Into the Night - Oath
Written by...Demelza Watt
Disclaimer...This series, Into the Night, and the characters Megan Kerr,
Armstrong, Dabble-worth, Aindra, Kindrak and Det. Marlon Woods are the property
of Demelza Watt. Please do not use without permission.
Warning... This story contains low level violence.
Rating... I'd like to say G, but probably would be best suited at PG/PG13.
This is the first chapter in a Gargoyles spin-off type series I'm writing, it
doesn't have any of the original characters in it ALL the time, sometimes they
will make guest appearances. So, if you have any comments, questions, suggestions...
please, read and review. Hope you enjoy!
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The streets of Wilmington, Delaware are almost empty, it's not that late, but late enough where everyone has gone home, or at least heading home. Everyone, that is, except Megan Kerr. Twenty-three years old, reaching an awkward height of five foot six; shoulder length wavy ash blonde hair that she always let hang loose; her skin fair; her electric blue eyes peering through thin black framed glasses that she was prescribed last summer by her doctor before heading out to Delaware from Alabama.
She let out a sigh as she closed up the Hair Dresser's where she'd been employed for the last three months since her arrival in the town. It was quarter past eight, and she was wishing she hadn't moved to Delaware. It was so boring for her, the same job the last three months, attending college part time to continue her hair dressing studies. She thought she'd be in LA by now, doing hair and make up for the stars. But no, instead she was working for Hoolio and Steve, the city's most profound hair stylists.
It was a great job, she didn't earn much at the moment, but knew in two months when she passed her mid term exam, she'd be given a promotion within her job; a promotion that came with a six percent pay rise. But it wasn't enough. She was sick of styling old lady's hair all the time. Shaving the hair off young kids who wanted to mimic their favourite celebrities. Sure, she was ambitious to begin with.... but now? She wanted something that was the complete opposite of life she had. In short, she wanted something that would bring life into the vibrancy drained lifestyle she'd lived all her life.
As she begun walking along the foot path, heading back to her car parked just up the road in the public parking lot, Megan got the feeling she was being followed. Footsteps behind her seemed to grow nearer and nearer. She stepped up her pace, almost running. But the footsteps just sped up too.
Megan twisted her neck around to look behind her, two men, punks, were chasing after her. One carrying a chain, the other a baseball bat. "Oh fu...." She trailed off, this time in full fledged running over to her car. It was only twenty metres away, she could make it. But before she reached even half that distance she was shoved to the ground from the back.
"Stay down!" One of the men roared at her. His voice forceful. She felt his hands beginning to search her pockets, what the hell were they looking for? Her purse? She lost that last week on campus. "Where's your money?" The same man demanded, shoving the end of the baseball bat into her lower spine. She grimaced, but didn't reply. "Tell me!" He shouted.
"Why don't ya go to hell." Megan replied, her Alabama accent shining through. She looked up at the man, quickly identifying him from one of the guys on campus her had harrassed her for the first weeks when she started college. His face looking as though it hadn't been shaven in several weeks. "You." She said as she made an affirmative i.d of him.
The gruff bastard dug the baseball bat harder into her spine, she cried out in pain. Within the next few moments, everything happened so quickly. Tears streamed out of her eyes as she looked up at the guy again, just as someone... or something, appeared behind him. She couldn't make out what he... it... whatever it was. Within seconds the man was flown over top her over to an old Station Wagon that was parked two metres away. His friend shortly followed. Both landed hard, knocked unconscious.
Megan, shaking badly, her back aching, tried to stand up. But the pain, it was throbbing and stabbing her. She gave up, and collapsed to the ground. "Are you okay?" A voice asked. She looked up again, gasping. "You are hurt..." The deep blue, creature... or whatever he was... stated. His emerald green eyes looking down at her, showing deep concern.
Megan didn't know if she should have been afraid, or greatful. Maybe both? "Wh... what are you?" She finally got out over her tongue, instantly wishing she had of been able to think her question through more better before speaking.
"A gargoyle..." He replied, proudly. "My name, is Armstrong." He crouched down nearer to her, "I will help you."
Megan smiled.
Amrstrong stretched out his hand, she placed her tiny hand within his. Very carefully he helped her to her feet. Her back still ached, she needed to go home and rest it, at least.
As he let Megan go, she just about lost her balance due to the increasing discomfort and pain in her back as she tried to support her weight. Armstrong caught her in his arms, his surprisingly warm arms. Megan stood back up straight again, this time allowing a few moments before letting go of his arm and standing alone. "Thank you." She said, softly.
The, gargoyle, smiled at her, "I must go, if I am caught here... I will not be welcome." And on that, he turned around and begun heading away.
Megan went to call out to him, but by this time he had dissapeared around the back of one of the surrounding buildings. She just stood there, watching where he had been standing only moments before. Ignoring the increasing pain. Her mind was away from it all as she turned around, the screams of sirens approaching... everything begun spinning, her world darkening... she fell to the ground.
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"What do you mean, you saved a human!?" Aindra, the clan's leader asked. Her white hair down around her gentle features, yellow eyes and olive green skin. "We each agreed that we would keep our existance hidden from these humans."
Armstrong stepped backward, turning away from her. "You weren't there... and if you were... you would have done the same thing! I know you would have!" He turned to face her again. "Aindra, you are our leader, ever since Karnor died, you have taken care of each and every one of us. But, I think it is time."
"No. You do not understand what dangers are before us if we make ourselves known to these humans. This their world, their technologies, they do not accept our kind so kindly as their ancestors did ours."
Amrstrong shook his head, "No, not all human's are bad. Some, some are kind... greatful."
Just then, a plumpier and much shorter red gargoyle stepped up beside him, "Armstrong's right. There is much we can learn, much we can do for these human's. And much they can do for us." Dabble-worth, Armstrong's younger rookery brother said. He then walked over to Aindra, "Us three, we have been siblings since we were hatchlings... we always understood there was a greater fate out there for us than becoming mere carvings in stone."
"Stop it!" Aindra ordered.
"No!" Armstrong defended, "Our elders, and fifty other gargoyles brought us to this land from the tropics, we will not just sit back, and hide on the shelves of abandonment. It is not the gargoyle way."
"What would you know of the gargoyle way?" Aindra replied, her voice croaky, weak with sorrow. "Many of our brothers and sisters died for this, gargoyle way, that was supposed we live by. I will not let us die, like they did. For nothing."
Armstrong and Dabble-worth remained quiet for a few moments. In a calm voice, Armstrong begun again, "It is not for nothing our leader died, leading us away from the tropics to a land where we could evolve, live as one with the human's of this earth. It is not for nothing that we save the human's we are sworn to protect. It is not for nothing that we survive." He turned to his rookery brother, "Come, we shall resume patrol."
Dabble-worth just nodded and followed behind Armstrong as he headed away from Aindra in the meeting room of their new home some twenty minutes flight from the city.
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The next night
Wilmington Hospital
Megan's eyes opened slowly, taking in the dettol smell through her nostrils, focusing her eyes as best she could without her glasses. She was in a hospital room all of her own. The only thing she could focus her mind on was the regular beats of her heart from the heart monitor overhead. She let out a breath, seeming like her first in a long time.
Just as she went to close her tired eyes again, the door to her room opened and a man in a white overcoat walked in, followed by a woman wearing a blue pant and top set... also a doctor, Megan presumed.
"Miss Kerr, glad to see you're awake." The male doctor said, "You took a nasty beating. Sprained your back, a few abraisions on your arms, forehead...."
He continued on about her injuries, how serious, or un-serious they were as the facts showed. She drowned out his voice, allowing her mind to remember. She could recall the two men chasing after her, the one with the baseball bat attacking her... his face, being the same guy that had harrassed her at her college... then it all seemed so unreal. An clouded vision of a face... blue, friendly... caring... his hair deep fiery-yellow, long and scruffy... needing cut.
She chuckled, thinking of exactly how his hair could be changed to suit him better. Trimmed neatly to just beneath his ear lobes, brushed back with a comb, maybe a little moose to help it hold as he glided through the air on those windy nights.... "Armstrong." She finally uttered, her voice a near whisper.
"I'm sorry, what was that Megan?" The doctor asked, his aged face coming into focus as she looked back at him.
"What?" She replied.
"You said... armstrong."
Megan looked at him, as if thinking he was crazy. She hadn't said... then the name came back into her mind, settling on Armstrong's strong featured face. "A name... I remembered it." She said.
"One of the men who attacked you?"
"No..." She shook her head, "The one who saved me from them."
The doctor nodded, "Listen, Megan, the police are here... they'd like to talk to you."
"No..." She shook her head again, "Please, I'm not up to it. Maybe, maybe later. Just, can I rest for a while longer? Please."
He let out a sigh before turning to his colleague, "Make sure Megan doesn't get disturbed for another hour." He turned back to Megan, "But only an hour. It is urgent, your attackers are claiming a beast of some kind attacked them, and then you."
"That's not what happened!" Megan shouted, "Sorry." She lowered her voice. "They attacked me... one of them, he's from the college I attend. I've seen him on campus before."
"You tell that to the police later. For now, you rest. Understood?"
She nodded. After the two doctor's left and her door closed, Megan leant back against her pillows, letting out a sigh. "Understood." She muttered.
After ten minutes sitting alone, wide awake, unable to rest now, Megan tried sitting up more comfortably, but that only made her worse so she sat back down into the bed again. Getting into that comfortable place just to the right of the center of the bed again.
Megan was almost able to dose off for a little more rest when she heard a strange creaking noise. Her head quickly turned to the right of her, where the window to her room opened and the same deep blue creature... no, gargoyle, that had saved her the night before entered. He walked over to her, cautiously checking the door to her room, luckily it was one of those doors that had no windows, which meant he would be unable to be seen in the room, unless someone were to come in.
"You... how did you, how did you find me here?" She asked, her voice slightly trembling.
Armstrong lowered himself to sit down in the chair by her side. "Telephone." He smiled, "I waited until the police arrived, I heard them say your name... then, this evening... I used a pay phone, and they told me which room you were in."
"They give that information out to your... to gargoyles?" Megan smiled slightly, "They, wouldn't have known you were gargoyle." She sort of asked, realising her first question was really silly of her.
He shook his head gently, "No, I did not give that information to the woman on the other end." They sat there, both looking at each other. No words being said.
But finally, Armstrong gave out. "I should leave." He said, immediately heading over to the window from his seat.
"Wait!" Megan called out. He turned to her, "Please, how can I ever pay you back for saving my life?"
"I do not desire payment ... it is the gargoyle way to save those in their protection."
A moments silence passed between them. "There must be something." Megan pushed, "Food, blankets, money..." she stopped when he smiled back at her. "Or, I know it might sound crazy... but, maybe... when I get out of here... I could... I'm a hair stylist."
Armstrong's brow creased, "What is a hair stylist?"
"I cut, and put people's hair up in different styles."
"You brush it?"
Megan nodded, "Brush it, comb it, cut it, style it... whatever. I could, do yours, for you."
"What need do I have for a hair style?"
"Well, look at your hair... I mean, it's okay... but if you cut it shorter, brushed it a different way." She stopped herself, "I'm sorry. I'm pushing."
Armstrong smiled at her again, "No, it is fine." He took in a deep breath then let it back out, "Very well. When you are out of this place, I shall allow you to, style, my hair."
"You won't regret it!" She replied excitedly.
"But, I really must go, if I do not return to the grounds I am patroling, Aindra will not be happy."
"Aindra?" Megan asked. A funny feeling came over her, she wondered if this Aindra, gargoyle, was perhaps his girlfriend. "Who is she? Your girlfriend?" Good one Meg, now he's gonna think you're damn nosey.
"Aindra, she is my rookery sister, and our clan's leader. I do not have a mate."
A feeling of relief came over Megan, "Oh, okay." She replied, trying to hide her smile.
"I will come visit you again, before dawn."
"I look forward to it." She told him, "Take care Armstrong."
"And you, Megan Kerr."
As Armstrong left the same way in which he came, Megan reclined more comfortably in her bed. She found herself smiling, he was such a sweet guy... well, gargoyle. It didn't seem at all strange, meeting him, it actually felt comforting, safe. A feeling she had very rarely felt meeting people.
Megan continued with her thoughts, trying more easily to recall the night before.
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The moment Armstrong landed on the rooftop, several hundred metres from the hospital, he was greeted by Aindra. "You, where were you? You were meant to be patroling this area!"
"I was visiting someone." Armstrong replied, wrapping his wings around himself, "Why do you even care? You don't like the fact we patrol this city."
"I may not like it, but when I give you an order... you will obey it from now on." She commanded, her eyes flashing red. "I am sick of the troubles you give this clan Armstrong... if you are not careful, you will shortly find yourself without a clan to return home to at nights."
Armstrong's eyes met her with anger, "You may lead this clan, but the elders, they will never allow you to do that."
"He's right." A voice said, both Armstrong and Aindra looked up, just in time to see Kindrak, Aindra's second-in-command, land. "You cannot banish a gargoyle from his clan without the elder's approval, Aindra. I think you are too quickly losing sight of what is important to this clan."
Aindra eyed the aged dark olive-green gargoyle with disgust, "Our clan died for these humans, through many generations, we are a small group of few clans that remain in this wretched world!" So filled with anger, she turned away from them, running to the edge of the building. Expanding her wings just in time to take flight away from them.
Armstrong turned to Kindrak, "Would the elders listen tonight?" He asked.
Kindrak shook his head, "No." He replied, "But, my daughter, she is as head strong as her mother... once set in ways of giving up on working with the humans to survive, she will not give up so easily and return to what is the gargoyle way. The elders, they know this, but as I am her father, they will not listen."
"I'd have thought because you were, they would listen more so."
Kindrak shook his head, "I am not one of the original clan. And, her mother, Cicistia, she was Karnor's daughter. So my word, it counts for nothing."
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Wilmington Hospital
Half an hour later
Megan looked at the six foot something, African-American police detective in front of her, "I told you everything I can remember." She said, catching her breath.
"Miss Kerr..." Detective Marlon Woods of the Delaware P.D continued, "You are trying to tell me that someone, or something, attacked those two men, but you never saw it?"
"Yes." She replied.
"I find that very hard to believe."
"That's your choice, but I'm telling the truth."
Detective Woods smiled sort of sarcastically, "We'll see then, won't we?" He said, closing his notepad and putting it, along with his pen, back into his inner coat pocket. "Thank you for your time Miss Kerr." He said, standing up.
"Detective."
After Detecitve Woods left, Megan hated herself for lying like she had. But she couldn't have told him the truth, he wouldn't have believed her. No one would. She'd become the laughing stock at college, work... her life would become a living hell.
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Across town
Armstrong had caught up with Dabble-worth a short while back, telling him of his meeting with the human, Megan Kerr. "I think it's great..." Dabble worth begun as they glided upwards on an updraft of wind. After they both regained their balance and path they were heading along, he continued. "Making friend's with a human. It'll help the clan."
"Same... I mean, why can't we at least start growing our numbers of human friends. If these, quarrymen, that Aindra talked of two nights back really would come and attack us, we need to be prepared. And having human friends would help us in the battles."
"But she doesn't see that." Dabble-worth made sure to point out.
"No, she doesn't." Armstrong replied, stuck on the words she had uttered not so long ago this evening. "But, I don't care to listen to what she has to say as long as it can prevent us from living the gargoyle way."
"I'm with you!"
The two gargoyles clasped hands, "Brother." Armstrong said.
"Brother." Dabble-worth replied.
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The rest of the night passed by slowly. When dawn came, Armstrong, having forgotten his promise to see his new human friend, returned to the clan's home. Aindra was no where to be found anywhere. And her father, Kindrak, was having an argument with the other elders.
Dabble-worth and Armstrong were just now settling on their perches for the night when their fellow rookery brother's and sisters joined them. "I hope this doesn't happen every time we save a human's life." One of the younger gargoyles said.
"I thought that's what we were meant to do." Another said. "Rescue the human's when in need."
"The gargoyle way..." Dabble-worth said, more of a statement, he turned to the other gargoyles, "We, could all make a pact... swear on an oath..."
Armstrong nodded, "To always protect the human's, no matter what."
They all nodded, one shouted out, "Here, here!"
"It is an oath we can never break." Dabble-worth reminded them. "Not even if we wanted to."
"We all swear!" One of them yelled out at the top of his lungs. The rest agreed with shouts and cheers.
Dabble-worth, feeling very proud of his brothers and sisters, stood up straight, "Then, we all hear by now swear to protect the human's of this city, and all others!" He shouted, raising his arm into the air, "Now, and forever!"
And just as the rest, including Armstrong, shouted back, "Now, and forever!", they froze in stone, all standing there, their arms reached up into the air.... the night ended there... and day came.
- Finish
Okay, there were, perhaps, parts that were not fully explained, but it's only
meant as an introduction to the rest of the series. More will follow
(as I find the time).