CHAPTER 2: MY NAME IS...
She could see herself among a whole lot of scientific equipment. She knew she came to this kind of place before. She knew she used to be in some kind of profession to be hanging around with this equipment. She knew that this equipment was her life, her soul, her everything. She knew their names, their uses, their dangers and their advantages. She knew that she used to feel that she couldn’t live without them.
But she just couldn’t remember when.
Then all of a sudden, she had a certain hate for this equipment. All the equipment suddenly became a sort of torture to her. A sort of weapon that made her into something that she wasn’t. She hated them. She hated the sight of them and she hated their existence before her. She wanted them to disappear, to get out of her life, to just not exist at all.
With all her might, she rammed her hands onto them and pushed them all over. She smashed them and crushed and did everything in her power to destroy them. She wanted them gone so badly that she was willing to kill for it. Anger overcame her feeling of belonging towards them and she was bent to demolish and destroy. One by one, they smashed into pieces in her hands, shards of glass stuck onto her hands and making them bleed. Not that she cared. She wanted them gone, that’s all she wanted. Nothing more than that.
As she finally destroyed the last piece of equipment, she let out a raging scream of fury.
The sun has finally set and the sky was getting dark. It was a sign for our gargoyle heroes to awake from their stony slumber, and that includes Brooklyn who was sitting beside the being for the whole day. One by one, they broke out of their stone encasing and let out a roar-like yawn. First, it was Goliath, then Hudson, followed by Broadway, Lexington, Bronx, Angela and finally Brooklyn.
The first sound that reached their ears was the screams from inside the tower. They all rushed into the tower to see what the matter was. They were quite taken aback to see that the being was having some sort of a fit and Brooklyn was trying hard to hold her and calm her down. Broadway and Lexington came to Brooklyn’s help to try and calm the being down. She was screaming and yelling like an angry animal and was ranting and raving about something to do with test tubes and syringes and all sort of weird things they couldn’t put together what. Bronx tried to calm her down by licking her face but ended being beaten away when Broadway could grab hold of her arms. Goliath decided to take over. he stood before the juvenile gargoyles before him and waited for the right moment before he hugged the being abruptly, holding her down in place, although she still tried to wriggle her way out.
“Where the heck is Hudson?” Lexington asked, looking frantically for the elder gargoyle of the clan.
“Aye, I’m here, lad,” Hudson replied, coming out with a glass of water. “Just getting something for the lass.”
“A glass of water?” Brooklyn asked. “She’s in no right shape to drink water.”
“No, lad, but this would clear her out of her nightmares.”
With that, he splashed the water onto the being’s face. She coughed and spluttered before slowly opening her eyes, slowly getting out of her hellish nightmare, whatever it was. Her eyes came to focus and the first thing she saw was the trio, looking at her with concern looks on their faces, seeing if she was alright. Whether it was out of shock or fear, she broke out of Goliath’s arms and flew onto a higher spot, out of the other gargoyles’ reach. She snarled at them, baring her fangs at them threateningly. Another thing that confirmed them that she wasn’t entirely a gargoyle was that her eyes didn’t glow like theirs when she was angry. They remained the same—a pair of eyes the colour of the darkest purple you can ever find and her hair as dark and black as night billowing about her shoulders, with long sideburns to match.
“Easy, woman,” Goliath said, trying to coax her down. “We’re friends. We’re not going to hurt you.”
His approach didn’t work. She continued to snarl and snap whenever Goliath tried to reach out his hand to touch her. Lexington and Broadway tried their luck, with Lexington luring her with his latest videogame and Broadway using food, but she swiped her hands at them, believing that she had claws and could scratch at them to keep them away, all the while still snarling and growling like an animal or some kind. Even Angela tried to help but in vain.
“’Tis no use, lad,” Hudson said, shaking his head. “She’s like an untamed animal that just came from the wilderness.”
“Guess this sandwich is not gonna work for her then,” Broadway replied as he opened his mouth to eat the foot-long sandwich made out of French bread. Brooklyn sighed. He couldn’t imagine that Broadway would think of food at a time like this. He then shifted his gaze towards the being who was perched up on her high spot. He noticed that she was looking at Broadway with longing as the fat gargoyle chomped off half of the sandwich. He grabbed the half-eaten sandwich out of his hand all of a sudden.
“Hey, that’s mine!” Broadway protested but Lexington stopped him. Somehow he thinks that Brooklyn had a plan.
And sure he did. With the sandwich in his hand, he walked towards the being who was still perched up there, snarling and making her point that she was not going to come down. He looked up and said in a kind voice, “Hey there, lady. You want this sandwich? Then you have to come down. Remember me? You grabbed my wing and refused me to leave you alone last dawn, remember? You had a hard grip, you know, and I just can’t get free from it. Come on, take my wing like you did and come down.”
The being stared at Brooklyn who stood sideways to hold out his wing for her to hold. Her eyes shifted from his wing to the sandwich and back again.
“It’s OK, no one’s gonna hurt you,” Brooklyn said reassuringly. “I’m not going to hurt you.”
Tentatively, she held out her hand and grasped Brooklyn’s wing before coming down slowly. She almost looked like a little child when she had her hand grasping Brooklyn’s wing tightly while looking shiftily at the other gargoyles who were looking at Brooklyn in awe, as if he had done some sort of miracle. He then handed the half-eaten sandwich and nodded his head. She took it and dashed off towards her high spot again, wolfing down the sandwich hungrily.
“Nice work, Brooklyn,” Broadway said in admiration. “I think she likes you.”
“Yeah, whatever,” Brooklyn replied awkwardly. “I have no idea why anyway.”
“It’s a good thing though,” Goliath replied, quite impressed. “At least she has someone she could trust.”
“I’ll get some more food for the lass,” Hudson said. “She looks like she hasn’t been eating for the last 1000 years.”
As Hudson walked away with Bronx at his tail for more supplies, the gargoyles continued to look with interest at the being who had eaten her sandwich in less than a few seconds. Her mouth was all covered with mayonnaise and tomato sauce and bread crumbs and she was licking them.
“Where do you think she come from, Goliath?” Angela asked her father. “She doesn’t look like us, yet she doesn’t look like a human at all.”
“Maybe she is both,” Lexington said. “Like a hybrid or some kind. Or maybe another one of Xanatos’ experimental subjects, like Talon and the other guys.”
Brooklyn’s heart ached at upon hearing that. He was still a little bit sour about Maggie Reed, the human who had fallen into Xanatos’ treachery and became a half-feline-half-gargoyle creature. Could this girl be one of them too? Could she be one of them who was newly created yet strayed away from the pack?
“She may be a hybrid, but she is definitely does not belong to Xanatos,” Goliath replied. “If she was, Xanatos would be sending a search party by now. She wouldn’t have stayed here.”
“Good point.”
“Hey, Brooklyn,” Broadway nudged the white-haired gargoyle with a grin and said. “Why don’t you try asking your girlfriend where did she come from?”
“Get off,” Brooklyn growled before walking towards the being. He held out his wing again and this time, the being didn’t hesitate to come down and grasp it. It was like she had made Brooklyn’s wing into some sort of a security reassurance. She looked timidly at Brooklyn and purred.
“Hey, lady, can you tell us where do you come from?”
The being looked away. She seemed shifty about that question and was reluctant to answer.
“OK then, let’s start with names. My name is Brooklyn,” Brooklyn pointed to himself, then pointed at his fellow gargoyles one by one. “And that’s Lexington, Broadway, Angela, Goliath, and that,” Brooklyn pointed at Hudson and Bronx who just came back with more food, “is Hudson and Bronx, our pet. Now what is your name?”
It took her a long while to look at each and every one of the gargoyles as if to register their names into her mind and to finally blurt hers out.
“Suki.”
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