Rising Light

Chapter 10: Chas with 47 Lives

Kate and Chas drove in silence. After long conversations, of musings about what they were both going to be doing with their respective families, the quiet was quite nice. There was something comforting about having Chas beside her, but she knew that his thoughts were elsewhere. That he was lost in a world that she didn't yet want to interrupt. From the look in his eyes he was thinking about that night. The night that had changed everything for him. The night he'd taken on those other souls.
"You all right, Chas?" she asked softly as his grip on the steering wheel tightened slightly.
He shook his head, as if clearing the clouds from it. But she could see that his thoughts still lingered, that he was still dwelling on it all ever so slightly. She wondered if the memory ever fully went away for him, or if it always lingered somewhere in the back of his mind.
Like Newcastle did for her and John.
"It's nothing," he assured her.
She scoffed softly, but allowed him his privacy. "Careful with that," she said softly. "You'll be as secretive as John if you keep it up."
A smile flickered across his lips, but she knew that this time he was keeping it to himself. At least for a little longer. Instead she pulled out her phone, started to make sure that she was getting a taxi for outside the house. While she wanted to see Geraldine she'd promised her mom and Ian that she'd be with them before it was too late. And she knew that he needed his own time with his daughter, however much she wanted to see the girl.

Even using the sidewalk to make her a little taller, Kate was still nowhere near as tall as Chas. But she pulled him into a hug nonetheless when they were finally waiting outside Renée's house. "Give Peaches my best."
"You sure you don't want to come in?"
She shook her head. This was his time with her. "Anyway, she can be grouchy with you for waking her up," she teased softly. "Just blame John."
He pulled away slowly, shot her a grateful smile, before practically hurrying into the house. She watched him, a small smile on her face, before stamping on the floor. The chill of the evening was already biting. She folded her arms tightly across her chest, hoping that she wasn't going to have to wait too long. She checked her phone again for the time just in case.
She waited, every flash of lights making her wonder if it was her ride, but nothing came to be. People kept driving past, no one even seeming to slow to find out what was going on. Everyone too eager to get home.
A muffled shout came from the house, pulling her attention that way momentarily. She wondered, with a small smile, if it wasn't Geraldine and Chas playing. If the girl hadn't been too excited to see her father to sleep. But then she heard it again, noticed the desperation behind the call.
Chas yelling for Renée.
Without thinking she dashed into the house, glad that the door wasn't locked. She tore up the stairs, following Renée.
"What happened?" she asked, but the woman didn't know any more than she did.
She spotted Geraldine before anything else. Panic clawed at her heart as she rushed into the room. Chas was on the floor, bent over the unconscious form of his daughter.
_______________
As soon as Chas called, John and Zed were on the next flight out to New York. Kate waited patiently for them as the doctors took Chas and Renée in with Geraldine while they did their tests. She was a bundle of nervous energy as she stood out in the hall with her back pressed against the wall to let everyone through. What scared her more than Geraldine being in the hospital was seeing gurney after gurney wheel by her with unconscious people, blood coming out of their noses, just like hers.
She tried to remain calm, texting Ian. He owned a pharmaceutical company and was probably trying to figure out what was going on. Maybe he'd have some more insight. Maybe not. In any case, she needed answers and she needed them now.
"Kate!"
Her head jerked up. John was coming down the hall with Zed at his side. They dodged running into another gurney as she went to greet them. Zed pushed past him and took Kate by her arm, continuing down the hall. "What's going on?"
"No idea." She shook her head. "What did Chas tell you guys?"
"Everything he had to. That he needs us here. Now where's her room?" he asked. Kate led the way. She brought them into a cheerfully bright yellow room. It was a bit much given the circumstances. Chas was standing over his girl as they walked in. "Came as fast we could, mate. So, what's the story?"
Chas turned to face them. "You're the only one I'd trust with her, John."
"Well, whatever this is, mate, we're in it with you, all right? So you want to tell us what happened?"
"I found her on the floor bleeding," he replied.
Kate took over. "I've been watching out there. I've seen at least six or more patients with the same symptoms. The doctors and nurses are saying all of them were in comas, but I've never heard of a coma brought on like this. Certainly not this many patients this fast."
John opened up his bag and pulled out a small round container with a small dense brush. He moved to the other side of the bed next to Kate while Zed comforted Chas. Guilt was written all over Chas' face, as if he were somehow to blame for all of this. "Her lips are chapped," he told them. Opening up the container, he stuck the brush into the dark dust inside before brushing it against Geraldine's lips. Burn marks appeared and disappeared where the dust touched her. "Celestial burn marks. Left behind when a soul departs."
"This is just Geraldine's body?" Chas stuttered.
"Alive and breathing, which is the good news." John returned his tools into his bag.
"And the bad?" Zed questioned.
"Well if her soul is being used for a dark purpose, then she doesn't have long. A day or two at most."
"How can you separate a soul from a body?"
Kate shook her head. "You don't. Ben always compared the soul to the Holy Grail. If her soul's being used with black magic, it could permanently damage it."
"Promise me you'll do whatever it takes to get her back, John." Chas spoke with a dark undertone.
John hesitated for a moment before he put his hands on his friend's shoulders so he could look him hard in the eyes. "You promise me that you'll do everything I tell you." Chas agreed, hugging John. "All right, big man. I have an old friend who used to be a medium. He can contact Geraldine. Hopefully she can tell us where she is. I just need, uh, one of her personal belongings."
Chas looked down at the little doll tucked under his daughter's arm. Kate remembered when he picked that out for her birthday a few years ago. She was so small then. She seemed so small now. Kate brushed her hand over Geraldine's dark hair. They would get her back.
Zed took the doll from Chas and patted him on the back. "She's in good hands."
"What's he doing here?"
The group turned their attention to the now open door to find Renée. The hard look on her face was saved only for one person among them.
Chas replied, "John's here for support."
"Hello, Renée," John greeted as he passed her to get out.
Zed gave Renée a timid smile. "I'm Zed."
"Piece of advice? Whichever way he goes out that door, you go the other."
_______________
The place they stopped at didn't look all that impressive, least of all for a medium, but Kate knew better than to judge a book by its cover, especially when it came to John's friends. The sign on the front was broken, the yellow still oddly bright against the black giving them the name of the army surplus.
"This is the medium's place?" asked Chas, the distaste behind his voice obvious. "You got friends in low places, John."
"You seem shocked by that?" teased Kate as they moved to the doors.
John forced one open, sneering back at the two of them but holding it open nonetheless. "Come on."
They slipped into the shop, John gathering tools as they went like a magpie gathering supplies for a nest. Kate tried to think about all the things he might need, about the different spells that he might be trying to do with them, but her thoughts kept going back to Geraldine. John was going to save her, they all were, yet that didn't stop the worry from settling over her like snow. She shot Chas a small smile nonetheless.
When she looked back, John was testing the weight of a cattle prod. She felt the grin growing on her face even before he was ready to hand it off to her.
"Cattle prod?" asked Zed when John straightened, offering the weapon out to Kate.
"What? She's always wanted one," he said as she took the thing. She checked the balance of it. It was dirty, but it was nothing that she couldn't cope with. She barely resisted the urge to press the button, to test that it even worked before she used it. Not that she needed it to shock anyone. She was all but certain that she could use it as a bat if necessary.
Zed shot her a questioning look, but the small smile flicking at the corner of her mouth assured Kate that she knew the truth of the matter. They were being deadly serious about all this.
"What kind of medium works at an Army surplus store?" asked Chas, breaking the mild excitement and bringing them all back to Earth.
"A paranoid one," John explained as they spotted a sleeping figure sitting in a chair.
"Yeah, he looks all kinds of paranoid," murmured Kate, twirling the cattle prod idly. "Think we should come back later when we're not going to scare him awake?"        
John rolled his eyes, shutting the bag as he moved to the desk. She could see the malicious glint of amusement behind his eyes. He dropped the bag onto the counter, startling the man awake with an odd little jerk. "Hello, Fennel."  The man was up, cocking a gun and pointing it directly at John in the matter of a few short moments. Kate moved to be slightly in front of him, holding the prod lazily towards Fennel. "Told you."
"Get your ass out of my store," the man said, voice lower than Kate had been expecting.
"I thought you were friends," noted Zed.
"John's got a weird stance on friendship," Kate reminded her, but she didn't once look away from Fennel.
"Apparently, one of us has forgotten," John said with a sarcastic smile.
Fennel scoffed, and Kate tightened her grip on the prod.
"A girl's soul has been stolen. We need you to help us contact her," Zed said simply, moving to John's other side.
"You walked in here with a liar and a thief. You can ask all you want, I'll never help John Constantine," Fennel said simply, looking towards Zed.
Kate used the moment of distraction to knock the gun upwards. Startled, Fennel lost his grip on it. Chas caught the gun without blinking. Sparks of warning skittered down the prod as Fennel reached for his gun. In response, Chas smacked the man in the face with the butt of it, before turning the muzzle on him.
"We're not asking," he said simply.
Kate huffed. "I thought that was my job," she complained, glad that she managed to get even the slightest flicker of a smile from Chas.

"Take it this is where the good stuff's kept," Chas said, looking through the supplies at the back of the store. After Kate had, barely, made sure that there was no lasting damage done to Fennel's nose he had shown them to a slightly less cluttered room out the back of the store. John had already lit all the candles on the table, and Kate had set up the seats. It reminded her oddly of the old English folk stories of King Arthur; but she doubted he'd ever done anything quite like this around his round table.
"You do this right, I'll be in your debt, and that's no small fee," John told Fennel as he poured water into his hand. The bitterness seemed to radiate off him, even as he did everything that they had asked of him.
"I can get you some clean water," Zed said as he washed his hands in it.
"It's from the River Jordan. Acts like a lubricant for communication," explained Fennel, before turning to John. Kate shot a quick look at the pacing Chas; she wanted to reassure him that this was going to work, that they were going to get Peaches back, but she couldn't. She needed to focus on this now. "I give you the signal, you give me the doll."
"It's your show, mate," John assured him, motioning for Zed to give him the doll. Kate shifted her hands on the table, glancing briefly at John to her right.
Fennel spoke in Latin. She thought she could pick out the odd word, but her mind was too full of worries. Too lost in wondering how this could have happened to Geraldine. After everything that she had been through in the past year having her soul taken seemed to be an unwanted cherry on the top of an already horrible cake.
When Fennel paused John hastily moved to give him the doll. Kate looked to Chas. She could see the despair, the anger behind his eyes. She could see the fear that she was feeling herself, her heart hammering against her chest.
"She's with us now," said Fennel, holding the doll close to him. No sooner had the words left his mouth before the fire of the candles flared. Kate shifted back ever so slightly as John held his hands up to Chas.
"Don't break the connection," he whispered.
"Geraldine, I'm gonna get you back," promised Chas. "You just hold on, baby."
"Daddy, what's happening?" The question came out as an odd mixture of Geraldine and Fennel's voice. The fear behind it obvious.
"It's gonna be all right, Peaches," Kate said softly. "It's your Auntie Kate and Uncle John."
"Is there anyone with ya, love?" John asked, voice soft and yet urgent as well.
"No, I'm alone. I'm scared," came Geraldine's reply.
"It's all right, sweetheart. Now, I need ya to look around. Tell me what you see," said John.
"You're being so brave," Kate added softly, knowing that the girl needed the reminder. She didn't dare think about what she was going through.
"I see... I see –"
The candles flared once more, causing Kate to move back from the heat of them as Fennel's hands dropped. He slumped forwards, but Kate didn't care about him at the moment. She cared about Geraldine, about where the little girl had gone.
Not that he was down for long. He started lifting into the air, head lolling forwards on his chest. Zed slowly stood up as the man opened his eyes, but Kate shifted ever so slightly, reaching for the cattle prod as she did so.
"Who dares speak to one of my stolen souls?" The voice that left Fennel this time was deeper than before, more filled with the confidence of someone used to causing fear without trying. Definitely not Geraldine's.
"Where'd she go?! What's happening?!" asked Chas, voice filled with confusion and fear.
"Someone's taken control of Fennel, and it certainly isn't Geraldine," noted John.
"Yeah, noticed that," murmured Kate, glaring up at the man, trying to figure out what they could do to stop this.
"Oh, is that you, John Constantine? It's been a long time," said the voice as John stood up.
"Identify yourself. Face me like a real man, not with your hand up another's ass like a bloody puppet." Irritation burnt like fire behind John's eyes.
"It's more than you can do. I'm sorry I don't have time to waste on your likes."
"Tell me who you are," ordered John, and Kate shifted to his side, noticing that Chas had the gun raised as well. They were ready to take Fennel down if that was what it took to stop this.
"You've been warned, Constantine," the voice sneered. "Et stabit de domino vestro, aliquis. Et stabit de domino vestro. Audite vocem meam." As he spoke, flames started dancing over Fennel's body, destroying him before they could do anything that might prevent the worst from happening, to help them get their answers.
They ducked, hands out to protect themselves from the flames as they flared once more. Kate felt the heat tickle across her skin. Part of her wanted to rush to him, to make sure that he was all right. But she knew that there was no point. There was nothing they could do for Fennel now.
The body fell to the floor once the flames had gone out, and it was little more than ashes remaining. Zed looked paler than normal; after everything they had seen this was something else still. John had sniffed once, as if to compose himself, before moving away from them, grabbing a notepad and pen. Kate gripped Chas's shoulder, trying to assure him that they were going to be able to save Geraldine no matter what all this looked like.
"Our séance was hijacked by another mage," John explained as Chas pulled away from her, he moved to carefully pick up Geraldine's doll. "He used a powerful spell, turned Fennel into a bloody crisp."
"He said your name. He knew you," noted Chas.
"Yes, admittedly, not a good thing, but he did say it had been a long time," admitted John.
"And all we've done is waste ours. You made me a promise," said Chas, anger flaring to life behind his words.
"It's a promise that I aim to keep, Chas," John assured him, moving to meet him around the table. "We're one step closer to finding the man that's holding your daughter hostage. Only five books contain this spell, each scattered across the globe by an Irish High King. Now, if we can find the location of the nearest book –"
"We find Geraldine," finished Zed.
"Exactly."
"Let me hold the spell," said Zed, shifting a hand to take the paper from John. She took it as John dropped into his seat again.
There was a moment as the vision took hold, as she stood up to better look around her, before John spoke. "Where are you?"
"Dusty rail yard or... laboratory. Um... Er... I'm not sure. I see cauldrons and books and a train car," Zed told them, spinning to get a better look at what she could see but they couldn't.
"Look for a sign, a placard, anything that can give you a name," suggested John.
"'Haskins Railroad Yard,'" Zed read uncertainly after a moment.
"Do you see Geraldine?" asked Chas eagerly.
"No. It looks like I'm all alone," Zed said, spinning once more.
As she turned, she gasped. She snatched her arm away, almost dropping the book in her haste.
"Are you all right?" asked Kate, attention quickly finding the cut on Zed's arm as she tried to calm herself.
"Here. Let me look at that," said John, lowering Zed's arm. "Someone out there has more power than I care to chance upon. Tell me what happened."
"There was a swirling vapour that drifted past me," Zed explained, moving as she described what had happened. "When I turned around, there was a man in a cloak, and he lunged at me with a knife."
"Cauldrons and books, cloaks and daggers. Could be some sort of alchemist or a mage gone mad." Kate shot John an amused look as he moved away from Zed, but she could tell that he wasn't in the mood for teasing, even if she was only doing it to try and soothe them all a little.
"What did he look like? Describe him to me," Chas said urgently.
"Easy, Chas. Just let her breathe," said Kate softly.
"Don't tell me easy," he snapped. "I want to know what the man who has my daughter looks like."
"Let's go and see for ourselves, shall we?" suggested John. "Haskins Railroad Yard, you say?"
"Yeah."
"All right, then. Let's check it out," said John, as Kate gave Chas's shoulder a gentle squeeze.
"We'll get her back," Kate assured him, even though she could tell that he was beginning to doubt that. "Trust me, I'll do whatever it takes to get Peaches back."
He nodded, and Kate knew that he was grateful she had finally told him that. That everything was out in the open.
_______________
Kate was starting to wonder what the hell was going on when they pulled up to a mostly empty lot where the address said Haskins Railroad Yard would be. Chas checked the address on a slip of yellow paper as the gang got out of the taxi cab.
"According to the phone book, this is the address."
"I called the Transit Authority. They said Haskins Railroad Yard was shut down years ago," Zed added.
Kate crossed her arms as she leaned against the warm hood. "I'd like to know where the hell the place is. It should be right there."
"More dead ends, more wasted time. I've heard it said that nine-tenths of reality is perception, and in my trade, it's eleven-tenths. Kate, be a dear and break off a hubcap and toss it in that direction." He pointed where he wanted it thrown. She pushed herself off the cab and over to an abandoned car. The hubcap fell off with ease as she kicked it. Kate grimaced as she picked the grimy thing off the group. John continued to talk. "Ah, you see? If a mage can't completely change your idea of what's real, well, then the trick don't work."
Setting her feet in position like her friend taught her when she was learning frisbee, she threw the hubcap hard. It whirled through the air before hitting some kind of barrier, making it warble as it disappeared into nothing. There wasn't even a sound of it landing.
Everyone, save for John, squinted at the place it disappeared. "Where'd it go?"
John bowed his head and raised his hands out in front of him. "Five elements of the earth, I respect and invoke thee. From the six directions, converge here. Lift all concealments, reveal thy truth."
Zed laughed as Chas and Kate smiled brightly as a large red brick building appeared. "It was invisible."
"By way of a cloaking spell, and an elementary one at that," said John. He walked ahead into the building with Kate close to his side as the other two followed.