The Cold and Dreary Night
"The
Cold and Dreary Night"
by Clan
LeFemme (clanlefemme@hotmail.com)
written
by Shadow Gargoyle (mountainwinds@yahoo.com)
Created
on 03/06/1999
Revised
on 06/29/2001
Authors' Note: Gargoyles
and everything associated with them belong to Buena Vista and Disney. They
do not belong to Clan LeFemme and we make no claims to them. This is done
purely for fun. The character of Shadow Gargoyle belongs to the author and
may not be used without permission. Feedback is welcomed, just please
be constructive. This is the next segment of the Clan LeFemme Series.
Enjoy! :)
Also, please visit the Clan's
homepage to see pictures of some of the characters as well as the authors' own
character descriptions, floor plans for Janua Caeli, and another peak at the
Clan's stories at: http://www.geocities.com/clanlefemme/
Description: As Shadow must
learn, not all things last forever.
Rating: PG-13 for content and language.
The Cold and Dreary Night
A young tan
gargess glided across the night sky, her form a silhouette against
the bright white light of the moon. Closing her wings, she dove for a lone
building. A few precious seconds before becoming a part of the rooftop, she
opened her long dark, velvety wings. With her wings open, she came almost to a
halt in mid-air and landed with a grace that was inhuman.
She had to grin at the thrill of it. She loved gliding. It was one of her
favorite things to do; next to experimenting with magics.
She stood up straight, regaining her posture as she listened and watched with
her sharp senses. Her hair had grown out, no longer curly, but long and
straight. Instead of the raven color it once was, it was now a dark brown,
almost black in the shadows. Her eyes were the same, held the same color and
quality as before but now, betrayed her gargoyle side of her nature. A glint of mischief
shown in them most of time, revealing that she wasn't all that she
seemed. Aside from growing taller, she also began to stand straighter, something
that most gargoyles can not do. She wasn't a pure gargoyle, deep inside she was
also fey. Not much of that side shown though. She had the usual long gargoyle
wingspan, the thick, long tail; but she possessed magic.
She silently yawned with boredom. She loved following her new family around but
there were times, such as this one, that she wished she could be doing something
fun.
Male laughter was heard from below. Jumping to the edge of the rooftop and
looking below, she watched as Bryan and one of his friends left the tavern.
She had followed Bryan to look after him as he attended some
business meeting in
the local tavern. Melissa had recommended that she follow him and look after him,
actually it was more like request. As far as Shadow knew, Bryan had not been
drinking. His friend, on the other hand, was a different story. She almost had
to giggle as she heard him faintly stumbling over his own words. She watched as
Bryan smiled and waved bye to his friend.
The other man, grasped Bryan's hand in a firm handshake and nodded with a
lopsided grin. Releasing his hand, the man walked to his car.
She watched as Bryan walked in his own and started it up. She shivered slightly,
watching the snow fall softly to the ground. Most gargoyles were not affected by
the cold, but due to her other nature, she was. Reluctantly, she uncapped her
wings, the cold wind biting at her skin. She spread them as wide as she could
and angled them because she knew she was going to have to be gliding against the
wind.
She watched as Bryan's car eased out of the parking space and down the road.
Once he was out of the parking spot she dove off the building in pursuit. She
never saw the other man pull out. His car, almost hitting a tree on the other
side of the road.
The wind was loud. It howled and pushed against the icy branches of the great
trees that surrounded the road. The howling of the wind blocking out every other
sound. She sighed, watching her breath blow quickly behind her in a white cloud
of steam.
Looking down, that was when she saw it. She cried out, but the wind carried away
her words. She watched, filled with horror at the two cars on the road. The car
behind Bryans' slammed into his from behind. She heard the honk of a horn and
the crash of metal and glass of the cars. She knew who was behind both wheels.
And she knew that one of them was drunk. She silently blamed herself for not
paying attention and realizing the danger. But there was no time for that.
She looked ahead and saw the bridge. The bridge. She knew that one of them
wouldn't make it. She saw the surface, clean with ice. The ice blue and white of
the combination of cold and water shining in the dim light of the moon.
She watched as Bryan's car, the horn still blaring, sliding towards the bridge.
She closed her wings and began her struggle with the wind. She pulling forward,
and the wind pulling her back. She needed to get there. To get to him. She
promised that he would be home safe. And now it was going to be her fault.
She watched, as the car slid across the ice and into the old rusted metal of the
bridge. She heard the smash and the whine of the beams on the bridge as the car
broke through them She yelled out again, furiously trying to win her battle. The
wind stinging her eyes, her muscles in her wings and back straining out, the
coldness of the air wrapping around her like a dark veil. But worst of all, was
the pain. The pain in her heart, because she knew she wasn't - couldn't get
there in time. She knew that no one could survive such a crash. She knew she
would half to tell Melissa. She knew that she would have to tell James, their
four year old son that his daddy wasn't coming home.
The car stopped, balancing on the edge of the bridge, it twisted metal frame
caught between the rusted beams of the bridge. That was when the other car came
gliding across the bridge. With a loud sound of smashing metal, the car hit
Bryans'. She knew she was too late as she watched the creak and groan of the
bridge and watched the car hit the ice below. The ice held for several moments.
But with lines in the ice forming, the ice slowly cracked in two. The car
plunging into the icy depths below.
With a loud battle cry filled with pain and anger, she released herself from the
wind. She hit the snow on the banks of the ice-filled river. The snow cushioned
her fall but still she hurt. She watched the car, floating silently in the ice,
the rear end sticking up out of the water.
She looked back up at the bridge and watched with anger as the other guy slowly
got out of his car.
I don't believe him! He was drinking! And still he gets out of the car
unharmed! She felt like jumping up to the bridge and making him punish for his
crimes. She didn't know how, but she suppressed her anger. Glaring at the man as
he walked back towards the tavern.
She watched the car in the ice and grieved in silence. The anger, the pain, the
unfairness of it all boiling inside her. Ignoring the cold she sat up in the
snow, tears blurring her vision.
Sometime later she heard sirens and flashing blue and red lights. Reluctantly
she stood and climbed a tree. Setting high in the branches, where she remained
for most of the night, she watched as they removed the car slowly from the ice.
She watched and listened painfully as she heard their report.
She listened to grave quietness of his voice and didn't even stay to hear the
rest. Snapping her wings, she dove from the tree.
She did not need to, nor want to hear what she already knew. She fought the wind
for most of the evening, muddled in her thoughts.
Finally she saw the house in the distance. Dread filled her, she knew she had
failed. Why was she returning? She did not know the answers to herself and
cursed herself silently again over her failure.
It was then she saw the
familiar lights again. Landing quietly in the tree
outside the house, she watched from outside at the scene taking place before her
inside.
A uniformed officer stood silently at the door while Melissa cried on the couch.
James sat silently, he himself, crying too. He and his mother were together in a
firm hug. Shadow watched the scene painfully. She watched as the officer
uncertainly walked over and patted Melissa reassuringly on the shoulder and
slowly exit the room. She watched as he got into his own car and pull out of the
driveway.
It was then that Melissa looked out of the window, her eyes red and puffy, full
of tears, still crying and mourning over her husband's death. It was then that
Melissa saw Shadow. Shadow was about to back away to the comfort of the shadows
of the forest, but knew it was too late. Melissa had already seen her.
She watched as Melissa quietly ushered James up the stairs where she herself,
disappeared for several moments. She then heard a screen door slam and heard
the pain-filled yell of Melissa as she screamed out into the night.
Her hair was uncombed and she wore only a flannel night gown covered by a bath
robe and slippers. With her arms spread out wide she spun around in circles
staring at the trees and the sky, "I trusted you! How could you! How could
you!"
She repeated the words several times again before she collapsed in the snow, in
a crying heap. Shadow cautiously climbed down the tree and walked slowly towards
Melissa, her wings caped. She stood next to Melissa for only a few seconds
before Melissa turned hurled a rock at Shadow. Shadow didn't even know that
Melissa had a rock, and so was slow to react. She winced and stumbled back as
the rock hit her shoulder.
She looked down at her shoulder, at the blood slowly dripping from the deep
wound. The rock had made hit it's target. Melissa seemed pleased for a moment
before her eyes turned icy. She glared at Shadow, and cussed her up one way and
down the other. Shadow just listened, the words cutting like a dagger. It was
then that Melissa stopped and calmly raised her voice, the voice that was now
just as icy as her eyes. "I want you to leave. I want you to leave now,
tonight. Never return. If you do...I swear I will make you pay for what you have
done tonight. You have caused enough damage here. I don't know why I let you
live, but maybe you living with what you have done is just the punishment you
need. Go somewhere else. Just leave. Bother someone else. Go away!" With
that she turned, and Shadow heard sobs cracking her calm voice and watched her
run towards the house.
Shadow stood there for a few moments, hurt by the words and what she had failed
in that night. Only a brush across her leg, minutes later, awakened her from her
thought. She glanced down and stared at the face of Tuffy.
Bending down slowly, she lifted him up. He cried once in protest but then
settled against her, purring happily. Shadow lowered her head to his warm fur
and cried.
Realizing what she was doing she stopped and looked at Tuffy. Tuffy stared back
at her with his emerald cat green eyes. He looked at her with his own face and
then brushed his head against her shoulder, reassuring her, in his own way, that
everything was going to be fine.
Shadow managed a smile. Climbing a nearby tree and gliding off into the icy air
of the remainder of the night, she finally realized something. She knew where
she was going. Perhaps she was meant to go there all along. She was leaving New
York. She needed to start over. She didn't know where she was going but she'd
know when she got there.
Those memories of that
night... still haunting her dreams and thoughts.
The End
