Coming Undone
Chapter 13
By Ariesjade
Disclaimer: I don't own gargoyles but if I did, this is what would happen...
July 6th, 2010 - Alcatraz Island.
"Bravo!" Sevarious exclaimed, clapping his hands in admiration. "For a second there you had me a bit worried"
Brooklyn didn't respond, he wore an emotionless expression as he backed away from the fresh kill, never taking his eyes off Sevarious and his cronies who were excitedly skipping towards Maggies body to get a better look at the carnage.
"Hmm, not your best work, but sufficient non the less." Sevarious observed then turned to gage Brooklyns reaction. He was a little thrown off to find Brooklyn casually making his way out of the cell, his dead pan expression replaced by a more nervous look. "My dear pet, your not feeling remorseful now, are you?" He asked as he fallowed Brooklyn to the outside of the glass prison.
"No." Brooklyn replied quietly and shaking his head slightly as he continued to back away.
Sevarious eyed Brooklyn up and down before noticing the thin trail of blood dripping from the side of his mouth. Granted, his face was already drenched in the thick liquid but it was quickly drying and this particular stream seemed to be coming from him, it escaped when he opened his mouth to answer the doctor.
"Did she scratch you?" He asked hesitantly, moving closer to inspect the wound as Brooklyn continued on his path towards the wall outside the cell.
Brooklyn narrowed his eyes and shocked Sevarious with a truly wicked smile allowing a more steady flow of blood to trickle out onto his bare chest. He reached his destination.
Sevarious moved quickly towards Brooklyn. "Let me see that."
"Sure." He complied as his smile seemed to grow even wider the closer he got.
"Ha, ha, dumb bitch got exactly what she deserved!" Maggies guard laughed as he kicked at her motionless form.
"Open your mouth." Sevarious instructed.
Brooklyn did as asked, revealing a deep gouge in his tongue. The doctors eyes widened as realization overtook him...
"I know the real you is still in there, I can see it!"
Brooklyn growled because she was going to blow his cover. "Yes I do." He stated in a forceful, harsh tone without a hint of regret this time.
"Please, no." Maggie sobbed. Brooklyn stared through her eyes and straight into her soul for only a moment, silently pleading with her to trust him, then without another word, he opened his jaw and beared his monstrous teeth at her. She screamed, cried and continued to beg as Brooklyn raised her higher and pulled her towards him
"I'm not going to hurt you." He whispered as he mimicked sinking his teeth into the flesh of her neck. He bit down on his own tongue and spit the blood onto her shoulder. She appeared to go into shock when she stilled, silencing her cries to listen. Brooklyn shook her violently to cover up the fact that he was spilling his own blood onto her. "It's going to be OK, you just gotta play along. Act dead until I give you the word" He instructed. Maggie understood and her eyes fluttered closed, her body went limp in his arms and her breath ceased.
Brooklyn carelessly dropped Maggie to the floor and turned to face his audience. They applauded him vigorously as he howled in triumph. Fresh blood still dripping from his lips.
"Oh shit..." Sevarious muttered as he turned to warn the guards. But Brooklyn was much too far ahead of him and clamped his talons around his neck, stifling his cries.
"Now, Maggie!" He shouted. Without missing a beat, she returned to life and grasped both guards by the jugular. Maggie expelled a deadly jolt of electricity into her captors. They shook wildly and smoke rose from their twitching bodies as they burned from the inside out. When Maggie felt satisfied that they were fully cooked, she released her grip and allowed the two human barbecues to drop down beside her, then jumped to her feet and whipped out of the cell to join Brooklyn but was cut off by the remaining mercenaries.
Brooklyn tossed Sevarious in the air like a rag doll. He landed perfectly in the middle of the clustered and confused guards, taking several of them to the floor. Then Brooklyn leapt in after him taking out the rest.
Without wasting any time, Brooklyn snatched up the first fallen guard he saw and swiftly broke his neck with a loud crunch. He moved on to his next victim before the body of the first had even hit the floor, smashing his skull into the brick wall. Brooklyn brutally dispersed one after another with minimal effort until he was left standing in the middle of a pile of bloody bodies.
Confident that he had taken care of the immediate threat, Brooklyn bent down to collect the dazed doctor from the floor but the sudden buzz of a shock wave and a yelp of pain startled him. He shot straight back up, Sevarious' jacket collar still in hand, to find a freshly downed guard steaming on the floor. He turned back to Maggie who stood sheepishly behind the mound of bodies.
"You missed one." She stated quietly.
The employer watched the action safely from the main observation room with a scowl. "God damned human imbecile!" He growled, slamming his metal hand down on top of the monitor and smashing it to pieces.
He stormed out of the room.
"Nicely done." Brooklyn commended Maggie while holding Sevarious at bay with a ferocious grip. He kicked at Brooklyn and clawed at his arm but he didn't even acknowledge his efforts as so much as slightly annoying. Instead, Brooklyn spit the blood from his injured tongue out and to wiped away the mess from his face.
Maggies only response to Brooklyns comment was a nod and small smile as she looked upon him with mystified eyes.
Brooklyn noticed her gaze and smiled softly. "It's good to see you too." He then quickly turned away, focusing on the task at hand. He opened the control box and inspected it for any clues as to what switch controlled what. His concentration lapsed only slightly when he heard the alarm go off alerting all the mercenaries of the trouble they were causing. Maggie was a little more unnerved by the siren.
"What do we do?" She asked, no longer trying to sound un-afraid.
"We are going to give them exactly what they've been working towards all these years." He replied as he found what he was looking for and casually placed his hand over the switch. "Monsters." He continued as the corners of his mouth turned upward.
Sevarious spotted the label over the switch and quickly understood Brooklyns intentions. He tried to protest but only elicited a tighter grip from his claws, almost to the point of shattering his adams apple but Brooklyn wanted the god doctor alive for the time being.
The shouting of the approaching mercenaries caught their attention and Brooklyn quickly changed position so that he could use Sevarious as a human shield.
"Get behind me and stay there." He ordered Maggie who complied without compliant.
Fifty mercenaries burst through the entrance to cell block D but stopped dead in their tracks upon the sight of the situation.
"Dinner is served!" Brooklyn growled as he pulled down the master lock switch, opening ever cell door on the block, releasing all of the doctors creations with the guards right in the middle of it all.
One by one, the ravenous beats leapt forth from the darkness and took their liberties with the human meat awaiting them. Chaos ensued.
Maggie yelped at the sight from her partially sheltered spot behind Brooklyn. "Jesus christ, what are they?"
"Ask him." He answered, thrusting Sevarious in her direction.
Rapid gunfire shook the walls of cell block D complemented by horrific screams and deadly howls.
"We gotta get outta here!" Maggie wailed.
"Not just yet." Brooklyn countered. "I want this piece of shit to witness the fruition of all his hard work."
What looked like a female gargoyle with bloody eyes and burned, bubbling, puss covered skin felt her way though the crowd searching for a weakling to feast on. Brooklyn remembered her and her moans of horror that still escaped her lips to this day. While trying to escape another of the experiments, one of the guards frantically ran straight into her outstretched arms. As soon as she felt the heat on her horribly mutilated palms she clutched onto him with a vice like grip. The guards flailing and struggling was futile as she pulled him closer headfirst to her salivating jaw and bit down into his skull with a juicy crunch. Blood spewed from the wound as she stripped his scalp from the bone and and chunks of meat fell from her famished mouth as she chewed eagerly.
"This is insane!" Maggie cried.
"Don't worry, just trust me." Brooklyn insisted. He spotted the beast that had nearly made him it's meal on his first night of hellish imprisonment on that island as it's long alien like tongue darted out and snatched up one of the fleeing guards. The doomed man writhed and shrieked as he was drug toward his impending agenizing death. He desperately clawed at the concrete floor until his finger nails detached one after the other. As the slimy tongue slithered ever closing to it's destination with the unfortunate man held tight at the end, wails of sheer terror flooded the air and finally, as the hungry beast lost it's patience, the tongue itself began digging into the mans flesh as if it had a mind of it's own.
Chunks of bloodied meat could be seen being ripped from the mans chest and trailing up through the extended tongue into the waiting monsters gullet. Even Brooklyn was repulsed by the sight and was thankful Maggie didn't have a good view from her position. But Sevarious could see every last detail and nearly retched at the display.
"Oh, Anton, you must be so proud!" Brooklyn sneered, thrusting him towards the carnage but not letting go. He gagged and closed his eyes tight.
Though Maggies view may have been obstructed, she had seen enough and the noise more then compensated for the sight.
"Brooklyn!" She shouted, taking hold of his free arm and twisting him around to face her. "... Please." Was all she could force out. He stared deep into her tear streaked eyes and his hatred softened a bit. He understood and he was itching to take his personal revenge on the good doctor anyway.
"Alright doc, it's time for our own private party." He said grinning as he roughly yanked Sevarious by the neck away from the scene.
Brooklyn led his prisoner and Maggie towards the ladder at the end of the block that he had taken to the next floor on his first night there. He instructed Maggie to go first and then he fallowed, dragging Sevarious up on the tips of his talons by the scruff of the neck. The doctors howls of agony almost drowned out the noise of the feast going on down the hall.
"What do you intend to do with me?" Sevarious asked in a shaky voice once they had all emerged from the lower floor.
Brooklyn had been fantasizing about this moment since the day he promised his vengeance. "I intend to treat you with the same generosity and hospitality you've shown me all these years. Sevarious did not require further explanation, he fully comprehended the meaning behind those words.
"Brooklyn, think about this. Look what I've given you. All the power and resilience you're making use of right now are because of me. I'm the reason you no longer turn to stone and are immune to sedatives, you can now fly instead of glide, you're smarter, you're faster, you are a god!" Sevarious exclaimed in his usual over dramatic way.
Brooklyn stood motionless as Sevarious spoke, his eyes narrowed, his teeth clenched and ground and his talons wrapped into air tight fists so snug they bled.
"You are the reason..." Brooklyn whispered as he slowly and maniacally turned his head towards Sevarious. "I'm a fucking monster!" He lashed out and thrust Sevarious into the wall behind him with such force as to crack the concrete. Several of Sevarious' ribs shattered on impact and he gave a small squeak as he coughed out the blood rising in his lungs.
"You stole me away from my family, you murdered my brothers, you took everything I had!" Brooklyn continued in a low growl. "You turned me into... this... whatever the fuck I am now and then you tried to make me into a slave... but it didn't work, did it? No, but you were very successful at turning me into a psycho weren't you!"
Maggie reflected on Brooklyns words as she watched the drama unfold and then it dawned on her.
"They're not dead." She spoke softly and Brooklyn acknowledged her confusing statement with only silence. "You're talking about Broadway and Lex right?" She asked, cautiously approaching and very gently resting her hand on his shoulder.
Brooklyn slowly turned and casually dropped Sevarious to the floor, he lay there coughing and sputtering, completely helpless to try to escape.
"They're alive?" Brooklyn questioned with the first tinge of hope surging through his tormented mind.
"Yes, they're fine." Maggie nodded. "Why did you think they were dead?"
Brooklyn didn't answer, he couldn't. An internal war was raging inside him as he realized all this was for nothing. He had the perfect opportunity to escape without incident the very first night but he stayed to fulfill his quest for revenge. Four and a half years of torture that never needed be. But they were alive and he hadn't failed them. They're blood wasn't on his hands
"You're not a monster." Maggie jolted Brooklyn from his thoughts.
"I remember a time when you thought I was." He countered softly. Maggie sheepishly looked down a little embarrassed. "Let's get out of here." He continued, the rage instantly subsided at Maggies kind words and he quickly remembered why he'd carried a dim torch for her all these years.
The duo turned towards the exit of the boiler room, leaving Sevarious to writhe on the floor but came to an abrupt stop when a cryptic moan filtered through the door from the hall.
"What..."
"Shh." Brooklyn cut Maggie off as he inched closer to the door. "Wait here." He whispered and cracked the door open with stealth. He inspected the hallway which appeared to be empty. Assuming the danger had passed, Brooklyn motioned for Maggie to join him as he opened the door wider.
"Whatever it was, looks like it passed us by. Come on." He said, taking her hand and leading her out into the hall. They moved slowly and cautiously and breathed a sigh of relief.
"Ok, where to?" Maggie asked.
"I know there was a window at the end of the hall it's just a matter of which way..." Brooklyn was abruptly cut off by a strong claw digging into his shoulder. He spun around and aggressively knocked his attacker to the floor by instinct.
"Fuck!" He exclaimed upon recognition of the owner of the claw.
"Oh my god, no!" Maggie wailed as the empty shell that once was Talon stood up on shaky legs and reached out for them again. His head was disfigured, as if it had been crushed on the top left side. Tears of blood fell from his bulging eyes. His limbs hung loosely from his mutilated torso. He flailed his arms and drug his right leg as he trudged towards his prey, sorrowful senseless cries bellowed out of his salivating mouth.
Brooklyn jumped and shoved Maggie back away from the unfortunate monster. She resisted and called out to Talon, refusing to accept reality.
"Maggie, that's not Talon anymore!" Brooklyn tried to convince her as he forced her back but she continued to struggle, even swiping at him once to try to brake free from his overpowering arms.
Talon gave chase, desperately limping his way towards his intended meal.
"Derek, it's gonna be ok, it's gonna be ok!" Maggie shrieked, trying to convince herself as well.
"Maggie, he's dead. You've gotta let him go or we will be too so back off!" He shouted losing his patience and pushing her to the floor. There was no other choice but to take her out of the equation so he could deal with the situation. She fell limp and sobbed uncontrollably while Brooklyn quickly scanned the area for a weapon. As luck would have it, it seemed Talon had already indulged in an appetizer. A bloody mess of a guard lay lifeless down the hall behind the wailing monster.
Brooklyn lunched himself into the air and tackled Talon hard to the floor then rolled off him. He spread his long wings and took to the air again, shooting towards the downed guard with incredible speed. He landed flawlessly and snatched up the discarded hand gun just as Talon was getting to his feet. Brooklyn stood and aimed but hesitated, his heart beat echoed through his head as he watched the sad scene play out. Maggie was deep in denial, she sat up and reached for the approaching beast. It shuffled up to her, his incessant wailing ceased and for a moment a small tinge of hope passed through Brooklyn that maybe he was wrong, maybe Talon was just in pain and confused, maybe his love for Maggie was counteracting the instinctive feeding frenzy and he wasn't beyond all help.
Talon slumped before Maggie and stared into her through his dead eyes, fresh blood and drool dripping from his lips then he lunged at her and clamped onto her neck. She squeaked and choked, her expression rapidly changing from sadness and love to fear and confusion. He lifted her up and unhinged his jaw in anticipation of the taste of her flesh. Maggie closed her eyes and prepared for the fact that she was going to die with, as well as by her lover. Suddenly, she felt a warm sticky substance coat her face and drip down to her chest. She slowly opened her eyes to see Brooklyn at the end of the hall, holding a smoking gun through the hole in Talons head. His grasp on Maggies neck loosened and he toppled to the floor. Maggie fell along with him, she lay trembling and in shock as she looked upon her dead love for the second time, blood still soaking her petrified face.
Brooklyn threw the gun aside, ripped a small piece of the half eaten guards uniform off and rushed over to Maggie. He offered the torn rag to her but she remained motionless. He leaned in and tried to clean the blood from her face for her but she flinched and pushed his hand away.
The rage began to boil again at the mean spirited gesture. Brooklyn tossed the rag away and stormed off back towards the boiler room. He shoved open the door and headed straight for Sevarious who was still not able to make good his escape with his injuries. He saw Brooklyn approaching with a menacing look in his eyes and screamed his protests.
"No, stop, get away!"
But he was abruptly silenced by Brooklyns claws clamping down on his jaw with force and he resumed his violent vengeance streak. He drug him across the floor by his upper jaw, out into the hall where he stopped briefly to take Maggies arms in his other hand. She tried to push him away again but he wouldn't be discouraged so easily this time. He tightened his grip and yanked her to her feet, she let out a sad yelp at the jolt but then quietly fallowed along for the rest of the way, knowing deep down that he had saved her life and would never intentionally cause her harm though she was too upset to admit it.
Brooklyn led them to the lab, he wasn't completely sure exactly where it was but found it with an eerie ease. He hurled Sevarious through the entrance then ushered Maggie through in front of him. Upon entering the room, Brooklyn spotted two frightened lab tech cowering under the counter. He wasted no time in rushing the techs, taking one by the collor, spinning him around to gather speed and slamming him head first into a glass table. He then turned back to watch the second tech wet himself in fear. Brooklyn snarled at the display.
"You're as guilty as the rest of them." He said as he snatched him up by the hair. "And you'll be punished just the same." Brooklyn wrapped his powerful hands around his head and squeezed. The tech howled in exquisite pain until his eyes began to bleed from the pressure. A loud snap confirmed the techs death and Brooklyn let his body tumble to the floor.
He turned his attention back to Sevarious and Maggie who had slumped down in the corner with her head hung into her hands as she wept. This only fueled Brooklyn hatred, he marched across the room, clutched Sevarious by the jugular and shoved him into a vacant office chair.
"An eye for an eye..." Brooklyn rummaged through the mini fridge and found two bottles for the perfect cocktail. "A tooth for a tooth..." He chanted as he searched for a specific instrument on the surgical table. "A face for a face." He finished as he added the tool to the row of goodies on the counter beside Sevarious' chair and picked up one of the bottles. "Trioxin." Brooklyn read the label out loud as he plunged a syringe into the bottle and sucked out the deadly liquid.
He looked over at Maggie who had finally lifted her head to take in her surroundings.
"I guess you were right after all, Maggie. I am a monster." Brooklyn raised the needle high in the air and brought it down with force, stabbing Sevarious in the chest.
Sevarious twitched and inhaled sharply as the hot chemical was injected into his body.
Brooklyn dropped the empty syringe then picked up another along with the second bottle he had retrieved from the mini fridge.
"Mutagen." He read the label off for the doctor again then repeated his previous actions of draining the bottle and injecting it into Sevarious, this time he plunged the needle into his neck.
Sevarious began to violently convulse and foam at the mouth.
Maggie slowly pulled herself up as she watched the incredible cruelty. The immediate shock of the incident in the hall was slowly subsiding.
Brooklyn picked up the last item on the counter, a razor sharp scalpel, then menacingly waved in front of the doctors face as he coughed up and choked on his own blood.
Maggie cautiously approached. Normally, she hated violence but she found herself strangely fascinated by this experience.
Brooklyn sliced into Sevarious' chin and proceeded to cut a line around his face with precise precision. Once the circle was complete, he dug his talons under the skin and slowly began to tare the skin away. A nauseating slurping sound invaded their ears as the ligaments and muscles detached from Sevarious' face. The noise forced Maggie to take a step back and turn her head. Brooklyn only seemed to revel in it.
Finally, the skin came loose and Brooklyn dangled in front of his victim who was beyond the point of screaming. He merely twitched and squirmed as his jaw hung loosely open and his bloodied eyes darted around the room, not looking at anything in particular.
Brooklyn discarded the flimsy piece of flesh into it's owners lap then backed away to admire his work.
"Jesus..." Maggie whispered at the sight, catching Brooklyns attention. He couldn't help but notice how calm she now appeared. He stared at her in a haze, wondering what would become of them after all this torment. It was a truly mind bending experience in the worst way and the after effects on both their souls would most likely be permanent. Brooklyn knew he was dangerous and couldn't guarantee that he could always keep control over this rage that infected him and there was no way of knowing what could set him off. The thought that Maggie and everyone else might have been better off if he had just let himself die in that god forsaken cell of his poisoned his mind, after all Maggie was brought here especially for his loyalty test. Now Talon was dead and he doubted she would ever recover not only from that fact, but the torturous display she had just witnessed by his own hands. How could he ever expect her to look upon him with anything but disgust from now on. For that matter, how could he live with himself now?
Brooklyn lowered his eyes to the bloodied scalpel still clutched in his hand and considered his options.
"I'm sorry, Maggie." He whispered without raising his head to look at her. "I'm really fucked up."
"I know." She replied bluntly as she slowly approached him, her eyes fixated on the sharp instrument at his side. "But it's not your fault."
Brooklyns head whipped up to meet her gaze as she gently wrapped her fingers around his wrist with a feather light touch. He held his breath as she silently urged him not to give up and let the scalpel fall from his grasp.
The pissing guard spilled his guts to Goliath without hesitation. He told him everything he knew though he wasn't really deeply informed on the details.
"They'd been planning this for three years before it even began." He squeaked through Goliaths bear like grip. "When I got here it was already underway, doctor Sevarious and that robotic gargoyle kidnaped a bunch of transients and lone gargoyles from all around the world. They stuck to people nobody would miss, then they took this place over and the really weird shit started."
"Would you care to elaborate on the 'weird shit'?" Goliath demanded rather then requested.
"I don't know man!" The guard cried.
"I think you do! Indulge me." Goliath growled as he squeezed the guards puny neck tighter in a silent threat.
"Experiments." He coughed.
"What kind of experiments?" Goliath was growing rather impatient.
"I don't know the details but I got a look at one of them once..." He paused.
"And?" Goliath coaxed him on.
"It was a fucking monster, man! They told me it used to be human, but you'd never know it."
"What is this 'pet' of Sevarious'?"
The guard sighed. "About four years ago a gargoyle was brought here. We all knew something big was going down 'cause this one had been specifically targeted and the doc's victims are usually picked at random. When he got here the doc put all his other projects on hold to focus all his attention on this one. He really did a number on him but they refused to let him die, if any of the other ones even showed signs of weakness they would be put down."
"Where did that gargoyle come from?"
"Manhattan."
Goliath had all the information he needed. He hurled the guard to the ground and rushed back towards the prison. Brooklyn was alive and somewhere inside that building.
As he climbed the stone walls ascending to the closest window to gain entrance, he heard screaming and then the high pitched squeal of an alarm.
TBC...