zed means 'zero', right? What kind of parents name their kid that?"

"Who says my parents named me?"

"What? Who else would've named you? Ray asked her. She just raised an eyebrow in response.

The Legends facepalmed, with Len stating, "We'll teach it to you later."

"Go on, then. Say hi to His Satanic Majesty."

"Oh, please no." John put his face in his hands. Zed stifled a laugh, instead sounding more like an amused choke. Chas looked at the two, remembering exactly what followed next. Team Legends shared a confused look with each other. What was so funny?

Zed enters the mill house. Constantine, in a room off the main room - buck-naked, daubed head-to-toe in chicken blood. Standing in a circle of salt. A Buzzcocks song blasts over speakers. Atop this, John screams even louder, mouthing an incantation, doing a mad, whirling dervish dance.

"Wait..."

"Oh."

"Seriously?"

There were multiple sounds of confusion and shock from different members of the audience at wat was going on in the show.

He chants loudly, first in English then Aramaic and then back again, "Hear me, most Unnameable of Devourers... Shmaynee la geree la geray ohkleen who guardeth the Eternal Gateway... who natair yat aboola dahba... I seek an audience with one in your embrace - evray metah b'pee mehabbaqaq..."

Stein pinched the bridge of his nose. Jackson looked at him and asked, "Do you understand what he's saying?"

Kendra replied, "Gibberish. He's saying a lot of gibberish... and a couple swears."

"No wonder they didn't call back." John muttered.

As Chas and Zed come in, Zed takes in the scene. Sees John in the room off the main area as Chas gives her the tour.

"He looks ridiculous." Zed commented as they passed.

"That's putting it lightly..." States Sara.

"He's learning a spell." Chas replied as if this were all normal.

"So that's what he was chanting. Astoni-"

"shing." Stein's comment is finished by Jax and Sara.

"Naked?"

"Says it helps him concentrate. Come on, I'll give you the penny tour. The Mill belonged to a friend. He called it a 'supernatural safe house'. Most of the stuff here's too dangerous to fall into the wrong hands."

John had finally uncovered his face, "Which is why you will not be breaking in." He directed the warning at the pair of thieves.

"It didn't seem this big on the outside."

"It's not. I've been measuring the rooms and I keep getting different results. Sometimes, it'll be off by a few inches. Sometimes more –"

"It's bigger on the inside..." Ray covered a chuckle.

Sara threw a look at him, "Whovian."

"That doesn't make sense."

"You have two people who are basically a walking nuclear bomb, myself who's come back from the dead multiple times, two thieves wielding element guns, someone who has a suit allowing him to become insect size, and two reincarnated Egyptians. Nothing makes sense."

"Well I know that now. I figured that out the moment I met him." Zed jabs a finger at the Exorsist next to her.

"You want sense? You stumbled down the wrong rabbit hole." Chas opens a closet which leads to a surreal corridor that seemingly stretches on to infinity.

"Have you ever actually found an end?" Stein asked.

John shook his head, "No. I don't plan on trying anytime soon either."

"Easy, mate" Zed turns to see John now behind them. Wiping chicken blood from his face with a towel. "Even I'm not ready for that one yet. What I think Chas meant is, don't go wandering here without a chaperone. Now, you want to make yourself useful?" moments later. John's cleaned up and dressed. The trio at the millstone table, Liv's Map spread out, stained with blood stigmata. "Each of these stigmata indicates a place where something bad is going down. Supernatural brushfires, if you will. Me and Chas, a few others - we're the bucket brigade." Zed studies the map, then a nearby newspaper with an article about Bernie Reed's death. The headline reads: "LEGENDARY MUSIC PRODUCER, DEAD BY APPARENT SUICIDE".

Rip thought for a moment, "The headline isn't exactly incorrect." He looked at John, "He doomed himself when he made the deal, essentially commiting suicide that took a bit longer to happen."

John nodded, "You're catching on."

"And this is your latest fire?"

"Bernie was a friend of mine. No way in hell he'd take his own life."

"Doesn't mean his death was one of your stigmata."
John grins, pointing to a blood stain on Chicago. "Bernie worked in the Windy City and I don't believe in coincidences. Go on. See if you get a hit" he looks to Chas,

"She's a regular psychic smorgasbord, this one. Picks up impressions from tactile stimuli, which I'm guessing is kind of a buzz-kill in the sack."

"Do you get these visions from any object or does the ability have specific requirments to work?" Stein asked, wanting to know as much as he could about the subject. After all, it would be useful if they were to come in contact with the three later. He didn't get an answer.

Zed ignores that and touches the photo. With a shiver, Zed looks down to see jasmine flowers under her feet. When she looks up she's literally standing in a field of jasmine. "I smell jasmine, it's all around me and I'm cold."

"Right. I'll let you know if any of that pans out." With John's voice, Zed finds herself back in the mill house. John turns to go, but Zed grabs his arm.

"No. You're not ducking out on me again. You promised you'd teach me about my abilities."

"Is this really the time?"

"Yes..."

"Teaching you is one thing. Letting you ride shotgun on a spiritual scavenger hunt is another beast."

"You said you didn't believe in coincidences. And I showed up just as you were planning to leave. This is my education."

"See?"

"Chas's cab is still down. You got a car? Does the air conditioning work?" Zed nods again. John surrenders and gestures to the stairs. "Knock yourself out, then, MacDuff. But I'm in charge of music." As Zed exits, John looks to Chas, lowering his voice.

Zed winced, "Not the greatest idea..."

"My taste in music is perfectly fine!"

"Keep telling yourself that."

"Girl's got skills." Chas told the exorcist.

"Thank you!" Zed tossed her hands in the air in mock huff.

"And she's easy on the eyes." John added on.

She sighed. Of course that was what he would say.

"But?"

"She showed up out of nowhere last week. Maybe she's legit or maybe she has more unseemly motives. Either way, I'm better off keeping her close for now. See what you can dig up on her, would you?"

"Love the trust you put in me."

"You came and popped up without warning and knew who I was! What did you expect?"

"Fair point."

"Just wait for later in the episode..."

"Wait. What?"

"Chas!"

It is now day. John and Zed are standing outside the Chicago Morgue. They are standing by Zed's car near the personnel entrance. As workers file in and out, John opens his bag.

"What's in the man purse?" Zed asked.

"Bits and bobs. Every case is different, but certain items I find myself using again and again - holy water, police scanner, cemetery dirt, duct tape..."

"Not the usual kit I'd carry..." Snart said.

At the same time, Mick had said "Police scanner?"

Zed reaches in and pulls out a lodestone (a piece of magnetite) with two rusty nails clinging to it. "What about this?"

"Nails from the coffin of St. Padua. Patron of lost people. Watch…" As John lifts a nail up, the other nail spins around on the lodestone, reorienting in the direction of the first nail. "The nails follow one another. Tuck that in some bloke's pocket, you've got a nifty tracking device. Now if I'd only brought something to get us through that door."

Zed glances around. As a grey-coat employee brushes past, she steps in front of him, bumping into him. "I'm so sorry. I really need to be more careful." The man smiles and waves. It's okay. What guy wouldn't want Zed to bump into him? He continues forward and Zed turns to John, revealing the palmed swipe card she holds. "Will this help?"

Here Snart turned, "Are you sure you don't want t -"

"No." Zed interrupted before he could complete the offer again.

"Fine..."

"One day I'm going to find out where you learned how to do that." Only half joking, John takes the card. John uses the swipe card to open the door, and he and Zed sneak in cautiously, finding it empty but for corpses. John starts pulling sheets from the bodies until he locates Bernie's body. The man's chest showing the stitched-up incision post-autopsy. John sucks in his breath, saddened by what he sees. "We've got minutes at most. Damit, Bernie, look at you."

"How did you two know each other?"

"Back in Jurassic times, I fronted a punk band called Mucous Membrane. That's right, I wasn't always an upstanding warlock. Bernie here produced our first and only record. He tried his best, but the truth is, we were just a bunch of wankers looking to get laid. Bernie found himself some real stars, I fell into more sordid pursuits - and here we are, reunited for one final comeback tour courtesy of this –" John unwraps a petrified human hand. The fingertips have been turned into candles. Zed stares at it, aghast. "A Hand of Glory. Take the left hand from a man that's been hanged, pickle it in amniotic fluid for seven years. Say the right incantation and the dead will rise for as long as the candles burn." John pulled out two bags of blood and tossed them to Zed before continuing, "Here, empty those onto the floor."

John got an incredulous looks from the revalation, "Mucous Membrane?" Carter parroted.

John shrugged, "Yeah."

"I take it this is human blood." Zed asked though it came out as a statement.

"Tapped it myself." He replied. As Zed empties the blood, John uses his lighter on the hand. As it sputters, throwing off smoke, he shouts "Hear me, most Unnameable of Devourers. He who guardeth the Golden Gateway. I seek an audience with one in your embrace". John looks at Bernie's body, expectant, but nothing happens. Puzzled, he leans closer, slapping Bernie's face, "Come on, old boy, wakey-wakey, eggs and bakey" Bernie's corpse bolts upright, shrieking. Zed jumps and even John is caught off guard because now – every corpse is thrashing about or banging in their metal tombs. Bernie and the other recently dead are thrashing and wailing. John shoves the Hand of Glory at Zed, "Hold this!" then grips Bernie, shouting over the unholy din, "Bernie, it's John!"

"The spell you were learning earlier!"

Bernie snaps his head around to look at John, his fear-filled eyes suddenly flooding with recognition. And pain. "Johnny?" Bernie asks.
John smiles reassuringly even as his eyes glaze with tears. "It's me, mate, your old friend. Tell me who did this to you."

"The voice. Oh god, the voice!" he wails.

"I don't understand, Bernie."

"On the acetate! It was so cold!" Bernie sags, his brief resurrection ebbing. John looks to Zed, sees that two of the Hand's candles have sputtered out.

"Bring the hand closer! Hurry!" John orders Zed. Zed complies, joining John. John keeps trying to prop Bernie up, but the corpse is literally turning back to dead weight, "Come on, Bernie, don't leave me yet! Give me something else." Bernie offers a slurred whisper. John puts an ear to his friend's mouth as the last finger candle sputters out.

"Moonrise…" Bernie speaks his last words and slumps into stillness. The other corpses follow suit, like marionettes with strings cut. The morgue is a mess, bodies sprawled all over, some having flopped off gurneys. John closes Bernie's eyes, gentle.

"Rest in peace, mate." John whispers.

Moments later, John and Zed are walking to her car, pensive. Zed is on her smartphone, furiously typing away.

"You okay?" Zed asks, concerned for John.

"For most of those stiffs, dying was the worst moment of their existence. It certainly was for Bernie. And I forced the poor sod to live it all over again." He replied.

There were a few shivers around the room.

"You said every spell had its price. What did that one cost?"

"My own mortality. A few days worth. Sort of like a reverse mortgage."

A couple snickers here and there.

"You do that a lot?"

"More then you know..."

"I do what it takes. Now, we need to swing by the library to follow Bernie's leads - a voice, an acetate, and 'Moonrise', whatever that refers to."

"I'm guessing "Moonrise Records." According to Google, an 'acetate' was an early vinyl record. Bernie was in the music business and there used to be a Blues label called Moonrise back in the 30s." she read the information off of her phone.

"You don't say."

"The owner, Marcus Mooney, is still alive. He just turned a hundred, according to this article. I won't call it a coincidence, since you don't believe in them, but he's in a nursing home a few hours from here. We could pay him a visit." They get to the car and stop, "Or we could 'swing by the library'."

"Don't get cocky."

"Cocky? I think that describes you more, John." Anne Marie commented.

End chapter

Quote:

Me: *needs to print something for class and looks at teammate (KG)* "Oh wait, you're printing."

KG: *Is taping pictures down on poster*