“Was this source irrefutable?”
It was a good question and I could see that Sally wasn't just a pretty face. She was also quite perceptive.
“Not really, I guess.”
“Well, if that's the case, you can't really blame yourself for what's happening. You had no idea that your source was on the money. No one can really figure everything out all the time.”
It was a good argument, but I still remained unconvinced.
“Maybe. But I still should have listened when I had the chance. And now those poor kids have all been kidnapped.” I said.
“Jack, there was nothing that you could have done.” Sally said.
She put her hand on my shoulder. She tried to console me and I was grateful for that. But I was determined to set this right.
“Maybe not then, but I can sure do something now.” I said.
Chapter 5: A Struggle in the Sky
In the coming days, I threw myself into my work. I took note of where each of the kidnappings occurred. It was true that I was not there to stop the previous kidnappings, but maybe now, I could find a way to link the kidnappings together, make a connection, and predict the next kidnapping. Unfortunately the kidnappings occurred at totally random places with no possible connection except that they all occurred within the city.
I also tried asking a few tech savvy friends if they could trace the mysterious chat box’s IP address. It was an impossible task that none of them could accomplish. I also left my laptop on 24/7, hoping that the mysterious source would contact me again, but it did not. As the days wore on, I cursed myself for not having the foresight to have trusted whoever it was, earlier. I found this lapse of judgment eating away at me, but every time my guilt and self-loathing threatened to tear me apart, I remembered what Sally told me.
“No one can really figure out everything every time.”
No man could take every possible road in front of him. I had to always keep that in mind. It was best to stop focusing on the “what could have been” and focus on what I can do right now. Since the mysterious source had stopped contacting me altogether it was just up to me to figure out how to track down the gargoyles and somehow stop them. I just had no idea how to do this. That was why, it was a good thing that the idea itself would soon come to me.
“Our city is in the midst of a terrible wave of abductions from the sky. Our citizens are both in a panic and in an outrage. “
The “Pulse of the City” podcast was blaring on my headphones as I took a walk down the park to clear my head. The host of the podcast was really riled up about all the abductions and I couldn't blame him. While he ranted and gave a piece of his mind, a cool breeze blew at my face. The weather was pleasant and very relaxing, a strange paradox to the fear and tension now gripping all of us in the city.
“We are outraged at these creatures for having the gall to just kidnap our defenseless and innocent children! I mean, why don't they try kidnapping armed men who will fight back instead?”
He was really letting off his steam on the podcast. The net was a wonderful thing, where you could hear rants like his. But soon enough, his rants would hit very close to home. Too close for comfort.
“Mommy!”
I was stopped dead in my tracks when I saw a strange creature swoop down from the sky and clamp on to a young girl. She was probably no more than 6 years old, and she was terrified that this creature was suddenly trying to kidnap her.
“Amy!”
The kid’s mother was wailing in desperation. It seemed like there was little she could do to prevent her child from being kidnapped by one of the gargoyles. There was little that she could do, but there was a lot that I could do. And I was determined to stop this kidnapping from happening.
Everything was a blur. It all happened so quickly and suddenly. I didn't have time to think. I could only react and go with the moment. The podcast was still blaring in my ears as I sprung to action.
“But aside from our outrage at these spawns from hell, we are also outraged at our local authorities' inability to protect us from this menace from the sky!”
I could see the creature snagging the poor girl from a distance. She was kicking and struggling as best as she could, but it would soon be airborne with her in a matter of moments. I dug in and sprinted as fast as I could. I felt a sudden burst of adrenaline in my system. I was running faster than I ever did in my entire life.
“Somebody help us! It's taking my baby away!” the mother cried.
“They should be at the forefront of the fight against these things, but they are powerless to stop the kidnappings which are occurring now at a very alarming frequency! The trend is far from positive. We have to do something now!”
The creature would soon be airborne at a high altitude and it would be impossible to catch it then. I had to do this now, or lose the creature for good. With all my energy, I leapt at the creature from the ground. As I took off from the ground, I hoped that I was still close enough to latch onto the creature before it could escape.
“Will we just stand idly by as our kids are all kidnapped by these mysterious creatures and while police turn a blind eye to all this? I say no!”
As soon as I was up in the air, I stretched my arms out to grab the creature. I managed to snag its thin and gangly legs. The creature's skin was rough to the touch. It was almost as if I held on to thin flaps of skin, and I could almost touch its bones.
“No! It's time we take a stand against these sick and evil creatures! It's time we fight back and take them down!”
The creature tried to flail and kick me loose but I held firm. I was struggling with it and so was Amy. This made it's flying jerky and erratic. It could not fly properly and it began to fly erratically and with no direction.
The creature continued to kick at me with its thin legs. Despite their thin and lanky appearance, they were surprisingly powerful. I almost lost my grip many times and plummeted to the ground below. But somehow, I managed to hold on.
“Get off!”
The creature's voice sounded like broken glass being grounded and pounded to dust. It was hollow and definitely not human. But it could speak.
“So you can speak? Well, I'm telling you now, whatever you are, I'm not letting go, and I'm not going to let you kidnap this girl!” I said.
She must be taken to the hive, taken where she can become like us!” it hissed.
For the moment, I tried not to think of what 'the hive' was and what the gargoyle meant when it said, 'she can become like us.' There would be more than enough ample time to figure all that out if we somehow survived this struggle in the air. I was more concerned with defeating the creature then staying alive with little Amy.
Something dangled in my shirt pocket. High in the air, I felt it tugging at my chest. It was my fountain pen. I always carried it around but hardly used it. Yes, I know how that sounds. A writer carrying a pen around that he doesn't use. Strange? Yes. But there are a lot of stranger things in this world, one of them, the creature that I was struggling with.
Amidst the drama in the skies, an idea suddenly popped in my head. Maybe there was a way to actually survive this, but I had to somehow climb up to an even level with the creature. And that would not be a more comfortable ride then its legs flailing around and kicking at me.
I struggled to climb up and hold on. The gargoyle seemed to have an idea of what I was going to do, as it kicked around even more violently. It began to fly even more erratically. It barely missed hitting a few buildings, walls and poles. The three of us were just inches away from becoming splatter on the walls but somehow, we survived. I don't know if it was luck, or the creature just managing to avoid all that. Whatever the case, we were all still whole, and still struggling.
I clawed and held on to the creature as I climbed up from its legs until I reached it at eye-level. I clamped my legs around its waist to hold on, while I embraced it with one arm, and held on to its back. I only had a few moments to pull off the crazy
stunt and I wasn't even sure if it was going to work. Like I said earlier, I was just going on pure adrenaline and instinct. With my other hand, I swiftly pulled out the pen from my pocket, and stabbed the gargoyle's eye. It shrieked in pain with green blood oozing from its eyes.
It was a horrifying sight and I could see poor Amy crying as she was a witness to everything. But I could not stop now. I stabbed the creature continuously with the pen. Over and over, I stabbed at its eye until the green blood was all over my shirt and on my face. I was splattered with the stuff but I did not stop.
“We cannot be afraid. We cannot let fear control us, and just let these craven beasts take our children. If the police and the authorities cannot help us, we ourselves must take action!”
The podcast continued broadcasting and I could still hear the host through my ears. It was even more eerily uncanny, as he continued to speak even as the ground was suddenly coming at us. We were descending at a rapid pace.
The gargoyle turned limp and could barely move. I decided that stabbing its eye at this point would be a senseless course of action. I dropped my pen and clutched at Amy. The timing could not have been better as the creature simply let go of Amy. I managed to snatch the crying child and hugged her in my arms. We were still plummeting to the ground, but at least I had Amy cradled in my arms. My final thought as we neared the ground was to at least protect Amy with my own body. When we were to hit the ground, at least I would take the brunt of the impact and hopefully, the child would live.
“It will not be easy. Sacrifices will have to be made. Painful sacrifices. But it is the only thing we can do. We cannot just stand idly by while these foul creatures kidnap our children. We have to take a stand and fight them!”
I braced for impact and held Amy tightly in my arms.
Chapter 6: Falling Action
I remember thinking; 'This is it. I'm going to die now. It's been a fairly good life up to this point I guess. And now it's going to end.'
It was kind of funny. Faced with certain death and oblivion, I felt no fear. I only felt a strange and somewhat misplaced sense of calm and contentment. I had always spent my life worrying and fearing death. I often wondered how it would come to take me away and if I would be ready. And now that death seemed like a certainty, I strangely accepted it. I don't know where I got that quiet calmness from as we were plummeting through the sky. But I felt it and I was okay with dying at that moment. What I was worried about was whether I could save Amy or not.
Fortunately for me, I would not have to worry about neither scenario. We immediately fell on thick patches of trees. Before the ground met us, the thick leaves and tangled branches did. The branches and twigs cut at my body, and the leaves surrounded me, forming some kind of leafy cushion. The fall was still rapid but now we were also rapidly slowing down. The leaves and branches were serving as some kind of natural cushion. Still when I finally did hit the ground, I felt like I had broken every single bone in my body.
I screamed in agony. Several people rushed towards us. I could barely move.
“Call an ambulance!”
“Good lord! Is he alive?”
“You.. you did it..”
I heard all their voices but I focused my gaze on Amy's mom. There were tears in her eyes and she could barely speak between her sobs.
“You saved Amy.”
Amy ran to her mom. She was actually relatively unhurt. My body had absorbed most of the impact, just as I had hoped. But now I wondered if I would even be able to walk again. The pain was just too intense to think that I could actually recover.
I looked around with my eyes. I could not even turn my neck. The ambulance had arrived and they were pulling me onto a stretcher. They put a neck brace on my neck and some other stuff I didn't even know. I could hear the medics arguing even as the people were milling around me.
“Take it easy with him!”
“Give him room people!”
“Take care of him, he's a hero! He saved the girl from that thing!”
They wheeled the stretcher into the ambulance and the doors closed behind me. Before they shut, I could hear the people murmuring among themselves. I was now strapped onto the stretcher and inside the ambulance. There was still green blood smeared on my face, and I could actually taste some of it in my mouth. It was bitter and it made me want to vomit. I wanted to shake my head in disgust at the green blood but I couldn't move.
“Dear God, I can't move. I think I'm paralyzed.” I said desperately.
The medic looked at me with kind but stern eyes. He looked a little younger than me.
“We don't know anything yet. But we're going to do our very best to make sure you're taken care of. The people were right. You are a hero.” he said, smiling.
“I don't know. I just want to walk again.” I murmured.
Chapter 7: Dark Transformation
“They're calling you a hero, Jack.”
Sally wiped a tear coming from her eye. She visited me in the hospital but it was clear that she was not ready to see me like this.
“Frankly, I've got to agree with them. It took more than a lot of guts to do what you did. There's a lot of talk going on.” she continued.
“Really? Talk of what?”
Speaking was now a concerted effort for me. I spoke in a hoarse and hollow voice that was actually quite similar to the gargoyle's, now.
I could not move at all from the bed. I was strapped to all sorts of casts and bandages. My arms and legs were in extreme pain and there were casts on my arm and a leg. There was a numbing sensation that bordered on pain as I lay there.
The doctor's prognosis was not good. He told me that there was a high probability of being paralyzed for life, just as I had feared. My spinal column had been fractured and I had broken several bones. He did not say it, but this hospital room could be a constant fixture for me for a long time. A wheelchair afterwards, was not improbable. Walking again, was.
“The media's been covering your story non-stop. Hospital won't allow any reporters to interview you, but the city governor wants to visit you soon. They say he's going to award you some kind of medal.”
“That's great, but I didn't do what I did to get a medal. Amy, is she..?”
“She's with her mom now, but I think they plan on moving out of the city for good. Frankly, I can't blame them after what happened.”
“No one can. The kidnappings, are they-?”
“No attempted kidnappings yet. But that's the thing. The police and the governor's office have been pressured by your actions to finally take a stand against those freaks.”
“That's all great, but what do they plan to do? These things aren't exactly going to just roll over and die. I think my being in the hospital now is more than enough evidence of that.”
“I hear that they're forming a task force specifically made just to target the creatures.”
“Well, it's about damn time!” I said, angrily.
“They also recovered the body of the gargoyle that you battled with. I hear it's unlike anything, or any kind of life form here on the planet.”
“And these creatures are here to target us, our city?”
“Maybe. But no one's figured them out yet, what they're doing and why.”
I suddenly remembered what the strange source sent me before this all happened.
“..they are all out to take over this realm of reality starting with this small city of yours.”
“I think they want to take over everything.” I said.
“Everything?” Sally asked.
“Yes. My old mysterious source said that they want to conquer all of 'this reality.'”
“After everything that's happened, I'm open to anything. Anything's possible.”
“We have to prepare for that invasion. We have to stop them, somehow.” I said.
“Of course, but you're going to have to let the city take care of itself now. You have to rest and stay here. You're in no condition to walk, much less fight.”
I was silent. I didn't like it, but Sally was right. I couldn't even leave the bed on my own power. Fighting one of those things again was just out of the question.
“I guess I really don't have a choice in the matter.” I said with much regret.
“Just rest and get stronger. I am here for you. Things will get better.” Sally said.
She moved towards me and kissed me on the forehead. Then she moved towards the door.
“Rest easy. I'll be back tomorrow.” she said.
The irony of the situation was not lost to me. It was now clear that my earlier suspicions about Sally were right on the button. She did have a thing for me. That was well and good because I was attracted to Sally as well. But what good would her feelings for me be, if I were like this? What kind of a life could I have now? What could I possibly offer her, or anyone else in this sorry state of mine? I tried not to think of it, but it wasn't looking good for me.
Sally smiled and closed the door behind her. I tried not to think about the future and just rest. There was not much else that I could do, and I drifted off into a restless sleep. The sleep was filled with disturbing thoughts of an uncertain future. Would I ever walk again? How would my life be like now? What could I do now? The thoughts merged with my uncertain feelings and formed strange images in my head, bizarre dreams that permeated my slumber.
I dreamt of flying in a black and starless sky. I dreamt of sprouting my own wings and flying high above the city. In the dream, I felt the freedom of flight tinged with something else, something darker, a desire deep in my heart that was not even human. I could not understand what I was feeling, or the images that I had seen in my dreams. I viewed the world with different eyes, the mutated eyes of a monster. And I liked it.
I opened my eyes to see the hospital ceiling again. I was still in my room. I had not flown out into the dark sky as I had dreamt. But it felt so real and so vivid. It was almost as if I could taste the cold night air.
Frustration at the dream not being real crept in. I cursed the reality of my situation. I wanted to fly, to stretch out and to be free. I would kill to be anywhere but on my bed strapped down and helpless. On instinct alone, I tried to move my arms and legs. And a dark miracle occurred.
I did not even think. I leapt out of the bed. I surprised myself and blinked to see if this was really happening. It was. I could feel the cold floor of the hospital room on my bare feet. I could walk again! I took tentative steps with my feet. But when I looked down, I did not see feet. I saw yellowed claws that clung to the floor.