Globe Tracers 1: The Case of Thomas Crain

Chapter 29: Gargoyle!

Kyle:

I expected to be taken to a different place, but actually, I was taken to the same run-down house as we just rescued Thomas from earlier. Thankfully I wasn't taken down to the basement though.

Thomas was in the living room of the home this time, tied once again to a wooden chair, this time still conscious. The gargoyle dropped me in a chair next to him and pulled my hands behind my back and secured me to the chair. I looked to Thomas on my right. "So... how are you?" I asked with an ironic smile.

"Good, all things considered," he said, scanning his bonds.

The gargoyle walked around me and Thomas and sat on a chair opposite us. "What now?" I asked.

The gargoyle clenched his fists; turning to me he started pulling out his sword, me squirming in my bonds. He stopped, and let the blade slide back into its sheath. "Truth is I don't know." said the gargoyle. He looked at Thomas, "Joshua-"

"My name is Thomas-" he began to shout back but the gargoyle cut him off shoving a piece of paper in his face.

"You are him," the creature said, the image shaking as he held it. The paper was another picture. This one was the same as the one before, but this one done with paints instead of colored pencils. I started looking around the room. My eyes settled on a desk behind the gargoyle placed up against a far wall with several pictures posted above it. There were several papers I should say, but all the same picture. All were an image of a woman and a boy, all in the same pose. The odd thing was, there was indeed something different about each one. Each one was made using a different art style. One drawn in black and white, another one a coal drawing, one made with crayons, one just an outline, a few were cut out very carefully and on and on. It was like looking at a gallery of examples of more forms of art than I even knew existed, but all done with the intent of making the exact same image.

I nodded at the desk. "I'm sorry, I have to know, what is all this?" The gargoyle stood up and turned around looking at the desk.

Beside me, Thomas shook his head. "How old are you again?" he asked.

"One hundred why?"

"Don't you get it?" he asked "The green eyes, the brown hair, white skin... all the same traits as this guy. I don't know what this guy is specifically, but those are pictures of his son... and I'm guessing his wife."

The gargoyle turned back around, "You could learn from this child, open your eyes a little... what is your name?" he asked me.

"Kyle."

"Kyle, yes. You could learn from Joshua." Thomas grumbled something about not being named Joshua again. "As to you Joshua," he looked at Thomas.

Thomas gritted his teeth and I quickly said out of the side of my mouth, "I think it would be best if you just got used to that name for now."

The gargoyle glanced at me but turned back to Thomas. "Yes, Joshua. I am your father. You have no doubt forgotten your true heritage with time. I choose to see our meeting as providence. I once believed that every person is eventually reborn and when I saw you, my beliefs were affirmed as you are the spitting image of my child that died centuries ago. Thus it seems that there should be little doubt that you are in fact the reincarnation of my son, Joshie. Which means you were once a member of a proud and powerful race feared throughout the galaxy. You were once, a gargoyle."

"So you're a gargoyle?" he asked. The gargoyle nodded. "So... are you going to bite me so I become one again? That's how it works right?"

The man shook his head. "That would be convenient. Gargoyles are like Pharaohs. We're mutants that were changed a long time ago. We were created five hundred years ago almost. Since then we were born different. You don't become one of us, you either are or are not one of us. Thus... this will not be the reunion I could have hoped for. For you see, as a gargoyle, I regenerate and heal at an incredible rate that basically means I'm immortal, unless I'm killed outright of course. In time I will have to watch you die again... I suppose then I'll just look for you again in time."