Friday, October 28, 2005

Dark Angel of the Skies-Chp7

CHAPTER 7: SEARCHING FOR MY LOVE

She found herself standing on top of a skyscraper gazing down at the city of Manhattan below her. She felt as if she was the Queen of the world, ruling over the people before her while she stood on her magnificent throne. The moon high up in the sly was a true sight to behold. It was as if she had lived for this moment for a long time.

Brooklyn came from a distance and flew to her side. He had in his hand a bouquet of roses a mixture of red and white. It was lovely. But the loveliest of all was the look on Brooklyn’s face when he handed the flowers to her. He looked so gallant, so fine, so much like…he was in love with her as much as she was with him. She took the flower and kissed Brooklyn’s beak. He, in turn, took her in his arms and hugged her close to his chest, wrapping his huge protective wings around her. They both looked like nightly silhouettes under the bright full moon.

Brooklyn like Suki?” she asked as she looked up her beau.

“Always, Suki, and forever more,” Brooklyn replied, gazing deep into her purple eyes. She smiled and hugged him back. Nothing could be more blissful than this. She wished she’d never have to leave him ever. Nothing could tear them apart, not even the wrath of heaven and hell itself.

That was when she opened her eyes and saw Elisa before her.

The sun was slowly setting. It’s time for our gargoyles to wake up. One by one cracking sounds were heard and stones fragments fell from the clock tower, followed by roar-like yawns. Brooklyn rubbed the sleep off his eyes and muttered, “Hey, Suki. Rise and shine. Let’s go hang out at Manhattan again. Suki?”

Suki, to his shock, wasn’t there. He remembered her laying her head on his lap and grasping his wing tight before he turned into stone. Now she wasn’t there. She was practically gone without a trace. Brooklyn began to worry. He stood up abruptly and started searching frantically.

“Suki? Suki, where are you? Suki, it’s not funny! I’m not in a mood for hide-and-seek! Suki, where are you?? Suki! SUKI~!!”

“What is it, Brooklyn? What’s all the racket about?” Lexington asked as he entered the tower to see Brooklyn in an anxious, lost puppy state. The rest of the clan also went in to see what was going on.
“Suki’s gone! She’s not here! She’s disappeared!” Brooklyn replied worriedly.

“What?” Broadway exclaimed. “I thought she was sleeping with you last dawn!”

“She was…but now she’s not! She’s gone! Where could she be?”

“Maybe this letter might tell us something,” Lexington said as he picked up the piece of paper that slipped off Brooklyn’s lap when he got up to look for Suki. “It’s from Elisa. It says:

Dear Brooklyn,


I came here just now to check out and see if you’re alright and in good condition and I couldn’t help noticing that Suki didn’t turn to stone just like the rest of you when she slept. I fear that she would be harmed if I just leave her here unattended, so I took her home to sleep at my home instead. I’ll bring her back by tonight, don’t worry.


Your friend, Elisa

“What? Elisa has taken Suki home??” Brooklyn was shocked. “She doesn’t know what she’s doing! I gotta go get Suki back!”

“Calm down, Brooklyn,” Broadway tried to stop his brother from jumping off the tower. “Elisa did say that she had taken Suki home to sleep more comfortably. That sounds like a very safe thing to do. Besides, she did promise that she would return Suki back tonight.”

“Yeah. Why do you have to worry?” Lexington asked. “She with Elisa, and that means she’s in good hands. Don’t you trust Elisa in taking care of your girlfriend?”

“No. To be honest, I don’t,” Brooklyn replied straightforwardly. “She doesn’t know Suki like I do. She’ll flip when she realizes that she is not with me and not among us. She’ll be so scared that she might do something unimaginable! I’m the only one that she trusts, and I’m the only one that can keep her in control! Elisa doesn’t know that! She doesn’t know what she’s doing at all!”

“Brooklyn may be right,” Goliath said. “Elisa is still too new to Suki’s condition, and Suki is still vulnerable to the outside world, given her state of mind. She felt safer with us than alone, and if she realizes she is not among the clan, who knows what damage she might cause. Hudson, you and Bronx stay here just in case Elisa does come here with Suki. Brooklyn, you and I will go to Elisa’s house. Broadway, Lexington and Angela, you scout over Manhattan, just in case.”

Everyone nodded at his orders. They all jumped off the tower, except Hudson and Bronx, and split up—Brooklyn and Goliath glided down towards Elisa’s apartment while the rest swooped to another direction and kept on a lookout to see if Suki might be hanging out alone at the streets of Manhattan. It was a good thing that Elisa lived on the highest floor for Brooklyn and Goliath to be able to slip into her house through the big window on the roof. The first thing they saw was that the window was actually smashed and the shards of glass were outside Elisa’s house, which means something was breaking out instead of breaking in.

When they entered her home, they were in for an unsightly condition. The whole place was trashed from top to bottom, as if Elisa was being viciously ransacked. The living room was a mess, like a tornado just moved in. Goliath searched for Elisa and found her hiding in the bathroom, looking relieved to see the duo.

“Elisa, are you alright?” Goliath asked.

“I’m OK. Just a little shook up, that’s all,” Elisa replied as she came out of the bathroom and whistled at the mess in the living room and her bedroom. “Looks like I’m gonna be spending extra on new furniture this month.”

“Where’s Suki? Where is she?” Brooklyn demanded, looking all around for his little hybrid girlfriend.

“Sorry, Brooklyn,” Elisa replied apologetically. “My bad. I thought she would be more comfortable and safer here than up in the tower where she’s vulnerable to other people’s eyes. Did you know that she doesn’t turn into stone like you guys? She just falls into a deep sleep and her body becomes a timer to wake her up when the sun sets. If anyone sees her like that, she’ll bring more attention than you guys in your stone form…”

“I don’t care about that!” Brooklyn groaned exasperatedly. “I just wanna know where Suki is! She’s not with you, isn’t she?”

“Sorry,” Elisa put her hands together as a sign of apology. “When she woke up, the first thing she asked me was where you are. I told her that she was in my house and away from the tower and I promised her that I would take her back there to be with you…But somehow…she went berserk. She ran all over the place and started crashing and trashing the place down, demanding for you and looking for you everywhere. I hid in the bathroom because she was becoming too vicious for words. The last thing I heard was the window smashing. I guess she’s split. You just missed her.”

“Oh no!” Brooklyn looked out of the window in horror. “She’s out there without protection, without help, without me! She’ll die out there! I gotta go look for her! She needs me!”

Before Goliath could stop him, he had already climbed out of the window and jumped off the building, gliding off into the night sky and towards the city of Manhattan. Goliath sighed and turned to Elisa, “Are you sure you’re alright, Elisa?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. I’ll need to clean up this place though. What a mess,” Elisa looked at her trashed living room in a horrified kind of awe.

“I’m sorry that Suki had caused you trouble.”

“Don’t worry. It’s my fault. I shouldn’t have brought her here. I should’ve known better than try to make my own judgments. Brooklyn’s right; she really needs him.”

Broadway, Lexington and Angela scouted the area to look for any signs of their hybrid friend Suki. They’ve looked everywhere possible for a petrified confused half-being could be—the secluded corners, the roofs of abandoned houses and buildings, dirty streets and even at dumpster, but she was nowhere to be found. They met back at the cinema roof an hour later.

“Any luck, Broadway?” Lexington asked, hoping that Suki could be hiding behind one of them.

“Nope, not a sign of her anywhere,” Broadway replied, shaking his head. “We’ve looked at all the dark places she could hide but we just couldn’t find her. Maybe she really is safe and sound with Hudson back at the clock tower.”

“Maybe we should start looking for her at places that are conspicuous. She might be among them, trying to ask for help or something,” Angela suggested.

“I don’t think she would be silly enough to even approach a human. Her odd features are just too obvious, and the only person she trusts and will really talk to is her boyfriend Brooklyn,” Lexington said.

“That’s right, and I’m going to look for her even if it takes all night.”

The gang spun round as Brooklyn came swooping down beside them. By the worried and solemn look on his face, it was evident that Suki was not at Elisa’s home anymore. Brooklyn looked over the city of Manhattan and tried to get a whiff of air. Broadway looked at him questioningly.

“What exactly are you doing, Brooklyn?”

“I’m trying to find her scent. I know how her smell is like and I’d recognize it anywhere. If I can get her scent, we’ll have a sure fire of her whereabouts.”

After a few minutes of sniffing, Brooklyn stood up abruptly and jumped off the cinema building, gliding over the horizon. The others followed suite. They followed Brooklyn’s lead as he continued to sniff and swoop up and down everywhere, trying to find her trail. Soon he stopped in front of an alley and landed. The others did the same, curious to know where Brooklyn was going to lead them next. Suddenly they heard sounds of choking and gurgling, like someone was in pain. They ran towards the sound. The sound led them to another alley where they could see two figures struggling. One of them was a female and had Suki’s scent.

Brooklyn recognized that scent anywhere. It was his Suki and she seemed as if she was struggling for her life or something. He feared the worse; was the other figure trying to kill her or something? Was the other figure hurting her? His eyes glowed as he roared and pounced onto the figure, sending him skidding to another corner. He grabbed the figure—who was a man—by the collar, raised him high above his head and was about to strike him cold when Suki’s voice slowed him down.

“Brooklyn?”

“Suki?” Brooklyn’s glowing eyes dimmed as he flung the man away and trotted towards her. There was a streetlight nearby, so Brooklyn took her to the light to see if she was hurt. “Are you alright, Suki? Are you hurt or anything? Did the man hurt you? You had me really, really worried, you know that?”

“Suki hungry…” Suki moaned tiredly. Her head was bent low so he couldn’t see her face.

“I’ll get you something to eat later. Let me see if you’re hurt or anything.”

“Uh, Brook,” Broadway voiced out as he and Angela went over to look at the man who was really pale and going cold. “I think she hurt this guy more than he did her. Check Suki out.”

Brooklyn took Suki’s chin and lifted it up, trying to see what Broadway meant. He was shocked to see that there was blood at the corner of her lips. He looked at his own hands and saw that they were covered with blood. He gasped in horror and turned sharply towards Broadway and Angela who, in turn, brought the man under the street light to show him the bite marks on his jugular and the thick amount of blood that followed, staining the collar in red. He turned back to Suki and saw that Suki was looking back at him with tired eyes while licking the blood from the corner of her lips absentmindedly, as if trying to remember something she did.

“Oh God…Suki…What have you done…?” Brooklyn could only manage to breathe out his words as he hugged Suki close to his chest.

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