Part I~
Disclaimer: I do not own the Gargoyles. They rightfully belong to Disney.
(Note: Important A/N at the bottom.)
Enjoy.
A little girl with a pale pink dress and blue flowers on it is seen walking on the sidewalk, obviously going to school from having a book bag and lunch pale, with her eyes kept to the space in front of her as she strides with the beat of her heart; left, right, left, right, one, two, three, four…But there things, for the people that were watching that didn't know was that she packed her own lunch; she is lost in her thoughts of screams and sadness; she wears dresses to cover the bruises and cuts that she received from her mother. The girl had no friends, nor family to talk it over with or protect her from her cruel fate. Not even the teachers help her, concerned yes, but never ask for fear of hearing what they imagine. She eats alone, and plays alone. Like all things in her life, loneliness is something she had gotten use to, but it makes her sad and hurt sometimes to see the other kids play and laugh together; to see parents pick up their children and smile in glee to see their glowing, learning faces. This one, lonely, sad girl envies these children, so much that she prays every night to someday have what she knows she disserves: a loving family or friend.
The little girl walks home, her face a bit pale, not knowing if her mother would be in a good mood or in her bad mood, like she usually was. She hoped it was the good mood; she was tired and wanted to sleep the weekend away without anything going amiss. Her head started to ache already, just from thinking about the beatings she gets almost daily and nightly, and her mother's mood swings of going from dangerous anger, to a frightful peace when she dresses the girl's wounds. Last night, her mother didn't change moods, she stayed in her dangerous anger and beat her own daughter until she bled, leaving her on the living room floor as she went to bed. So the girl had to dress her own wounds as best she could and barely got any sleep, hence the dark circles that she should be getting at age thirty.
She stands in front of the two story white house that belongs to her, 3705, a familiar address that only makes her shudder from the inside memories. Walking the stairs to the porch, and the few steps towards the door, she turned the rarely locked door and peeked in, her eyes already watering up from imagining the worst. But when she looked in, she saw no one. She quietly walked in and closed the door behind her, leaning against it as she clung to her book bag. She took a good gulp in her throat and spoke in the most feared and quieted voice a child could muster; only this was her natural voice from coming home. "I-I'm home…m-mommy..." She only spoke, because she knew that she would get beatings for an hour if she didn't announce she was home. She learned that the hard way. A response was made from a chair skidding against the tiled floor in the kitchen. The little girl tensed up, but showed no sign that she would be moving.
A woman's face leaned over the edge of the doorframe to the kitchen, her facial expressions heartless and careless, and a cigarette in her hand. Smoke blew from her nose as she sat in silence, as if debating on something. She finally spoke after what felt like forever to the little girl "….go to bed." Her voice hoarse and ruff in order and command, she placed the cigarette back in her mouth as she watched her little girl run up the stairs to her room, not moving until she heard the door close and breath out the smoke again, smashing the cig in her ash tray with a pile of others in it. She stood up and went to her room on the downstairs floor, getting ready for her date that night.
The little girl sat on her bed and circled a date on her calendar before lying in bed. She looked up at the ceiling as tears started to come down her cheeks. Pulling the sheets and covers close to her, the menacing wind coming threw her forever open window and making her shiver. She spoke quietly in a soft whisper, her voice jittery from being cold and sad "...Happy Birthday, Angel…" She told herself and turned over, facing the door as she started to drift into a cold and stiff sleep, her tears freezing on her cheeks from the cold night air. But she was awoken abruptly from her mother yelling from downstairs "I'm off, Angel! If I'm not here before morning, fix your own breakfast and lunch!" The door slammed hard after that. The girl knew that her mother meant it in a good way, but her voice sounded cold and warningly, as if wanting her to do something wrong. She pulled the covers tighter around her as she curled up in a small ball, continuing to go back to sleep and listening to the wind howl threw her window, pretending that it were wolves to come and take her away from this dreadful place called 'home'.
~The Next Morning~
Angel was awoken abruptly, and harshly, from hearing her mother entering her room and rising her mattress up in an angle, causing her to fly off onto the hard wooden floor. She banged her head hard when she landed, not moving for a few seconds until she felt that her dizziness was out. Sitting up, she placed a hand on her head and rubbed at the aching spot, feeling as if a bulldozer smashed her head against a concrete pavement at full force. She leaned against her wall before grasping her open window to get up, the pain in her head causing her to only rise up half way before landing on her knees again. Her mother blew smoke out of her nose, a sign of irritation, as she looked down at her in disgust. She took the cigarette out of her mouth and spoke in an uncaring and heartless way
"Oh, get up you little urchin." She criticized, puffing her cig and blowing the smoke out her mouth smoothly before speaking again "Stop pretending to be sick and get ready for school. Mommy's going over to a friend's house for the day. If the door's locked, just wait outside until I get back. Capuche?" She didn't even let her daughter answer before walking out of the nearly empty room, the door slamming seconds later.
Angel winced and whined from the pain in her head, tears coming down, not knowing what it was that was making her hurt so. Still clutching her head, she got up slowly, knowing that if she disobeyed her mother by staying home, she would receive more pain that evening. Taking in a deep breath, she went to the bathroom to wash her face and brush her teeth and hair, putting it in a low tail. She grabbed her light blue book bag and went out the door, knowing well that it was too late to fix a lunch.
The walk to school was like hell to her. Every sound was heightened and caused her greater pain by the second. She swore that she could feel her brain rattling in her small head, trying so hard not to have tears come down and show off her pain. Her mom always told her that crying was just another way of wanting attention, and that it was a sin to crave attention. So she cries when she's alone, knowing that no one would see her and it wouldn't be a sin. Her arms were either shut tight together against her body in a self-hug, or her hands were rubbing or clasping her head, holding back tears of pain and whines of complaint. She almost couldn't handle it and nearly ran away to home at lunch time. When school was finally over, her teacher called her to stay for a question, but Angel couldn't stand one more sound and, instead, ran out of school and to home.
She knew that her mother wasn't home; it was an intuition that told her so. But she tried the door anyway, and sure enough, it was locked. She laid on the top step of her porch, both hands clasping her head as she used her right arm as a pillow, facing the streets. Her body was curled up as the pain traveled threw out her body, and her muscles aching from the cold banging against her. From all the pain that she has been threw, she had never experienced something this extreme. For a fast second, she thought that she was dying, wondering if death hurt this much. But something told her that it was something else, so she didn't push it any further, thinking was starting to hurt even more. She hick-upped and whined a bit, but quietly, not wanting attention to come to her and be sinned and not go to heaven. Her hicks quieted down to silent tears as she started to fall asleep against the cold wood below her, her cheeks red from tears, and skin pale from the pain and cold. When she succumbed to asleep, she could have sworn that her body had shut down and gone limp.
She woke up, abruptly for the second time that day, by her own chest hurting. She clutched her chest from the pain and flinched, her breaths fastening into gasps. She lasted like this for what seemed forever before it stopped. Sighing, she relaxed a little for a few seconds before realizing that she was still outside. It was now night, for the streets were colored black, only small areas lit up from here and there from the lamps. Not only that, but the temperature had dropped dramatically; even though it was nearing September, it already felt like December. She looked around, not knowing what to do, and looked behind her to see if her mother went in without her. She got up slowly and went to the window, peeking in. There was nothing; no light and no movement that she could see with her blue eyes. Looking again, she sighed and leaned back with hurt and disappointment in her eyes.
She heard something bang against the metal fence that separated the backyard from everything else; her eyes grew wide in fear and picked up her book bag and ran down the street the opposite of her school, hoping that whatever it was wasn't following her. She noticed that the banging of her feet against the sidewalk was making the pain of her head come back, causing her to stop next to a building. She took a few breaths, her head bent down as she arched forward, hands resting on her shaking legs. She must have run a mile before stopping, she was so exhausted. Wincing, she looked around as she placed an arm against her stomach, feeling an old wound start to open up again. She saw an alley way just a few feet in front of her and decided to take shelter in it.
It was mucky, but it was all that she could do for now. She placed a piece of cardboard box on the ground where she was going to sit, glad that the wall was at least dry from anything slimy or yucky as she leant against it. She winced again, her head tilted up and eyes shut tight as she tried to live the pain out. Tears began to spring from her eyes, her mouth opening in silent yelps of cries. She didn't care if she was in the open; she knew no one would see her, for she was covered in the shadows of the alley. The only way for someone to see her was if they were leaning from the roof and looking straight down at her.
After a few moments, she slowly removed her arm from her stomach; a large gash where her mother had cut her a few weeks ago was making her shirt cling to her body with the sweat that it prospered. It wasn't deep enough to draw blood, but it stung terribly. She knew that it would take at least a month or two to heal, just like her other wounds. Balancing her weight on her stretched out arms; she leveled her head and leant the right side against the wall, slowly letting her back and bottom support her weight. After what felt like forever to the little girl, she finally relaxed her legs and let them slide into a partial arch before her, the tips of her tennis shoes close to the edge of the cardboard that was protecting her from the contaminated ground.
After taking a few moments of calming down, she slowly opened her eyes and looked towards her right, glancing deeper into the alley that she was residing in for the moment. She saw a dumpster about fifteen feet away from her, it also leaning against the wall that she was leaning against. Further down, but on the other side of the alley, was a pile of garbage bags surrounding two full aluminum garbage cans, and just about five feet after that, was the brick end of the alley. She moved her eyes back and forth to make sure that there wasn't any movement. Sighing, she relaxed more and leaned fully against the wall that was holding her up from her limped state, resting a hand on her heaving chest.
A few tears started to come down her itchy face as she started to picture the beatings that she would receive when her mother found out that she was hiding in an alley way and not waiting at home for her. A shudder traveled threw her body as she could start to feel the new bruises and cuts that she would be receiving, if her mother ever found her. She closed her eyes again, but softly, and tried to rest again before traveling back to her house.
When she started to feel calmness take over, she heard a crumpling sound close by, like something scraping off rocks. To prove her point of sound, as soon as she opened her eyes, pebbles of the brick wall she was leaning against crumpled just beside the dumpster. Her eyes widened just like they had before she ran from her house. Her head slowly turned to were the pebbles fell, and she stared at them, long and hard and full of fear. Letting out a shuddering sigh, she looked up at the roof of the building and edge of the alley, picturing to see some crazy murderous man starring down at her. Instead of her imagination, she saw nothing. Instead of relaxing, this made her even more nervous and scared, for this meant that the person that saw her could have been anywhere.
She started to scan the edges of the building, seeing nothing and becoming even more skittish. She looked down and scanned the inner parts of the alley, still nothing out of the ordinary that she couldn't see. Another shaky sigh left her lips. She was about to lean against the wall and forget about what had happen, until she saw something move out of the corner of her eye. She froze, her eyes re-widening from fear and surprise. She slowly turned her head, still afraid of seeing that killer that she had imagined earlier when this whole charades started. When she aligned her head to where the movement came from, she didn't see the shadow of a killer, but instead saw a pair of glowing white eyes, starring back at her. If she were an old woman, she would have had a heart attack and died right there, but she was a little girl and only had fear creep up her even more. She sat perfectly still, even holding her breath, afraid that whatever was starring at her would attack her at any sign of movement she made.
Her eyes began to water from the gash on her stomach stinging in pain again from her staying still. She started to shake, still trying her best to keep still, until she couldn't take it anymore, she created the sin she was warned about. She collapsed her stiffness posture and wrapped her arms around her stomach, doubling over in pain. She started to shiver, waves upon waves of coldness hitting her at once from the pain coming in full blown. Her eyes were shut tight in pain as little hicks of whines sprang from her throat. If her eyes were still starring at the glowing eyes, she would have seen that they had softened to worry and what looked like sadness.
The little girl felt someone hovering over her as she laid there in pain. Her body had tightened its ball of protection and shivered more, from fear. She spoke up, but quietly and jittery from fear, pain, and coldness embedding her body. "P-please d…don't h-hurt m-me." She pleaded, a breathy cough coming from her as the pain started to become out of control. She started praying in her mind for the pain to seize and the warmth to come back, what warmth there was left.
As if on cue, she felt a pair of strong, warm arms embrace her and pull her gently against an equally strong and warm body that was connected to the arms. Her eyes opened some and starred at the body in front of her, seeing that it was a bare chest of a man. But something was amiss that told her that it wasn't a human man that was holding her. The skin color was off; it wasn't burnt, nor tan, but a dark red from what she could see. She felt another material touch her back and shoulders that weren't supported by the stranger's arms. Curiosity striking her, she glanced back to see what it was, expecting it to be a blanket or something similar. No, what she saw were wings, real wings that were connected to the body that was holding her. Her eyes traced the boned edge of the wings, them reminding her of a bat's, and saw that three small claws, the size of fingers were held at the tip of either wing. She gulped lightly, seeing as how sharp and thick they were, making the pain on her stomach throb again. She let out a gasp of pain and cringed in the stranger's arms. She felt the muscles of the arms flex and a breath of the chest stop for a split second as he held her closer. A soft and gentle whisper came from the creature man, trying to reassure her "It's okay; I'm not going to hurt you. That I promise. You're safe." The voice practically put her to sleep from its gentleness. She had never heard such a smooth and promising voice in her young life, it felt good to hear someone care. For the first time in her entire young life, she gave a small smile and relaxed in the warmth that was holding her, trusting this stranger, this creature, that she didn't even know the face of, nor the name of. For the first time in a long time, she felt safe and happy, and she wished to never feel any different anymore. For the first time, she fell into a peaceful, and calming, dreamless sleep, not caring what the morning brought upon her, at least at that moment.
A/N: Considering this story is the top of the list on faves, hits, and reviews within my gallery I will be revising and updating it before continuing any of my other stories and/or updating any new ones. The revising will be small; just little detailed add and subtractions, grammar that I ignored, and sentence strucutres. You can re-read the chapters if you like, but everything stayed the same (more or less).
I know it's been a rather long wait, but lets make this adventure a worth wile one.
I can't wait to see you all at the end, thank you to all that were patient with this and kept my eyes open on it.
-Mytho
P.S. For those that might be wondering; no, I will not be updating/revising the uncut version with this. I might do it after this one, but we'll just have to see how I am at the end of this.