CHAPTER 11: Papa Don't Preach
Gabriel Gray held a metallic green hand to the stirring wheel as his other hand in the normal flesh tone he had held the other side of the wheel. Elle was pleased Gabriel had decided to make some pit stops for the abilities. At least he had Danny Pine's, Sue Launder's, and chameleon girl, Danielle Bride's abilities. The other two of her victims had gotten up from their comas, but at least he had the abilities that mattered. The man shot an ingenious look at Luke knowing his human lie detector ability could eat the boy up.
"So Luke do you really hate your mother?" Elle shot a look at the boy wondering his reaction. He was still staring aimlessly out of the back seat's window, like he had been at all the hospitals. Only a hint of mischievousness sparked in his eyes.
"Yes," He said with a sigh as if it was obvious. "You know I'm not going to lie to you. I mean I was a big liar back home, but you guys can hear my whole truth because it's bad and both of you are worse then I am." Gabriel's metal hand turned back into flesh. A victorious smile plastered on his mug.
"We all have negative truths. I never really hated my job back at the Company." Gabriel glanced at Elle feeling a tingle crawl into the back of his head.
"Elle you're lying." He told her as if she didn't already know. She shot a look at him. His voice had gave a hint of anger.
"Busted." Luke whispered to himself. She shot him back a look. One that said close your mouth before I do it for you. Elle thought for a moment when she didn't like her job at the Company and smiled.
"Well I remembered the only time I disliked my job was when I had to force you to become a monster. That's the only time I wished I wasn't working with them." It was the truth and Gabriel knew it. He reached for her hand to grab it the way she had grabbed his hand the night he showed her his ability a year before.
"You know you can never lie to me now." She was aware of that and gave a simple nod.
"Have you lied to him before?" Luke asked throwing a knife into the wound. Elle winced making an unpleasant face. Gabriel took his hand from hers to place it on the stirring wheel again to make a left turn according to Luke's directions.
"Yes," She said almost ashamed. He gave her a haunting glance. "But that was when I worked for the Company. I've never lied about my feelings for you." He smiled and she knew that he knew it was the truth.
A good minute or two passed with no lies or truths. Silence enveloped the car minus the little creaks across the dirt road. Gravel stuck tight in the tires. Elle started to unwrap an energy bar which was when Luke opened his big mouth.
"You know your father sold you for money." Elle and Gabriel exchanged odd glances as he gripped the wheel tighter. "We used to go bird watching. I just did it to piss off my mom and to get away from her. She thought I was a bad seed since the day I was born. He told me he used to have a little boy a long time ago, but he sold him for money." Gabriel glared back at him.
"Well it isn't a lie, which only means you think it's true." He concluded, his eyes on the empty road.
"What kind of father would do something like that?" Elle muttered under her breath.
"Mine would. I think I remember it." He stared into space for a good while. Elle exchanged a look with Luke.
She smoothed out her black blouse. She would have worn the skirt she stole from the cheerleader's closet to meet Daddy Gray, but she had a feeling that he probably wouldn't be thrilled to see his long lost son, which meant fighting.
"He . . ." The word came out after a long while. A breath was sucked in. Elle looked nervously toward him. "He killed my mother." It wasn't a huge surprise to the twenty five year old woman. Abilities usually were passed on and seeing how Gabriel had a natural ability she could safely assume his father had a similar ability.
"Gabriel." A soft whisper exited her mouth. His face was set in longing, for the mother he never had. The caring one. Not the one who drove him to be special. The one who cared that he was gone.
"She loved me and I loved her. She wanted me back and he . . ." His hands gripped the steering wheel. Anger flooded through him. "I'm going to kill him." Elle then watched as his look became more determined. He wasn't giving up. Sylar may just even come back and if that was going to happen she would be ready to protect herself. And Luke.
"Solves the problem of killing or torturing." The woman stated causing Gabriel to grin.
"There!" Luke stated lounging forward in his seat. Gabriel spun the wheel in the direction of the abandoned shack Luke pointed out as the home of Samson Gray. The young boy's body jetted back hitting the seat hard as Gabriel halts the car putting it in park. Elle held her own as Gabriel turned the car off.
He doesn't take a look at her as he starts to leave. It isn't long before she realized he was goning to leave them behind. Her face turns to annoyance and anger as she opens the car door.
"You are not going in there alone." Elle declares as he stared at the house. Luke is next to Elle in a moment's notice. He glances at the two. "We helped you get here. You can't leave us to just wonder what happened." She stood her ground determined to help Gabriel in this discovery any way she could. The man shifted a soft look at Elle to a sharp look at Luke.
"Without me you wouldn't even be here." Luke told him with an equally sharp determined expression. A sigh escaped from the older man's mouth.
"Try not to get hurt." He told them motioning them forward as they entered the home.
Elle hide her grin as Luke dragged on behind them looking at the various junk in the yard. Gabriel opened the screen door with a creek. It was hard to see in the dark lit home. Elle peaked her head in glancing about. Some broken and wobbly chairs were scattered about a rectangular table. An old television set sat on the edge of the wall, a stuffed owl guarding it. Elle's shoulders tightened at the sight of other long dead animals plastered everywhere.
"Someone likes their wild side." Elle mused in a whisper. Gabriel just continued looking around touching the edge of a long forgotten wheelchair.
"He's a taxidermist." Luke whispered glancing at an old lamp. He touched the edges of the lamp shade. Elle looked back at the boy seeing how he became lost in old memories with a lamp shade. Besides her thinking that was weird she saw Gabriel had found his old man in the other room. She looked through the dirty glass with him. A solemn unremorseful look came across his face. The old man was working. Elle's heart fluttered as she saw Gabriel look toward her.
Her manicured fingers tapped against the window. A tickling noise at first then her knuckles hit the glass. Gabriel's expression was unchanging slightly. A hint of sadness pulled his features together.
"It's open!" The old man shouted. A dry cough followed his words. The two shifted toward the handle of the loose sliding glass door. As Gabriel opened it Elle glanced back at Luke, who was busy shifting through the junk. She could have sworn he had pocketed some.
"Almost got the order ready." Samson Gray told the couple. Obviously thinking they were customers, though Elle wasn't sure who in their right mind would want a dead animal. "You have a lot of pickups today?" A quaint smile came across her face. Gabriel was obviously not well put together so she started the conversation.
"We're not here for a pickup." She stated in a light, but dangerous tone. His hand halted at his work bench. He tilted his head slowly and she wondered if he was surprised at hearing a woman's voice or just surprised he had a non business related visitor.
"No?" His hoarse voice asked as Gabriel shifted his expression. He was back on track now.
"It's me." Gabriel let out. "Gabriel. Your son." She was watching his expression slowly. Sylar was shifting through. Her toes curled up and she wondered if her own killer within would be released as well.
"Is that so?" He asked his fingers starting to work again. "And you brought a friend." Good she was being acknowledged. The two stepped off the steps and onto the hard carpeting.
"Oh she's more than that." Elle liked hearing that. However many times he said it. She hid the smile again. Samson Gray shifted grabbing another tool.
"What brings you two all the way out here?" Middle of nowhere. Not a place for a young blossoming couple, but certainly a place for this century's Bonnie and Clyde. The pair shifted around looking. Even though Elle had killed before she never wanted to display her kills. They didn't deserve to be stuffed and hung up as trophies. Hunting animals was all well and good, but stuffing was just taunting.
"I'm not really sure anymore." His eyes looked down at the tools. It wasn't an answer Elle expected especially in a saddened tone. "Why would I want to see you? A man so cruel to murder the woman who had his child. A man who abandoned his son. Why would I want to see him?" His fingers stroked the rim of the table.
"See what you could become. See what you came from." Elle's voice cooed slightly through a smile. Gabriel Gray shifted his eyesight toward the man.
"So? What now?" The old man asked with little fear in his voice. Not a hint of fear actually.
"Now?" His eyes narrowed as if his stare alone would shoot a hole into the old man's back. "I kill you." Elle's heart leapt as if to scream yes. Or maybe it was Cinder, her killer who wanted nothing more than to see this man's blood all over the floor.
The old man finally shifted to look at the two. Elle half expected Satan to appear, horns, goatee, and all, but a disheveled old man was all that remained of Samson Gray. A gray curling beard covered a great deal of his face. His rectangular framed glasses were brought down to the bridge of his nose. Cold dark eyes stared at Gabriel for a moment then ran over Elle's frame almost hungrily. Gabriel shifted closer to her. Smoke filled the room from the ash tray. Several cigarettes dying out slowly.
"Go right ahead." He challenged. Gabriel almost looked confused. A liquid infused cough followed the man's words. Elle twitched backwards seeing him get up. An oxygen tank was held tightly in the man's one hand lugging it with his arm. "You kill me or the cancer does." Elle's eyes widened. This was no fun. "Either way I die." He passed both of them toward the other room.
"Bust?" The woman questioned with a whisper. Gabriel shook his head as he followed the old man up the steps.
"Luke!" The old man exclaimed seeing the boy who nearly jumped at the sight of him. "Stealing my things again I see." A toothy grin came across the man's face. Luke gave a nervous smile. "Help yourself kid. Not like I'll be alive long enough to miss it." He went toward a drawer to pull out another cigarette.
"You really do have a death wish old man." Elle concluded watching as he lit up and puffed on the cancer stick. A loud auditable cough erupted in the air.
"Seems I do pretty young thing." He gave a perverted smile at her. "Seems I know my two boys, but not you. What's your name?" Elle was about to answer when the words sank in.
"Two boys?" Gabriel was the first to question the words. Samson puffed again on the cigarette and coughed. Luke looked up from the pile of old tools with a bewildered expression.
"Didn't you know Luke?" He glanced at the teen with a look of knowing. "You're my son." Gabriel shot a look at Luke. Samson wasn't lying. Or at least he thought Luke was his younger son. "Which would make him your half brother Gabriel." Luke stared at Samson clearly shocked than saw Gabriel's look of betrayal.
"Gabriel," He said quickly. "I swear I didn't know." Elle saw the man's face drop and she knew Luke was telling the truth.
"See all those times wishing you had a different father and you did." Samson tipped the cancer stick into the ash tray then looked back at Elle. "Now again I must know the name of my estranged son's special girl."
"It's Elle." A stern and almost stubborn expression over came her.
"Elle, huh?" He mused. He shifted into his wheel chair coughing and breathing in the oxygen. He glanced toward Gabriel. "Watch out for women Gabriel. They're nothing, but trouble."
"Is that why you killed my mother?" He asked watching to man shift in his seat.
"Yes, I couldn't let her steal you back. That would just waste all I had accomplished in life." Gabriel was itching to kill him. "Mary was different though. She wanted you Luke." Luke locked eyes with his father. "She thought she could change you like she tried to change me. She thought her husband would love you, but he never did. They never loved you Luke cause they knew what you came from. You sought me out for understanding."
"But you abandoned me like you abandoned Gabriel." Luke concluded. He wouldn't mind if Samson Gray was dead either.
"I did. That's all I am good for, abandoning. Well that and killing." He turned his attention to his other son. "Which I can safely assume is an ability you have Gabriel. You watch everything so carefully. Every movement I make, Luke makes, and even your girlfriend." He gave another look at the young woman. Gabriel shifted.
"How can you tell that just by watching me?" The man asked his father as another cough over came him. Once it was cleared up he looked at the couple.
"Because it was how I acted in my younger years. Wanting to learn more, be more. I guess that never came around." His hand lingered to the pocket of the wheel chair pulling out a switch blade. "You know I never really loved anyone in my entire life." Elle watched as the blade popped up. "Your mother was close Gabriel. Very close, but when you were born . . .well . . .she loved you far more then she loved me. I think that is part of the reason I killed her." He ran his finger over the blade. Gabriel's anger was boiling. Samson then turned his attention to Luke.
"Your mother was just trapped in a loveless marriage, Luke. We never had any feelings for each other. She just tried to make her husband jealous." Luke looked down at the stuffed rabbit in the manila box. I had been helpless, like he was right now. "You were a mistake." He had heard that before. From his mother and father.
"Was I?" Gabriel asked with a twinkle in his eye of knowing. "A mistake?"
"No," Samson concluded closing the knife. "Your mother wanted you. She wanted a child, much to my dismay, but it was very hard to say no to her." A quite knowing laugh escaped his lips which led to a cough. Gabriel was getting tried of this. Elle was too just a bit. "So, if you have the same ability as me you must be an expert at something. Let me guess . . . watch making." Gabriel Gray became intrigued by this.
"You must have helped Martin out at his watch shop. I used to work there too until I was eighteen and realized I could do better." Gabriel Gray remembered his father telling him how he used to work there with his father, but Grandpa Gray had died long before Gabriel had been born. "You know that the knowing how things work has to be fed. It helps and hinders our hunger." The switch blade floated in the air as Samson Gray showed off his skill.
Gabriel caught the closed blade that was flung at him. Luke shifted his position looking closer at his brother. Still very baffled by the whole thing. Samson and Elle watched Gabriel flick the blade open. He ran his finger along the edge. Elle witnessed the wound. She nearly forgot about the regeneration. He held his hand out watching the wound close up with pride.
"How did you . . .?" For the first time Samson Gray was baffled.
"A little ability I picked up from a cheerleader." Gabriel kept looking at his hand wondering how long he could survive with this ability. A pang of regret at taking it came over him, not for Claire's sake, but for his own. Everyone around him would die. Elle would die and he would live. That made him regret not having the ability to die.
"Very handy." Samson's words escaped his mouth as his hand launched forward toward Gabriel. The man hit the wall quickly. Elle watched as several arrows came at him. Reaction came before she knew it. She was going to block the last arrow from keeping him pinned.
"NO!" It stuck her as she ran between them.
A gasp escaped her lips as she saw the arrow sticking out from the middle of her body. She barely heard anything from that point. The two brothers shouted her name as she fell. Luke jolted forward giving Samson a blast of micro waves, but he turned around. She watched Luke fall. He went over to Gabriel. She tried to build up the strength to let out a powerful electric shock. Her body buzzed as she saw Samson. He smiled taking the switch blade to her head.
She opened her mouth letting out a scream and her energy tending him back just a bit. It wasn't as powerful as she thought. He barely left her side, but it jolted him.
"Later then, sweetness." A soft whistle escaped his lips and Elle felt herself sink deep into sleep and sedation. She wondered if she would make up because the blood was pooling up around her wound.
--
Author's Note: Don't hate me for another cliffhanger. I just use them to draw you in. Also torture. *sheilds self* The next chapter should be up sometime tomorrow.