This Crazy Existence (John Constantine)

Panic Spells

When everyone walks out the door, they end up on a dark street. Constantine and Zatanna continue to argue on the walk down the dark street. (Name) sighs and watches them. 

"You make portals. Impressive." Batman appears next to her, scaring her. 

"Yeah. I know other spells, but portals come naturally to me." She holds out her hand a glowing ring appearing around her wrist. She stops and turns to Batman, who has an unreadable expression. That's when she feels the dark presence of shrouds. She looks up at the door of an old apartment. Three shrouds are lurking in front of the door. She had barely noticed her ears ringing until she heard Constantine speak. 

"Why don't you go do something useful like haunt a house?"

"Who is he talking to now?" 

"Shrouds, they're like the media's depiction of death. They transport souls." The shrouds finally notice the rest of the group and surround Batman and (Name).

"They're attracted to you two." Zatanna finally speaks for the first time since they arrived at the door.

"The bat, I understand, but I'm surprised they're after you, love. You don't seem like the type to be cheating death."

"You cannot escape us forever (Name). You will succumb eventually." The shroud's voice made (Name) want to peel off her skin. The shroud's boned hand reached out for her.

"You won't take me!" In a panic, she let out a burst of magic, disintegrating the shrouds that surrounded them. She stood there gasping for breath. A hand was placed on her shoulder, causing her to jump. She turns her head to see Constantine with a concerned expression. 

"You alright there, love? That was one hell of a display of power."

"Yeah... yeah, I think so. Sorry, I just panicked." She sighs and moves away from Constantine. As she does, the door to the old apartment opens. A scrawny man with a cane steps out.

"How you doin' Johnny boy? Zatanna and Batman? And someone I've never seen before."

"(Name), I'm (Name)." She pipes up without thinking.

"Well, it's nice to meet you (Name). I wish it was while I was doing better, but it's too late for that." He steps to the side, letting everyone into his apartment. (Name) wanders the room looking at the many magical artifacts that the man has collected. She's startled by the sound of a  scuffle. She turns around to see the man in the arms of Batman and Constantine with a newly forming bruise on his cheek.

"You can go screw yourself! I ain't giving you crap!"

"Your anger is understandable, but you need to reconsider. Innocent lives are at stake." Batman speaks, causing everyone to look at him. While things are worked out with the sick man, (Name) walks over to Constantine.

"You alright?"

"Yeah, I get punched quite a lot. No need to worry about me. Although it is nice to have a pretty girl worrying about me instead of trying to kill me." He chuckles and rubs the side of his face.

"So you must have pretty bad luck with women."

"More like I have bad luck in life." He turns to the sick man with a sad expression. The sick man ushers the group out, and they leave.

They arrive at the hospital sneaking into the room of a man who's tied to his hospital bed.

"Father of the year." John sounds a little sad. He asks for the gear from Batman and explains how it works.

"(Name) since Zatanna insists on coming with me. I want you to pull us out if anything happens to his body, alright."

"But I don't know how to do that."

"I can't teach you now, so you'll have to figure it out on your own, but I trust you can figure it out if the time comes." He pats (Name)'s shoulder and walks over to the man holding Zatanna's hand, pulling them both into his mind. (Name) sighs.

"I'm tired of this whole feeling like a third wheel thing." Batman just hums in response. (Name) sighs again and sits on the floor next to the bed. While she sits in silence, screaming comes from the hall. She stands up abruptly and walks over to the unconscious body of the man.

"Okay. I can do this." With a sigh (Name) holds her hands over the body, concentrating on pulling the other two out, but no matter how hard she concentrated, nothing happened. Batman left the room to fight whatever was attacking the group. A nurse runs into the room and grabs the unconscious man.

"You can get them out when we aren’t being attacked. Right now, it'd be safer to get the hell out of here." It was Boston possessing a male nurse. (Name) sighs in defeat and helps Boston carry the body out, but as they leave the room, the creature lurches toward them, causing (Name) to panic. With a burst of magic, she's sucked into the mind of the man.

She looks around the room and sees Zatanna and Constantine. Who look very concerned the moment she enters the mind.

"What the bloody hell are you doing here?"

"I panicked cause we were being attacked, and I didn't know what to do. I tried pulling you out, but instead, I pulled myself in." (Name) explains quickly through small gasps of air. As she's explaining, the world shatters around them.

"Oh hell." Constantine grabs Zatanna, pulling her out before turning to (Name).

"Come on, miss Succubus, we don't have all day." He grabs her hand, dragging her out of the man. When they're finally freed from his memories, they're back in the hospital surrounded by a strange black ooze.

"What the hell is all this?"

"It was the thing attacking us. Whoever is making people go crazy doesn't want us to fix things." (Name) looks around the hospital. A place where people go to heal subjected to death and destruction that could have been prevented. She sighs.

"Listen, love. I know you're getting all sentimental, but nows not the time. We better get going."

"Yeah. You're right."