Gold Demona: Before New Liberty

Chapter III

Lonesome No More

(That night...)(2090 A.D.)

Everyone inside the orphanage prepared for their nightly meal. Outside, in a tree not far from the house, stalked a young lanky female gargoyle with dark orange skin, golden yellow eyes, and fiery red hair.

She wore a loose white tank top with a pair of black spandex shorts. On her head was a pair a green goggles with a wire that connected it to the large computer she built herself from scratch and carried around wherever she went.

She was in her late twenties. Still young enough to stay with the other children at the orphanage, but she was too much of a free spirit to be contained to any one home or family. Nobody ever knew what her real name was, but she always introduced herself as Edward Wong-Hao Pepelu Tivruski IV. Most simply called her either Edward or Ed.

Ed had wandered into the orphanage one night when she was much younger, and the mothers of course took her in. But being the free spirit she was, within a year or so she wandered away just as easily as she wandered in.

She would return to the orphanage every once in a while, though usually only to spy on everyone else. She’d normally only go in if there was a large amount of food to eat, like on Thanksgiving or Christmas. She was perfectly aware of Gold Demona’s presence. In fact, she was present on that Thanksgiving night when the mysterious egg was dropped off at the orphanage. Besides the Mamas, Edward was the only one at the orphanage who knew about Gold’s daily changes.

On her computer screen, she could see the surveillance of everything inside the house. She pulled her goggles down to her eyes so she could also see any other data, and she put on a set of headphones so she could listen to everything that was going on inside. She saw everyone inside the dining room gathering at the table. There were the Mamas, the human children, and the gargoyle children. Everyone was there except for Gold, who sat on the bed in her lonely bedroom sharing her dinner with Clean.

Edward always thought about approaching Gold and making friends, but she also knew that Gold would probably rather have friends that didn’t disappear on a whim, so she kept her attention to the other children. They were just finishing their dinner and were separating for the night. The human children to get ready for bed, and the gargoyle children to prepare for school. As she watched them, three children in particular caught her interest, the ones known as Candy, Zidane, and Shinobu. Edward watched and listened closely to them.

(Inside...)

Each of the Mamas had their own task to follow after dinner. Mama Mutsuki would prepare for her English class. Mama Satsuki would go outside with the gargoyle children for PE. Mama Uzuki would clean up from the morning art class to prepare for the evening art class. Mama Yayoi would tuck the human children, and then Gold, to bed for the night. And Mama Kisaragi would go down to her basement laboratory to run a check-up on the security system.

As soon as she was seated at her ridiculously large computer, she noticed a minor blip on the screen. It was one she had seen many times before, and she knew exactly what it was.

“Hello, Edward,” Kisaragi greeted the blip in her monotone voice, knowing perfectly well that Ed could hear her. “What’s the occasion? It’s not Thanksgiving or Christmas, so it’s certainly not for the food.”

“Hi hi, Mama!” Edward greeted back through the audio system in Kisaragi’s computer. “Ed came to see.”

“See what?”

“To seeeeee what IIIIII can seeeeeee,” she answered in a wavy creepy tone, waving her arms at the screen.

“You know you don’t have to be so obscure with me, Edward.”

“I know,” she chimed, “Ed found something interesting. Had to come see and watch what happens.”

“What do you mean?”

“Oop! Sorry, Mama. Have to go now. Bye-bye!”

“Edward,” Kisaragi replied just before the computer screen blinked and switched to an image of a large toothy smiley face with arches for eyes and two red ovals for cheeks.

“You’ll have to do better than that,” she droned as she typed in a command that instantly cleared the image and returned the regular program, and also activating a special security program for good measure.

Two seconds later, the screen blinked and the image came back up, except this time the face was sticking its tongue out. Kisaragi blinked a few times, somewhat annoyed by it, although you would never have guessed it with her never-changing dull expression.

“Hmm,” Kisaragi replied, “This should be interesting.”

(Inside...)

As the large group of human children walked into the main bedrooms, Candy, Shinobu, and Zidane all stopped just short of the doors. Yayoi quickly took note of this and looked to them.

“Is something wrong?” she asked.

“Mama Yayoi,” Candy said and then whispered, “Can we go see Gold?”

“What?” Yayoi replied, taken aback by the request.

“Gold Demona,” Shinobu replied, “We want to go see her.”

Yayoi gave the three a stern look. She wasn’t sure what to do. If she allowed them to go see her, what would happen? Especially given Gold’s particular circumstance.

“I’m afraid I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Yayoi said, finally. “If this is some sort of game you’re playing, you will have to wait until tomorrow to continue playing it. It’s time for bed.”

“Can you at least tell us why she’s not allowed outside?” Candy asked.

“Why does she have to be alone all the time?” Shinobu asked.

“And how come we can’t know about her?” Zidane added.

“Children!” Yayoi yelled, “I don’t know where you heard that name, but let me assure you that there is no one here by that name.”

“But I saw her!” Candy insisted, “And I promised her I’d come see her again after dinner!”

“I think you children should go to bed,” Yayoi said.

“But Mama---” Candy started.

“Now,” Yayoi interrupted.

Slowly, they all hung their heads and walked into the bedrooms, Zidane into the boys’ bedroom, and Candy and Shinobu into the girls’. Yayoi watched them as they tucked themselves into bed, and shut the doors after she was sure they were in bed.

“How do they know about her?” she asked herself in thought as she walked down the hallway and around the corner to Gold’s room.

As soon as she was far enough down the hall and out of sight, the three peeked out of the doors and slowly snuck out.

“This is big,” Zidane whispered.

“Huge,” Candy agreed.

“Why did she act like she didn’t know anything?” Shinobu asked.

“She doesn’t want us to know anything about it,” Zidane answered. “But why?”

“That’s what I’d like to know,” Candy replied, “Come on. Let’s find out.”

As they started walking down the hall to where Yayoi went, they heard a door open up the hall past the bedrooms. They turned to look, and there was a shadowy figure crawling out of it.

“Ahh! Candy!” Shinobu squealed as she clung to Candy.

The three of them froze as the figure crawled up to them, stood up. It was tall and skinny, at least a foot taller than Zidane. It was slouched down a little so it could look at Candy with it’s bright, round, golden yellow eyes.

“You wanna see the Eggy?” asked the figure in a light and cheerful voice.

“Huh?” The three replied, eyes blinking.

“Eggy?” Zidane asked.

“What do you mean by Eggy?” Candy asked.

“Maybe she means Gold?” Shinobu replied, not quite sure.

“Eggy Eggy!” the figure giggled and then started running back to the door she popped out of. “Come, follow Ed! Ed will show you. But you must be veeeeery quiet.”

The three children looked at each other for a good long moment before finally following the strange gargoyle into the room she came out of. They followed her across the room to the open window. They climbed out the window to the tree branches just outside. The four children swung from branch to branch, from tree to tree, slowly making their way back towards the balcony of Gold’s bedroom.

“Is Ed your name?” Candy asked as they swung through the thick trees.

“Edward is Edward,” she answered as she stopped for a moment and pointed to herself.

“Why do you talk like that?” Zidane asked, “It’s kind of annoying.”

“Ed speaks how Ed likes,” she said as they continued onward, “It’s fun, and it confuses people.”

“So how do you know about Gold?” Shinobu asked as she struggled to keep up with the others.

“Ed always knew,” she said, “Since she was an Eggy.”

“What do you mean ‘since she was an egg?’” Candy asked.

“Wait,” Ed said to the three followers as they stopped two trees away from the balcony.

“Why?” Zidane protested, “It’s right there.”

“Mama’s still inside,” Ed explained and handed him a pair of binoculars. “Look.”

He looked through them, though in the dark it was difficult to get a good sense of where he was looking. Eventually, he got his sight in the right direction and pointed it to the lit bedroom, where Mama Yayoi was tucking a reluctant female gargoyle child into bed.

“Candy?” Zidane said as he watched.

“Yeah?”

“Is Gold a human or a gargoyle?”

“She’s a human,” Candy answered, “With blonde hair. Why?”

He responded by handing her the binoculars. She looked through them and saw the pale yellow gargoyle with pink and blue hair being tucked into bed.

“Huh?” Candy said in confusion, “That’s not Gold.”

“Yes it is,” Ed replied, “Gold Demona. She is the Eggy.”

“But when I saw her this afternoon, she was a human,” Candy said.

Then a white raccoon appeared among the group.

“CleanClean!” Ed greeted as she picked him up, “There you are! Ed was looking for you.”

“Hey, Clean sees Gold everyday,” Shinobu pointed out. “Maybe he can help us.”

“Yeah, that’s right,” Zidane replied, “Hey Clean, is that gargoyle in there Gold?”

Clean replied by vigorously nodding his little raccoon head.

“But how is that possible?” Candy asked.

“Presto change-o,” Ed replied, waving her arms like a magician, “Sun goes up, she’s a human. Sun goes down, she’s a gargoyle.”

“She changes into a gargoyle at night?” Zidane asked.

“And a human during the day?” Shinobu asked.

“That’s why the Mamas keep her locked away,” Candy concluded, “That’s why they won’t let anybody see her.”

“Bingo!” Ed chimed. “Mamas protect Eggy so she won’t be called a freak.”

“But it’s still so unfair!” Shinobu whined, “She can’t make any friends if she never sees anybody.”

“And that is why Ed is bringing you here,” Ed sang. “Eggy needs friends. Ed would do it, but Ed doesn’t come here a lot. Eggy needs long time friends. Ed thinks you’d be good friends for Eggy.”

“But if you’ve known her since she was an egg,” Shinobu said, “How come you never made friends with her?”

“Ed is gone a lot,” she explain, “Always going places. Usually only come here on holidays. Eggy doesn’t need friends that don’t stay. You are always here. You can play with Eggy all the time. Never lonely. Always happy!”

They turned their gaze to the balcony just in time to see Mama Yayoi shut off the light and walk out of the room, leaving Gold alone in her room.

“Okay,” Ed said, “Now.”

(Inside...)

“There,” Kisaragi droned after finally removing the bug program Ed had installed.

This time the program stayed off as she restarted her grounds security program. Now there were four blips outside where before there was only one.

“Well, that’s peculiar,” she said.

“Kisaragi!” Yayoi yelled as she ran into the lab, “Candy, Shinobu, and Zidane are missing.”

“No, they aren’t,” Kisaragi answered calmly, figuring out then who the other three blips were, “They are with Edward.”

“Edward?” she replied, “What’s she doing here this time of year?”

“I’m not sure just yet,” she replied, “Whatever she’s up to, those three are involved.”

“They were asking about Gold before I sent them to bed,” Yayoi added, “Maybe Edward is taking them to her.”

“Perhaps. There’s a sixty-eight percent chance that’s the case, and a two percent chance that Edward is here to kidnap them.”

“You really think she’d do that?”

“Not really. That’s why the chances of that are only two percent, but Edward is very unpredictable. There’s really no telling what she’ll do. That’s the other thirty percent.”

“Aren’t you going to try and stop this?”

“I don’t think it’ll be necessary. It would be unhealthy for Gold to be alone all the time forever. There’s only so much company you can get from a raccoon. If anyone would make good real friends for her, it would be those three. Shinobu needs something exciting to do anyway. Candy’s a compassionate girl that wants to help everybody. And in spite of Zidane’s mischievous nature, he’s actually a well-centered young boy with good moral values. I think we should just let them think they’re being sneaky for the time being. It would do them good to have their own thing to themselves. Their own little secret, if you will, just for them. It’ll be something good for them to look back on when they are older, and it’ll give Gold some fond memories of her childhood. You should go tell Mutsuki, Satsuki, and Uzuki about this so they know not to worry.”

“And what will you be doing?” Yayoi asked.

“I need to go to my classroom and prepare for tonight’s lessons. I’ve already wasted a considerable amount of time repairing the damage Edward left for me.”

“Of course,” she replied and began to walk out, “I’ll go tell them.”

“Good,” Kisaragi replied as the portion of the floor her chair was on started to rise into a hole in the ceiling. “I’ll see you later on tonight.”

(In Gold’s Room...)

Gold found herself tossing in bed unable to get to sleep. The entire afternoon, she couldn’t stop thinking of her encounter with the pigtailed girl named Candy, and the promise she made to her.

“I wonder if she’s actually coming?” Gold thought to herself as she looked over to the balcony door from her bed.

She sat up, giving up on being able to sleep. She sat on the side of the bed, staring out at the tree branches outside, noticing that they were moving a lot more than normal. Curious, she got up from her bed and slowly walked towards the balcony door. She was only a few feet away when a shadow jumped down to the balcony from the tree, followed by two others. When one of the shadows pressed itself to the glass, Gold recognized it to be Candy.

“Candy!” she called as she happily opened the doors to let her in. “You really came back!”

“I promised you I would,” Candy replied as she walked in and then looked behind her, “And I brought friends with me.”

“Friends?” Gold replied, eyes widening with excitement, “I get more friends?”

“Yeah, why not?” Zidane said as he and Shinobu walked in behind Candy, “Name’s Zidane.”

“And I’m Shinobu.”

Gold was so happy, she didn’t know what to say. She had made three friends in the span of one day.

“Wait a minute,” Candy said, looking back outside, “Where’d Ed?”

“Ed?” Gold repeated, tilting her head.

“She helped us get out of the house,” Candy explained, “So we could come here. I wonder where she went.”

“I dunno,” Zidane replied as he looked back with her, “She was right with us.”

“Maybe she just had somewhere else to go,” Gold suggested.

“But we didn’t even get to thank her for helping us,” Shinobu pointed out.

“I’m sure we’ll see her again,” Candy said, “She said she comes for holidays. Maybe we’ll see her then.”

“Yeah, we’ll worry about that later,” Zidane added, “For now, let’s play!”

“Yeah!” the three girls agreed.

(Outside...)

“Eggy has friends now,” she thought to herself as she leapt up ontop of the stone wall of the orphanage grounds, lugging her computer in a large sack on her back. “I showed them the way. And now they can play. Ed’s work here is done.”

And with that she simply jumped down the other side of the wall and out of sight.