Constantine - The Novelization - Whoa is (Not)

moment perhaps glimpse a snarling face?His hesitation gave them their chance. "Run!" Angela shouted. She reached down andscooped up damp sawdust and threw it into the man's eyes - and the two girls bolted, dodgingbetween trees and playground equipment, shouting for help.The man yelled, clawing at his eyes - Angela saw it without having to turn and look - and thenran back to his car.The girls had gone puffing home to their parents white-faced and shaking but pretending thatnothing had happened...."Should have given the police a report," Angela muttered now, going through the door to thestairs.But there was a reason the memory had come up now. When she'd seen the demon, she'd feltlike she'd been prompted, too, as the man was. By something else. Something she couldn't see...It vibrated at too high a frequency to be seen. Up the stairs... where was Constantine?--He was almost unconscious. Balthazar was taking his time, savoring Constantine's death,making it last a few seconds longer - and yet another few seconds longer. The demon wasgloating about it, though Constantine could not tell if he was hearing it aloud or telepathically."Here, Constantine, have a little air - I'll loosen my hands a bit. Now I choke off the airagain... but now here's a little more! Now I choke again, and this time... this time I'm going tofinish the job!"Constantine was so weak.... He was ready to give up. Maybe he was getting what he deservedfor not being there to save his only friends.That's it, Constantine, came the suggestion from Balthazar. Telepathic, definitely. You don'tdeserve to survive... Give up and take your medicine.That was Balthazar's mistake. His gloating infuriated Constantine anew - and a surge of furybrought strength with it, just enough so he remembered the artifact in his coat pocket, and clawedthe relic out.Coming up with that sacred gold knuckle-duster Beeman had given him, on his right fist -He brought it hard to the right side of the demon's head - and the infusion of holy energies inthe gold made Balthazar recoil more than did the force of the blow, the demon knocked rolling tothe floor on Constantine's left.Gasping for air, desperate to keep his advantage, Constantine rolled over and flung himselfatop the demon, clocked him across the face with another enchanted punch, and another, each onesending a ripple through the demon's body, etheric force loosening his grip on the mortal world.He hit the snarling hellspawn again and again, and with each blow Constantine shouted:"Those-!"WHAM!"-were!"WHAM!''-my! ''WHAM!"-FRIENDS!"Constantine's right arm was sagging with fatigue, so he slipped the knuckle - duster onto hisleft fist and went on punching, slamming the blessed gold into Balthazar's head, over and over,with each punch feeling that he was striking deeper into the demon's spiritual core. He wasstriking spirit - stuff, rather than actual flesh - though his mind read it as seeing flesh and bonebreaking apart, blood spraying - and it felt like trying to hammer a magnet into a repellent magneticfield, a sense of spongy, living resistance impregnating the very air under his punches. Andhe could feel Balthazar's spirit - substance diminishing, energy smashed off to spiral away intothe universe, the demon becoming less material, more transparent, as Constantine slammed him