Species

Species

Though his dreams of the forest and chickens in the forest were pleasant, Constantine knew he was waking up. He knew that he would eventually have to face the nightmare around him that was the real world. Giving a small groan, he peeled his eyes open, blinking the sleep away from his vision he let out a small yawn sitting up.

“This… is not my room.” He voiced aloud, looking around the room in confusion before finally recognizing it as Abel’s room. Giving a small sigh, he got out of the bed, leaving the warmth behind begrudgingly. Almost as soon as he stood up he noticed the missing weight of his sword. It was a weight that hung comfortably on his back and it made him uneasy to have it gone. He frowned slightly before walking towards a chair with a pile on it and a note on top of it.

Looking around slightly, he noticed his sword resting at the side of the chair, causing relief to flood his system when he recognized it. Picking up the note, he noticed that the neatly folded clothing pile was composed of his own clothes, which made him look down at what he was wearing. It was a pair of Abel’s pajamas, which meant that he was wearing a ‘Praise the Lord’ shirt and red plaid pajama pants. While the shirt was a little too big for him, the pants fit right, which meant that they must have been too small for Abel. Shaking his head at the clothing choice Abel made for him, he picked up the note. He went to open it before pausing, his face starting to turn fifty shades of red as he realized that the only reason that he was in these clothes, was because Abel put him in them. It also meant that Abel had stripped him down sometime during the night. This thought only made his face go even darker crimson. His face burned as he let out a small groan of embarrassment, trying to think back to what he could remember before he fell asleep.

He had a faint memory of getting changed into the clothes, though he also remembered that Abel had been there due to the fact that Constantine was still more than half asleep the whole time. He also had the faint memory of being lifted off of the bench and being brought to Abel’s room.

Taking a deep breath, he attempted to shove the memories to the back of his mind, deciding to deal with them later. Opening up the neatly folded note, he started to read it, trying hard not to be in awe of Abel’s gorgeous cursive writing. While Abel was amazing at cursive, his print was a mess, and that had been one thing Constantine and a few other had held over the priests’ head for a long while. He still secretly held it over Abel but had stopped teasing the other man.

Starting to read the note, he let a small smile come to his face, the memories from the night before falling to stay shoved in the back as he read more and more.

“Tine,

   I’m at the church for the sermon and the service. Feel free to come after you eat breakfast. There should still be some spare clothes for you in the bottom drawer of the dresser the right side of the bed. Breakfast is in the microwave because I wasn’t sure when you’d wake up, it seemed like you had a pretty rough night.

   If you don’t come to the church, at least stay at my place until I make it back home. I want to check and make sure that the wound you got from those demons fighting is scarring over right. That and I have something to give you. Feel free to make yourself at home, and no fighting demons today. It’s the day of the Lord.

-Abel”

Constantine only shook his head at Abel’s request but decided to follow it nonetheless. He knew that a majority of the time, people were either on Holy Ground or in their homes. For reasons no one understood except the church, the demons couldn’t step foot on Holy Ground, and no one dared to leave their homes very often anymore. While the streets were safer, there was still the occasional demon. Most working institutes had developed a system where people could work at home, and most schools had developed an online program to keep the children safer.

Even with most people on Holy Ground, or in their homes, there were still many people who preferred to go outside and walk around or head to different places. This meant that they were easy targets for the demons, which meant that there were more hunters on patrol than usual. Because there were more hunters on patrol, Constantine decided that it wouldn’t hurt to follow Abel’s wish and stay inside for a little while.

Setting the note down on the chair again, he picked up his sword, strapping it to his back again. While he wasn’t going out on patrol, he still felt more comfortable having his weapon of choice close, even if he was just going to the kitchen.

He made his way out of the room and went into the kitchen, pulling his plate from the microwave. The smell of blueberry pancakes wafted towards him, making him smile softly, as he looked at the plate of food. On the plate were two neatly stacked blueberry pancakes, with a pad a butter on top. Next to that was some scrambled eggs with two pieces of bacon.

Walking over to the table, he set the plate down before turning on Abel’s television, going straight to the news channel. Normally, Constantine would be worried about his friend’s apprentice, Rocki, being in the apartment with him. Though, today was different, though. He was very aware of the fact that Rocki went to the church sermons with Abel. He wasn’t sure if Rocki was an apprentice for the medical side, or for the priest side. Either way, he still didn’t like the little man. After setting his plate down and casting a glance at the news, he went to go get himself a glass of water, syrup, and a fork to actually eat his food with, listening to the news while he went about collecting those items.

“Reports have come in from demon hunters around the globe that the demons that they have been encountering are growing in number and in strength. While it experts previously thought that the demons were receding into hiding out of fear, it is now believed that they went into hiding to build up strength and numbers. We advise you stay out of the streets for now until it has been deemed safe enough to leave your houses for at least an hour.” The reporter’s voice rang out through the apartment, leaving a frown on Tine’s face. He had noticed an increase in number and in strength, but he had waved it off as something that was just happening in Manhattan… apparently, he was wrong. Giving a small sigh, he put the syrup away, having lost his appetite. Great, that was the last thing he needed, especially since Abel would find out that he didn’t eat breakfast no matter what he did. He could have flown the plate to Russia and Abel still would have found out that he didn’t eat any breakfast.

Instead of letting it sit out, he put the leftover food in a Tupperware and put that into the fridge, washing his plate and the other dishes in the sink along with it. He figured that Abel had woken up later than usual considering the fact that none of the dishes were washed, which rarely happened. Shaking his head, he continued to listen to the news, waiting for any more information that could potentially be useful to him.

“In happier news, it would appear that Wolfsbane is still working to bar demons from entering a home, business, or any residency, despite the growing strength of demons. We can only pray that it continues to hold them off until they’re either gone or can be forced back underground.” The woman read off of her paper, giving a small sigh of relief before setting the papers down in an audible manner. The tension that could previously be heard in her voice was beginning to fade away. “The miners who drilled into the heart of the demon colony have been released without charge or time served, as they were only following directions given to them by the company. One of the miners reported hearing strange noises that were turning them away from continuing to mine for coal, but their corporate offices insisted that they continue to dig. The law battle has now turned to the man in charge, CEO of Minera. Many people expect this to be the first lawsuit that he has ever lost.” There was a slight sound of almost glee in her voice like she was happy about what was going on. Constantine found it slightly disturbing before remembering that everybody tried to look for at least some sliver of good now.

With her conclusion to the story, he flicked it to a different channel, pausing on the sermon that Abel was giving. The Church had taken to live streaming the sermons and meetings due to the fact that some people were too scared to leave their homes and that so many people had turned to God and picked up the faith of many different religions in this time of fear. Churches, Mosques, and everything in between had become almost overpacked now. People were scared, and it showed.

He settled on the sermon and let the TV become background noise as he focused on his own thoughts. That was before he realized just how dirty his hair was. He chewed on his lip lightly, thinking about what he was going to do before deciding that Abel would probably appreciate it if he were to go and take a shower now and actually clean himself. He was sure it had been at least a week since his last shower, but he had been busy. Busy meaning that he was distracted and had totally forgotten that showering was a thing that people did on a daily basis.

He made his way from the kitchen and living room area into the bathroom, leaving the TV on to drown out the sound of silence. He enjoyed the quiet sometimes, but a majority of the time, her preferred something to quiet his own thoughts. Something to distract him, to keep him from sinking into a dark hole of despair and dread.

Half listening to the TV and half paying attention to his task at hand, he closed the bathroom door behind himself. He unstrapped his sword from his back and leaned it against the wall before looking at himself, cringing slightly at his appearance. Abel was right, he really did look like a drowned cat. His pale blond hair was matted down and looked to be more of a slightly dirty blond now, making him wonder just why people didn’t stare at him all of the time. He had rings under his eyes that he knew were darker before last night, making his normally shining green eyes look duller than usual. Not only that, but he was fairly certain that his skin was covered in a small layer of oil.

Now that he could see himself, he could actually feel how dirty he was. This caused him to swear on his life that he would change his clothes more often and wash them more often. Not only that, but he would shower at least every two days now. Tine wasn’t sure he could stand being dirty for much longer, so he quickly turned on the shower, stripped and jumped in. As he cleaned himself, he let his mind wander to his friend and doctor.

Abel was intimidating, yes, but he was also the kindest person that Tine had ever met. He had picked up the pet name ‘Tine’ for Constantine after he had decided that it was a mouthful to say Constantine’s full name a majority of the time. Although there had been a lot of protesting that came with the nickname, it stuck, and eventually became one of endearment.

Constantine really cared for Abel, a strong sense of loyalty to the man he had met a few years back. He never wanted to see the priest get injured, but he was sad to admit that he had seen it a few more times than he would like to admit. Each and every time was absolutely terrifying for him. Yet somehow, through it all, Abel managed to make him feel calmer with just a look or a simple touch. It drew Constantine to him, like a moth to a flame. Though, Tine was 99 percent sure that Abel’s flame wouldn’t be the thing that got him killed. He would never admit it, but he was in love with the man. More than he could ever imagine. He wasn’t sure that Abel felt the same way, so he never said anything, only rolled with the punches. Even if those punches meant that he stayed at Abel’s apartment more than he had entered his own apartment.

Before he realized it, he had finished showering. Climbing out of the shower, he grabbed a towel from a rack in the bathroom and dried himself off, letting out a small sigh. He turned the fan on in the room to try and suck out a majority of the fog before getting dressed again, strapping his sword right onto his back, he attempted to clean off the mirror. Looking at himself, Constantine decided that he needed a haircut. Desperately. Although it wasn’t incredibly long, the sides of it only reaching to the middle of his ear, it was still better for him to get a haircut. Not only was it more effective, when he was out fighting the hordes, to have shorter hair, but he thought it looked better too.

Leaving the bathroom, he went back into the living room to watch some more television. He was sure that the sermon was almost over by now, but he figured he should watch it to the end. The few times that he had watched Abel’s sermon’s all the way through to the end, he was blown away by how powerful of a speaker the man was. His opinions on things had changed drastically from when he first started watching the sermons.

Just as he was about to sit on the couch, he heard a knock on the door, causing him to let out a small groan. He turned the volume on the tv set down before making sure that his sword was easily accessible before going and opening the door. What he was expecting was to come face to face with a neighbor who had a noise complaint, or someone who thought that Constantine had broken in. What he didn’t expect, was to come face to face with Abel’s mother and the woman from the previous night, Maria, standing next to each other, arms linked together.