From Satan with Love (bxb)

Chapter 20 Land of Desire

Three weeks later.

Leon stood before the gate to Lockwood's mansion once again, feeling strangely nervous. In fact, the last time he was this nervous was when he was granted an audience with Pope Sixtus.

He hadn't gotten a chance to meet with Angel since The Mother was successfully exorcized, and people in Hawthorn Valley were mostly safe, though some people were unnerved and horrified by what they had done while under The Mother's influence. Some even had mental breakdowns. The physical and psychological wounds a demon left would always take time to heal.

Right after The Mother was gone, Leon called Angel's phone immediately, wanting to know if Mary had safely taken him to a hospital. Angel picked up after several rings and told him that he was safe in a hospital and that he was waiting for someone his father sent to pick him up and move him to a hospital closer to him. Their conversation was overly polite, considering how much they had been through together in the past one and a half weeks. Leon felt incredibly awkward and flustered after the dream he had. His tongue seemingly refused to cooperate with his brain. When Angel finally picked up the phone, he even stuttered several times like a clumsy schoolboy talking to his crush for the first time.

"Did, were...I mean, why do you have to go to another hospital? Was it serious?" Leon clutched his phone with a little too much force that his knuckles turned white.

Angel said with a mildly annoyed voice, "No, my father is just being a fussy, privileged...well, billionaire. He didn't want me to stay in hospitals with names that he didn't hear of." Angel's tone took a turn, becoming much chipper, "How did it go? Actually, I think I saw some of it through the stream. It was...scary and mind-blowing."

"Stream?"

"Yeah, two of the cameras were still mostly functioning. There was much interference and noise, but the stream continued until you finished the exorcism. I guess they were the ones blessed by the Pope?"

At the time, Leon didn't give it too much thought. He got his job done, and it often involved showing it to the public through modern technologies, nothing new. He probably would have been more concerned if he knew the shitstorm that would ensue after everyone heard him calling the demon Sarah and calling her son Isaac.

"The demon is gone. So my work here is done." Leon paused briefly, "So...um...do you...should I...which hospital are you in? I can come to find you."

"Oh, no need. I think my father's minion will arrive at any minute now."

For some unknown reason, Leon felt a little sad that Angel didn't say yes excitedly as he expected. He said, "Oh, okay. I...uh...I will leave you to it then."

"You deserve a good rest after this crazy case. I'm sure you will have less headache without me bugging you all the time."

"Yeah, I can't wait to get rid of you." Leon joked back but then grimaced at his own choice of words. What if Angel thought he was serious?

Luckily, Angel's theatrical voice suggested otherwise, "Oh my heart! It is broken, shattered!"

Leon didn't notice how wide he was grinning at a blank wall in the stairwell.

The call ended shortly after, and in the following weeks, Angel had been sending him frivolous and cute Whatsapp messages from time to time, showing him pictures of his blanc hospital meal, some nurse's cat decided to take his bed, "sexy" hospital gown, and the ugly cast they put on his leg.

Leon asked several times if he should visit Angel at the hospital or at home, but Angel found some trivial excuses to postpone it each time. Leon didn't want to admit it, but he was more than a little disheartened by the pretexts. Why didn't Angel want him to visit him? Was Angel angry at him in some inconspicuous way? Did he do something wrong? Leon was hoping to...well, he didn't know what he was hoping for exactly.