CHAPTER 8: THE TRUTH UNFOLDS
She was wandering around the city among the humans, her eyes frantically searching for her Brooklyn. Where could Brooklyn be? Where was her protector, her shield, her cover, her love? She couldn’t stand being away from him. Without him, she was nothing. Without him, she wasn’t safe. Without him, there is nothing in the world she could do.
Her life was torn apart. How could she ever be separated from him? How could Elisa take her away from him? She had to find him. She had to find him fast. She was hungry—so hungry she could eat anything. She was surrounded by humans who looked at her curiously as she passed by. She was so alone out here, and so hungry. She knew no one here to help her satisfy her hunger. She was scared. She wanted Brooklyn. She wanted her friends. Where is Broadway who could provide her food? Where’s Lexington who could take them anywhere easier without getting caught? Where is the sweet Angela? Where’s…Brooklyn…?
When her eyes came back into focus after that sudden long blackout she had, Brooklyn was there in front of her eyes. Her prayers and hope has not failed her. She was glad, happy and relieved. Her love was right in front of her! He’s with her now! They’re together again! She swore she will never part from him ever, not even for all the money in the world! She felt some sort of an aftertaste in her mouth, but she didn’t care. Brooklyn was there and that’s all she wanted right now.
But she could see through his eyes that everything is going to change.
The gargoyles were all gathered around Suki who was sitting in the middle looking pretty guilty and awkward. Elisa was also there, which made the situation even more awkward than it is, especially when Elisa was a detective, a member of the law. The blood on her lips were fairly clean, but it couldn’t hide the scent—Bronx cowered away from that smell.
“And you say that she had just feasted the blood of a human?” Goliath asked the trio and Angela. They nodded one by one, though reluctant to convict the friend that they have come to be fond of. Elisa came close to Suki and knelt in front of her.
“Suki, tell me. What happened back then? Do you remember anything?” Elisa asked.
Suki turned to Brooklyn, looking lost. Brooklyn nodded, gesturing her to tell the truth. She then turned to Elisa and replied, “Suki only remember…very hungry…Suki want find Brooklyn, but cannot find…Suki saw man, very hungry…then Suki…not remember anymore…”
“This is bad. Really bad,” Elisa said worriedly as she took a look at Suki’s blood-stained fangs. “The experiment she did on herself is giving side effects.”
“Experiment?” Brooklyn’s heart skipped a beat. It cannot be…could it? Everyone turned to look at her questioningly.
“I’ve found out more about her past, and it has confirmed her identity as a human and a scientist,” Elisa said as she took out the printed information for Suki to see. Brooklyn wanted to stop her—he didn’t want her to remember and leave him—but Goliath laid a hand on Brooklyn’s shoulder, his eyes giving him a She-has-to-know-the-truth look. Brooklyn sighed inwardly and watched as Elisa unfolded the piece of paper for Suki.
“See, Suki? This is you, well, were you when you were human, that is,” Elisa said as she pointed at the picture on the right side of the paper. “You look like this before you became like this.”
“Suki…was human? Like Elisa?” Suki stared at the picture on the paper in awe.
“Yes, Suki. Your real name is Yusuki Hamasaki, and you were a genius, a very, very smart girl. You were a scientist working in a medicine industry. Do you remember that?”
“Suki…was…scientist…?”
“Mmhmm, and you were very good at making medicine. But after the robbery, you were scared. You didn’t go to work, and you disappeared from everyone’s sight. Suki, do you remember your small lab in your home? You’ve been using that to do a little private experiment of your own. You wanted to become like this.”
Elisa held up a whole stack of pictures in front of Suki. The gargoyles moved closer to see the pictures. They gasped in awe as the pictures were all about them. There was Broadway flying towards a skyscraper, Lexington playing videogames in front of the TV with Brooklyn, Bronx and Hudson at the beach enjoying the sea, Goliath talking to Elisa from her window, Angela with Broadway sitting together at the cinema’s top bunk watching a movie, the whole clan changing from flesh to stone and another one was vice versa.
“These pictures…she’s been taking pictures of us in secret! How did she take them without us finding out? How did she do that? Look at this, this is seriously close-up! There is no way she could be able to take that with coming face to face with us!” Lexington exclaimed as he pointed at a picture where he and his brothers were fighting a mob who was trying to hurt a family in a car.
“She’s a genius, remember? She can always come up with some gadget to take your pictures up close and personal,” Elisa replied. “I found a whole lot of them back at her home. She had been keeping records of you guys in a notebook and records of her experiments in another. Suki, you have been doing this experiment for a long time and you have been trying so many times to make yourself into a gargoyle just like them. You were scared when the company worked for was robbed because you’re the youngest and most likely prone to danger, and that made you more determined to become a gargoyle like them. You wanted to be strong just like them.”
“Suki…Suki make self into this…?” Suki was still trying to take it all in as she looked at herself in her odd gargoyle-like form.
“Woah, this is creepy, man. Some of these pictures were dated when we were still adjusting to this future world!” Lexington said, shivering a little. “She’s been on our tail ever since we’ve got here! That is scary!”
“Suki take these pictures?” Suki asked Elisa as she looked at her share of the pictures.
“Yes, Suki. You have been taking their pictures and investigating them since the first time I’ve met them. I’ve read your notes, Suki. You have been on them since the day I first knew them, you know, that fateful day where I was investigating on Xanatos’ case and those weird rocks started falling from the air. You were there, Suki, among the crowd. And you followed me secretly all the way and caught the first glimpse of the gargoyles. You were even able to keep your presence out of my eyes. You make a better detective than I am.”
“But why? Why all this torture on herself?” Goliath asked as he returned his share of pictures to Elisa. “We gargoyles have weaknesses too. We are not always as strong as she thinks we are. She could’ve killed herself doing this. Why does she want to do this?”
“It’s not a question of why she did it that was important,” Elisa said as she picked a picture out of the stack and put it onto Suki’s lap. “It’s a question of for whom she did this experiment that is the issue here.”
Suki looked down and saw that it was a full scale picture of Brooklyn on the clock tower, smiling at his brothers. She blushed and held the picture up to her face, purring.
“Ye don’t mean…?” Hudson said, getting the idea. Elisa nodded.
“She did it for Brooklyn. She wanted to become a gargoyle to be with Brooklyn. She had a crush on you for a very long time, Brooklyn, and she was willing to go the extra mile to perfect herself for you.”
“What?!” Brooklyn was taken aback. Suki did this…for him…? She went through all the torture and the pain of turning herself into a gargoyle just for…him? He found it hard to believe. “It can’t be…! It can’t be! How could she be so willing to do this on herself?! She couldn’t just…”
“She’s right. These pictures…” Angela said as she looked at her share of pictures. “Almost all of these pictures have Brooklyn in them. There’s even a picture where only Brooklyn’s tail was showing. There’s Brooklyn in almost every picture.”
“Yeah, you’re right! There’s Brooklyn while he was waking up,” Broadway said as he pointed at his share. “And there’s Brooklyn with me flying in the air, and this one is where Brooklyn saved Lexington from The Pack! She’s been onto us for so long!! Who could’ve thought of that?!”
“There are some humans who are willing to do anything for love, Brooklyn,” Elisa said. “She is one of them.”
Brooklyn stared at Suki with a weight in his heart. He had never thought that someone would go through so much just for him. It was both a heavy yet blissful feeling. He never knew that he had become the cause of her oddity. He didn’t think he would lead an innocent young human to turn into something she wasn’t.
“If she has created herself into a gargoyle,” Broadway voiced out, “why did she start sucking human’s blood? We gargoyles don’t suck blood. We eat like you humans eat.”
“It has to be the flaw in her experiment,” Elisa replied. “The transformation has short-circuited her brain that limited her intelligence, made her lose part of her memory and also weakened her speech capacity, which means that after transforming into this form, she became a not-so-genius girl and can’t talk right. And I’ve been through her notes and found out that of all the bats she could use to merge with her DNA, the vampire bat is the most suitable one. The vampire bats feed on blood from other animals, and she has then turned into a blood-sucking vampire bat herself.”
The younger members of the clan gasped. Goliath sighed in pity—all that trouble and yet backfired by one simple flaw. Suki still remained seated on the floor still trying to take in everything. She shifted her gaze from Broadway to Lexington to Angela and then finally to Brooklyn. All of them looked shocked, as if she was a terrible monster and not a sight to behold. Suki shivered as she looked again at her hands and her wings and at her own body. She looked back at Brooklyn who was looking back at her in dismay. Suddenly she stood up and started screaming in agony, as she was in pain. She screamed and screamed like she would never stop. Brooklyn immediately came to her aid.
“Suki? Suki, it’s OK, I’m here. What’s wrong? Calm down, calm down!” Brooklyn exclaimed as he held Suki close to his chest. “Calm down! What’s wrong? Talk to me!”
“No! No! NO~!!! Go away!!! No touch Suki~!!! No touch Suki~!!!” Suki screamed as she struggled to get away from Brooklyn’s embrace. Brooklyn held her tighter.
“What’s wrong? Tell me, Suki! I’m here!”
“No~!! No touch Suki~!!!” Suki yelled as she struggled again. Without warning, she suddenly sank her teeth onto Brooklyn’s shoulder, which is almost near the jugular, and it was bleeding a little. Brooklyn was taken aback and let her go out of reflex. Suki stared in horror at the bleeding bite marks and flew up to the door that was on the face of the clock, panting breathlessly.
“Suki, come back down here! It’s alright! I was just a little shocked! Come here!”
“No…Suki…Suki no want…hurt Brooklyn…” Suki said before running out of the tower and jumping off the edge. When Brooklyn and the rest finally came up and out of the tower, she was already out of sight. Brooklyn was in panic and jumped up onto the edge in a thrice.
“We have to go and find her! She won’t be able to survive out there! We gotta go get her back!”
“No!” Goliath growled in his low rumbling voice as he picked Brooklyn up and away from the edge. “You cannot go out there again. It is almost sunrise and I cannot risk you turning into stone in the middle of the flight. Calm down, Brooklyn!”
“But…But Suki…She…She needs me! She’s very vulnerable out there! Elisa, you did say that she would fall asleep almost immediately once the sun comes up and will only wake when the sun goes down! You even said that she cannot be awaken unless it is truly sundown! What if the humans discover her and take her away? She’ll never know a thing until it’s too late!”
“Don’t worry, Brooklyn. I’ll go out and look for her,” Elisa replied. “You’ve been out there and under too much stress. You need your rest.”
As soon as she mentioned it, Brooklyn felt an unbelievable sense of fatigue. He slumped in Goliath’s embrace and Broadway and Lexington helped him up one of the stones of the tower. Elisa was right—he had been working himself too much on Suki and bearing all the responsibility. It’s about time he let go a little and trust someone else to help him out.
“Everything will be fine. Don’t you worry. Just rest and leave it to me,” Elisa assured Brooklyn. “It’s also one way for me to make up for taking her away from you in the first place.”
“Bring her here safe and sound,” Goliath said, speaking for all the gargoyles. “She has found favour in our eyes and we do not wish to see her go into any harm.”
“I’m on it, Goliath. Don’t worry.”
As the sun rose, Brooklyn let out a sigh, the worry and anxiousness still hung in his heart as he slowly turned to stone.
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