Chapter 9: Dead End

When he saw his father in that body bag he froze. He didn't know what to think. He thought that he would be relieved but instead, when he saw his father in that state, he was horrified.

He almost passed out from shock.

"HEY, BOY!" shouted the man. "Now you know that I'm not here to fuck around! Stay out of your family's business or else you WILL land up like your father! Do you understand?"

Gabriel looked up at the man and stared at him with a look that he has never ever experienced before. It was rage in its purest form.

Bobby got impatient, "I see that you didn't hear me properly, DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME, BOY?!"

Gabriel started getting restless. He got a sudden dump of adrenaline and started to violently try to escape. The chains on his wrists and ankles even started to draw blood from his skin. The man smirked at Gabriels' attempts to break out of the shackles. He simply silently laughed at Gabriel, turned around, and walked up the stairs, leaving Gabriel behind in front of his father's corpse-like body.

Just before he left, Bobby said one more thing, "Gabriel, make sure you learn some manners before I come back here or else I will teach you some. And I'm sure that you'll find my lessons, helpful."

After a couple of minutes, Gabriel finally calmed down. The pain and tragedy finally found its way inside him. He didn't usually cry or feel hurt but seeing his father in the state that his body was in, nearly broke him. His father didn't deserve to be beaten that severely. Gabriel tried to think of why his father was in that state but he couldn't think of anything, he was clueless and he had nothing to say or do in that moment except look down and feel all of his negative emotions take control. Anger, sadness, anxiety, rage, and many more. He wanted to escape badly so that he could avenge his father but he knew that wasn't going to happen, the chains were too strong.

In the middle of his thoughts, a feint voice interrupted him, "Son."

"Dad?" Gabriel replied. He didn't get angry or ask why he disappeared, Gabriel felt the seriousness of the situation. Instead, he asked for advice.

"What should I do dad? Who can I trust?" he asked.

His father mustered up all of his strength and responded, "Your grandfather, Charles. Charles Corbin. I know that you've met him already, I instructed him to make contact with you if he didn't hear from me for a certain period of time. I can't say much now except for the fact that I'm sorry. I'm sorry that your life is about to drastically change. I'm sorry that you won't be able to live a normal life. You are unfortunately a target now because you're my son."

After saying that, Derrick used up the remainder of his strength to crawl towards Gabriel to give him a letter. He took the letter and put it in Gabriels' pocket as deep as it could go so that it didn't go missing.

Gabriel could hear that his father was about to die so he didn't drag out the conversation, "I see" he said as he dropped his head. "Thank you, Dad. Thank you for raising me to be as strong as I am."

After those words, Derrick took his final breath and said, "I'm proud of you, son."

All Gabriel could do was sit there. He was forced to sit there with his father's corpse lying right in front of him.

He didn't say anything, and he also didn't think of anything. He just sat there in silence with his mind being quieter than the room surrounding him.

He sat there for what felt like days. His father's body was eventually removed from the basement.

He was given food and water, obviously being held hostage. But then something strange happened, at the time when he usually gets dinner.

The door was opened in a hurry, banging on the wall beside it. He then heard footsteps rushing down towards him. To his surprise, it was Luna. They were both ecstatic about finally seeing each other but there was no time to waste. Luna ran over and took off Gabriel's shackles with the keys that were on the wall opposite him.

"Luna, it's great to see you again," Gabriel said

"Yes it really is good to see you too Gabriel, but there's no time to waste. I need you to follow me and stay quiet. You'll find out what's happening later, I promise you. But now we really have to go." Luna said in a hurry.

Gabriel nodded in agreement.

They made their way up the stairs and out of the basement. Gabriel got a strong feeling of something bad that was about to happen. But even though he felt this, he still carried on following Luna. They left through the front door because they heard voices outside the back door. As they walked past the creepy paintings they heard loud footsteps as they stomped on the ground. It was Bobby. They panicked and decided to stay low and quiet as it was night and there were no lights in the house, there was only a soft presence of moonlight that was barely visible due to the old and dusty windows.

They managed to stay quiet enough to let Bobby walk past them but as they continued on their path toward the exit, they heard Bobby shout, "LUNA YOU BITCH!!! I TOLD YOU TO STAY OUT OF THIS SHIT!!!"

They realized that their time has run out. They got up and ran for the door. The voices outside were men that did everything Bobby said, they were like his own little lapdogs, loyal to him because they have nothing better to do.

They ran through the door and got onto the street, unsure and unaware of where they were running to.

They heard truck engines starting and revving in the distance, clearly belonging to Bobby's men. This made them more terrified and so they decided to stick to back alleys. They ran left and right through all sorts of alleys, only to eventually end up in a dead end. They turned around, trying to see if they lost the men, which they did. But only for a short while.

Soon after they managed to catch their breaths, they saw truck lights and flashlights rushing down their alley.

They heard a man shouting, "THIS WAY!"

Luna and Gabriel looked at each other with fearful eyes. They held each other and prepared for the worst to happen.

They heard a lot of men surrounding them, until it all stopped. There was silence. Dogs could be heard barking in the distance, cats could be heard fighting and mice and rats could be heard scurrying. This silence was heavy and Gabriel started to breathe heavily. Luna noticed this and she held Gabriels' hand to comfort him, which worked.

The silence came to an end when Bobby could be heard, angrily marching down the alley toward them. "LUNA! YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW MUCH TROUBLE YOU ARE IN!" As Bobby got closer to them, he focused his attention on Gabriel.

"Gabriel, you sneaky little bastard. At least your father died with confidence and bravery, despite his whole life being a coward. You ran away like a little bitch. You're pathetic, you're nothing and you'll always be some lowlife who couldn't help himself because he's too worthless to even try. Just like your father."

Gabriel was furious and he lost it after he heard what he said to Luna. "Luna, my dear Luna, how could you betray me like this? We had a plan and you decided to go against me, your father. WHO DO YOU THINK I AM?! I'm your father and you decide against me for this lowlife?! FOR THIS PATHETIC EXCUSE OF A MAN?!"

Bobby was cut short by a fist flying across his face. Gabriel tried his best but he just wasn't strong enough to take Bobby down. After that, Bobby touched his nose and noticed blood. "Nice try, boy," Bobby said. After that Bobby struck him once across the head and Gabriel was out.

When he woke up again, he was in a speeding car, next to Charles, his grandfather.