74 The Hellblazer

Manchester, England

In the dark part of the town, there were sounds of loud music and a crowd cheering, from an abandoned church.

Inside the church, on a makeshift stage, there was a punk band of four performing. The drummer had his shirt off, banging the drums hard which had a red M symbol on them. On the right side, a grey-haired guitarist was strumming his guitar as hard as he could. On the left, a gothic girl with shoulder-length pink hair was playing the guitar in a sleeveless black crop top with a deep cleavage while jumping making her big boobs bounce. There were huge speakers on the side while behind them there was a large wooden inverted cross of Jesus.

In the deafening background noise, the lead singer, a blond-haired blue-eyed teen with a light beard and a black t-shirt with the same M symbol was shouting.

"MAGIC IS THE GREATEST PROFANITY"

"IT'S THE WORLD SAYING 'THIS IS THE WAY THINGS WORK,' AND YOU SHOUTING BACK, 'NO!' WHILE YOU FLIP IT THE BIRD"

"IT FEELS ****ING AMAZING"

A closer look at the audience would show that most of them were demons with deformed bodies dancing away in the rhythm. The performance ends with the blonde teen kissing the pink-haired girl on the stage making the crowd go wild.

Later that night

Sleight hand Magic club

On the stage, a magician is trying to do a card trick and failing miserably, while in the audience, the same blonde teen wearing a blue trench coat on his black t-shirt with his grey-haired guitarist friend is seen drinking and booing.

The pink-haired girl from before comes up to the table and grabs the teen.

"John"

"Hey Veronica, there you are love"

"I need to talk to you", Veronica drags John away while he keeps telling her how he and Gary are going to go on stage and show them real magic, just a minor demon summoning spell.

When outside, Veronica grabs John tightly, " John please listen. I ... I tried to call home … but they didn't … John, they didn't remember me." John pulls a cigarette out and lights it, "I think we are going in too deep, John … this making magic part of the music act … we're not even performing for people anymore … It's like we're falling out of the cracks of the world."

"Too deep? We have just scratched the surface, Veronica. This band 'Mucous Membrane', we all together have just started our journey to explore real magic."

"I can't do it anymore John, I am scared."

"Never took you as the boring type Veronica … If you are not in, then just get out.", Jon says pushing her away and getting back inside the club

Veronica looks at John going away and heads out to the street.

The Wren Library, Secret Wing, Cambridge.

Inside an office a shoulder-length brown-haired black lady was typing something on her computer, she was wearing a white classy dress with numerous necklaces and bracelets on. The whole room was filled with books and occult stuff. Hearing the knock on her door, she gets up to open it.

"Veronica? I was thinking who would come inside this secret part of the library this late at night … What happened to you? ... I can see through your body, you look like you are barely a part of this world anymore"

"Georgiana, I want your help … I don't know what's happening to me … Please help me for old times sake." Veronica pleads, while trying to get close to her.

"No, I won't help you this time Veronica. You are with John now, what we had in the past is over. I am done letting you treat me as a backup plan." Georgiana slams the door angrily and gets back to her work

Veronica looks at the closed door and looks down at her hands which are starting to get transparent, she then proceeds to search the secret library in hopes of finding a magic spell which could help her. She finds a red book named "Soul Displacement".

After some nights, inside a dirty apartment that had food packets, beer bottles, and guitars lying around, John was talking with his friend Gary about the next gig when he hears someone shout his name. Looking out of the window he sees a pink-haired specter-like form standing underneath a lamp in the middle of the night.

He goes downstairs to greet the now almost see-through Veronica, "What's all this then, I thought you'd left me and left the magical life."

"John, please. I am not in any kind of life, I tried going back to mum and she looked … right through me. I can't touch anything ... Am I dead?"

John takes a drag of his cigarette, "No you are not dead yet, It's just the price of magic"

"Then how do I get back to normal, that's all I want." Veronica looks at John in hope.

"Come back to me, forget Georgie, forget who you were, I don't know how to turn you back normal, but I can show you how to really live."

"That's how I fell through the cracks in the first place, following you. I'll have to try something else." Veronica comes near him and hugs John, looking at his face through the smoke.

Veronica speaks softly, "Just please dance with me, pretend that we're on stage, when things were good. Before you did me so wrong". John looks down at her and tries to hold her but his hands go through her body.

Veronica with tears in her eyes touches John's face with her almost transparent hands.

After sometime Veronica walks away without looking back.

John looks at her transparent body fading away in the night sadly. Suddenly he hears a voice from his back.

"If you let her go today, you will regret it your whole life … John Constantine"