The Gargoyle

Kristen marched back to her apartment in her high heels. She thought about taking off her shoes and throwing them, but she did not want to walk away barefoot.

She had been crying the whole way home. Her mascara was a mess, but she didn’t care. She thought Nick had brought her to dinner, to propose to her. Instead, she was met with a slap in the face.

He dumped her, telling her that he no longer felt the same about her.

Kristen tried to plead with him, telling him that they could give their relationship another chance, but he refused. Nick massaged his temple, and confessed that he had found someone else.

Kristen threw her wine on his white suit, and stormed off in a huff. She was too angry to notice the stares people were giving her.

She knew that she should have called a cab, since they were in heart of New York City, but she needed to let out her tears without being judged. So, she stupidly decided to walk all the way back home at night, while letting out her tears.

Kristen blew her nose, and let the paper fall out of her hands. Several tissues were already on the ground. She would probably leave a trail behind like Hansel and Gretel did to find their way back home.

She rubbed at her eyes and could now see her apartment in the distance. Kristen couldn’t wait to run a hot bath and let out the rest of her tears. Then she was going to call her girlfriends and bitch about what happened.

She needed someone to tell her that Nick wasn’t worth it, or that he was a total asshole. However, that would be kind of hard for Kristen to feel fully satisfied. He wasn’t a bad guy; he was just an airhead.

Unfortunately, she was going to miss that airhead. Nick treated her right, was a kind gentleman, and he always told the truth, no matter what.

At least he had the balls to tell her he met someone else, but she wished he had done it at one of their places. Instead, he chose to do it over a nice, candlelit dinner.

So yeah, he could be an airhead sometimes.

Kristen dumped another tissue, this time attempting to throw it in a nearby trash can in the park, but it barely missed the can. Kristen threw her hands in the air.

“So much for trying to not litter anymore…”

“Excuse me?”

Kristen gasped, and looked over her shoulder to find a young man behind her. He was wearing all black, his hands in the air.

“What the fuck?”

“I’m sorry for scaring you. I was wondering if you could tell me where Highland Park is at. My sister told me she lives there. I’m here to visit her for the weekend.”

“Oh, I uh, it’s that building over there.”

Kristen pointed at the tall, gray building peeking through the trees in the park.

“Oh, thank you!”

The man took a bow. Kristen let out a laugh. Perhaps this man wasn’t a danger like she was thinking. She still kept her hand by her purse, in case she had to pull out the pepper spray.

“I uh…miss, if you don’t mind me asking, are you alright?”

Kristen cursed herself for not making an effort to clean herself up.

“I’m fine. Today has been a…long day.”

The man gave her a warm smile.

“Well, I just wanted to let you know that you made my day helping me with looking for my sister. I’m terrible with a GPS.”

Kristen couldn’t help but smile back. With that said, the man took another bow, before heading off toward the apartment building. Kristen stood there for a while, watching him go.

After waiting for a while, she began to follow. Out of courtesy, she did not want to follow right behind him. She just didn’t want to be rude.

Kristen reached her building, and headed straight for the stairs. She didn’t want to take the elevator. The last thing she needed was someone else finding her looking like a mess. Luckily, she lived on the second floor.

Kristen quickly walked up her stairs, and took out her key to open her door to apartment number 202. She walked inside, locking the door behind her. She let out a sigh of relief, happy to be home.

Kristen lived in a middle-class apartment building, that was quite cozy. She didn’t mind this type of life; it made things a lot easier for her.

She heard her phone go off. She pulled it out of her purse, and noticed she had received text messages from her friends. She threw her phone on top of the love seat.

She wasn’t in the mood to tell her friends that she went to that restaurant to get dumped, not to have a life-changing moment.

“I better take a shower. God, I just wanna rest…”

A knock was heard at her door. Kristen turned around, her heart beating.

Was it Nick? Could he have come back to get her back? Kristen rushed over to the door, opening it. Kristen jumped, placing a hand over her chest. It was the same man from the park.

“Hi. Uh…I couldn’t find my sister. I think I’m at the wrong apartment -’’

Kristen slammed the door in his face, but the man was faster. He placed a hand through the opening, shoving the door against Kristen. She stumbled away from the door, as the man let himself in.

He closed the door behind him, and then locked it.

“That wasn’t nice, miss. I was just going to ask for directions.”

“Bullshit. You fucking followed me. I never told you what floor I lived on.”

The man cocked his head.

“You were so nice to me before. Now you’re being a bitch.”

Kristen took several steps back, her eyes moving to the phone on her love seat. The man noticed her gaze, and took a step closer.

“Don’t. I know what you’re thinking. You move, and I will kill you. Do you understand me?”

Kristen wrapped her arms around herself.

“No matter what I do, you are going to kill me anyway. I know what you look like. You wouldn’t want to risk me turning you in.”

The man blinked.

He wasn’t expecting Kristen to sound so calm. What was strange was that she wasn’t even crying. Unless she was in total shock. Perhaps this one would be easier than the others.

“Like I said, I’m not going to hurt you. I just want to talk.”

Kristen scoffed.

“Talk? About what? About how you want to take me into the bedroom and fuck my brains out? Go fuck yourself.”

The man ran toward Kristen, grabbing her wrist.

“Don’t you talk to me like that, you fucking bitch,” he whispered in her ear.

The man raised his other hand in the air about to strike her, but Kristen was faster. She grabbed his hand. The man didn’t expect to feel his knuckles pop beneath her grasp. She had unbelievable strength.

The man tried to pull away. He opened his mouth to yell at her, but Kristen shoved two fingers into his mouth. Before he could process what was happening, he felt flesh get torn out of his mouth.

Blood spewed down his lips as the man collapsed on the floor. Kristen stood there, holding the man’s tongue between her two fingers. She cocked her head to the side.

“Sorry. I can’t have you screaming. It wouldn’t be fair to the other neighbors.”

Kristen brought the tongue to her lips, and slurped it up like a noodle. She casually walked over to the man who was struggling to crawl away, tears spilling from his eyes.

Kristen loudly chewed on his tongue, blood dripping down her lips. She smiled with bloodstained teeth. She closed her eyes, and opened them. If the man still had a tongue, he would have screamed.

Her eyes were a pure white. Kristen cracked her neck slowly from side to side, and then her skin started to shift. She moaned softly, releasing a low guttural growl. She fell onto her knees.

The back of her red dress ripped open, exposing her back. Black wings that resembled a dragon’s shot out of her back. They were covered in bits of skin and blood. Kristen raised her head, revealing a mouth of sharp teeth.

Her face was now ugly and terrifying, reminding the man of a monster he once saw in a horror movie. Kristen’s hair fell down in clumps. Then she raised her arms, exposing black scaley arms ripping through her skin.

It was opening up like a baby chick attempting to break through its egg.

What was once a woman ripped off the rest of the skin, removing her torso along with her dress. The thing stood over him. It was a demon with wings, something that didn’t belong to this world.

The man raised both hands in the air, trying to ask for mercy, but it charged at him. It tore into the man, killing him. The creature fed for a long time, until it was full.

Once it was done, it left the mess, and walked straight into the bathroom. It was in there for a while, and even took a shower. A now human Kristen left the bathroom, a towel wrapped around her body.

She studied what was left, and let out a groan.

“Great. Now I got a mess to clean up. Oh man, I hope I didn’t make that much noise…god, what an asshole.”

Thank you for reading!

Emy Quinn