The Haunted: Part 4 The Final Chapter
Characters: Sylar/Gabriel Grey, Nathan Petrelli
The Haunted: Part 4
I was sitting on a small bed, my knees drawn up to my chest as I heaved violently with sobs that shook my entire body. My glasses laid beside me as I hugged my knees tightly like a lifeline. I sniffed the snot running from my nose as the bedroom door opened and shut quietly. I felt the bed move as someone sat upon it and slid up to sit beside me.
I looked up at the young girl beside me, who was pushing a smile through a pained face. I wiped the tears and snot off onto the sleeve of my shirt as I forced a smile back in her direction. She reached out towards me and pulled me into a warm embrace. I wrapped my arms around her and cried into her shoulder as she attempted to console me.
“It’ll be ok Gabriel.” she whispered in my ear. “I’m here now.” she said before starting to sing to me.
I hiccupped from lack of air as I calmed slowly to the sound of her kind voice singing my favorite lullaby. She stroked my hair in a motherly fashion as she continued with her song. I could feel the tears beginning to dry up and my breathing calming down to a normal pace. I heaved a heavy sigh before turning my head resting it on her shoulder as I looked out at my bedroom.
“He’s gone now Gabriel. He won’t be back for awhile.” she told me.
I liked my chapped lips and clung tenaciously to the girl beside me. I didn’t want to let go, she was the only comfort I had here. She held me close and I just listened to the sound of her breathing as the front door slammed shut and the car started up in the drive. There went mom now.
“We should run away.” I whispered.
She shushed me. “You shouldn’t say things like that Gabriel.” I was told.
“You could take care of me. You’re good at it.” I said.
“Hush now Gabriel. Mom loves us. She’d be heartbroken.” she told me.
I sat up and looked at her. Her brown eyes stared back at me from her teenage face, she was beautiful. Her beauty had been the envy of all the girls in her school. Boys had been chasing her skirt since she had turned thirteen, and I had only hoped that someday I’d grow up to be as good looking.
“She loves you. She could do without me.” I said pulling my legs up to my chest once more.
“Don’t say things like that Gabe. She does love you, and so do I. I will always love you, and I will always be here for you.” she said pulling me into a hug once more.
The moment was gone, it was months later now, and I was standing beside my mother, her hand upon my shoulder. It was raining, and we were outside, but not alone. My father was standing on the other side of me looking down at the ground with a tear and rain streaked face. I looked in front of me finally, I had avoided it long enough.
The coffin was black, trimmed with gold and etched with white angels on the top. I could see the headstone at the top of it, and could make out the words engraved there.
Samantha Gabriella Grey
Beloved daughter and sister, taken too soon from this world. A light in the dark that has been extinguished.
Tears ran down my own cheek and I pried myself away from my parents. I ran, as far away as I could. Away from the funeral, away from the pain away from the feelings of betrayal. I ran into the nearby forest and ran as fast as my little legs would carry me. I ran so long that my legs began to burn from the exertion of the work. I finally stopped when they gave in to the agony.
I dropped to my knees in the middle of the woods, my head hung, hair sopping wet hung down in my face. I couldn’t see anything through my fogged wet glasses. I didn’t want to see anything anyway. I shook with the sobs that finally overtook me. I couldn’t outrun the tears. I looked up at the sky and cried out in anger.
“You said you’d always be there for me! You said you’d never leave me! Why!?” I shouted at the sky. Nobody answered. Of course I hadn’t expected anyone to. I was hurt, I was angry. I wanted to just hurt the man who had killed my sister. To lash out and do horrible mean things to him. But he was locked away, safe in his solitary cell. He could rot there for all I cared.
I fell to the ground and cried until I knew no more. I didn’t care if nobody found me, I wanted to die right there, die and join my sister, the only angel on this Earth. I missed her dearly.
I let out a breath and panted as my head swam and my eyes burned. I had tears running down my face that I didn’t remember crying. I looked up into the face of Nathan Petrelli and the only thing I wanted to do at that moment was pound away at every inch of his body. I wanted to do to him what I had wanted to do to the man who had raped and murdered my beloved sister. But it wouldn’t do any good. It wouldn’t bring her back, nor ease the pain I had just been made to relive.
“Why in the HELL! Did you just make me remember that!” I shouted, no longer caring if I woke Peter up or not. “I had repressed that for a reason.” I whispered looking away fighting back more tears that I felt forcing their way to the surface.
“Because you needed to remember Gabriel.” Nathan answered me reaching out to rest a hand on my shoulder.
I pushed the hand away rising to my feet to look down at Nathan. “You didn’t want to kill me, because you knew how to make me suffer a fate worse then death.” I muttered through clenched teeth.
Nathan stood up and looked me in the eye. He shook his head before speaking to me. “No, that was not my intention Gabriel.” he said.
“My name is Sylar!” I yelled despite my better judgment.
He had done that, he had brought that rage back into me, that desire to kill, and right now I just wanted to kill him. I lashed out at him swinging in an attempt to make contact with his body. I didn’t care if it hurt him or not, but he stopped me. He caught my hand and I was forced to look up into those piercing eyes.
“Can you calm down, long enough for me to explain?” Nathan said.
I nodded. I couldn’t help myself, it was like those eyes had entrapped me. Maybe that was the plan after all. He would make me do whatever he wanted me to. I’d be helpless. They calmed me in a way that nothing had ever calmed me before. I was a cub once more, the lion had died.
“If you were paying any attention to what I had said, you’d have already worked it all out. But seeing as you’re in a very emotional state right now, I’ll spell it out for you.” Nathan started.
Any other time I’d have been angered at his little dance around calling me thick, but in the moment I just wanted to know what the hell was going on. I looked back at him expectantly as he relaxed the grip on my arm, then let it go.
“Your sister, is still alive. Luckily for her, she was found shortly after she was buried by one of us. Someone who had been watching her.” Nathan said.
I looked at him in disbelief. “What?” I asked unsure of what I had heard.
Nathan nodded. “In your lust for powers, you inadvertently countered the one thing that would have triggered the same change in you. Since you can’t die at all, you can’t be reborn into what you’re meant to be. Unless of course you somehow lost that ability.” Nathan said.
“I don’t want to be like you. Where is my sister?” I growled.
“I’m here, Gabriel.” Came a voice from behind me.
I turned around to face the specter of my past. There she stood just as young and beautiful as she had been in my first memory. Her black hair hung down past her shoulders as she smiled at me with the same piercing blue eyes like Nathan’s. It was the only thing different about her aside from her build.
“Sam.” I murmured.
She nodded and took a step closer to me as a smile slid fluidly across her face. “I’m sorry I couldn’t return to you sooner.” she said apologetically.
“Couldn’t?” I repeated the word like an insult. “I was heartbroken when you died. I wanted to die myself. What if I had taken my own life? I’d be stuck as a kid forever?” I said, the feeling of betrayal rising in me once more. Even stronger now that I knew she had been alive all this time.
“The man who found me, took me away, far away, and by the time I returned to rescue you, dad had disappeared, and so had you. I’ve been looking for you ever since. Last night, I met Nathan and he told me about you. He decided to arrange this reunion for me.” Sam explained.
I turned to regard Nathan. “You did this?” I asked him.
He nodded. “I gave you your sister back Gabriel, to thank you for helping me find my true self.” he said.
“And something else.” Sam said from behind me.
I turned to look at her and noticed a figure emerging out of the darkened corner behind her. My jaw hit the floor once more as the light hit the features of the young boy beside my sister. His own black hair hung down to his shoulders longer then Nathan’s but just as beautiful. His blue eyes looked at me with acceptance, and what I couldn’t mistake as pride. His features were that of my sister’s, slender, perfect, beautiful. He was her, incarnate. I knew right then who he was.
“What’s his name?” I asked my sister.
“Gabriel. I didn’t think I’d ever find you when he was born. That was why my rescuer saved me, for him.” she said.
“He looks to be the same age as you.” I noticed.
“Unfortunately Gabriel had an accident on his 16th birthday. The day he first got his driver’s license.” Sam explained.
Gabriel didn’t say anything. He just nodded in agreement and shrugged as if it were nothing. I looked at my nephew in complete shock. I didn’t know what to say, and he just looked at me with a look I was not used to getting from anyone. I couldn’t place it, but it was almost the look my sister used to give me when she was consoling me.
Before I knew it they were both upon me, wrapping me in a huge family group hug. Caught off guard at first I stood there with my arms out at my side unsure of what to do. Then I wrapped one around my sister and the other around my nephew. My family, I wasn’t alone after all. Now she would truly never leave me. I felt complete as I rested my head on my sister’s. It was strange to be taller then her now, but then again, she had stopped aging years ago.
The End