1.3: A Rude Awakening
Ahhhhhh…. He was his old self again, with energy to spare! Heinrich grinned as he stretched after waking up, feeling better now than he'd felt in weeks. Yes, a good day's sleep in sunlight had been just the thing! Maybe he would recommend it to Karl and Andrea next time one of them caught a cold. In the meantime, he would—
"POLICEFREEZE!"
He would find himself wings-deep in trouble again. Heinrich didn't understand the word that had been shouted behind him, but he just knew that whoever had spoken was armed and dangerous, and sudden moves now would not be good for his restored health.
He froze in place, reflecting bitterly that this was why, even if his country knew about gargoyles and offered them the same sort of Lebensversicherung that they offered humans, no insurance company in its right mind would ever touch him. The infamous Heinrich's Luck had struck again… Why hadn't he suggested that Helmut go exploring instead? This sort of Scheiße never happened to Helmut…
Carter had dropped the dictionary and drawn his gun as the gargoyle statue had explosively turned into the flesh-and-blood version, and Davis didn't blame him a bit; that had been totally unnerving. But now, a few seconds after Carter had shouted and the gargoyle had frozen in mid-stretch, Davis said carefully, "Carter… put it away. Or at least lower it. There's no need to threaten him."
"What are you, nuts!" Carter hissed at him, his eyes never leaving that gray winged back. "This is a gargoyle!"
"Yes, it is. A gargoyle with a family; we just saw that. A family with humans in it, too. I can't vouch for the others in this city, but this one isn't the sort of monster that Quarrymen have been talking about. So lower the gun…"
While Davis had been talking, the gargoyle had very slowly and cautiously turned his head, just enough to look at them out of the corner of one eye. Now, as Carter reluctantly lowered his gun, the creatures said softly, "I wish no trouble. No hurt… anyone."
"Glad to hear it," Carter said tersely. He didn't holster the gun, but he did completely lower it and take his finger off the trigger.
Still moving slowly, the gargoyle lowered his arms and pulled in his wings. Then he asked, "I turn…?"
"Yes, you can turn around," Davis assured him.
The gargoyle slowly turned to face them, eyed their uniforms, then asked, "Die Polizei? …Police?"
"Yes, we're police officers," Davis answered. "Where are you from? Germany?"
"Yes. I come America… find more… gargoyles. Like me." Then he noticed the dropped dictionary, photo album and binder, and he scowled; a scowl that showed fangs, and made Carter's gun twitch upwards a few inches. Obviously noticing the gun movement, the gargoyle lost the scowl in a hurry, but Davis could still sense the disapproval nearly radiating from him.
"Yes, we looked through your personal belongings… but we needed to do so, to determine whether or not you were really a monster," Davis said, half-apologizing and half-defending their actions. "Some people have been killed by gargoyles recently, and we needed to discover your intentions, whether--"
But the gargoyle interrupted him with a surprised exclamation in German, followed by "What you say! Gargoyles und kill! Say again, please…"
To Be Continued…
German Translations:
Lebensversicherung: life insurance policy
Scheiße: shit, crap
Und: and
