by Rach Elle
Sunders had a lump in his throat. He expected a story about gargoyles. He hoped he’d learn some valuable information that would lead to their whereabouts; but he didn’t realize the impact his search would have on such a frail, vulnerable little girl. She was in her early twenties, but she may as well have been the twelve year old in that school picture from the tabloid. She was suddenly so small; alone and sickly and now questioning the contempt she’d had for so many years towards the one member of her family; the one whose death she’d witnessed just one night earlier. He suddenly felt less like an intrepid traveler and more like an asshole. Now she looked to him with a question that he wished like hell he could answer. He swallowed the lump in his throat and quietly said, “I don’t know. I’ve never met one.”
“Well this has been helpful.” Crisp mumbled, still standing next to the door, waiting for a chance to end this whole thing.
“But with your help,” Sunders continued, “I think we can find out together.”
“You’re crossing the line again doc.” Crisp reached out and firmly placed his hand on Sunders’ shoulder.
“I want to go.” Awilda looked up at Dr. Crispin.
“What? You can’t be serious.”
“But I am.” She looked back at Sunders. “I want to help you.”
“No, Awilda; you can’t base your life on some photograph.”
“I haven’t.” She stood up from the table. “I’ve been basing it on fear; and look where it’s gotten me. Every night I sit in my room alone and listen to a battle being waged in my head. Am I crazy or not? Now I have a chance to find out.”
“You can’t just leave here.” Crisp’s voice softened.
“Sure I can. I checked myself in, I can check myself out.” She looked to her friend with pleading eyes. “Please Simon, don’t try to stop me.”
Crisp was nervous to let Awilda out of the facility, but he couldn’t ignore the fact that he was also a little excited to see where it would lead. He tried to hide a smile, but he hadn’t felt this kind of anticipation and giddiness for the untold future in a very long time. He almost felt like his old self again. His heart raced as he nodded his head. “Okay, but I’m going with you.”
Crisp led Sunders and Awilda into the hall. “I have to grab something first,” he said as they followed him to an elevator. He swiped his badge before the doors opened and the three stepped inside as they closed behind them. Soon they reopened to the fifth floor.
The hallway was carpeted and the walls were warm beige. Paintings hung on the walls and if the lights were on, the space would be filled with recessed lighting; not with fluorescents like the rest of the building.
Crisp led Awilda and Sunders to an office at the end of the hall. He swiped his card through the reader and opened the door to reveal a large room with a picture window overlooking neighborhood streets and a park in the distance.
“Where are we?” Awilda asked.
“Director Tomlin’s office,” Crisp answered.
“And why are we here?” Sunders asked.
“I told you, I need to grab a few things.” Crisp walked over to a small safe sitting on a book shelf and entered in a code on the keypad. The door opened and he retrieved a card from inside and tossed it to Sunders.
“What’s this?” Sunders asked.
“Visitor’s pass; you’ll need it to get through all doors and operate the elevators. Now it’ll take me a few minutes in here so get the car ready.”
“Gotcha,” He turned to Awilda, “Come on then.”
“No.” Crisp interrupted. “She stays with me. That’s the term of this venture.”
Sunders left the office and headed for the elevator. Once he was out of sight Crisp slid open the media center behind Tomlin’s desk. Where a television should have been was a glass case filled with arms. Awilda gasped at the range of guns the director kept locked in his office. “Are those for my monsters?” She asked, relieved to have protection.
“Let’s just say they’re for any threat that may present itself. Now turn on the light so I can find the key.”
Junior and Kingsley had made their way to the back of the asylum. They surveyed the scope of the building and bickered about where to break in.
“We should start on the first floor and work our way up.” Junior whispered.
“No, she won’t be on the ground floor.” Kingsley insisted.
“You don’t know where she’ll be.”
Kingsley grunted. “We need a map of this place.”
“Or a tour guide.”
A light turned on in a room on the fifth floor. The boys looked at each other and shrugged. “I guess that’s as good of a place to start as any.” Junior conceded as he took off his shoes.
Kingsley, too anxious to respond, hunched over and tightened every muscle in his body. He could feel the burning in his veins as he began to tremble. The flesh on his back moved and morphed as did his limbs and feet. His eyes stung and his teeth clenched while his body shifted in a sudden release. His wings and tail sliced through the air as his clothes tore to accommodate the new appendages. He released his fists and relaxed his muscles while the red glow from his eyes dimmed to their natural brown color.
He watched as Junior dug his human hands and feet into the side of the asylum and began scaling the wall. He envied him. He was stronger than Kingsley by a mile and didn’t need to completely shift to be superhuman. With Kingsley, on the other hand, it was all or nothing. He was either human or gargoyle. He would blame it on age, but it had always been that way. He joined his young friend and scaled the wall with ease.
“Are you talking about Sunders?” Awilda asked. She could tell Simon didn’t like the man. She had her reservations about him as well, but he hardly seemed threatening.
“Maybe.”
“Oh please,” she started, “he’s a puss. Didn’t you see the way he cowered when you pushed him?”
“I still don’t trust him.” Exasperated, Crisp gave up on finding the key. He took off his white lab coat and wrapped it around his arm.
“Well don’t worry about him on my account. I can handle myself.”
“You haven’t been outside these walls in five years. How would you know?” Without warning Crisp jammed his elbow into the casing, shattering the glass and startling Awilda. He used his cloaked arm to clear the way of any loose hanging shards and swept away the fallen ones with his shoe.
As Simon continued to vandalize and steal Awilda leaned against the doorjamb with her arms folded around her torso. Was she really leaving Bain? The idea sent chills down her spine. Simon was right; she hadn’t been outside in five years. The very thought made her queasy. She turned and slowly walked down the dark hallway; away from all of Simon’s ransacking and into the silence of the upper floor. She reached the end and turned to face the adjacent hall. A lone window sat at the end, allowing a small amount of moonlight to shine on the carpet. She was just about to turn and head back to Director Tomlin’s office when a small grunt echoed ahead of her. Awilda froze in place and narrowed her eyes to see nothing but an empty hallway. The sound spiked her curiosity as she slowly headed down the corridor, leaving the light of Tomlin’s office behind.
With every step Awilda could feel her adrenaline and fear rise. The darkness and deafening silence; the uncertainty of what lay just beyond the next corner; all were too familiar to the nightmares she’d had so many times. Her heart pounded violently in her chest. She heard a small rustle and stopped.
“Sunders,” She whispered and waited for a response; none came. She continued slowly; cautiously putting one foot in front of the other. The hallway would soon open to the left. She assumed there would be a set of bathrooms and perhaps a drinking fountain placed perfectly center on the nook’s wall; but she didn’t know what else she would find. Her fear began to run wild as she forced herself to keep moving and tried to control her now shallow breathing. “Hello?” She whispered again. When no sound came she inhaled deeply and pushed herself to round
the corner.
The adjacent nook was dark and shallow without an ounce of natural light to guide her. She took two steps forward before noticing an object on the floor. A few steps more and the mass began to take shape. One more step and she could see a pale hand lying still. Her eyes widened in nearly paralyzing fear as they followed the arm to reach the face of Don, the night guard. Awilda gasped and ran to him. She dropped to her knees and tried to shake him awake. She pushed her two fingers against his neck in search for a pulse. Once the steady beating of a sleeping man’s heart pushed back she tried to wake him again. Another rustle sounded and she froze. She couldn’t tell where it came from, but something was definitely near. She reached for Don’s waist, hoping to find a gun, but the guards at Bain didn’t carry them. Instead she pulled out his night stick, slowly stood and backed away. She knew Simon wasn’t far and he was armed. She inhaled deeply, preparing herself to scream for him as she tore through the hallway like a bat out of hell. She slowly turned and gathered as much adrenaline and courage as she could before forcing her legs to run. Her feet hit the ground only twice before a large hand cupped over her mouth and an arm wrapped around her waist, yanking her back. She dropped the night stick as she tried to scream and squirm, but she was too weak to get away.
Awilda could hear footsteps coming toward her as out of the darkness emerged a figure. As he got closer she could start to see his features. He was an old man with white hair and a trimmed beard. He smiled at her, showing a set of fangs that glistened in the moonlight. She recoiled and tried to look away but couldn’t. Her heart began to race at an unthinkable speed as she remembered the photo; dark and grainy, but she could see the deformities. Here, mere feet from this creature she could see the face of a man with large bat-like wings; appendages that fit just as seamlessly as arms and legs. She wanted to scream and run but she knew she couldn’t do either. Instead, she could feel herself starting to cry.
“Is this her?” The man holding her asked.
The creature exhaled as if he’d been holding his breath for an hour. “Yes.”
“And she’s your Responsibility? You’re sure?” The man sounded annoyed as the creature nodded.
“Good, let’s go.”
A gun shot sounded throughout the hall and a vase on a nearby pedestal shattered. The man and gargoyle turned to see a handsome blonde psychiatrist with a shot gun in his hands.
Crisp began walking slowly. “Let her go.” He demanded as he aimed his gun directly at the man holding Awilda. He could feel tightness in his chest. He knew he wouldn’t be able to shoot him. He couldn’t bring himself to, but he hoped like hell the man would never get to know that. His friend, on the other hand, yeah he could shoot him.
Crisp squinted; it was too dark to see anything clearly. He continued moving forward, hoping to scare them away. “I said let her go.” He demanded again. For good measure he shot a slug into the floor just inches away from the man and Awilda.
Sunders had reached his car parked outside of Bain and opened the door to get inside when he heard a gun shot. He looked up at the building only to hear a second one ring out. Something was happening. He couldn’t afford to lose Awilda. He hadn’t been this close in so long. He ran to the back of the car and opened the trunk. He unzipped his luggage and pulled out a tranquilizer gun. He wished he’d brought a real weapon, but this would have to do. He grabbed a couple of sedative darts, shut the trunk of the car and ran back inside with his visitor’s pass.
At the end of the street Elizabeth sat behind the wheel of a station wagon, watching a man in her rear view mirror as he pulled a gun out of the trunk of his car and ran into Bain Asylum. She didn’t fear for her two boys inside. They could handle themselves, even against a loaded gun; but this interference was not in the plan and could potentially ruin everything. She inhaled deeply before reaching into the duffel bag in the backseat.
Junior wasn’t afraid of the rifle that pointed directly at him. He’d always had a knack of being fearless in the face of danger. Once his adrenaline started pumping very few things could frighten him into submission. Besides, he could see perfectly in the dark and knew that Blondie was pointing his gun slightly to the left. The slug wouldn’t even come close to hitting him. But he couldn’t take that chance with the girl in his arms. Slowly, he loosened his grip on her and moved her to the side, out of the line of fire. She didn’t say a word as he removed his hand from over her mouth. Instead she breathed quick, shallow breaths and shivered under his arm.
“I will kill you.” Blondie threatened.
A large, sinister smile spread across Junior’s face. “Then do it.”
The door behind the gunman flew open and another man ran in from the stairwell. He was breathing heavily as he pointed a gun toward Kingsley and pulled the trigger.
Sunders couldn’t see in the dark, but he knew Dr. Crispin was holding someone at gunpoint when he emerged from the stairwell. He could barely see a figure at the end of the hall but aimed his tranquilizer and shot anyway. A second figure that he didn’t know was there jumped to push his friend out of the way. The dart nailed the larger body square in the shoulder as a deep throated growl rumbled throughout the fifth floor. The smaller target turned and looked toward Crisp and Sunders. His eyes, once indistinguishable in the darkness, now glowed red. Sunders’ heart raced. He couldn’t believe what he was witnessing. Here in the blackened halls of Bain Asylum stood a real gargoyle. He had never been this close. He didn’t know what to do next, but he knew that Awilda Rose, whatever her connection to this creature, was his only ticket to finding more of them.
As he stared into the red eyes he could feel his body being consumed by fear. He lifted his shaking hands and pointed his tranquilizer at the beast. Another shot rang out as Crisp pulled his own trigger. The monster grabbed his arm and howled in pain.
“No!” Sonny yelled at Crisp. “What are you doing?!”
“Saving Awilda; what are you doing?”
Junior had had enough of this. A sedative dart in his shoulder was annoying, but a bullet in his friend was worth its weight in vengeance.
The girl tried to run to her friends but Kingsley reached out and grabbed her leg, forcing her to fall to the floor. She scrambled, eventually finding the night stick she’d dropped as Junior got to his feet. He ran to her and latched onto her waist when she spun around and bashed his face with the weapon. It stung only slightly but it loosened his grip and she stumbled away.
The night guard’s eyes flickered open. He had a hell of a headache and realized he’d been lying unconscious on the carpeted fifth floor of Bain. He could hear commotion not far from him and soon recognized the sound of gunfire. The pained cry told him someone had been hit. Knowing he didn’t have a weapon capable of containing such a situation, he had to call for help. He pulled himself to his knees, reached upward, and pulled the fire alarm.
A loud alarm sounded as Sunders ran to Awilda. Crisp lifted his gun again and shot another round into the wall near the wounded one’s head. The large man abandoned his quest for the girl and instead ran to his monstrous friend. He grabbed him and pulled him into the adjacent hallway, out of the line of fire.
Don, the night guard, could barely see in the darkness; but what he could see couldn’t possibly be real. His fuzzy eyes glazed over a large wing, a long tail and monstrous claws being dragged mere feet in front of him. His head spun and he passed out again.
Sunders, Crisp and Awilda bolted through the door into the stairwell. They ran down the metal, winding stairs as quickly as they could; their steps echoing, making their location impossible to pinpoint based on sound. Soon they reached the ground level to see handfuls of Bain patients. The alarm had triggered all doors to come unlocked. Some patients were running in case of an actual fire, others were wandering, not fully comprehending the possibility of danger. Crisp wrapped his arm around Awilda’s shoulder and followed Sunders out the front door to his car. They were half way across the street when an elderly woman, seemingly out fo
r an evening stroll, pulled a semi-automatic out of the elastic waist of her pants and pointed it at the trio.
“Freeze!” Elizabeth yelled. She recognized the girl from the article and knew she was in the wrong hands. She didn’t know where her two men were, and hoped like hell these humans didn’t get the upper hand.
The tall blonde without hesitation lifted a shotgun and pointed it back at her. She was stunned. His gun was much larger than hers, but she couldn’t back down. She held her ground.
“The girl’s coming with me!” She yelled over the booming sound of the fire alarm.
“Like hell she is.” Crisp responded, calm and calculated.
An echoing howl rang out over the asylum as two winged monsters leapt from the rooftop. Elizabeth looked up to see Kingsley and a newly shifted Junior speeding toward the ground like torpedoes. She breathed a quick sigh of relief knowing they were okay. Kingsley swooped toward the wide eyed Scotsman and lifted him from the ground. He carried him several feet before tossing him to the side into a parked car. Sunders fell to the pavement, landing on his shoulder and hissing in pain.
Awilda cowered as she held tightly onto the torso of the armed blonde.
Crisp was faced with a conundrum. An enormous, tattooed gargoyle was flying toward him, fangs bared and eyes red, and despite the large gun in his hands he couldn’t bring himself to harm it. He waited patiently for just the right moment before dropping his shotgun and charging into the old woman; driving his right shoulder into her ribcage. Her knee jerk reaction was to pull the trigger as he tackled her to the ground. Her arms wheeled upward and an obeying bullet soared into the air and grazed the abdomen of a very persistent gargoyle.
Junior was sent careening into the ground from the shock of the bullet in his side. Even more so, he was fucking pissed off that the bastard had attacked Elizabeth. Harming a Responsibility was grounds for death in a shifter’s world. He quickly got to his feet, trying not to show that his stomach hurt like hell.