I spent the whole night eating the thorns off the vines on the front of the church so they were like a ladder for the boy should he return.
I was so relieved when the boy continued to visit, but his injuries became worse and worse and mostly he would sob against me.
Then nine seasons ago…he stopped coming. I knew his injuries were halting him.
Then my mother was gone, so many cracks, she simply stopped waking up.
I…want to die.
It was then a strike of lightning hit the church.
I immediately wished it had hit me, until I feel something walking on me. It walks up my back and looks into my eyes. I recognize this, it’s a fox?
Five foxes? They begin to lick me happily and I have no idea what I’ve done to deserve something so nice until a hand lands on mine. It is so much larger, healthier, but the heat is so familiar.
It is my boy, he’s changed, but despite his cute pig nose, freckles and hair how could I forget those sad eyes, even if they are green now.
I feel my heartbeat too hard, I am worried I’ll crack open! There is another person here who has also taken the visage of a pig and is haughty and proud, but with a cheeky mischeviousness to him, lightning crackles about his cape causing it to bounce dramatically despite the wind being so still. A rain is brewing.
My boy leans his cheek on mine and I feel so hot and scared and happy and loved. Please, don’t ever let this dream end.
“I can hear your heart, I could hear it back then, I loved you then, too. As I do now. You were as trapped as I was, I’d like to ask your permission to change you, would you like that?” He spoke as he nuzzled her cheek.
My heart quickened, tears poured from my eyes as never before, I screamed as I thrashed against my own body. Then my heart stopped.
It stopped because he kissed me.
“Shhh, shh, I’m finally here now, I’m free to do as I wish now, I won’t ever leave you again.” He said as he wrapped my pinky with his. “Let’s just watch the sunset together, then we’ll talk.”
It was so beautiful, so warm and there was the loudest silence of my quiet life. Not like the usual, painfully empty kind, this one was loaded with love. An approving like that from a parent was felt from the man whose crackling lightning clad cloak slowly quieted down. It adding to the loving silence, trauma shared and life saved as I was prepared for death, these few moments I would relive forever as my heaven. Foxes played cutely about my body on the corners of this beautiful church I love so much.
The sun had fully gone down burning orange on the purple horizon. The air cool in contrast to the warmth of the boy cuddling me and the foxes walking on me cutely.
It is a perfect moment shattered by my most hated foe.
“DEMONS! YOU DEFILE SCARED GROUND!” The deacon screams, I WANT TO TEAR HIM APART, BUT I NEED MORE TIME TO DE-PETRIFY!
Will I again be a cruel joke to the God who made me as I watch someone I love die?
Then something remarkable happens, the approving one becomes covered in lightning again and begins to approach the Deacon slowly.
The boy rubs my cheek with his and despite my fears and terror I purr at the sensation as he calmly states to his companion.
“Thank you Volen, but don’t kill him, Mother’s new church needs priests. He will serve what he hates most, fully aware and locked behind a stone body he has no control over.”
Time passes but the silence is now filled with screams, it just makes it more perfect to me.
Finally the sky has gone fully dark and I stand up holding the smallest fox who I am trying to calm because of all the screams, as I turn the deacon is ready for me, he’s pinned to the church bell by electrified bayonets in his shoulders and legs and the classy looking monster named Volen gives it a few rings with his fist, which I see brings a satisfying and agonizing pain to the Deacon.
A soft hand runs along my shoulder and my eyes meet his beautiful green ones.
“Right here, three years ago, my father broke two of my ribs with a mace when I saved these Foxes despite the fact we were hunting for them. I don’t know how, but you scared him away and your heartbeat comforted me. I visited you and them constantly after that until my body was…too abused to leave my home anymore.” Tears begin to fall from his eyes and the Foxes climb onto his shoulders to lick them off as they nuzzle his face to calm him. I am suddenly angry with the foxes, my mother called this jealousy, so many centuries of stagnation only for so many firsts tonight.
He then makes a move toward my mother, do I kill him? I want him? What do I do?!? He retrieves the sack I have hidden in the gutter, the pieces of my mother’s body, how did he even know they were there?!
The foxes begin to growl at me sensing my hostility towards him, this time he comforts the foxes with head pats. “You are angry that someone is disturbing your mother, trying to harm her. That’s good, we have that in common. You see I have a Mother whom I love above all others, even you, my first love.” He flashes a smile at me and I panic hiding myself with my wings.
L-L-LOVE!? That’s when the humans put parts in each other! We Gargoyles just lay an egg that another fertilizes, how can he love me? And my heart is making such loud beats. I am so scared, I feel it, this many scary things all at once is causing my face to change, I’m getting a pig nose, this is so embarrassing and I don’t want him to hold that bag any more, but I don't want him to leave. I've never been so scared before, I never had anything to lose before, Mom is all I have le-
*POOMF*
H-H-HE’S LYING ON MY BACK AGAIN LIKE WHEN HE WAS LITTLE, WHERE IS- Mom’s bag is sitting on the ground in front of me! I grab it quickly and clutch it to my chest. He-He’s licking my ear!!!!! “Shh, listen, I love you so much, I want to help you. And her” He runs his hand over my side and I prickle to the texture of sand, why does this feel so good!?
“I need your permission, but I’ve watched you all this time, at night I would always sneak out to watch you. I saw the night the deacon destroyed your mother. it got me a beating so bad it was likely I was going to die, but still I wanted to help so I started reading. There are books on gargoyles that I’ve read. I love you and I need you Lament, will you help me?” His voice is no longer cool and calm.
He speaks more desperately, as if he is afraid of me now. Isn’t being with him what I always wanted? What do I want? What does he want, I’ll start there I guess.
“W-what do you want me to do?” I speak while still hiding my face, I don’t want him to know I’m so afraid of him that it has altered my face forever.
“I have a team of masons ready” He says as he unfurls a picnic blanket after climbing down off my back. Volen hands him a picnic basket and it has beautiful sandwiches in it which he begins feeding pieces of to the foxes. He makes no attempt to see my face as he happily feeds them. “Give me your mother’s body and they will put her back together and I will attempt to bring her back to life, all of the gargoyles back to life. There is a price though, you’ll work for me no matter how much I love you. As you always have you’ll look after the city, but your body will be changed, you’ll be able to move during the day and night, you’ll still need sleep, but it can be at any time. Your se-” I GRAB HIM WITH ALL MY POWER.
Tears of blood flow from my absent eyes and get all over his beautiful white suit. A mighty wind begins to pick up and the foxes huddle into the eaves having stolen the majority of the sandwiches. “Please..please I don’t want the things I love to be broken anymore.” I place the crumbled remains in his hands and he looks straight into my face before pecking his little warm nose against my new one.
“Oh, there is the beautiful Lament I fell in love with, no eyes and still she cries.” I don’t understand what he’s saying to me anymore, I just keep crying as he stands me up and sits me on a ledge and spreads my wings before putting all the foxes on my lap and a sandwich in my mouth.
