Part XII: Prophecies
"Look, it really wasn't my fault. I told her you had the gift, too, that's all. She didn't take it well." Chas was the picture of contrition, and John looked…well, more than slightly annoyed, was how Chas would classify it. "John? John, speak to me, man!"
John raised an eyebrow at Chas, who was sinking to his knees in conviction, and snorted.
"Get up."
Chas stood, brushing himself off.
"Sorry."
John rolled his eyes and started across the street.
"John? John, wait up." Chas trotted after him.
Angela pulled up next to Midnite's and parked her black dodge. She opened her door, and got out, pointedly staring at Jade, who was still sitting in the car.
"What?" Jade asked insolently, "They're not here."
"How do you know?"
"Taxi's gone."
"Oh. I guess…that makes sense."
"Yeah."
Angela bit her lip. What is it with the Constantine family and that biting cynicism? She thought to herself, debating whether or not to get back in the car.
"You know what?"
Jade stared straight ahead.
"No."
Angela sighed.
"I need to see Midnite quick, anyway, do you want to come? Or would you rather stay in the car?"
Jade continued to stare into the distance, resolutely.
"…Right. I'll be back in a second."
Jade unbuckled her seatbelt and opened the passenger-side door.
"…Or, you can come with me."
Jade gave her a curt nod, her expression carefully blank.
"I need to see Midnite, too," she replied simply, and strode across the street. Angela closed her door and clicked the lock button twice, before hurrying to catch up with Jade. It wasn't much past dark, but there were already regulars heading into the club. Angela could see their eyes gleam in the moonlight, and shuddered as a mass of demons came slithering past her. Jade ignored pretty much everyone and everything, looking haughty and arrogant and unimpressed.
She looks like John, Angela noted, when he's trying to not be scared.
"Detective…" A hiss over her shoulder, and Angela turned, startled. Jade turned, as well, only she managed to make it deliberate and calm. It was as though her earlier tears had left her devoid of any emotion or response. A young woman stood beside them, with mid-waist blonde hair and gleaming blue eyes.
"So you're the exorcist's pretty little thing…" The demon's lips curled in a slight sneer. "I can't account for his taste…" she whispered, hissing her s's slightly.
"I'm sorry." Angela stood her ground, slowly reaching for the gun around her waist, but the demon placed a long-nailed hand on her wrist.
"Don't bother, I'm not here to cause trouble, dear," she hissed softly, "I just wanted to…meet you."
Angela went rigid as the demon brought a hand to her cheek and stroked it in a disturbingly loving manner.
"Well, nice to meet you, then," she muttered, and moved to leave.
"Ashtaroth," the demon chuckled, "my name is Ashtaroth. Remember it."
Angela nodded curtly.
"Ashtaroth."
The demon's gleaming eyes flickered back toward Jade, who was still standing off to the side. Her hand drew back sharply from Angela's cheek.
"The prophecy!" it hissed, recoiling slightly.
Angela glanced over her shoulder at Jade, and back to the demon, which looked more wary than lazily seductive as it had before. It took all of a minute for it to recompose itself, however, and it flashed her one more lazy grin before jaunting off, heels clicking against the pavement.
Angela blinked at Jade for a second, who stared mutely back. Angela opened her mouth to ask, but then shook her head.
"Nevermind. Let's…drop in for a second."
Jade didn't show any response, but followed Angela into the club.
John was flipping absently through a book, reading a couple of sentences and then moving to the next page, occasionally pausing to take a sip of whiskey. Chas was pacing before the many-windowed side of his apartment, sighing heavily, wings flexing distractedly.
"John? Do you think she'll come back?" Chas asked, for about the fifty-eighth time in the past half hour.
John didn't look up from his reading material, and offered the same answer as he had fifty-seven times earlier, "Don't know, kid."
"John?"
John grunted, and turned a page.
"John, this is kind of important."
John grunted again, took a sip of whiskey, and turned another page.
"John this is really important."
John looked up this time, but only to pour himself some more whiskey, gave Chas a measuring glance, and then turned back to his book, grunting yet again.
"John, I think she's part of a prophecy."
John's head snapped up.
"What?"
Chas was leaning over the table, angel eyes boring into him.
"I said, I think she's part of a—"
John cut him off with a wave of his hand.
"I know what you said, kid. What do you know about a prophecy? How do you know about a prophecy?"
Chas shrugged.
"I read, John."
John gave him an indignant look, and gestured at the book lying in front of him.
"No, John, I actually read."
John rolled his eyes, and leaned back in his chair, giving Chas center-stage. Chas sighed.
"I read about it somewhere…it's called the Prophecy of Laodicea. I thought it was about you for a little bit, but then that didn't make sense, because—well, look." Chas picked up a pen lying next to John's book and flipped to the back cover of the book, where there was enough blank space for him to write. "The prophecy's fulfillment is the most important in all of history—it determines which way the apocalypse goes, in the direction of Revelations from the Bible, or Revelations from the Bible of Hell." John raised an eyebrow, but Chas could tell he was at least mildly impressed.
Chas started to scribble down the words, and John read them upside down.
"When the fires have been breached by the son of God for the second time, he will call upon Satan to bring down his own brethren. If the son has both divinity in friends and truth in blood, he shall succeed in bringing about Hell's suppression; However, if his blood sways in unity, Lucifer shall grasp the son in his fiery jaws, and Hell will rule eternal."
Chas sat back, pleased with himself. John cocked his head, and then frowned at Chas.
"Are you sure this is real?"
"Who's the angel, here, buddy? Who sits in the car all day and reads?"
John nodded, and flipped the book over so he could further ponder the words.
"What the fuck made you think it was about me?"
"Well," Chas said, using his pen as a pointer, "see how it talks about breaching the fires of Hell for the second time? You did that…you died twice. Also, you called upon Satan to bring down Mammon, his own brethren." Chas paused to take a breath, but started up again before John could say anything.
"Now, see how it talks about divinity in friends and truth in blood? I think divinity in friends refers to me, and Gabriel, and any other angel friends you might have lying about…and truth in blood could mean your sister. Someone whose blood was linked to yours."
"I had parents, Chas," John looked unimpressed.
"No, see, that's what's great about this! It's translated from Latin, and in Latin, the word for 'true' means 'real', 'complete', and 'entire'. So, parents wouldn't work, because you only have one half of their heritage. No, these words were definitely referring to a sibling—like Jade."
John nodded reluctantly; so far it was making a semi-sense. He grabbed the pen from Chas and underlined the last part.
"…if his blood sways in unity, Lucifer shall grasp the son in his fiery jaws, and Hell will rule eternal…Now, what does this mean?"
Chas blinked, and perused the circled words briefly.
"Well, the last part just says that if Hell succeeds, Satan will rule the earth."
"I could have guessed that, thank you, Chas, and the rest?"
"I…I don't know."
"What do the books say?"
"The books…well," Chas chuckled, "The books are sort of…ambiguous on the matter."
"Ambiguous? I thought this was the most famous prophecy in history?"
"Right, so there're a lot of people trying to analyze it. Lots of room for interpretation."
John's eyes narrowed dangerously. "And what do the books say?"
"They're…slightly different from my interpretation," Chas offered meekly. "But I promise, I'm right!"
John closed the cover of the book and tossed it across the room.
"Right. So you actually have no idea if the prophecy is about me, or not. In fact, it's probably not, is it?"
"Well…that…is what the books would say. Actually, they say it's about the Son of Man. You know, Jesus."
John sighed.
"Just as well. I don't need that much pressure, anyway. But now we're right back at the beginning." He gulped down the rest of his whiskey. "I'm going to bed." He got up and dumped the glass in the sink.
"Wait, John," Chas started, as John walked into the bedroom area and slammed the partition, "John, I seriously think we should look at that prophecy! Really! And what about Jade?"
He got no answer.
Insane, John was thinking to himself, All of them, Midnite, Chas, the prophets. Where are Beeman and Hennessy when I actually need them? He grunted to himself, turned off the lamp, and went to sleep.