Does Your Soul Remember Mine

Chapter 9: Fighting the Good Fight

"So what exactly do you DO?" Tony was eyeing the white binder Elyse had brought to breakfast.

With a smirk and a wink, she said, "I thought we were just going to stay silent in each other's company. After all, I wouldn't want to distract you from your work with small talk."

Tony's eyes narrowed. "Hmmm....Suit yourself."

Waiting until he flipped open his laptop and started typing, she unzipped the binder facing away from Tony so only she could see what was inside. There were about twenty missing person reports that she had printed off that morning, randomly selected from the national database; each one on a single page with the reverse side blank.

She had no job, never really needed one. Constantine would snap his fingers and make anything from food, to money, to furniture appear. Over the decades, she had grown several bank accounts in several countries along with a few very profitable investments. During hurricane Katrina, she spared no penny helping in any way that she could but it seemed that, no matter how much she spent, currency always seemed to flow back to her like the waves that once destroyed this great city.

On top off her investment incomes, Constantine had made millions of dollars appear out of thin air, hidden in secret under her stairs once her home was completed. Every two weeks she would deposit enough of the cash to cover all her bills and then some, telling the IRS every year at tax time that she was a successful artist who sold her very expensive paintings.

I can't very well drag an easel and paint brushes into this place of business just to have something to do....

She had to come up with something else, something she could quietly accomplish while she watched over the blissfully ignorant detective. And so, she held a hand over the first missing person's picture and asked Constantine, asked the ghosts that roamed around her, asked God in heaven to provide her with supernatural knowledge. The first was a boy, barely seventeen years old. She heard the whispers of his spirit tell his story....

He had ran away from his troubled home with some men he called friends. After an accidental overdose, his friends panicked and buried his body underneath a bridge of train tracks where the homeless people often loiter beneath in the dirt. For fear of getting into legal trouble, they kept their knowledge a secret and scattered as far away from their crime as they could. The poor boy told her how his parents had worried, how he tried to give them signs but instead of believing it was him trying to contact them, they thought they were going crazy and hired a therapist.

"I stopped talking to them after that...now I just watch." Said the boy.

How am I supposed to ask him questions if I can't speak out loud?...

She glanced over her binder at Tony, tapping away at his keys. A clink of a spoon against a mug, the stifled laugh of two friends sharing a joke, the hum of the air conditioner.... Quiet sounds that would usually be buried were well heard in this quiet place.

I see why he likes to do his work here....

She had to improvise.... On a spare square of paper, she wrote out her questions, mentally urging the spirit to read it and whisper its answers.

What are the names, phone numbers, and addresses of your friends?

"I'll need to get back to you...." The ghost boy left, she felt his absence only to feel his presence again when he returned about fifteen minutes later. Writing his answers down on the back of his missing person's report, she included the place he said his body was buried along with the words You're not crazy underlined at the bottom of the page.

She did her best to sketch the image he had put in her mind's eye of the place where he was laid to rest. She drew the train tracks on an overpass standing on pillars of metal and cement; she drew the weeds growing tall, hiding the unmarked grave dug so many years earlier; she even sketched the buildings in the background. Addressing an envelope to the boy's parents, she folded the report with her notes and drawing on the back and stuffed it into the envelope.

"Well I need to get back to the office." Tony finished the last gulp of his latte. "This part of my work is done for the day."

"Good timing." Said Elyse with a smile. "I have to go send something off anyway."

Tony eyed the sealed envelope in her hand with curiosity, but didn't press her with any questions. "So, I'll see you tomorrow?"

She zipped up her binder. "See you tomorrow."

Each morning, she sat with him, filling out the backs of missing person reports, unbeknownst to him, while he typed on his computer. By the end of the second week, he had started staying to make conversation after his work was done, talking about their weekend ghost hunting adventures and trying to get her talking about what she did here every morning. She would smile, say she was an artist, and promptly change the subject. Tony would intertwine his fingers and press his lips into a thin line, studying her like he always did, sometimes pressing her on her cryptic answers, sometimes not. If not for the intrigue she provided, she knew Tony would not let her hang around so often, invading his personal space when he knew so little about her.

"You know how I let you stalk me because I find you interesting?" He said one day with a playful smirk.

Elyse eyed him with a coy sideways glance. "Maybe...."

His smile grew wider. "Well, I have another opportunity for you. After everything I've seen you do these last few weekends, I think you would be able to help me with something."

Anxiety prickled her skin. Has he noticed the demons that stalk him? Is he going to ask me to help him fend them off?...Have they made it past his guardian angel yet and are starting to oppress him?

Many of the hell hounds that sniffed around Tony drew back the day she met him. At his house before an investigation she had Constantine run around it and bless it so that demons would have a much harder time stepping foot on his property, that is, if they were able to at all. Then each morning, she sat by his side, glowing with the holy spirit, daring any evil being to approach. Snarling snouts sniffed around in the shadows, she could sometimes see them, but they were weakened, unable to have enough of a foothold in some poor human's mind to be much of a bother; they couldn't get anywhere near Tony with her, Constantine, and his own guardian angel surrounding him.... unless they were able to make it past somehow...

She donned a pretend carefree smile. "Anything...." He started to talk but she shuushhed him with her index finger. "On one condition."

"Hmmm, let me hear the condition, then I'll decide." He was playing cool, but couldn't hide his interest, it sparked behind his eyes.

"I want to take you somewhere tomorrow after you're done work." She waited for his response.

With a finger rubbing his chin, he pretended to think about it before giving her the answer she could already tell he was going to give. "Alright.... It's a date."

The sarcasm in his voice wasn't lost on her. "You wish!...It's a fieldtrip."

"Hmmm...." There was that mischievous smirk she knew, the one that reached his eyes with a witty sparkle. "And I'm guessing this fieldtrip is another mystery you'll refuse to tell me about?"

She laughed. "It'll only be a mystery until tomorrow."

"Well in that case...." He closed his laptop with a flare and stood to leave. "Meet me at my house tonight at 7pm... as for what we'll be doing...." There was that smirk again. "It'll only be a mystery until tonight."

She could hardly contain her excitement, pacing her house and trying to guess what he had in store. "Do you know what it is?"

Constantine was leaning against a wall. "I have a suspicion, yes."

Her eyes grew wide. "Well?"

He only laughed. "I'm not going to spoil the surprise."

Pouting at the angel in the room, she picked out an outfit, a nice one, then showered, dressed, did her hair, her makeup....

Why am I acting like this is a date...this isn't a date...is it?...It better not be.... What if it is? How will I get out of it without insulting him?

She realized how aggravating it was to be the one in the dark. She smiled to herself. No wonder Tony can't let go of the mystery that is me.

It was 7pm and Tony was standing at his door, waiting. "Are you ready?"

Elyse shrugged. "Depends on what you need me ready for. I guess."

He lead her to his basement amongst the chitchat of their paranormal investigation team. Tom, Vita, and Alex all waved or smiled as she entered.

"Hey guys!" She said. "It's the middle of the week. Do we have an investigation?"

"Not quite." Tony was holding a box with the words EVIDENCE written on the side. With a flick of his wrists, the contents went pouring out onto the table. "I'm solving a murder at work, and I can't seem to figure it out. There was no known motive and everyone seems to have a rock solid alibi." He straightened the items into neat rows. "I was wondering if you could just ask the victim what happened. After all, I can't wait for the BBPP to send me a letter."

Everyone else laughed but his joke was lost on Elyse. "The what? BeeBee PeePee? What's that?"

Vita looked at her like she was crazy. "Don't tell me you haven't heard!"

"....I haven't heard."

Alex raised an eyebrow at her. "Are you living under a rock? Don't you watch the news? Look on Social Media? Listen to the radio?"

Elyse felt her cheeks grow hot and redden with embarrassment. Living so long without modern technology, she tended to prefer life without them. Her days were usually spent visiting hospitals, going to church, volunteering at homeless shelters, tending to her vegetable garden and fruit trees, or just relaxing at home with the company of her guardian angel.

Tony stepped in, rescuing her from their stares of disbelief. "Bearer of Bad news Pen Pal; BBPP. All over the country there's been reports of people receiving letters regarding their relatives who've gone missing."

Elyse paled. "Oh?"

Vita leaned on the table. "Everyone has these crazy ideas of who, or what, it could be."

Tony tipped his head towards Vita in acknowledgement before looking at Elyse. "They say that some of the letters have information in them that only the victim could know and others have actual messages from the victims...but only if the victim is deceased. It's almost as if the dead themselves wrote the letters." Tony was clearly enjoying himself. He wiggled his fingers in the air, opened his eyes wide and made the "oooooOOOOOoooo" noises of some cheesy ghost from a kids cartoon. Elyse laughed, making him smile before he continued. "That theory doesn't have too much traction since some of the victims were found alive. Just this morning, there was a young woman who was rescued from a s*x trafficking ring after her missing persons case went cold about a year ago."

Yup, I remember writing about that one....

"So what are some of the other theories?" Elyse was fishing for clues as to how close the authorities were too little 'ol her. The whole, knowing-stuff-because-I'm-psychic excuse never really panned out well in the real world. People usually would rather assume foul play.

Alex finished eating a bite of a hot dog before speaking up. "Some people think that there is some underground criminal ring that connects all the cases and that someone in that group is ratting out his boys, doing it anonymously so he doesn't get stitches."

"Why would he get stitches?" Elyse's question was met with riotous laughter.

Vita just shook her head and rolled her eyes. "Snitches get stitches."

That answer was met with even more laughter before Tony added his two cents. "The thing is, so many of the living victims and the living perpetrators swear that they have nothing to do with each other. Like the very first case, it was just a bunch of guys who were too scared to tell the authorities when their buddy overdosed so they got rid of the body and ran away." He shrugged with a perplexed look on his face. "Some of the cases run deep into criminal activities but so many of them just don't. It doesn't make sense how or why they could be connected."

"Well obviously they're all lying." Vita spoke as if there were no other plausible answer. "And the ones that claim to be just accidents or claim to not be part of a bigger underground operation are just really really good at keeping their secrets....We may never know the truth."

Tony pursed his lips. "As someone who works in the criminal justice system, I really don't think that's the case."

Father Thomas, who had laughed with the rest of them but had been keeping his opinions to himself until now said, "every letter has been a blessing from God. Is it so hard to believe that maybe we have someone out there receiving prophetic dreams?"

As usual, Tom always seemed to strike the closest to the truth. Smiling and spreading her hands out wide, Elyse said, "I don't know what to think, besides that I guess I should start watching the news." Turning back to look at all the evidence bags on the table, she took a deep breathe. "Let's take a look at what we have here."

There were bloodied clothes in a bag, some hair fibers, and a few swabs. "What happened here?" She sounded like she was talking to herself but she was really talking to the tall, bronze skinned angel invisible to her friends.

Constantine furrowed his brow and leaned over the evidence bags. "The victim here is in purgatory. A prostitute who struggled with depression and a drug abuse problem while she was alive." His green eyes met hers. "Call on her and see."

Closing her eyes, Elyse bowed her head and focused on the energies surrounding these items. A faint feeling of wispy energy appeared in the room where it hadn't been before. "What's your name?"

She could see and orb, the spirit was slowly forming into the being she used to look like while spoke. "Aida."

Elyse reached her hand out to the ghost beckoning her closer. "Aida." Tony gasped at the mention of the victim's name. Surprised, Elyse flipped her hair over her shoulder to look back at him. “Tony, Tony, Tony... after everything you've seen me do, after several ghost hunts and many rescued souls, why does it still surprise you that the dead can speak to me?" She didn't wait for his answer, only turned back to her new wispy, smoke like friend. "What happened to you?"

Like so many spirits before, the prostitute didn't answer so much in words as she did with visions. Elyse saw a man stab her thirty-one times...she was dead after the first dozen and only felt the first eight before passing out... while laughing a maniacal laugh. She saw the beginning, where Aida begged for mercy screaming "no, please, no" and how her sobs changed sound to something far more hopeless once she realized she was going to die.

The man was bald, his eyes were brown and his skin was white...pale white, like he hadn't seen the sun in years. There were also bags under his eyes, sunken into the skull-like face that had hardly any fat on it. His wrists were bony, he was wearing a long sleeved shirt but she thought his elbows looked bony as well. Despite his severe malnutrition and sleep deprivation, his clothes were well-made...expensive. As if his outfit didn't give his social status away, the car he was stabbing her in was a Lexus. She didn't see the license plate numbers, which meant only that poor Aida hadn't taken notice of them. She could only see and notice what the ghosts saw and noticed during these visions.

"What is that bald man's name?" She asked Aida, who shook her head in dismay. Elyse could sense that the poor spirit didn't know. "Do you know?" She turned to Constantine.

He nodded, turning his head for a moment to look at Aida, then turning back to Elyse. "His name is Balon. He's a former surgeon who now owns a string of clinics specializing in abortion and holistic medicine."

Elyse gulped, it was hard taking down the wealthy. They always seemed to have the authorities on their side and, if not, they always had their shields of lawyers, blackmail secrets, and bribe money to hide behind.

Inhaling, holding her breathe for a couple relaxing seconds, then releasing her exhale slowly; Elyse thought about what to say. She grabbed the bag of bloodied clothes first. "She was stabbed thirty-one times." She nodded towards Tony. "But you would've already known that, and a skeptic could argue that I simply counted the tears in this outfit and guessed." She tossed the bag back onto the table, ran her fingers through her hair and circled around the display of potential clues. "So let's ignore that bit of information and move onto the next." She picked up the swabs. "If these are what I think they are... well... then you're going to get nowhere with these. He only PRETENDED to be a customer. Once he got her into his car, he didn't sleep with her, he murdered her as soon as he got the chance." With a flick of her wrist, she tossed the swabs back onto the table. "That was his plan all along so whatever DNA you have on those swabs would've been from customers earlier on in the night." She held up the bag of hairs. "Likewise with these." She winked at Tony. "Your perp was bald. He would not have left any hairs this long."

Tony nodded, amazed but no longer surprised. "Okay. Well that's why every sample of DNA we found matched up with guys who had seen Aida earlier but then had been seen with friends or at bars during the actual time of the murder." He exhaled. "Every suspect that met up with her that night had an alibi...." He met her eyes. "That we know of."

"If I gave you a name, would you believe it?" Her questioning eyes were patient.

Tony raised an eyebrow. "Why wouldn't I? You've never been wrong before."

Elyse smiled at that answer. "It's just that most people need to be finessed into believing shocking information. They need to be presented with clues that lead them into their own conclusions....they need to have an epiphany." She looked around the room at each staring set of eyes. "If you just throw the answer out to begin with then people tend to refuse it." Walking over to Tony, she looked up into HIS staring eyes. "His name is Balon...and I know where he works but you're not going to like it."

Constantine had decided to take his leave. There was some spying he needed to do to help Elyse take down this new villain... and Balon was nothing if not a villain. Constantine stood in an office, one of many, that had Balon's brainwashing charisma written all over it.

"All you need to cure your pneumonia is right here!" Said a holistic doctor to his patient. "Just cut these onions in half and put them around your house, if that doesn't work, I can suggest some oils that truly work miracles!"

The patient was a sickly man, wheezing with shallow breathes and wincing in pain. "Are you sure?"

The Doctor nodded fervently. "I suggest this to all my patients! You need to put the work in though, you need to stop eating carbohydrates, anything made with milk, anything with gluton and anything non-organic."

The patient's aura was seeming more and more open to the ideas he was being fed. "But, I have a friend who went to another clinic like this one in another city." The sickly man was fidgeting. "He had strep throat and was given a concoction to gargle with but his strep throat ended up developing into scarlet fever.... It never did end up getting better."

The doctor looked saddened with empathy. "Sir, trust me, your friend simply did not follow the instructions close enough. If he had, he would have recovered! Now, send your friend to me and I will help aid his body into naturally fighting off his scarlet fever."

The patient looked sheepish. "Well, you see doctor, my friend ended up dying. The medical doctors said that his strep throat and scarlet fever developed into something called glomerulonephritis...which ended up shutting his kidneys down. His holistic doctor advised that he not let the hospital treat him, so he started swelling up like a balloon with all of the teas and juices he was told to drink until his family forced him to get admitted."

"Your friend only died once he entered the hospital...didn't he...." It wasn't a question, but a statement.

The patient's eyes grew wide. "Your right! He did!" The light in his eyes faded as he began to think harder. "But his medical doctors say that he wasn't able to filter out all of the liquids that he was drinking because his kidneys weren't working, which is why he died, and that if he had come to them sooner, they could've treated his kidney problem, get the organs to start working again, and then he would have been able to filter out all the liquids."

Sighing, the doctor stood and walked over to where his trusting patient sat, only to put a hand on his shoulder. "Trust me. I'll tell you why your friend died." He squeezed the sickly man's shoulder. "The toxins from all of those lab created chemicals they call medicine killed him. They shoved it into his veins and called it help. Had he stayed at home and followed his instructions, I know that the holistic treatments would've ended up healing his kidneys just in time; he would've slimed down as all the retained fluid was filtered perfectly through working kidneys. Don't you know that's what they're made for? A kidney is made to be the perfect filter, we just need to let it do its job. Your friend's mistake was letting his family take him to the death camp they call a hospital. It's no surprise that's where he died instead of at home with his natural healing remedies."

The patient was smiling and nodding now, completely convinced. "Okay! No matter how bad my pneumonia is, I won't give up! I'll keep using your remedies."

Constantine could see the wings of the patient's guardian angel droop with disappointment. "We can't save them from their own choices." He called out to his heavenly brother.

The other angel looked up at Constantine. "I know.... Do you see his aura? Death is coming now that he has agreed to the onion treatments. Based on the intensity of the impending doom I see, I suspect his pneumonia will become septicemia in a week or two and that will be the death of him."

Constantine knew all too well how his brother felt. He had watched Elyse spiral, unable to help her. But now, because of her, he had more power to help save other angels from the sadness. Because of her, he could heal and bless at her request, make suggestions, and ask her to be the voice that he could never be.

Looking to his right, he saw the angel assigned to the holistic doctor. The angel looked worn out, with missing feathers and reduced muscle definition. His eyes were even closed as if he were asleep. "Hey." The angel's eyes opened in slow motion. "I need to know about your ward's boss, his name is Balon."

The other angel's wings stirred at the name, as if it's very sound was uncomfortable. "I'll tell you about Balon." He turned his head to look at Constantine with emotionless eyes. "His own guardian was defeated in battle, so now he only has the demons that possess him. He feeds my ward with lies so full that he is now blind to any truth." The angel blinked with heavy eye lids. "I get so tired of fending off Balon's demons of deception, so tired of fighting the good fight, only to have my ward let them in anyway. I keep the demons from speaking twisted truths into his thoughts, but then Balon comes along and speaks the same lies out loud." He exhaled in frustration. "I can't stop Balon's verbal speech. So now my ward spreads the lies he himself believes, feeling proud about them, so that the destruction multiplies with every new patient."

Constantine nodded. His Elyse was no stranger to guardian-less, perfectly possessed, evil humans. She had outsmarted Papa Doc even when Constantine himself was fooled, she would pick up the torch and fight the good fight in place of the powerless angels like the one standing before him. "I need a list of patients who had suffered at the hands of Balon... not just your ward's patients, but other ones as well."

The tired angel nodded. "I can do that for you."

Tony was pacing his basement while Elyse followed him with her eyes. "I know you said you're sure... but... how sure are you?"

Elyse decided to humor him. "Alex, would you be a dear and show me the picture again?"

Alex was sweating, he said it was hot but Elyse could see it was more his own worries for his friend than anything to do with the temperature. "Yeah, take a real good look, 'k?

Elyse looked at Alex's computer screen. On it was a headshot of the millionaire homeopathic guru that prided himself on being the champion of women by ending their pregnancies and a hero of the people for fighting Big Pharma. The picture showed a bald man with skin as smooth as a baby's bottom, a fancy suit and prominent cheekbones. "Yup... that's definitely the guy I saw stabbing Aida, just imagine his photogenic smile being a bit more sadistic and that's the face I saw."

Vita shook her head in bewilderment. "It just doesn't make sense! He cares about people, he doesn't murder them!"

"Oh yes he does." It was Constantine, reappearing suddenly out of nowhere.

"Oh yes he does." Elyse echoed for the sake of the people around her who couldn't hear him.

Tony ran his hands through his hair, visibly distraught. "I feel so helpless. There is no evidence putting him anywhere near Aida, I mean, there's probably traces of her blood in his car but I need a REASON to get a warrant." His hands were laced behind his head and his line of vision was staring out into nowhere. "If I even attempt to step on his toes, he'll lawyer up and make a mockery of my investigation." He turned his pleading eyes to Elyse. "Please! I need something rock solid to go on! Something to get me a warrant so I can check his car...or his clothes... something!"

Elyse had been listening to a little white winged bird in her ear. "I think I have just the thing." Taking a pen and paper, she wrote out names and phone numbers on a piece of paper. "I think you'll get what you need if you talk to these people."

Vita had a confused look on her face. "Did you just make up a bunch of names and numbers or is this for real? Like... where did this information come from? Did Aida know these people?"

Elyse refused to answer for fear of giving too much away. "If you don't believe me, have Alex look them up."

Tony set his jaw and nodded at Alex as if to say "do as she says".

Alex typed for a few minutes on his computer, glancing periodically at the piece of paper. "Wow... well, each of these phone numbers is registered to people with the exact same names as Elyse has listed. So... either she had all these memorized, ready for a time like this, or something did just tell them to her while we were all standing here." He shivered, no longer sweating, he now seemed to be chilled by the prospect. "From now on, I'm gonna keep an audio recorder playing whenever you're in the room, Elyse."

Tony snatched up the paper and stuffed it into his pocket. "Guess I have some work to do tomorrow."

Elyse grabbed her coat from the back of a chair and proceeded to put it on. "Well don't stay at work too late, you have a promise to keep."

Tony's mouth crept up into an unbidden smile. "Wouldn't miss it."

The next morning, Elyse was far more cautious with the letter she was writing. Keeping her binder pressed closer to her chest, she kept glancing around to make sure no wandering eye would catch her. Now that she was making waves, people would pay attention to a girl carting around missing person reports, as opposed to before when people wouldn't have spared a second glance.

"You seem a little skittish this morning." Tony sipped his latte and looked at Elyse through his black eyelashes.

"Just a little bit of adrenaline." She flashed a smile and tried to relax. "I'm excited to see what your investigation today will turn up, and I'm excited to see you after work too."

"Hmmm." That playful smirk was back. "Good to know I have such an effect on you. So exactly how excited do I make you feel?" His tone was dry and humorless, as if the double meaning was lost on him; but the twinkle in his eyes above that grin gave it all away.

She laughed, covering her mouth with one hand and wagging a finger at him with the other. Her eyes met his for longer than she intended them to. It was just that she was struck with the desire to kiss that grin off of his face the way she used to once upon a time and the thought sobered her, turning her humorous stare into a longing one. He caught his breathe, the corners of his mouth fell back to normal, as if he could feel the chemistry and tension quickly filling the space between them. She had to tear away and clear her throat. "Enough to know that you've got your work cut out for you today, so we should probably save our small talk for this evening."

Later that day, she was picking fruit from her tree to take to the local soup kitchen with Constantine flying around in the sunlight; his pristine wings glistening. "So what will Tony be finding out today?"

Her angel landed behind her. "He'll find out why Balon is no longer a surgeon. He'll learn all about how he used to purposely make mistakes while inside his patients, causing them to return to him over and over again for more surgeries." He circled around to face her. "Until there were so many issues that they either died or were smart enough to see a different surgeon."

Elyse gave him a curt nod. "And how's Tony's guardian angel doing?"

The look on Constantine's face was one of worry. "The blessings you had me put up around Tony's home help out a lot. His angel can take the evening and night to recuperate from the harder and harder days he's been having. He is the only defense while the man is at work. Just last week, he said that a demon tried to spill the coffee of a driver who would have then swerved and hit Tony, crippling him." He stepped closer to Elyse. "So, of course, he pulled the demon back. Coffee never spilt, the driver never swerved, his ward was never crippled...." He shook his head. "But it was all just a distraction! When he returned to Tony's side, another demon was touching him with his claws, trying to scratch him but he didn't have enough power over the human to do so. His angel threw the demon down, scrappling with him and went home that evening with Tony, all bloodied and bruised."

Elyse paled and her eyes grew wide. "Tony went home from work early one day last week because he had a sudden headache!"

Constantine nodded solemnly. "The demon was trying to do more than just give him a headache, but that was all it could achieve...that, and a few fleeting temptatuous thoughts that Tony quickly cast aside."

She peeled an orange a bit into a piece of it, a few were still a little tart, she decided she would turn the not-so-ripe ones into orange juice with sugar for the soup kitchen while giving them the box of any leftover ones ripened to sweetness. Juice ran down her chin, feeling sticky, she wiped it away. "Tell his guardian that, next time the threat is one of physical injury and he has to step away in order to resolve it, he should stay by Tony's side and let it happen because I'll always ask you to heal him if he ever gets injured anyway."

Constantine bowed his head and flew away with his new message. She watched him fade into the sun like a cowboy and his horse at the end of a western movie, reminding her of the Greek myth of Icarus, who used wax wings to soar over the sea, only to end up flying to close to the sun, melting his wings and plummeting to his death. She shivered, it wasn't just herself she feared for. Her hubris had nearly gotten him killed when they faced Papa Doc, she would be sure to tread more carefully if this situation became as dire as Constantine seemed to think it would.

Peeling off her gardening clothes, she slipped into a long sleeved purple sweetheart top made of soft, stretchy fabric. Her dark denim jeans had purple stitching in the seams that she always thought went well with the shirt. Turning around in her mirror, she smiled with satisfaction, grabbed her keys and her phone, and drove to the New Orleans police department.

"Hey, I'm outside, if you're still busy, don't worry about rushing out, I don't mind waiting." Elyse held her phone up to her ear while she used her free hand to close her car door behind her.

"I actually just got back from interviewing a couple names on your list and don't have anything else to do for the day." She could hear phones ringing in the background and papers shuffling while Tony spoke through the phone. "So I'll be out in a minute...then I'm all yours to do with what you please."

He hung up before she could respond with a witty remark. Probably for the best, I'm sure anything I came up with would just sound cheesy anyway.

She was still smiling when Tony appeared, looking dashing as usual in his suit coat. She was leaning against her driver's side door when his own smile seemed to echo hers. "It's nice to see you in the afternoon." He climbed into the passenger's side. "Haven't seen you in this bright of light since the day we met. Usually it's just late nights and early mornings."

Elyse chuckled at his tongue-in-cheek comment. Ignoring the innuendo, she opened her own door and climbed in. "I know your own car is here so I'll drop you back off in this spot when we're done."

The drive lasted nearly thirty minutes and there was no lack of conversation to make the time fly by. "This poor widow said that Balon did such a hack job with her husband's surgery that he ended up dying!" Tony was saying. "So I looked up the guy's track record and did you know? Nearly half of his patients died eventually from things that could supposedly be caused by botched surgeries? Nearly half! It took a long time for the hospital to realize what was going on because he wouldn't kill them right away, he would make them come back repeatedly to fix the problems brought on by previous surgeries." Tony shook his head and scoffed. "Some patients lasted years with him so it was nearly a decade before they stripped the bastard of his medical license!"

"Why wasn't he convicted?" She flicked on her turn signal.

"Because he claimed that all the mistakes were just that...mistakes. Which just makes him a terrible surgeon, not malicious." Tony sighed. "Now, if we can book him for Aida's murder, maybe that'll be just a bit of justice for all the other murders he's gotten away with until now."

The list went on, Tony had spoken to a couple other people who had their own horror stories. "And to think...." He said. "Now the guy's a millionaire running clinics. I'd hate to think what goes on in these buildings... at least the guy himself doesn't actually treat patients anymore."

Elyse pulled into a parking lot. "We're here!"

Tony's jaw dropped. "Why are we at the state penitentiary?"

She was already getting out of the car. "We're gonna talk to someone."

Tony had stepped out behind her but he seemed a bit nervous. He put his hands in his pocket and followed her in, all the while biting his lip. "You know I put a lot of these guys in here, right?"

Frowning, she slowed her pace. "I never thought about that." With an apologetic look on her face, she hooked her arm into the crook of his elbow. "Do you feel uncomfortable?"

Having her walking so much closer, touching his arm, seemed to ease his worries somewhat. She could tell by how his brow relaxed slightly. "No, it's fine."

They were at the window, waiting; Tony's eyes kept sliding over to her, the mind behind them was still trying to guess what was going on. Elyse patted his hand, a reassuring gesture, then resumed her patient wait; siting in her chair with perfect posture while Tony shuffled with agitation.

"Who the heck are you?" Said a bearded, middle aged man who had just sat down on the other side of the glass."Twenty-five years I've been in here and I've never had a visitor. Are you sure you've got the right guy?"

Elyse turned to Tony. "You remember the first investigation you took me on? The one with the female spirit who was beaten to death by her husband?"

Tony nodded but the man behind the glass paled and stuttered. "Wh-what?"

Now Elyse turned her attention to the man but still addressed Tony. "This is the husband."

"Oh...." Tony was intrigued, his worries having dissipated behind the rush of a good story.

She crossed her arms and leaned on the little shelf in front of the glass; bringing her closer to the man's face. "I wanted to tell you that your wife now has peace."

The man looked down at his hands as if he was too ashamed to look her in the eye. "I don't know what you're talking about. My wife should've had peace a long time ago...." His eyes began to water. "She should've had peace while she was still alive."

Elyse tapped gently on the window to make the man look up. "I'm a psychic medium, I was with a few people that investigated your old house because the husband who now lives there was getting unusually violent feelings whenever he was inside the building."

The man's jaw dropped and there was something in his eyes...realization? "I was never the type of man to hit a woman until we moved here. It was like the stress of starting off somewhere new just got to me... at least that's what I thought. Suddenly I started to hate my wife, started to blame her for the anger I was feeling. I...I had these voices in my head telling me that if I punished her enough than I would feel better, that she would finally MAKE me feel better and that my misery was all her fault to begin with."

Elyse was looking at him with understanding, Tony was looking at her with yet another newfound respect. She took a deep breath and spoke like a therapist, quiet but definitive. "There was a demon in your old house causing feelings of rage." She paused to let those words sink in. "Until recently, your wife's ghost was stuck there with it. Being tormented by it; existing in fear. We got rid of the demon and we helped your wife's soul make it to heaven." She smiled and closed lipped smile. "We thought you'd want to know that she is finally happy; she finally has peace."

There were tears welling in up in the man's eyes, pooling on his bottom eyelids. He was too choked to speak so it was Tony who spoke next. "Did you ever feel violent after moving out of the house? Have you felt the desire to be violent at all while you've been in prison?"

The man swallowed and cleared his throat. "No...." He looked away, ashamed. "Well... not towards other people, anyway." He wiped his eyes. "I've tried to kill myself a few times but the guards never let you have a moment of privacy." He scoffed. "They keep catching me and stopping me; you'd think they'd want me to stop wasting their time! I'm a menace to society and I'll never get out of here anyway! All my family hates me after what I did so now I'm all but forgotten!" He was raising his voice now and a guard at the doorway turned his head in their direction. "They should just let me go! None of you know how it feels! They try to make me talk to therapists to ask why I do it!" He scoffed and spread his hands out wide. "What am I supposed to say? I miss my wife? I just wanna see her again?" Shaking his head, he continued. "They'd just tell me I shouldn't 'a killed her, or maybe they'd say I had this commin' and I reap what I sow.... As if I didn't already know that." The tears that threatened to fall now followed through on their word, traveling down the deep lines of his face. "So I just stay quiet and don't tell them what I'm thinking."

A solemn stare... that was Elyse's response for a few tense moments; until she sighed and rolled up her sleeves like she was about to get her hands dirty. She had always worn long sleeves to cover her scars; even at the beach she would wear thick, fashionable leather bracelets wide enough to cover the scarred area from one edge to the other. They would match her swimsuit as to not cause suspicion. At the gym, she'd wear sports bands; no one knew about her little...accident.

The man's eyes traveled down to her wrists and Tony's jaw dropped. She let them look at the jagged scars, raised and red like welts after a whipping. The flesh never did faded to white with age... she suspected that, at this point, they never would. Tony's face was a sea of emotions; each one passing over the surface like a collidoscope of surprise, pity, sadness, awe, confusion, curiosity, and empathy.

"I'll tell you something." She licked her lips. "I DO know how you feel. I've been where you are, I've lost someone that made me want to leave this world too. But what I learned is that it's not worth it." She leaned forward to stare into the man's dark brown eyes. "Your life isn't done; and even though you're going to be inside this prison for the rest of your life, there is still a lot you can do to make the world a better place."

She had both men's attention now. Curious, the one behind the transparent wall said, "How? And even if I could... I don't deserve to feel better."

Elyse laced her fingers and blinked a slow, heavy blink. "The demon that tempted you is gone for good, your wife has forgiven you and is now happy with God in heaven, and you're in here paying your debt to society." She shrugged. "Sounds like you're about even to me, once you take your last breathe inside these walls, that is. All you need to do is find forgiveness for yourself and use the time you have left as best as you can." She looked off to one side, then the other, using her pointer finger to indicate the building they were sitting in. "You're in the perfect spot to make a difference. Here you are, surrounded by the worst of the worst, many of which will get out one day to rejoin society." She looked back to him. "What I want you to do with the rest of your life is befriend them all, the ones that will get out, and be their voice of reason. Educate yourself, find God, make yourself wiser... then convince everyone around you to change their ways. Talk to them about ending their lives of crime once they get out, tell them to move far away from their past and better themselves, be a good influence on them all."

The man was looking at her with awe and respect. Nodding excitedly, he practically shouted, "okay! I will!"

Tony was quiet, deep in thought as they walked to the exit. He wouldn't even look at Elyse by his side. They had to pass through a gated pathway through the yard. The strange looks they got no longer surprised her now that she knew how many of these guys probably recognized Tony.

A man ran at the gate, slamming his body into it with a clatter. His face was twisted with a crazed laugh. "You don't even know what's coming for you! Ha ha ha."

Tony and Elyse stopped in their tracks. The crazed man had their attention. "I hear them...." he was saying, beginning to shake like a child afraid of the dark. "They want you to have your own kingdom in hell and make her your Queen.... All you have to do is bring her with you... all you have to do... all you have to do... all you have to do...."

The man was repeating himself as they walked by. "I see a demon possessing him." Elyse whispered to Tony.

"Why does that not surprise me."Tony's voice sounded annoyed.

"I can see his aura is almost completely in shadow." She glance back at the man where he stood, noticing also the three claws that protruded from his chest.

They were parked at the back of the lot, far away from the gate. When they finally reached it, her hand extended to grab her door handle but was itself grabbed by another hand instead. Tony grasped her right wrist with his left hand and used his free one to pull back her sleeve. "Why don't you ever talk about this?" His kind eyes turned from the angry-looking scars to her face. "It's not healthy to keep this kind of thing all bottled inside."

Elyse's cheeks reddened. What could she say to that? I didn't tell you because it's just another clue to the secret of who I am... of WHAT I am.... I'm dead and that's how I died....

She instead said a half-truth to answer him. "I didn't want you to think any different of me." She watched him blink with surprise. "Just like you did in the prison." She tried to gently pull her hand away but he held it there. "Believe it or not, I'm anything but a damsel in distress, I'm no longer depressed.... This... this happened a rreeeaaallllyyy long time ago and I just don't wanna talk about it."

She tried again to pull her hand away, harder this time, but again, he held it tight in his. With the other, he cupped her face with a soft touch and kissed her just as soft... at least at first. She caught her breathe and her lips parted and kissed him back; even though her mind tried to tell her rebellious lips not to. He started to kiss her harder and pressed his body closer, pinning her to the car. His kiss tasted sweet and the feeling could be compared to watching a fireworks display against the night sky; attention-grabbing, amazing, exciting... you couldn't look away if you tried. The back of her hand being held by his felt the cold steel of the car while his fingers unraveled and laced themselves between hers.

She could feel her heart pounding in tune with his. When he exhaled hard enough to let escape a quiet deep voiced moan, she only then noticed her free hand had absentmindedly reached up to grab his tie and pull him down further to her. Butterflies fluttered around in her stomach, stirring up her emotions like the ocean current.

He pulled he head away just a little, all the while pressing his body closer. "I hardly know anything about you and yet I feel like we've known each other our whole lives." He gave her another quick kiss before continuing. "I used to dream about a girl who looked exactly like you, dressed in clothes that looked like they were made in the 1800s. In my dreams you'd sleep in my bed and write songs for me." He chuckled deep as he leaned in to whisper in her ear. "I loved that girl in my dreams and looked for you in so many similar faces. But none of them acted like you, their personalities were far too different and soon I couldn't keep pretending that they were the girl in my dreams anymore."

He pulled back further, making her body feel suddenly cold in his absence. His thumb traced her scars as his eyes studied them. "I wish I was there. Then this wouldn't have happened."

Elyse's heart stopped before jumping straight up into her throat. Did he remember!!! "Wh-what?" She stammered with a choked voice.

Tony dropped her hand, not unkindly, and looked her in the eyes. "If I had known you back then, I would have never let you feel sad enough, or alone enough to do this. I would have hugged you, kissed you, and never let you go until you felt okay." He smiled a sad smile. "I would have made you love me and been your reason to keep on living."

Her heart dropped back into its original spot. He didn't remember her after all, not really, only in dreams of his past life. You WERE my reason for living.... That's why I died....

She saw his aura, full of longing and grief.... Grief? For her? Did he feel sorry for her? Or was he just sorry he hadn't met her sooner? His aura was despair brimmed in love.... Love... he hadn't said the words but he didn't need to, she could see it all around him shining like Constantine's halo.

"Let me take you out on a real date." He said in the car on the way home.

Don't get into a romantic relationship.... "I can't." The words from her own mouth caused her pain. She wanted to be with him again so badly that her heart was breaking all over again. "I can't date you."

He looked as if she had just slapped him in the face. Turning to stare out the window, he didn't say a word the rest of the ride home.

She came home to Constantine pacing back and forth, his agitated wings flinching occasionally. She took off her jacket and approached her angel with a concerned look on her face. "What's wrong."

He stopped and took a deep breath as if he were trying to calm himself before speaking. "You...are...walking right into Lucifer's trap." He turned his green eyes on her, filled with a heavenly fire that made her take a step back. "If THEY get ahold of him, they will use him against you! You're just making it easier."

Elyse steeled herself. "Isn't the goal to make sure they DON'T get a hold of him?" Now she was beginning to raise her voice. "He needs to make it to heaven! That's the goal! Maybe, just maybe, I we can better achieve that if I'm back in the role of being his wife."

Constantine's fiery eyes began to flood with tears, making the salty water glow green with the reflection of green flames like the liquid from a glow stick. "You promised you'd never leave me again." in a millisecond he had sped across the room to stand in front of her, looking down while she looked up. "I love you too, you know. I love you more than I have ever loved any other human." He wrapped her in a bear hug and kissed her with desperation. "I can't give you the same things that a human can, I can't be your lover, just your friend. But I need that to be enough for you." He sighed. "If we fail, Tony is damned. If we fail and you have a desire, how illogical, to go down with him, then both of you are damned. THAT'S why I need you to NOT let him love you. No matter how hard it hurts, I need you to do this for me because I don't want to live in a world that doesn't have you in it." He stroked her cheek. "You're far too important to me."