Chapter One: “Sorry”
It was an early autumn morning when Gabriel awoke on a bench in Central Park. He slowly lifted his torso off of the self-warmed metallic surface. He opened his eyes revealing a landscape of trees, everyone different and fields of lush green grass swerving around them. Gabriel, in one fluid motion, got up off of the bench while yawning, his arms stretched over his head. It was at least seven o’clock, maybe even eight o’clock, Gabriel didn’t care. He walked around the side of his imitation of a bed and let his face be captured by the sun light. Gabriel listened. He waited. Then, he heard it. The familiar tune of “Pumped Up Kicks” being whistled off into the distance only this time, it sounded frantic. He heard it every morning when he woke up...and he knew who was doing it too. A tall, muscular man rounded the corner. He wore a plain gray suit that matched his plain gray pants which matched his plain gray tie. He was a walking gray blob. That blob had a name. It’s name...I mean, his name was Leon, Leon James King III.
Leon was approaching Gabriel at a surprising pace with his face in a worried expression. He walked like there was something behind him, chasing him. Gabriel took the liberty of checking behind the man but he couldn’t see anyone that looked like they were chasing him. Leon didn’t even stop to talk to Gabriel as he always did. Every morning, Leon would walk through the park on his way to work and sit with Gabriel and just talk. The subjects of the conversations were always different. They would talk about the different breeds of dogs one day and then maybe talk about why Brittany Spears shaved her head the next. There were really no patterns to their sessions.
Before Gabriel could say anything to the gray, running man, he was already thirty feet past him. Gabriel checked his surroundings one more time, noting if there was anything suspicious. He noted none. Gabriel thought that Leon must have been late for a meeting or something. Even at fifty-two, Leon was the CEO of Environments of America, which was a company dedicated to protect, restore, and create new habitats across the country. He was almost positive that Leon, also known as Mr. King in the corporate world, was late for a meeting. But Gabriel will find out later that he was wrong. Way wrong.
Gabriel had been homeless since he was about twelve. When he was eight, his mother died due to a drug overdose and he left his father, Christopher, when he was twelve because he was an alcoholic. You know how people say that your either a happy drunk or an angry drunk? Well, Christopher was an extremely abusive, couldn’t care less, left in the middle of the night to party drunk. One day, which was Gabriel’s twelfth birthday, his father wanted him to know how to use a gun. Christopher, after having a few bottles of scotch, unsteadily brought out a stainless Colt Python .357 Magnum for Gabriel to try out. Gabriel refused to touch it. He didn’t want anything to do with guns. Never did, and never will...so he thought.
Christopher began to force the gun upon Gabriel, consistently nudging the side of the gun into his stomach. Gabriel still didn’t take it. That ticked his father off. Christopher began to ram the gun into his son’s stomach hitting harder and harder. Gabriel still didn’t take his father’s gun. His father had enough. He wasn’t going to have a son that didn’t know how to use a gun and lived in New York. Christopher punched his son’s left eye and then nose, finishing with a knee to the stomach. Gabriel cried out in pain as he collapsed to the floor. Gabriel checked his nose, seeing if it was broken, and sure enough, it was. Blood was pouring out of his fractured nose and trickled down across his lips, neck, and shirt. His father threw the Colt on the floor next to Gabriel’s head. Gabriel looked to the side of him with his right eye, his only working eye, noticing that the barrel of the gun was pointed directly at him. Luckily, the gun didn’t go off.
Gabriel imagined what would happen if it went off. He thought that the bullet would go straight through his head, entering through the eye and exiting out the back of his head. Gabriel got chills. Just thinking about himself dying due to his father’s carelessness and abuse got to him. He wasn’t going to let this happen again. He wasn’t going to let his father abuse him like this anymore. Never again. Gabriel slowly picked up the Colt, making sure not to make any noise. His father had already turned his attention to the refrigerator and opened it to get a beer. Gabriel took aim at his father’s leg, making sure not to aim at his Femoral Artery. His father slowly turned. His eyes widened.
“Finally, I thought I was going to need to beat you some more for you to touch the gu...” BANG!
Gabriel shot his father between his tibia and fibula. Christopher crumpled to the ground like a marionette, it’s strings being released by the puppet master. Christopher fell to the floor with tremendous force, breaking his beer bottle and spilling the left over contents on the floor of their shabby, little apartment. Christopher screamed. Well, sort of. He was trying to scream but sound would only sometimes come out. Gabriel thought that it was because he was so drunk.
Gabriel dropped the gun and bolted to the door. He turned around and looked at his father one last time. He was trying to crawl to the phone clutching his right leg. Blood could be seen on his pants but Gabriel knew he hadn’t hit his father’s major artery (a couple days before, Gabriel’s seventh grade class learned about the circulatory system). Gabriel only said one word to his father before he left, left forever, and that was, “Sorry.”
Chapter Two: “Surprise”
Gabriel hid behind the wide, pale brown tree hoping not to raise his notoriety. If he was caught by Leon, he would be promptly shooed away and lose him. Gabriel peeked around the broad oak making sure that, from neck down, his ragged blue jeans and torn plaid over-shirt were concealed. Leon had already made it to the crosswalk. All he had to do is cross the street and go through the revolving doors that were directly in front of him and then he would be at his office building, the EA building. Now was Gabriel’s chance to move closer. Leon was too busy impatiently waiting for the crosswalk light to change. Gabriel rushed over behind a mail drop-off box. He peered around the corner and stared at Leon’s left side. He analyzed him. To Gabriel, three things didn’t add up. First, Leon was never in a hurry. He always took time to talk with Gabriel, even if it was for a couple minutes. Second, Leon was never impatient. He always chatted to nearby pedestrians to pass the time. Thirdly, Leon never carried a brief case so Gabriel examined the it swiftly. It is definitely leather, black, with a brown handle and silver latches. About the size of a laptop.
Gabriel saved these observations in the back of his mind. He then heard a dog yip and promptly turned to the source. A small dog rounded the corner. It was an Italian Greyhound. Cute dog. Gabriel turned back to where Leon was standing and noticed that he was gone. He franticly looked around each side of the drop-off box. Thankfully, he caught a glance at a piece of gray before it disappeared into the massive building.
Gabriel stayed by the drop-off box for the next eight hours. He didn’t dare leave. He needed to know why Leon was acting so bizarre. Gabriel was about to abandon his post when Leon walked out. Gabriel analyzed him again. It still looked like he was worried about something. Leon, prompted to do so, speed walked across the street and went back into Central Park. Gabriel cautiously followed, this time, concealing himself behind a group of tourists making their way down the path. For five minutes, Gabriel followed Leon. But then Leon took an unexpected turn. Leon veered to the right and traveled through the trees, off the path. That’s a fourth thing that Gabriel thought was odd. Leon never ever veered off a path, not since he went hiking when he was younger and got lost for fifteen hours. He vowed to never walk off a path again. Well, today, he broke that vow.
Gabriel continued to follow. Walking off of the path made it easier for Gabriel to tail Leon due to the increase of oak trees. Gabriel continued to traverse between the trees until Leon arrived at a warehouse off the edge of the park. He stopped behind the tree closest to Leon. Gabriel had never seen the warehouse before. He’d never ventured in this direction before, until now. There were plenty of broken windows, beaten down boxes, and graffiti enveloping the ominous edifice. At least the graffiti added color to the rusty-grey structure. Leon knocked on the front door. It was the only door that was illuminated by a singular lightbulb. It had grown darker since Leon left his office. Gabriel assumed that it was close to six o’clock, the sun was about to set. The door to the warehouse inched open and out walked an overly muscular man who seemed like he was wearing a shirt two sizes too small. His freshly shaven head reflected the last minutes of sunlight. The man then proceeded to escort Leon into the dark grey building and closed the door.
Gabriel looked around. The only source of light was now the lightbulb above the door. Gabriel wearily crept forward. He must have been a hundred feet away from the front door. Gabriel continued to sneak forward until he heard a screech. The noise nearly gave Gabriel a heart attack. In fact, it made Gabriel’s heart begin to race. He wasn’t sure if the sound had come from the warehouse or somewhere in the park. Gabriel had finally made it to the door. He crouched down and walked against the wall over to the left corner of the building, his short black hair blending perfectly into the shadows. He peered around the corner, seeing nothing, and moved forward. Gabriel stopped when he reached a couple of boxes stacked on top of one another. Gabriel maneuvered on top of the boxes to get to the higher windows. He peered inside. Nothing but black. Gabriel could see something directly in front of him. It almost looks like a cat walk. It is a cat walk. Gabriel lifted one leg through a broken window and set it on the cat walk. He put some weight on it before entirely climbing through the window. Gabriel briefly had a thought. What if that was Leon’s scream? The thought quickly vanished and Gabriel swiftly climbed inside. He crouched again and found a railing, cold and metallic. He followed the railing until he found himself a flight a stairs to climb down on. When Gabriel reached the cement floor he was greeted with another scream. It definitely came from in here...what am I getting myself into? Before Gabriel had time to think, he heard, assuming, that a thug had come into the section of the warehouse that he was in. Gabriel quickly but silently hid behind some rusty empty oil drums, almost tripping into them. An out of place thought came into mind. Man, am I good at hiding today. The thug crept around the room. He seemed suspicious of something. Hestood in place for a minute and listened in the dark.
“All set Rico, all secure!” yelled the thug.
Gabriel watched as the man, responding to the name Rico, enter the room the same way the thug did, although, he wasn’t alone. Five or six figures, including the extremely muscular man entered with him (Gabriel could smell the cigarette smoke on the men). Oh. My. God. Rico traveled against the wall until he found what he was looking for. All of a sudden, the lights came on. The bright, white lights blinded Gabriel for a few moments, his eyes grew accustomed to the dark environment. When Gabriel regained his sight, he looked over the oil drum and saw a massive room full of chains suspended from the ceiling, even the cat walk was held up with chains. Gabriel reacted to the scene with shivers. He then saw movement in the center of the warehouse. Leon! Rico, the muscular man, and the thugs had suspended Leon into the air with the chains so that his back was towards Gabriel. He looked unconscious but then he saw Leon twitch a little. Gabriel was shocked. He saw blood dripping off of his stained-grey clothing and onto the cement. Gabriel’s stomach tied itself in a knot. Clearly, Leon was in trouble. I have to get help. Have to help save him. Gabriel analyzed the room for another way out. The cat walk was out of the question. They would clearly be able to see him. Gabriel glanced to his right and saw a small hole in the wall under the protection of the stairs. He was sure that his small, thin body could fit through it. Gabriel scanned the room again, but something was wrong. He couldn’t place it but something looked different. Without warning, a black sack was brought over his head, his heart stopped. The muscular man had seen Gabriel and crept up behind him without raising his notoriety. Before the man took Gabriel’s consciousness away by slamming his head on the eroded oil drum, he slowly but faintly whispered one word into Gabriel’s ear, “Surprise.”
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