Chloe rushed through her museum with a giddy smile on her face. After two years of hard work and studying, she was finally able to choose her own research project and now that project had finally arrived. She made her way down the stairs to the loading bay where, hopefully, the subject of her project would be waiting for her.
"Hey Doc." Amy, the security guard on duty, greeted her as she entered the large room. "You here for the delivery truck?"
"Totes, is it here yet?" Chloe looked around like a delivery truck would suddenly appear out of nowhere.
"It's runnin a bit late," Amy took a bite out of her donut. "Give it a minute."
Chloe huffed but sat down anyways and impatiently tapped her foot as she waited. It felt like forever but eventually she heard the loud beeping noise of the truck backing into the alley. Chloe was immediately on her feet and out the door with a grumbling Amy right behind her. Once outside she could see the truck pulling in the last few feet and she was practically bouncing on her toes.
The truck finished backing up to the doors, the driver hopped out of the cab and walked over to the two women. "You ladies got a forklift ready for this thing?"
"Yes of course," Chloe turned to her friend. "Amy?"
"Yea all right." Amy returned to the building and Chloe could hear the machine powering up.
"Sign here please." the driver held out a clip board with a log sheet that Chloe quickly signed. "Thank you." He hit a switch on the side of the truck and the back started opening.
"Thank you too." Chloe left the man to his job and rushed back inside. Amy had just finished moving the forklift to the bay doors with the forks pulled up. The back of the truck finally finished opening to reveal a large box, a couple of inches taller than Chloe and almost twice as long. The doctor cringed as Amy jerked the forklift forward but somehow she managed to get the crate out without banging it into anything. Which Chloe was grateful for since its contents were priceless.
Amy set the crate down in the middle of the room, a little too aggressively in Chloe's opinion. The guard hopped off the heavy machinery before walking over to the wall that held all the tools. "You want me to crack this open?"
"Yes please." Chloe placed a hand on the crate. She had been waiting a long time to study this and it was too large to fit in the examination rooms. Amy picked a crowbar off the wall and jammed under the top of the crate, pulling against the bar until the front of the crate was pried open. They both stood back as the lid slid off and the rest of the sides fell around the object inside.
Chloe smiled again while Amy gave a confused grunt. "What the heck is that supposed to be?"
"This, dear Amy, is a long lost work of art." Chloe circled the ornate marble statue of two gargoyles locked in combat. "It's beautiful."
"Kinda looks like some kinky porn." Amy laughed but stopped when Chloe glared at her.
"This is the last work of Anastasia Conrad, one of the few female sculptors that managed to get her work out of the dark ages." Chloe looked over the statue with reverence.
"Never heard of her."
Chloe rolled her eyes. "Conrad was born in France in the early thirteenth century to an entire family of Italian artists. But Anastasia's work was recognized as the best and was even commissioned by Louis VIII. Most of her works were destroyed during the endless wars of the middle ages but this one managed to survive."
She ran her fingers over the rough stone of the statue. It was incredibly detailed, a taller gargoyle grappled with the second, smaller gargoyle. They both had horns, wings and tails but other than that they lacked the usual grotesque features one usually associated with gargoyles. What's more the two were clearly women and, looking past the monstrous features, were quite beautiful. Which was something that Conrad was known for, what little of work survived the centuries were all of beautiful women. But what was strange was that, according to records, near the end of her life Conrad had shifted to creating more beastly creations.
"Still looks like porn." Amy said which made Chloe groan.
"I don't even want to think about the kind of porn you're watching if this," Chloe gestured to the two creatures trying to kill each other, "is what it looks like."
Amy just shrugged before leaving the doctor to her work. Chloe dismissed the blonde with a shake of her head and focused all her attention on the statue. She started with a few preliminary sketches and a couple of pictures, making sure to note the strange lettering that lined the edge of the pedestal. This statue had a long and very strange history. According to reports from other museums it would disappear at night and reappear the next morning. Some rumors even stated that the statue would be in a different position than when it first arrived. Chloe didn't put much stock in rumors but her skeptical side made her want evidence of the statue's condition upon arrival.
After that she got down to business, going over the statute with a fine tooth comb. It really was a masterpiece, the faces of the two women were so expressive. The taller gargoyle was clearly angry, her lips curled in a snarl and her brow furrowed in an angry glare. The shorter one looked calm and collected, but also focused, like she was formulating the best way to take down her opponent. The statue had no official name, Conrad had never given it one, but a common nickname was War and Peace. References to Tolstoy aside, Chloe could see how people had come to that conclusion so she decided to refer to the angry one as War and the smaller one as peace.
She quickly returned to her office to grab her book of dark age artists before settling in at the desk in the loading bay. She opened the book to the page she had bookmarked earlier in the day. The page had an old school portrait of Anastasia Conrad, one that Chloe wasn't one hundred percent sure was accurate. But the information under the picture was even more interesting. A general rule of thumb when working with the dark ages was to take all the information with a massive helping of salt, there's a reason they're called the dark ages. Conrad's story was muddled to say the least, a gifted artist ahead of her time recognized by some of the most important people of the time. The most interesting part were the rumors near the end of her life, that she had been accused of witchcraft and simply disappeared from all public records.
A loud cracking noise startled Chloe out of her research and her head shot up to look around the room. There was no one else in the room but when she glanced at her watch she noticed just how late it had gotten. She stood up and stretched, her body stiff from sitting at the desk for so long. Another more thorough look around the room revealed nothing about what could have caused the noise. Figuring it had just been her sleep deprived mind Chloe made her way to the security room where the coffee maker was. She poured herself a cup, resigning herself to a long night of book combing and staring at the statue hoping for some inspiration into the life of a thousand year old artist.
She walked over to the computer that the security staff used for watching the camera feeds. There was no one else in the museum, they couldn't afford an around the clock team and Chloe had made it clear to the guards that she made it a habit to work late so they didn't bother her and just locked up. It wouldn't be the first time she had pulled an all-nighter in the museum and there was a cot in her office just for that purpose. She sat down at the computer and wiggled the mouse to wake up the computer screen. After playing a few rounds of minesweeper just to clear her head, she pulled up the security feed out of random curiosity.
Most of the cameras showed nothing, which for a museum at one in the morning was a good thing. But then Chloe pulled up the feed from the loading dock and nearly spewed her coffee all over the monitor.
The statue was gone.
Chloe bolted out of the room and raced to the other side of the building. She crashed through the loading bay door only to confirm what the cameras had told her. There was no statue in the room, she made sure to check every corner. Even the doors didn't look like they had been tampered with. Running her fingers through her hair, Chloe tried to figure out how in the hell a six hundred pound slab of marble just disappeared from under her nose. She felt something drip onto her shoulder, causing her to look up.
"What in the Hell?"
Above her, clinging to the ceiling by her claws, was one of the gargoyles. It was snarling and hissing something fierce, causing spit and saliva to fall off her fangs and land on the unsuspecting redhead. Chloe couldn't seem to move her feet, even though the rest of her body was screaming at her to run. Just as she was about to move the monster above he let go of the ceiling, spreading its wings before plummeting towards Chloe.
She screamed and threw up her arms to protect herself but nothing happened. Instead there was a loud roar followed by a thud followed by a crash. Chloe lowered her arms to see the shorter gargoyle scrambling on top of the larger one, pumping it as hard as she could. The first gargoyle kicked the smaller one across the room.
"Cur non morieris!?" War screamed.
Peace picked itself up and yelled back. "Quia tu pugnado!"
Years of studying ancient languages finally came in handy. The gargoyles were speaking Latin and she was fairly certain War had asked 'why won't you die' and peace had said 'because you keep fighting'.
Peace launched herself at War, taking to the air and twisting to slam her tail on her enemy's head. War buckled under the impact but she didn't fall. Instead she grabbed Peace's tail and flung her into the ground, causing the cement floor to crack. Meanwhile, across the room Chloe was running to the doors to try and escape. Just as she reached the exit there was more growling behind her and she just managed to duck as Peace went crashing through the door.
Peace groaned before sitting up and locking eyes with Chloe, who managed to notice that the gargoyle had beautiful dark blue eyes. Probably not the most important information at the moment but Chloe's brain was flooded with adrenaline and obviously not focusing. The former statue was saying something and Chloe just barely managed to translate.
"Do not worry my lady. We have danced this dance before and she never wins." Peace stood up and ran back to the loading dock. Chloe could hear the two struggling as she ran to the information desk at the front of the museum. She grabbed one of the phones there and started to dial 911 but before she could get to the last number the desk was smashed by the pair of statues. The two separated, neither taking their eyes off the other and all Chloe could do was cower in the corner.
Peace spoke as the two circled each other. "You are wasting time. Not much longer and we will return to stone."
"Not if I can kill you." War lunged but Peace managed to dodge out of the way.
"We have been fighting for centuries and yet not once have you beaten me." The two clashed together again. "Our mistress created me to keep you from the rest of the world. Tonight will not be the night that you escape."
Peace caught Chloe's eye, "Speak mortal, the words upon our pedestal will end this battle."
Chloe had just enough cognitive thought to remember the etchings along the bottom of the statue. She sprang to her feet and rushed back to the loading bay, once inside she immediately ran to the pedestal. At first she couldn't tell what the letters were since the stone eroded over the years. But, given that the former statues were yelling at each other in Latin Chloe felt like that was the best bet.
"I really hope pronunciation isn't a problem for this." Chloe might understand Latin but she didn't exactly speak it on a regular basis. Just then, Peace walked through the door dragging a screaming War behind her. War managed to break free, flapping her wings to gain some distance. Peace followed after her while Chloe began struggling with the words on the pedestal.
"Life born from stone and to stone life will return."
"NO!" War lunged for Chloe only to be stopped by Peace, who threw her enemy onto the pedestal before pinning her to the marble.
"Weary souls be put to rest,"
War managed to get back to her feet but Peace held her back.
"Creatures of the Night, return and end this fight."
Chloe looked up from the words to see the two gargoyles slowly being encased in white marble, returning to the statues they were before. War was still struggling, growling and hissing while desperately trying to attack her foe. Peace adopted a more resigned expression, like she had done this before and would likely do it again.
Chloe had to shield her eyes as a brilliant light engulfed the pair. When the light finally died they were just two statues again. The redhead looked around at the destruction they had caused and for a brief moment thought about how on Earth she was going to explain all this.
She walked over to her desk, which was shockingly untouched, and looked once more at the history of Anastasia Conrad. Around the edge of the portrait Chloe could just make out tiny Latin letters. She mumbled some of the words under her breath but stopped.
Anastasia, who's face had been grim and turned to the side, was now looking directly at Chloe.
And smiling.
A/N: So that kinda went off the rails, but hey how often do gargoyles get brought up in modern day fantasy? Speaking of which has anyone watched the old Gargoyles cartoon show?