Page 8 of Hated By the Gargoyle

“You are creating a headache.”

Her human eyes rolled and she bent, picking up stones from the ground. When she stood, she threw them at me. Each one bounced off my chest and back to the ground. The light taps did not hurt, but they annoyed me deeply.

No one had ever dared to be as bold as she. Everyone cowered in fear when I flew onto a battlefield because I was nightmare incarnate, molded into the form of the Lord of Torture himself, born from the screaming, agonized cries of The Pit. I was fire and stone and retribution.

Another rock bounced off the center of my head.

“Stop that!”

“There’s more where that came from, buddy. Now, tell me what the fuck is going on or I’ll–” She threw another stone. A bigger stone. This one landed between my legs.

I flinched, talons digging into the earth.

“Cease your violence, feral creature.”

“Answer me!”

I growled, turning away from her and tugging at my horns, scraping my palm against the broken one as was my habit. Doing so only reminded me of days I would forget, but surely the past that always hovered just out of reach was better than this. Irritation flared as wide as my wingspan, and the anger became an all-consuming force. Reality lingered above us, reminding me of the way I had failed to steal the right wife.

If my brothers were here, surely they would laugh.

“I did not want you,” I growled, low and quiet. “You ruined everything. All my plans, you ruined them all.” I turned back, and she flinched away from me and the glare I gifted her with.

“Well…did you think that I wanted this? I don’t want you, either!” She scoffed, shaking her head back and forth. “Besides, I don’t even know what you’re talking about!”

“Are you unintelligent?” I questioned.

“What?!”

“You repeat the same words. ‘I do not understand.’ What is so difficult to grasp? That bringing you was a mistake, or that I did not want you?”

Sounds sputtered from her lips. She seemed clearly taken aback by my words, and just as I thought she would finally be silenced, she spoke again, “Listen here, dipshit, your storytelling skills leave much to be desired. I want to know where we are, why you were stalking me, and why you brought me here. Can you do that coherently, or are your muscles sooo big that blood doesn’t flow to your tiny brain?”

My wings fluttered. Now it was I who did not understand, but I was sure she had just insulted me. Perhaps she called me a simpleton.

My tail swished with an unnamed emotion.

“We are in the Underworld.”

“The what?!” She staggered backwards, and for a moment I was sure she would faint.

“I was not stalking you, feral creature. As I said before, I did not want you. I wanted Carlota.”

Her light brown skin changed a shade, her color reddening. It rose over her cheeks and spread down her neck over her chest. I did not understand the purpose of the color. Was it rage, the same reason fire glowed in my own chest?

“Yeah.” Her voice grew clipped, angrier somehow. “I’ve heard that one before.”

“I would have had her, were it not for your meddlesome ways.”

“Alright, pipe down. You sound like a Scooby-Doo villain.”

“I do not understand what that means.” My wings snapped closed with irritation. I did not like that she seemed comfortable enough in my presence to throw insults my way. She should have cowered in fear. Instead, she was arguing. “Regardless, you need not worry about your location for much longer. I will take you back to your world, as soon as my magic to open portals replenishes."

She gave pause at my words. “You’re serious?” she asked after a moment. “You’ll take me back?”

“Yes.”

“Really?”