Post by Engine of Chaos on Jul 2, 2017 18:13:26 GMT -5
The patients could hear each other’s screams – that was the way of it. That was how things worked at Demonsacre. The cells surrounded a circular lobby, wide open with a single light hung from the the centre of the ceiling casting a circle of light on the ground. One by one, each of the patients slowly pulled themselves into position to watch through the small opening that had been left by the opening of each hatch. This was tradition. This was protocol. All must come. All must watch.
All must watch.
This time was different. There were two chairs instead of one. Usually, the new inductee would be dragged kicking and screaming into the atrium before being sedated by one of the Doctor’s employees. They would then be left – a testament to the confidence those who held the power had in the inability of their patients to escape. The new patient would remain, and those who came before would watch – in desperation and hope – to see if they could rouse themselves into an escape.
It had never happened.
Yet this time there were two chairs. It was unnerving to see this change in routine from a place where routine was all that mattered. Treatments were delivered not a minute late, no matter what. There was an air of concern about the patients, an almost audible buzz which crackled through the air. Something different was happening tonight.
A few moments later, the doors to the only entrance and exit opened. Two orderlies strode into the antechamber, and between them they dragged a woman. She was covered only in a hospital nightgown, and a burlap bag which covered her head. Below the end of the sack hung some long, dark hair. At least, that was what they could pick out from their distance. They placed her in the chair and began to fasten the very chains that so many of these patients had felt clasped around their wrists and ankles before.
"No." Came the voice. "She’ll be fine without them."
There was a collective intake of breath at the sound. It chilled each and every one of them to the core. They had all heard the stories, some had even been party to Gabriel Baal’s brutal practices when he was still a legitimate Doctor. These days he took offence to the title, as if it were a reminder of something horrible, something scarring. These days, those who addressed him called him only “Gabriel.”
He walked with an air of authority – no rush, but a gentle swagger. As he stepped into the light cast by the single spotlight, he took a bite from an apple. He had a a manor about him which betrayed the stories – he seemed caring. Kind. There was something of a lie in the eyes though. Something that no one who had met him could ever place. He pulled off his jacket and hung it over the back of the chair. Taking his seat, he crossed one leg over the other and turned slightly to his right. He rested his elbow on his knee as he took another bite of the fruit.
"Eden." He said quietly, looking down at the apple.
He didn’t speak again straight away. It felt like hours as the tension grew. The woman was shaking now, visibly shaking. Her hands were trembling and her feet rattled against the chair legs. She was afraid, and they could all feel her pain.
"Eden was, if you’re of a religious persuasion, an idyllic paradise. The genesis of everything that the human race is today. They started off so naive, so kind and gentle. The human race were a species apart from everything else that god had created. No matter what crossed their path, they were a cut above the other savage creatures that roamed the earth. They were good."
He sounded sad – almost wistful. It was strange to hear from a man who came with such a reputation.
"And then an apple. One single apple allowed the reality of the human condition to seep inside and taint everything. One single snake to whisper falsehoods and fallacy to corrupt everything that was good in the world. One moment in time upon which the fate of humanity's future turned. Forever more would we be offered temptation do the wrong things in life. There are no stories of evil men being tempted to do the will of good. There are no stories of the utterly corrupted failing in their true path and falling into purity. That is because no-one is born evil, my dear. Every life effects the living in such a way that it guides their future."
Gabriel smiled now, knowing fully well that his newest patient couldn’t see him. Yet he smiled anyway. There was something in that.
"Eden Morgan was not born the way she is today. Much like, you were not born to be sat before me now. No, you see I understand Eden in a way that she could never understand me. Perhaps it’s because I was there during her darkest moments. Perhaps it’s because I can see people in a way that most cannot. But I remember every kind of Eden Morgan that has ever existed. The good, sweet and kind Eden. The hurt, damaged and vengeful Eden. The scheming, hate-filled self-destructive Eden and now this bizarre attempt at hybridity that she exudes these days."
Gabriel leans forward and takes another bite from the apple and chews it mournfully as he rests his elbows on each knee.
"The Eden Morgan of today wants to good with every fiber of her being.” Gabriel smiles as spins the apple around and around between his thumb and his finger. “She wants her life to be filled with love and laughter. She wants her friends and family to be proud and doleful. Yet still, she wants her enemies destroyed. She wants to watch women like Lucy Wylde fail. She wants to toss heinous and vicious verbal assaults at Gabrielle Montgomery. In some cases – most specifically yours truly – she wants to commit some of her enemies to burial. Or at the very least, cremation."
He smiles, but not a true smile. A smile of irony.
"Yes, Ms. Morgan was a child of Eden when she walked through those hallowed doors of UGWC all those years ago. She was UGWC’s Sweetheart, she was naive and good. Snakes and apples destroyed that and now I pay the price for what the serpents and fruit did to her. No-one is born the way they are, my darling. Eden wasn’t born to want to see me killed, just as I was not born to see her maimed and destroyed. Despite everything, that was never what I truly wanted for her. My story started a long, long time ago."
He leaned back again and looked around at all the faces waiting and listening at their doors.
"So now I will share my story." He said quietly. "I will share my story with each and every one of you."
He placed the core of the apple on the floor to his side. One of the orderlies moved to collect it, but he waived her away. He crossed his leg once more.
"Some people are aware that I have a disorder of my own - Dissociative Identity Disorder. To make things simple, there are three of me. Gabriel, Gabe and Daniel. It is Daniel of whom we must begin, because that was the child that I was born. Daniel Collins – born to an addict and a criminal. A child, I was, when I first heard a voice inside my head. I wasn’t afraid, nor was I worried. This was a friend – a friend who would help to guide me. It was, however, this friend who scared my mother so. She was worried that I would develop her mania, her addiction. And so she sought to beat the voices out of me."
His mouth curled into a weak smile that sought to hide away the sadness.
"Anytime she would see me speaking, even without words, to that as then nameless individual she would beat me to within an inch of consciousness. Beatings such as this did not, however, go unnoticed and before long I found myself in one of London’s premier orphanages. I was eleven years old. Torn away from my mother. No contact with my father. I was utterly alone."
Gabriel adjusted his position slightly, as if readying himself for something terrible.
"And then I met a young man by the name of Gabriel Baal.” Said Baal with a wistful look to the ceiling. ” – a child of privilege and worth. His parents had died in suspicious circumstances. He had no known relatives and so had been placed in the care of the Orphanage until such a time he was old enough to claim his trust and enter the world as a wealthy child of inheritance."
Gabriel stopped again, to rub a hand over his mouth.
"It was at the age of fifteen that the matron asked me to follow her. She pulled me into her office and informed me that my mother was gravely ill. The years of drug abuse had ravaged her body and she was on the verge of death. She had requested to see me one last time. And so, with my only request being that my only true friend accompany me, I agreed to visit the woman whose abilities to raise a child had failed. I was fifteen years old."
He looked down at his hands, and seemed to fade into his own story.
"Dan…" Gabriel said, following his friend down the corridor. "Do you want me to come in with you? Do you want me to…"
"No." Said Gabriel, perhaps a little to harshly. "No, I need to do this on my own."
The corridor seemed to go on forever as the nurse led the way. Daniel had never been so afraid in his life – he’d never seen the inside of a hospital before. Not in any way he could remember at least. Finally, after what seemed like hours, they reached the door.
"Are you ready?" Asked the nurse. She was kind and pretty. But quickly he realised that was not what he should be focusing on.
"Just a second." He said, his voice child-like and scared. He looked through the window but could only see his mother’s bare leg. She looked so thin. He closed his eyes for a second.
"We could just leave, you know." Came the familiar voice from inside of his head. "We owe her nothing. Save a beating or two, and somehow I think we MIGHT just get in trouble for that."
"Stop." He said as quietly as he could.
"Sorry?" Said the nurse smiling. Gabriel quickly stepped in.
"He’s fine, he’s just trying to get himself ready, aren’t you Daniel?" Gabriel added with pleading eyes.
"Yes…. Yes." He said, looking the nurse in the eye. "I’m ready."
"Now I just want to warn you, she’s lost a lot of weight and her skin may look a little yellow. That’s because of the problems with her liver." She added as she pushed the door open.
Daniel stepped inside and slowly walked towards the bed. As he got closer, the could see the emaciated form of the woman he once knew as his mother lay motionless, mouth open, eyes closed. He stepped forward, his voice catching in his throat as he moved to her side. He slowly reached out and lifted her hand into his.
"Mum." He said. His voice breaking mid-word. Her eyes slowly but surely flickered open. It took her a minute to realise where she was and who she was looking at.
"D… Daniel." She said, her mouth dry and her lips cracked. "Is that really you?"
"Yes, mum." He said as the tears welled up in her eyes and leaked down her cheeks.
"My… My boy." She said trying with all of her strength to pull him towards her. He leaned forward as she reached up with a thin hand and caressed his cheek. "My beautiful handsome boy."
"Not so sure about that." Daniel chuckled, trying to fight the tears that burned his eyes.
"You look so much like your grandfather. My dad. You’re both so handsome." She said again. "I’m so glad you came to see me, Daniel. I’m so happy I’ve been able to see you one last time."
"Don’t say that." Daniel added, the tears now coming unbidden. "You never know. Things could turn around. You could get better"
She smiled slightly with pity at his naivety. She was slipping away, they both knew that. But only she had made her peace with it.
"I’m dying Daniel. There’s nothing that can be done. I’ve destroyed my entire life. I’m just happy that they took you away before I could destroy your life too."
"I never wanted to leave you mum. I wanted to stay. Maybe if I had I could have helped you – I could have done something."
"No." She said with a strength that belied her current fragility. "No, I would have hurt you more than I already had. I would have dragged you into my world and crushed you within. I’m sorry that I couldn’t be a better mother, Daniel. I truly am. But the only thing I did in my entire life that was right by you, was letting you go."
"Don’t… Please." Daniel said, the tears no streaming down his face. She reached back under her pillow and pulled a letter out from underneath.
"This is for you, Daniel. Please read it. It will tell you everything I never had the chance to say." She wheezed, as her breathing became more and more labored. "I’m sorry that I let you down, my darling. Please, if you can, forgive me."
Daniel pulled her hand to his mouth and kissed it gently.
"Of course I forgive you mum. Of course I do." He said, the tears dropping onto her thin and sallow skin.
She smiled once more. As her eyes flickered.
"I love you, Daniel." She managed to eek out, before they closed for the final time.
"Mum… Mum…" Daniel said shaking her hand "Mum, please don’t leave me. Please. Come back… Come back/"
He rubbed her hand and then her cheek. He bent down and kissed her gently on the forehead.
"I love you… Please stay."
A few moments later, nurses entered the room. Daniel looked at them, wordlessly pleading for them to help her, but the kindly nurse shook her head. He didn’t know why they didn’t help her, but he knew that it was what they had to do. He turned and walked from the room, without looking back. Gabriel followed in silence as Daniel Collins broke into a run.
"She was utterly self-destructive." Said Gabriel, wiping a single tear from his eye. "Corrupted by something so much bigger than herself."
Gabriel climbed to his feet and walked outside of the circle of light. One by one he made his way to each of the doors on the outer rim of the chamber. He made eye contact with it’s inhabitant.
"I, on the other hand, was naive and innocent. In fact, it was on that day I made the decision to become a doctor. I wanted to help people, I wanted to make sure they were happy and healthy and safe. I was, at that time, as innocent as Eden Morgan was at that age, despite her rough-housing brother and his friends. We both started this life as an innocent bystander – just wanting to be the best we could be and both wanting the best for those that we loved." He added, lingering at the door of the man now carved with Eden Morgan’s name. The man castrated and hollowed. The man whose eyes held nought by a blank stare. Alan Myer.
"We both did things we’re not proud of – even in those innocent early days. Gabriel was my best friend. And I wanted to protect him. After the death of my mother, he became infatuated with me. It was – for the want of a better word – love. He never wanted to see me hurt like I was the day my mother died and so he made it his life’s work to remove any other symbol of family that I had left. Namely, my father and my brother. I was able to assuage his urges with false hopes and promises. And then came the night that I knew he was truly dangerous. Granted, I did not choose to kill him like Eden tried to do with me, but I can relate to the fear that tore at her insides. I can understand her attempts to preempt any potential damage. Because I did it first… To Gabriel."
He watched Alan’s blank eyes as yet again he seemed to dissolve into his own mind.
"I could do it you know." Said Gabriel with a smile, looking down at the knife he was using to chop mushrooms.
"Do what, Gabe?" Asked Daniel moving the minced beef around in the frying pan.
"I could kill them." Gabriel said, making slashing movements with his knife. "And I could make it look like an accident too."
"Not this again." Said Daniel sucking his thumb where he’d just caught it the edge of the pan. "I’ve told you – I do NOT want my family murdered."
This conversation was bizarre. Truly and utterly bizarre. What was more bizarre was that it wasn’t the first time they’d had it. Since they’d moved to the United States to begin their training at Harvard medical, Gabriel had been utterly obsessed with the fact that he was now just a drive away from the two men that were, in his eyes at least, in the way of their true and unbridled happiness.
"But they’re so expendable." Said Daniel with a smile. "And I promise no-one would ever know that it had anything to do with me."
"You’ve been a medical student for three years and now you think you’re an expert at concealing murder? Great, that’s just great." Said Daniel.
"No! I’ve been an expert for a lot longer than that." Said Gabriel with a shake of his head. The statement was so matter-of-fact that Daniel almost didn’t register it.
"Wait, what?" Said Gabriel putting the wooden spoon down on the worktop. "What do you mean you’ve been an expert for longer than that?"
Gabriel slid the mushrooms into a bowl and started on some red peppers.
"I mean no-one had any idea how my parents died did they?" He said before starting to hum the tune to “Killer Queen”.
"And how did they die, Gabriel?" Daniel asked slowly backing towards the table and feeling inside his medical bag.
"Well it was quite simple really – I wanted to make sure I got all their money. They were quite stingy really. They had a tendency to not buy me the things I wanted and I couldn’t carry on like that until they turned 90 and popped their clogs themselves. So one day, while they slept, I broke the pipe on our gas fire."
Daniel found what he was looking for – the vial of Pancuronium bromide, that he’d liberated during one of their Pharmacy trips. Despite his slightly shaking hands he managed to place a needle into the stopper.
"Then I went outside, climbed my kiddie tent and lay down inside. It was just a case of waiting. And waiting. And waiting. I waited until the sun came up and then I waited some more."
Daniel’s hands were really shaking now – he had to get the dosage right, but that was difficult. Gabriel turned his back now, to grab an onion from the cupboard – Daniel checked. He squeezed a little back into the vial.
"Then I went inside. It smelt terrible. I ran upstairs and tried to wake mum and dad but they didn’t move. A quick phone call to the police later and voila! They assumed that they’d decided to commit a double suicide while I was sleeping out in my tent. Who would ever have suspected a ten year old?" He said with a smile. "And I can do the same for your dad and for Quentin too."
Gabriel’s smile was short-lived as he turned around just in time to feel the needle pierce his neck.
"Wh… What… Have you done… To… Me?" He asked as he slowly lost the use of his legs and his arms. He stumbled but Daniel caught him.
"I’m sorry, my friend." He said with tears in his eyes. "But I have to protect those who I have left. Including you."
And with that, he lifted Gabriel over his shoulder and they left the apartment for good.
"And with that I had done similar to that which Eden sought to do to me. Of course, I was protecting my friend, not trying to kill an enemy. But the sentiment was the same – protecting those that we care about. But you see, Eden was trying to protect herself from a monster that was never truly there. I am, as she’s said before, no Mickey Dragon. But what she fails to realise is that her actions in trying to prevent the creation of this so-called monster that she feared would spring into existence have done little more than created an enemy who wants to see her fall harder and further than he’d ever dreamt before."
Gabriel kept his eyes locked on Alan’s.
"Gabriel and I travelled for a year. It was difficult to keep him sedated, but it was possible. I had learned that I had a penchant for manipulation. Of course, the fact that Gabriel had around one hundred thousand dollars in cash helped significantly. I had managed to spread word that we’d gone missing whilst skiing in the French Alps. Money had a way of creating suggestion. But after a while I knew we couldn’t carry on forever."
Gabriel reached into the gap and touched Alan Myer’s face.
"In the end I made the decision that Daniel Collins would die and Gabriel Baal would survive. I could access his vast wealth and I would be able to care for him so much better. I used the last of the money to purchase some rock sold fake identification from a man by the name of Alan Myer. He never told anyone what he’d done for me, probably because he couldn’t remember. I thank you Alan… For making all of this possible."
Gabriel moved on, Alan now seeming to finally realise who he was, before stumbling back. His wails were lost as the opening in the door was closed.
"I returned to Harvard and completed my Medical Degree. My residency was fast tracked and finally I was the owner and operator of the Angelfields Resort. It was perfect. Gabriel was now Daniel or Patient Zero, and I was forging my way in the World. My methods had worked wonders, and it was looking like my best friend would be able to be reintegrated into the World once more. I had, I’ll admit, changed somewhat. That year in hiding had hardened me, and a particularly distressing trip to a crack den had brought up some unresolved feelings about my mother. I was not the kind hearted and naïve fool I had been all those years ago."
Gabriel smiled as he stopped and turned back towards the light where his new patient sat.
"And neither was she – Eden, I mean. Of course she wasn’t the hellacious she-devil that she became circa 2015, but neither was she the kind and gentle Eden the fans had grown to love. She had seen so much. In the years leading up to our meeting she’d watched her sister-in-law lose her career and almost her life. She’d watched Mickey Dragon rain all kinds of terror down on her and hers. She’d failed to protect people she loved. She’d watched him ruin lives. Yet still, at this moment in time, Eden Morgan was… Herself."
Gabriel smiled as he stepped behind the newest patient and placed his hands on her shoulders, gently massaging her.
"Eden was beloved by so many – she shocked the world when she finally snapped. When, at that moment of incandescent rage, she turned her back on her friends and stole her first World Championship. She became the Eden Morgan we all saw rage fire and fury. She became… Feared. Not merely for her ability in the ring, but her willingness to do and say anything to be successful. She built up the enemies that were supposed to tear her down, and none of them ever did. They all fell, one by one, because defeat isn’t what Eden craved it was complete and total destruction. And in that moment I knew… Deep down that I could help her. And I would have… But fate turned that card away."
Gabriel lowered his eyes and shook his head.
"Patient Zero has escaped. Four words that chilled me to my very core. I had hoped that my old friend had merely grown tired with incarceration, but the truth, such as it was much different. He had convinced me that he was better. That he was almost ready to be set free. I had been wrong in my belief of him. And I had been wrong to trust him with information about who my father was and where he could be found. I don’t know why, even to this day, I shared what I knew. Perhaps I thought I had my friend back. It is a mistake I will take with me to my grave."
Gabriel’s heart was beating almost out of his chest. Normally, he would have reserved the task of driving for his chauffeur but in this instance, a certain disregard for rules was a definitive requirement. He shifted down gears and jammed his foot against the accelerator.
"Don’t be here." He said through gritted teeth. "Please don’t be here."
As he pressed his foot against the break every single scenario flashed through his mind. What if he’d been discovered? What if he hadn’t? What would they do if he was caught in the act? What happens if Gabriel bursts into this building uninvited? What happens if he bursts in uninvited and Patient Zero isn’t even here. What if he’s too late?
What if he’s too late?
He slid round the a corner almost knocking a number of terrified looking pedestrians down in his hast. He pushed the break into the floor and ground to a halt looking up at the beautiful apartment building. He had seconds to choose his path – front door or fire escape? He chose quickly, heading down the side of the building and found the fire escape ladder already extended. He quickly began his ascent.
"Please don’t be here." He said again, the sweat starting to collect upon his brow. "Please don’t be here."
Finally, he reached the top floor – the penthouse. The living quarters of the man known as Our Father of the Inferno – the man who had personally inducted Gabriel into the Order of the Inferno. The man who, not only within the order but biologically too, was his birth father. Gabriel pushed open the window and stepped inside. He walked towards the door which was already ajar.
" – said don’t move." He heard from inside the room.
"Who the hell are you? What do you want?" Came his father’s voice. There was a hint of fear but a much greater mix of fury. "You understand that one press of this button and ten of the best security personnel in this country will rush in here and shoot… you… dead."
"No!" Said Gabriel pushing into the room. "No, please I can handle this."
"Gabriel – what are you doing here?" His father asked in confusion. Patient Zero stood behind him, the syringe already buried into his neck. "Who is this man?"
"Let me explain, it’s complicated…" Gabriel began.
"No." Said Patient Zero. "It’s quite simple. He’s not Gabriel Baal – I am Gabriel Baal."
Gabriel made eye contact with his father, and felt his shoulders fall. The truth was out, there was nothing for it.
"What?" Asked his father in confusion. "I don't understand. What is going on here"
"Tell him. Tell him who you really are or I will empty this syringe into his neck." Said Patient Zero, emotion cracking in his voice.
"My name…" Started Gabriel now breaking the eye contact. "My real name… Is Daniel Collins."
He saw his father’s eyes open wide.
"But you… You can’t be. Daniel… He’s in your facility. You told me he was in your facility…"
"That was me." Said the real Gabriel, a hint of triumph in his voice. "Me. I was playing the part of your son, so that Daniel here could get to know his daddy better without the risk of rejection or disappointment, isn’t that right?"
"Daniel… My Daniel? Why… When you knew all I wanted was to get you and Quentin back, why would you lie about that?" His father asked.
"Don’t you lecture him!" Said the real Gabriel, anger in his voice. "Don’t you dare lecture him. You left him alone. Eleven years old. No mother, no father. Left in an orphanage. I had to pick up the pieces – I had to look after him. Love him. Care for him. Without me he’d be dead now, and all the time you’d be looking to cosy up with your precious first born. Saint Quentin the perfect."
"Gabriel." He, holding out his hand. "Please be careful – that’s my father. There are somethings you just can’t come back from."
"Exactly." Exclaimed the real Gabriel. His voice breaking and cracking in anger and upset. "He can’t come back from what he did to you. He can’t take any of it back. He broke you… And I had to put you back together again. Now he wants to come back into our world and spoil it. I can’t let him spoil it."
"I never… Stopped… Thinking about you. Your mother was unwell – I should have done something. But…. With my record, they wouldn’t…. I wasn’t allowed… I created a new identity and I moved here and I had every plan of finding you and bringing you with me. I had every intention of trying to make a family again but…"
"But what?" Said Gabriel quietly. "What happened, dad?"
He sounded like a child again – begging for a reason to forgive his only remaining parent.
"By the time I had the network and resources to bring you here, I heard you’d been killed in an accident. I wanted to give you everything and I’d failed you. Over and over again, I’d failed you. Forgive me, and all of this goes away. All of this… You and I will rule this world together. I swear, Danny. Please… Forgive me. I love you."
He could feel tears on his cheeks. Warm, tears of sadness and happiness mixed as one. He had to forgive him – there would be no other way. There could be no other way.
"Dad…" He said looking down for a moment. "I lo…"
"Booooooring." Said the real Gabriel as he pressed hard on the syringe. The entire contents passed into his father’s bloodstream.
"No!" Shouted Gabriel, rushing forward to catch his father as Patient Zero let go. As he fell to the ground, he looked into his fathers face.
"Dad no… Please. No. Not now… We’ve missed so much time. Please, just stay with me." Gabriel felt the pulse in his neck slowing, and despite his lack of movement there was no fear in his father’s eyes. Only sorry.
"Dad… I love you. Please." He said one last time. The final beat ebbed away, and Gabriel was left entirely alone. It was a few moments before he realised what was happening around him. He looked up to see Patient Zero dancing and laughing. Gabriel lifted his father up and lay him on the bed. He pulled two bottles of his Serum out of his pocket and looked to the one marked with a red top. He wrapped his father’s hand around it and placed it by his side. He clutched the second bottle tight.
He turned on the spot and faced Patient Zero – his eyes burned red as he advanced.
"One down, one to go Daniel. And it is Daniel, I hate the name “Danny”. So common." Patient Zero said in a sing-song voice. And then, it stopped. His eyes widened in horror as Gabriel sunk the syringe down into his neck.
"I am going to make you pay for this for the rest of your life." He said quietly and viciously. "And I will make sure it is an agonisingly long life."
For the first time, Patient Zero seemed to understand the nature of his actions. It could have been the serum, but something told Gabriel that he knew what horror awaited him. And it would be horror.
"My best friend became my greatest experiment. My most prized possession." Said Gabriel to the room at large. "Everything I’ve ever done to any of you has been tried and tested on my favourite patient beforehand. He felt every single fate that each of you have endured. You should thank him for those that I decided not to move forward with – I couldn’t afford the resuscitation bills."
He moved back to the outer circle and moved to a cell in which a man stood smiling. It wasn’t a hollow, lobotomised smile. It was a true, honest to god smile. He was the only man happy to be here. Was he being protected? Was he destined for something great. Not one of the others knew, but they were sure – he wanted to be here and he was grateful to Gabriel Baal.
"But Eden knows better than most – friends are expendable when it comes to getting what you want. I’m not talking about success, or money. I’m talking about those things that burn away at your insides. Like when an alcoholic wants to drink, or when a kleptomaniac wants to steal. Every single one of us has a mania to deal with of some kind – there is that one thing we can’t live without. Be it drugs, be it cigarettes, be it fine food or even love – there is one thing that we will put above all else."
He tilts his head as he surveys the man staring at him.
"For me, it was power. In every sense of the word. I wanted power in my business world, I wanted power in wrestling, I wanted power in my personal life, I wanted power over my enemies. Power, for me, was more important than all the money in the world. In that moment, all I wanted was the power to reconcile with my father and he’d taken that away from me. I had, then, to settle for the power I would hold over him. Over everyone who crossed my path. I’ve lost that need for power in exchange for my love of Chaos. Somewhere… Somehow… I’ve failed to recognise that one can work hand in hand with the other."
Gabriel smiles as he pushes his hand through the opening in the door, and the man inside takes his hand and shakes it heartily.
"Eden, on the other hand, had two manias. A need to be the best, and a need to be destroyed. She had lost all vision of her self-worth. She had lost sight of just what she had once been. That happens – it’s always fixable. Yet somewhere on her path to self-destruction she made the decision that she would take as many people with her as she could. Pierce, Somers, Graber, Chaos, Roberts, Ingalls, Hanneman. Men and memories alike were tarnished by her attempted downward spiral until she looked to destroy the one name that it seemed impossible that she would ever be able to tear down. Yet she did. Colin Zale. She ended his career on the road to her destructive destination. It was a fitting end to such a fine warrior, but not the end that Eden had hoped for."
Gabriel pulled his hand back through the door and turned to face the room at large.
"No, despite my brothers assertions that he would ensure the outcome and the consequential stipulation would be followed through to it’s fullest, Eden’s attack upon Zale post match left her unprotected when Jet Somers – the man who had the power all along – finally dragged her to the help that she so needed. I had tried to offer my services and that of Angelfields to the lovely Eden, but New York was too far away from New Orleans. I was disappointed but not surprised. It would have been a bold move to send her to me – neither Jet nor Cypress truly had the fortitude to do what needed to be done."
Gabriel smiled as he placed his hands into his pockets.
"So I did it for them."
Gabriel looked through the one-way mirror into the room where Eden Morgan lay tethered to her bed. Her wrists were heavily bandaged and she fought her bonds periodically until she tired, before starting again.
"What do you plan on doing to her?" Asked Daniel’s pleading voice.
"Why, help her, of course." Said Gabriel with a smile
"Let me." He said with pleading in his voice. "Let me help her. I know I can."
"I’m sure you can, Daniel. But I don’t think it’s a good idea." Gabriel added with a smile.
Her fighting began to die down as the fatigue grew within her. He’d been watching her for the last two hours and this routine seemed to be unwavering.
"I want to help her. I need to help her. It has to be me." Daniel said, still pleading.
"No." Said Gabriel.
"I want to make her better, and if I make her better then she’ll like us. She’ll respect us. She’ll…" Continued Daniel.
"She’ll what?" Said Gabriel. "Hmm? What is it that she will, Daniel?"
"I just meant that she… She could." Daniel stuttered.
"Oh, Daniel, not again." Said Gabriel with disappointment in his voice. "Please don’t tell me you’re getting attached to another one."
"I don’t mean to…" Daniel replied quietly. "They’re all so broken… And I just want to fix them like new."
"You need to control yourself." Said Gabriel in a slight temper. "You need to be able to control those urges because if you don’t you’ll never be given the change to take control."
"I could take control?" Said Daniel, in a child-like manor. "Really?"
"One day." Said Gabriel still watching her through the window. "When I’m tired. When I’m so very tired."
"I wouldn’t let you down…" Added Daniel sounding excited. "I promise you, I wouldn’t let you down."
"You can convince me by changing your attitude and learning some restraint. You have been more hindrance than help in the past and I will not risk that with Eden Morgan. She is important."
"What do you have planned for her?" Daniel asked.
"You’ll know when you’re ready." Said Gabriel. "Now go."
And like that, Daniel was gone. Eden stirred in the bed, seemingly wanting to turn over but unable to due to the restraints. This, clearly, angers her as she suddenly starts to fly into yet another rage.
" Sorry I’m late – not sure why, you’re in control so you knew I was late already and didn’t care, so I'm not even sure why I'm apologising... So... what did I miss?" Asked Gabe.
"She’s awake – all the time, she’s awake." Said Gabriel.
"Excellent – when do we start pulling her mind apart." Asked Gabe, sounding keen.
"I haven’t decided if that is our path yet, Gabe. You’re somewhat hasty." Said Gabriel.
"Come on – just imagine what an emotionless, carefree version of the Uber-bitch would be able to do. Better still, what you’d both be able to do." Said Gabe, his voice dropping to a whisper. "It would be… Spectacular."
"I said I haven’t decided." Hissed Gabriel. "You need to step back, Gabe. You’re far too reckless and I cannot risk you getting this wrong."
"And why is that?" Asked Gabe. "Why is she so special?"
"Because she has a lot of friends who would take great pleasure in turning the screw on anyone who ever tried to hurt her. You need to learn to pick your battles otherwise you’re going to get yourself, and in turn me, seriously hurt." Gabriel.
"I’d call that a party." Gabe jested.
"I’d call it foolish, and unnecessarily abrasive and if you think I’m going to entrust our future to a psyche that can’t control it’s urge to let the world burn then you’ve got another thing coming."
Gabe didn’t speak for a moment as the fight died out of Eden once more. The bursts of energy were getting shorter every time. She was tired but stubbornly refusing to sleep.
"What do you want her to be? Friend or foe?" Asked Gabe.
"I’m not sure that choice will be mine, Gabe." Said Gabriel astutely. "I have a feeling that Eden Morgan could well be either the greatest enemy or the greatest ally that I will ever have."
As she stopped struggling she looked towards the mirror, as if she could see Gabriel where he stood. She stared directly into his eyes through the mirror.
"It’s time that I went in." Said Gabriel.
"Excellent." Said Gabe.
"Alone." Added Gabriel. Gabe didn’t reply, but he could sense the disappointment. Gabriel walked to the door and placed his hand on the handle.
"Gabriel…" Said Gabe. "Her being your enemy or your friend. You don’t seem sure. Is that a bad thing?"
"Not at all…" Replied Gabriel with a smile. "… with any luck, she’ll be both."
"And so enemy it was…" Said Gabriel with a smile as he continued to walk slowly around the room. "I’m not blameless in this. I did what I could to try and remove Eden’s self-destructive streak but maintain her willingness to do anything to win. I wanted to keep that “fuck you” attitude that she’d developed but channel that into the very idea that she wanted the pair of us to be renowned as the best there’s ever been. It’s well known that I long harbored a want for the two of us to be partners. Gabe was right – we would have done some magical things together."
Gabriel smiled as he looked down at the woman on the chair.
"Oh don’t get all judgmental, there’s never been anything of an attraction there for me. Daniel held a torch for a while, at least and Gabe… Well… I’m not sure Gabe has feelings exactly. But the truth, such as it is, is that I was interested in her ability to shut off any kind of fear of consequence. That, in and of itself, is such a gift that few can truly possess. With it, you’re unstoppable, without it you’re fallible. I fear consequence – I just have many ways to deal with them. She feared nothing, but the idea that she would live forever as she was. I wanted to remove that." He said before looking down at the ground.
"I failed."
He reached up and scratched the side of his head. He was, as ever, able to regain his composure quickly.
"I left, all those months ago, fearing that I had never helped her at all. That she would be destined to retain her self-loathing. Alas, I was wrong – months later she would reappear, and she would face the world as if nothing had ever happened. What is more, she would the thrust into the race for Holden Orson’s Cross Hemisphere Championship at Wrestlestock. Where she would face? You guessed it – yours truly. I waited for her to show some kind of recognition that she knew who I was. Yet she didn’t. Or at least, she made me think I didn’t. She played the game so well that I didn’t know what was coming." He smiled, dolefully.
"I won the battle at Wrestlestock and after some particularly unpleasant tactics she would win the war at In Your Hands. I decided then and there that Eden Morgan deserved to be happy – and I would do what I could to help that to happen. Believe it or not, deep down I still want everyone to be happy and healthy. I am still… A healer. So when I found the opportunity to give Ms. Morgan the chance to be happy, I took it. I locked Hugh McLellan away. I locked him away and planned to keep him locked away until I had assurances he would leave her and Killian alone. I wanted Eden Morgan to be happy."
His voice broke into laughter, pitiful laughter that was mocking in it’s tone and the subject of his scorn was clearly himself.
"I can’t even imagine a life in which I wanted her to be happy. She has returned from the ashes of her life, having been accepted by everyone. She had finally rid herself of a man who would be the ruin of her and of course she’d finally realized just who she’d loved all along. I wanted her to have all of that. Because I knew in my heart of hearts what I’d said before would be true. She would be my greatest enemy and my greatest ally. So when I knew Angelfields would burn, I did what I had to do. I stepped in and I saved them all. I let the world think me a monster. I let them believe that three men had died that night. I kept Johnny Dinucci safe and I kept Hugh McLellan safe and I did that despite everything. Because I wanted to do the right thing, by Quentin and by Eden. I had to keep them safe. Even if it meant them hating me."
Gabriel shook his head, his hands twisting into the metal of the chair in front of him.
"The Engine of Chaos was my life now – reviled and hated for our extreme views and opinions. Feared for our want to change the established way of things. Hated I was for the choices I made outside of that ring, hated on all sides and for what? A woman who wanted me murdered. Well fool on her – fool on her. She didn’t know Uriel very well at all – the man is vindictive and spiteful, he wouldn’t allow the sweet release of death. No – he would want to make me suffer the ignominy of life and live with everything I’d lost. Eden Morgan didn’t get what she wanted because she wasn’t dealing with the devil. She was dealing with his fucking masochist brother."
Gabriel turned now and lifted the chair as he did, causing it to spin through the air and smash against the wall. He paced now, getting angrier by the second.
"Yet here I was, making deals with the Façade so they would help me keep people alive. I had bodies brought from morgues all over this fucking country the right height, the right weight the right size to keep everyone alive, but was anyone greatful? No – Quentin took months to realise what I’d done. Eden Morgan screamed in my face. Did anyone care that I got them out."
He suddenly quieted. He suddenly calmed.
"Yet some were more ungrateful still. Some were… Lost to me."
He rubbed the bridge of his nose and turned to face the exit doors.
It had been a long time since Gabriel had visited Patient Zero – almost four months since he’d been moved down here. Eden Morgan’s attempts to have him searched had forced his hand, but thankfully he had plenty of space down here. It was dark and cold, given the absence of any kind of natural light and the fluorescent tubes that shone upon him were glaring and unpleasant. But these were not cells of comfort, not by a long shot. He reached what looked like a bank vault with a heavy, impact resistant steel door.
"Gareth – how is he today?" Asked Gabriel with a smile to the orderly stationed outside.
"Quiet sir – he’s been quiet for some time." He replied.
"Thank you. If you don’t mind, I want some time alone with him."
Gareth nodded and Gabriel reached up and pressed his hand against the palm reader and put his eyes into the retinal scanner. A few moments later, the door popped and slide to the side, revealing the room inside. Gabriel stepped in and pressed a button on the wall, allowing the door to close behind him.
"My friend." Said Gabriel with a smile. "How are you keeping?"
The mask still covered his face, but he looked somewhat healthier – less wasted. Gabriel stepped forward and pulled the straps off the mask, allowing it to drop and hang down by his chest.
"Daniel…" He stuttered almost immediately. "It’s been too long."
Gabriel tilted his head and sighed.
"You always had a wicked sense of humour, old friend. But I’m not here to exchange pleasantries. We work to do if you’re going to be safe."
"What… Do you… Mean?" He asked breathily.
"The long version is much more interesting, but we don’t have time. I have to prepare you to move. My order has, for all intents and purposes, turned it’s back on me. And whilst that would usually mean my death, it apparently means yours. Yours along with two other patients. Fortunately, I have some new friends who can help and they’re going to do just that."
"How?" Daniel asked with all the breath he could muster.
"Well, I’m going to have you moved to another location. They have another facility set up and waiting. There are three of you to move there so we have to be quick – I have no idea when and how they’ll be watching us."
"No." Said Patient Zero breathily.
"Come on, old friend, you’ve been moved before. I know it’s not ideal but it’s the best in the end…"
"No…" He said again. "No, do not move me. Let me go…"
Gabriel stepped back, a look of pity crossing his lips.
"Gabriel, you know I can’t do that." He said, reaching up and holding his friend’s head by the back of the neck. "You know I would love to release you back into the World but you know too much and you’re too frail. I can’t release y…"
"Not release." Said the patient, using all of the energy he could muster to lift his head. "Let… Me… Go."
It took Gabriel a moment to realise what he meant. It was not release he was looking for, not into the real world at least.
"No." Said Gabriel this time. "No, you can’t mean…"
"It has been… So long… Gabriel." His oldest friend said. "You… Were a better… Gabriel than… I ever would have been. You have looked… After me… For long enough. I can be the proof… They need to know… That… People died here. That… Your friends died here."
"I don’t want to let you go. You’re my oldest friend." Said Gabriel through the tears that stung his eyes.
"You have… New friends now… Good friends… Better friends. You will… Make more." He said coughing slightly through the effort of talking. "You are a good man, Gabriel Baal. Deep down… You are the best man, I have… Ever known."
He coughed again, as his head drooped slightly in fatigue.
"It has… been an honour… To know you… And to… To love you." He said with an air of finality.
"Please… We can… I can change this. You can live a normal life. You can be happy… I promise."
"I will never be happier… Than this moment now." He said with a smile. "Looking at you… And knowing what… I have meant to… Your life. I am complete. Thank you… For our life together."
He looked down and lifted the mask up as high as he could. In sorrow, Gabriel lifted it up and placed it back over his oldest friends face. He leaned forward and kissed him on the forehead.
"Thank you… Old friend."
He turned an composed himself as he pushed the button to open the door.
"Gareth, why don’t you finish early tonight." He said looking back over his shoulder at Patient Zero one last time. "He’s not going anywhere."
Gabriel took a few seconds to clear his head – pressing his hand against his face, and allowing the burning fire to die down inside of him. Finally he turned on the spot.
"He forgave me for everything I’d ever done to him. Everything. And I’d done some terrible, terrible things. He forgave me and accepted death in a way that was both admirable and helpful. It made sense for The Order to check on the patient who would need assistance being moved first. There would be no quick escape for him." Said Gabriel as he continued his aimless wandering around the open space, his jacket strewn across the floor.
"Forgiveness is not easy – despite how quickly it was given to Eden. Comparably speaking, I have done little to the fractured fools that our roster houses, yet they loathe me in a way they could never loathe her. That’s fine – I’m not here for love or affection, but I do find it ironic that Eden Morgan can drag most of them through some of the worst moments in their personal history, yet she spins a yarn and they fall at her feet. And in the end, as it turns out, she was lying to every single one of them. But we all know how this story ends – she’ll bat her eye lashes and once again everyone will forgive." He said with a smile. "Well – almost everyone."
He stopped and looked at the new patient whose limbs still shook with fear. He slowly made his approach.
"You see, we’ve been dancing this waltz for the last year, since Wrestlestock 2016. Eden and I, back and forth, back and forth. Neither of us knowing who was better. But here’s a thing – every time I have faced Eden with the chance to win a Championship, I have come out victorious. Granted, it wasn’t one on one… On that occasion she, indeed, managed to best me and took the Cross Hemisphere Championship away from me. Yet since that day, I haven’t lost a single attempt to win a Championship. Interesting, is it not?"
He smiles as he crouches down, bent at the knees just inches away from the new patient.
"She fears me. She won’t admit it, but she fears me. You don’t plot to kill a man who you’re not afraid of. You fear me. You won’t admit it, but you fear me. You don’t plot to harm a man who you’re not afraid of. You’re both the same – you and Eden. Fucking cowards. You both fear the idea of Gabriel Baal but neither of you have the strength to do something about it. She relied on a man who has no concept of loyalty – she relied on Uriel." He said reaching up and sliding his hand under the hood and slowly caressing her face.
"You on the other hand – you relied on her." The words came with a snarl. "You feared me and instead of coming to me, to try and stave off that fear you went behind my back and you went to her. She is not going to save you. Just like Uriel did not save her."
He finally pulled his hand away, and with it the burlap sack. He stood back and surveyed the face in front of him.
"My dear, sweet Lilith." He said with a note of sadness in his voice. His eyes were for a moment, sad – looking down at the woman he’d loved through everything. It had been difficult to discover – Solomon had been the one to find it. Solomon, who loved Lilith like a daughter, had come to Gabriel split in too – his want to protect her. His want to protect him.
Solomon – a good man – a trustworthy man. One of his last remaining friends.
"You played your part well for so long. Keep your friends close but your enemies closer, am I right?"
"P… Please, Gabriel." She said through the thickness of tears. "I… I’m sorry."
His hand began to twitch involuntarily. His head twitched from side to side. He closed his eyes and waited in the silence.
"ENOUGH!" He screamed. No-one had been talking – not out loud at least. "Enough."
He stood back up to his full height.
"You were my love." He began. "I could cope with her betrayal. At heart, she is black and cold as night. I was already aware that she knew of the impending disaster and did nothing to stop it. I knew. But you, my love, you’ve burnt the heart out of me. You’ve burnt the mercy out of me. You’ve burnt the hope out of me."
"I’m sorry." She whispered. "Please forgive me."
"When you walked back into my life I believed that you’d truly accepted your lot in life. I believed that you’d sworn your life and your love to me. Now I know the truth – you were playing a part. Keeping yourself and those who truly mean something to you safe." He paused for a moment. "When did it begin?"
His question was calm. Lilith didn’t answer right away – she blinked away the tears.
"After… After Angelfields." She said quietly. "I feared what would happen to us. I feared… I feared that we may be next. I knew that Uriel had contacted her – you’d told us. I thought if I helped her then she would be able to..."
"Neutralise me." Said Gabriel with a smile.
"I know, now, that I was wrong – I know that I should have come to you with my fears. You would have protected me."
"I was protecting you. Just like I was protecting her." He said with his hands in his pockets.
"Yet for seven… long… months… You were hers and not mine. You’re both the same. Tainted by cowardice. And you must both be punished."
"Please Gabriel… I never meant…" She began.
"I’m fucking talking!" He exclaimed. "When I talk, you listen. Do you understand that?"
"Gabriel please, I just meant to say that…" She began again.
"Pareo." He said, almost instinctively. He blinked as she fell silent, her head lowered towards her lap – it had been instantaneous. It had been… Instinctive.
"Very… Very good." He said with air of caution. "Now you will listen."
He rotated his head, before running his hand across his face.
"Eden Morgan has spent the last three years praying on the weak and the feeble. She has picked apart the lives of everyone around her. One by one, they have succumbed to her wicked and villainous ways, whilst all the time her closes confidantes have commended her on such a wonderful performance. Deep down, Eden Morgan believes she has done to me what she has done to every single challenge that has come before her. And you could understand that confidence – I lost my facility, I lost my friend, I lost my title as Doctor and now I’ve lost you. She has, for all intents and purposes taken everything away from me."
When his hand moved away from his face, it reveals a smile.
"And yet she has taken nothing. Here we stand in a better facility, with an endless resource. I have friends who have power untold and unimagined. I turned my back on the path of healing so that when I drill her entire life into the dust I won’t be conflicted and of course – I still have you, in every sense of the word. You are mine, Lilith. Mine." He added with a hint of malice.
"Eden Morgan’s path in this world may be course for those who love her to make their excuses, but every time the doubt must linger that little bit longer. Surely, even now, those who accepted her apologies without hesitation before, must be doubting those calls and texts of apology and remorse. Because Eden Morgan is everything I’ve said she is for the last year – spiteful, loathing, hungry for what she feels she deserves. Willing to sacrifice everything in order to be whatever it is she wants to be. Eden Morgan is, by far, the most cunning and calculating individual that this or any organisation has ever seen. Eden Morgan is – beautiful."
Given the nature of the afternoons events, this turn was unexpected. Gabriel Baal had claimed anger and hatred for this woman. A loathing for everything she had done and now he proclaimed her… Beautiful. He suddenly broke into an excited chuckle which developed into laughter.
"Do you know what the best part is? She is the woman I hoped she would be when I first set eyes on her in that hospital. I had trusted a hope, when I saw what she did to Deimos, that she still harboured that innate ability to crush whoever stood in her way, and now I know it to be true. I hoped and dreamed for a day like this one – one where the world would finally see her for what she truly is. A masterpiece of horror and hostility. Yet even now, she fails to recognise the truth about the last year. About the foe she faces this time around."
Gabriel lets out a burst of joyous laughter.
"The more games she plays, the stronger she makes me – for this is the Eden Morgan I have dreamed of seeing for so very long. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls – I shine the spotlight wholly and fully on the Eden Morgan we all love to hate. The one, the only – manipulative, scheming shrew herself. Her games have made me stronger – more able, more willing to destroy everything she has built. Because deep down – truly and unequivocally – I believe that we are two of a kind. She and I – kindred spirits. The greatest of enemies who could well become the greatest of allies."
The laughter died in his eyes.
"We either stand side by side, or one of us must be destroyed." He said quietly. "And it begins at Wrestlestock. I will take her trinket, I will take her body and I will take her soul. Not as punishment, but as proof. She should have accepted my help all those months ago – because if she had, she would have been… Fantastic."
Gabriel walks now behind Lilith and opens a door, the only empty cell remaining on this wing. He Slowly walks towards her.
"You may have stripped away my mercy, but I am not about to waste my time on vengeance. You are broken and I will fix you. For Eden the fate is much simpler – I will honour her and I will destroy her in equal measure. Either she will realise and stand by my side or I will make her scream as she burns. I have no qualms with either." He says as he places his hand on the back of Lilith’s chair. He tips her back, and begins to pull the chair towards the cell. Just as they reach the threshold of the door, Gabriel stops and leans towards her.
"Scream for me." He whispers in her ear.
And so she did.
All must watch.
This time was different. There were two chairs instead of one. Usually, the new inductee would be dragged kicking and screaming into the atrium before being sedated by one of the Doctor’s employees. They would then be left – a testament to the confidence those who held the power had in the inability of their patients to escape. The new patient would remain, and those who came before would watch – in desperation and hope – to see if they could rouse themselves into an escape.
It had never happened.
Yet this time there were two chairs. It was unnerving to see this change in routine from a place where routine was all that mattered. Treatments were delivered not a minute late, no matter what. There was an air of concern about the patients, an almost audible buzz which crackled through the air. Something different was happening tonight.
A few moments later, the doors to the only entrance and exit opened. Two orderlies strode into the antechamber, and between them they dragged a woman. She was covered only in a hospital nightgown, and a burlap bag which covered her head. Below the end of the sack hung some long, dark hair. At least, that was what they could pick out from their distance. They placed her in the chair and began to fasten the very chains that so many of these patients had felt clasped around their wrists and ankles before.
"No." Came the voice. "She’ll be fine without them."
There was a collective intake of breath at the sound. It chilled each and every one of them to the core. They had all heard the stories, some had even been party to Gabriel Baal’s brutal practices when he was still a legitimate Doctor. These days he took offence to the title, as if it were a reminder of something horrible, something scarring. These days, those who addressed him called him only “Gabriel.”
He walked with an air of authority – no rush, but a gentle swagger. As he stepped into the light cast by the single spotlight, he took a bite from an apple. He had a a manor about him which betrayed the stories – he seemed caring. Kind. There was something of a lie in the eyes though. Something that no one who had met him could ever place. He pulled off his jacket and hung it over the back of the chair. Taking his seat, he crossed one leg over the other and turned slightly to his right. He rested his elbow on his knee as he took another bite of the fruit.
"Eden." He said quietly, looking down at the apple.
He didn’t speak again straight away. It felt like hours as the tension grew. The woman was shaking now, visibly shaking. Her hands were trembling and her feet rattled against the chair legs. She was afraid, and they could all feel her pain.
"Eden was, if you’re of a religious persuasion, an idyllic paradise. The genesis of everything that the human race is today. They started off so naive, so kind and gentle. The human race were a species apart from everything else that god had created. No matter what crossed their path, they were a cut above the other savage creatures that roamed the earth. They were good."
He sounded sad – almost wistful. It was strange to hear from a man who came with such a reputation.
"And then an apple. One single apple allowed the reality of the human condition to seep inside and taint everything. One single snake to whisper falsehoods and fallacy to corrupt everything that was good in the world. One moment in time upon which the fate of humanity's future turned. Forever more would we be offered temptation do the wrong things in life. There are no stories of evil men being tempted to do the will of good. There are no stories of the utterly corrupted failing in their true path and falling into purity. That is because no-one is born evil, my dear. Every life effects the living in such a way that it guides their future."
Gabriel smiled now, knowing fully well that his newest patient couldn’t see him. Yet he smiled anyway. There was something in that.
"Eden Morgan was not born the way she is today. Much like, you were not born to be sat before me now. No, you see I understand Eden in a way that she could never understand me. Perhaps it’s because I was there during her darkest moments. Perhaps it’s because I can see people in a way that most cannot. But I remember every kind of Eden Morgan that has ever existed. The good, sweet and kind Eden. The hurt, damaged and vengeful Eden. The scheming, hate-filled self-destructive Eden and now this bizarre attempt at hybridity that she exudes these days."
Gabriel leans forward and takes another bite from the apple and chews it mournfully as he rests his elbows on each knee.
"The Eden Morgan of today wants to good with every fiber of her being.” Gabriel smiles as spins the apple around and around between his thumb and his finger. “She wants her life to be filled with love and laughter. She wants her friends and family to be proud and doleful. Yet still, she wants her enemies destroyed. She wants to watch women like Lucy Wylde fail. She wants to toss heinous and vicious verbal assaults at Gabrielle Montgomery. In some cases – most specifically yours truly – she wants to commit some of her enemies to burial. Or at the very least, cremation."
He smiles, but not a true smile. A smile of irony.
"Yes, Ms. Morgan was a child of Eden when she walked through those hallowed doors of UGWC all those years ago. She was UGWC’s Sweetheart, she was naive and good. Snakes and apples destroyed that and now I pay the price for what the serpents and fruit did to her. No-one is born the way they are, my darling. Eden wasn’t born to want to see me killed, just as I was not born to see her maimed and destroyed. Despite everything, that was never what I truly wanted for her. My story started a long, long time ago."
He leaned back again and looked around at all the faces waiting and listening at their doors.
"So now I will share my story." He said quietly. "I will share my story with each and every one of you."
He placed the core of the apple on the floor to his side. One of the orderlies moved to collect it, but he waived her away. He crossed his leg once more.
"Some people are aware that I have a disorder of my own - Dissociative Identity Disorder. To make things simple, there are three of me. Gabriel, Gabe and Daniel. It is Daniel of whom we must begin, because that was the child that I was born. Daniel Collins – born to an addict and a criminal. A child, I was, when I first heard a voice inside my head. I wasn’t afraid, nor was I worried. This was a friend – a friend who would help to guide me. It was, however, this friend who scared my mother so. She was worried that I would develop her mania, her addiction. And so she sought to beat the voices out of me."
His mouth curled into a weak smile that sought to hide away the sadness.
"Anytime she would see me speaking, even without words, to that as then nameless individual she would beat me to within an inch of consciousness. Beatings such as this did not, however, go unnoticed and before long I found myself in one of London’s premier orphanages. I was eleven years old. Torn away from my mother. No contact with my father. I was utterly alone."
Gabriel adjusted his position slightly, as if readying himself for something terrible.
"And then I met a young man by the name of Gabriel Baal.” Said Baal with a wistful look to the ceiling. ” – a child of privilege and worth. His parents had died in suspicious circumstances. He had no known relatives and so had been placed in the care of the Orphanage until such a time he was old enough to claim his trust and enter the world as a wealthy child of inheritance."
Gabriel stopped again, to rub a hand over his mouth.
"It was at the age of fifteen that the matron asked me to follow her. She pulled me into her office and informed me that my mother was gravely ill. The years of drug abuse had ravaged her body and she was on the verge of death. She had requested to see me one last time. And so, with my only request being that my only true friend accompany me, I agreed to visit the woman whose abilities to raise a child had failed. I was fifteen years old."
He looked down at his hands, and seemed to fade into his own story.
"Dan…" Gabriel said, following his friend down the corridor. "Do you want me to come in with you? Do you want me to…"
"No." Said Gabriel, perhaps a little to harshly. "No, I need to do this on my own."
The corridor seemed to go on forever as the nurse led the way. Daniel had never been so afraid in his life – he’d never seen the inside of a hospital before. Not in any way he could remember at least. Finally, after what seemed like hours, they reached the door.
"Are you ready?" Asked the nurse. She was kind and pretty. But quickly he realised that was not what he should be focusing on.
"Just a second." He said, his voice child-like and scared. He looked through the window but could only see his mother’s bare leg. She looked so thin. He closed his eyes for a second.
"We could just leave, you know." Came the familiar voice from inside of his head. "We owe her nothing. Save a beating or two, and somehow I think we MIGHT just get in trouble for that."
"Stop." He said as quietly as he could.
"Sorry?" Said the nurse smiling. Gabriel quickly stepped in.
"He’s fine, he’s just trying to get himself ready, aren’t you Daniel?" Gabriel added with pleading eyes.
"Yes…. Yes." He said, looking the nurse in the eye. "I’m ready."
"Now I just want to warn you, she’s lost a lot of weight and her skin may look a little yellow. That’s because of the problems with her liver." She added as she pushed the door open.
Daniel stepped inside and slowly walked towards the bed. As he got closer, the could see the emaciated form of the woman he once knew as his mother lay motionless, mouth open, eyes closed. He stepped forward, his voice catching in his throat as he moved to her side. He slowly reached out and lifted her hand into his.
"Mum." He said. His voice breaking mid-word. Her eyes slowly but surely flickered open. It took her a minute to realise where she was and who she was looking at.
"D… Daniel." She said, her mouth dry and her lips cracked. "Is that really you?"
"Yes, mum." He said as the tears welled up in her eyes and leaked down her cheeks.
"My… My boy." She said trying with all of her strength to pull him towards her. He leaned forward as she reached up with a thin hand and caressed his cheek. "My beautiful handsome boy."
"Not so sure about that." Daniel chuckled, trying to fight the tears that burned his eyes.
"You look so much like your grandfather. My dad. You’re both so handsome." She said again. "I’m so glad you came to see me, Daniel. I’m so happy I’ve been able to see you one last time."
"Don’t say that." Daniel added, the tears now coming unbidden. "You never know. Things could turn around. You could get better"
She smiled slightly with pity at his naivety. She was slipping away, they both knew that. But only she had made her peace with it.
"I’m dying Daniel. There’s nothing that can be done. I’ve destroyed my entire life. I’m just happy that they took you away before I could destroy your life too."
"I never wanted to leave you mum. I wanted to stay. Maybe if I had I could have helped you – I could have done something."
"No." She said with a strength that belied her current fragility. "No, I would have hurt you more than I already had. I would have dragged you into my world and crushed you within. I’m sorry that I couldn’t be a better mother, Daniel. I truly am. But the only thing I did in my entire life that was right by you, was letting you go."
"Don’t… Please." Daniel said, the tears no streaming down his face. She reached back under her pillow and pulled a letter out from underneath.
"This is for you, Daniel. Please read it. It will tell you everything I never had the chance to say." She wheezed, as her breathing became more and more labored. "I’m sorry that I let you down, my darling. Please, if you can, forgive me."
Daniel pulled her hand to his mouth and kissed it gently.
"Of course I forgive you mum. Of course I do." He said, the tears dropping onto her thin and sallow skin.
She smiled once more. As her eyes flickered.
"I love you, Daniel." She managed to eek out, before they closed for the final time.
"Mum… Mum…" Daniel said shaking her hand "Mum, please don’t leave me. Please. Come back… Come back/"
He rubbed her hand and then her cheek. He bent down and kissed her gently on the forehead.
"I love you… Please stay."
A few moments later, nurses entered the room. Daniel looked at them, wordlessly pleading for them to help her, but the kindly nurse shook her head. He didn’t know why they didn’t help her, but he knew that it was what they had to do. He turned and walked from the room, without looking back. Gabriel followed in silence as Daniel Collins broke into a run.
"She was utterly self-destructive." Said Gabriel, wiping a single tear from his eye. "Corrupted by something so much bigger than herself."
Gabriel climbed to his feet and walked outside of the circle of light. One by one he made his way to each of the doors on the outer rim of the chamber. He made eye contact with it’s inhabitant.
"I, on the other hand, was naive and innocent. In fact, it was on that day I made the decision to become a doctor. I wanted to help people, I wanted to make sure they were happy and healthy and safe. I was, at that time, as innocent as Eden Morgan was at that age, despite her rough-housing brother and his friends. We both started this life as an innocent bystander – just wanting to be the best we could be and both wanting the best for those that we loved." He added, lingering at the door of the man now carved with Eden Morgan’s name. The man castrated and hollowed. The man whose eyes held nought by a blank stare. Alan Myer.
"We both did things we’re not proud of – even in those innocent early days. Gabriel was my best friend. And I wanted to protect him. After the death of my mother, he became infatuated with me. It was – for the want of a better word – love. He never wanted to see me hurt like I was the day my mother died and so he made it his life’s work to remove any other symbol of family that I had left. Namely, my father and my brother. I was able to assuage his urges with false hopes and promises. And then came the night that I knew he was truly dangerous. Granted, I did not choose to kill him like Eden tried to do with me, but I can relate to the fear that tore at her insides. I can understand her attempts to preempt any potential damage. Because I did it first… To Gabriel."
He watched Alan’s blank eyes as yet again he seemed to dissolve into his own mind.
"I could do it you know." Said Gabriel with a smile, looking down at the knife he was using to chop mushrooms.
"Do what, Gabe?" Asked Daniel moving the minced beef around in the frying pan.
"I could kill them." Gabriel said, making slashing movements with his knife. "And I could make it look like an accident too."
"Not this again." Said Daniel sucking his thumb where he’d just caught it the edge of the pan. "I’ve told you – I do NOT want my family murdered."
This conversation was bizarre. Truly and utterly bizarre. What was more bizarre was that it wasn’t the first time they’d had it. Since they’d moved to the United States to begin their training at Harvard medical, Gabriel had been utterly obsessed with the fact that he was now just a drive away from the two men that were, in his eyes at least, in the way of their true and unbridled happiness.
"But they’re so expendable." Said Daniel with a smile. "And I promise no-one would ever know that it had anything to do with me."
"You’ve been a medical student for three years and now you think you’re an expert at concealing murder? Great, that’s just great." Said Daniel.
"No! I’ve been an expert for a lot longer than that." Said Gabriel with a shake of his head. The statement was so matter-of-fact that Daniel almost didn’t register it.
"Wait, what?" Said Gabriel putting the wooden spoon down on the worktop. "What do you mean you’ve been an expert for longer than that?"
Gabriel slid the mushrooms into a bowl and started on some red peppers.
"I mean no-one had any idea how my parents died did they?" He said before starting to hum the tune to “Killer Queen”.
"And how did they die, Gabriel?" Daniel asked slowly backing towards the table and feeling inside his medical bag.
"Well it was quite simple really – I wanted to make sure I got all their money. They were quite stingy really. They had a tendency to not buy me the things I wanted and I couldn’t carry on like that until they turned 90 and popped their clogs themselves. So one day, while they slept, I broke the pipe on our gas fire."
Daniel found what he was looking for – the vial of Pancuronium bromide, that he’d liberated during one of their Pharmacy trips. Despite his slightly shaking hands he managed to place a needle into the stopper.
"Then I went outside, climbed my kiddie tent and lay down inside. It was just a case of waiting. And waiting. And waiting. I waited until the sun came up and then I waited some more."
Daniel’s hands were really shaking now – he had to get the dosage right, but that was difficult. Gabriel turned his back now, to grab an onion from the cupboard – Daniel checked. He squeezed a little back into the vial.
"Then I went inside. It smelt terrible. I ran upstairs and tried to wake mum and dad but they didn’t move. A quick phone call to the police later and voila! They assumed that they’d decided to commit a double suicide while I was sleeping out in my tent. Who would ever have suspected a ten year old?" He said with a smile. "And I can do the same for your dad and for Quentin too."
Gabriel’s smile was short-lived as he turned around just in time to feel the needle pierce his neck.
"Wh… What… Have you done… To… Me?" He asked as he slowly lost the use of his legs and his arms. He stumbled but Daniel caught him.
"I’m sorry, my friend." He said with tears in his eyes. "But I have to protect those who I have left. Including you."
And with that, he lifted Gabriel over his shoulder and they left the apartment for good.
"And with that I had done similar to that which Eden sought to do to me. Of course, I was protecting my friend, not trying to kill an enemy. But the sentiment was the same – protecting those that we care about. But you see, Eden was trying to protect herself from a monster that was never truly there. I am, as she’s said before, no Mickey Dragon. But what she fails to realise is that her actions in trying to prevent the creation of this so-called monster that she feared would spring into existence have done little more than created an enemy who wants to see her fall harder and further than he’d ever dreamt before."
Gabriel kept his eyes locked on Alan’s.
"Gabriel and I travelled for a year. It was difficult to keep him sedated, but it was possible. I had learned that I had a penchant for manipulation. Of course, the fact that Gabriel had around one hundred thousand dollars in cash helped significantly. I had managed to spread word that we’d gone missing whilst skiing in the French Alps. Money had a way of creating suggestion. But after a while I knew we couldn’t carry on forever."
Gabriel reached into the gap and touched Alan Myer’s face.
"In the end I made the decision that Daniel Collins would die and Gabriel Baal would survive. I could access his vast wealth and I would be able to care for him so much better. I used the last of the money to purchase some rock sold fake identification from a man by the name of Alan Myer. He never told anyone what he’d done for me, probably because he couldn’t remember. I thank you Alan… For making all of this possible."
Gabriel moved on, Alan now seeming to finally realise who he was, before stumbling back. His wails were lost as the opening in the door was closed.
"I returned to Harvard and completed my Medical Degree. My residency was fast tracked and finally I was the owner and operator of the Angelfields Resort. It was perfect. Gabriel was now Daniel or Patient Zero, and I was forging my way in the World. My methods had worked wonders, and it was looking like my best friend would be able to be reintegrated into the World once more. I had, I’ll admit, changed somewhat. That year in hiding had hardened me, and a particularly distressing trip to a crack den had brought up some unresolved feelings about my mother. I was not the kind hearted and naïve fool I had been all those years ago."
Gabriel smiled as he stopped and turned back towards the light where his new patient sat.
"And neither was she – Eden, I mean. Of course she wasn’t the hellacious she-devil that she became circa 2015, but neither was she the kind and gentle Eden the fans had grown to love. She had seen so much. In the years leading up to our meeting she’d watched her sister-in-law lose her career and almost her life. She’d watched Mickey Dragon rain all kinds of terror down on her and hers. She’d failed to protect people she loved. She’d watched him ruin lives. Yet still, at this moment in time, Eden Morgan was… Herself."
Gabriel smiled as he stepped behind the newest patient and placed his hands on her shoulders, gently massaging her.
"Eden was beloved by so many – she shocked the world when she finally snapped. When, at that moment of incandescent rage, she turned her back on her friends and stole her first World Championship. She became the Eden Morgan we all saw rage fire and fury. She became… Feared. Not merely for her ability in the ring, but her willingness to do and say anything to be successful. She built up the enemies that were supposed to tear her down, and none of them ever did. They all fell, one by one, because defeat isn’t what Eden craved it was complete and total destruction. And in that moment I knew… Deep down that I could help her. And I would have… But fate turned that card away."
Gabriel lowered his eyes and shook his head.
"Patient Zero has escaped. Four words that chilled me to my very core. I had hoped that my old friend had merely grown tired with incarceration, but the truth, such as it was much different. He had convinced me that he was better. That he was almost ready to be set free. I had been wrong in my belief of him. And I had been wrong to trust him with information about who my father was and where he could be found. I don’t know why, even to this day, I shared what I knew. Perhaps I thought I had my friend back. It is a mistake I will take with me to my grave."
Gabriel’s heart was beating almost out of his chest. Normally, he would have reserved the task of driving for his chauffeur but in this instance, a certain disregard for rules was a definitive requirement. He shifted down gears and jammed his foot against the accelerator.
"Don’t be here." He said through gritted teeth. "Please don’t be here."
As he pressed his foot against the break every single scenario flashed through his mind. What if he’d been discovered? What if he hadn’t? What would they do if he was caught in the act? What happens if Gabriel bursts into this building uninvited? What happens if he bursts in uninvited and Patient Zero isn’t even here. What if he’s too late?
What if he’s too late?
He slid round the a corner almost knocking a number of terrified looking pedestrians down in his hast. He pushed the break into the floor and ground to a halt looking up at the beautiful apartment building. He had seconds to choose his path – front door or fire escape? He chose quickly, heading down the side of the building and found the fire escape ladder already extended. He quickly began his ascent.
"Please don’t be here." He said again, the sweat starting to collect upon his brow. "Please don’t be here."
Finally, he reached the top floor – the penthouse. The living quarters of the man known as Our Father of the Inferno – the man who had personally inducted Gabriel into the Order of the Inferno. The man who, not only within the order but biologically too, was his birth father. Gabriel pushed open the window and stepped inside. He walked towards the door which was already ajar.
" – said don’t move." He heard from inside the room.
"Who the hell are you? What do you want?" Came his father’s voice. There was a hint of fear but a much greater mix of fury. "You understand that one press of this button and ten of the best security personnel in this country will rush in here and shoot… you… dead."
"No!" Said Gabriel pushing into the room. "No, please I can handle this."
"Gabriel – what are you doing here?" His father asked in confusion. Patient Zero stood behind him, the syringe already buried into his neck. "Who is this man?"
"Let me explain, it’s complicated…" Gabriel began.
"No." Said Patient Zero. "It’s quite simple. He’s not Gabriel Baal – I am Gabriel Baal."
Gabriel made eye contact with his father, and felt his shoulders fall. The truth was out, there was nothing for it.
"What?" Asked his father in confusion. "I don't understand. What is going on here"
"Tell him. Tell him who you really are or I will empty this syringe into his neck." Said Patient Zero, emotion cracking in his voice.
"My name…" Started Gabriel now breaking the eye contact. "My real name… Is Daniel Collins."
He saw his father’s eyes open wide.
"But you… You can’t be. Daniel… He’s in your facility. You told me he was in your facility…"
"That was me." Said the real Gabriel, a hint of triumph in his voice. "Me. I was playing the part of your son, so that Daniel here could get to know his daddy better without the risk of rejection or disappointment, isn’t that right?"
"Daniel… My Daniel? Why… When you knew all I wanted was to get you and Quentin back, why would you lie about that?" His father asked.
"Don’t you lecture him!" Said the real Gabriel, anger in his voice. "Don’t you dare lecture him. You left him alone. Eleven years old. No mother, no father. Left in an orphanage. I had to pick up the pieces – I had to look after him. Love him. Care for him. Without me he’d be dead now, and all the time you’d be looking to cosy up with your precious first born. Saint Quentin the perfect."
"Gabriel." He, holding out his hand. "Please be careful – that’s my father. There are somethings you just can’t come back from."
"Exactly." Exclaimed the real Gabriel. His voice breaking and cracking in anger and upset. "He can’t come back from what he did to you. He can’t take any of it back. He broke you… And I had to put you back together again. Now he wants to come back into our world and spoil it. I can’t let him spoil it."
"I never… Stopped… Thinking about you. Your mother was unwell – I should have done something. But…. With my record, they wouldn’t…. I wasn’t allowed… I created a new identity and I moved here and I had every plan of finding you and bringing you with me. I had every intention of trying to make a family again but…"
"But what?" Said Gabriel quietly. "What happened, dad?"
He sounded like a child again – begging for a reason to forgive his only remaining parent.
"By the time I had the network and resources to bring you here, I heard you’d been killed in an accident. I wanted to give you everything and I’d failed you. Over and over again, I’d failed you. Forgive me, and all of this goes away. All of this… You and I will rule this world together. I swear, Danny. Please… Forgive me. I love you."
He could feel tears on his cheeks. Warm, tears of sadness and happiness mixed as one. He had to forgive him – there would be no other way. There could be no other way.
"Dad…" He said looking down for a moment. "I lo…"
"Booooooring." Said the real Gabriel as he pressed hard on the syringe. The entire contents passed into his father’s bloodstream.
"No!" Shouted Gabriel, rushing forward to catch his father as Patient Zero let go. As he fell to the ground, he looked into his fathers face.
"Dad no… Please. No. Not now… We’ve missed so much time. Please, just stay with me." Gabriel felt the pulse in his neck slowing, and despite his lack of movement there was no fear in his father’s eyes. Only sorry.
"Dad… I love you. Please." He said one last time. The final beat ebbed away, and Gabriel was left entirely alone. It was a few moments before he realised what was happening around him. He looked up to see Patient Zero dancing and laughing. Gabriel lifted his father up and lay him on the bed. He pulled two bottles of his Serum out of his pocket and looked to the one marked with a red top. He wrapped his father’s hand around it and placed it by his side. He clutched the second bottle tight.
He turned on the spot and faced Patient Zero – his eyes burned red as he advanced.
"One down, one to go Daniel. And it is Daniel, I hate the name “Danny”. So common." Patient Zero said in a sing-song voice. And then, it stopped. His eyes widened in horror as Gabriel sunk the syringe down into his neck.
"I am going to make you pay for this for the rest of your life." He said quietly and viciously. "And I will make sure it is an agonisingly long life."
For the first time, Patient Zero seemed to understand the nature of his actions. It could have been the serum, but something told Gabriel that he knew what horror awaited him. And it would be horror.
"My best friend became my greatest experiment. My most prized possession." Said Gabriel to the room at large. "Everything I’ve ever done to any of you has been tried and tested on my favourite patient beforehand. He felt every single fate that each of you have endured. You should thank him for those that I decided not to move forward with – I couldn’t afford the resuscitation bills."
He moved back to the outer circle and moved to a cell in which a man stood smiling. It wasn’t a hollow, lobotomised smile. It was a true, honest to god smile. He was the only man happy to be here. Was he being protected? Was he destined for something great. Not one of the others knew, but they were sure – he wanted to be here and he was grateful to Gabriel Baal.
"But Eden knows better than most – friends are expendable when it comes to getting what you want. I’m not talking about success, or money. I’m talking about those things that burn away at your insides. Like when an alcoholic wants to drink, or when a kleptomaniac wants to steal. Every single one of us has a mania to deal with of some kind – there is that one thing we can’t live without. Be it drugs, be it cigarettes, be it fine food or even love – there is one thing that we will put above all else."
He tilts his head as he surveys the man staring at him.
"For me, it was power. In every sense of the word. I wanted power in my business world, I wanted power in wrestling, I wanted power in my personal life, I wanted power over my enemies. Power, for me, was more important than all the money in the world. In that moment, all I wanted was the power to reconcile with my father and he’d taken that away from me. I had, then, to settle for the power I would hold over him. Over everyone who crossed my path. I’ve lost that need for power in exchange for my love of Chaos. Somewhere… Somehow… I’ve failed to recognise that one can work hand in hand with the other."
Gabriel smiles as he pushes his hand through the opening in the door, and the man inside takes his hand and shakes it heartily.
"Eden, on the other hand, had two manias. A need to be the best, and a need to be destroyed. She had lost all vision of her self-worth. She had lost sight of just what she had once been. That happens – it’s always fixable. Yet somewhere on her path to self-destruction she made the decision that she would take as many people with her as she could. Pierce, Somers, Graber, Chaos, Roberts, Ingalls, Hanneman. Men and memories alike were tarnished by her attempted downward spiral until she looked to destroy the one name that it seemed impossible that she would ever be able to tear down. Yet she did. Colin Zale. She ended his career on the road to her destructive destination. It was a fitting end to such a fine warrior, but not the end that Eden had hoped for."
Gabriel pulled his hand back through the door and turned to face the room at large.
"No, despite my brothers assertions that he would ensure the outcome and the consequential stipulation would be followed through to it’s fullest, Eden’s attack upon Zale post match left her unprotected when Jet Somers – the man who had the power all along – finally dragged her to the help that she so needed. I had tried to offer my services and that of Angelfields to the lovely Eden, but New York was too far away from New Orleans. I was disappointed but not surprised. It would have been a bold move to send her to me – neither Jet nor Cypress truly had the fortitude to do what needed to be done."
Gabriel smiled as he placed his hands into his pockets.
"So I did it for them."
Gabriel looked through the one-way mirror into the room where Eden Morgan lay tethered to her bed. Her wrists were heavily bandaged and she fought her bonds periodically until she tired, before starting again.
"What do you plan on doing to her?" Asked Daniel’s pleading voice.
"Why, help her, of course." Said Gabriel with a smile
"Let me." He said with pleading in his voice. "Let me help her. I know I can."
"I’m sure you can, Daniel. But I don’t think it’s a good idea." Gabriel added with a smile.
Her fighting began to die down as the fatigue grew within her. He’d been watching her for the last two hours and this routine seemed to be unwavering.
"I want to help her. I need to help her. It has to be me." Daniel said, still pleading.
"No." Said Gabriel.
"I want to make her better, and if I make her better then she’ll like us. She’ll respect us. She’ll…" Continued Daniel.
"She’ll what?" Said Gabriel. "Hmm? What is it that she will, Daniel?"
"I just meant that she… She could." Daniel stuttered.
"Oh, Daniel, not again." Said Gabriel with disappointment in his voice. "Please don’t tell me you’re getting attached to another one."
"I don’t mean to…" Daniel replied quietly. "They’re all so broken… And I just want to fix them like new."
"You need to control yourself." Said Gabriel in a slight temper. "You need to be able to control those urges because if you don’t you’ll never be given the change to take control."
"I could take control?" Said Daniel, in a child-like manor. "Really?"
"One day." Said Gabriel still watching her through the window. "When I’m tired. When I’m so very tired."
"I wouldn’t let you down…" Added Daniel sounding excited. "I promise you, I wouldn’t let you down."
"You can convince me by changing your attitude and learning some restraint. You have been more hindrance than help in the past and I will not risk that with Eden Morgan. She is important."
"What do you have planned for her?" Daniel asked.
"You’ll know when you’re ready." Said Gabriel. "Now go."
And like that, Daniel was gone. Eden stirred in the bed, seemingly wanting to turn over but unable to due to the restraints. This, clearly, angers her as she suddenly starts to fly into yet another rage.
" Sorry I’m late – not sure why, you’re in control so you knew I was late already and didn’t care, so I'm not even sure why I'm apologising... So... what did I miss?" Asked Gabe.
"She’s awake – all the time, she’s awake." Said Gabriel.
"Excellent – when do we start pulling her mind apart." Asked Gabe, sounding keen.
"I haven’t decided if that is our path yet, Gabe. You’re somewhat hasty." Said Gabriel.
"Come on – just imagine what an emotionless, carefree version of the Uber-bitch would be able to do. Better still, what you’d both be able to do." Said Gabe, his voice dropping to a whisper. "It would be… Spectacular."
"I said I haven’t decided." Hissed Gabriel. "You need to step back, Gabe. You’re far too reckless and I cannot risk you getting this wrong."
"And why is that?" Asked Gabe. "Why is she so special?"
"Because she has a lot of friends who would take great pleasure in turning the screw on anyone who ever tried to hurt her. You need to learn to pick your battles otherwise you’re going to get yourself, and in turn me, seriously hurt." Gabriel.
"I’d call that a party." Gabe jested.
"I’d call it foolish, and unnecessarily abrasive and if you think I’m going to entrust our future to a psyche that can’t control it’s urge to let the world burn then you’ve got another thing coming."
Gabe didn’t speak for a moment as the fight died out of Eden once more. The bursts of energy were getting shorter every time. She was tired but stubbornly refusing to sleep.
"What do you want her to be? Friend or foe?" Asked Gabe.
"I’m not sure that choice will be mine, Gabe." Said Gabriel astutely. "I have a feeling that Eden Morgan could well be either the greatest enemy or the greatest ally that I will ever have."
As she stopped struggling she looked towards the mirror, as if she could see Gabriel where he stood. She stared directly into his eyes through the mirror.
"It’s time that I went in." Said Gabriel.
"Excellent." Said Gabe.
"Alone." Added Gabriel. Gabe didn’t reply, but he could sense the disappointment. Gabriel walked to the door and placed his hand on the handle.
"Gabriel…" Said Gabe. "Her being your enemy or your friend. You don’t seem sure. Is that a bad thing?"
"Not at all…" Replied Gabriel with a smile. "… with any luck, she’ll be both."
"And so enemy it was…" Said Gabriel with a smile as he continued to walk slowly around the room. "I’m not blameless in this. I did what I could to try and remove Eden’s self-destructive streak but maintain her willingness to do anything to win. I wanted to keep that “fuck you” attitude that she’d developed but channel that into the very idea that she wanted the pair of us to be renowned as the best there’s ever been. It’s well known that I long harbored a want for the two of us to be partners. Gabe was right – we would have done some magical things together."
Gabriel smiled as he looked down at the woman on the chair.
"Oh don’t get all judgmental, there’s never been anything of an attraction there for me. Daniel held a torch for a while, at least and Gabe… Well… I’m not sure Gabe has feelings exactly. But the truth, such as it is, is that I was interested in her ability to shut off any kind of fear of consequence. That, in and of itself, is such a gift that few can truly possess. With it, you’re unstoppable, without it you’re fallible. I fear consequence – I just have many ways to deal with them. She feared nothing, but the idea that she would live forever as she was. I wanted to remove that." He said before looking down at the ground.
"I failed."
He reached up and scratched the side of his head. He was, as ever, able to regain his composure quickly.
"I left, all those months ago, fearing that I had never helped her at all. That she would be destined to retain her self-loathing. Alas, I was wrong – months later she would reappear, and she would face the world as if nothing had ever happened. What is more, she would the thrust into the race for Holden Orson’s Cross Hemisphere Championship at Wrestlestock. Where she would face? You guessed it – yours truly. I waited for her to show some kind of recognition that she knew who I was. Yet she didn’t. Or at least, she made me think I didn’t. She played the game so well that I didn’t know what was coming." He smiled, dolefully.
"I won the battle at Wrestlestock and after some particularly unpleasant tactics she would win the war at In Your Hands. I decided then and there that Eden Morgan deserved to be happy – and I would do what I could to help that to happen. Believe it or not, deep down I still want everyone to be happy and healthy. I am still… A healer. So when I found the opportunity to give Ms. Morgan the chance to be happy, I took it. I locked Hugh McLellan away. I locked him away and planned to keep him locked away until I had assurances he would leave her and Killian alone. I wanted Eden Morgan to be happy."
His voice broke into laughter, pitiful laughter that was mocking in it’s tone and the subject of his scorn was clearly himself.
"I can’t even imagine a life in which I wanted her to be happy. She has returned from the ashes of her life, having been accepted by everyone. She had finally rid herself of a man who would be the ruin of her and of course she’d finally realized just who she’d loved all along. I wanted her to have all of that. Because I knew in my heart of hearts what I’d said before would be true. She would be my greatest enemy and my greatest ally. So when I knew Angelfields would burn, I did what I had to do. I stepped in and I saved them all. I let the world think me a monster. I let them believe that three men had died that night. I kept Johnny Dinucci safe and I kept Hugh McLellan safe and I did that despite everything. Because I wanted to do the right thing, by Quentin and by Eden. I had to keep them safe. Even if it meant them hating me."
Gabriel shook his head, his hands twisting into the metal of the chair in front of him.
"The Engine of Chaos was my life now – reviled and hated for our extreme views and opinions. Feared for our want to change the established way of things. Hated I was for the choices I made outside of that ring, hated on all sides and for what? A woman who wanted me murdered. Well fool on her – fool on her. She didn’t know Uriel very well at all – the man is vindictive and spiteful, he wouldn’t allow the sweet release of death. No – he would want to make me suffer the ignominy of life and live with everything I’d lost. Eden Morgan didn’t get what she wanted because she wasn’t dealing with the devil. She was dealing with his fucking masochist brother."
Gabriel turned now and lifted the chair as he did, causing it to spin through the air and smash against the wall. He paced now, getting angrier by the second.
"Yet here I was, making deals with the Façade so they would help me keep people alive. I had bodies brought from morgues all over this fucking country the right height, the right weight the right size to keep everyone alive, but was anyone greatful? No – Quentin took months to realise what I’d done. Eden Morgan screamed in my face. Did anyone care that I got them out."
He suddenly quieted. He suddenly calmed.
"Yet some were more ungrateful still. Some were… Lost to me."
He rubbed the bridge of his nose and turned to face the exit doors.
It had been a long time since Gabriel had visited Patient Zero – almost four months since he’d been moved down here. Eden Morgan’s attempts to have him searched had forced his hand, but thankfully he had plenty of space down here. It was dark and cold, given the absence of any kind of natural light and the fluorescent tubes that shone upon him were glaring and unpleasant. But these were not cells of comfort, not by a long shot. He reached what looked like a bank vault with a heavy, impact resistant steel door.
"Gareth – how is he today?" Asked Gabriel with a smile to the orderly stationed outside.
"Quiet sir – he’s been quiet for some time." He replied.
"Thank you. If you don’t mind, I want some time alone with him."
Gareth nodded and Gabriel reached up and pressed his hand against the palm reader and put his eyes into the retinal scanner. A few moments later, the door popped and slide to the side, revealing the room inside. Gabriel stepped in and pressed a button on the wall, allowing the door to close behind him.
"My friend." Said Gabriel with a smile. "How are you keeping?"
The mask still covered his face, but he looked somewhat healthier – less wasted. Gabriel stepped forward and pulled the straps off the mask, allowing it to drop and hang down by his chest.
"Daniel…" He stuttered almost immediately. "It’s been too long."
Gabriel tilted his head and sighed.
"You always had a wicked sense of humour, old friend. But I’m not here to exchange pleasantries. We work to do if you’re going to be safe."
"What… Do you… Mean?" He asked breathily.
"The long version is much more interesting, but we don’t have time. I have to prepare you to move. My order has, for all intents and purposes, turned it’s back on me. And whilst that would usually mean my death, it apparently means yours. Yours along with two other patients. Fortunately, I have some new friends who can help and they’re going to do just that."
"How?" Daniel asked with all the breath he could muster.
"Well, I’m going to have you moved to another location. They have another facility set up and waiting. There are three of you to move there so we have to be quick – I have no idea when and how they’ll be watching us."
"No." Said Patient Zero breathily.
"Come on, old friend, you’ve been moved before. I know it’s not ideal but it’s the best in the end…"
"No…" He said again. "No, do not move me. Let me go…"
Gabriel stepped back, a look of pity crossing his lips.
"Gabriel, you know I can’t do that." He said, reaching up and holding his friend’s head by the back of the neck. "You know I would love to release you back into the World but you know too much and you’re too frail. I can’t release y…"
"Not release." Said the patient, using all of the energy he could muster to lift his head. "Let… Me… Go."
It took Gabriel a moment to realise what he meant. It was not release he was looking for, not into the real world at least.
"No." Said Gabriel this time. "No, you can’t mean…"
"It has been… So long… Gabriel." His oldest friend said. "You… Were a better… Gabriel than… I ever would have been. You have looked… After me… For long enough. I can be the proof… They need to know… That… People died here. That… Your friends died here."
"I don’t want to let you go. You’re my oldest friend." Said Gabriel through the tears that stung his eyes.
"You have… New friends now… Good friends… Better friends. You will… Make more." He said coughing slightly through the effort of talking. "You are a good man, Gabriel Baal. Deep down… You are the best man, I have… Ever known."
He coughed again, as his head drooped slightly in fatigue.
"It has… been an honour… To know you… And to… To love you." He said with an air of finality.
"Please… We can… I can change this. You can live a normal life. You can be happy… I promise."
"I will never be happier… Than this moment now." He said with a smile. "Looking at you… And knowing what… I have meant to… Your life. I am complete. Thank you… For our life together."
He looked down and lifted the mask up as high as he could. In sorrow, Gabriel lifted it up and placed it back over his oldest friends face. He leaned forward and kissed him on the forehead.
"Thank you… Old friend."
He turned an composed himself as he pushed the button to open the door.
"Gareth, why don’t you finish early tonight." He said looking back over his shoulder at Patient Zero one last time. "He’s not going anywhere."
Gabriel took a few seconds to clear his head – pressing his hand against his face, and allowing the burning fire to die down inside of him. Finally he turned on the spot.
"He forgave me for everything I’d ever done to him. Everything. And I’d done some terrible, terrible things. He forgave me and accepted death in a way that was both admirable and helpful. It made sense for The Order to check on the patient who would need assistance being moved first. There would be no quick escape for him." Said Gabriel as he continued his aimless wandering around the open space, his jacket strewn across the floor.
"Forgiveness is not easy – despite how quickly it was given to Eden. Comparably speaking, I have done little to the fractured fools that our roster houses, yet they loathe me in a way they could never loathe her. That’s fine – I’m not here for love or affection, but I do find it ironic that Eden Morgan can drag most of them through some of the worst moments in their personal history, yet she spins a yarn and they fall at her feet. And in the end, as it turns out, she was lying to every single one of them. But we all know how this story ends – she’ll bat her eye lashes and once again everyone will forgive." He said with a smile. "Well – almost everyone."
He stopped and looked at the new patient whose limbs still shook with fear. He slowly made his approach.
"You see, we’ve been dancing this waltz for the last year, since Wrestlestock 2016. Eden and I, back and forth, back and forth. Neither of us knowing who was better. But here’s a thing – every time I have faced Eden with the chance to win a Championship, I have come out victorious. Granted, it wasn’t one on one… On that occasion she, indeed, managed to best me and took the Cross Hemisphere Championship away from me. Yet since that day, I haven’t lost a single attempt to win a Championship. Interesting, is it not?"
He smiles as he crouches down, bent at the knees just inches away from the new patient.
"She fears me. She won’t admit it, but she fears me. You don’t plot to kill a man who you’re not afraid of. You fear me. You won’t admit it, but you fear me. You don’t plot to harm a man who you’re not afraid of. You’re both the same – you and Eden. Fucking cowards. You both fear the idea of Gabriel Baal but neither of you have the strength to do something about it. She relied on a man who has no concept of loyalty – she relied on Uriel." He said reaching up and sliding his hand under the hood and slowly caressing her face.
"You on the other hand – you relied on her." The words came with a snarl. "You feared me and instead of coming to me, to try and stave off that fear you went behind my back and you went to her. She is not going to save you. Just like Uriel did not save her."
He finally pulled his hand away, and with it the burlap sack. He stood back and surveyed the face in front of him.
"My dear, sweet Lilith." He said with a note of sadness in his voice. His eyes were for a moment, sad – looking down at the woman he’d loved through everything. It had been difficult to discover – Solomon had been the one to find it. Solomon, who loved Lilith like a daughter, had come to Gabriel split in too – his want to protect her. His want to protect him.
Solomon – a good man – a trustworthy man. One of his last remaining friends.
"You played your part well for so long. Keep your friends close but your enemies closer, am I right?"
"P… Please, Gabriel." She said through the thickness of tears. "I… I’m sorry."
His hand began to twitch involuntarily. His head twitched from side to side. He closed his eyes and waited in the silence.
"ENOUGH!" He screamed. No-one had been talking – not out loud at least. "Enough."
He stood back up to his full height.
"You were my love." He began. "I could cope with her betrayal. At heart, she is black and cold as night. I was already aware that she knew of the impending disaster and did nothing to stop it. I knew. But you, my love, you’ve burnt the heart out of me. You’ve burnt the mercy out of me. You’ve burnt the hope out of me."
"I’m sorry." She whispered. "Please forgive me."
"When you walked back into my life I believed that you’d truly accepted your lot in life. I believed that you’d sworn your life and your love to me. Now I know the truth – you were playing a part. Keeping yourself and those who truly mean something to you safe." He paused for a moment. "When did it begin?"
His question was calm. Lilith didn’t answer right away – she blinked away the tears.
"After… After Angelfields." She said quietly. "I feared what would happen to us. I feared… I feared that we may be next. I knew that Uriel had contacted her – you’d told us. I thought if I helped her then she would be able to..."
"Neutralise me." Said Gabriel with a smile.
"I know, now, that I was wrong – I know that I should have come to you with my fears. You would have protected me."
"I was protecting you. Just like I was protecting her." He said with his hands in his pockets.
"Yet for seven… long… months… You were hers and not mine. You’re both the same. Tainted by cowardice. And you must both be punished."
"Please Gabriel… I never meant…" She began.
"I’m fucking talking!" He exclaimed. "When I talk, you listen. Do you understand that?"
"Gabriel please, I just meant to say that…" She began again.
"Pareo." He said, almost instinctively. He blinked as she fell silent, her head lowered towards her lap – it had been instantaneous. It had been… Instinctive.
"Very… Very good." He said with air of caution. "Now you will listen."
He rotated his head, before running his hand across his face.
"Eden Morgan has spent the last three years praying on the weak and the feeble. She has picked apart the lives of everyone around her. One by one, they have succumbed to her wicked and villainous ways, whilst all the time her closes confidantes have commended her on such a wonderful performance. Deep down, Eden Morgan believes she has done to me what she has done to every single challenge that has come before her. And you could understand that confidence – I lost my facility, I lost my friend, I lost my title as Doctor and now I’ve lost you. She has, for all intents and purposes taken everything away from me."
When his hand moved away from his face, it reveals a smile.
"And yet she has taken nothing. Here we stand in a better facility, with an endless resource. I have friends who have power untold and unimagined. I turned my back on the path of healing so that when I drill her entire life into the dust I won’t be conflicted and of course – I still have you, in every sense of the word. You are mine, Lilith. Mine." He added with a hint of malice.
"Eden Morgan’s path in this world may be course for those who love her to make their excuses, but every time the doubt must linger that little bit longer. Surely, even now, those who accepted her apologies without hesitation before, must be doubting those calls and texts of apology and remorse. Because Eden Morgan is everything I’ve said she is for the last year – spiteful, loathing, hungry for what she feels she deserves. Willing to sacrifice everything in order to be whatever it is she wants to be. Eden Morgan is, by far, the most cunning and calculating individual that this or any organisation has ever seen. Eden Morgan is – beautiful."
Given the nature of the afternoons events, this turn was unexpected. Gabriel Baal had claimed anger and hatred for this woman. A loathing for everything she had done and now he proclaimed her… Beautiful. He suddenly broke into an excited chuckle which developed into laughter.
"Do you know what the best part is? She is the woman I hoped she would be when I first set eyes on her in that hospital. I had trusted a hope, when I saw what she did to Deimos, that she still harboured that innate ability to crush whoever stood in her way, and now I know it to be true. I hoped and dreamed for a day like this one – one where the world would finally see her for what she truly is. A masterpiece of horror and hostility. Yet even now, she fails to recognise the truth about the last year. About the foe she faces this time around."
Gabriel lets out a burst of joyous laughter.
"The more games she plays, the stronger she makes me – for this is the Eden Morgan I have dreamed of seeing for so very long. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls – I shine the spotlight wholly and fully on the Eden Morgan we all love to hate. The one, the only – manipulative, scheming shrew herself. Her games have made me stronger – more able, more willing to destroy everything she has built. Because deep down – truly and unequivocally – I believe that we are two of a kind. She and I – kindred spirits. The greatest of enemies who could well become the greatest of allies."
The laughter died in his eyes.
"We either stand side by side, or one of us must be destroyed." He said quietly. "And it begins at Wrestlestock. I will take her trinket, I will take her body and I will take her soul. Not as punishment, but as proof. She should have accepted my help all those months ago – because if she had, she would have been… Fantastic."
Gabriel walks now behind Lilith and opens a door, the only empty cell remaining on this wing. He Slowly walks towards her.
"You may have stripped away my mercy, but I am not about to waste my time on vengeance. You are broken and I will fix you. For Eden the fate is much simpler – I will honour her and I will destroy her in equal measure. Either she will realise and stand by my side or I will make her scream as she burns. I have no qualms with either." He says as he places his hand on the back of Lilith’s chair. He tips her back, and begins to pull the chair towards the cell. Just as they reach the threshold of the door, Gabriel stops and leans towards her.
"Scream for me." He whispers in her ear.
And so she did.
