Constantine - The Novelization - Whoa is (Not)

water. Their human outer skins were melting away and Constantine could see the demonsrevealed beneath, for a moment - snarling bestial gaunt toothy faces that made him think of amoray eel - before those forms, too, began to collapse like Day of the Dead sugar candy in therain.But they weren't dead yet, they were still mobile, and some had the presence of mind to rushConstantine. They could still kill him before they went frying down to Hell. They could takehim down with them.The half-breed who'd been trying to flank him made his move now, even as his skin bubbledaway:He leapt - and was struck full in the face by a blast from Constantine's Holy Shotgun, thebullets he'd made from sacred relics forming a core surrounded by shotgun pellets, disintegratingthe demon's head. Constantine sidestepped the flying body - headless, but carried by itsmomentum - even as he heard the wail of the demon's soul spiraling back down to Hell.And all the time the sprinkler water continued to spray down, jetting on Constantine anddemons alike, making him sopping wet, the water streaming on his face and blurring his vision alittle, hissing in his ear: pandemonium in a lobby turned into a locker room shower, the furniturepuddling with runoff, the chair slippery under him. Losing his traction, Constantine jumpeddown to the floor, pumping the shotgun as he went.He turned, just as another demon rushed him, its face almost gone thanks to the searing holywater, its weirdly sloping skull showing through, one eye melted and the other glaring lidlessly.Constantine shot that eye away, along with the top of its head, and it went shrieking to the pit.He saw Ellie, then, writhing on the floor. He recognized her from her clothing, the remnantsof her hair, but the rest was just a living cadaver, weeping without eyes, and he looked away.A third demon grabbed at Constantine, wrapped a hand that was mostly skeletal bone aroundhis throat, and snapped reeking fangs at his face - but Constantine jammed the Holy Shotgunagainst its gut and squeezed the trigger.Nothing happened - he hadn't pumped the shotgun.The talons tightened around his throat, and the demon cackled in triumph - but Constantinewas pumping the shotgun now, squeezing the trigger, and the point-blank shotgun blast blew thedemon in half, its lower half walking a step or two alone before falling. Its upper half clung to hisneck a moment, like a grotesque pendant, gabbling in disappointment, before its joints fell apartin the holy water.Others were coming at him - but they were reduced to crawling on all fours; some, legless, justpulling themselves along on their elbows...One of them had gotten around behind him while he was distracted with the fight, and now itleapt onto his back, nails digging into him, shrieking in his ear, "I'm not going back!"He knew the voice, however ragged it had become: It was Ellie.Constantine grabbed her head, shoved her face directly into the spouting of a sprinkler rightoverhead. She flailed... and stopped moving, disintegrating into mucky ash. Her wet clothesslithered off him to the floor - empty."See you there, kid," Constantine said, sadly.And then the water stopped spraying. The tank had run dry... and the demons were stillcoming. Some of them had died, but others, better covered with clothing, remained somewhatintact. Once it struck the ground the water was no longer holy, so the puddles couldn't help him.And the demons were still coming.He backed up, circled them, heading toward a farther door -Saw a sign on the door: HYDROTHERAPY. That's where the Spanish guy with the Spear ofDestiny had gone, wasn't it?Constantine sprinted that way, got to the door, went through, started down the hallway - andheard a thudding, a phlegmy gasping, a clattering of bone on bone, behind him. He turned to seethe surviving demons shambling after him, coming through the door. Some of them were