I shivered as my assignment's blood flowed towards me. I wanted to move away, but my loyalty to Constantine told me to stay put. I placed my hand on his shoulder, trying to think of something to say as Constantine's head rolled back to rest against the doors. Nothing came to mind, so I remained quiet.
"You don't have to be strong for me," John murmured.
"Shhh," I hushed him. "Yes I do, John. It's my job." I felt afraid, no… terrified. A phrase began to repeat myself over and over in my brain; "This has to be done. This has to be done. This has to be done…"
I saw a flash of Gabriel removing the Spear of Destiny from his belt. "Mammon, son of Satan, I unleash you unto this world," he declared.
Those words chilled me. I saw Mammon push his hands out, stretching Angela's skin, ready to break through. I blinked my eyes and looked up at the light above us. I was grimly pleased to see it begin to flicker and become dimmer. I began to feel time slow down. It reminded me of our visit to Hell.
"Here he comes," I whispered. My breath quickened as I fought to keep my panic down. It would not help Constantine if I freaked out. His head rolled forward, staring at the ground.
I knew that by this time, Gabriel would have the Spear of Destiny raised above Angela. I was comforted by the fact that if time stopped here, it would stop in the rest of the building too. Constantine was counting on this for his drastic and unorthodox plan to work.
The tick of Constantine's watch gradually slowed…and finally stopped. A small gasp escaped my throat. This was it.
We waited for what felt like an agonising long time, though it was only a few moments. I watched a sizzling drip of hot tar fall form somewhere up above. It landed a few meters in front of us. I could feel the presence of an evil so deep, so utterly complete and final that it chilled me to the bone. More splotches of tar dropped to the wet floor as a pair of bare feet descended after them. Satan came down in a pose like Christ on the cross. He was dressed in a smart white suit and looked human. However, upon closer examination you could see that he wasn't quite right. He looked sickly and had no eyebrows. Veins stood out sharply on the side of his face. Hints of dark tattoos peaked out from under the Devil's sleeves and shirt collar. His feet and the cuffs of his trousers were covered in the tar. I assume he needed it to walk comfortably on Earth.
Constantine looked up at the demonic newcomer. "Lu. What took you so long?" he demanded. I felt a brief shot of pride for my assignment. It took real guts to face the Devil with a question like that.
"Hello, John," Lucifer greeted, like they were old friends. His voice was as oily as the tar on his feet. "John, hello." He lifted the chair Constantine had used when addressing the half-breeds and placed it right in front of John. He sat down on it.
A sudden feeling of nausea washed over me. I swallowed hard and gave the Devil my darkest look. If he tried to do anything to my assignment, I would certainly give my all to stop him even though I knew my powers no where near matched his. Despite this, I was still invisible to Satan. I have never been so thankful to be invisible in my life.
He looked at Constantine with just a hint of admiration. "You're the one soul I would come up here to collect myself. Mm-hmm," he said, nodding. Lucifer burst into a sarcastically enthusiastic round of applause. Even his feet danced in excitement. We all knew Lucifer wouldn't drag himself up here for just anyone. Constantine was very special to him, although that wasn't necessarily something to be proud of.
Constantine had heard it all many times before. It was the whole reason why an unhealthy proportion of his blood was now on the tiles of the hospital. "So I've heard," he said, deadpan. "You mind?" He reached into his pocket for a cigarette and his lighter. I frowned at the gesture, but just like all the other times he did it, I let it slide.
"Oh, go - go right ahead. I've got stock," Lucifer said, looking around the room.
Constantine weakly raised the cigarette packet with the end of a fresh smoke poking out. "Coffin nail," he remarked, and pulled the cigarette out with his numb lips.
"Very fitting, John," Satan commented, adjusting his suit and smiling.
Constantine tried to light the smoke but he couldn't seem to make his fingers work. The lighter fell out of his hand. He sighed in frustration.
"You know, when you cut too deep, you cut the tendons and finger movement goes right out the window," Satan told him. I sighed softly and squeezed Constantine's shoulder. Of course the Devil would know all about that. He leaned forwards off the chair and picked up the lighter. I flinched at his close presence. "Let me help you," he offered. Satan ignited a flame on the lighter and held it to Constantine's cigarette, but moved it away before John could light it. He moved the flame back and fourth, teasing him. I allowed myself to growl and Constantine gave him a dirty, withering look. Satan stopped fooling around and held the flame still for Constantine to light his smoke. He grinned broadly as my assignment took the first of his last puffs.
"See?" Satan violently snapped the lighter closed and my assignment and I flinched again. He tossed the lighter onto Constantine's slouched stomach near where a pocket would be and sat back on the chair. "Sonny, I've got a whole theme park full of red delights for you," Satan declared excitedly.
Constantine took the cigarette out of his mouth. "Well aren't you a peach," he responded unenthusiastically.
Satan considered his victim's bloody wrists for a moment. "I didn't think you would make the same mistake twice," he admitted.
Constantine said nothing. He inhaled on his cigarette, not breaking eye contact with his foe.
Satan's suspicions grew. He knew Constantine very well. "And you didn't, did you?"
Constantine averted the question and changed the subject. He didn't want Satan getting any closer to the truth of his plan. "So, how's the family?"
"Family's doing just fine," Lucifer responded, sounding like a regular Joe standing at the office water cooler. "Busy, busy, busy, busy, busy!" He smiled and snorted. "Need a vacation."
"Word is that kid of yours is a chip off the old block."
"Well, one does what one can."
Constantine made a slight gesture with his head towards the doors opposite. "He's in the other room."
Lucifer was nonplussed. He casually began rubbing his foot over Constantine's thigh, already starting to play with him. "Boys will be boys," he drawled. I growled at him again, repulsed.
Constantine was equally disgusted by Satan's touch. He managed to bend his knee, shifting his leg sightly away. "With Gabriel."
Satan wrinkled his nose. "Huh. No accounting for taste, really."
Constantine kept his voice level as he played his last card. "They have the Spear of Destiny."
I held my breath. We knew that Satan would be able to add that all up and know what it meant. The question was whether or not he had previous knowledge of this. If he did, that meant he approved of it and Constantine, the world, and I were all in seriously deep trouble.
"'They have the Spear of Destiny,'" Lucifer repeated in a cruel, mocking voice. He giggled, paused, and then laughed again. He leaned in towards Constantine, got right in his face and suddenly became dead serious. "Or is it another one of your cons?"
I let myself smile. "Yes! He hadn't known!" I cheered. Constantine would have been thinking similar thoughts. He hid this extremely well though. He even leaned his head forward a bit, to show that he wasn't afraid. It was a mighty display of bravado; more then I could have done in his situation. Of course I knew that's all it was; a show. Inside, Constantine was as terrified as I was.
"Go look for yourself," Constantine suggested.
Lucifer searched Constantine's eyes to see if he was lying, to find some rationale for going to see if he was telling the truth. The Devil seriously considered what would happen if he wasn't lying, if Mammon really was there with the Snob and the Spear…
"You've waiting twenty years for me, Lu," Constantine pointed out. "What's another twenty seconds?"
The Devil thought about it for another moment, and then suddenly lunged at Constantine. He snarled menacingly in his ear. Constantine and I jumped at the sudden movement. Constantine flinched and pulled his face away as much as he could. Satan's tongue darted out, flickered against Constantine's skin, then just as suddenly as he lunged forward, he was gone. I breathed for what seemed like the first time in many minutes as we watched the Devil stroll towards the doors. I squeezed Constantine's shoulder again.
"You did well," I told him. "I'm proud of you. You did better than I would have in your place."
"Yeah," he said softly. "But it's not over yet."
"I know." I looked back at Satan as he exploded the glass doors outward and stepped through the shards as they floated in slow-motion through the air. My body remained with Constantine, comforting him as much as I could, while my mind went with the Devil. Part of me really didn't want to miss his encounter with Gabriel.
In my mind I saw Satan continue to stroll towards the frozen scene in the hydrotherapy room. Bits of broken glass bounced off his shoulders as he saw Gabriel in the slow-motion process of bringing the Spear of Destiny down upon Angela's body. Mammon's hands were stretching the skin of the woman's stomach, reaching out for the world. Satan's face barely changed as he realised that Constantine was right. He slowly stepped up to Angela and placed his arm under her neck. He gently scooped her up and out of the way just as he let time start again.
The Spear of Destiny slammed into the tiles and lay imbedded there like a knife in a thick steak. Glass rained down around them and Gabriel stumbled back in shock, his wings spread to balance him. "Lucifer!"
My attention was briefly brought back to Constantine. When time continued moving normally, that meant that the blood also started to flow from his wrists again. He was near enough death as it was. Now each second brought him closer.
"It's okay," I told him. "Satan wouldn't let you die until he has a final word with you." John nodded slowly. He looked like he was fighting to stay conscious. "Stay awake, John!" I commanded him. "Stay awake for me. We're going to get through this. Just hold on a little longer." I watched him for a few moments to make sure he followed my orders, then I redirected my attention to the events in the hydrotherapy room.
Satan was holding Angela's prone body close to him. In their reflection on the wet tiles I could see that it wasn't Angela the Devil was holding, but an angry, snarling, squirming Mammon.
"This world is mine, in time," Lucifer told Gabriel. His tone was like a parent telling their child to wait in line and be patient. "You best of all of us, Gabriel, should understand am-bition."
The angel was shaking, mostly out of fear, I suspected. Or possibly anger. "Son of perdition," he said, using the title as an insult. "Little horn." Satan smiled and giggled like it was a favourite old joke he hadn't heard in years. "Most unclean."
"Mmm. I do miss the old names," Satan admitted.
A flicker of a smile crossed my features. It was like water off a duck's back. Even I had to think, "Is that the best you can do?"
Satan snarled in Angela's ear. "Time to go home, son."
Gabriel gathered his courage. He knew an opportunity like this would never come again. "I will smite thee in His honour!" He stood and swung his fist…only to have it stopped mere millimetres from the Devil's face. Gabriel was shocked. Satan's eyes looked Heavenward and he smiled wolfishly
"Looks like somebody doesn't have your back any more." He moved his hand in front of Gabriel's fist and pushed it away like an invisible force field was around him. I was pleased to see fear, real fear, in Gabriel's eyes.
A gale-force blast of hot air emanated from the Devil. He sent his son back into Hell to be punished at a later time. Gabriel closed his eyes as his wings began to incinerate. He asked for help one last time. "Father?" But God wasn't going to assist the angel now. Gabriel was blown back into the pool with a force that created a monster-sized splash. The entire building rumbled right down to the foundation. Mine and Constantine's hair and clothes flowed in the wind and a piece of glass from the door we were leaving against. I suddenly realised my mind was back with my body beside my stricken assignment.