Gargoyle

Part 1

Dear Readers,

Each Weekly Dose of Fiction comes from somewhere. Gargoyle came in a dream. I must have been having a rough week, because two nights in a row, I woke up after being chased by a grotesque creature. Well, I needed a scary story to contribute to Summer Scare over at

A.C. Cargill, All-Human Author

, so those nightmares helped me out. Hope you enjoy this scary tale.

Gargoyle, Part 1

London had seen murders before, but not like these.

The first victim was so unrecognizable that the coroner relied on teeth to say he’d once been a man. The second had no head, no hands. Even the senior detectives admitted they awoke drenched in sweat, hearts racing from dreams of shadows with claws. The mayor imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew, and for once, nobody complained.

Lily Weymouth, part-time witch and full-time journalist, was not one to obey curfews. A junior reporter at the Evening Standard, she was convinced this story had the practice of witchcraft at its core. The kind that had to come from the distant past. And writing a compelling article with her unique slant was going to be her chance for the promotion she wanted. Her notebook was filling fast with gruesome details and whispers from constables. Attractive and wily, she managed to get a look at crime scene photos even though the horror of them made her stomach turn.

It was unimaginable that any human could do what she saw, and the more she became engrossed in this case, the more she wanted to understand who or what was perpetrating these crimes against innocent people. And why.

Besides her expertise in the occult, she had another advantage her colleagues didn’t have. She had a minor in Medieval Studies from Pembroke College. And when the third murder happened—a banker eviscerated, his organs strung like grim ornaments from the trees in his garden—the memory of something she’d read while researching witchcraft in the 1500s began nattering at her. She vaguely recalled a yellowed book of folklore and a name. Mistress Merkle, Witch.

I need a few days. I want to do some research.” Lily stood at her editor’s door, her fingers crossed behind her back.

“For what?” He didn’t look up.

Bad sign.

“I have an idea about the recent murders, but I have to check before I write anything up.”

“So you want per diem, I expect.” Now, he did look at her over the top of his glasses.

“That would be lovely, yes.”

He held up two fingers. “Two days. No more.”

“Thank you!” And she was gone, already imagining her trip north on the M11 and her favorite college haunt.

There was an upside and a downside to what she was doing. If she could find the source she thought she remembered, it could provide a key to these murders, but if she couldn’t make her findings believable without disclosing her secret life as a witch, she’d become a laughing stock. She swallowed. “I could lose my job.”

Pembroke’s magnificent library was even bigger than Lily remembered, and she only had two days to locate that reference and get back to London.

The first day flew by with nothing to show for it. She pored over books until her eyes ached, but she couldn’t find what she needed. By the end of day two, she was ready to admit defeat when she pulled out a slim volume with yellowed pages. The first read:

1525 The Trial of Adrien Rochefort

“Oh, my…oh…Yes!” Lilly hunched over the book, deciphering the obscure script. Accused of killing Wisewoman Merkle’s sister in a drunken accident…protestations of innocence ignored… townspeople jeered as the witch cursed him.

Here Lily whispered the words. “Stone thou shalt be until time wears the edges of my grief. Then thou shalt walk again, but never free of my vengeance, forever vengeful yourself. Henceforth, you shall be…” Lilly inhaled and held her breath. “… a gargoyle.”

Pixabay

Lily’s fingers trembled as she closed the book. Her city was old, its churches lined with grimacing guardians spewing rainwater from their mouths. If the curse had freed him and kept alive the vengeful nature the witch had promised, Adrien Rochefort might be stalking London now, stone turned to flesh, revenge urging him to kill.

Her theory sounded insane, even to herself. But the murders fit—rage without reason, bodies left as shredded warnings. But most significant…her witch antenna was quivering.

Next Wednesday…Part 2, The End.

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Amazon

The real world is often much scarier than the imagined one, where imagined demons lurk in the shadows. In Double Negative, Hutchinson McQueen has a lot of real demons to face and overcome. One reviewer writes: “To be honest, it did take some time for me to become fully invested in this story, but once I did, I adored it. It delves into some pretty heavy stuff, especially if you’re more used to the lighter, romantic contemporary style, but it’s deep and intense without getting too dark, and the story itself was just incredible to see unfold. That ending though… frankly, I could just reread it again and again, because the journey these characters go through and the way things come out at the finish… in some ways, it hurts, but it’s still absolutely wonderful.”

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