CHAPTER 6: A LITTLE BIT MORE ABOUT SUKI
She liked it here. She simply loved the life of the gargoyles. No worries, no possibilities, no boundaries, no rules, no nothing. Just her and her knight in shining armour Brooklyn. She felt as if she really belonged to the gargoyles about her. She did have an inkling of living in another type of life, but she couldn’t recall what that life was. Maybe the life like that detective woman Elisa lived, maybe not. She wasn’t sure but she was definitely not going to stress her mind thinking about what it was.
She liked Broadway and his girlfriend Angela. He was a nice guy who is often willing to share his food with her and introduce her to great-tasting morsels and delicious drinks. And Angela was very kind to offer with any help she could offer. Lexington was an interesting character too. He had this intelligent look despite the fact that he was youngest of all the gargoyles and likes to mess with things that looked complicated and mechanical. He had tried to introduce her to those things but so far, she was only interested at the videogame.
The leader, Goliath, was a nice guy too. Nice but firm. He seemed like the kind who always calls the shots. Even the elder, Hudson, respects his decision and often lenient to whatever decision he makes. And Bronx is simply adorable! She couldn’t help liking him now that she wasn’t so scared of him.
Perhaps the best gargoyle among the clan was still Brooklyn. He was there when she was scared. He was there to give her reassurance when doubt came to her heart. He was there to guide her and teach her anything she needed to know. He was the one who rid her of all her fears when everything around her seemed like a threat. He was there to catch her whenever she fell. He was everything to her. She couldn’t bear to part with him.
After the concert, she had observed each and every one of the gargoyles that were around her and the one that was with her and finally come to this conclusion: All she had was the gargoyles, and that’s all she wanted.
And most importantly, all she wanted was Brooklyn to be by her side.
Forever.
It was almost near Halloween. Elisa slowly woke up from her slumber at the sound of her alarm clock and moved slowly towards her wardrobe. She opened it and saw her dress perfectly hung on the hanger ready for Halloween night’s celebration. She smiled as she remembered Goliath inviting her for the Halloween night. The last time she and Goliath walked down the streets openly she wore the ball dress Belle wore in ‘Beauty & the Beast’, so this time she was going to wear the dress Elizabeth from ‘The Pirates of the Caribbean’ wore during the almost-execution of Jack Sparrow.
Her eyes shifted to the scented paper on Suki she had left on her dresser before plopping onto the bed tiredly last night. She picked it up and looked through the file again. She took a look at the picture that went with it, and found it hard to believe that this intelligent-looking child prodigy would now be a timid, scared, child-like and wild-looking savage. Her eyes were one thing that had an obvious change though. In the picture her eyes were the normal Asian dark-brown but the Suki right now was having a set of the darkest purple eyes you could ever imagine. That is something you won’t be able to change overnight unless you’re talking about coloured contact lenses.
Elisa decided to get started on the investigation if she wanted to get any answers about what actually happened to Suki that made her experience such a dramatic change. Quickly, she changed into her work clothes and left her apartment in a jiffy. Her first stop was to her own abandoned home. She followed the address written on the printed paper and soon found herself and the car in front of a tall and very exclusive-looking condominium. She walked in and flashed her badge at the security guard, stating her business. The security guard led her to the lift and told the lift attendant to take them to the middle of the building, which is on the 10th floor.
As soon as they reached the 10th floor, the guard took her to a door that bore the numbers J365 and unlocked the door, letting the detective in. Elisa looked around and saw that the place was quite a mess. The curtains were drawn, so she opened them to let the light and see the whole place more clearly.
“That little girl hadn’t been coming home for a long time now,” the guard said. “She’s really a nice person and she always greets me every time she enters the building. Since she had been away for so long, the landlord thought that maybe she had found another place to live and he automatically terminated her accommodation contract deal. The problem now is to get someone to clean up this mess and find new people to buy or rent this place. Personally I think this place has some sort of eerie atmosphere that no one would be able to stand. I myself have been getting the chills too every time I come here to check on things.”
“I know what you mean,” Elisa said, shivering a little. She didn’t find the place too friendly either.
“Is there anything else I can do to help you, detective?” the guard asked.
“No, thanks. I’ll take it from here. I’ll holler if I need anything.”
“Alright. All the doors here are locked after the termination of her contract, so you might need the keys,” the guard said as he gave her the keys to the house before leaving Elisa alone to do her job. Elisa put on a pair of plastic gloves as a standard search procedure. She started with the kitchen as it was the nearest. Elisa unlocked the door and was shocked to see the place filthy and totally trashed. Judging by all the uneaten food like the spilt milk carton, the broken eggs, the mouldy bread and the half-full biscuit tin scattered everywhere, Elisa could only assume that Suki did this as an act of bestial rage. The food was beginning to smell and attract cockroaches and ants. Elisa wrinkled her nose; when exactly are they going to get the cleaners to come and tidy this place up?
She moved out of the kitchen, locking the door on her way out, and started inspecting other places. The dining room was in quite a ship-shape condition, only that there were a few broken chairs. The living room wasn’t a sight for sore eyes though as the sofas have been ripped and almost emptied of its cotton. The TV was smashed onto the floor, the table covered with rags and old newspapers and unwanted rubbish and there was also a photo frame which was crashed of its glass. Elisa picked up the photo frame to see Suki in her graduation clothes posing with a group of graduate friends. Everyone looked older and more mature than her; she was the odd one out.
Our detective then noticed the three bedrooms and moved towards the master bedroom, unlocking the door. The bedroom, as she peeked in, was also as appalling as the outside. The bed sheets were everywhere—well, pieces of them, that is. The pillow case and the blanket were totally mauled and feathers were all over the place. The wardrobe and the dressing table didn’t look too good either—the clothes were practically torn beyond recognition and the mirror was smashed. Elisa picked up the shards of mirror and thought, ‘Looks like 7 years of bad luck ahead of you, Suki.’
One of the other two minor bedrooms and the bathroom were pretty much in good shape. That bedroom was smaller and was used as a storeroom. But it didn’t surprise her more than it did when she entered the other bigger bedroom.
Suki had made this bedroom into her own personal laboratory. There were more smashed glass everywhere and Elisa noticed that they were bits and pieces of test tubes, syringes, a lab thermometer, measuring jars and cone jars, glass rods and white clay bowls. There were also Bunsen burners that were bent in half and a lot of scientific equipment practically demolished into smithereens. She was so engrossed in looking at all those shattered scientific equipment that she didn’t realize that the bigger surprise was at the end of the room. When she looked up to see it, she was even more taken aback.
It was a library of books, some of them scattered on the floor and some were torn to pieces. Elisa bent down to see what were the books about and saw that they were facts and information and the science of bats. There were other books that talked about the legendary gargoyles and their origins. In those books there were pictures of stone gargoyles and gargoyles in flesh, and there were a whole lot of myths and legends that were all focused on bats and gargoyles. In fact, the whole library of books was dedicated to these night creatures. There is also a book where it shows the anatomy of bats and its complex DNA that could be connected to humans. There was a shredded notebook written in, probably, Suki’s handwriting were she scribbled notes on her experiments and her study on both the gargoyles and the bats. Come to think of it, Elisa did think she saw a few mutilated bats on the floor among the shards of glass.
Suddenly, something caught her eye. It was a small metal case hidden just below the gap of one of the bookshelves. She took out the metal case and inspected it. It wasn’t padlocked or anything, so she was lucky to be able to open it without any fuss. As she opened it, she saw stacks of negatives and a whole lot of pictures. One by one, she took out the pictures and looked into them, hoping that Suki would forgive her for sneaking on her private stuff.
When she saw who the main character in her pictures was, she finally understood what her fuss was all about.
The sun was high in the sky as Elisa came to the clock tower. She had expected the gargoyles to be in their stone form, and that might include Suki. But once she got there, she was surprised to see that Suki wasn’t in stone form at all. In fact she was still flesh and blood all the way. She was sleeping soundly on Brooklyn’s lap, who is now in stone form, her hand holding tightly on Brooklyn’s wing. Elisa walked towards Suki and shook her lightly, trying to wake her up, but no matter how she shook and called, Suki just wouldn’t wake up. At first, she thought Suki was dead but when she checked her breathing, she was a-OK.
Elisa was amazed. Suki was like in a deep sleep and unable to wake up. She was just like a bat: sleeping during the day and waking up at night. She tried her luck again but still she didn’t wake up. It was confirmed—she wasn’t going to wake up until the sun sets.
‘At least let her sleep on a decent bed. Maybe it wouldn’t hurt if I took her home to my bed just this once,’ Elisa thought as she pried Suki’s hand away from Brooklyn’s wing. She was quite a light girl, so Elisa was able to carry her in her arms. She scribbled a note and left it on Brooklyn’s lap before taking Suki out of the tower and into her car.
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