The Gargoyle Epilogue

The Gargoyle
Epilogue
By Eric Anthony and A. Sylvur

For eight months, James watched as his son grew within his wife. And just two weeks ago, he watched the delivery of his son. He marveled at the miracle when Jason Michael Nightsgale took his first breath then immediately screamed the house down.

Thankfully, the Goth twins stayed and guarded Cináed’s gargoyle form for Daphne’s peace of mind. However, they said not long after the birth of their leader, they would have to leave.

Daphne avoided the room the gargoyle was in, though her human husband visited it often. To torment Kenneth, she imagined and shivered that James would taunt such a creature. It angered her that he did it out of spite. She still felt Cináed’s eyes following her every move as though the restraints were not really holding him back. It’s as though he could move his spirit outside the stone sarcophagus. There were times she could sense him in the bedroom when she was making love to James. Of course James tried to reassure her that he couldn’t hurt them anymore, but she wasn’t so sure about that. In fact, she felt a death sentence would be delivered soon. Several times, she attempted to reason with James about how she felt, but he brushed it off, confident everything was going to be all right.

As she dressed for dinner, she pushed aside the doom that loomed in her mind since the gargoyle had been brought to their home.

Happy thoughts, she tried to focus on. Yes. Her parents and best friends had flown to England to celebrate Jason’s two weeks of life milestone. She did smile at the thought of her husband’s need to celebrate every day of Jason’s little life. James was such a proud father. His eyes misted with tears every time he held his son. The what if’s were ever present in their life. However, in order to preserve her son’s future sanity and her own, she compromised. By lengthening the celebrations to every two weeks for the first year of his little life, and then once a year there after, it made all concerned parties grudgingly content.

With the diamond necklace in her hands, she prepared to put it on, but froze in the act. Something was in the room with her. She could feel it. The presence was tangible. Her heart skipped a beat and her mind screamed that it couldn’t be.

“Hello, Wife.” The deep voice whispered near her ear.

The necklace slipped from her fingers and clattered noisily onto the marble floor. She couldn’t speak, couldn’t move.

“Do you know what the penalty is for a wife who betrays her husband?” He lifted her chin to bring her eyes to view him in the vanity mirror.

She felt her heart stop. Yet, a small whimper escaped her lips when his hands gripped her upper arms.

“Of course, you could have been an innocent victim. Forced to sleep with my enemy? Did Jamison tell you that by destroying our marriage license that you and I were no longer married?”

Shakily, she nodded, but barely.

“He lied. Now, you are going to write a goodbye letter to James and your son.”

Daphne opened the vanity drawer and pulled out a notepad. Tears silently trickled down her cheeks. As she positioned the pen on the paper, he told her exactly what to write.

A few moments later, she heard her son’s cry of hunger. Letter forgotten, she automatically set the pen down to heed her son’s call, but Cináed stopped her, pressed her tightly against him, then covered her mouth with his hand. He pulled her outside onto the balcony overlooking the ocean.

“It’s beautiful isn’t it?”

She shook so badly, she didn’t know if she nodded. But her heart felt like would stop any minute.

“All that beauty will be your new home, my darling wife. And the unfinished letter will be enough to torment Jamison for the rest of his years. He should have listened to me.”

Daphne wanted desperately to protest, but as her mind screamed for James and her son she felt a pain in her chest as she sank into darkness.

Sometime later, James rushed to his son’s room and lovingly picked up the little guy. “Suss, Jason. Enough of that. We’ll go find your mum.” He patted his son’s back, “I promise everything will be fine, my boy.” As he passed the library, something, he realized was missing. He stepped into the room and knew instantly what or rather, who it was. Cináed was gone. In a panic, he reached for his cell phone and called the first twin he could reach. “Where’s Kenneth?”

“He’s gone. Our deal is complete and we are all going home.”

A cold ache settled in James’s heart. He demanded, “Where’s my wife?”

“I’m sorry, James, but she was part of the deal. He promised to leave you and your son alone if he could have his wife back.”

“She’s my wife! And I never agreed to that deal!”

His son started wailing.

“The future of many nations depends on your son. Cináed wasn’t going to give her up. He couldn’t. Just know that you and your son are safe.” When James fell to his knees with his crying son in his arms, the twin added, “He will not hurt Daphne and she’ll live longer.”

“Whose side are you on?! I want my wife!” The connection ended.

James growled as loud as he could and until his face turned different shades of red.
Concerned, his In-Laws ran into the room asking questions. Seeing her son-in-law on his knees, Abigail pulled her grandson to safety as her husband helped their emotional son-in-law, James to his feet.

Numb from his head to his toes, James spoke hoarsely, “Call the police. Daphne . . . Daphne’s gone. They took her.”

Thirteen years later . . .

Jason held his grandfather’s hand as his father’s casket was being lowered into the earth. He could still remember the doctor’s words, “I’m sorry, Jason. But your father died of a broken heart.”

He tried not to cry, but was unsuccessful. Yet, he was thankful that no one would know how unstable his father had become towards the end. There were whispers of gargoyles that could read minds, even shape shift, and had superhuman strength. Whoever his father’s enemies were, they did a number on him. How long they stood there in the rain, Jason wasn’t sure, but he did notice the tug on his hand and he looked up.

“Come, Jason. I’ll take you home with us.”

“No, Grandfather. Thank you, but I want to return to Brinkley Hall. It’s the only place I can be close to my parents.”

Not about to argue, his grandfather nodded. “All right. Your grandmother and I will stay with you there until you are old enough to be on your own. When will you return to school?”

“My father set up private instruction at home because of his health.”

“Will you want to return to boarding school?”

Jason shrugged. “I want to travel.”

His grandfather sighed. “It was your father’s wish that you learn all you can.”

“More importantly,” Jason whispered to himself, “he wanted me to learn about war.”

On the way home, his entire being craved only one thing at that moment. Revenge. And never again would a Nightsgale ever be a victim to an enemy. A lust for blood began to develop in the young lord’s mind.

Back home, in Brinkley Hall, Jason sat down at his father’s desk and began to write in his father’s journal which he claimed and wrote:

My father, Lord James Ethan Nightsgale was buried today. This will be the last entry. It was my father’s wish that I learn all I can about war. I admit I am fascinated by it, to the point of feeling my father’s obsession. For him and my mother, wherever she may be, I will master the art of war and never lose a battle.

My love to both my parents, that they find each other once again and right the injustice on their short lived love.