The Gargoyles

By Zoe Wexler, age 10

At 2:00 AM on New Moon Night, the gargoyles come out. Stone wings flutter and shrieking fills the air. The gargoyles are quite clever really – on New Moon Night it’s pitch black, so no-one can see them. I’m human though and I’ve seen them. It’s because my dad is a gargoyle. Don’t ask me how stone can have a child with a human, because I don’t know. All I know is that it happened and I have grey wings, and the skin on my legs is stone. When I was little, the gargoyles let me ride them. I would shriek like the rest of my cousins and flutter my wings madly as I dive-bombed the ground. Now I’m older and even my dad, with his immense strength, cannot lift me. But I’m happy, or at least I used to be.

Light is coming. It happened slowly, through the years, but now, even on New Moon Night, humans can see us. Us gargoyles live in fear. Some don’t even turn up for New Moon Night, in case they get caught. It’s too hot as well and gargoyles aren’t used to the heat. My cousins think that 20 degrees is boiling. I’m slightly better, because I’m half human, but yesterday it was 30 degrees and I stayed in my room all day with the air-conditioning on. The gargoyles need to be careful. If it’s too hot, they might crack.

This is why me and my cousins are making a plan. Gargoyles usually only wake up on New Moon Night, but for almost a month I’ve been waking my cousins up every night for our daily meeting. It’s sad, because the elders talk about days when you could see the stars at night. Now the humans have even managed to make those disappear. How can you block out the stars? 

They’re all stupid, humans. Well, every one but my mum. 

Anyway, we’ve figured that there’s something wrong with the clouds and the sun, so every night we launch ourselves into the sky in the hope that we can investigate. We never get high enough though. Even when we climbed onto the roof of the Sainsbury’s near our house, we only got about 10 metres into the air. For the first time in my life, I hate my wings. Why can’t I be a bird, that swoop and soar easily? 

I’ve always been home-schooled. Course, if I did go to school, everyone in the class would freak out at my wings. My mum is seeing the bags under my eyes and is getting suspicious. Why does she have to notice so much? After I have to make up a story about fish and midnight snacks, I’ve had enough. I decide to run away.

Of course, I feel guilty doing it. Everyone will think I’ve been captured by humans and there will be mass panic at least. But, come on, I’m 14. I can look after myself and if my mum is soobservant, she should expect this to happen. So, on Saturday 13th August, I prep myself. I eat so much breakfast and lunch I feel sick at dinnertime. I pack my biggest flask, 3 lunchboxes packed full of food and a sleeping bag in my rucksack, as well as £20 in human cash. Then I go to get my cousins. We waste valuable time dive-bombing the River Adur for fish (yes, it’s as ridiculous as it sounds). Finally, when they’re satisfied we start our travels. Where are we travelling to? Oh yeah, the North Pole.       

See, I’ve already told you that it’s getting hotter. Since the sun and the cloud plan didn’t work, we’ve gone to our last resources. We won’t get cold anyway, even if we dance naked on the ice. What’s the problem?

A week later, though, we’re starting to backtrack. As we wake up on the 20th, on some church roof, we suddenly notice everything’s in Swedish. 

“I can’t read Swedish.” I panic. “Can anyone else?”

My cousins all shake their heads. And now for the rest of the journey, we’ll have to rely on instinct alone. Great.

“OK, well the sun rises in the east and the sun is over there, so north is that way.” I stare critically at the road I’ve pointed to. 

“Let’s go then,” one of my cousins says and we set off.

I don’t notice, however, that we’ve slept in. It’s 2:00 PM and the sun is facing west, not east…

                                                                                   *

Although we are supposedly heading north into unfamiliar land, the land seems to be getting more familiar.

 

“Haven’t we seen that fjord before? Maybe humans just make them the same,” I say, with a hint of doubt in my voice.

However, this happens more and more until we get uncertain. 

 

“I’ll go and check things out.” I say hesitantly. “I can tuck my wings in.”

 

Finally, I notice something. “The signs are all in English. I heard a man talk about football teams. He said Scotland has to beat Argentina. We’re not heading north. We’re in Scotland!” I report, wide-eyed.

“What?!” all my cousins shout. “But how?”

“I don’t know, but we’ll have to keep going. Too late to backtrack now.”

We’re going backwards, into Wales and then back to Brighton. We arrive at our road with guilty expressions on our faces. The gargoyles are stone on their pedestals, as usual, but as soon as they see us they unfreeze and rush towards us. My mum comes rushing out of our house and pulls me into a tight hug. My dad does the same.

“Where have you been?!” my mum shouts after she lets go. “We were so worried.” Then she bursts into tears and leaves me feeling very sheepish and a bit awkward. I clear my throat.

“We went to the Arctic.” I announce. “We wanted to fix the heat problem.”

“Well,” one of my cousins interrupts, “We didn’t exactly get to the Arctic.”

I glare at him. “I was getting to that! Um, we took a wrong turn and came back here, but we want permission to go back again.”

Alisha, one of my cousins, smacks her forehead and many others groan, but I look hopefully at the gargoyles. I was not expecting laughter. My dad comes and puts his wing around me. 

“Darling, you can’t fix climate change.”

“Climate change? What…”

“It’s a problem that the humans have made. They have messed with the earth and now it is messing with them as their punishment. The problem is, it’s a punishment for us too.”

“But, that’s unfair. We haven’t done anything.”

“I know, but we can’t fix it. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but we need humans. They need to change. Otherwise the earth will stay angry. I’m sorry.”

Everyone starts to go back to their pedestals. My mum leads me inside. I am thinking so hard I think my brain is going to explode. 

                                                                                     *

I am still thinking now, 6 hours later, lying in my bed. Somehow, we took a wrong turn. Maybe my navigation just isn’t good enough. It wouldn’t have helped anyway, even if I had got to the Arctic. I’m powerless and I hate being powerless. I like making change, probably because I am change. I’m the first hybrid - gargoyle and human - that’s ever existed. 

But it’s all up to the humans now. And I hope that they have enough power to make the change.

Otherwise the earth will stay angry.

Otherwise the gargoyles will be wiped out.

And it would’ve never been our fault.