The Only Human

by Rick Mofina

“Okay.”

  “This is one of the buildings Gephardt Kron and his black magic carvers worked on. It is crowned with a battalion of dragon-headed gargoyles jutting from the exterior of the top floor. According to the curse, this is the elite squad of revenge demons, leading the uprising.”

  “What does that all mean for me?”

  “You must read the incantation in rune after you’ve stared eye-to-eye with the lead monster, the one jutting from the northeast corner. The demon of the northeast wind. You must do this while wearing the amulet and while you are crawling on to its back as it slumbers over the city.”

  Ty’s stomach twisted.

  “That building’s about forty stories tall!”

  “Sixty,” Ella said. “I saw it in a video in class.”

  “I can’t do that! I just can’t!”

  “It’s the only way to remove the curse,” Lotta said.

  “You can do it, Ty,” Ella said.

  “No I can’t! I’ll die! I can’t! Find somebody else!”

  “There is only you, Tyler, you’re the only human who can do this,” Lotta said. “If it helps, the incantation assures that while you wear the amulet no harm will ever come to you, no matter what cataclysmic action results, no matter what the beasts do, no matter what you witness. As long as you wear the amulet and repeat the incantation you will be safe. Here’s the incantation,” Lotta handed Ty her note, “practice reading it in English.”

  Ty’s hand shook a little as he studied Lotta’s neat writing. His voice sounded small as he read it aloud slowly:

  “It is commanded you cease thy foul uprising against humankind, your merciful creators.

  I smite thee to pieces ye ravening beasts,

  I sink thy vile soul into the oceans of eternal hell,

  To return as silent, obedient stone evermore.”

  The silence that followed Ty’s reading was punctuated by the ticking clock and distant emergency sirens.

  “You’ve done it,” Lotta said. “You now know everything. There’s nothing more I can do to help.”

  “Thank you,” Ella said.

  “When you leave, I’m going to call the library and then the police for an explanation on the whereabouts of Miles Sedgwick.”

  “I wouldn’t do that,” Ty said. “Remember, the gargoyles have invaded the police, fire, subway, buses, they’re everywhere.”

  Lotta removed her glasses and cupped her wrinkled hands to her face.

  “May I ask you a personal question?” Ella said.

  “Of course.”

  “You never doubted our story, or questioned our sanity. Why?”

  Lotta very subtly tugged at her left sleeve and massaged her forearm.

  “As a small child during the second world war, I saw many horrors, frightening, evil, monstrous things and during the whole time my young mind was thinking: I can’t believe this. I don’t want to believe it. It’s a nightmare. I constantly thought that we were suffering in a cursed time. I believe evil forces exist in this world.”

  Tears came to Lotta’s eyes and Ella gave her a hug.

  “Thank you for helping us, Lotta.”

  “Trouble and pain are constants in our world; we must all do what we can to help reduce it. I know you both have good hearts. I will pray for you.”

  Back on the street after leaving Lotta’s building Ty and Ella hurried toward Penn Station, which is underneath Madison Square Garden.

  “We’ll take the subway downtown to the Goliath Building.” Ty’s tone betrayed his anxiety at having to go up sixty stories. “But there has to be another way to remove the curse without going to the top floor.”

  “It’s the only way,” Ella said. “You can do it, Ty, I know you can.”

  “I can’t. I just can’t, it’s too high.”

  He slid his goggles back into place, positioned his ball cap firmly and gripped the straps of his backpack. They’d moved through the public square and the fountain at One Penn Plaza. They crossed the street to Madison Square Garden and Penn Station, puzzled by what was taking place out front. Hundreds, no maybe thousands, of people were flowing out of the Garden and into the streets where they were forming massive lines. Police were directing the crowds to Penn Station, barking at people to remain calm and stay within the barricades.

  Ty and Ella stood at the fringe of one of the human rivers where Ty tried to adjust the apertures of his goggles.

  “It looks like an evacuation,” Ella said.

  Before Ty could say anything he felt a sharp nudge in his back and turned to face the hideous salivating jaws of a gargoyle demon breathing its wicked breath on him. Ella turned at the same time but she saw a cop towering over them.

  “You two get in line now! Now, I say! Hurry!”

  20

  Ty and Ella’s line stretched as far as they could see as it moved into Penn Station’s West 33rd Street entrance.

  “Oh God, Ty, what’re we going to do?”

  “Shh.” He lowered his voice. “Don’t draw attention!”

  She squeezed his arm. The terrible realization of what they’d just walked into had jolted them like an electric shock.

  There’s no way out of this! We’re trapped!

  Gargoyles were everywhere, guarding the edges of the line, monitoring the slow march. Ty shifted his goggles slightly so he could see them disguised as uniformed cops and officials. Standing practically shoulder to shoulder, waving and pointing for people to keep moving toward the escalators and staircases leading down to the trains.

  “I want to go back to the circus!” A little girl said.

  “Shut that kid up!” One cop ordered.

  “Don’t be so rude!” A woman complained.

  “This is so freaking weird!” A teenage girl said to one cop. “Why’re you doing this?”

  The demon cop she’d questioned just smiled while tapping his billy club to his palm.

  “Keep moving!” Another cop commanded through a bullhorn. “We’ve got an emergency situation in the building! We’re transporting you for your safety so we can resolve it and bring you back! Keep moving!”

  Ty couldn’t believe the size of the crowd. He knew Penn Station was one of the world’s busiest train stations, and he knew Madison Square Garden could hold some 20,000 people, but what he was witnessing was overwhelming.

  Police kept pushing people up against each other making it uncomfortable to move. As Ty and Ella approached their stairway he overheard two demon-cops joking with each other as if the men, women and children passing before them were cattle.

  “This is our biggest shipment, so far,” one said as the other chuckled while waving with faked friendliness to two little girls, their faces still bearing painted flowers and hearts from the circus.

  “Have a nice trip and kiss your mama goodbye!”

  The floor trembled from the trains thundering in and out of the station below. Yelling echoed up the congested stairwell. Ty and Ella were near the bottom of the stairs and couldn’t believe the scene. The platform was jam-packed. People on the escalators bumped others on the landing. Yet the cops at the top kept demanding people continue descending, prodding and pushing them against the protests of those already crushed together on the platform. Some had to scramble to keep from falling onto the tracks, prompting screams.

  “Stop!” “There’s no more room!” “This is crazy!” “Stop the line!” “Quit pushing!” “I can’t breathe!” “This is inhumane!” “Please, stop!”

  Their cries were overtaken by the subway trains rattling in and out of the station, their brakes screeching and their doors opening. Ty saw that they’d arrived completely empty and were moving in the same direction.

  Gargoyle cops stood everywhere with those in the center of the platform selecting which people were to go on which train, pointing with their clubs.

  “You, to the left! You, to the right! Move, move, move!”

  They separated families, couples and friends, forcing them onto separate trains, ignoring their
pleas to be kept together. When one young man refused to be separated from his girlfriend, two demon cops took him further away as his girlfriend cried. Ty used his goggles to zoom in and through the crowd saw the gargoyles beating the man into submission and forcing him onto a train without his girlfriend.

  “I want to be with my dad!” A little boy on the platform shouted as his dad held him against the prying jabs of a club.

  The gargoyles smashed the boy’s father’s hands, arms and head with their clubs until he couldn’t hang on to his son. The demons pulled them apart pushing them onto separate trains. When people tried to record the abuse with their cell phones, they had them smacked from their hands with clubs before they too were shoved into waiting cars.

  “Recording is forbidden!” One gargoyle cop ordered. “Get on the train!”

  As Ty and Ella’s line moved closer on the platform, Ella fought her tears at what was unfolding. They squeezed each other’s hands, watching the gargoyles cram people into the cars, filling them so tight people cried out as the doors closed. The fully loaded trains lurched out and empty ones rushed in behind them in a smooth operation.

  When Ty and Ella reached the center of the platform, a gargoyle cop scowled at them.

  “You! Idiot with the stupid glasses! To the left! Girl to the right!”

  “Ty!” Ella threw her arms around him. “Don’t let me go!”

  Suddenly their hands and arms suffered a barrage of blows from the clubs and within seconds Ella was propelled into an overflowing subway car while Ty was jammed into a car on the opposite side of the platform.

  Over his shoulder he saw Ella beseeching him and his heart slammed against his ribs with the fear that they would never see each other again. Ty was packed roughly with other people into his car, crushed against two old sobbing women.

  He was overcome with defeat.

  This is it! It’s over!

  Unable to move, he faced the crowded platform which suddenly echoed with Ella’s voice.

  “You’re the only one who can stop this, Ty!”

  Through the madness he saw Ella’s train in the moment before its doors closed. As it lumbered out of the station he glimpsed her face pressed against the window before it disappeared.

  Then his train pitched forward and began rolling into the darkness.

  21

  Ty’s train accelerated deeper into the tunnel.

  Less than thirty seconds after leaving the station all of the lights went out causing children to cry and people to shout.

  “Would everyone please stay calm!” one man called from the back. “Don’t get hysterical. I’m sure the lights will come back on!”

  Other voices in the darkness disagreed.

  “No way, this ain’t no damn, E-VACK-YOU-AY-SHUN! Y’all saw what they did! It’s a damn abuse of human rights! Somebody tell me what the hell’s going on!”

  “Where’re they taking us?” A woman called out.

  As the train rattled on, some people, those who still had phones or tablets, switched them on for light. Some tried calling or texting loved ones.

  “It’s not working!” One of them said.

  “There’s no connection! They must’ve jammed the signal!”

  “Maybe we’re too deep underground?”

  “I don’t see any platforms, or stations!”

  “Where’re we going?”

  People swayed and smashed against one another as the train entered a curve. Coming out of it, Ty managed to adjust the apertures on his goggles. He saw nothing, even though the train had travelled for nearly fifteen minutes. With dread mounting, he had to try something, anything. After some twisting, he pulled off his backpack, reached into it and fished out the folded page with the incantation Lotta-Maria Olofsson had given him.

  He began reading it softly like a prayer. Then he practiced the rune version, repeating it phonetically. Nothing happened. He knew that he didn’t have the real parchment and the amulet, but he was desperate. He continued reading it repeatedly until he felt a sudden intense drag while being jerked forward as the train slowed before coming to a full stop.

  The train remained still amid a loud hissing.

  A wary silence fell over the car followed by ripples of anxious whispering then rapid clunking of the other cars in a domino-like sequence.

  Slowly, the train reversed.

  “We’re being shunted to another track,” a man said.

  They rolled at low speed for several moments before a loud series of squeaks, ending in another full stop. Again they waited in the dark silence, shocked at all that had taken place, fearful of what was to come.

  After several long, agonizing moments a little boy moaned.

  “I have to pee, mommy!”

  As his mother hushed him lights began to flicker and flash outside the car, accompanied by voices and the sound of trudging alongside the train.

  The doors thudded open.

  Blinding lights were aimed at the eyes of people in the car.

  “Out! Out! Everyone out, now!” Voices demanded from the darkness behind the burning light beams.

  The orders were followed by clubbing to ensure people moved faster onto a worn earthen ramp that was almost level with the floor of the car. Those who stumbled were beaten. Those who complained were thrashed harder.

  “Get up! Line up! Three deep, backs to the train! Faster! Move! Faster!”

  The passengers did as ordered while soft whimpering echoed in this damp, dripping, sewer-smelling, region of hell to which they’d been delivered. From what Ty could see in both directions, the barbarous scene was repeated at every car along the rail line.

  This can’t be!

  When the lights allowed, Ty saw that their tormentors were humans.

  He adjusted his goggles but saw no transformation, confirming that humans with clubs were dispensing the cruelty.

  Ty didn’t understand how this could be happening. Humans? His answer came quickly by way of a woman’s chilling scream. It resounded through the tunnel and was followed by the horrified shriek of a young girl.

  A few feet back, beyond the veil of grim shadow, splashes of light found them: The gargoyles!

  They stood against the wall supervising the latest arrivals.

  Overlords.

  Ty slid his goggles off then on. There was no transformation, no disguise. It wasn’t necessary, for here everyone saw them in their true form: dozens of them with horned reptile heads and dragon snouts. Their slavering jaws were lined with jagged teeth, while their eyes bulged with rage, glowing red and yellow like those of an ancient serpent.

  The demons stood tall and superior on powerful scaly haunches with gripping claws, flexing their muscles or spreading their hulking, majestic wings.

  They exuded invincibility.

  But one man had succumbed to his fear and anger.

  “What the hell’s this? You can’t treat us this way! I’ll show you and your sick freaks!”

  A glint of steel in the light revealed the man had a knife. He rushed at their human captors, slashing at them. They dodged his attack and instantly the air quaked with a deafening growl as if it had erupted from the bowels of hell.

  A gargoyle that was about eight feet tall seized the man in one claw and hurled him against the black water-slicked wall. The man fell to the ground like a broken doll.

  A confusion of lights swirled on his body.

  Everyone saw the gargoyle stand over him, stomping one huge hideous foot on his neck, and the other on his thighs.

  In a heartbeat the beast bent over and bit out the man’s stomach, the way a robin pecks a worm. Then it turned in triumph to the horrified prisoners, its jaws dripping meaty red chunks, as it returned to standing against the wall.

  “This is The Trembling!” one of the human captors shouted. “To resist means death! Now, turn left and march! Now!”

  22

  Ty’s group fell in with the lines from the cars ahead, plodding deeper into the gloom.

&nb
sp; Guards punched and kicked them as the gargoyles watched.

  The procession moved beyond the landing while the clunking of other arriving trains echoed behind them. As they went further along the tunnel’s rugged terrain, Ty confronted the terrible reality.

  Life as he knew it had ended.

  The images of the demons killing the brave man who defied them were seared in his mind. Ty’s skin numbed with fear that the fiends may have done the same to his mother, his father and Ella.

  I gotta find a way out of here. I gotta remove the curse!

  But like all the others, Ty was a prisoner in this netherworld deep beneath Manhattan.

  The columns passed under an archway that was captured by lights illuminating letters carved into the rock, the words: “Labor Makes You Free!” They progressed to a large processing zone. Here, under the menacing presence of large gargoyles, people were forced to give up their belongings. Ty saw heaps of backpacks, cell phones, tablets, books, purses, wallets and briefcases. Further ahead people were forced to strip down to their underwear.

  Before his turn came, Ty acted quickly and subtly.

  He tossed the professor’s notebook unnoticed into a ditch. Then he took the page with Lotta’s incantation, folded it several times and wedged it into his goggles. He collapsed them and jammed them down his underwear.

  In the line, Ty surrendered his backpack and his ball cap then moved forward and removed all his clothes except his briefs. The prisoners were told to keep their footwear. Men wore their embarrassment on their faces and women sobbed as they all submitted to the order. The foul air was cool on Ty’s skin. People tried not to look at each other. Ty kept his hands together in front of him, like the other males, and made it safely through the process.

  At the end of it, like the others, he was given baggy denim pants and a ragged workman’s T-shirt. It was orange with a large white fluorescent X on the front and back, along with the number 1957P, which was recorded after he gave his name.

  “This is your number! From now on, you are one nine fifty-seven P!” The human guard said. As he looked at Ty his hard face almost softened and he lowered his voice. “I don’t know how old you are but tell them at the next post that you’re sixteen.”