Sors

Sors

Constantine sat perched on a ledge, watching a young woman begin to approach one of the creatures in the alleyway below. His eyes traced her steps and the creature of the darkness’ movements, but not once did he move. The darkness of the night cloaked his figure, making him invisible to anyone who dared to search for him, or any member of his group, The Obelix.

Normally, Constantine would step into a situation like this, put an end to it before it could start. This time was different, however. It was a hunter who claimed fame, stole kills from other people or claimed kills that weren’t hers. He wanted to see if she could handle a demon on her own, but it seemed that it wasn’t the case.

Almost immediately he could tell that she’s never even seen a demon before. The way she walked was too confident like she expected the mutilated creature to back down as soon as they saw her. The young woman strode forward, a small smirk on her face as she stared down the creature, though behind that smirk, he could see the fear in her eyes. It was an understandable fear, after all, demons were horrifying creatures.

Most demons leaned forward with a crooked back, standing at about six feet tall, even though they were bent so far forwards. If they were to stand up straight, Constantine was sure that they would be eight feet tall. They had arms that were far too long for their bodies, with claw-like fingers, ready to tear at anything that dared to get close to them. Their skin was a bright pink, almost like it had been rubbed raw with sandpaper, and it was covered in grotesque bumps and oozing cuts. Their faces were the worst of all, with skin that had grown over their eyes and noses, the only orifice on their face remaining was their mouth. Hanging out of a demon’s mouth was a long, lizard-like tongue, always dripping with a sickening yellow acid, a low hiss sounding every time a drop hit the ground. Beyond the tongue was two rows of razor sharp teeth, stained from the blood they consumed. They were ready to tear at flesh at any given moment.

“I’m not afraid of you! I’ve defeated so many of you before! Back down while you still have a chance!.” The woman proclaimed, having gone closer to the demon, her voice clear but shaky. Her confident figure was now beginning to droop in fear, and the demon began to crouch down, already figuring out where she was. It was ready to pounce on her and claim her as dinner. Constantine only rolled his eyes at her show of bravado, knowing it would get her nowhere in life.

Instead of judging the woman, as silently as he could, as to not draw the demon's attention away from the woman, Constantine unsheathed his sword. His eyes focused on the demon now as she readied his weapon, prepared to launch into action.

Almost as soon as Constantine pulled his sword out, the creature lunged for the woman, flinging its hand towards her arm, ripping through her shirt and just barely nicking her arm as she jumped backward. Seeing this, Constantine quickly made his way down from his perch and landed silently behind the demon. He darted forward and sliced his sword through the demon’s middle in one fluid movement. When the monster hit the ground, he impaled it through the chest with his sword and repeated a Latin verse he had been taught years before.

The demon that had been moving around only moments before went deathly still. Slowly, Constantine removed his blade, watching the demon crumble to dust before turning to the woman. She stared at him wide-eyed, clutching her bleeding arm, not believing the sight before her. Although she claimed fame from being a demon killer, she had never seen one killed before, much less actually seen a demon before. Constantine looked over at the woman, noticing that she took a shaky breath and slowly moved towards him.

“I… I really should thank you for killing that demon…” She bit her lip before pausing and straightening out. “But I had it handled. You had no need to jump in and stop me.” Letting out a small huff, she moved closer. “And before you say it, no I do not need to go to the hospital. If I go, my reputation will only be ruined.” She turned around before casting a glance back at him to see Constantine’s reaction. He didn’t feel much besides minor annoyance at her attitude, and it showed on his face. Despite the mask that was covering up half of his face, his eyes clearly showed his annoyance and displeasure with the situation.

Constantine only rolled his eyes at her behavior. If she didn’t go to the hospital and get proper treatment, more likely than not, it would get infected. God knows where a demon stuck their claws (no pun intended). Instead of letting her stay, however, without a word he just pulled down the fire escape and gestured for the obviously over pampered woman to climb up the ladder.

“You still need to get that treated, and if you don’t want to go to a hospital, I know someone who could fix that up for you.” He said softly, his voice carried over to her through the gentle night breeze. The woman hesitated for a minute before giving a small nod, climbing up the ladder. Constantine followed after her, going over the wall only a few seconds later. He could see the fact that the woman was unnerved by the action of jumping over the wall onto the concrete below. To try and ease her fears and make sure she didn’t further injure herself in the jump, he moved over to about where she would land and braced himself to catch her. When he did, she stiffened very quickly, her eyes shut tight. After only a few minutes, she peeped an eye open.

“Oh? Um…” Her face went dark red and she quickly jumped out of Constantine’s arms. “I’m good. I’m good.” She said, shuffling her feet slightly. “So… fixing up my arm?” She gave a small smile and batted her eyes at Constantine, trying to achieve a doe-like like appearance from what Constantine could guess.

He only gave a small sigh, shaking off her attempt at flirting, before pulling down another fire escape, gesturing for her to climb up it. She only let out a small sigh, looking at him. “Not much of a talker, huh?” Following quickly after her question to Constantine, he watched her climb up the flights of stairs, only stopping she heard him call out a fairly loud stop to her. He walked over past her and to the window on the floor that they were at. He had been here so many different times, with different people, or just by himself, that he had memorized which floor on the fire escape he needed to stop on. Constantine rapped on the window twice quickly, one softly, and four times in a slow succession of each other. He moved his hands away and waited for someone to run over to the window and open it.

Almost on cue, a pudgy little man in robes ran over to the window and threw it open. “Cons-” He sounded over enthusiastic before stopping himself, seeing the woman next to him. “Oh. You brought a friend…” He suddenly sounded disappointed before shaking it off. “What brings you here? Master is sleeping.” The man said, crossing his arms, looking suspiciously at the two of them. Constantine only rolled his eyes at the man acting so suspicious of the pair, though he couldn’t say that he blamed him.

“Demon attack.” He replied, trying to keep the conversation as short as he could. “Go wake up Abel then, Rocki.” He said briefly. If he was being honest with himself, he was quite disturbed by Rocki. As far as he was aware after he had been caught in the middle of two demons fighting a few months back, Rocki had not once left the infirmary room that Abel had stashed in one of his apartment rooms. He wasn’t sure why Rocki had chosen to stare at his unconscious form, but it creeped him out nonetheless. Then again, Rocki creeped everybody out. He just… stared… at everyone.

Rocki gave a small sigh and moved away a few seconds later. “Go sit on the couch. I will go get Master Abel.” He said, scuttling away off into the darkness of the apartment. Constantine moved inside, helping his female companion inside, closing the window behind himself. Carefully, trying to make as little noise as possible, the two of them made their way over to the couch. Almost immediately, the woman collapsed on the couch, breathing a sigh of relief. Constantine only cast a brief glance at her, continuing to stand. He hadn’t planned on visiting Abel today, but he looked forward towards seeing the priest nonetheless. It had been a rather boring day, and seeing Abel would be a highlight of the day.

“Maria.” The woman voiced aloud, giving a small sigh. “My name is Maria.” She clarified when Constantine looked over at her, confusion clouding his features. “Just so you have something to call me by. And may I have your name?” She sat up and leaned forward, watching Constantine. He could see the curiosity flooding her features, just waiting to see his reply.

“Good to know you have a name, Maria.” He said softly, looking from her to around the room, going back into the silence that the room rested in before. It was a comfortable silence for him, but for other people, maybe not so much.

“Do you not have a name?” She prodded, nudging his shoe.

“Not one that you need to know.” He responded curtly, moving away from her.

“Oh. Right… the whole ‘name has power’ thing.” She gave a small chuckle, watching him. “You know that’s all a load of horse dung, right?” Constantine chose to not reply to her, instead focusing his eyes on the taller man that had walked in the room.

“He’s not exactly the best conversation partner.” A smooth voice with a rough edge called out, the lights in the room flicking on. “I know you like darkness, ‘Tine, but do you always have to sit in here with the lights out?” The man gave a small sigh, shaking his head. Constantine watched Abel’s black hair shake back and forth slightly, disheveled from the fact that he had been asleep.

“I feel comfortable in the darkness,” Constantine mumbled softly. He had always been intimidated by Abel. Yet, at the same time, he found an extreme attraction to him. He cast his glance down before feeling a gentle hand under his chin, lifting his face up to meet green eyes speckled with brown, a warm feeling spreading throughout his chest as he did his best to keep a dark blush from filling his face.

“If that’s so, we could turn the lights off again, after your friend here gets fixed up,” Abel said soft enough that the two of them could hear. Constantine knew he was lingering too long, but couldn’t help but wish that the black haired man had stayed longer. He watched his friend get to work quickly, pulling out his medical kit and removing Maria’s sleeve, despite how much protesting she put up. “When is the last time that you got only sleep ‘Tine? You look like a drowned kitten.” He said, disinfecting the wound.

Constantine only gave a small shrug, watching Abel at work. He didn’t give a verbal reply, but he knew that the other man got the signal. He turned around before walking into the kitchen, getting himself a glass of water. From the kitchen, he could hear Maria and Abel speaking softly.

“Why’d he just leave?” Maria’s voice rang out in the silence of the rest of the house.

“Probably just thirsty. He knows where the kitchen is.” Abel said before quickly changing subjects. “Anyways, you won’t need any stitches. Just let me finish bandaging this up and you’ll be free to go. Change the bandages every day until it’s starting to scar over, then let it breathe.”

“Are you a priest?” She asked, clearly having heard his instructions, but wanting to hear more about him or Constantine.

“I am. Feel free to come to Church tomorrow. Saint Peter’s Church on 54th.” Abel replied, a smile clearly evident in his voice.

“Ah no.”

Constantine chose to stay in the kitchen for a bit longer, watching as it began to rain outside, a small sigh escaping his lips as he tugged his mask down. While he felt that it was a safety blanket, it was nice to take it off in a familiar place. Soon enough, he found himself drifting off in thought, and only a few minutes after, into sleep. Instead of falling over, however, he just laid down on the bench in the kitchen and dozed off quickly. Abel’s place was so relaxing. It confused him at first until he learned that Abel planted lavender and eucalyptus on purpose to make people feel relaxed. That and to make his more stubborn patients fall asleep faster. The only reason that Constantine had learned about this was because he was one of the more stubborn patients.

It wasn’t until he felt a shaking on his shoulder and he opened his eyes to darkness, that he realized he had fallen asleep on the bench. He thought he had been resting for a moment, turns out his brain took that as a chance to sleep.

“Alright, sleepy. Let’s get you to bed.” Abel’s soft voice rang out as Constantine let out a small groan in response. He felt somebody pick him up and figured it was Abel judging by the smell of pine. He only snuggled closer to the scent and to the soft cloth before falling asleep again. His dreams, which were usually plagued with nightmares, were only filled with that of a peaceful forest of pine trees and chickens.