"International arrivals, please proceed directly to passport control." "All international arrivals should proceed directly to passport control." "Attention, passengers, please do not leave your luggage unattended." "Unattended luggage is subject to collection and search by airport police." "Thank you for your cooperation." "Hand, please." "Gary Lester." "What's the nature of your visit?" "Um..." "Visiting a friend." "You traveling alone?" "Uh, yes." "Alone." "Nothing to declare?" "No..." "Sir." "Nothing." "Khartoum to Atlanta." "What's that... 19 hours, give or take?" "You must be running on fumes." "What were you doing in Sudan?" "Uh... just hanging out." "You know, tourist stuff." "Yeah, fascinating." "Tell me about the bottle." "Um, it's..." "It's an antique." "It's very precious." "Oh, please." "Don't touch it." "Yeah, the residue test didn't turn up nothing." "But here's the wrinkle, Mr. Lester." "This ain't my first rodeo." "Look, I'm warning you, man, this is not a game." "Don't open the bottle." "Please..." "Please." "The hell?" "You were right about the park." "This closeness to nature, the energy, the people." "Yeah." "My senses, they feel heightened." "It's..." "It's like a..." "A drug?" "I wouldn't know." "Seriously?" "You've never dabbled?" "Seriously." "You try having visions like mine, and see if you're still interested in dabbling." "I need more control, not less." "Huh." "Well, sometimes control is about letting go." "Psychic energy is all around us." "It's like a network." "You have the ability to travel that network." "But you have to lower your walls first." "And then you'll be able to see how far you can really go." "I see coins." "They're falling all around us." "It's so beautiful!" "Pennies from heaven?" "Subtle as a serpent." "People have their own unique markers for when celestial beings are close by." "She's, uh, rather traditional, it seems." "How's she doing?" "You think she can help us?" "Well, she's more than handled herself this far." "You're putting a lot of time and effort into her." "Let's hope it's not wasted." "Wouldn't want to go down that road again." "Well, she's as tough as they come, this one." "And it's just until we can sort out this, uh, Rising Darkness nonsense." "Then she's free to go on her own merry way." "Unless you scare her off before." "Not everybody's cut out to do what you do." "And not everybody has the stomach to watch you do it." "Well, then I'll have to go it alone." "Like I always have." "Now, you gonna make me guess?" "Or are you gonna tell me what's going on?" "I know something is." "Why else would you be here?" "I'm not." "Where's Chas?" "I told him to fix that cab of his." "Figured we'd work on your training today." "So, how am I doing?" "You're showing flashes of precognition, retrocognition, clairtangence." "You're a real bitsa." " Come again?" " Uh, a bitsa, you know?" "You've got bits of everything in you." "Hold up." "A break-in." "Pretty clumsy one, too." "You might want to stay out here." "The intruder..." "Whoever or whatever it is... will still be in there." "How do you know that?" "Ol' Jasper went to a lot of trouble to safeguard everything contained in these walls." "I almost feel sorry for whatever's inside." "Seriously disgusting." "Khapra beetles." "One of the most destructive pests in the world." "I'll assume that's not a good sign?" "It's a pretty safe bet." "John?" "John, is that you?" "Well, bugger me." "Gary bloody Lester." "I..." "I knocked, but nobody was home." "So..." "You got yourself caught in the zero gravity trap?" "I don't know what you call it, man." "I..." "Oh!" "I just want it to stop!" "It's been a long time, Gary." "I haven't seen you since, uh..." " Newcastle." " Yeah." "I know." "You know, nobody knew where you went, Gaz." "You just vanished." "I had to get away." "I needed to straighten myself out." "Oh, yeah." "Bang-up job you've done of that, mate." "Well, with everything that happened, you know, with Astra..." "I just needed to escape, man." "Well, good for you, Gary." "Who's Astra?" "Well, go on then." "What daft mess have you gotten yourself into now?" "And why is this place crawling with bugs?" "It's bad, John." "It's really bad." "But I di..." "I didn't mean for it to happen this way, I swear it." "It started out as a bender." "Uh, then one night turned into two and then a week." "And then, well, I..." "I just got lost in it all." "I don't even know how, but next thing I know," "I'm in Sudan." "And, uh, I'm looking to get on." "But as soon as I saw him..." "I knew." "He had these, these containment markings all over his face." "You know, the power patterns for binding." "Some bastard had trapped a demon in him." "I knew what I had to do." "This was my chance to make up for Newcastle." "This was my chance to atone." "It was like an irresistible passion just seized me." "It wasn't that I wanted to do it." "I needed to." "You should've seen me, John." "You really should've seen me." "I did it, John." "I trapped a demon in a bottle." "Where's the bottle now?" "Hey!" "What's your problem, man?" "!" "Hey!" "What's going on here?" "!" "Hey!" "What do you think you're doing...?" "Hey!" "Someone get security!" "This guy's crazy!" "Hey!" "Hey!" "What are you doing?" "!" "It looks like the Star of David." "No, this is the Seal of Solomon." "And this is the Taba'at Shlomo." "Also known as the Ring of Solomon." "It was passed down to Solomon directly from heaven to trap genies." "So, you're gonna put" "Gary's genie back in the bottle?" "The Taba'at Shlomo has strong containment magic." "It's perfect for preparing any demon binding vessel." "Should be sufficient to clean up that tosser's mess." "You know, he's lucky to have you as a friend." "He's all right." "He's just bloody hopeless." "Nobody's hopeless." "I wish that were true." "His old man used to have a car dealership and more money than he could count." "So, Gary always had everything he ever wanted." "Gary was good for cash and... well, that's about it." "We had a bit of a crew that used to run together back then." "Gary was the only one with a car." "So, you used him." "That depends on your perspective, doesn't it?" "Maybe he used us, bought our friendship." "If there was one thing Gary knew how to do, it was use." "Back in the day, he used to love to get high." "Just the party stuff, nothing hard." "But it seems that after Newcastle, he's graduated to full-blown junkie." "You want to tell me about Newcastle?" "It's a town in the north of England." "Horrible weather and even worse football team." "You don't end up like Gary over bad weather." "Well, that's just him, isn't it?" "Gary's had more opportunities handed to him in his life than I've had hot dinners." "And he's pissed them all away." "Gary's is a life wasted." "B'hoah Shlomoh, kvosh et hahosheh." "All done." "Now all we got to do is find the bastard demon." " How come she gets whatever she wants?" " Shh." "She's over there!" "Ma'am, you cannot be doing that!" "I'm hungry!" "I need help!" "It is not yet known whether the virus is transmitted via these insects or person to person." "There is, however, little doubt that this outbreak could mushroom, and rapidly..." "The gift that keeps on giving, eh, Gaz?" "Suggest that the victims were gorging on food just prior to their sudden deaths." "Diagnostic tests are underway on these vic..." "Sounds like a hunger demon." "Nasty mindless bastards with no thought other than to consume to excess." "Sound familiar?" "I'm clean now, John, and it's gonna stay that way, I swear." "Oh, leave it out, Gaz, I don't have the time." "That thing's gonna eat its way through the heart of the city, one poor wretch at a time, unless I stop it." "I'm coming with you." "Are you taking the piss?" " It's my responsibility." " Forget it." "You're the last person I want by my side on this." "On anything." "Do us a favor, will you?" "Watch over him." "John." "John." "You know, I don't see a lot of people lining up to lend you a hand." "Maybe you should accept his help." " People can change, you know?" " Bollocks." "We are who we are." "Eventually." "There he goes again." "Charging head first into the face of danger." "Is that what happened at Newcastle?" "John doesn't seem to want to talk about it." "Too much pain." "Same reason I got into the junk... try to forget." "Thing like that... you don't ever forget." "Back then, we all thought John was the duck's nuts." "I mean, some of the crew were interested in the occult, but most of us just wanted to be around him." "So when he started talking about this trip to Newcastle, we all jumped at the chance." "Road trip, some black magic with the John Constantine." "Who could say no?" "But then there was this girl." "She was a daughter of one of John's friends." "She was possessed." "Nobody knew what to do, how to save her." "John?" "He had a plan." "Astra?" "I heard you mention that name before." "What happened to her?" "Hey, man." "I'm sure you did what you could." "You cared enough to try, and that's what counts." "Gary!" "Excuse me." "You mind if I ask you a few questions?" "I already told everybody..." "We didn't see anything." "Look, I know what you're thinking." "If I tell this guy what I saw, he's gonna think I'm crazy, right?" "Look, we just want to go home." "Please." "Two minutes, that's all I need." "There were bugs." "Lots of bugs." "Is that so?" "When the woman died, they just came up out of her, like a swarm." "I mean, most people had run off by then, but we were still there." "What happened to them after they left the woman?" "Well, that's where it gets real crazy because they just flew into a swarm and then there was this guy, this, uh... a meat delivery guy, and they all just flew right into him." "You happen to catch the name of the company the delivery guy worked for?" "There was a pig and a cow dancing on his shirt." "Dancing, were they?" "Wow, that's something I'd like to see." "Thanks a lot." "You wouldn't be laughing if you knew what was in store for you." "Is there anyone in here?" "Ah, this gets more fun by the second." "Anyone in here still alive?" "Preferably not possessed and feeling peckish?" "Hello." "Uh, Jo." "Well, we can chat later, but right now I'm addressing the entity inside you." "Melech Eloheem... haboreh vehayotzer pokehz ahleyhah." "Shmah nah yeshoot..." "Bollocks." "How the bloody hell did a scuzzy little toe rag like you manage to capture a thing like that?" "What happened?" "You okay?" "Are you okay, more like?" "I'm fine." "You find it, the demon?" "You sure know how to pick them, Gary." "May be the Rising Darkness, but, uh, it's stronger than any hunger demon I've ever encountered." "I've trapped it for now, but it'll be loose again soon enough." "We need to identify it with absolute certainty to put it down for good." "You know, maybe... maybe this will help." "There's no "maybe" about it, luv." "If they're authentic." "Well, earlier today," "Gary and I, we touched, and I experienced a... a psychic transference." "You, uh... touched?" "No." "No, no, not like that." "I mean, we only touched for, like, a second." "But the connection... it wasn't like I was just in his head, 'cause it was deeper than that." "I felt his pain and his guilt and his addiction." "And after..." "His withdrawal symptoms." "You got all the lows and none of the highs." "Rough deal, I'd say." "It's probably best if you two kids keep your hands to yourself." "For now." "All right?" "I'm off to see a man about a dog." "Or, rather, a shaman about a bloody demon." "Not hungry?" "Not particularly, mate." "I expected you sooner." "The goat entrails indicated yesterday as your time of arrival." "Well, don't believe everything you read, Nommo." "Check out today's Inquirer, and they'll have you believing a virus is sweeping the city." "But you know better." "Mm." "Not about most things, but, uh... afraid it's less a case of runny nose, more a case of nasty hunger demon." "The problem's contained for the moment, but I need answers to finish it off." "We've traced it back as far as Sudan, but we're not sure if that's where it originated." "Sudan?" "Mmm." "Khartoum." "Used to call this poor sod home before it flew the coop." "Demon you seek is called Mnemoth." "How do we stop it?" "I don't know." "There's a way for us to discover it together, but it requires some..." "Travel." "So, by "travel," you mean "trip."" "A shared vision." "I can guide you through it, but you need to see it the way I do, through my eyes." "It's been a while since I've taken any psychedelics." "Most of them make me puke these days." "This isn't most psychedelics." "The Mist may well be the most powerful drug in the world." "Once taken, its effects last forever." "Well, you know me..." "I'm game for a laugh, but forever seems a bit excessive, no?" "The Nectar of Nhialic." "A natural counteragent." "Oh..." "Bloody hell." "That is heinous." "An acquired taste, certainly." "So... if we're tripping balls, how do we know to take the nectar?" "Call it a hunch, but, uh..." "I think this might be working." "Mnemoth has always been with us." "Through all the famines, the hunger of the starving masses gave the spirit strength." "Nothing could satisfy the demon's appetite." "After consuming a body, it moved on to the next, leaving a growing trail of death." "The shaman couldn't sit by and watch his people starve." "He could see what no one else could." "This was the evil work of a dark spirit." "He faced an impossible choice, for they were all his children." "There was only one way to stop it." "The demon was invited to enter the boy whom the shaman offered as a sacrifice." "The sacred kusa knife." "Used for the scarification." "Passed down by generations of shaman, centuries of powerful magic contained within." "The tongue had to be removed so the shaman could not be cursed for what he did." "The pattern... had to be precise." "Mnemoth could not resist the offering." "Upon entering the boy, it began consuming him, but as the demon was now trapped by the containment markings, the shaman left, knowing it would ultimately consume the boy and itself." "Decent plan." "Shame it didn't stick." "I mean... what are the odds the kid lands himself in the one bloody alley that Gary Lester stumbles into?" "Take it slowly, my friend." "Ah, don't worry, mate." "It's not my first disco." "So, the headline here is, uh..." "I'm gonna need one of those fancy blades, right?" "The sacred Kusa." "Good luck finding one in this town." "Well, we wouldn't want to make things easy, now, would we?" "I'm sorry, I just... feel..." "Sort of trapped in here." "Useless." "Just concentrate on feeling better." "John can handle the rest." "Come on, Gary." "There's nothing for you to do." "I beat that demon once." "I can do it again." "No." "No." "I didn't want to do this, but you didn't give me a choice." "It's my fault that thing's out there." "It's my responsibility to stop it." "Sorry." "Zed?" "Gary?" "What'd I tell you two about keeping your hands to yourselves?" "You're not as funny as you think." "Oh, no, no, no, no." "Take it easy." "Take it easy." "What happened?" "Bastard!" "He just... he just wants to help." "He's so racked with guilt that he's going after the demon himself." " Told you that, did he?" " Yes, he did." "And he meant it. 'Cause I felt it." "That's not what's happening, trust me." "Why do you always want to see the worst in people?" "I see the truth." "Gary's hopelessly addicted to heroin." "And let me give you a little tip about addicts:" "between thought and action comes temptation." "Always." "Ooh, nice one, lads." "Think I just heard a rib crack." "Oh, no, no, no, no." "Don't stop on my account." "In fact, maybe I can help." "I'm guessing that this little misunderstanding has something to do with the purchase of narcotics, correct?" "Best high you'll ever have." "On my life." "Must be getting soft." "Should've let those two keep going on you." "Get you out of my hair for good." "So why didn't you?" "You are a massive pain in the arse, Gary Lester." "But you're still my mate." "More's the pity." "Friends don't betray each other." "I betrayed you." "I betrayed her." "Oh, don't worry about Zed." "She's a tough bird, that one." "I'm talking about Astra." "There's something I need to tell you, John." "About Newcastle." "Gaz, you don't..." "Please." "I need to say this." "I was high." "Been smoking all day." "By the time the séance started..." "I was well caned." "And then, when... everything started going pear-shaped..." "I hid." "Under a bed in a room upstairs." "Her screams..." "I can still hear them, John." "She was being dragged to Hell." "I just laid there in me own stinkin' piss, closed me eyes, covered me ears... and when it was all done..." "I ran." "John?" "Say something, please." "Wasn't your fault, mate." "Should've never gotten you all involved." "You, especially." "Because I'm a coward." "Because it's not your world." "Never was and I knew it." "And I knew you were high." "We all did." "The thing is, Gaz..." "I don't blame you." "I never did." "You had every right to be afraid." "And you know what I always say, Gaz?" "Everyone has the capacity to change." "I've never heard you say that before." "Exactly." "We're live outside the Fox Theater in mid-town Atlanta, which is now on lockdown, following reports of another virus outbreak." "Get it in you, mate." "We've got a demon to catch." "Together." "Nothing too elaborate." "Just a simple distraction." "Then what?" "Then you break in and steal the bloody Kusa knife." "It's not rocket surgery." "Me?" "Are you sure?" "All the faith in the world, old son." "Now, you might want to stand back." "You sure you really want to go through with this?" "It's just a bit of glass." "It's easy to replace." "That's not what I'm talking about." "And you know it." "I can do this." "Right." "I'm off then." "You there!" "Stop where you are!" "Very nice." "And now let's see a plié." "Oh, I think I saw that left heel wobble a bit, otherwise perfect." "Now, uh... express yourself." "How long's he gonna be under for?" "Until the music stops." "The alarm." "How'd you fare?" "Attaboy." "I knew I could count on you." "Come on." "Watch that left heel." "Oh, sorry." " Impressive." " Should be." "Learned from the best." "By the look on that bloke, time's not on our side." "The demon will be out of him, looking for his next victim soon." "We need to get started." "So, what's the plan then?" "This demon requires a sacrifice." "That's what I learned from the shaman." "No cage, bottle or vessel can hold it." "Only a body." "A live, human... body." "Mine." "We could draw straws." "It was your plan all along, wasn't it?" "That's why it's just you and me here." "You sneaky bastard." "My chance... to finally make my life mean something." "It won't be quick." "Could take days of sheer agony before you die." "And there's no going back." "Do you understand?" "There's no better way to go out." "A mage." "Like John Constantine." "I'm proud of you, Gaz." "Truly." "Let's do this." "Alworood... min alawbee-aa Menemoth walamrad, meltahema min alnefoos, weh-yak nastaa-een fi talqe-hey hathehy alneaam min minwey-et walarad walhawah walnar walmeh." "Soltet al-arady almouqdesa tacht alsamah fowq tamkeen hathehy altahara wa-ahsar aley alabad ra-yeea Menemoth raheeb!" "Hold on there, mate!" "Not long now." "He's coming around." "We need to get him inside and into a secure room." " You put the demon inside of him?" " There was no other way." "You're sacrificing him, you're sacrificing your friend's life." "It was his choice." "And it was a brave one." "You need to respect that." "You manipulated him." "You tricked him into it." "That demon was one of the most powerful and malevolent entities I've ever come across." "What we did saved countless lives!" "I don't care!" "Gary loved you, and you betrayed him!" "All he cared about was to make you proud." "And for what, John, huh?" "He wanted to be just like you." "Thank God he's not!" "He came to me!" "You think I wanted this?" "Any of it?" "I told you this would happen." "People around me die." "If you can't handle it, then go." "Which room do you want to put him in?" "Downstairs." "End of the hallway."