Zeke and Ugo strapped Eldora to the hospital bed.

The room was identical to Naomi’s room (before all the chaos). It was of the same size with a nightstand, large larder, a hand carved stone flower pot that only held dirt and a bronze chandelier hanging from the ceiling.

The boys watched Eldora squirm and laugh with delight as the tattooed straps kept her arms pinned to her sides. The image made Zeke imagine what the first couple of weeks his grandmother must’ve had to endure to adapt to the controlling environment of the psych ward.

His mother looked mentally insane at that moment. Cachinnation is a prime symptom for schizophrenia, but this had nothing to do with a mental anomaly, this was done by the will of a creature who supposedly is endowed with powers to protect humankind.

Ugo gripped Zeke by the shoulder. “Mano, we gotta go. We need to start thinking.”

Zeke didn’t respond. He fixated on Eldora’s arms. The growth of the stone was observable as it crept its way up her forearms.

Ugo dragged Zeke to the door. His wobbly legs felt like they’ve been turned into noodles, he tripped continually on his way to the door as he looked back at his mother.

They walked out of the room, and Ugo closed the door. “Mano, calm down and think things through,” Ugo said. “This is just another patient.”

“This isn’t just another patient!” Zeke shouted. “This is my mother!”

“I know!” Ugo shouted back and then eyed the floor. He scratched his head as he said, “You need to figure this out.”

Zeke looked back at the pentagram engraved door. “There’s a reason they don’t let doctors operate on relatives…” his expression crumpled as he shook his head. “I can’t do this.” He slogged to the wall, collapsed in the corner, shrunk into a ball, and hugged his knees tight. “I can’t do this. I can’t think like this.”

“Hey, get up!” Ugo marched to him, grabbed his arm, and pulled him up. “Where did that assertiveness go? We don’t have time for this!”

“I can’t do this!” Zeke squealed.

“You’re going to save her! I believe in you!”

Zeke smacked away Ugo’s grip on his arm. “So what?” He looked at the floor and sniveled.

“Cállate! You’re going to figure this out, Mano!” he scoffed. “You have to,” he said delicately.

“I can’t!”

“Ezequias!” Ugo grabbed his shoulder.

They heard footsteps. They turned their heads toward the door frame and saw AJ approaching them steadily.

Zeke ordered Ugo to text AJ about the emergency right before they entered the hospital. Instructing her to access the hospital from her bedroom.

“What’s wrong with your mom?” AJ stopped and looked around in confusion, reacting to the sound of deranged laughter.

Ugo pointed at the patient room door. “That’s coming from her. She won’t stop laughing.”

“And she’s turning to stone,” Zeke mumbled.

“Okay, we’ve got no time to panic!” AJ said. “We need to think fast. You guys are the experts on this stuff. What’s a monster you guys can remember from your video games and comics related to stone?”

Ugo concentrated on Zeke. “Just… think!”

“Gargoyles.”

“Yes, that’s good!” Ugo exclaimed. “Did you read up on anything about gargoyles?”

“No… we have to find a book about it.”

“Alright, let’s go,” AJ said.

###

The trio blasted through the doors of the library and scattered the room. They collected armfuls of books from shelves with symbols inscribed on them they couldn’t categorize as either angelic or demonic — they were whimsical, weird, and beautiful. They would scuttle back to the long wooden table and dump the books onto an ever-growing pile, and then even race up the crumbling staircase this time, grabbing books from shelves with bizarrely stunning symbols, carelessly slaloming through shattered display cases and deteriorating statues.

When the pile reached a formidable height, they stopped, without sitting down, they grabbed books one by one and skimmed through the pages. Ugo was putting books down and grabbing the next to check at a much faster rate than the others.

Gargoyles. Gargoyles. Gargoyles.

They needed to find something about gargoyles. Anything about gargoyles, but nothing about gargoyles would pop out! The book Zeke was browsing through explained about pegasus, griffins, hippogriffs, perytons, and an alarming long list of the various species of dragons and wyverns that extends for multiple pages until the very end of the book. He threw the book away and grabbed another. His head was pounding, he could feel the blood vessels pulsating painfully, and his throat becoming dry and inflamed.

Gargoyles. Gargoyles. Gargoyles.

Monsters made of stone brought to life with magic. Is that what the angel did? Infect his mother with a virus that turned people into gargoyles? Or maybe just a statue. Could gargoyles really be related to what was happening to his mother? He tossed away a book depicting the risks of interspecies mating. He grabbed another book and gulped. His throat was in so much pain and his headache wasn’t easing.

Gargoyles. Gargoyles. Gargoyles… would that really help with anything?

Zeke slammed down a book about how to maintain a kelpie on a healthy diet.

“This isn’t going to work!” He shouted.

“We’re going as fast as we can,” Ugo said, and threw a book away.

“No, we can’t all be looking for the one thing, and besides, gargoyles may not be the most rational thing to look up on.”

Ugo stopped and studied Zeke. “What else should we be looking for? Golems?”

“Yeah — no! Uh… something that is directly involved with turning things into stone… maybe, there’s some science-magic stuff we can find behind that process.”

AJ lowered her book. “Like, Medusa?”

Ugo snapped his fingers and pointed at AJ. “Gorgons!”

“Nice one, AJ.” Zeke said jubilantly. “Anything else?”

Ugo thought for a moment and then blurted, “Cockatrice!”

“Yes!” Zeke shouted back. “AJ, you continue to find anything on gargoyles. I’ll search for gorgons, and Ugo will search for cockatrices!”

They all gave each other a firm nod and got to work.

Gorgons. Gorgons. Gorgons.

Zeke grabbed a book from the pile and riffled through its pages. It was about mermaids. He reached the end and groaned about the useless information. He punched the table. “Why am I not smart enough for this?” He cried. “I wish I could just figure it all out instantly.”

“We’ll get there!” Ugo yelled while leafing through a book.

“How did she even contract it?” AJ asked as she grabbed another book.

“Nananiel put a curse on her,” Zeke confirmed.

AJ froze and dropped the book. Zeke looked back at her.

“Nananiel? As in, the angel?” AJ asked. “An angel put a curse on your mother?” She moved toward Zeke, focusing on him with a grim look. “That’s seriously messed up.”

“Big time…” Ugo added as he slammed another irrelevant book shut.

“That’s it,” AJ whipped back and stormed toward the door.

Zeke ran after her and grabbed her shoulder. “AJ! What are you going to do?” He asked.

AJ spun back to him. “The safety of that… thing isn’t worth your mother’s life!”

“AJ—“

“She has rested long enough,” AJ said, “it’s time for us to discharge the patient.”

“We can’t do that, AJ!” Zeke paused as his face went blank, then it lit up. “Wait, wait, we’ve got Naomi. Yeah! She can help! Why didn’t I think of this?”

Ugo tossed the book back into the pile and exited the room with AJ and Zeke. They navigated through the labyrinth of the hospital and reached the door to Naomi’s room. They could still hear Eldora’s crazed laughter booming through the wall from the door on the other side of the corridor. Zeke opened the door, and they entered.

Naomi was sitting up, wrapped in her dirty bed sheets from the waist down. She held up Ugo’s backup cell in her hands (connected to the power bank), tapping the screen furiously as she ogled at the flashing lights blinking from it.

Zeke walked up to her. “Naomi, I need your help on something.”

Naomi lowered the cell and looked up at him. She flashed a smile. “Okay!”

“It’s about my mother, she’s sick with something.”

Naomi frowned, and the rest of the innocent light on her face vanished.

“She won’t stop laughing and her skin is turning to stone.” Zeke waited for a response, but Naomi just stared up at him, blankly, and wide-eyed.

The moment Zeke opened his mouth again, Naomi interrupted, “I don’t know!”

“Naomi, hold on—”

“I don’t know what your mother has. I’m sorry.”

Zeke hunched down to Naomi. “Naomi! Listen to me! You know Nananiel personally, right? He did it to her! So, you must have some idea on what—”

Naomi started shaking her head before Zeke finished and interrupted, “No, I don’t know!” She lowered her head. “I don’t know that much about him…”

Zeke let out a scornful laugh. “Surely, you must know something; she’s been inflicted with an angelic disease of some sort, maybe”

“Aren’t you a Healer?” Naomi protested. “You know about all of this.”

“I can’t find the solution!” Zeke shouted in her face, sending droplets of saliva onto her cheeks and forehead. “But, you’re the one who is calling herself an angel! That automatically makes you an expert, right?” Zeke stared at Naomi. “Or would that be presumptuous of me?”

Naomi gave out a whimper and paused. “I don’t know,” she spilled.

“Is that the only thing you know how to say?” Zeke hissed. “Do you know anything? Ever?” He raised a fist. “That’s all you ever say!”

Ugo ran up to him from behind and grabbed his shoulder. “Ease up on her, Mano.”

“Can you stop letting your penis think for you for once?” Zeke barked.

“This has nothing to do with that!” Ugo badgered. “Can’t you see that she’s scared?”

“Oh, shut up, Ugo!” AJ shouted from the doorway.

“You shut up!” Ugo shouted back.

“Tell me what you know, Naomi,” Zeke said in a way that sounded like a threat. “Now.”

“But I don’t know,” Naomi said.

“Stop saying that. Can’t you be useful for once?” Zeke stepped back to let out a groan. “My mother is dying; the angel who is looking for you has been messing with us ever since you got here and you can’t provide support for us in any way?” He stepped over the busted chandelier in the center of the room. “We are sacrificing so much for you and you can’t do anything to help? Really?”

Naomi’s expression crumpled. She pulled away the bedsheets and got out of the bed.

Ugo shot a look at her. “What’re you doing?”

Noami started walking. “I’ll put an end to this. I’ll go find Nananiel and tell him to stop.”

This isn’t what Violet wants.

“No, stop!” Zeke said.

Naomi walked past Zeke.

AJ stepped away from the doorway, allowing a path for her. “Let it be, man.”

“No!” Zeke shouted. “Naomi, I said stop! Now! Get back here!”

Naomi halted and sobbed. “But, I need to make things right. This is all my fault.”

Zeke sighed. He studied her and all he could see was a child with her runny red nose and puffy cheeks. She reminded him of a headstrong eight-year-old single-handedly attempting to fix his estranged parents’ marriage. He wondered if the same rudimentary tactics used on kids would work on her. Zeke moved up to Naomi. “If you turn yourself in. You will be in big trouble.”

Naomi cowered.

“That would make me very angry, Naomi, okay?” Zeke continued. “Me being angry is a bad thing, right?”

Naomi nods. “It’s scary, but I just want to help.”

“Just stay in this hospital,” Zeke said. “Get back in your bed and keep playing on Ugo’s phone. Don’t worry about anything else. We’ll take care of it.”

“But—”

“No ‘buts’.”

Naomi swayed slightly and looked away. “I’m sorry,” she mumbled.

“Just stop talking,” Zeke groaned. He pointed firmly at the bed and scowled at Naomi.

Naomi pursed her lips and nodded. She slogged to the bed with her head down and lied down on it. She grabbed the cell and pulled the sheets over her head.

Zeke’s entire body was sore. He just wanted the day to end. Research with no foundation won’t get them anywhere. They were lucky with Naomi, but you can’t catch lightning in a bottle twice. It was time that he sought true expertise.

Zeke walked toward the door.“You guys stay here. See if you can find anything.”

“Mano, where are you going?” Ugo asked.

“Violet,” Zeke said. “I’m going to Violet.”