Does Your Soul Remember Mine

Chapter 11: Secrets

The sunrise was extra beautiful that morning. It peaked over houses in the cloudless sky. It wasn't just the colorful sky that made the sunrise beautiful, it was the husband and wife next door who gave each other a kiss before each getting into their own cars and heading off to work, it was the school bus lumbering by and the teenagers at the end of the block who were playing a game of basketball in their driveway before getting ready for school. It was life and all it entails while the sun rises for the day; but most of all… what truly made this sunrise the best one in nearly two-hundred years, was the man who was watching it with her.

Tony had his arms wrapped around her. Kissing her neck, he broke away. “I better get ready for work.” He looked down at her with loving eyes. “Shall we skip the café today and just have breakfast here?”

Elyse was already smiling but her smile got even wider. “I make a great omelet, but hey, today's Saturday?”

“Yeah, I just need to go into the office and make sure I have everything in order for the warrant to search Balon's property. I should only be a couple of hours.” After one more quick kiss, Tony walked back to the bedroom. “Make yourself at home, mi alma.”

She found the eggs easy enough but had to do a quick search in his fridge for the ham and cheese. “If only I had some mushrooms and peppers.” She muttered to herself.

I should make a grocery list… I'll probably be spending a lot of time here in the future….

The thought of how often she'd be here excited her so much that she grabbed a piece of paper and started her grocery list just to revel in the surreal fact of it all. Two perfect omelets and two more coffees were on the table by the time Tony came out to the kitchen, dressed in his usual suite and tie. “Did I hear you singing while you were cooking?”

Elyse winked. “Only after I heard you singing in the shower.”

Tony took a bite of his omelet. “This is a nice change of scenery; even without the hazelnut latte.”

Elyse smiled with a mischievous spark in her eye. “This is, most definitely, a nice change of scenery….” She took a sip of her coffee. Her voice was nonchalant. “Even without my binder of missing person reports that I write letters on the back of.” She sighed. “I guess the Bearer of Bad News Pen Pal won't be sending out any letters today.”

Tony coughed, nearly inhaling his bite of omelet. “YOU'RE the Bearer of Bad News Pen Pal?!?”

She leaned back into her chair and crossed her legs. “Now you know what I've been working on every morning while you sat across the table from me.”

Tony started laughing. It was a beautiful sound that made Elyse smile. He covered his mouth with his hands, laughing harder and harder until he sighed. “I should have known.”

They ate, drank, and talked, just like every other morning, except this time Elyse carried the conversation, telling tales of years gone past and adventures that sounded like they were pulled right out of a storybook. Tony looked like he dreaded having to leave. “What do ya think, should I call in sick today?”

Elyse walked over to his side of the table and sat on his lap. “I think we have your whole life ahead of us. We can finish this conversation some other day.”

He lifted her up as he stood, kissed her, and put her back down on her feet. “Stay as long as you want, and if you're not here when I get home, I'll call you tonight sometime.”

She watched him leave before turning to Constantine sulking in the corner. “Everything is going to be fine.” She assured him.

“I hope so.” He said.

Picking up her mug, she strode over to his computer.

“What are you doing?” Said Constantine.

“I'm going to see what else I can find out about his second life.” She looked over to Constantine. “I wonder if he has any pictures from his childhood on here. I've heard all the stories, but I want to see what it looked like, for him, growing up in the second millennia.”

Constantine stood behind her shoulder. “What if you come across pictures of his old girlfriends? Technically they're all mistresses.”

Elyse frowned; she hadn't thought about that. “Well… I can't pretend that there haven't been others… and I can't blame anyone for mistakes they didn't know they were making… so I guess I'll just have to not let them bother me.”

The computer turned on with a flick and she immediately went to files. Flipping through the pictures, it seemed as if she were going back in time. She saw pictures of him at the office Christmas party, a group picture of the investigation team before she joined, pictures of him with classmates during college and a few of him in a police officer's uniform, one with the caption “Night Shift Again Since I Have Class During the Day”.

He kept looking younger and younger. She saw him as a teenager in his high school graduation outfit, each prom picture dating back to freshman year. She couldn't help but smile at the little kid that was growing younger and younger before her eyes. By now she was looking at pictures before puberty, his cheeks were chubbier then, less like the chiseled jaw of the man she knew. Amongst the pictures were tons of home videos through which she learned his mother's Mexican accent and how his father had his witty sense of humor.

She clicked through to one video with the longest time signature of them all. Opening it, her heart dropped into the pit on her stomach. The camera was on a tripod pointing to a boy strapped down into a chair with two priests on either side.

The boy was growling while the older of the two priests spoke into the camera. “ We are here for the exorcism of ten year old Anthony.” Behind the priest, Elyse saw the boy raise his head and stare into the camera lens…with solid black eyes. “His mother states that she witnessed him open the door to two strange children with black eyes. Before she could reach the door to shut it, Anthony invited them inside, just as they requested. The mother states that she demanded the children leave, at which point, they disappeared into thin air and the color of her son's eyes that were originally… uh…” The priest looked at the notepad he was carrying. “Brown… soon became black within moments. The mother states that young Anthony began acting strange and tried to attack her and her husband. It took the both of them to wrestle him into this chair where they tied him down with belt straps and rope before calling our church.” The old priest cleared his throat. “We came as soon as we were prepared. The boy has been sitting here, without any change in his condition, for three hours.”

She noticed the rope burns on Tony's upper arms. Three hours….

HE was the child he told me about! The one example he knew of where someone survived letting in the black eyed kids!... IT WAS HIM!!!!

“It was him.” She said out loud to Constantine whom she could feel bracing himself on the back of her chair.

“I didn't know about this.” Constantine sounded angry… he rarely ever sounded angry.

The old priest went to stand beside the young priest and they both began chanting the rite of exorcism. Tony growled as the chair he was sitting in began to shake. Over an hour went by, the boy she now knew as Tony… the reincarnation of her Anthony… swore obscenities at the priests in a voice that wasn't his.

Finally, an exhausted look crossed his face, looking unnatural with those pitch black eyes. “I'll be back… someday.”

And with that, the chair stopped shaking, Tony stopped fighting with the bonds and became quiet; but what really made the priests start cheering was his eyes, now a familiar shade of brown and flecks of gold. Poor Tony was crying for his mom who soon came rushing in from another room off camera. The reunion was joyous, his father was crying and shaking the hands of the priests while blubbering thank-yous. The video ended.

“They didn't get the demon's name.” Elyse's voice was quiet.

“They don't ALWAYS need to.” Constantine was just trying to make her feel better, she could tell.

“We both know how much better they work when you get the name.” She looked up at Constantine. “Liberi left him and said he would return. The exorcism just hurt him… I doubt it was even good enough to prevent him from possessing him again.”

Constantine sighed a heavy sigh, squeezed his eyes shut before opening them slowly. “He got a hold of Tony when he was young and the most vulnerable. He got the permission he needed back then.” He met Elyse's worried gaze. “He was playing those priests for fools, he left, knowing he could come back anytime he wanted. He was WAITING for you.”

“But he didn't get him! He grabbed Alex instead.” Elyse's voice was sounding pitched.

“How could he get Tony?” Constantine clenched his jaw. “Tony was with us the whole time, even when the demons dragged him away we followed him immediately. Don't you see?” Constantine spread his hands out wide. “The black eyed kids only took Alex because he was an easier target at the time, an object of opportunity. He's waited all these years to get Tony again, showed up almost five months ago, which is the exact time you introduced yourself to Tony, to bait him. Then, the situation still wasn't perfect so he gets away… AGAIN… and now he's just waiting for the next opportunity.”

As if on cue, the phone began to ring. “Are you going to answer it?” Asked Constantine.

Elyse looked at him with a shocked expression. “What? Of course not! It's not my phone.”

The ringing ended and an answering machine picked it up. Elyse and Constantine listened to the message.

“Hey buddy, where are ya?” Said a deep voice. “I thought you were gonna come into the office today to finish up that paperwork on the Balon case.” The voice sighed. “Oh well, we were hoping we could do the search bright and early on Monday but I suppose we'll just have to do it Tuesday. Maybe next time you change your mind about coming in on a Saturday, just give us a heads up so we're not waiting for ya, 'k?”

The message ended with Elyse and Constantine gaping at each other. Jumping up from her chair, Elyse raced outside. “WAIT!” Constantine called.

Turning back to him, she said, “What?”

Constantine grabbed her hand and she felt a shock wave flow through her. “Now look, there, on the ground.” He said. “I'm allowing you to see them just for now.”

She did as she was told and saw why he'd stopped her. An angel lay broken and bleeding on the ground. It's breathes were shallow like it was dying. “Can you heal him?” Begged Elyse.

Constantine shook his head. “I don't have that power. All we can do is pray for him and hope that God allows him to stay on Earth.”

Elyse bit her lip. “I know we don't have time for this but we have to stop and do what we can. We can't just leave him this way.” Kneeling she put her hands over the dying angel, right next to Constantine's and began to pray.

When they were finished, she jumped into her car. Constantine's feathers still hadn't grown back yet so they couldn't fly, but he looked strong and ready for a fight if need be.

“You know that was Tony's angel, right?” He said.

She grimaced. “Yeah…. I figured.”

After a while following Tony's energy, she recognized where the demon had taken him. She passed those same twisted trees, now looking far more colorful in the sunlight. The weeping willows seemed to echo the despair she was feeling in her heart and she hoped beyond hope that they weren't too late. The broken and battered road twisted and turned, following the Bayou until she reached the house they were at the night before. She inhaled, held her breath, then exhaled before stepping out of the vehicle.

“I was wondering when you would show up.” Liberi was using Tony's voice, it only made her the more angry with the entity. He was standing, his back to her, facing the water's edge. “You know, our boss is giving a reward to whoever can finally bring you back home.” He lifted his hand as if he were examining his fingernails… except they were no longer fingernails, they were claws. Turning around slowly, Elyse saw her beloved Tony looking at her through evil black eyes, no… they were blacker than black, darker than dark, like the very hell that had swallowed her up once before. “Your quite the prize, my sweet.”

“You can't have him.” She was crying.

The demon inside Tony made him laugh. It was a mockery of the laugh that she'd once loved to hear. “Well I already have him…. Although, I would be willing to make a trade. His soul for yours.”

Elyse just glared at him, her fists clenched at her side.

Tony pretended to be surprised. “But… don't you love your Anthony more than yourself? Isn't that what you told us in hell? So if you have to choose between yourself and him, wouldn't you choose him?”

Elyse forced herself to look calm and confident, the only thing giving away her true feeling were the drops of tears rolling down her cheeks. “You see, Liberi….” He snarled at the use of his name. “I made a promise to someone else whom I care about more than myself.” Constantine puffed out his chest and ruffled his feathers at her mention of him. “And I'll never break my promise, so you see, even if I wanted to trade my soul for Anthony's, I couldn't, because I've got more people than just myself to think about.” She smiled a smile that failed to reach her eyes. “It's that kind of selfish thinking disguised as selflessness that got me into this mess in the first place.” She faked a look of shock. “But wait! I made another promise, didn't I Constantine?”

Her guardian angel stepped forward, blazing in all his glory. “Yes, I believe you did, my sweet. You promised that you wouldn't let them take neither you nor your husband.”

Elyse stepped forward, shrugging with her hands out like she was holding a pizza over each shoulder, as if to say “oh well”. “I guess we'll just have to fight you for Tony's soul, it's not a choice, really, I just can't let you have him.”

Tony was gritting his teeth so hard she was afraid the demon was going to make them break. “Can you fight all of us?” A crowd of demons seemed to come out from behind each tree. There were hell hounds with slobbering mouths and horns in unnatural places, some were covered with spikes.

“Just get Tony, don't worry about how bad they injure me… just get Tony.” For the first time, Constantine didn't follow her instruction. He just stared at her with the saddest look she had ever seen on his beautiful face. Her heart broke for him. “I'll be okay, I promise, I'll be okay.”

With a silent nod, Constantine raced forward, that very sad look still etched into his features. The hell hounds circled her as she steeled herself and prayed for the holy spirit, for the power to fend them off. One jumped at her but she ducked underneath it, slamming her palm into the ground while begging, in tongues, for the ground to become too holy for their unholy paws to step on.

A burst of light rippled out from where she stood, engulfing the hound soaring above her until it faded into a flash of more light. She counted the ones that were left.

Only five more to banish….

They pawed and howled at her from the edge of her invisible circle. Running forward, her hand shining bright with a white light, she swiped at one of the hounds. It dodged and the one next to it lashed out and nipped her arm. One tooth had found it's mark, ripping away her sleeve and puncturing her skin. She looked down to see blood running down her forearm, covering the scars on her bare wrist until they looked just as bloody as the day she made them.

Turning back to the evil canines, she walked right up to the edge. “C'mon puppy.” She said in a high pitched voice. One of the hounds snarled and took the bait, getting right up and personal to her on the other side of the invisible barrier. With a smile, she shot her hand out, embedding it into the hound's chest. She squeezed it's heart while it squealed and she spoke the words to damn it back to hell. In another flash of light, she was down to four.

She repeated the process four more times. Hell hounds were so stupid. The only bad part was how time consuming it was. She glanced occasionally at Tony and Constantine at arms with each other. Tony's claws had hit their mark a few times but Constantine had left a few burn marks of his own. If Constantine could fly, he would've had an advantage, instead, he was stuck fighting the demon possessed Tony on the ground.

She rushed over as fast as she could once the last hell hound had vanished. She could see from a far how tired each soldier was getting and how evenly they were matched. She was nearly there… so … so close…. Until she saw something that made her halt. Skidding to a stop, she felt as though she might faint, like her world was ending as she knew it and this must all be a dream.

Tony had struck out a clawed hand with lightning speed, driving it through Constantine's chest. Constantine froze, his jaw dropped and his eyes went wide as Tony pulled his beating heart from his very chest; the tips of his claws overlapping a millimeter at the ends, puckering the flesh slightly at the curved points.. He was laughing, the demon inside Tony, distracted by his momentary success. Constantine fell to his knees but muttered something under his breath. Reaching out, he grasped Tony's ankle as it was engulfed in a holy flame, burning the very darkness away.

Tony gasped as his black eyes grew frightened. She could see he was trying to resist, but he'd been caught off guard and was already so weak. “NNOOOOOOOOOOOO.” Was the awful cry from the two unison voices of the demon that held her husband hostage. She watched as flames appeared in the black of his eyes like a row of candles lit in a dark room existing behind his eye lids. She watched his aura burn away the darkness as a shadowy mass slinked out. It reformed into the two boys who were crawling now on their hands and knees. They only made it a few feet before disappearing in a flash of light; banished from Earth for the rest of eternity.

Tony was unconscious. He had fallen to the ground after the demon left him. Constantine, on the other hand, was awake but fading fast. She wasn't sure how long an angel could live without its heart. She rushed over, silent tears running down her face. She was too choked up for her sobs to make any sound. She tried to speak but couldn't.

His pale hand reached out to stroke her cheek. “We'll see each other again someday.”

“I'm sorry.” She finally let out. “I thought you were sad for me when I asked you to go after Tony. But… but you were sad for yourself.” Louds sobs finally made their way out of her lips.

“Yes.” Constantine had a flicker of pity in his eyes. “In all my years I've never faced a demon as strong as Liberi and I was sure I wouldn't be able to defeat him one on one…. My plan would've been for both of us to take on the hell hounds even though I know he only set them on us so he could make his escape. I knew my plan, if I had been the one to choose, would end up with him getting away again.” His smile looked proud. “You were right, again. You had me face him, you believed I could take him when I didn't believe it myself, and now there will never be another case of the Black Eyed Kids in the entire world.”

Elyse was shaking her head. “I feel like I failed you. I should've had you stay by my side and we would've had to just find him again later.”

Constantine looked appalled, his hand dropped away from her face. “There's no guarantee we would've ever found him again. He could've spend the next hundred years using Tony's body to get to you, to get you to give up yourself for him, that was his plan all along.” He grabbed her face again and planted a hasty kiss. “You didn't fail me. You kept every promise you've ever made. You didn't let them take you, you never left me, you didn't let them take Tony, and you continued to make the world a better place by ridding it of Liberi.” He shuttered. His aura was gone and he was looking paler by the minute. “You proved me wrong and I'm glad for it.”

Elyse tried to bring air into her lungs but her sobs were forcing her to take shallow breaths. “I… should've… kept you safe.”

Constantine smiled one last time. “You never promised to keep me safe.”

And then he was gone. A flash of light and there was no more evidence that he was ever there at all. Waterfalls still poured out from behind her eyelids until she felt her eyes turn bloodshot and swollen. Her arms hugged her body, as if she could stop herself from feeling more alone than she had felt since Anthony died.

But I wasn't alone then, not really, I just couldn't see my guardian angel….

She realized with a start that she wasn't alone now either… not really. Shifting around on her knees, she crawled to where Tony lay on the ground. She wasn't alone, she had her Anthony back. Without Constantine to heal him, she would just have to wait until he woke up on his own. She laid her head down on his shoulder. Beneath her, the grass was soft and beside her, Tony was warm. Where that morning's sunrise had been the best sunrise she had ever seen, that following sunset was the worst. She let herself drift off into merciful sleep, dreaming of days gone past with Constantine.

Morning light shone through her eyelids without a roof over their heads. Waking first, she didn't want to move; didn't want to admit to herself that yesterday had happened. Grief hit her like a wave and she was drowning in it, pulled under by the current she couldn't fend off. Like a life boat, Tony awoke beside her and hugged her close until the wave past.

He opened his mouth to say something but Elyse hushed him with a finger, telling him, “you don't have to explain.”

So instead of speaking, Tony simply closed his lips… over hers, and basked in the sunlight of the first day of the rest of their life.