Impress Me
Disclaimer: Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational, or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use. THIS STORY IS JUST FOR FUN. No copyright infringement intended. All rights to Gargoyles belong to their respective owners.
Chapter 8 – A Beauty Most Sinister
The flame of the torch flickered and flailed, billowing in its entrancing motion until fate takes its breath away and it is snuffed out. Its light reached the alter of Fulgora and the empty walls around them. It reflected in the demon's eyes, a beauty of the most sinister kind. Those eyes pierced a maturing fear into her fresh new victims.
Demona was justly named; A creature that thrives on the total obliteration of an entire race, no concern for the consequences if the balance of the world is corrupted even further than it already is, unburdened by the thought of the possible destruction her own great clan from the lack thereof. She, blinded by choice to another side of life by her own selfishness and pride. One could almost pity her, but still never forgive her. She was, after all, truly a demon.
Haven and Angela turned around to face Demona. "Now here's a new face among familiar ones I could live without." Brooklyn didn't wait to hear another word from her. He sprung onto her. The others followed suit and the fray commenced. While Demona was distracted by Lexington, Brooklyn, and Angela, Haven went for crest she dropped and the item on the alter, feeling that was the best course of action. However, nothing could escape that ever wary eye of hers; in an instant, Demona had tossed her foes to different parts of the room and was approaching Haven.
"Whoever you are, it would be wise not to make an enemy of me." she stated firmly. "I wasn't aware we were allies." Haven answered half-heartedly. Those eyes, those stunning eyes of hers were weakening Haven's resolve. "We can be…that is if Goliath has not corrupted you too." Haven looked confused but stayed on guard, "Corrupted how?"
A deep chuckle came from Demona, "Surely you too can see the humans for what they really are. Why do you defend them from me?" Demona's words ran deeper for Haven than she knew. This reminisced of what she asked Brooklyn the first night. She recalled how even a saintly man was capable of cruelty. 'She would destroy them…' Haven thought, 'I could be rid of them. Eva would have justice.'
"Don't listen to her, Haven!" Brooklyn called. At that moment, she looked just beyond Demona. Before she had even realized it, Kale had come into her line of sight. "Give me the artifacts, Haven." Demona demanded. Haven looked at Kale then the items, then back at Eva, and back to Demona, then the items again. "I…I…"
She was lost: on one hand, something she never dreamed could happen was within her grasp, directly within her abilities, but Eva would die, as would Monja Ivelisse. Demona was growing impatient. Brooklyn was worried she'd choose something she couldn't take back. 'Would Eva want to be avenged this way…?'
That revelation made her tightened her grip on the items, showing she wasn't about to give them up. "Wrong move."
Finally, in her frustration, Demona pounced on Haven to take the items back herself. She dropped the dagger and fought to keep Demona from grabbing it. It was quickly demonstrated that Demona's strength exceeded her own but she fought hard. Nevertheless, Demona was not to be denied. She sank her fangs incredibly deep into Haven's shoulder, stunning her long enough to give herself time to retrieve the items. She only recovered the dagger but was cut off from the crest by Kale.
"KALE DON"T!" Haven cried. Kale grabbed the crest and slid it over to Angela when he saw her charging him, but now he was at the mercy of Demona.
"I feel a sense of recent déjà vu, but since I can't get you to listen to reason…" Demona held Kale's neck in the crook of her elbow with the dagger ripping at his shirt, outstretching her other arm implying an exchange for the crest. Kale struggled against her but was no match for her inhuman strength. Is was like being choked by stone. Angela reluctantly knelt down to slide the crest to Demona. "Angela, no." Lexington objected.
Brooklyn held him back from stopping her. If this exchange didn't take place, Kale's life would be forfeit. She'd kill him without a second thought. Angela passed the crest on to Demona, in hopes that they could stop Demona some other time. Once she had the crest, she put it around her neck with a menacing grin.
"Now give us the boy." Angela ordered. Despite how much she wanted to, she understood she could not trust her own mother, and she was right not to. "When did I ever say I'd give him back?"
"What?" Angela watched as her smile grew ever larger. "This will save me the trouble of finding a sacrifice. I was going to use Goliath's little pet but he will do." With that, Demona stole away through the stone door and back down the dark tunnel.
"KALE!" Haven called. The gargoyles chased after her back into the darkness. Once she was out, Demona closed off the tunnel behind her, trapping them inside. "Shout to your heart's content. Only the magic words will move that stone. You can rot in that tunnel." and Demona was gone with Kale as her prisoner.
"No! She's sealed us in." Lexington pushed against the rock, the other's helped. "It won't budge. We're trapped down here." Angela evaluated. "You think Open Sesame will work?" said Brooklyn.
"This isn't the time for jokes." Haven bellowed. "She said the only way out was to speak the magic words." Brooklyn reminded, "None of us speak Latin so Abra Cadabra and Please is better than nothing."
They stopped pushing against the stone. "So I guess we wait until Broadway gets back with Goliath." Brooklyn affirmed. Haven slumped against the wall. "I can't believe I almost gave it to her; I almost gave her Kale."
She felt utterly disgusted with herself. "If I ever get out, I'll spend my last breath if that's what it takes to get her back." The others didn't know what to say to that, but the boys didn't realize what she said, only Angela who experienced this once before. So the silence endured for a good while until Angela asked something that had been bothering her.
"What were you guys doing here?" Angela interrogated. The boys got nervous, remembering that they followed them and saw everything. "How much did you hear?" Haven asked, knowing that to be the correct question. There was a short silence, but Brooklyn answered. "Everything."
At that moment, they heard wings flapping. "This is the place…but there was an opening in the ground right around here…" It was Broadway and Goliath. "Broadway! We're down here!" Lexington called back. "Lexington! Is that you?" Goliath called, "Are you alright?"
"We're fine," Lexington answered, "…but Demona took Kale and trapped us down here. The stone won't budge."
"Just hang on. We'll get you out of there." Goliath assured. Goliath and Broadway began pulling at the large stone while the others below pushed. Even together with Goliath's insane strength, the stone refused to shift. "It's no use. It's stuck tight." Broadway gasped from exhaustion after over exerting himself.
"We must think of something." Goliath alleged. Just then, Haven noticed something and began pulling soil from the side of the tunnel. The others watched puzzled. "What are you doing?" Brooklyn asked.
"The walls are made of dirt. We may be able to dig our way out around the stone." she pulled more and more dirt from the left wall, struggling with the thick, stubborn clay and paydirt, but pushing on. "But what if it causes a cave in?" Angela question.
"I'd deserve to be buried alive if I didn't at least try to survive something like this." The others understood her logic and followed suit. "Goliath, Broadway!" Brooklyn called, "Dig around the right side of the rock!"
Goilath and Broadway listened to Brooklyn and joined them in digging. A long time went by of burrowing a new exit. Dirt got in their eyes often but they brushed it off and kept going until they were finally free.
The gargoyles were tired and out of breath from all the digging. Haven ignored her fatigue and tried to take off to find Kale, but Goliath stopped her. "I know you are worried, but we are forced to wait until another night."
"But…" Haven looked to the sky. It was certainly one of the more brilliant hours of night time. In several minutes, they'd be encased in stone, minutes nowhere near long enough to pursue a kidnapper and victim. It was hardly enough time to make it back to the castle, which was only a simple relief for Haven. The real problem lay in finding a place nearby that still kept them safe from Quarrymen.
(A/N) Now what'd I tell you? Another chapter, finished in less than two hours. Praise to my awsomeness. All the character development I've put in the previous chapters have been building up to this. In the past when the situation was calm, she could deny a relationship with Kale, she could distance herself from others and curl up into her own shell. But now the status quo has changed and her emotions have all the necessary arrangements to race free. Not much has changed for this chapter really and chapters 9-11 will likely be the same but if something is changed, you will notice by the new disclaimer at the top.
Thank you all so much for your loyalty thus far. You shall be rewarded when I take over the world.
Go to my deviantArt page to see the updated Haven. I gave her an earring, fixed the eyebrow problem, and made the wings a little larger. My sister's a budding animator and she drew the original but I upgraded it and changed quite a bit. I've never taken an art class to learn how to do this stuff so I'll ask for help from time to time but the more recent ones and some of the old ones are purely my work...A~nd then there's that one I just cheated on all together. The link is below, copy and paste, delete the space, and don't forget the dot-com. And enjoy.
xai16. deviantart
/gallery/33636029