.

Brood of a New Age

63.

Tayo Abed had been driving a cab in New York for ten years, and like most cab drivers, he had seen just about everything. But the two little "things" coming out of an alley and the one in front beckoning him was a previously unseen sight. Certainly his number one weirdness of the month although in July he had already had a three hundred pound guy with a chicken under his arm and an old woman in a bloody ballerina costume.

As curious as he was critical, he pulled to the side of the road and the little thing in front gestured for him to lower the window with newspaper-covered hands. Tayo did so and the girl addressed him in a distinct Italian dialect.

"Hi. Me and my brother were at a costume party and we need to get to the Eyrie Building," she said.

"I see," Tayo replied, eyeing the two children. The girl, had long beautiful hair and that, apart from her clothes and the angel wings she had put on, was the only thing about her that wasn't plastered over and covered with scraps of newspaper. In addition, sinuous goat horns, which were perhaps made of Styrofoam and also covered with pieces of paper. She looked crazy and at the same time she was completely serious, standing up straight and looking him in the eyes.

Her brother had made even more effort with his costume because he even had an artificial beak, which also had a cover made of scraps of newspaper. Although he was taller and certainly older than the girl, he seemed shy, looking down at the ground and keeping behind his sister. Just then a couple walked by behind the children and the adult's eyes were on the kids and the boy virtually ducked under the stares and moved even closer to the girl as if he wished he could merge into his younger but obviously braver sister. A strange pairing.

"Do you have any money?" asked Tayo, who had learned quickly from bad experiences when he had come to America. The girl reached with one hand into the purse that hung around her neck, which immediately rubbed off some newspaper scraps that fluttered quietly to the ground. Her costume was really not solid. But she revealed some bills - and even a credit card. Tayo was glad to see that.

"Is that enough? Can we have a ride?" the child asked.

"If I can swipe the credit card through my reader later, I'll even drive you to Boston, sweety," Tayo said but the girl didn't respond to his charm and just looked at him with an ice queen's gaze. "The Eyrie Building will do."

"Okay. Okay, hop in," Tayo said and the girl opened the door and pushed her brother, who was wearing a thick adult sweater with the Bronx Zoo logo on it (but he needed it too because he was a real beefy little guy around the belly) into the back seat and sat down next to him.

"Buckle up kids," Tayo instructed, watching the girl buckle up with no problem but the boy struggle with his seatbelt like he was buckling up for the very first time. Heavens, the two of them looked ridiculous with their cheap costumes where they hadn't even painted the outer skin yet- but that boy's beak moved with him as if it were grown on. Crazy. Finally the girl helped her brother and when it clicked he sighed with relief in the gloom of the back seat. Tayo turned on his meter and drove off.

"Did you make the costumes yourselves?" inquired Tayo, seeing the girl smiling broadly in the rearview mirror.

"Yes! They're great, aren't they? Our parents didn't help us at all."

"I'll bet you do, sweetie. And what are you supposed to be?"

"We're uhh birds."

Tayo's gaze sought the girl's in the back seat and she stared offensively back at where the boy was holding himself in the dark.

"Birds with horns. Right. You do know that's not funny, don't you?" he remarked somewhat coolly.

"It's not supposed to be funny," the girl said almost bitchily. Tayo wrinkled his nose. Parents didn't teach their brats anything anymore.

"You may not know this as foreigners but gargoyles are dangerous animals and a big problem in this town right now. You shouldn't dress up as those things. Whereas real gargoyles have leathery bat wings - never feathered ones. This is common knowledge," he lectured. The boy behind him snorted in amusement.

"Our parents say gargoyles can think and talk so they are not animals," the girl opined.

"Your parents obviously aren't Quarrymen-advocates," Tayo muttered, leaning to the side and fishing a flyer out of his bag. He couldn't stay mad at those two dumb brats. But their foolish yuppie parents who let them walk the streets alone at night and let them wear costumes that could cost them their lives just because it wasn't fancy enough for them to join PETA. He passed the flyer to the back. The girl grabbed it, unfolded it, and immediately got wide-eyed, as did the boy who had been leaning toward her. Tayo smirked.

"Yes. It has the truth in it and not what your brainless parents are trying to feed you. If you ever want to be on the right side, the Quarrymen are there for you ... I played around with papier-mache as a kid, too. It's great that you make costumes out of it, but it can be dangerous to walk around like that. What if the gargoyles think you're their spawn from above and pluck you off the street? And then they see that you are just tasty little human children. Then your smart parents would look pretty stupid" Tayo babbled and drove off 9 A and then onto West End Avenue. It hadn't been the most direct route to Manhattan... but he guessed the kids would have no idea how far it was or how expensive it would be. He didn't want to milk the brats ...but if you gave your kid a credit card so they could go home, you had to expect the pickup service to be a little more expensive. Probably their parents were even such unworldly P.I.T. idiots. By now the boy was breathing really hard in the back seat as if he couldn't get enough air.

"Is something wrong with your brother?"

The girl was really glaring at him now, looking almost really like a little demon with her face with bits of newspaper sticking out of it and her horns. "There's nothing wrong with him. He just can't talk very well because of the beak. And the glue makes him a little dizzy," she explained, letting the torn flyer flutter onto Tayo's passenger seat. He wrinkled his nose in disapproval. They were just dumb kids.

"Why do you make costumes like that? It's got something to do with common sense. I hope he doesn't puke in my car."

"No. He won't."

Tayo saw the boy shake his head as well. Now through the better lit streets, his mocked-up face was constantly bathed in light and shadow. His onyx black eyes looked like he was crying. His little sister stroked his shoulder comfortingly, whispering things to him all the while.

"No need to cry just because I think your costumes are tired of life, boy," Tayo muttered meekly, feeling bad. It wasn't because he had shared his knowledge with the clueless kids - because opening their eyes was something they really needed. He was sorry, though, that the little beaked crybaby took it so much to heart.

"Are we there soon?" the girl asked.

"I took the 95 and then the 9A. We were on 11th Avenue and now I'm turning onto W 45th Street," Tayo explained, knowing that the kids were probably too small and their knowledge of the streets too poor to do anything with the explanation. In the meantime, the traffic had increased despite the nocturnal hour. But that was no wonder considering where he was about to pass. Nice and slow would pass - his taximeter ran.

The lights of the big streets and the illumination by the shop windows and neon signs became more and more intensive and flooded through the windows of the car. Tayo was trying to concentrate on the street, especially because now more and more passers-by were walking across the street when the gaps between the vehicles were large enough.

"I don't like this route," he heard a new voice and Tayo looked in the rearview mirror again. The older child was currently sitting almost in the middle of the back seat despite the seatbelt as if trying to hide from the light and the passing tourists.

"It's okay. We'll be home soon," his sister comforted him, stroking his shaggy black hair. He sniffled, which even crinkled the newsprint on his beak. It didn't strike Tayo until five seconds later that newsprint on an artificial beak should NOT crinkle when the wearer of the supposed costume wrinkled up his nose. He jammed on the brakes that both children were pressed and pushed into their seat belts with a violent yank back and forth and they cried out in fright. Behind him it honked violently but, the Nigerian cab driver just didn't give a shit. He turned around wide-eyed as the girl and boy sat back down properly and released their seat belts because they had probably squeezed them. And with that movement, something wriggled under the loose sweater the boy was wearing. Something alive, something that was fused with the boy. Tayo grabbed one of the supposedly artificial horns and tugged. The boy screamed in shock and pain, striking at Tayo with his hand and ripping a deep scratch wound in his forearm, but Tayo didn't let go until the girl lunged for his arm and bit him. The cab driver shrieked, raising his other fist to strike the female monster as the little demon with the REAL horns let out an inhuman angry screech. It snapped open its beak and a real mouth, with real fangs gleaming with saliva and a deep black maw, became visible. Tayo changed his aim and slapped the thing's beak in panic. Again a scream, growl, snarl and by God, Tayo didn't know if the sounds were coming from him or one of the monsters. Both demons, who had imitated children AND passengers, were now wrestling with him.

A tail automatically curled out from under the seam of the intentionally large sweater as the male monster searched for support and balance. His wings within the restrictions of the fabric could no longer be concealed as they now burst from the fabric with a loud rip as if he were undergoing a violent mutation within a second. More by instinct than understanding, Tayo loosened his seatbelt, whirled around and jumped out of his cab. It didn't even occur to him to flee. He just wanted to be rid of these monsters, more importantly, he wanted them out of HIS cab. He tore open the back door, yanked the female thing out by her long hair so that it let out an inhuman shrill screech, and then grabbed the (real!) clawed foot of the second monster who was kicking at him in panic to avoid being dragged out of the car. Tayo heard the fabric of his seats rip under claws, grabbed the very next thing from the little monster he could get his hands on - which was a disgustingly supple, whipping tail -and yanked the thing out of the vehicle and onto the ground. Then he jumped back into his car and drove away with screeching revving tires accompanied by loud honking of other drivers and loud indignant shouting of the passers-by.

He heard Graziella whimper and it took Nashville a few seconds to realize what had just happened. To realize that a Quarryman (or at least a supporter) had just thrashed them out of his cab. His head had hit the pavement and for a moment the young gargoyle was quite dizzy. He heard intermingled voices talking. Someone purred a question and Graziella replied that she was fine. How had it all gone so wrong? It hadn't been a bad plan after all. It would have worked if they'd gotten a different cab driver. Nashville turned around in pain and saw one of his parrot wings lying on the sidewalk.

"Oh the poor boy," he heard a concerned female voice as dark adult-sized sneakers appeared next to his face which was facing the ground. Scraps of newspaper had come loose and were lying on the ground like crusty puff pastry pieces. Then a masculine voice. "That fucking jerk. New York cab drivers really are the last pricks if you don't have enough money. Did he hurt you?"

"I'm all right," Nash mumbled dazedly, letting the woman help him to his feet. He peeled his wings, half squeezed through the fabric, out of the tear in his sweater to shield himself from the light that was just too much for his aching head. He turned his head and looked the woman directly in the eyes. And caught sight of his own face with the half-removed scraps of newsprint (his disintegrating disguise) in her widening eyes.

She opened her mouth and let a bloodcurdling scream sound over the place. For he was in a vast plaza. He looked up and needed a moment to transfer the, to him from above familiar sight to the worm's-eye view now. But the glaring gigantic screens, the brightly lit billboards, the stores open even at midnight and the many people - all this left no doubt.

He- Nashville, stood without camouflage, with unmistakable wings and a tail in the middle of the wide walkway of Times Square.

"Oh fuck," he murmured inaudibly because of the scream of the woman who drew all eyes to herself and thus also to him.

Now it would be mean if I took two weeks off, right?

...

Your luck that I ordered Gargoyle-Crossfitter-NECA figures and have no money for vacation this year (the shipping costs to Germany are really horror but not as much as if you buy them in the German Amazon. Seriously- the Goliath figure for 102 Euro?! Hells going on, you greedy capitalist sucker!)

People are real MONSTERS! As you will see in the next chapter.

Thanks for reading, Q.T.