It’s another rainy day in Gotham, but this time it’s slightly different. When the road surface that had just been illuminated by the sun was soaked by the rain again, it still carried the temperature of noon. Even through the soles of the shoes, it made people feel the same as the rain. It’s different from the usual cold and muddy conditions.
Zatanna, who was standing on the side of the road packing up her magic box, looked up at the dark clouds that were gradually closing, and sighed worriedly, only to find someone patting her behind her.
The owner of the newsstand next to her handed her an umbrella and said with a smile: "Times have really changed. There are people who go out in Gotham without an umbrella?"
Zatanna didn't answer, but just smiled and said: "I live in the apartment building next door. I just take advantage of the two hours when the weather is clear to come out to perform street magic. I only need to run two steps and go back."
After saying that, the magician lady packed up her magic props quickly and ran into the corridor next to her carrying the heavy box.
After running up to the 6th floor, Zatanna let out a sigh of relief, but recalling the smiling face of the newsstand owner, she still sighed and said: "Sunshine can bring people extra kindness. No one would have thought that here. There will be people lending umbrellas to strangers, this is Sin City, not bad, right?”
As soon as Zatanna took out her keys to open the door, she heard a strange noise coming from inside the house. She immediately took two steps back with some vigilance. Just when she thought she was about to overturn her previous understanding, something came from inside the house. There was a somewhat familiar cry of pain.
Zatanna immediately opened the door and rushed in, exclaiming: "Thomas Constantine?! Why are you in my house?!"
"I'm not Thomas..." The man who was lying on the floor of the living room, clutching his waist and with a face full of pain, slowly got up, looked at Zatanna and said, "I am John Constantine, you don't recognize me. ?"
Zatanna's eyes widened and she shouted in surprise: "John! You're back?!"
Constantine's face was full of pain, and his facial features were wrinkled together. He covered his waist with one hand and his neck with the other, and said in a breathless voice: "Yes, I'm back. You don't want to know what I've been through." What……"
Zatanna could see that her old friend was on the verge of collapse, so she quickly helped Constantine sit down on the sofa and asked him: "What's wrong with you? Aren't you staying in the dreamland?" ?”
"It was like this before." Constantine let out a long sigh and said in a trembling voice: "Until yesterday, Schiller came to see me... Yes, this terrible doctor came to treat me again. Already."
As Constantine told it, Zatanna gradually understood what Constantine had gone through.
Previously, in order to repay Schiller for repaying his debt, Constantine tore his soul in half, and one half became Thomas, using his body in the real world.
The other half took over from Morpheus, the dream god, and supervised the dream kingdom for the retired dream god. But just yesterday, Constantine, who was traveling in the dream world, heard several dog barks.
Then, a white dog with great speed and great strength threw him to the ground and sniffed him hard with its nose.
Then, Constantine saw Schiller's face.
"Schiller?!" Constantine exclaimed.
"That's right, it's me." Schiller folded his arms and nodded, and then he continued: "That's right, I think it's time to resolve the problem between us. It's not good for anyone to make yourself like this." benefit."
"I think I'm pretty good." Constantine stepped back quickly and said, "I'm living much better during this period than before."
"Well, you know it yourself." Schiller looked up and down at Constantine, who was only half alive, and said: "I think you should have discovered that tearing your soul apart is not only painful, but also painful. There are many sequelae."
"Because I have also experienced all this, I know how terrible these sequelae are, but at the same time, I also know how to solve them."
Constantine showed a hesitant expression, because during this period of time, he paid the price for his previous reckless actions. It is not that simple to tear the soul apart.
Of course Constantine knew it would be painful, but he was not afraid of pain at all. However, after doing all this, he realized that the pain was just the beginning. The most terrifying thing was that he could not control his soul.
Ever since he tore his soul apart, Constantine often felt that he was looking at himself from another person's perspective, as if he was no longer himself.
What followed was a loss of control from this perspective. He could only look at his soul, but he could not control it and could do nothing. The longer this lasted, the more Constantine felt that it was possible for him to Lose yourself.
Constantine is not afraid of pain, but any creature in this world will be afraid of his own non-existence. That is not death, but everything is out of control, and he is obviously watching but unable to do anything.
Constantine knew that his previous actions were too reckless and reckless. His research on soul science had not reached the level of being able to cut his own soul. He had been feeling worried and afraid recently.
But at the same time, he also understood that Schiller, who was staring at him now, must know this, so he deliberately delayed it for so long to come to him. This professor knew how to use fear to make people obedient.
Constantine was afraid, so he had no choice.
"Don't worry, I'm just imparting to you some experience in dealing with broken souls." Schiller shook his head, his tone was very calm, and there was a kind of power that made people feel confident.
Constantine swore ten thousand times in his heart that he would never deal with Schiller again, but every time he heard Schiller's whisper, the willpower that had resisted countless temptations of the devil began to waver again.
In the end, the fear of losing himself completely defeated his willpower, and Constantine followed Schiller to a room in his spiritual palace.
This is a somewhat dark room. There is only a chandelier hanging in the center of the room. The floor is a dark red carpet. On one side is a traditional English cabinet. The island table in the middle has a light surface and the other side is made of wood. Long table and chairs with candlesticks and flowers on the table.
Constantine walked over and sat on a chair. He trembled when he heard the slamming of the door, but he had no arrow to turn back when he opened his bow, so he could only pretend to be calm and joke:
"Is this a candlelight dinner for the two of us?"
Constantine turned to look at Schiller, who took out a few dishes from the refrigerator and put them in the oven. While putting on gloves, he said: "My cooking skills are not very good, so please ask my friend He helped me cook a few dishes."
With a "ding" sound, the oven door opened, and the rich fragrance came. Constantine shrugged his nose involuntarily, and said in a brisk tone: "It's really fragrant. I didn't expect you to cook it." A side of the dish.”
Schiller placed the plate gently on the table, took back his hand, looked into Constantine's eyes with a focused and nervous gaze, and said, "As long as you like it."
Constantine looked at the main dish he placed in the center of the table. It looked a bit like short ribs. It was golden in color and was just right after the fire. More importantly, the aroma coming from it made Constantine feel extremely delicious. hunger.
Constantine's Adam's apple kept moving, and his reason told him that this abnormal hunger was not appetite, but an uncontrollable desire, a hunger that burst out from the depths of his soul.
Following his instinct, he picked up the knife and fork like a man who was about to starve to death. He cut off the largest piece of meat with trembling hands, inserted it and brought it to his mouth, and then froze there.
His hand shook and the fork dropped along with the piece of meat. The food fell onto the table. The fork hit the edge of the table and continued to spin downward.
Instantly, the air rippled, and a pair of pale and thin hands grasped the handle of the fork.
The next second, Constantine stood up and tried to escape, but the same pale hand grabbed his neck, pushed him back to the chair, and had a sharp fork pressed against his throat.
Constantine leaned back desperately, glanced at Schiller who was standing diagonally behind him with his only remaining eye, and let out a scream that he had never made in his life:
"Schiller, you are crazy!!!!"
"Eat it before you can leave."
Schiller turned the fork with two fingers, and the tableware shone with a dazzling luster. Constantine closed his eyes for a moment. When he opened his eyes again, the extremely tempting ribs appeared in front of him again. evil
"This can replenish your soul energy and make it whole again, so you don't have to face those terrible sequelae."
"But this is yours..."
In an instant, the hand holding Constantine's neck tightened, and Constantine could only utter "Uh..." on the edge of suffocation.
Constantine's eyes unconsciously stayed on the food in front of him, its color, smell, and the most terrifying thing, the delicious fantasies lingering in his brain derived from hunger and thirst.
The incomplete soul pursues completeness, so it is extremely hungry for energy. Constantine kept making a sound of breathing as if he was about to drown. There was only one thought lingering in his mind -
He once felt that Schiller did not need a lifebuoy, just because the sea where Schiller was swimming was not his area of expertise.
Constantine, who was leaning on the sofa, gasped tremblingly and retched in his throat. Zatanna didn't even dare to ask him if he had eaten. He would appear here, and the answer was already obvious.
Zatanna was sure that no devil in the world would be crazy enough to force his friends to eat his own flesh. This kind of treatment could no longer be called evil, it was simply insanity.
Constantine wiped his saliva, hurriedly jumped up from the sofa, stood hunched in front of Zatanna, looked into her eyes and asked: "Is there a phone?"
"Yes, who do you want to call?"
Constantine stood up straight, raised his head and looked at the ceiling, and said in a daze: "Schiller is a fucking lunatic... We must unite to cure him!"
"Jingle Bell."
The phone rang for a while, and Oliver picked up the receiver, then turned around and shouted: "Bruce, it's yours!"
Bruce walked over and picked up the phone and said to the other party: "Hello?"
"Bruce, I'm Victor, we must join forces to cure your crazy psychology professor!"
Bruce changed the phone to another hand. He heard Victor on the other end of the phone sigh and say:
"I have deeply understood your feelings over the past four years. We must take some measures against Schiller... But the problem is that I tried to control him but failed. Do you have any good ideas?"
Victor's voice had no hope, so when he heard a very definite "yes" from the other end of the phone, he was shocked, so he asked: "Do you really have a way? What is it?"
Bruce, who was holding the phone receiver, turned his head and looked at the hot and dazzling Mexican sun and the huge tractor plowing in the fields.
He retracted his gaze, lowered his eyes, and looked at his fingertips. A small piece of paper was rotated between the fingertips of two fingers, like a flying butterfly.
But Bruce knew that it was not actually a piece of paper, but a common seed packaging, with a corner of the paper folded off revealing a curlicue English word - "broccoli".
Looking up further, you can see the young man's sharp jawline and the slightly raised corners of his thin lips.