Hellblazer #263 March 2010). John finds his path crossing with Epiphany once more as the hunt for Colonel Burke approaches its conclusion. Meanwhile, the Mumbai police continue their investigation.
Plot summary[]
John opens his hotel door to find not Phoebe but Epiphany waiting for him - it turns out that she had been getting messages from The Sadhu telling her that she was needed in Mumbai. Together they visit the old man, who says that they are entering 'Kali Yuga', the age of the demon. Constantine angrily says that The Sadhu was supposed to bring back his young woman, not Epiphany, in exchange for his help, and the shaman says that the demon is still alive...
Out in the rain, Dev and Singh watch Constantine and Epiphany leaving the old man's shack. Singh says that he wants to move on Constantine to find out how he did his vanishing act the previous day, but Dev elects to tail them, hoping that the story will become clear. Constantine, sensing that they're being watched, flags down a taxi.
Outside Vikram's studio, Meeta is joyfully telling her friend in the UK about her first day at the studio when she suddenly stops, drops the phone and opens her now-hollow eyesockets to the sky. Inside, Vikram receives a phone call from Charles Pankhurst-Hawke to make sure that the director is treating Colonel Burke properly, but he hangs up and swears that Burke will not get Meeta. He's too late, however: the possessed girl is already lurching away into the rain.
In his room, John and Epiphany are looking up ways to tackle Burke, but John isn't sure he knows how to go about it at all. After a little flirtation with John, Epiphany heads out for a meeting with Mrs Williams, an elderly woman. Pretending to be making a documentary, Epiphany cons her way into Mrs Williams' home to find out about the old woman's great-grandfather: Colonel Burke.
Vikram buys the farm
Burke, meanwhile, has been contacted by Vikram up on his rooftop. Vikram begs him to give Meeta back, offering a hundred other girls in return. But Burke says he'll only give Meeta back if Vikram gives him his own mother. Vikram almost agrees, but realising what a monster he has become, he changes his mind and pulls out a gun. The bullets whistle through Burke harmlessly. There is a brief, terrible pause and then Vikram's guts burst out of his stomach, held up by Burke's sword. Minutes later, Constantine enters the scene and finds a photo of Meeta in Vikram's jacket.
Charles is busily packing money into a briefcase when Constantine turns up to question him. It turns out that Charles was procuring pure young women from his flocks to give to Vikram so that he could in turn offer them up to Burke. But with Vikram now dead, Burke is like a mad dog off a leash - and potentially the harbinger of Kali Yuga, the age of the demon.
Soon Constantine is in the alley where the last girl was attacked, his torso covered in the Burke-summoning bindi paint and the picture of Meeta in his hand. The young boy he met the previous night runs up and says that he's found something nearby. Constantine follows him and finds that the 'something' is Meeta's horrendously mutilated body lying in an open sewer. As he climbs out he finds the boy gone and a gun-wielding Dev and Singh waiting for him...
Continued in Hellblazer issue 264.