Brooklyn
By Jake Denton (kingcobra49036@yahoo.com)
Author's Note: The beginning and end of this story takes place in 2034 which is, according to my estimates, around the time that the events occur in "Future Tense". Assuming they ever do, of course. Brooklyn's intersection was envisioned as a sort of flashback.
Manhattan, New York
2034 A.D.
In the darkest hour of nightfall, under the cracked rubble of the ancient police station clock tower, the floor built door pushed open, allowing Matt Bluestone and Claw to gain access to the crumbling ruins. From the debris lying cluttered around the area, Matt, in his old age, was wise enough to know that this place had been abandoned ever since that fateful night when the station was mysteriously attacked and the tower blown up. They had arrested the Canmore siblings later on, and charged them with the crime, sentencing them to life in prison, and then had tried to refurnish the luxury of the tower. But such attempts had fallen to crumble with age. Matt doubted that it would ever be used again.
He looked at the tiger striped mutate behind him. "Quite a battlefield, huh, Claw?" Non-vocal as always, Claw nodded and looked down, a look of awe and admiration for the respectable location that had turned to dust long ago. Even years after Talon and Maggie had died, this tower still reminded him of Elisa, Talon's sister. Because she had worked here, and her friends had once resided here. Now look at it. The place was filthy, home only to the disease carrying rats that made nests here. Shining his flashlight around, Matt kicked some debris aside and noticed a book lying at his feet.
"What IS it?"
Claw picked it up, and simply held it out to him, a look of curiously inquisitive wonderment on his face. Matt blew the dust off and smiled when he saw the name on the brown cover of the small object in his hands. He read the name aloud to Claw.
"Brooklyn."
Slumping against the wall and sliding down to sit on his butt, Matt opened the book to read, vaguely aware of Claw sitting next to him. "This was Brooklyn's journal, long ago before he and his clan created the rebel unit against Xanatos..."
"Dear Journal,
Tonight is a night of New Hope for me. Goliath has returned with Elisa, and Bronx. Finally our worry and constant search to find our friends is finished. They are back with us, and I have never felt so blessed in all my life. Broadway and Lexington are equally excited. I can't blame them. I know how they feel.
However, they did not come back to Manhattan alone.
When I first saw Angela, Goliath's biological daughter, I was instantly filled with jubilation. Goliath had a hatchling of his own. Huh. Who knew? Yet, I was happy, because I knew instantly that Angela was different than Maggie. She would not fear me. My first thought was that I would end up as her mate.
However, I couldn't help but feel hatred all over again when I remembered that Demona had been Goliath's mate once, and I realized that Angela bore a striking resemblance to the object of my fierce hatred. So that meant Angela and Demona were daughter and mother. Not exactly a good sign for me, given that I thought her mother was a bitch.
But I didn't care about that. I knew Angie - or Angela, as she prefers to be called - was nothing like Demona when she hugged Hudson almost immediately after arriving in this very tower. Demona would not have been so friendly. More than likely, she would have knifed Hudson in the back and asked questions later.
But enough about Demona. Thinking about her makes me sick.
Angela and I became close friends quickly. I would have given my life to save hers any time, and she knew it. Plus, I guess she recognized the fierce yet gentle spirit that makes up my personality and liked it, because she spent a lot of time with me. Broadway and Lexington didn't like this little fact and for a while we fought over her. Which only drove a wedge between her and me. She demanded that we resolve our petty squabbling until after Dracon and Brod was captured, and we did so. Angela also said that the winner would not get to keep her, that she would choose whom she wanted to mate with for life. So that killed the competition.
Unfortunately for me, she ended up choosing Broadway, and I was without a mate once again. Again I felt the pain of rejection just like I did when Maggie picked Talon over me. I knew Lexington could deal with it better then I could. After all, he backed off after the competition ended immediately.
I knew I should be happy for them, but I'm not. I feel too much self-pity for myself. Would I ever find a mate? I'm sorry, Journal, I need to go for a glide right now. This is tearing my insides up too much. I hope the crisp night air will help cheer me up, but I doubt it.
April 6th, 1996."
Matt blinked in surprise as he read this account. Brooklyn had suffered from loneliness? Why hadn't he ever said anything about it? Matt had known Brooklyn well enough in his youth, but he had never guessed that his friend was hurting emotionally. Casting a troubled glance at Claw, the aged detective flipped to another page.
"Dear Journal,
I got yelled at again two nights ago. I missed the white van I was supposed to intercept and Goliath was furious with me. He called me a hatchling. Me. Can you believe it? His second-in-command. Sometimes, I think that it would have been easier if one of the others had been handed the title. My life has been hell ever since I gained my new position among the clan. So I had been fantasizing about Angela. So what? Maybe it wasn't the wisest decision, but he didn't have to give me a rough time.
I decided right then I had enough, and I needed to cool off. I flew away. Goliath didn't follow. I'm glad. I was hoping he wouldn't. Later that night, I met Bobbi Porter and her brother, Dave. They were both runaways. Young humans who felt their family did not appreciate them. Just like I was feeling. Kenny was a friend of the two, and he was living on the streets like they were, but he betrayed them later for his own profit. Some friend he turned out to be. In the end, Kenny was arrested, and the Porter kids' parents took them home and I never saw them again.
What a crying shame.
Bobbi actually was not that bad looking for a human. If she had been a gargoyle and a couple of years older, she could have been my mate. But it wasn't meant to happen, I guess. I keep hoping against hope to meet with the Porters again someday. They made me realize I wasn't alone in the judgmental sense to feel needed, and I owed that to them.
Maybe someday, by some odd stroke of fate's guiding hand, I'll cross paths with Bobbi and Dave again. It would not be so bad. At least I'd have some humans who wouldn't fear me. Like Goliath had Elisa. She never flinched or even blinked when she saw him. Although she does kind of smile like she's hiding something from him and the rest of us.
I can't quite put my finger on it, but I have a feeling that something unnatural for my species is happening between the two. Love, perhaps?
Oops, Diary, I have to go. Hudson, Goliath, and Angela are back with Hudson. I can hear them now. Apparently, Hudson was in the hospital for some reason and he took out half a dozen Quarrymen. From what Angela seems to be saying, Hudson was losing his eyesight for a while. I think he's fine now though. I'll be back later. I promise.
May 15th, 1996."
Fascination rising within him, Matt flipped past the page.
But there were no more pages. The wind or long age either had blown them away, or else Brooklyn had never written in his journal again. Either way, Matt suspected that the gargoyle might take an interest in recovering his lost journal. He looked at the mutate beside him. "Let's take this to the rebel headquarters, okay?"
Claw nodded silently, and they got to their feet. Matt, just before glancing around one last time at the trashed surroundings, smiled, happy memories of his life as a New York Police detective rushing through his mind. The clock tower held a lot of significance to him, and now a major part of his adult life was nothing more then a burned out hollow shell, touched by neglect and the dusty decayed climate that came only with age.
Then Matt slammed the door shut and locked it behind him one last time, and all in the abandoned clock tower was still. Lifeless.
Any opinions? Send them to me. kingcobra49036@yahoo.com
Jake Denton.
Coming Soon: Elisa Maza
By Jake Denton (kingcobra49036@yahoo.com)
Author's Note: The beginning and end of this story takes place in 2034 which is, according to my estimates, around the time that the events occur in "Future Tense". Assuming they ever do, of course. Brooklyn's intersection was envisioned as a sort of flashback.
Manhattan, New York
2034 A.D.
In the darkest hour of nightfall, under the cracked rubble of the ancient police station clock tower, the floor built door pushed open, allowing Matt Bluestone and Claw to gain access to the crumbling ruins. From the debris lying cluttered around the area, Matt, in his old age, was wise enough to know that this place had been abandoned ever since that fateful night when the station was mysteriously attacked and the tower blown up. They had arrested the Canmore siblings later on, and charged them with the crime, sentencing them to life in prison, and then had tried to refurnish the luxury of the tower. But such attempts had fallen to crumble with age. Matt doubted that it would ever be used again.
He looked at the tiger striped mutate behind him. "Quite a battlefield, huh, Claw?" Non-vocal as always, Claw nodded and looked down, a look of awe and admiration for the respectable location that had turned to dust long ago. Even years after Talon and Maggie had died, this tower still reminded him of Elisa, Talon's sister. Because she had worked here, and her friends had once resided here. Now look at it. The place was filthy, home only to the disease carrying rats that made nests here. Shining his flashlight around, Matt kicked some debris aside and noticed a book lying at his feet.
"What IS it?"
Claw picked it up, and simply held it out to him, a look of curiously inquisitive wonderment on his face. Matt blew the dust off and smiled when he saw the name on the brown cover of the small object in his hands. He read the name aloud to Claw.
"Brooklyn."
Slumping against the wall and sliding down to sit on his butt, Matt opened the book to read, vaguely aware of Claw sitting next to him. "This was Brooklyn's journal, long ago before he and his clan created the rebel unit against Xanatos..."
"Dear Journal,
Tonight is a night of New Hope for me. Goliath has returned with Elisa, and Bronx. Finally our worry and constant search to find our friends is finished. They are back with us, and I have never felt so blessed in all my life. Broadway and Lexington are equally excited. I can't blame them. I know how they feel.
However, they did not come back to Manhattan alone.
When I first saw Angela, Goliath's biological daughter, I was instantly filled with jubilation. Goliath had a hatchling of his own. Huh. Who knew? Yet, I was happy, because I knew instantly that Angela was different than Maggie. She would not fear me. My first thought was that I would end up as her mate.
However, I couldn't help but feel hatred all over again when I remembered that Demona had been Goliath's mate once, and I realized that Angela bore a striking resemblance to the object of my fierce hatred. So that meant Angela and Demona were daughter and mother. Not exactly a good sign for me, given that I thought her mother was a bitch.
But I didn't care about that. I knew Angie - or Angela, as she prefers to be called - was nothing like Demona when she hugged Hudson almost immediately after arriving in this very tower. Demona would not have been so friendly. More than likely, she would have knifed Hudson in the back and asked questions later.
But enough about Demona. Thinking about her makes me sick.
Angela and I became close friends quickly. I would have given my life to save hers any time, and she knew it. Plus, I guess she recognized the fierce yet gentle spirit that makes up my personality and liked it, because she spent a lot of time with me. Broadway and Lexington didn't like this little fact and for a while we fought over her. Which only drove a wedge between her and me. She demanded that we resolve our petty squabbling until after Dracon and Brod was captured, and we did so. Angela also said that the winner would not get to keep her, that she would choose whom she wanted to mate with for life. So that killed the competition.
Unfortunately for me, she ended up choosing Broadway, and I was without a mate once again. Again I felt the pain of rejection just like I did when Maggie picked Talon over me. I knew Lexington could deal with it better then I could. After all, he backed off after the competition ended immediately.
I knew I should be happy for them, but I'm not. I feel too much self-pity for myself. Would I ever find a mate? I'm sorry, Journal, I need to go for a glide right now. This is tearing my insides up too much. I hope the crisp night air will help cheer me up, but I doubt it.
April 6th, 1996."
Matt blinked in surprise as he read this account. Brooklyn had suffered from loneliness? Why hadn't he ever said anything about it? Matt had known Brooklyn well enough in his youth, but he had never guessed that his friend was hurting emotionally. Casting a troubled glance at Claw, the aged detective flipped to another page.
"Dear Journal,
I got yelled at again two nights ago. I missed the white van I was supposed to intercept and Goliath was furious with me. He called me a hatchling. Me. Can you believe it? His second-in-command. Sometimes, I think that it would have been easier if one of the others had been handed the title. My life has been hell ever since I gained my new position among the clan. So I had been fantasizing about Angela. So what? Maybe it wasn't the wisest decision, but he didn't have to give me a rough time.
I decided right then I had enough, and I needed to cool off. I flew away. Goliath didn't follow. I'm glad. I was hoping he wouldn't. Later that night, I met Bobbi Porter and her brother, Dave. They were both runaways. Young humans who felt their family did not appreciate them. Just like I was feeling. Kenny was a friend of the two, and he was living on the streets like they were, but he betrayed them later for his own profit. Some friend he turned out to be. In the end, Kenny was arrested, and the Porter kids' parents took them home and I never saw them again.
What a crying shame.
Bobbi actually was not that bad looking for a human. If she had been a gargoyle and a couple of years older, she could have been my mate. But it wasn't meant to happen, I guess. I keep hoping against hope to meet with the Porters again someday. They made me realize I wasn't alone in the judgmental sense to feel needed, and I owed that to them.
Maybe someday, by some odd stroke of fate's guiding hand, I'll cross paths with Bobbi and Dave again. It would not be so bad. At least I'd have some humans who wouldn't fear me. Like Goliath had Elisa. She never flinched or even blinked when she saw him. Although she does kind of smile like she's hiding something from him and the rest of us.
I can't quite put my finger on it, but I have a feeling that something unnatural for my species is happening between the two. Love, perhaps?
Oops, Diary, I have to go. Hudson, Goliath, and Angela are back with Hudson. I can hear them now. Apparently, Hudson was in the hospital for some reason and he took out half a dozen Quarrymen. From what Angela seems to be saying, Hudson was losing his eyesight for a while. I think he's fine now though. I'll be back later. I promise.
May 15th, 1996."
Fascination rising within him, Matt flipped past the page.
But there were no more pages. The wind or long age either had blown them away, or else Brooklyn had never written in his journal again. Either way, Matt suspected that the gargoyle might take an interest in recovering his lost journal. He looked at the mutate beside him. "Let's take this to the rebel headquarters, okay?"
Claw nodded silently, and they got to their feet. Matt, just before glancing around one last time at the trashed surroundings, smiled, happy memories of his life as a New York Police detective rushing through his mind. The clock tower held a lot of significance to him, and now a major part of his adult life was nothing more then a burned out hollow shell, touched by neglect and the dusty decayed climate that came only with age.
Then Matt slammed the door shut and locked it behind him one last time, and all in the abandoned clock tower was still. Lifeless.
Any opinions? Send them to me. kingcobra49036@yahoo.com
Jake Denton.
Coming Soon: Elisa Maza