weehee (:
just read finish Constantine (:
**
He looked up as Satan reappeared in front of him. A glare of impatient expectancy from the First of the Fallen.
Constantine gave him the look that said: You owe me.
Satan knew it was true. He was at a metaphysical disadvantage if he let Constantine restore balance in his kingdom for him. He had to take authority back by paying off the debt. It was just another law of spiritual phsyics.
"So...what do you watn?" Satan demanded, his voice taut with impatience. "An extension?"
The weakness of blood loss was making Constantine feel like his face was made of soft lead;his lips were too heavy to move. He managed to say, "Isabel..."
Even in Hell, it's all about context. Satan knew who he was talking about. "What about her?"
"Let her...go home..."
Satan wasn't easy to suprise. But Constantine had genuinely suprised him. "You would give up your life so she could go to Heaven?"
Constantine managed a nod.
And Satan was pleased. Constantine wasn't asking for his own life. Thaat meant that Satan could have Constantine to play with, and right away. Satan disliked delaying gratification. And he would get far more personal satisfaction from torturing Constantine than playing with Isabel, whom he scarcely knew.
"Fine," Satan said.
There was a pause. Things were done, invisibly, in the space of that pause.
**
i like this bit of the book best. there's still more. but neways. today training was super slack (:
**
Things were accomplished, in that pause, after Satan said, Fine.
A spirit was released from Hell-and found itself in Heaven, where there was celebrtion at her arrival, and in many things came clear to her at last...
"Welcome, Isabel," said her grandmorhter. "Welcome, my darling. I'd like you to meet some friends of mine-and I don't think you ever met your grandfather...Oh-and here's a friend of a friend. His name is Chaz..."
**
I dunno why. this above part seems kinda amusing to me. heh...
**
"...it's done," Satan finished. He looked at Constantine-and it was a look that contained a continuum of torment. "Time to go."
Constantine nodded. Al l he could manage. Lifted oen hadn, just a little, toward Satan-to show his readiness.
Satan reached down and took his hand, pulled him toward him, toward the doors. On the other side of the doors was something other than more hospital. It was a now a doorway to Hades.
Satan drew Constantine after him...
...but the corridor seemed to stretch out on the way to the door. They couldnt' seem to get there. They moved, and yet the door remained the same distance away. They weren't relaly going anywhere at all.
Constantine's other hand lifted up-something was pulling him in another direction. Away form Hell. Constantine's other hand was held by someone else.
His hand was in God's.
Satan dropped Constantine's hand-recoiling in ineffable, infinite, space-spanning anger.
"The sacrifice!" Satan roared. Realizing that Constantine's willingness to sacrifice himself for Isabel had been noticed: had saved him. Constantine was dying, nearly dead-but he wasn't goign to Hell. He was going to Heaven. Satan was to be cheated.
Satan shook his fist at the light shining from above. "No! This one belongs to me!"
**
fast forward a little...
**
Satan combusted with rage, lifting his fists and igniting into a figure of fire. He pointed a flaming finger and Constantine. "You will live, John Constantine! You will live so you will have the chance to prove that your soul truly belongs in Hell. Damn you-you will live!"
Satan plunged his blazing etheric hand into Constantine's body, deep into his breast, lifting him up off hte floor with the thrust.
Constantine screamed in agony as Satan scooped the cancer from his lungs, ripping out a mass of diseased tissue with a nasty yank, trying to make it as painful as possible. He realeased Constantine...
...and Constantine dropped to the floor in a heap.
On his hands and knees, Constantine felt strength pour into him. He took a deep breath...filling healthy lungs for the first time in years.
He looked at his wrists. They had sealed up-he was healed top to bottom. Satan had given him a new lease on life-but he'd done it only so that he could one day try to get an eviction.
Constantine heard Satan's voice in his mind as the dark angel went through the door, back to brood at home-and to beat his son.
**
fast forward a very little bit more...
**
And then Satan was gone-as much as he ever is.
Constantine looked around. Didn't see any heavenly glows. Didn't feel that divine touch that'd been so exquisite, moments ago. God was gone too.
But then again-He never is.
**
nice (:
matatoduo;
