Zed Martin had just woken up with a late start to the day. Glancing at her phone, she cursed before jumping out of bed and grabbing a sweatshirt.
She pulled it over her head as she walked into her kitchen. Her laptop was already on her table with random sketches and chalk around it. It only took a couple of clicks for her to start the videochat.
As she waited for it to load, she prepared herself some coffee and took her leftover banana bread. A breakfast she was more than okay with given the circumstances.
"You're late."
Zed couldn't help the smile on her face as she pulled her hair into a loose bun. "Morning to you, too, Chas."
His face stood out on her screen, but not for long as his daughter squeezed her way into sitting next to him. Her hair was loose around her shoulders as she smiled at Zed.
"Hi, Zed. I practiced some of those doodles you showed me. Do you want me to bring them here for our lesson?" Geraldine asked.
Zed had been teaching Chas's daughter how to draw. Well, introducing her to techniques her school didn't have the time for. And it gave Zed an excuse to keep in touch.
"Of course, you're gonna need them for today as references." She replied
Geraldine nodded before taking off to her room to find where she stashed them. Zed used the opportunity to pull out a mug and pour her coffee.
"How's the head?" Chas inquired.
Zed touched the place on her head where the surgeon had performed her tumor surgery. It was a decision she made right after everything went down. Jade had wanted her to live a long and healthy life.
So that's what she was going to attempt to do. For as long as she could.
"Better, just a dull ache until it's fully healed." She replied.
She took her mug and sat at the desk to see Chas better. As she set down the mug, only then did she realize which one did she subconsciously pick. The garfield mug stared back at her as she gently touched the handle.
She swallowed a lump in her throat. "Chas, have you heard from John?"
Silence grew between the two as he took a moment to think about his answer. He did so reluctantly. John was his friend, but he couldn't think about him and be with his family at the same time.
Finally, he spoke up. "Not for over a month."
Zed bit her lip as she fought the anxiety in her chest. Worrying about John was a common habit for her by now. She hadn't really talked to him since she told him she was going to do the surgery.
He hadn't reached out and Zed assumed that's how he liked it. It's how he always liked it, to be alone. But that didn't mean it was good for him.
"Should we-" she didn't even begin before Chas cut her off.
"You did the surgery for a reason, Zed. I went home for a reason. That life is behind us now. It has to be." He argued.
Ever since she got her tumor removed, she had no new visions. The connection she used to feel was gone. Just like Jade was. When she felt the psychic energy around her, it was almost like she could still feel remnants of Jade out there.
Now there was nothing but quiet. The realization that she would never feel her again was too much certain days. But she knew Jade would claim that it was for the better.
"Do you think he's okay?" Zed asked.
She hadn't seen him break down the way she expected to. His heartbreak was the silent type, the kind that grows with time and there's nothing you can do to fix it.
He got quieter, spent less time in the mill and more on solo missions. But Zed always saw his eyes. Haunted by what he had to get done.
"It's John."
Zed closed her eyes as his words brought no comfort. John Constantine was a lot of things but he was not a man good at grieving.
Even now she remembered his confession that every morning he imagined everyone he cared about was dead. That he did it so that when it happened, it would lessen the blow. She wondered whether it did.
Knowing Jade was going to die and imagining her dead every morning, did it help his eventual loss or was he just as broken as the rest of them?
"That's what I'm afraid of."
-----
The flowers were gently placed on Jade Phillips' gravestone. As the wind picked up, her sister pulled her scarf tighter around her neck. Her brown curls hid her puffy eyes and the dark circles underneath them.
In all their time spent together, Jade had never told him how much her sister resembled Zed. Maybe not in the most obvious way, but John picked up on the similar mannerisms and slight features.
He hesitated before making himself known. "She was a brave one, your sister."
Diana jumped a bit at the sound of a stranger behind her. As her eyes met his, he was almost disappointed at how much she didn't look like Jade. He would've given anything to see her just one more time.
"You knew her?" she asked.
John nodded. "For a little while, yes."
As much as he wished to tell her everything, he knew Jade didn't want that for her. The only way to keep her family safe was for them to be blissfully unaware of the dangers lurking around every corner.
"Were you, uh, were you there when she..." Diana trailed off.
She couldn't bring herself to finish that sentence. How could she? It would mean admitting that her sister was truly gone forever. No longer missing, just... gone.
"Yeah." John replied.
Diana nodded as she swallowed a lump in her throat. There were so many questions she had for this man. Yet looking at him, shrouded in his own silent grief, she had a feeling he wouldn't divulge much.
"Are those your daughters?" He suddenly asked.
Diana furrowed her eyebrows before looking in the same direction as him. In the distance, Lizzie and Kiana were picking flowers while their father watched over them. The sight warmed her chest.
"Yeah. They wanted to come, but I needed a moment alone with her." She replied.
John straightened his back. "I can leave if you'd like."
Diana turned to him, almost in a panic. He was the only connection she had to Jade now. The last thing she wanted was for that to go away.
"No, stay, please. I didn't mean it like that." She argued.
John nodded as he glanced at the engraved tombstone. Jade Phillips, may she rest in peace. He clenched his jaw as he fought off the discomfort he felt seeing it. There was no peace where he sent her.
"Was she happy?"
"I'd like to think so, yeah."
Diana took a deep breath while blinking away her tears. The stranger's words brought a small comfort to her, even if it wasn't nearly enough for her pain to lessen.
She still wasn't there for her sister, because she was never given the chance. Most likely, she'll never even find out what had truly happened to her that cursed day that they lost their parents.
"Listen, I know you don't know me but if you're ever in any kind of trouble, just give me a call and I'll be there as quick as I can."
John handed her his card. She frowned before reading through it. John Constantine, Master of the Dark Arts. Her breath hitched at the unspoken implication of him knowing Jade.
When she looked up, he was already walking away. His trench coat moved around him as she saw him light a cigarette and disappear from view.
------
The last thing Jade felt was the warmth of John holding her. As soon as she crossed the barrier, it started to fade from her skin until all she could feel was the cold seeping into her very bones.
She had imagined the space between worlds to be dark, hollow of any light. Yet all around her was a galaxy of stars muted only by the dark current running through it. Psychic energy.
The gaping hole within it called her to it, like a magnet. It was the other side of the hole between worlds. Her heart ached at the thought of the people she left behind in it. There wasn't a lot of time to ponder on it as she heard shrieks behind her.
As Jade turned, she saw the place where John had sent his enemies. Hell stood on the other side of her. It felt like looking through foggy glass, as something you couldn't quite perceive. But she knew it was there.
A part of her expected for her powers to break free once her soul was within its realm. What it did instead was whisper in her ear, guiding her through what needed to be done. She held out her hand toward the door and felt her powers drift out of her.
Inch by inch, the door closed itself but as soon as Jade withdrew her power, she could feel it cracking open again. Furrowing her eyebrows, she poured out more of herself into it. Her heart started racing as she realized what was happening.
The door could never be fully closed, not unless she was continously closing it before it could crack open. It meant a constant stream of her powers and herself into it. An eternity of holding it with everything she got.
Even as she did so, she could hear the force of a being far older and far more wicked than her getting closer to the bridge between Hell and the door she was holding. She inhaled sharply before holding out her other hand and using her powers to hold back whatever was behind the distorted glass.
A whimper left Jade's mouth as she could already feel the toll it was taking on her. But she no longer had a body that could break, only a soul that could feel as if though it was.
And so she did. Decade after decade, while the world forgot there ever even was a Jade Phillips, she endured it so that her world could be safe. As the years passed, memories began to fade from her.
Chas's deep chuckle whenever she had made a sassy comment, her niece's round eyes when she begged for ice cream, Zed's runaway curls in the mornings, her sister's drunken laugh during Thanksgiving, John's smirk with a cigarette between his lips.
After a while, even their names got away from her. Even her own name became too difficult to repeat. Throughout it all though, she could still feel the love she had for them. For someone beyond the realm she was in, someone worth protecting for eternity.
So she did.