Struggling to catch her breath, the guard barked her location to someone on the other end of a radio.
"Well?" she demanded irritably between gasps, "I'm here. Where'd they go?"
The beep of the radio was followed by silence and the guard swore in frustration.
From within the sarcophagus, Bonnie giggled softly and the guard whipped around, shining her light around the dark chamber. Her gaze settled on the plexiglass case that displayed the preserved corpse of some ancient ruler and she quickly looked away. During the day, when the tomb was filled with tourists and students, it was easy to look upon the mummies with an indifferent, academic attitude. In the creepy, quiet after-hours, it was another story. It had never set well with her, that these human beings, who had long ago been so painstakingly laid to rest by their servants and loved ones, were now so far from their homeland exposed to an endless parade of ignorant gawkers who stared at them while joking irreverently. She wondered if the dead were aware of this indignity and if it angered them.
As she turned away, the guard was alerted to a strange, shuffling sound, coming from behind her. Her flashlight fell on the painted sarcophagus that was displayed on a stand behind a cable barrier that prevented guests from touching it. Her eyes narrowed as she noted the slightest wobbling of the wooden stand.
"All right, kid!" she ordered, "I know you're hiding in there! Come out and show me your hands this minute!"
The sarcophagus creaked and shuddered as whoever was inside shifted their weight.
"Now!" the guard barked and slowly the top of the sarcophagus rose slightly, revealing a small, dark form and two red lights, glowing like red-hot coals.
The guard gasped slightly, for it looked like two eyes, glowering at her with rage and malice. Trying to convince herself that what was emerging was just a thieving, punk kid and not an undead Egyptian king seeking vengeance, she raised her flashlight to illuminate the culprit and revealed a dark, winged form that rose from the crypt with a flash of fangs.
"Ahh!" the woman cried in horror as it lunged at her with a snarl and grasped her arms with surprising strength. The woman screamed again as she tried desperately to pry the creature away from her. Its talons took hold of her wrist that still held the flashlight and it hissed as it snatched it from her hand, turning the intense beam of LED light into her own face and blinding her. The guard backed away in fear, tripping over the corner of a bench and landing on the floor. By the time she had gotten back to her feet and regained her sight, she and the slumbering mummy were alone again in the dark, quiet chamber.
Bonnie scampered frantically through the main hall of the museum, searching for a sign of her new acquaintance and hoping the guards hadn't already put her in jail as they had threatened.
"Hey! There they are!" a guard shouted, shining a flashlight on her from the gallery above, and two more guards came running, only to freeze in their path when they caught sight of Bonnie scurrying up a pillar with the ease of a monkey and leaping onto the outstretched tail of the giant fossil of a Tyrannosaurus Rex.
"What the hell is that?!" cried one of the guards while the other tried to follow the dark shape of the surprisingly fast hatchling with the beam of light from his flashlight. Bonnie laughed at the frantic guards below her and leapt for the gallery on the other side of the hall. She just made it, catching the railing with one claw, where she dangled for a moment before righting herself and climbing over the white marble rail to the carpet on the other side. She then peeked through the space between the balusters and gleefully observed the guards' confused and fearful response. They were arguing now, about what to do. Bonnie noted that grownups often bickered whenever they were afraid. It didn't seem to matter if they were gargoyles or human. She was having such fun, she was started by a light touch on her shoulder, just above her wing.
She swung around and smiled when she was met with Fiorella's concerned face.
"Hi, Friend!" she greeted, "They're looking for us!"
Fiorella nodded anxiously and pulled on Bonnie's claw, pointing to a gallery at the end of the hallway. Quickly, Bonnie got to her feet and followed her lead, to a dark room filled with illuminated cabinets. Bonnie gasped in delight as she caught sight of case after case of bright gemstones.
"The treasure room! This has to be it!" she declared, racing around the display. Fiorella smiled in relief and did the same, searching for a necklace with a bright green emerald like the one they'd seen in the advertisement at the bus stop. It didn't take them long to find it either, as the museum curators had it prominently displayed.
"There it is! There it is!" Bonnie cried jubilantly, "The emerald necklace!"
Fiorella raced to her side and smiled excitedly, turning to give Bonnie an expectant look. But Bonnie's face fell and she studied the display and the chamber around it, as if searching for something important.
"Now what?" she thought out loud. She realized that Sister hadn't been entirely specific about what they were meant to do with the necklace once they found it. She had only said that it was where they would find what they were looking for.
"Do you suppose I'm supposed to put it on?" Bonnie asked softly and Fiorella's eyes widened apprehensively. Bonnie scanned the words that ran along the bottom of the display case. She wished she could read more than just a few of them.
"Maybe I should just take it and bring it to Sister?" she continued, "She was the one the Siren talked to. Maybe she has to do something with it to make it work?"
Fiorella gave her a quizzical look and Bonnie shrugged her shoulders.
"I dunno," she admitted, "Like say a spell or something? But we'd better hurry! Those grownups are looking for us! Look out!"
She raised her small claw high over her head and slammed it down dramatically on the protective plastic, which answered her back with a strange trill, like the rattle of a high pitched cymbal.
"Oh no!" Bonnie groaned, "It's Adama-Shield!"
Bonnie was well acquainted with the high-end, trademarked design product that could be ordered exclusively from Xanatos Enterprises. Adama-Shield was used primarily in the construction of jet plane windshields and parts of space shuttles, but it could also be custom ordered by civilians to protect priceless artifacts from thieves or Mrs. Xanatos' extensive collection of historical and exclusive Barbie dolls from the sticky talons of curious gargoyle hatchlings. Bonnie knew from experience that she could bang on that sheet of crystal clear steel until hell froze over and she wouldn't get any closer to claiming the emerald necklace inside.
Bonnie slapped her tail on the marble floor in defeat, but Fiorella shared an undeterred and mischievous smile as she pulled a small, Hello Kitty pencil box from her pocket, and popped it open to reveal an impressive array of lock picking tools.
Bonnie watched her new friend in amazement as she expertly located the small lock on the underside of the display and within a minute had completely destroyed the elaborate locking system and opened up a small compartment underneath the display window.
Bonnie crouched underneath and peered in the darkness, trying to figure out how to access the display above. Her tail, which remained poking out through the opening, twitched earnestly as she squirmed around the dark space and meddled with buttons and gears, trying to figure out the mechanism which opened the display.
"I can't…" she whined,"I don't know how to open it!"
She squirmed a little further while Fiorella kept a lookout.
"I- can't get out!" Bonnie complained, "I think I'm stuck on something!"
As Fiorella looked on, unsure of how to help, she suddenly heard the sound of someone rushing into the room. Fiorella rose quickly to face them, and gave Bonnie's tail a swift kick, indicating that she should hide herself inside the compartment. A broad-shouldered guard entered the gallery, scanning the room of jewels before his eyes fell on Fiorella and he gave a grunt that sounded a little like relief.
"Come on, Baby," he cooed, "We've got to get you out of here!"
Fiorella scowled and shook her head, backing away.
"It's alright!" the guard assured her, raising his open hands as if to ask for a truce, "You aren't in trouble anymore. I just need to get you to safety."
Fiorella backed up until she found herself trapped in a corner and the guard, realizing that he wasn't going to get any timely cooperation from the girl, lunged for her and quickly got her into a hold. Enraged, Fiorella began to squirm and kick violently and even tried to land a firm bite on her captor's arm.
"Come on, baby girl!" the guard growled impatiently as they struggled, "Do you wanna get eaten by a monster?"
At that moment, Bonnie managed to free herself from the mechanism inside the compartment where she was hidden and wiggle her way through the opening to the inside of the display case where she snarled at the guard from behind the Adama-Shield window and slammed her claws against it menacingly.
"Let her go!" she howled, her eyes blazing.
The guard shouted in terror and pulled his weapon, firing it on the small Gargoyle in the display case, but the Adama-Shield did its work and the bullet ricocheted, striking the man in the leg. Disoriented and in pain, the guard dragged his combative captive, affording her no dignity as he lifted her to his shoulder like an awkward sack of potatoes, and lumbered frantically toward the great hall.
"Hey!" Bonnie shouted after him angrily, but the man was not inclined to answer.
Fiorella didn't stop fighting the security guard until he ahd hauled her down a back stairwell and into a strange office with bright, unnatural light. A heavy, metal door, labelled with a sign that read "tornado shelter" slammed behind them.
"You found her!" one of the other guards said with relief as he put her on the table.
"I couldn't find the other one," the guard replied, "Maybe they got away?"
Fiorella glanced over at a desk where three more grownups were assembled around a computer. There were two more guards and another wearing a uniform that suggested some sort of custodian. On the desk, behind the computer, there were two large monitors, one of which was divided into rectangles, each showing a different area of the museum. The other monitor kept switching from one camera view to another, keeping a close up image of Bonnie as she raced her way from the gallery of gems and through the rest of the museum, calling out for Fiorella.
"My God, what is it?" one guard exclaimed as another was arguing with someone on the phone.
"It's a monster, I tell you!" the desperate man screamed into the receiver, "The museum has some kind of monster in it! Get someone here quickly!"
The female guard was at his side, practically pulling his arm down so she could shout into the receiver as well.
"It came from the mummy's tomb!" she squealed in a hysterical, shrill voice, "I saw it with my own eyes!"
"Are you getting this footage, man?" a guard asked the one at the computer.
"Oh yeah," he assured him as he watched in amazement.
The man at the phone slammed it down, cursing in frustration.
"The cops said they're coming," he announced, "But I know they think we're bullshitting them! Bet they'll believe me when it bites their balls off!" The man caught sight of the young girl sitting on the counter and looked a bit embarrassed at his less-than-professional language.
"Don't worry, sweetheart," he cooed in as confident a voice as he could muster, "We're safe here. Nothing bad will happen to you."
"It's a gargoyle! It has to be!" another guard declared triumphantly, "I knew they were real! Everyone said I was crazy! The government's been hiding them for years now!"
"Well, you'll have proof now! We got it all saved to the cloud!"
"It broke into the display case in the gem gallery!" the guard who had apprehended Fiorella told them, "My shot ricocheted off the safety glass, but that little monster broke right through!"
"Oh God!" wailed the custodian, "I ain't paid enough to deal with monsters! If it can tear up that fancy NASA plexiglass, think of what it could do to us!"
"Well, we're about to find out!" yelled the man at the computer, "It's coming this way!"
Fiorella stood on the counter, craning her neck to see over the hunched backs of the adults who had all encircled the monitor. Sure enough, Bonnie had tracked them to the staff-only stairwell and had entered the corridor outside the security office.
"What's it doing?!"
"It knows we're here!"
"It's gonna kill us all!"
"Quick!" one of the guards yelled, racing to the door. They all scrambled to move furniture and build a barricade in front of the door.
"Listen!" someone hissed and they all stood anxiously silent. Fiorella listened too, though she was the only one who kept her eyes on the monitor. Now that the grownups had gathered around the door she could climb down from the counter and gain clear access to the computer. She saw Bonnie approach the door and lay her large, pointed ear against it, listening for the humans inside who were likewise listening for her. Fiorella almost giggled out loud as she watched them all, frozen comically in defensive silence at the single small child on the other side of the door. Then with a shriek from one of the guards, there was a powerful banging on the door that made them all jump.
Bonnie roared as frightfully as a hatchling could and the guards whimpered. Fiorella smiled gleefully. Then the door began to clamor and shake violently and the guards all clung to the makeshift barricade, pressing their shoulders against it to hold it in place against the great terror facing them from the other side. As the adults were all panicked and distracted, Fiorella watched Bonnie's reaction from the security camera program, left open and unattended on the desktop.
Another, more frustrated growl came from behind the door and the shaking stopped. The guards froze, unsure of what to expect. For minute after anxious minute, they waited, wondering what was to come. Then, another loud bang sounded from the exit at the end of the hallway.
"What was that!?" someone cried.
"It sounds like it's breaking the wall down!"
Several more bangs followed and then a huge crash that made them all shudder again.
"It's coming back!" someone cried in dismay.
"Shh!"
Fiorella tilted her head in confusion. There was something approaching, but it was far too noisy to be the one small hatchling. Doors in the corridor opened and slammed as the noise drew closer, like a stampede of many heavy feet.
"Oh my God! There's more of them!" a guard exclaimed in a fearful whisper, and they all braced themselves for another attack on the door. Indeed the door was shaken violently and a loud banging rang out, followed by a deep voice.
"Open this door! Police!"
The guards looked at one another questioningly, as if they considered the perfect imitation of human voices among possible gargoyle powers.
"Open up! This is the Chicago Police Department!" the voice shouted again and the guards hurried to clear the barricade and open the door. On the other side stood a very annoyed looking police officer who glanced around the chaotic room with an expression that clearly indicated that he did indeed believe he was being 'bullshitted'. Behind him stood a second officer, who was affectionately squeezing the hand of a bright-eyed little girl with red braids and a blue dress that sported a prominent, star-shaped sticker that read 'Junior Officer of the CPD'.
"There she is!" Bonnie exclaimed happily at the site of Fiorella by the computer, "There's my friend!" But her happy face quickly distorted into a somehow even more adorable scowl and she pointed to the unfortunate guard with the bullet grazing on his leg.
"That guy took her!" she accused, "And he shot his gun!"
"What is going on here?" the red-faced officer demanded, struggling to keep a professional tone, but he was quickly overwhelmed by the hysterical cries of all the security staff, who all wanted to tell him about the monster. The officer glanced at his partner who rolled his eyes.
"One at a time!" the officer bellowed and they all fell silent until he chose the female guard to speak first.
"We were investigating two kids who were roaming the museum after hours," she explained breathlessly, "We caught this one in the ancient Egypt display, but the other escaped down to the sub level. I went down to apprehend the other kid and a honest-to-God, freaking demon popped out of a mummy's sarcophagus and attacked me!"
The officer stared at the hysterical woman as if she had just spontaneously burst into flame. He swallowed, trying to maintain his composure.
"A demon?" he asked incredulously, "What do you mean a 'demon'?"
"A demon!" the woman insisted, "With wings and claws and freaking fangs! Some kind of ancient-curse revenge monster came out of the mummy's tomb and tried to kill me!"
At this claim, the other guards began to shout each other down and chaos resumed.
"Everyone quiet!" the officer demanded in a booming and agitated voice, and although the mob didn't fall silent this time, they reduced their noise to a collective whimper.
"You are asking me to believe that a real life monster is running loose in the museum?" the officer asked incredulously.
"We've got proof!" one of the guards insisted, "We got it on video!"
The rest agreed and urged the officers to watch the footage on the monitor. Bonnie looked a bit anxious at this unexpected development but Fiorella raised her eyebrows and sent her a confident smile as the security guards guided the skeptical officers to the corner where the monitors were set up. Several suspenseful moments passed as one guard tried to bring up some of the footage. Slowly the man's face went from triumphant to incredulous.
"It's gone!" he exclaimed, "What happened to the security footage?"
Outrage and chaos ensued as everyone began to shout each other down again.
"I swear!" the female guard cried hysterically again, "You have to believe me! The monster jumped out of the tomb and knocked me to the ground! It almost tore my face off!"
Bonnie looked up at her disapprovingly.
"Mummies aren't monsters," she informed her matter-of-factly, "That's from movies. Real mummies are just dead people. Everything is dead in this museum."
"Listen to the kid," the second officer told them.
"It was real!" the woman howled and her colleagues protested as well.
"It was!"
"We all saw it!"
"It attacked me too!" the guard with the bullet wound insisted, "Look what it did to my leg!"
"You shouldn't shoot guns!" Bonnie scolded him and the man looked like he was on the verge of a nervous breakdown.
The officer groaned, running a large, gloved hand over his face and began to lecture the mob angrily about wasting police time and resources. A massive argument began between the traumatized museum employees and the police and the two children were overlooked as they quietly dismissed themselves from the office.
"Come on, let's get out of here!" Bonnie insisted once they were in the corridor, "We saw the necklace and it didn't help at all! I want to find my brother!"
It was an easy jog from the security office to the exit into the parking garage and the two girls made their way outside to the dark, cold night, and across the vast museum lawn.
"Thanks for saving us," Bonnie said, pulling out her doll, and making her speak to her new friend when they were finally sheltered under the bridge that allowed the footpath to cross under the highway, "You were very smart and brave!"
Fiorella looked down and didn't respond. Perhaps she didn't know how to respond. Her mother praised her occasionally for being cute or looking nice in a certain outfit. Her grandmother smiled proudly when she finished her plate or helped her with chores. But no one had ever told her she was smart or brave before. Not even Vernita.
"Now what do we do?" Bonnie complained to herself, holding her stuffed gargoyle doll tight for comfort, but Fiorella pulled on her arm, leading her back toward the marina.
When the two girls arrived near the place where the gangsters' pickup truck had been left, they were met with a confusing scene of pandemonium. Sister, Orion, and Lyra had arrived at the truck to find it empty, except for Nico, trapped in the safe. Desperately, they had searched the marina for the lost children, until Marco and Vernita had caught up with them, just as they were searching a large vessel that was dry-docked on the edge of the pier. Now the large boat tipped precariously back and forth in its cradle as an all out battle took place on its deck.
"Stop!" Lyra cried desperately from her perch on the bow as both parties laid into one another, each demanding that their hostage be returned immediately. No one paid her any heed though as Sister and Vernita were too at each other's throats to be calmed. Orion, still hoping for peace, was taking it easy on the two boys, but was clearly losing his patience as Marco unfastened the boom of the sale and ragefully swung it at his head.
"What's going on?" Bonnie demanded of Lyra as she and Fiorella climbed the ladder from the pier to the deck, "Why are they fighting?"
But before Lyra could answer, Orion shoved the loose boom back toward Marco like a tetherball and it swung straight toward them. The two hatchlings had the instinct to duck just in time before it struck them, but the unfortunate human child found herself hanging from it desperately as it swung out again and suspended her over the ice waves of Lake Michigan.
"Fiori!" Marco screamed at the sight of his sister in peril and the others immediately dropped their feud and raced to help. Sister got there the quickest and gripped the boom, trying to pull it back around as gently as possible.
"Hold on, Oochi!" she cried to the child, whose grip was quickly slipping. Realizing what was about to happen, Orion glided from the deck of the boat in the hope to catch her, but she slipped past his grip and landed in the water.
"Fiori!" screamed the helpless human children in chorus as they watched the little girl disappear between the waves. Lyra had to grab Bonnie to prevent her from following her friend into the water and Sister, forgetting basically everything she had been taught about cold water rescues, immediately dove into the spot where the little girl had fallen.
"No!" Orion cried, realizing her folly, and to his sisters, he yelled, "Get a rescue float!" Lyra quickly dropped Bonnie and they searched the deck until they found a long float, painted bright red, which they tossed to Orion. He glided as close to the erratic surface of the water as he could, praying that Sister hadn't been dragged down by the weight of the girl. Miraculously, he found them still above the surface, struggling in the frigid water and he dropped the float to Sister, who clung to it, along with Fiorella, who already looked lifeless in her arms.
"Hold on!" Orion directed unnecessarily and as soon as his feet were on the deck, he pulled them both onto the pier.
Sister sputtered, coughed, and gasped as she lay on the deck. Lyra wrapped a tarp she had found covering some deck furniture around her trembling shoulders. The rest of them circled around Fiorella, who was quite blue in color and didn't appear to be breathing.
"Save her! Please save my sister!" Marco wailed.
"Call 911!" Orion demanded.
"But…" Nico hesitated, realizing that calling 911 meant the police would come, "Maybe we should call…"
"Call 911!" they all screamed at him in unison, as Orion checked Fiorella's throat and pushed air in through her mouth, listening at her chest as it came out.
"She drowned!" Vernita sobbed as she waited on hold for the emergency services dispatcher to answer, "She gonna die!"
"Listen, she's not drowned," Orion told her sternly as he rearranged the child so he could start chest compressions, "She's in shock. That water was too cold for her and the shock of it stopped her heart."
Devastated, the children watched in silence as Orion performed CPR.
Finally, Vernita said in a cold voice, "They're coming. I'll go meet them at the gate."
"Fiori…" Marco whispered through his tears.
"Come on, Oochi!" Nico urged, "You can make it! You're a Draconi!"
Orion stopped the compressions and pushed two more breaths into her mouth, listening again.
"She's breathing!" he announced in relief, "Quick! Find something to wrap her up in!" The children scrambled to search and Orion lifted the girl and held her under his wings, until Nico returned from the nearby truck with an emergency blanket. Orion wrapped Fiorella up and handed her off to Marco.
"I can hear the ambulance siren," he told him, "They're almost here."
"Thanks, man," Marco replied genuinely, "You better get out of here before the cops get here."
"Yeah," Orion agreed, realizing that was the last thing he needed.
"Hey!" Marco said as Orion moved to rise to his feet, "We owe you one."
Orion rolled his eyes.
"Forget it. I won't be cashing in on a mafia favor any time soon."
"That's not how it works," Marco told him, "We don't forget."
Orion shook his head and turned to look for his sisters.
"Ori?" Lyra called softly, "Sister won't wake up!"