Gargoyle: A Reawakening (Briarcliff Series, #2) (5 page)

“
Hey, what happened to the
big ass statue?”

You mean the one that came
alive…
“What statue?”

“
I could have sworn…”
Moriah broke off in mid-sentence, turning towards the door as a van
pulled up in the circular drive. “The creepers are here,” she said
glancing back over her shoulder. “Evie you don’t look so
good.”

Of course, she didn’t look so good. How
could she? “I guess I’m just hungry,” she dumped out another lie,
her stomach twisting once more.

Moriah bent over to grab
the bag of food off the floor, and handed it out to her. “I gotta
go talk to them but you’re not getting off the hook…I want all the
gory deets when we get back to your place, after the party. Got
it?”

“
Sure,” she said, taking
the bag from her outstretched hand. Even though the last thing she
wanted to do right now was eat.

“
I’ll be
back
,
” Moriah, announced doing her
famed Schwarzenegger imitation from “The Terminator” before she
turned and headed out the door.

Evie tried to laugh but
nothing came out except a weak “
he
ehh
.” Rubbing her hands on her arms, she
looked over at the big empty spot beside the stairs where the
statue had been the night before. Another testament her attack
actually happened. “Which meant what?” Did the statue come alive?
And if it did, where did it go? Not that she was complaining. She
was immeasurably happy whatever it was, decided to go on its merry
way and leave her ass alone. But what about
him
? The guy she had kissed, the one
that made her feel different….in a good way? What was he fighting
outside? And more importantly…where did he go? And how did she get
back inside? Did she somehow imagine him?

“
No way.”
She shook her head. Oh, she knew she had a damn good imagination
but still there was no way she could have imagined him. He must
have left and just didn’t bother to tell her. He could have at
least said, “Thanks for helping me out” or… “Hey what’s your
number? I’ll call you the next time I come back to earth.”
Obviously, he
was
an alien. He was far too perfect to be a human. She laughed
then. Right like that’s why he didn’t say good-bye. She was really
reaching now—she was pitiful. She scrubbed her hands over her face
in aggravation and then flinched. She hit one of the several sore
spots scattered across her face.

Climbing up off the floor,
she walked towards the door. Stuffing the bag under one arm, she
tried to fix her hair. Her hand stuck. She jerked her hand back
out. The chipped paint on doorframe was sticking to her hoodie. She
flicked a few pieces off watching a line of people unload one by
one from the side of the van in the driveway. Searching each face,
she hoped she would see
him
. All the boys were all pretty
cute but not one of them was the guy she met the night
before.

Stepping outside, she reached up and pushed
her hair behind her ears, suddenly realizing she was standing in
the exact spot she had been last night when she stepped in the
ooze. At least she thought she was—but the stairs were clean. This
posed another impossible question… “What in the hell happened to
the grossness that was over the stairs?” Okay fine. She could maybe
believe she fell asleep and the guy…she shook her head. “I can’t
believe I didn’t ask his name—Duh!” She smacked herself in the
forehead and instantly cried out in pain making everyone in the
driveway turn towards her.

“
I’m
good,” she told them and was relieved when they turned back around.
“
Think…think…think…
” The throbbing in her head that had been a dull ache earlier
was growing more intense. Pressing her fingers to her forehead, she
closed her eyes for a moment. There were too many questions and not
enough answers.

When she reopened eyes, she was staring down
at the stairs. They really weren’t clean at all, but had a light
film covering them like ash. Tucking her hair behind her ear, she
leaned forward and without thinking stuck the tip of her finger
into the substance…, and instantly freaked.

“
Eww
Gross! Gross! Gross!
” she yelled,
frantically dragging her finger back over the clean part of the
concrete, not believing she could be so stupid…
twice
. She stumbled back to standing
and to her utter humiliation, realized her crazed outburst had
gathered an audience. Her face burned red with embarrassment.
Everyone was looking up at her with a mixture of expressions on
their faces. Curious, amused, and horrified. Horrified belonged to
Moriah. Amused to Kingston and curious belonged to the group of
cute guys.
Perfect.

“
Big ass bugs around this
place,” she said swatting faux bugs with her hands like an idiot.
It only took two fake bugs swats before her audiences curiosity
waned and they turned their undivided attention back to Moriah. It
might have had something to do with the fact that she looked like a
winner to a wet t-shirt contest.

Evie glanced down at her
own shirt. It was all stretched out. The little creatures that were
parading across it earlier were now falling down her left boob like
they were jumping off a small hill into oblivion.
“
Why me
?”

REMNANTS

SATURDAY * 2:15
PM

The stonework on this side of the house was
a grayish color. Huge arches were over the windows with statues
hanging over the sides of the balconies on higher levels that
looked like they were crawling towards her. They weren’t like the
ones on the mortared columns or even the ones flanking the sides of
the front door. No, these won the butt-ass ugly prize. Long tongues
hung from their mouths, like they were frozen in time right before
they got to devour their latest meal. She shivered. She was glad
they were only statues.

Evie kicked a weed
sprouting out from the walkway in frustration. She had been looking
for some sign to indicate what happened last night was real and not
some warped twisted figment of her imagination. “No way,” she said.
There was no way she could have imagined
him
. But as she looked at the
ground, searching for all the rocks she had seen lying around him,
she started second-guessing herself, because there were none.
Instead, she found little piles of ash, like someone had a pyro
problem and had started little mini bon-fires.

The sun ducked under a
cloud, cloaking her in even more darkness. This side of the house
wasn’t overly bright anyway since the house itself cast huge
shadows across the expansive lawn. A gravel area was on her left,
outside a pair of double glass-paned doors and then it dropped
lower to a terrace with a stone balustrade that looked out over
lush lawns, hidden pathways inside hedgerows that were at least
seven feet tall.

The sound of rushing water
drew her down the stairs cut directly into the landscape—she felt
like she was being pulled toward the tree line. Of course, she
wasn’t really sure why she wanted to go in that direction. Since
when did she give a shit about running water? Heck, she had lived
next to the ocean her entire life and had only went there a handful
of times. Investigating wasn’t her thing either—it was Moriah’s.
Moriah was the adventurer, always wanting to peek into the
unknown.

Evie on the other hand
never wanted to investigate. It was probably because she watched
too many horror movies and the ones that went off alone always got
taken out first.

The wind got louder. It
sounded like it was screaming. She froze, dead in her tracks, not
knowing for sure if it was the wind making that sound or something
altogether different. And she wasn’t too sure she even wanted to
find out. Yet she couldn’t
not
keep going. “When did I get a set?” she muttered
walking onward. She shook her head. “Better question to self, who’s
set did I steal?” She gave up trying to figure out why she was
doing what she was doing and just kept walking.

Over to her right there
was an opening in the hedgerow. A trail of crushed gravel
disappeared between. Her skin prickled making Goosebumps rise on
her arms. She had a strange feeling that something was about to
happen. She wasn’t sure if it was going to be good or
bad.

Evie jerked her head back up and turned,
listening.

“
Evie…”

There it was again. Someone was definitely
calling her from up at the house. Apparently, there was a time
limit on her borrowed set, because in that instant they evaporated
into thin air. She didn’t waste a second more. She turned away from
the hedgerow and bolted back the way she came as quickly as her
Chuck’s would carry her. “I’m coming,” she yelled, running even
faster.

PAYBACK

SATURDAY * 3:45 PM

A smattering of people walked back and
forth, getting stuff ready for the party. Evie hung under the
canopy of a big oak tree, lifting her face to the sky. The bright
golden rays of the late afternoon sun darted down through the
branches warming her chilled skin. The air was fresh, crisp, and
full of the distinct scents of fall. Attempting to rehydrate before
the party she unscrewed the lid off her Smart-water and took a long
pull. The bottle made a crinkling sound as she screwed the lid back
on. This is what she had been doing most of the day, standing under
a tree, trying to rationalize what part of last night was real, and
what part was not.

Not to mention what effect
the loaded cherries laced with some drug Barnaby had
probably/definitely dumped in her drink along with her food
deprivation, she was sure they all played a large role in what
she
thought
happened and what
really
happened the evening before. There really was no
other reasonable explanation for any of it, especially the statue
coming to life. Now that was probably a hallucination. However, she
was having a hard time explaining away her bumps and bruises from
said fight with the unknown imaginary beast. Still, she guessed,
grasping for straws, on some
out there
level
it could have just been some weird
head split “Fight Club” movie thing brought on by whatever drug
Barnaby had slipped into her drink.

Now, in the light of day
she could rationalize just about everything that happened or
didn’t, with the exception of
his
presence and of course her crazy
connection/attraction to him. She kicked a stone back and forth
with the toe of her shoe. Where did he go…back to the mother ship?
She laughed, feeling stupid. She sounded like Hanna and
Aaron.

“
Hey you!”

Evie whipped her head in the direction of
the guy’s voice, her pulse thumping erratically. It abruptly
skidded to a halt. “Me.” She pointed a finger at her chest. A
ripped jean, t-shirt clad, crazy-buff guy held a huge piece of
black stage in his arms. She remembered seeing him earlier after
her stair debacle.

He shook his head, and shifted the piece of
stage again. “Can you move? I don’t want to hit you.”

“
Sure,”
she said, jumping out of the way, so he could walk past. Once she
was out of his way, she couldn’t help but notice another guy
standing off to the side of the stage, holding the tool at the
ready, giving her a strange look. Self-consciously she looked down
at the front of her outfit.
Perfect.
It was filthy. It looked
like she had rolled around in the dirt. She couldn’t even begin to
imagine what her hair and face looked like and at the moment, she
really didn’t want to know. Backing up further she tried to move
out of his line of vision and bumped into someone.
“
Oooh
sorry,” she
muttered embarrassed.