Um, hi? Is anyone still there? (Sweatdrops). I'm SO SORRY this only got out now. I've no excuse except, well. RL. A new job, new relationships, and everything! Even my laptop with all of the things for this story got scrapped so I needed to start form the beginning. Thankfully, I'm still stuck in the 90s when it comes to writing so I have everything written on a notebook but then I got the damn thing lost... So, yeah. I'M SO SORRY!
But anyways, this chapter is more of an epilogue, just to tie in a loose end that I felt needed to be closed. I'm currently starting to type in the second book now, so, no matter how long, I'm getting back into the swing of things.
For those who're still there, THANK YOU SO MUCH for your patience, and without further ado, I give you the Epilogue of Ocean's Wings.
—
Epilogue: Gabe's Misadventure
He woke up with a gasp, clutching his chest in fright, heaving like he's ran in one of those blasted marathons he's seen on TV. His eyes darted wildly, looking for what caused him to wake up in such a violent manner. Confusion and anger were warring on his face as he registered the unfamiliar surroundings.
"Where the hell am I?!" he blustered, struggling to heave to his feet despite being spread-eagled on the floor. His largely obese frame heaved with exertion as he finally got up on his feet, examining his surroundings more carefully.
The last thing he remembered was looking up from their usual poker game in his apartment's living room, intending to call Sally and demand his meatloaf that she mentioned was on the works, but instead of the woman, or more importantly, the meatloaf, he caught sight of... something.
He staggered back a little as a pain as piercing as a knife went through his head like butter. He moaned as he clutched his temples in pain. As quick as it came, though, the pain disappeared.
Shaking his head to get the confusion and the lingering pain off, he resumed, trying to remember. Sally. He caught sight of the woman holding... something. Something Green.
"Argh!" he groaned as his hands clutched his head. His head felt like it was burning, with a thousand pins and needles poking into it mercilessly. Though again, as sudden as the pain came, it disappeared once more, leaving his brain feeling like it was electrocuted. Blinking back tears, he tried to resume remembering-!
He barely felt the impact on his kneecaps as he was forced down to the floor from the pain that appeared again, this time twice as worse as awhile ago. It felt like his brain was slowly being liquefied through a blender. Sobbing, he put his hands on his temples, willing the excruciating pain to disappear.
Strangely enough, when he thought about this, the pain went away as if he imagined the past few couple of minutes. If he wasn't still feeling as if someone was viciously stabbing his head with a fork, he would have believed it. As it was, he just abandoned the previous line of thought, afraid that it was the one triggering the painful episodes, and instead concentrated on finding out where the fuck he was.
Gray. Gray walls, dark gray furniture, gray ceiling, gray carpet. There wasn't any spot of color anywhere he looked. Even the cactuses on the corners of the room were fucking gray! He felt like he was in one of those old detective movies that wuss Eddie prattled on about. Though, upon closer inspection, there was a door on the other side of them room he was in. He thought it was part of the wall at first, seeing as it was the same gray color as the rest of the room, but when it registered that it was a door, he was scrambling up as fast as his frame would allow him and waddling to the potential escape route from this room.
For the life of him, he couldn't think of who could do this to him, never mind who he's crossed to have been put into this position. Though, his mind reminded him of that really bad poker game a couple of weeks ago where he was cleaned out of his apartment, never mind that Eddie had never even won a game against him before that. Maybe this was their idea of that IOU he gave them that time.
"If Eddie convinced those two numbskulls to play a prank on me to clear part of my debt from that really bad poker game, they have another thing coming!" he growled, not for once thinking on how exactly would Eddie and the other two would be capable of such a feat since he himself was the size of a small walrus, with the other two supposed cohorts not far from his own size. Not to mention the time and effort they would have put in just to play a measly prank to clear a debt.
Once he reached the door, he rattled the knob, growling when he found it locked on the other side.
"OIY! WHAT'S THE BIG DEAL?! LET ME THE FUCK OUT!" He bellowed as he angrily banged at the door, making it shake on its hinges. He waited for a couple of seconds to see if someone would answer, to no avail. He growled. He was sure Eddie and the numbskulls were on the other side, laughing at him.
"OIY, YOU MOTHERFUCKERS! YOU'VE HAD YOUR LAUGHS! NOW LET ME THE FUCK GO!" He hollered out, banging the door again for good measure.
No one answered.
He puffed out, indignant. This was ridiculous! Just because he gave them IOUs didn't mean that they could kidnap him and lock him in the middle of nowhere!
He turned back towards the room, intent on getting one of those cactuses to see if they were strong enough to break down the door, but when he raised his eyes, he froze, seeing as he only noticed then that he wasn't the only one inside the room. There was people inside the room now. Some were seated on coaches, some standing, some were milling close to what looked like the silver doors of an elevator.
'Where did these people come from?' An unwelcome chill traveled through his spine as he surveyed the people, who somehow looked like death warmed over. 'They weren't here a while ago.'
Weirdly, the people looked as gray as their surroundings. No matter the style of shirt, the pants, the dresses they wore, all of them wore the color gray. Even their skin looked gray in the dim lighting of the room. Maybe that's what caused him to ignore their presence. That, and the fact that even though it looked like the room was crammed full of people (he wondered how the fuck did he not notice them sooner in his haste to get to the door; he should have bumped into one or two!), no one was making a single peep. They were all paying attention to the far corner of the room, which oddly enough, is the only spot of color in the otherwise drab room.
'That wasn't there a while ago,' a tiny voice inside his mind whispered apprehensively. 'I would have seen it.'
There was what looked like a security guard's desk, which was situated on a podium. The guy behind the desk was wearing what looked like one of those Italian suits. In SILK. And did he mention that that color was the exact same shade as his beach blond hair? With a silver rose pined on? Really now! How gayer can you get?!
Apprehension all but forgotten, he scrunched his nose in distaste at the man. Though he slowly approached the podium, seeing as the guy was the security. He needed to find out what the hell happened to him.
"Hey you! Why the fuck is the damn door locked?! I want to get out of this shithole!" he bellowed angrily once he was within earshot of the guard. He put on his most insulted and intimidating face, which, unknown to him, just looked like he was constipated.
The blond man looked up from where he was fiddling with what looked like a radio on his desk, fixing him with an unimpressed eyebrow. He growled lowly, seeing his reflection on the man's tortoise shell sunglasses (and really, how dumb could he get, wearing sunglasses in this light) shift angrily.
"Well? You gonna answer me, fag?" he insulted as he reached the podium and got into the blond man's personal space threateningly.
The man just smirked languorously, fanning his already boiling temper higher.
He grabbed the blond man's lapels as hard as he could, aiming to cut off the other's breathing.
"I wasn't being funny, cunt."
Infuriatingly, the blond man just brushed off his hand from his suit like they weighed nothing and straightened his suit in an irritatingly unhurried manner.
"Sorry about that, mate. It's just, your reaction is surprisingly refreshing." The blond man drawled in a British accent as he fixed his eyes (from what he could tell, damn shades!) on his fuming frame.
"To answer your question, mate, the door can only be unlocked by the Boss. No one has the power to do that except for him."
"This is fucking ridiculous! I'm a free citizen of the United States of America! I'm not some goddamn prisoner!" He bellowed, his chest heaving from a mixture of anger and breathlessness from shouting.
"I didn't say anything about you being kept here against your will, mate. Just said that you need to talk with the Boss to get out," the blond man replied as his lips twitched mockingly. The fucker was toying with him!
"Why didn't you say that in the first place, you fucking fag! Where's his office? I'm gonna complain about his help, too!" He shouted out, spittle flying, as his beady eyes glinted in anger. He's just about had it with this idiot!
"Oh?" The blond's lips lifted up in a mocking smirk. "You sure about that, mate?"
"Are you fucking stupid, you dumb shit? Of course I'm sure! I just said I wanna see your damn Boss!"
Before he could rip into the smirking confident face of the goddamn ass-licker, because goddamnit the blonde was worse than the sass that little bitch of Sally's gave, the guard gave out a sinister chuckle, the sound eerily like the rasping breath of a dying old man. He unconsciously took a step back, a horrified shiver travelling up and down his spine as the hairs on his arms raised at the unnatural sound.
"You just made my day, mate." The guard said as he stood up from behind his desk, grabbed a set of keys and gestured for him to follow.
Though, when he registered that he wasn't immediately followed, the blond man turned back to the angry man, smiling dangerously. "Well? You coming or not, mate?"
The obese man shook himself out of his surprise at the sudden movement of the security guard and grudgingly waddled after the man, shooting the blond nasty looks at the back of his head as he followed him towards the silver doors of the elevator.
The people became a bit restless when they saw what was happening, but a glance from the guard had all of them meekly staying quiet once more.
Once they were in front of the elevator, the doors opened, revealing it to be almost full with people, all of them holding little green cards.
The guard stepped inside the elevator, raising an eyebrow at him when he refused to budge from his place in front of elevator doors. "Yes?"
"Are you fucking blind?! The damn elevator's already full! Send that on its way already!"
The blond just shrugged magnanimously.
"The Boss doesn't want to have to send people down one at a time. It's either this or none at all. Your choice, mate."
"I'm not a fucking sardine!"
"Again, your choice, mate. Are you coming or not?"
With a growl, the obese man stepped inside the elevator, shoving a bit at the people already inside. There were mutterings and grumbles, but the noise immediately subsided when the security guard tilted his head in their direction, as if daring them to comment.
Satisfied that there were no more complaints, the blond man turned back to the room at large.
"If anyone messes around, I'll make sure you lot stay here. FOREVER."
With his piece said, he inserted a keycard into a slot in the elevator panel, making the doors of the elevator close. A whirring sound came from somewhere below their feet, then the feeling of the elevator moving downwards.
The minutes ticked by, on and on and on, but still the elevator moved steadily downwards, never stopping, always making that whirring sound below their feet. The obese man shivered, feeling the draft of the air conditioning becoming steadily colder the lower they went.
Seeing his shiver, the blond man hummed.
"Kind of surprised you feel the chill," he mentioned, grinning ferally. "Is it the air conditioning?"
Here, his grin turned eerie. "Or is it something else?"
The obese man just grunted, side-eyeing the blond in contempt. "None of your goddamn business, faggot. And how long does this damn elevator ride go on for?!"
"You're awfully in a hurry to see the Boss."
"You would be, too, if you had to stay in the same place as your gay self."
The guard just leered and said nothing as at that same moment, the elevator slowly came to a halt and the doors opened with a ding. The sight that awaited them was as drab and colorless as the room above. A long corridor stretched out in front of them. Gray walls. Gray ceiling. Gray carpet. Hell, even the same damn cactuses. Without the guard even saying anything, the crowd that was with them meekly filtered out of the elevators, never saying anything to the two. Three old people shuffled along, all holding green card passes. A family of three, the mother and the father holding the child in between them.
The guard gestured towards the corridor in a grandiose manner, making the obese man purple in anger as he stomped out of the elevator into the dimly lit corridor.
"I'd wish you luck, mate, but I don't think anything will help you out here," the guard grinned, and for a moment his sight flickered. Instead of seeing the stupid gay guard's face, he saw a skull, with eyeholes as dark as midnight, grinning mockingly at him.
He blinked, and the hair-raising image disappeared from his sight, leaving the blond guard's irritating visage. The guard's grin just widened sardonically, as if he knew what had happened.
"Tell Tisiphone to make yours special, will you? Alecto's still not awake, but I'm sure she would LOVE to get a piece of you," the blond chuckled menacingly as the doors of the elevators closed, distorting his laughter to something more eerie and sinister.
The man just stood there, gaping at the silver closed doors of the elevator for a few moments then seemingly shook himself out of his stupor.
"Fucking butt licker. He'll regret that when I rat him out to his boss," the man ranted angrily as he maneuvered himself around and started waddling through the dimly lit corridor.
Minutes ticked by as he walked through the corridor, his footsteps highlighting the stillness around him. The corridor itself had no branch offs or doors. Just one long stretch of gray as far as his beady eyes could see, the occasional gray cactus popping up like gray fingers of zombies clawing up from the ground. That particular thought had him waddling faster, hoping to catch up to the crowd that left the elevator before him. Though, no matter how fast he tried to walk, he didn't encounter anyone else in the corridor, no matter that he only spent a few seconds talking to the blond guard.
He shivered as the temperature of the corridor became colder and colder, the hairs on the back of his neck prickling as he felt that there was something on the edge of his senses. Watching him.
He must have been walking close to about 10 minutes before he encountered anyone else than the occasional cactus that when he saw a man in a suit, with his back turned to him, he all but sighed in relief as he hurried his pace to the man, no matter how he didn't hear any shuffling inside the corridor except for his own.
"Hey, you!" he called out to the man, intent on asking where exactly is the boss' office around here, when his path to the man was blocked by two men in suits, honest-to-God guns pointed at him.
He froze, terrified. GUNS. FREAKING GUNS! WHAT WAS THIS PLACE?!
In his fright, he never did once consider on how the guards literally appeared out of thin air, or the pleased sinister smirk that the man being protected sported for a few moments.
As it was, when the obese man finally got the courage to stop trembling and look at him, the man's face was schooled to one of annoyed curiosity.
"At ease," the man commanded, his voice smooth and velvety like dark chocolate. The guards immediately complied, lowering their guns and letting the obese man pass them, though they didn't put their weapons away.
The man in the suit turned to him, his onyx eyes glittering as he raised an elegant eyebrow in a show of impatience.
"Ah," the obese man stuttered, wringing his meaty hands nervously as he tried (and failed) to meet those intense eyes. "I'm looking for the one in charge around this place."
"And?" The man turned fully, giving the obese man his first proper look of him. He was dressed in a black business suit, with what looks to be tailored specifically to him. It looked like one of those Armani suits that those Hollywood actors wore, except this looked more expensive. The shoes he wore looked like high-quality leather. The man's complexion was paler than milk and his thin lips were pressed in impatience as he tousled his shoulder-length, jet black hair from falling in front of his face.
It hit the obese man with the force of a speeding train; he was talking to the Boss.
Whatever expletives he was planning on saying (read: shouting) to the man a while ago all flew from his brain. Even to his miniscule mind, the man in from of him was exuding an aura that read "DANGER" in capital letters, never mind the guards on either side of him that were still holding their guns.
"You were looking for me?" The man in the suit asked as he turned and continued to walk the hallway.
The obese man just stood there, rooted to the spot, until something cold and hard poked him in the small of his back. He bit back a scream as he jolted as if electrocuted and hurriedly waddled after the well-dressed man. The guards behind him exchanged feral grins and followed after them.
The group walked deeper and deeper into the hallway, the obese man hesitantly shuffling forwards as he followed the well-dressed man. He was acutely aware of the guards behind him, or more accurately, the guns in their hands. Their hands were currently lowered, though he could feel their eyes drilling into the back on his head, daring him to make one wrong move. Daring him to let them use the firearms on his meaty body. He swallowed heavily. Clearly, he was in too deep into something that wasn't entirely on the legal side of things. What if this was the base of smugglers. Or illegal traffickers. Or worse, MAFIA.
Before he could make so much as a squeak of protest, though, the well-dressed man in front of him suddenly stopped walking as the stupidly long corridor ended, three plain doors in gray standing in front of them. Without hesitation, the man immediately went to the door on the left and opened it, gesturing for the other man to follow him. Not wanting to be left in the corridor with the guards, the obese man cautiously shuffled through the doorway, paling as he realized that the well-dressed man had brought him into what looked like his office. And it already had three occupants. Three occupants who had stood immediately when the well-dressed man came into view.
The obese man took a few steps back, clearly intimidated at the display, but when he tried to turn around so he could go back to where he came from, damned guards with guns or not, he saw that the two guards were in the process of closing the door, grinning malevolently at him as they sealed the passage shut.
Gulping, the obese man turned towards the room, watching the exchange with growing dread.
"My Lord! What a surprise! What brings you to this part of the kingdom?" the only man of the three exclaimed, his tone awed and reverent as he addressed the well-dressed man. He was probably in his early 50s, with thinning hair in the front, and hair worn up to his shoulders, all tied at the back of his neck. He wore one of those ridiculous outdated men's suits, the ones with the ruffles in front instead of neckties. Although outdated, the quality of the suit was top notch.
The man that was addressed as 'Lord' smiled. "I bring with me a special guest, William. He really doesn't need to be evaluated. I am, shall we say, intimately familiar with his situation."
"Ah. So, he's the one, my Lord?" one of the women purred, her red eyes glinting as she looked at the obese man like she was evaluating his very existence and found severely lacking. She was scantily dressed in a tight leather dress, hugging her form and leaving nothing to imagination. The obese man would have been drooling if not for the situation.
"Calm, sister. You'll get yours soon enough," the other woman beside the red-eyed seductress uttered, her violet eyes shining vindictively. If not for their eyes, the two would have been mistaken for clones.
"Ladies, calm," the one addressed as 'Lord' murmured amusedly as he made his way towards the ornate oak desk that William had vacated when they entered the room.
"You are the only one today, William?'
"Yes, my Lord. Thomas is busy with another project you have given, and Minos is, well," William grimaced, as the sisters exchanged loaded glances at that statement.
"Ah. Well, it seems it cannot be helped," 'Lord' sighed as he sat behind the oaken desk and pinned the obese man with a stare so intense that it felt like he was being x-rayed. "Now, you mentioned that you had business with me?"
"A-Ah. Yeah," the obese man haltingly claimed. His mind was coming up with worse and worse scenarios on what exactly was going on in this place. "I mean, I woke up in your lobby without remembering a thing. I tried to get out of here, but the stupid body guard upstairs claimed I needed to get your permission first. So, here I am. Err. Sir."
"Really, now. You woke up without any memory whatsoever?" 'Lord' asked, one eyebrow raised in inquiry. William winced at his superior's obvious interest in the obese man, but the two women looked as if their birthdays had come early.
"Yes. Err. Sir. The only thing I remember is green. And when I try - ack!" The obese man grunted in pain as he clutched his head in agony.
"Hmm. Interesting," 'Lord' mused as his onyx eyes observed the way the other man struggled with what looked like a migraine of epic proportions.
"My Lord?" William enquired. Aside from the obvious anomaly, he couldn't figure out why the obese man was worth some personal time with the important man.
'Lord' raised a hand to stall his inquiry, his onyx eyes glittering with amusement as he watched the obese man calm slowly calm himself down from his fit.
"It seems that your mind is still firmly stuck in denial that it's pushed all of the pertaining memories to your subconscious. Shall we remedy that?" He smirked darkly as he raised a hand and snapped his long fingers.
"What-?" The obese man only had time to look up at the one called 'Lord' in confusion before his headache returned ten-fold, only this time, it felt like the floodgates that were holding back the memories he tried to access earlier was fully opened and images started to flood his mind at a rapid pace. Sally's whore of a brat returning, even after he got insurance on her worthless ass; Him threatening her to leave so he wouldn't need to give the money back; Sally ushering the whore out of his apartment; Asking Sally for the meatloaf he ordered from her; Seeing a DECAPITATED HEAD WITH SNAKES FOR HAIR instead of the meatloaf when she opened the silver platter in front of him; Feeling the EYES of the head (the MOST TERRIFYING pair he had the pleasure of seeing) freeze him in place; Feeling SO FUCKING TERRIFIED when he found he couldn't move anything, even his eyes; Wanting to KILL Sally as she took him from his nice apartment and leaving him in that weird museum; Seeing people gawk at him, laugh at him, stare at him, more than once commenting on how hideous he looks; Them not hearing a thing as he tried with all of his might to shout, to tell someone that his god forsaken shit for a wife trapped him there; The curator of the museum losing interest in him; A careless employee dropping him, shattering him when they were moving him to storage; Him ending up in the drab lobby upstairs. Everything rushed through his head in one fell swoop, the force of the memories enough to land him on his ass.
Through the confusion of the jumble of memories and the shit ton of pain he was in, one thought outshone everything else.
"SALLY."
"Well, at least you're not slow on the uptake," the one called 'Lord' drawled as him in amusement.
"Who the fuck are you?! What the fuck happened to me?! What did you fucking do?! " the obese man screamed, pointing accusingly at the smirking man. Though before he could do anything else, an agonizing scream left his mouth as pain more intense than that he had experienced a while ago hit him like a truck, the pain centralized on his right hand.
.. Or what used to be his hand, seeing as there was a bloody stump on where his right hand was supposed to be.
He screamed as he hunched in on himself, cradling his now stump of an arm to his chest as he stared horrified at the red-eyed woman in front of him, his missing hand in one of her hands, and a bloody knife in the other.
"Never point a threatening hand on my Lord, worm. You're not worthy," she said as she smiled ferally at him, licking the blood from the knife.
"Wh-Who are you people?! Where the fuck am I?!" the pitiful waste of a man wailed from his position on the floor, his beady eyes darting fearfully from one person to the other.
At this point, the man who triggered his memories sighed in annoyed impatience as he languidly stood up and walked towards the man, his onyx eyes flashing with an unreadable emotion.
"To answer one of your questions, mortal, you are now in Hell. You died the moment Sally Jackson turned you to stone."
"Wh-What?! H-H-HELL?!" the screeching man's voice turned a few octaves higher.
"Oh, yes, puny worm. Hell, Hades, the Underworld, whatever you puny mortals prefer to call it," the violet-eyed woman drawled disdainfully as she sneered in disgust at him.
"Th-That's not true! You're all lying! I'm not de-dead! You're all insane! I'll have you all arrested for intentional harm!" he howled out. He resolutely ignored the fact that the turning to stone thing would actually make the jumbled up memories inside his head all fit to place on what exactly happened to him.
No, because that's not POSSIBLE. This wasn't a fucking fairy tale! This wasn't one of Sally's-!
"Sally! That bitch put all of you up to his, didn't she?! I'll have her arrested, the whore! She's attempting matricide! She'll be locked up! Her bitch of a daughter won't have anywhere to go! She'll have to whore herself up- ack!" he was cut off his hysterical ramblings, seeing as something seemed to be choking him. Something invisible.
He clawed at the general area where there should have been SOMETHING cutting off his oxygen supply, but all he found was thin air. His wild, wide eyes looked up to find onyx eyes glinting in anger. The man himself seemed to have one hand up in the air in a choking motion.
"Never disrespect them again, Gabe Ugliano."
Common sense all but leaving him in his hysteria, Gabe sneered at the most dangerous person in the room. "What's it to you? So what if I call Sally a whore? What? Is she YOUR whore? Or is it the brat you're after?"
The man languidly stalked up to his crumpled up form on the floor, posture all but screaming danger.
"No, but my brother would have your soul for the things you've done to Sally Jackson, never mind his only daughter."
Gabe crowed with victory.
"HA! He's the one who left them in the first place! I was the one who took them in! You don't have the right to lecture me about anything!"
At this point, the man was standing in front of him, radiating enough displeasure that his brain helpfully reminded him of the fact that this was the man those guards outside were protecting, never mind the people here inside the room called 'Lord'.
"Maybe it would be best to show you why he heft them in the first place," the man silkily commented as his eyes slid towards the two women in leather clothing. "Megaera. Tisiphone."
"Of course, my Lord."
Heading the silent command, both women's images began to flicker, much to Gabe's horrified eyes. Their sinfully beautiful faces morphed into old wrinkled hags with horrifying fangs, leather clothing stretching to cover their body until it became skin, fingers elongating to claws, eyes glowing ethereally.
"You-You're all monsters," Gabe breathed out in a horrified whisper.
"Close enough," the man in front of him smirked as he himself transformed; his pale skin turning to red, teeth turning to fangs gleaming in the dim light of the room, his hands transforming into claws, two horns protruding from his head, and at the corner of Gabe's vision, a single red pointed tail was swishing back and forth.
"Welcome to your eternal punishment, Gabe Ugliano. My name is Hades, and I am your worst nightmare come true," the demon in from of him smirked evilly.
Gabe screamed.
—
And that's a wrap for Book 1! Hopefully it won't take 2 years for the next update (Again, SORRY!). Until then! ❤️
**EDIT: And now I am in need of a Beta for the upcoming stories to come, since, unfortunately, dogbiscuit1967 is not available. So, any takers? 😊