Sell you a Bridge chapter 241 (Patreon)

June 2nd 2016 The Nightside 9:00 PM EDT

The actual bar area in Strangefellows was fairly eclectic. Haphazardly strewn about tables  and booths from a variety of times and places covered the floor of the  stone pit at the bottom of the steps, each of them occupied by some  strange or unusual being. Werewolves, Zombies, Fishmen, and weirdly, an  actual Cyborg, sat next to office workers and parking attendants,  sipping a variety of beverages from an equally wide variety of  differently styled mugs and cups. The whole place looked so weird and  mishmashed that it actually looped back around to being harmonious, like  it was impossible for this much variety to happen on accident.

John  of course strolled through the place without a care, walked up to the  bar and knocked on it. The bar was long and mahogany and looked old, in a  well cared for way. The man behind it was just as odd as the rest of  this place, tall and thin and pale, with wild dark hair that stuck out  to the sides and a beret perched on top, along with big dark sunglasses  despite the dim lighting in here, and a scowl I suspected from context  clues was permanently etched onto his face. John gave him smarmy grin (I  suspect he didn't know how to do any other kind). "Hey there Alex.  Looking for the boss, he been in tonight?"

The annoyed  looking man turned to glare at John, a glare so obvious we could see it  through his big dark lenses, and said with a voice dripping with  disapproval. "Well, if it isn't John Junior. Hello JJ, I can't say it's  good to see you again. I seem to remember you swearing loudly to never  come back after throwing a bottle of my best brandy at your boss. I was  actually proud of you for once." He just sighed, continuing to rub a  glass with a rag so dirty I was pretty sure it precluded any actual  cleaning. "He's in the back over there."

He chucked his  head over at a back corner where a tall man with messy dark hair and a  pale weary face sat at a table in a long tan canvas coat that looked an  awful lot like our John's. Said young Constantine scowled at Alex. "I  thought I told you not to call me that. I am not his..." John trailed  off. "And you're not listening anymore. I bloody hate this place." He  turned angrily and stormed over to the table in the corner. We just kind  of awkwardly waved the bartender, who stoicly ignored us all, just  rubbing the glass I could swear was actually getting dirtier.

We  followed a seething John over to the table, where he unceremoniously  pulled out a chair and spun it around, sitting backwards on it and  staring at the unconcerned dark haired man, who mostly ignored him and  sipped from a foamy beer stein. He sat and glared at the older man for a  minute until John the elder sighed and rolled his eyes. "Oh hell, I'd  hoped you might just give up and go away, but I've never been that  lucky. Hello Junior it's...mediocre to see you again. I take it business  hasn't been going well out on the brightside?"

John (our  John, who I was going to keep calling John because I met him first and  the other one would just Taylor) sneered. "Don't call me that. Business  has been fine. I had a certain friend to whom I owed a favor, and she  asked me to babysit her ex and his gaggle of fresh faced teeny boppers  as they tour about the Nightside looking for this one's wayward cousin."  He hooked a thumb at me, ignoring Artemis's glare at his back as he  called us teeny boppers. "You know the friend." He flicked his eyes  downward meaningfully, and Taylor's eyebrows shot up in surprise.

He  sighed and drained his tankard in a few long pulls, slamming it back  down on the table and looking at John in annoyance. "Go get me another  pint while I talk to your friends. You know what I drink." John sneered,  snatching up the tankard and stalking back over to the bar. He gave us a  relatively bland but not unfriendly smile and gestured for us to sit at  the table in the flickering light of the old lantern sitting in the  middle. "Apologies. Junior has a chip on his shoulder about not being  taken seriously. He'll get over it eventually and come back." He paused.  "Or he won't which would probably be better for him in the long run."

I  looked over to see John park himself at the bar and fill the huge mug,  which he then proceeded to slowly nurse. Taylor just chuckled. "I did  miss the little bastard. Place gets dreadfully boring without him." He  paused again. "Well, no, that's not true. But it isn't the kind of  exciting I prefer either. Anyhow, despite what he might have said,  Junior wouldn't bring you here if he didn't want to actually help, so I  suppose I should at least give an effort. Tell me about your cousin.  Finding things is what I do after all. No leaving out details. I'll  know."

I shrugged, sitting down, the girls and Jim joining  me at the other chairs. I looked back over at John. "Is he coming  back...or?" I shook of the question, getting back to the meat of the  matter. "Right. Kit. Her name is Kitrina Falcone, she's about my age,  maybe a bit younger. Nineteen or twenty. last I saw she was...slightly possessed? Red skin, horns, that kind of thing, but she did it on  purpose, so it was ok. We had a bit of a falling out, but I wasn't  really upset with her, and last I heard she and her boyfriend were  traveling together. He had the same basic features I'm told, red skin  and horns and stuff."

Taylor reached out for a mug that  wasn't there and scowled, looking over at John whose eyes squinted in  glee as he nursed the mug. Taylor rolled his eyes again. "Passive  aggressive little shit. He's going to drink that whole bloody thing in  small sips before he fills it again and brings it back. He probably put  it on my tab too." He shook his head slowly, a small smile on his face.  "As for your cousin, I can ask around. The whole demon look is less  distinctive here than you might imagine, but it's not exactly the  majority either, so there's that. Do you happen to have any idea where  in the Nightside she's been? A place to start would give me a trail to  follow, which will really cut down on our work."

I took  that to mean he was taking the job, which was...nice. I was pretty sure  he was doing it for John. They seemed to dislike each other much less  than their words might lead you to believe. I'd seen the dynamic before.  I didn't bring Kit's letter, but I had a photographic memory so I  didn't need it. I scanned back over it in my mind, recalling all the  details. But there hadn't been any specific places mentioned. She just  said she was in trouble and asked me to come find her, and that she'd  explain when I got here. Suspicious maybe, but the page had been stained  with her aura and the handwriting matched so who I wasn't about to  ignore her.

Seeing that I had  nothing to contribute Taylor sighed. "I was afraid of that." He slipped  out a pack of cigarettes, tapping one out and then lighting it, taking a  long drag and then smiling mockingly across the bar at John before  looking back at us. "Sorry, inside joke. Junior hates my brand. He  smokes those appalling Silk Cut abominations. If you don't want tar in  your lungs why bother? Anyway, I can ask around with a few friends to  try to get a lead on your cousin. It would help if you knew why she was  here...any idea? The Nightside isn't exactly the preferred vacations  destination for honeymooning teens."

That  I had no answer to. The only thing I'd heard about Kit since being back  was that she helped out the League while we were gone before vanishing  and that she'd been upset by our disappearance. She had to know we were  back if she sent that letter though, so other than that I had no idea. I  just shrugged. "I heard something about her boyfriend being kid of  demonic too like I said? Maybe it had something to do with that? Is  there any place in the Nightside where you could find someone who deals  with demons?"

Taylor  actually burst out laughing, cackling so hard he choked on his  cigarette and had to pound the table, coughing and hacking for about a  minute before he could breathe again. "A place...gods kid, that might be  the funniest thing I've heard all night. You should do stand up. You  can't spit in the Nightside without hitting some kind of demon spawn,  though admittedly some of them are kind of into that. But no, that  doesn't narrow things down at all. Can you get me any information on  exactly WHICH demon they might have been asking about?"

I  looked at Jim, who had been pretty quiet. "You were around at the time  boss. You ever meet Kit's boyfriend?" I blinked, realizing I hadn't  introduced him, or any of us actually. I turned back to Taylor and  offered my hand. "Oh, and sorry I forgot to introduce myself. Morgan  O'Malley, that's Artemis, Dreamer, and Zatanna. This is Jim Craddock,  the Gentleman Ghost." I figured Taylor might know Jim given he was from  London and Jim was kind of a big deal, but he completely ignored the  specter as he stared at Zee.

He  swallowed hard. "You're Sindella's girl." Zee's eyes widened, and she  wasn't alone, all of us were shocked by his knowledge of Zee's mother  and by his tone. "I knew Sin when she was younger. She spent time here  when I was growing up. We were...we were good friends. I was devastated  to hear of her passing. I'm sorry for your loss." His voice was thick as  he spoke about the departed woman, and I was pretty sure they had been  more than friends, not that I would bring it up.

Zee  was...floored. She'd always avoided talking about her mother for too  long. She'd loved her fiercely, but her dad had made it a taboo subject  when she was growing up and she'd never lost the mentality. Aside from  the occasional brief mention she hardly ever brought the woman up. "Hi.  I...thank you. I didn't realize there were any of her old friends still  around. I'd love to hear some stories about her sometime. If we get the  chance. But for the moment I'm just really worried about my friend. Can  you help us find her?"

Zee  was a hard person to say no to at the best of times, and despite her  obvious changes and inhuman nature Taylor still clearly saw at least a  bit of her mother in her if the grief that flashed across his face was  any indication. He nodded. "Yes. I can do that." I wondered briefly what  he was feeling, and considered opening my aura sight, but as usual  since coming here I got the impression it would be extremely unwise. I  had a feeling that I might see things here I could never unsee, and I  had enough of that shit after I saw inside Gilotina.

Jim  spoke up, taking the whole reveal of Taylor knowing Zee's mother in  stride. "If you don't have any ideas on a starting point I may. I have  an old friend in town that I haven't seen in quite some time. He tends  to have a finger on the pulse of whatever area he might be in. I suspect  if he is around he'd have a decent idea of how we can proceed." He  folded his hands on the table, leaving his cane literally standing on  its own in midair.  "So, do you know where we can find Julian Advent?"