CHAPTER 4: IN THE STREETS OF MANHATTAN
She was back in the starry night skies again. She remembered last night when she was on air trying to find a place of sanctuary for herself and got herself landing on the clock tower.
She had found her sanctuary and he is right in her arms. Brooklyn. Her knight in shining armour. He is her sanctuary and her solace. She didn’t know why she trusted him so much, but she didn’t care anyway. As long as he was by her side, she feared nothing, not even the strange friends who were with him. He will protect her from harm’s way, she was sure of it. He offering his wing for her to hold and he letting her hide behind his back whenever she was afraid was proof that he will be there for her whenever she needed him.
Somehow she had a feeling that she had trusted Brooklyn so much for a certain reason. She had a feeling that she came to that clock tower for a reason too. Not to belong with the strange beings, of course, but something else. Something much more important than that. But what? To be with Brooklyn? Maybe. She just can’t put a finger to it. She just can’t remember. It felt as if there was a missing piece from the jigsaw puzzle of her brain and she just simply can’t find it.
Not that it really matters anyway.
Brooklyn is with her, that’s all that matters.
“We gotta get her some decent clothes first. Hers is practically torn apart.”
The gang of gargoyles and Suki were on the top floor of the bank and were looking down at a busy road where cars come and go without stopping. Opposite them was a row of shops, one of them being a costume shop where a whole line of costumes were lined around to be displayed to the customers for their choosing.
“Maybe that costume shop would give her something suitable to wear,” Broadway pointed at the costume shop. “Let’s go and see if there’s anything nice for her.”
“Uh, note to Broadway,” Lexington poked at Broadway’s shoulder. “Look what we are! We stick out like a sore thumb, and Suki is way too petrified to go anywhere!”
“Too petrified to go anywhere without Brooklyn, that is,” Angela corrected, grinning from ear to ear.
“It’s a costume shop, remember?” Broadway said as he pointed at the shop sign bearing ‘Samantha’s Costume Frenzy’. “We can always say that we’re going on a costume party and needed something to spice up our ‘costume’.”
“Great idea!” Brooklyn put out a thumbs-up and turned to Suki who was still wrapping her arms around his arm. “Suki, we are going to go to that shop and get you new clothes. How’s that sound?”
“Danger? Place is danger?” Suki asked, her face worried.
“No, it’s not dangerous. It’s perfectly safe. We just wanna get you some new clothes.”
“Brooklyn go?” Suki asked, still worried.
“Yes, I’m going,” Brooklyn sighed tiredly, much to the other gargoyles’ amusement.
Soon they all swooped down from the bank towards the shop entrance and entered. As planned, they used the costume party excuse and the gullible shopkeeper fell for it. She recommended a number of gargoyle clothes for Suki to wear but she didn’t really find it nice. That is until she saw a set of pink outfit right at the very last corner of the shop. She tugged at Brooklyn’s wing and pointed at the outfit there.
“Suki want that! Suki want that!” Suki said excitedly.
“I’m sorry, miss,” the shopkeeper said. “That gargoyle outfit is reserved for a very important customer. You can’t take that. What about other kind of outfits?”
“Sorry, Suki,” Brooklyn shook his head at Suki who was pointing at the outfit. “It belongs to someone else. We can’t take that. Do you want something else that might be nicer?”
Suki shook her head and kept pointing at that outfit, “Suki want that! Suki want wear that!”
“There’s gotta be something else you like,” Broadway said, taking one outfit to another and showed it to her. “How about this one? This one looks good. Or this one, it’s not so bad, come on.”
“No, Suki no like! Suki want that. Suki like that.”
“But it belongs to someone else. You can’t take someone else’s clothes,” Lexington tried to reason with her.
Suki stopped pressing on. She looked down disappointedly and kept quiet. Angela smiled kindly and gave her a canvas-coloured outfit for her. She took it without a word, but her face still looked disappointed and sad. Somehow Brooklyn’s heart ached just to see her sad like that. He walked towards the pink outfit and turned determinedly to the shopkeeper.
“We’re taking this outfit. How much does it cost?”
“I’m sorry, young man,” the shopkeeper looked slightly annoyed. “That outfit is taken. My customer would flip if I sell it to you without her permission.”
“You’re the boss. You can improvise. We’re taking this outfit and we’re willing to pay double for it,” Brooklyn said as he took out his pouch. He had that money after he had helped an old lady retrieve her purse from a mob (thankfully the old lady was too blind and the streets was dark for her to see Brooklyn properly) and judging by him taking out the money, he meant business. The shopkeeper gave it a thought before doubling the price of the outfit. Brooklyn paid it and smiled as he held up the pink outfit for Suki. Suki smiled and took the outfit into the changing room to change.
When she came out, the gargoyles were surprised to see that she was actually wearing an exact outfit of Demona, only that it is in pink. It was undeniable—it looked exactly like Demona’s loincloth and half-a-sleeve baby-T. She stood in front of Brooklyn and asked, “Suki nice in clothes? Nice?”
“I…I…uh…” Brooklyn didn’t know what to say. He was staring at her with such awe he’d probably pop his eyes out.
“Suki nice?” Suki asked again, hoping that he approved her.
“Uh, yeah. Yeah, you look smashing in it,” Brooklyn finally answered. Suki beamed and held onto Brooklyn’s wing.
“Excellent choice, miss,” the shopkeeper said as she escorted everyone out of the shop. The gargoyles looked around to see if anyone was looking before they climbed onto the roof of the shop and glided away with the wind. Suki seemed like she enjoyed her pink Demona style outfit—she was admiring it and giggling happily in Brooklyn’s arms.
“You know, you’re beginning to spoil her,” Lexington said with a grin.
Brooklyn didn’t reply. He was slightly confused right now. She was a total stranger to him yet she acted as if she had known him for a long time. He didn’t know what he had done to deserve such trust from a total stranger like her. She was like a small child and he had unofficially become her baby-sitter trying to show her the big world. And just now, he saw her wearing an outfit which was just exactly like Demona’s style. Her outfit truly reminded him of Demona who had made him turn against his clan and betray Goliath, and he should have loathe her wearing that and demand her to change it—after all, she would listen to him; she trusted him. But somehow, he couldn’t tell her to change. He just couldn’t. Deep down inside him, he felt that Suki in her new outfit was actually…beautiful. So beautiful, like an ugly grey swanling turned into a majestic white swan. He was speechless. He didn’t expect this being who was wild and snarling, snapping at everyone in sight just a few moments ago would become so beautiful now.
“Where we go, Brooklyn?” Suki’s voice snapped him back to reality. He wasn’t sure. He turned to his brothers.
“I know just the place to be,” Lexington replied as he took the lead.
Elisa ran through the computer list feverishly. She remembered seeing the office-like attire Suki wore somewhere before and was now going through the records of a company by the name ‘TECHTRO INDUSTRIES’, courtesy from her partner who got her that information through a warrant search. She found the section on ‘STAFF MEMBERS’ and clicked on that icon.
Soon a whole list of names came onto the screen. Her eyes ran through the list, separating the local ones and tried to find any names that sounded like a foreigner’s name. She had a few foreign names but when she looked at their pictures, none of them matched Suki’s face. Finally, at the biochemical department, she found one name which was foreign: Yusuki Hamasaki. She opened her file and read her details and stuff. Finally she clicked on the icon which had her photo and lo and behold! She had a picture on the file that looked exactly like their Suki, only that her eyes were dark brown instead of those seriously deep and dark purple eyes.
“Hello, Suki,” Elisa said to herself, smiling in satisfaction as she printed the information out.
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