Gabriel looked down horrified at the own rock in his grasp, and immediately cast it across the room
Gabriel looked down horrified at the own rock in his grasp, and immediately cast it across the room. Blood gathered quickly in a puddle under the body on the icy concrete floor.
What have I done? What have I done!
His thoughts raced dizzily about mind, hardly being able to grasp the reality of his actions.
Breathe. Just breathe. Take a deep breath in. okay, now think Gabriel, what do I do now?
His eyes instinctively locked on the oozing corpse.
Clean up your mess
He thought
Get rid of the evidence
His hands shook uncontrollably as he washed them for ninth time. They stung terribly, and were turning raw as tiny piece of skin flaked off of them. The mess was clean. Every trace of evidence, destroyed. It was done now, everything was okay. He was safe.
"Beep."
Gabriel whirled around in paranoia, his eyes searching every corner, convinced someone had seen.
"Beep."
There it was again. What was the noise? He ventured back into the front of his shop to find it.
"Beep."
There is was again! He cleared his working table with one swift movement of his arm, allowing all his latest projects and tools to come crashing to the ground. Yet it solved nothing, the beep sounded a time more. Gabriel was driven to madness by this point. What was this beep, and where was it coming from? It seemed to loom in the air omniscient and all knowing, taunting him, watching him. In frustrated exasperation he slammed his fist onto his desk, rattling his lamp, computer, remote, cell phone, and various other objects.
"Beep."
His eyes darted over to his lit cell phone from which the noise stemmed. He had two missed calls and two voicemails. Scrolling down the list of "calls received" he discovered that one was from his mom. He rolled his eyes. Hitting the down arrow one more time he learned the other one was from Maria. He smiled gently and quickly moved to check his voicemails.
"You have two unheard messages" said the automatic recording.
"First unheard message: Gabriel, it's you mother. I'm glad I got to see you at lunch. I'm sorry if I upset you, I really didn't mean to, I just know you can do so much better-" Gabriel hit the delete button. He loved his mother, he truly did, but sometimes she made it difficult.
"Message one deleted, second unheard message" the automated recording announced. Then Maria's' soft sweet beautiful voice came over the phone.
"Hey Gabe, it's Maria, just wanted to say sorry you couldn't make it to lunch today, hope lunch with your mom was-pleasant. Whatever it is she said this time, don't believe it, and don't let it get you down! Your great the way you are, trust me. Anyways, we're on the way to the beach, aren't we ladies? WHOO-HOO! I'll be back sometime on Friday. Oh yea, and when I get back I wanna hear all about that doctor guy you mentioned, sounds really interesting. Hey do me a favor an-OH MY GOD-"screaming and crashing is heard from the background. Panicked cries of the three girls are clearly audible.
Gabriel's' eyes widen as he fumbles for the TV remote. His hands shakily turn on the television to the local news, where there is a scene of a horrible car crash.
"Just thirty minutes ago this accident took place. Emergency care workers are trying to aid the victims of this accident as we speak. Though the ambulance has arrived and is attempting to help the victims, there seems to be little hope from an accident of this magnitude. It is likely that all three young ladies involved are dead. The cause of such devastation is still unknown. More as this situation develops, back to you Ron." The newscaster went off.
Gabriel shut off the TV and proceeded to hurl the remote across the room so hard that it sliced into the wall. Tears streamed from his eyes hysterically as he fell to his hands in knees on the very spot where the man he killed had lain. Just thirty minutes ago he had become a murderer. Just thirty minutes ago the women he loved had been alive. He pounded his fist into the cold stone ground, rattling his desk, again and again until they began to bleed. Gabriel collapsed on the floor sobbing, as a picture frame toppled off from the desk.
"NO!" he shouted extending his arm, but knowing it was out of reach. Yet some how it stopped, inches from the concrete ground. He grabbed the frame and held it in his hands. It was an assortment of pictures of him and Maria in a "friendship" frame she had given to him. There was one of them from their high school graduation, another of them eating with some of her friends at a restaurant. Most of them were taken by her when they were just goofing around; she had always loved to do stuff like that.
Teardrops splattered on the pictures of them together. He was smiling in every picture. A thing he rarely did for any one. But it had come so natural for her…she had never even known and now never would.
Early the next morning, around nine o'clock a beautiful, bubbly, brunette burst into Gabriel's watch-repair store.
"Gabe! Gabe! I've been trying to reach you all morning…" her words slowed as she glanced around at the now vacant watch shop. All that was left was a copy of today's paper on the floor, with a picture of the appalling accident on the front page, accompanied with her picture and a picture of two other girls. She sat on the floor and picked it up gingerly, looking over the misinformed news article. She starred at the floor a moment too, noticing a dark stain of some sort that had been cleaned up. Laying the paper back down in silence she and her way to the only other object left in the room. It was a remote somehow lodged inches into the wall.