Chapter 4: Hospital

After he wakes up for a second time he finds himself in a hospital bed, with Luna still next to him. She looked like she has been crying nonstop for hours, maybe even days depending on how long he has been out. As soon as their eyes met neither Luna nor Gabriel could move a muscle, they didn't even blink and Luna's face turned from sad to somewhat hopeful whilst there was a single tear that made its way down her cheek, all the way to the bottom of her face. There was this awkward silence between them in which neither of them could stop.

Eventually, a Doctor walked into the room and shocked both Luna and Gabriel when his husky voice dominated the deafening silence that took control of the space surrounding them.

"Good evening Sir and Ma'am. My name is Dr. Evans and I will be the Doctor assisting Mr. Corbin over here. Miss, could I please speak to you for a minute?"

Luna looks back at Gabriel and slowly steps toward the doctor. She then heads outside of the ward with the doctor.

"Thank you for coming, Miss...?"

"Please, call me Luna." She responded.

"Very well, Luna. May I please ask how you associate with Mr. Corbin?"

Luna stares back at the door to the hospital ward and then back towards the doctor. "I guess I'm just a friend of his."

Dr. Evans could notice that Luna appeared to care deeply for Gabriel.

"Okay then. Now, Luna, I would like to start things off by saying that Mr. Corbin will be perfectly fine and he recovered surprisingly fast considering the size of the wound. Based off of your report and our medical scans it appears that Gabriel suffered a major concussion. With that being said, there is nothing to be concerned about. There will be if he doesn't take it east for the next few days. I would recommend that he stays here for at least another night for a full recovery but he is free to go if he would like to leave today. If he's struggling further then I recommend that he speaks to his nearest psychologist. Do you understand what I have just said and will you be able to explain everything to Gabriel or should I rather do that?"

Luna responds sounding a little happier than before. "Yes I understand Dr. Evans, thank you so much for your time. I will explain everything to him with pleasure."

Dr. Evans smiles, nods in approval, and then rushes out of the room.

After Dr. Evans left, Luna turned around and slowly stepped toward Gabriel. She stopped when she saw that he was staring intensively outside the window. She could see that something was bothering him and she felt a strange feeling that she hardly felt with anyone else, she felt sympathy for him. She realized that she cared deeply about him and that the only thing that she wanted in that moment was to help and support Gabriel in any and every way possible. She quickly snapped out of her thought process when she noticed Gabriel staring right back at her.

She walked up to him and asked, "Are you okay? After being pushed you fell to the floor and hit your head hard against the corner of the table in the entrance hall, there was so much blood and I freaked out and I had no idea what to do and..."

She was interrupted by Gabriel's warm hand that was carefully placed upon her soft palm, that belonged to her right hand. "I'm okay Luna, thanks to you," he said with a slight smile, still feeling a little light-headed from his wound.

"Are you sure though?" Luna asked. "You didn't wake up for about 3 days. I was so worried about you. And also how does your wound feel? Does it hurt?"

Gabriel lets out a giggle and positions himself in an upright position to speak to Luna properly, he slightly tightened his grip after placing his other hand over the back of her hand.

"Thank you so much for being here for me Luna, I really do appreciate your efforts. I think I'm okay for now but I guess we'll see how things go in the future."

Gabriel then tries to lighten the mood by saying something with a smile on his face, "Look on the bright side, at least I'm awake to see you again."

Luna's eyes widened after hearing those words, she was surprised by what Gabriel said. "Wow uhmm... Thanks, Gabriel, I've never had anyone say something like that to me before."

Gabriel then proceeds to look straight into her eyes. "You know Luna, you are the most beautiful girl that I have ever seen and after today I don't think that I will be able to get you out of my head."

Luna responds, "You don't look too bad yourself, you are actually really attractive. There is something about you that draws me to you and I'm not quite sure what it is. There is a certain light in you which I haven't seen in anyone else."

Gabriel just smiles back at her after hearing that, he was speechless with no clue what to say.

Luna finds herself lost in the moment, with her body unintentionally moving in towards Gabriel's body. Before she knew it her left hand was on Gabriel's chest. Her body leans in even closer towards Gabriel's body. Before she could realize what was happening her lips were millimeters away from Gabriel's lips and just before they connected, one of the most intimate moments of their lives was ruined by someone who bursted into the hospital ward. It was a tall overweight man with blonde balding hair and a long messy beard. He had crusty old clothes on with holes all over and he stank terribly of alcohol and cigarettes. How the man got past security is beyond curious.

As the man started talking Gabriel could see that Luna felt embarrassed, maybe even ashamed. Luna's embarrassment was amplified when the man started shouting again in an angry and slobbish tone. "Luna, let's go!"

Luna nodded in return, immediately obeying the man's command because she knew the consequences of not listening to him. Before leaving Luna said one more thing, "Gabriel, I'm so sorry that you had to hear that but I hope to see you soon. You better recover quickly so that I can find you at school somewhe-" She was interrupted yet again by the man who was in a drunken rage. "Luna I will not speak to you again! Come here this instant!" Luna looks toward the man and then back at Gabriel. She gave off an apologetic gesture and then left.

Gabriel clenched his fists and got even angrier when he saw the security guards just stand back and watch the whole situation take place. As she left he decided to get up from the hospital bed and walk at a steady pace with the intention of confronting the man. As soon as he went around the corner he saw Luna walking with the man. He started walking faster and faster to the point where he started running. He was suddenly stopped and pulled back harshly just before he got too close. Even when he was stopped Gabriel still wanted to chase the man but decided to let it go. He decided that it was simply a fight to fight another day when he was better prepared both mentally and physically.

It was only after Luna and the man that left that he glanced at the person who stopped him. It was a rough-looking man who looked like he was just decommissioned from war a few days before. He had an eyepatch over his left eye, he was walking on a prosthetic left leg, he held a black cane and his left hand was missing. He also had a lot of scars all over his face, the rest of his body was covered by black pants, a black shirt, a black jacket, black shoes, a black hat, and last but not least a black sling bag. The appearance of this mysterious man didn't scare Gabriel, it actually intrigued him.

"Who are you?" Gabriel asked. All the man did was give off a smirk until he helped Gabriel get up off of the floor. After this, he helped Gabriel to his room. Gabriel didn't ask any more questions because he could tell that the man wasn't going to say anything in response.

As they approached Gabriel's ward the man dropped Gabriel off at his hospital bed and walked away. When Gabriel watched the man walk away he changed his position as he was lying down to look outside of the window and gaze at the view of the mountains in the distance, he just wanted to relax and wait for a couple more minutes before he headed home. As he moved he heard the sound of a piece of paper scrunching in his right pocket. He reached into his pocket and took it out. It was a folded note that said "Contact me as soon as you get home." He didn't know what to make of this note as he didn't have any sort of clue as to how he was going to contact this person but he decided that he is going to follow what the note said, maybe there will be a clue when he gets home.

Gabriel had every intention to leave but fell asleep before he could get up.

After a good night's rest, he woke up, feeling fully restored from one of the best periods of sleep that he had in months. He decided to leave the hospital after about 15 minutes of just lying there.

He got up and changed into new clothes and left his hospital gown folded on the bed. He then picked up his bag and left the room.

He went to the front desk of his ward to check himself out of the hospital. "Excuse me?"

The receptionist responded with a friendly smile on her face. "Yes sir? How can I help you?"

"I'm just here to check myself out of the hospital."

"Sure thing, that shouldn't be a problem. May I please have your name, sir?"

"It's Gabriel, Gabriel Corbin."

"Okay, let me just search for your name... Ah, here it is. Your bill has been paid in full so you won't have to worry about that, you're free to go."

"Wait what? It was paid for? By whom was it paid?"

"I can't recall his name but I do remember that it was a man that was dressed in all black and he had an eye patch over his left eye. He told me to let you know that he paid your bill for you."

"Oh, okay then. Thanks for letting me know" Gabriel responded."

"Enjoy your day sir." The receptionist said as he left.

After checking himself out he walked toward the elevator and pressed the button with the down arrow. When it arrived he walked in and pressed the button to go to the ground floor. The doors then closed and he waited for it to reach its destination. When the elevator stopped the doors opened and he walked through the door and walked onto the ground floor tiles. He stopped when found someone standing outside the main entrance with a sign that had his name on it. It was a tall, skinny old man that had a thick grey mustache and a glass monocle on his left eye that had a gold chain connected to his beige suit. He also had a glass cane with gold accents around it. With his suit, he was also wearing a beige Fedora that had a black piece of material around the base of the hat.

The man was standing next to a beige Rolls-Royce with blacked-out windows. He was hesitant at first but soon had to go towards the man as they had already made eye contact. As Gabriel got closer to the car the man stepped toward the back door and opened it for Gabriel to get inside. He had nothing else to do so Gabriel just went inside the car and the man then closed the door when Gabriel was inside the car. Before he knew it the man was in the driver's seat and then the car started moving. Gabriel wasn't even scared of where this man was taking him, he just watched the surroundings outside of the car window pass by as he let his mind be flooded with thoughts.

"I just want you to know that you are a very important person and you will realize this very soon." The man said respectfully.

"Just be prepared for something big to happen soon, that's all that I can say at the moment."

"Oh okay. What's your name, if I may ask, sir?" Gabriel asked curiously.

"Well I'm not supposed to tell you that but I suppose that we should get acquainted sooner rather than later. My name is Charles, it is an utmost pleasure to meet you, young sir."

Both Gabriel and the driver were silent for the rest of the trip.

Before he knew it, Gabriel saw that the car turned into the street where his house was located.

When the driver stopped next to Gabriel's house, Gabriel tried to open the door but it was locked. He looked forward and saw that Charles had gotten out of the car and walked around to his door and opened it for Gabriel.

"Why was it locked? Do you not trust me?" Gabriel asked suspiciously.

"It was to protect you, not because I don't trust you," Charles responded with a smirk.

Charles then reached into his suit pocket to get something out. It was a business card.

Charles stretched out his hand towards Gabriel to give it to him. As Gabriel grabbed the card Charles put his other hand over Gabriel's hand. "Be careful from now boy, don't trust anyone except myself and the man you saw earlier that was dressed in all black at the hospital, understood?"

Gabriel nods in approval.

"Very good Gabriel, now go inside and remember, don't trust anyone, especially not the girl you were with earlier."

"But she has been nothing but good to me recently, why should I not trust her?"

"That's a question for another day Gabriel, just please listen to me, it's a matter of life or death and I'm not exaggerating. Do you understand boy?"

"Yes sir, I do," Gabriel said, sounding disappointed.

They then parted ways. Gabriel walked towards his house and Charles drove away.

As he stepped onto the front porch he tripped on the small step and got a splinter in his finger, luckily it didn't go in too deep but it still hurt. He pulled it out in a rage and proceeded to violently open the front door. He didn't bother trying to look for his father, he didn't even bother getting something to eat. All he did was hit the kitchen counter with his fists in a rage and then he sunk his forehead into his fists. After calming down he got a glass of water from the kitchen tap. Whilst drinking the water he leaned on the kitchen counter, looking at the floor, thinking about how Luna could possibly be bad for him.

His mind raced between multiple thoughts, like the kiss that he almost had with Luna, who exactly Charles could be, the man from the hospital, the drunk man that took Luna, where his father could be. The list could go on but the point is that Gabriel was frustrated and confused and he wanted answers very soon.

He took out the business card that he received from Charles and glanced over at the name, Charles Corbin.