Constantine - The Novelization - Whoa is (Not)

The darkness reached its maximal thickness - there was some light, some sense of materialthings around, but not much.Six kinds of darkness, Chaz thought, thinking of a song.They stepped through the door; inside the darkness was alleviated a bit. It was as if it were awarning belt around Ravenscar, to keep mortals away from the ground zero of Mammon'sworkings.But Chaz's fear didn't alleviate. He seemed to taste metal in his mouth; he felt a clutching inhis gut and something like the sense of inevitability a man in the middle of a street must feel as heturns to see a truck barreling down on him from a few feet away: It was too late to get out of theway. Chaz knew, somehow, that his destiny was coming to a kind of convergence here, at least inthis life.Constantine paused, listening to the staccato pattern of screams coming from the lobby - thenturned to look Chaz over. A softness, a flicker of kindness, that Chaz had never seen beforeappeared in Constantine's face. And Chaz was afraid of it. It was too much like the look of aminister about to give last rites."Look, kid-," Constantine began."Don't, okay?" Chaz broke in. Sensing that Constantine was about to say somethinguncharacteristically sentimental. "I just don't think I could deal with the touchy-feelyConstantine."Constantine smiled crookedly. Then he racked a round into the chamber of his shotgun."Better?"Chaz nodded. Pulling his own gun from its harness. "Better."They stepped past the antechamber, through the swinging interior doors, into the lobby.The strobing, damaged fluorescents overhead provided lighting for a nightmare. The ladiesworking at the desk, the passing nurses, the doctors, a middle-aged mother and father there abouttheir mad son: All were standing frozen...No, not quite frozen. They moved now and then. It was as if time stopped for them, thenstarted and ran a second and a half's worth, then stopped again. And started yet again. Theymoved, sensing they were trapped... and they screamed... and the screams cut off, frozen again.And it would all start up again a couple of moments later."Holding spell," Constantine muttered."Why are they screaming?" Constantine asked. "Dirty little casting," Constantine said. "Runson fear."Chaz stared, mesmerized, at the couple in front of the desk, the receptionists on the other side,all of them trapped in a loop of terror that could only be expressed in fits of screaming: step, onetwo,scream and freeze; step, one-two, scream and wave your arms; step one-two, scream andfreeze; step, one-two, scream and freeze; step, one-two, scream and wave your arms....Chaz felt a profound relief when Constantine led the way past those caught in the loop - itdidn't affect Chaz and Constantine, as they'd not been there when the spell was cast - and throughanother set of doors.Now where, Constantine wondered, is Angela and the Spear of Destiny?SEVENTEENAngela wasn't sure how the man had so completely overpowered her. It shouldn't have beenpossible. She knew two kinds of martial arts; she was a trained police detective. He wasn't aparticularly strong-looking man.But his hand on her throat had seemed to drain the strength from her.