Constantine - The Novelization - Whoa is (Not)

his lips were too heavy to move. He managed to say, "Isabel...."Even in Hell, it's all about context. Satan knew who he was talking about. "What about her?""Let her... go home ...."Satan wasn't easy to surprise. But Constantine had genuinely surprised him. "You would giveup your life so she could go to Heaven?"Constantine managed a nod.And Satan was pleased. Constantine wasn't asking for his own life. That meant that Satancould have Constantine to play with, and right away. Satan disliked delaying gratification. Andhe would get far more personal satisfaction from torturing Constantine than in playing withIsabel, whom he scarcely knew."Fine," Satan said.There was a pause. Things were done, invisibly, in the space of that pause.--In the hydrotherapy room, Angela was awake, lying on the floor, weak but breathing - and atthe same time she was in a kind of dream state, a condition of psychic receptivity that broughtabout visions. True visions.So it was that she found herself with her sister again, the two of them once more little girls ona swing set in the park. The swings were moving together, and Angela and Isabel, two little girls,were holding hands as they swung... looking at one another, waiting for the right moment to letgo. The two of them, holding hands, would jump as they had so many times from the swing, toland together laughing in the soft dirt…Now! Up they went, out of the swing, holding hands for a moment in midair.Angela was coming down, about to land on her feet - but Isabel kept going upward, kept flyingup, slowly, into the air, like a helium balloon released to ease into the sky. She kept the grip withher sister's fingers for just a moment. Beaming at her...And then Angela let go - knowing she was doing something for her sister by letting go. AndIsabel drifted upward, spiraling slowly into the sky, into a blue that was unimaginably deep,astonishingly perfect.--Things were accomplished, in that pause, after Satan said, Fine.A spirit was released from Hell - and found itself in Heaven, where there was celebration ather arrival, and many things came clear to her at last...."Welcome, Isabel," said her grandmother. "Welcome, my darling. I'd like you to meet somefriends of mine - and I don't think you ever met your grandfather.... Oh - and here's a friend of afriend. His name is Chaz.... "--"...it's done," Satan finished. He looked at Constantine - and it was a look that contained acontinuum of torment. "Time to go."Constantine nodded. All he could manage. Lifted one hand, just a little, toward Satan - toshow his readiness.Satan reached down and took his hand, pulled him toward him, toward the doors. On the otherside of the doors was something other than more hospital. It was now a doorway to Hades.Satan drew Constantine after him......but the corridor seemed to stretch out on the way to the door. They couldn't seem to getthere. They moved, and yet the door remained the same distance away. They weren't reallygoing anywhere at all.Constantine's other hand lifted up - something was pulling him in another direction. Awayfrom Hell. Constantine's other hand was held by someone else.