Aquiver -> J. Constantine

05

Jade stared at her phone. It's been months since she's had any contact with her family. Every fiber in her being begged her to dial her sister's number, to just hear her voice.

Yet the events from today only solidify her decision. She can't be around them ever again. Not after what she's done and the things she's seen.

Jade Phillips' normal life was over a long time ago.

"Never took you for a, sulking in a bar, type of woman."

Jade didn't even look up as John Constantine sat down next to her. It was only a matter of time before either Zed or him came looking for her.

She thought it would be Zed. Though she suspected she had a hand in helping him find her. She probably knew that nothing she said would comfort her.

"I'm not sulking," Jade spoke up and glanced at John, "I'm accepting the fact that my powers are never going to be what I want them to be."

John's eyes softened at her words. He'd be lying if he said he didn't expect her to feel that way. It was all there in her eyes.

The fear of her powers, of them being too much and not enough all at once.

The man's death wasn't her fault but that wasn't what was bothering her. It was her inability to use her powers for something good. All she's ever done with them had caused destruction.

"What'd you do?"

Those words made Jade freeze. Not even Zed had asked her that question. She knew something had happened but was never daring enough to ask. Supposedly she knew how much it would hurt to talk about it.

"What makes you think I did something?"

"Come on, love. Anyone with eyes as scared as yours have been through something."

Jade took another sip of her beer and just as she went to put it down, John took it from her grasp once more. This time she didn't mind. It was part of John's charm, she supposed.

"When my powers first appeared, I was with my family. I didn't know what was happening to me and neither did they. All they knew was that I was a freak." Jade said.

John listened closely as her eyes closed. She was already opening up more than Zed and he knew he needed to know more about her if he was going to help her master her powers.

"My parents started shouting at me, claiming that I was a demon. I was so scared and overwhelmed that I... My powers activated against my will and they pulled the roof down on us."

Her voice cracked at the end of the sentence. John noticed the glasses from the bar shaking in rhythm with the shaking of her hands.

His eyebrows furrowed as he looked around to see if anyone had noticed.

"I woke up in the hospital with a few scratches but the rest of my family wasn't so lucky. My brother had his spine broken, my sister was in a coma and my parents were dead. I-I killed them that night."

Jade opened her eyes as tears fell freely down her cheeks. In fear of her powers getting out control, John put his hand on her trembling ones. As she looked at him, the glasses stopped moving.

John looked at the woman confiding in him and realized how broken she actually was. She kept up a good facade, but he could see the cracks in her armor.

He feared what would become of her if she didn't gain control over her powers.

"Look, what happened to you was terrible, and I want to help you. But people who put their trust in me, die. All of them. That's not a fate I wish for you nor Zed." John explained.