Learning About Dying: A HellBlazer Fanfiction

Chapter 1: Who Would Walk With Me?

 Few people really think about dying... paranoids worry about it without really understanding it. Victims of fatal accidents and murder don't have time to think. You only really think about it if you take the time to. And you only take the time if you know it's going to happen.~John Constantine

Life is a strange thing. It seems to get stranger if you try and have a plan. Like life has to prove a point and show you how wrong you are for thinking that you were in control of things. That message came to me loud and clear years ago. I couldn't say that it started with John Constantine, but he sure likes to pop in and out of my life to make sure that I can't forget him. Not that I could. That was firmly marked in the impossible column. No. John wasn't the cause of everything that made my life take the biggest detour onto the Highway to Hell. That honour goes to my best mate Kylie.

Thinking back on everything, I wondered if my life would have been better if I had stayed in Bristol. Listened to my parents and brushed Kylie off, when she suggested that I visit her in London. I knew that it was pointless to think of what could have been. It seems that those damned and cursed are always looking to the past. Wondering if the nightmares could have been avoided. A pointless exercise in futility that tends to drive us to the brink of despair.

Kylie and I were born on the same day. Those that know my story would find it rather telling that I was born on Samhain. It seems we were meant for the world of the weird. Guess I should be happy that the wacky stuff waited until we were adults. At least I have my childhood to get me through the really dark times. Not everyone could say that.

People would joke that I was the light while Kylie was the dark. Neither one of us would argue that sentiment. I was the calm logical one, while Kylie was chaos personify. She would always say that I got the warmth and her the cold. I'm not sure about that. I just knew that were close as actual twins. Even had our own language. People would joke that we were twins from different mothers. We both were proud of that.

Things started to change when Kylie moved to London into her grandmother's flat. It seemed that she embraced that lifestyle and left me behind. I tried not to be bitter about it. After all, we were growing up. Growing apart tends to go with that.

Before I was to go to University, Kylie invited me to visit her. I jumped at the chance, even though my parents weren't thrilled with it. One more bit of freedom before I got serious about my school work and try to figure out a career. I convinced them that it was a learning experience. Boy! I didn't know how right I would be on that.

The first night was wonderful. I loved London and drank in all the sites that Kylie showed me. She was a proud and elegant city with an edge to her. To remind those that this was not a soft city. I wouldn't realize how cruel she could be until later. At that point in time, she was a delight to all the senses and my best mate was right there with me. Life was grand.

Things started getting weird the next day. Kylie kept looking at her mobile and acting nervous. I didn't ask. I figured it had something to do with work. I knew that she was a consultant for the Yard. I just didn't know all the details. It was something that she didn't like to dwell on and I respected that.

We went to a pub near her flat. The music was good and the people friendly. About an hour into having fun, Kylie ducked into the loo. It was then when I first met John Constantine. Though, I didn't know it. The man flirted and bantered with me, but never gave me a name. I didn't think anything weird about it because I didn't give him mine either. It seems silly to try and do anything more than little flirting, when I was going back to Bristol in about a week. Didn't need that complication.

He was gone when Kylie came back. I asked her about the guy, but she just shrugged and said that's how things worked around here. Of course, she didn't see the guy. I often wondered if things would have been different if she had seen him. Probably not. There are some things that are meant to happen. No matter how hard we try to fight it.