Change of Face
by: Kitty Cat Demon
Disclaimer: I don't own gargoyles, I don't make a profit from gargoyles, so please don't sue me :) I'd like to thank everyone who's ever written a piece of gargoyle fanfic. Without further ado...
Rating: PG
Change of face
"This looks like the place." The plump cabbie called back to me.
I looked up, and sure enough, I had arrived.
"That'll be $7.50." I handed him a ten and stepped out of the vehicle. I took a deep breath, and walked in the front door. The sign above the door read GEN-U-TECH.
The Beginning
Bzzzzzz!
I slapped the alarm clock off and groggily sat up in bed. I looked over at the clock which flashed 6:30 a.m., as though mocking me.
"Ugh! I hate mornings!" I yelled into my empty apartment. I slipped out of bed and began my morning routine.
An hour later I was pouring over the paper's want ads, when the phone rang. I picked up the phone.
"Cathy?" Gary's voice drifted from the phone.
"Gary? What do you want?" I responded in a bored tone, "I told you, it's over." Ever since our break-up a month before, Gary had been calling incessantly, trying to get me to go out with him. It seemed this time would be no different.
"I, um, was just wondering, if you weren't busy tonight, um, you wanna go to a movie?"
That was the proverbial straw that broke MY back. Having been recently fired, told by my landlord he wanted me out, dumping a whiny loser, and having my cat/best friend hit by a car, this was just too much.
"No, Gary!" I shouted into the phone. "As a matter of fact, I never want to see you again!" Just then an ad caught my eye, "You know what Gary! I'm moving, far away! Good bye!" slamming the phone down, I looked at the want ad.
POSITION AVAILABLE--LAB ASSISTANT
FLEXIBLE HOURS
CALL
GEN-U-TECH, NEW YORK, NY
The item that caught my eye was the flexible hours. Maybe, I thought, they'd let me work nights. The prospect was so attractive I called right away.
One week later, just before the landlord was going to throw my ass out on the street, I received a letter, postmarked from New York. It was an acceptance letter, and a plane ticket for New York. The letter mentioned my salary, my company-paid living accommodations, and my possibilities for advancement, all up-front. For a few minutes I just stood gawking. Then I grabbed my already packed bags and rushed out of my apartment.
Before I left, I stopped by the landlord's office.
"Harry," I told him as he opened his door, "keep the furniture, I'm going to New York!"
And so began my new life.
After arriving in New York, I did what any newcomer to New York should do, I picked up a copy of the local tabloids.
Splashed across the front in big, bold letters was a title proclaiming: "GARGOYLES LIVE AMONG US!". Below was a fuzzy picture of a shape in front of the moon.
Ah, well. I thought to myself, beats little green men.
Apparently working for GEN-U-TECH was a job with many perks, one of which was a fully loaded apartment in uptown Manhattan. It had everything: cable TV, plush furniture, fine drapes. It was even a penthouse suite. Boy, was I ever impressed. The landlord even allowed pets in the building.
That very afternoon, I went in search of a cat.
Three hours and seven stops later, I had a new friend. A completely black cat with icy blue eyes.
I placed her on the floor of my apartment, where she immediately claimed possession of my couch.
"Hmm..." I smiled at her, "What would be a good name for you?" As if in response to my question, the cat jumped from the couch and began stalking toward something across the room.
When she pounced, it was into a shadowed corner, by the bookcase.
I smiled, "How about Shadow Stalker, or Shade for short?"
The cat just yawned at me and fell asleep in her patch of darkness.
"Shade it is."
My new wall clock chose that moment to chime the hour.
"Yikes! Midnight. I've got to get up early to do chores tomorrow."
One mad dash and thirty minutes later, I was in bed drifting into dreamland.
Where Dreams Reside
Colours seemed to drift past me in no apparent order or form. A mirror drifted in the surrounding gloom. I peered in. There I saw a gray cat, then my reflection, followed by a strange melding of the two.
From the surrounding colours rose a shape. It seemed huge. But what stepped into view seemed to be human, until a sudden light passed, revealing catlike features. Before me stood what I had seen in the mirror, only with fur like a tiger.
"Beware, beware..." a deep voice warned me. "Beware of..."
Bzzzzzz!
I awoke with a start, as the alarm sounded. The dream already fleeing my sleep-fogged brain.
A quick look at the clock confirmed it was time to get ready to go out.
After morning chores and a quick lunch, it was time for work. I caught a cab outside my apartment and told the cabbie my destination.
"GEN-U-TECH?" he asked surprised. "I thought they was outta business?"
His comment surprised me, Out of business? Then why would they be hiring?
"I really don't know." I replied, then turned to stare out the window, making it clear the conversation was over.
Sometime later I was abruptly brought back to reality.
"This looks like the place." The plump cabbie called back to me.
I looked up, and sure enough, I had arrived.
"That'll be $7.50." I handed him a ten and stepped out of the vehicle. I took a deep breath, and walked in the front door. The sign above the door read GEN-U-TECH.
The minute I stepped through those doors, I should have stepped right back out. I could feel the wrongness in the air.
A man with close cropped, orange hair, in a white lab coat stepped forward to greet me.
"Catherine Kirk, I presume?" Something about the man bothered me. Maybe it was his voice, or the way he carried himself, or maybe it was the way he looked at me, as if I were a bug he could easily crush.
"Yes." I answered.
"I am Doctor Anton Sevarius. You are to be my new lab assistant," he held out his hand for me to shake. I grasped it quickly, and let go just as fast. He made my skin crawl.
"If you'll come this way..."
He led me through a maze of halls and doors, talking all the way.
"I'm afraid you've come at a bad time. My current...project...requires I begin work after dark. However, you can assist me in setting up..."
I glanced down at my watch, 1:30 p.m.. I had been told to report for work at two p.m.. Now I knew why. It was a good four to five hours until dark. I let the doctor's words wash over me, listening, but not really paying attention.
"Ahh, here we are." The doctor stepped aside to reveal a drab white room. "I trust you remember my instructions?"
I repeated his litany word for word. I'm glad I can remember things without having to listen hard, I thought as I repeated what I was to do. He left me alone to set-up for his experiments later.
I walked into the room and looked around. I quickly did a double take to one of the corners.
"What in the..." my voice trailed off as I noticed what appeared to be a life-sized gargoyle statue in the corner of the room.
It was very lifelike, standing almost six feet tall. It towered over the rest of the room. It seemed to have been frozen in a scream of anger. Its face ended in a beak which was wide open, displaying an impressive set of teeth. Its wings were thrown wide, and its tail seemed to want to thrash about. All in all, it made quite a demonic picture, especially with the chains. For the life of me, I could not figure out why a stone stature would need to be chained to a wall.
"Well," I said to myself, "If he didn't have his mouth wide open, he might be cute." I smiled at my own joke, and went about preparing for later tonight.
Twenty minutes before sunset, I had finished the doctor's chores. A full tray of examination equipment lay next to an exam bed in the middle of the room. So, being alone, I sat down to wait.
Five minutes before sunset, Dr. Sevarius returned. He seemed to be in an exceptionally good mood. I was about to ask why when I noticed the gun.
Before I could stop my mouth, the question tumbled from my lips.
"What's that for?" I blurted out.
"You'll see." I swear, his smile seemed to get ten times bigger when he said that.
Suddenly, I had that sense of dread. Then pieces of a dream flew through my mind Beware...
At sunset, it began...
©1999