The House of the Rising Guards

Katrina Howard was a twenty-one-year-old graduate of the local college. She had long blonde hair and blue-eyes and she could be seen almost every morning jogging through the park in town before she reported for work at the Daily Gazette. Katrina hoped to be an investigative reporter some day. She never got scared or surprised but now she was in awe as she watched the late Friday News. A series of robberies had been reported in the last month and investigators had not found any clues that would help them identify the criminal. As she watched, in her mind she was running over ways to protect her house from the robbers. The police report stated that there was only one tie between the robberies. At each crime scene the culprit or culprits left behind a bunch of stone debris. The police report also stated that most of the robberies had occurred near and in her neighborhood. Katrina thought of putting extra bars on the doors and windows but the police said there were no signs of forced entry or destruction. She concluded that additional fortification of this type would not help. She had run dry of all ideas and was worried that the robber's next strike would be her own little home in Venice.

About forty years ago, there was a family known as the Rigatoni family. In this family, there were nine children, five boys and four girls. All of the siblings got along with each other and had a good time except for one, Fernandez. Fernandez was in the middle when it came to age. He had four older brothers and four younger sisters. His older brothers used to tease him because he was the youngest boy. His younger sisters used to tease him because he would always be playing with his chemistry set and sitting on the roof talking to himself. Fernandez always thought of himself as braver than any of the other children. He was the only one who would step foot on their roof because all the other siblings were afraid of the gargoyles that sat up there.

Fernandez parents were very wealthy. His mother was a doctor and his father was a lawyer. His parents always provided the best for their children and helped them through troubles all the time.

Fernandez being the smartest of the siblings had his very own chemistry set with all the chemicals one could imagine. Fernandez loved to make concoctions, using different chemicals and different amounts. One day, while sitting on the roof of his house, Fernandez decided he was going to make bubble soap. He gathered his necessary chemicals and proceeded to mix different chemicals together. When Fernandez was done, he poured the soap into a bottle and admired his soapy creation. He dipped a bubble wand into the bottle and blew the biggest bubble he had ever seen. Fernandez was happy about his success but he felt it was missing something. He pondered what it could be missing for a few minutes and then he thought, "color!" Fernandez proceeded to add a red chemical. Fernandez thought this chemical was only used to add color to things. As he added the chemical his soap started to foam up. Fernandez looked in amazement at the bubbling soap. He dipped the bubble wand into the newly colored brew and blew the biggest and reddest bubble he had ever seen! Fernandez was very excited now, not only had he made bubble soap but he had also made red bubbles! As Fernandez blew his next bubble he thought it might be fun to pop the bubbles on the stone gargoyles that lined the roof. As the bubbles hit the stony creatures, they moved. Fernandez did not notice this until one of the gargoyles lifted up his hand and waved hello. Fernandez's face turned the whitest white anyone could imagine. Fernandez screamed at the top of his lungs for help. No one heard him scream because everyone was down at the park playing together. Fernandez cautiously crept towards the gargoyle hoping it would not attack him. The gargoyle turned towards Fernandez and said, "Hello." Fernandez stopped in his tracks and answered a weak little hello back. The gargoyle then told Fernandez he should not be afraid. Fernandez was a little relived, although he was still skittish about talking to what was once an inanimate object. Fernandez decided that he would try to make this gargoyle his friend, so they had a pleasant conversation right there on the roof for the rest of the day.

Forty years later, in the same house the Rigatoni family used to live, the once young Fernandez sat and planned for his next attack. Fernandez had once been prim and proper. He now had long ragged brown hair and pale gray eyes. Fernandez had kept his secret of his living gargoyles because no one would ever believe him if he told them and because his army of gargoyles did his bidding. All he had to do was to blow his magic red bubbles and awake them. Every week he would send his gargoyles out to rob some unsuspecting citizen's home. He would have the stony gargoyles go in through the chimney of a house and take prized possessions and valuable riches. He would then have them take the stolen goods to his rundown house and leave them in an underground storage vault. The Gargoyles would then go back to their posts on the rickety old roof and resume their duty of scaring away evil spirits as they had done for hundreds of years.

Fernandez, once wealthy, was now forced to a life of crime with the death of his parents. In his parent's will they had left all of their money to his older brothers and his younger sisters. This was because Fernandez had once been able to make a healthy living working in a laboratory across town. When Fernandez's parents died, he asked for a few days off from work so he could attend the funeral and wake. The owner of the laboratory told Fernandez that he was lazy and over paid. He told Fernandez he could take as long as he wanted off from work because he was now fired. From that point on, Fernandez used his gargoyles to harvest money for him to live on.

Katrina, being a very ambitious person, decided she would get her neighbors and start a neighborhood watch. She tried and tried to get them involved but they either didn't have time or just plainly didn't care. She finally gave up on her neighbors and tried to come up with another plan on her own.

A few days had past and Katrina still had not come up with a plan. She had no clue what to do or how to protect her home until she saw on another newscast that someone in Alabama had captured a thief all by herself. "What a great idea," exclaimed Katrina. She was going to track down the criminal and put him under citizen arrest.

Meanwhile, back at the old rundown house, Fernandez had decided on his new target. He was going to rob the Chief of Police, Victor Hathaway, only this time he was going to play a little game with the police force. He was going to give the police force a time limit to capture him and he was going to tell them the time and date of the robbery. The only detail he was not going to reveal was where the robbery would take place. He decided the robbery would take place at eight o' clock on next Saturday night. With all this planned out, he made the call. Disguising his voice, Fernandez called the Police station and asked for Victor. He told Victor the time and date of the robbery and told him that he was an anonymous caller.

Victor was a wreck when he hung up the phone. "A robbery is going to take place and I have no clue where it is going to happen," he thought. He ran this over and over in his head. He called in his best men and gave them the 411 on what was going on. The men made suggestions like voice recognition and tracing the call but those ideas came too late and they couldn't be done after the anonymous caller hung up. Then Victor had a brilliant idea. He had the time and date, all he had to do was get every man on the force to set up extensive patrols around the city. His men agreed that this was the best plan. They had a week to plan out their complete stakeout of the city and its surrounding neighborhoods. They lost no time getting started.

Katrina had just reached down to turn off the television when a special news bulletin interrupted the programming. The newscaster announced that police had a new clue to the string of robberies, which had become known as "The Rubble Trail." The newscaster said an anonymous caller had tipped off police. He had told the chief that there was to be another robbery on Saturday night at eight.

Katrina had an idea. She was going to patrol the city herself and look for unusual happenings. She immediately called her friend Rachel and told her the plan. Rachel thought Katrina was crazy. Rachel warned her that her plan was very dangerous and that it probably would not work. She thought that if an entire police force could not catch the culprit, they definitely couldn't. Katrina pointed out that the thief would be expecting a police force but the thief would not suspect two girls. Rachel replied by saying, "Even if he was not suspecting us, he might have a weapon that he would surely use." Katrina then said, "Well we will just have to bring our own weapons like pepper spray, now won't we." Rachel shook her head in disbelief and told Katrina that she did not want her to go and that she would not take part in such a crazy plan. Rachel asked Katrina not to go because she was worried about her and she did not want her to get hurt. Katrina told Rachel that she wasn't going to give up and that she would be very careful. They hung up the phone and Katrina went to get ready. She was going to call Rachel again though and try to talk her into helping her.

Rachel was twenty years old and a very hard thinker. She had long red hair and dark brown eyes. Rachel was still thinking about Katrina's idea when the phone rang once more. She picked it up. The caller was Katrina again. Katrina started to beg to Rachel to help her. Katrina reminded Rachel of all the times they have helped each other out. Katrina reminded Rachel of the time they had found the missing school bus abandoned in the woods because of some joker's pranks. Katrina told Rachel about how they discovered the lunch lady's plans to cut back on the amount of cheese in the cheese sticks. Rachel listened to Katrina's attempts to convince her and Katrina was succeeding. Rachel then told Katrina that she would help her on one condition. She wanted a promise that they would not stay out for more than two hours.

Fernandez just sat there in his living room admiring himself in the mirror and complementing himself on his creative plan. "I will be the most notorious, anonymous criminal on the face of the earth," he chuckled. It was Thursday night, and he had two more days to go until his plan unfolded. He had to get his fleet of gargoyles ready soon and give them their orders. It took him a while to give all the gargoyles their individual instructions because each had to plan its flight path out exactly.

Meanwhile, back at the Police station, Victor was getting his stakeout ready for the big night when he would catch his thief. He needed to brief everyone on the force and get each of them geared up with all the necessary equipment. They would need flashlights, radios, mini cameras, body armor, utility belts, thermal imaging systems, and of course, night vision goggles. He had to give everyone their locations and their partners. He also had to make sure that everyone knew the importance of this high profile mission. Victor made it very clear to everyone on the force that this may be his or her best and last chance to catch the thief.

Meanwhile, Katrina had completed her own preparations. She was ready to go. She had her flashlight, a water bottle, a net and of course, pepper spray. It was Friday night now and she was excited about finding the criminal. She just couldn't wait until the next day. She was glad she finally talked Rachel into helping her find the criminal. She was a little relieved. She figured two heads were better than one. Her plan was that she would take the West side of town and Rachel would take the East side. When either of them saw anything suspicious they would call the other on her cell phone and tell the other to come to their location.

Fernandez was also ready; he got out his magical bubbles and blew the bubbles at the gargoyles. The gargoyles sprung to life and they were off. They flew over townhouses and over the river to the chief's house. They snuck down his chimney and proceeded to take everything in sight.

Chief Victor was at his post and his heart was racing; he was excited and nervous at the same time. He was afraid that he would not find and capture the culprit, but he was also confident that his plan should succeed.

Katrina was patrolling the west part of the city when she ran into an officer of the local police force. The officer questioned her about what she was doing outside in the dark. Katrina told the officer that she was just taking her nightly stroll and was now heading home. The officer told her to be careful. He reminded her that this was the night that "The Rubble Trail" robber had promised to strike again. Katrina thanked the officer for his concern and continued her secret patrol of the city for the elusive culprit.

Rachel was in the eastern most part of the city when she heard a sound come from a nearby roof. She decided that she would check out the sound and see if it was important to the investigation. She climbed the fire escape onto the roof and saw something she had only seen once in her life, a gargoyle. She had seen a few on the roof of an old house across town, but never had she seen one alive! She immediately called Katrina and told her to get over to the east corner quickly. She decided that she would wait and see what happened next. She waited and when the gargoyles came out of the house again they flew off towards the west. She phoned Katrina and told her to go to the west side again. She followed the gargoyles directly to the old house! Originally, she had thought there might be a connection but she wasn't too sure. Now she was positive. She immediately picked up her phone.

Fernandez stood there on the roof of his house watching as his gargoyles came in from their evening run. He had a smile on his face until he saw a girl with a cell phone standing on the road looking up at his house. Now he was fuming, for he thought he might have lost the game. He knew the girl had seen his gargoyles rob that house. He had been too cocky, and he led an ordinary citizen right to his home. It looked like it was over for him; he would be taken away to jail and then tried for robbery. All he had to do now was wait for the police to show up. Then he had a thought. "If I got away with robbery before, there is no reason that I can't get away with it this time," he exclaimed. He immediately got out his bubbles and woke one of his largest gargoyles again. He told it to take him away from this country. Immediately the gargoyle picked him up and flew off carrying him on his back just behind his mighty wings.

Chief Victor was waiting patiently at his post when the call came in. "The caller was a young lady who thought she had spotted the criminal," exclaimed the dispatcher on the radio. Victor was ecstatic and he took half of his men with him to the scene. When he got there, he saw something he would have never expected, a gargoyle with a man on his back flying off into the distance. When he met with the young lady, he asked her what was going on. She replied, "That's him. That is the thief, the one on the gargoyle. He just flew off." Chief Victor immediately called all his men together and told them to head north. He was going to catch the thief if it was the last thing he did.

Katrina also watched the gargoyle fly away. She was shocked. As she watched she wondered how this could be. But then she remembered. That fellow blew red bubbles on the gargoyle to make it fly. He left the bubbles on the roof! There was only one problem; the door was locked to Fernandez's house. She searched around the house to find an open window or door; she could find nothing. Then suddenly she had a thought! "What if he left a spare key under the mat just like she did?" She hurried to the door to find the mat. When she lifted the mat - behold, the key! She unlocked the door and raced up into the house and up to the roof. She picked up the bottle of bubbles and blew them on a gargoyle. It sprang to life. She didn't know what to do next, so she commanded it to fly. It sprang off the roof and looked like it was trying to catch a bubble. She yelled because she was afraid the gargoyle would crash and break. She commanded it to come back and pick her up. The gargoyle obeyed and picked her up. Now she told it to follow the other gargoyle. The gargoyle took flight and flew after Fernandez and the other gargoyle.

Katrina never caught up with Fernandez. To this day their souls live on, chasing each other around the world. Fernandez's house has become known as the House of the Rising Guard because of the gargoyle's history of guarding the house and because of the story about them rising to life. Victor is also still chasing Fernandez and his gargoyle. He can be encountered on any Saturday night with his siren blaring. If you ever hear a siren, but never see a police car, you will know its Victor chasing Fernandez for the rest of eternity.

The End