Are We Okay?

OOC: This RP plays directly into Gabriel’s last RP ( Chapter Thirty Two – Vision and Victory ). Enjoy!

Date November 20th 2018 / Time 12:29PM / Status Not Recording
Location UGWC Headquarters – Chicago, Illinois

“We are very sorry that we couldn’t come to an understanding here today, Ms. Wylde.”

I roll my eyes as I reach for the doorknob and open the door to generic board room number three, letting the slightly cooler air from the hallway hit me in the face.

“Right…”

I reply, stopping in the doorway and turning around to face the UGWC brass once again, not even bothering to hide the anger on my face.

“I’m sure you are. But as I remember, we’ve got a new contract to discuss, hmmm? I’d hate to see things go… sour between us, wouldn’t you?”

I see their collective eyes widen but before they can respond, I slam the door behind me.

I don’t even know why I came here. I should have known they wouldn’t do a damn thing to change the position they put me in at Horizons.. Not when they could potentially get Gabriel Baal out of the picture indefinitely.

I just don’t like being used as a kind of ‘executioner’. Maybe a few months ago, after he gave me to my father.. If they’d of put me in this match then, I’d of been all too happy to end his career and send him packing. But now? Like I said, I’m no executioner.. And I don’t like being used as such.

As I’m walking down the hallway towards the elevator, I see something out of the corner of my eye. Something that looks familiar. I stop and turn, seeing a symbol on a door that I hadn’t seen when I came in here.. Where have I seen that before? Why do I feel like it’s drawing me in… trying to keep my attention… It’s an odd feeling, but I reach out for the doorknob and I open the door, figuring that if I get in trouble for going where I don’t belong.. What’s the worst that could happen to me?

Will they stop me from ending Gabriel’s career?

Oh, no.. Please… I’ll do anything..

I muse to myself sarcastically as I open the door to reveal an empty room.

Well, shit.

That wasn’t near as interesting as I hoped it would be, but I step into the room nonetheless, letting the door slip out of my hand as I step through the threshold.

“Wait.. the door!”

“What?”

I say, hearing a voice and turning around to see the door close behind me… The room goes dark.

Date ??? / Time ??? / Status ???
Location ???

I open my eyes, quickly realizing that I’m no longer in that sterile, empty room back at UGWC Headquarters. But.. where am I?

I look up, realizing that I’m under a bridge of some sort, sitting behind some brush. The breeze picks up and I sit up, looking around, trying to find something.. anything to tell me where I ended up. But all I see are cars moving off in the distance.

Maybe if I start walking now, I’ll eventually happen upon someone who can tell me where I’m at and how in the hell I can get back to-

“Gabriel?”

I stop dead as I turn around to see Gabriel laying on the ground where I just was… I rush over and drop down beside him, looking down into his face as he slowly opens his eyes.

“Hey. Wake up. Wake the fuck up!”

I don’t understand how he got here.. or why.. But part of me is glad because at least I’m not in wherethefuckisthisville by myself anymore.

“Lucy…”

He says quietly.

“What… Happened?”

“What happened? How about where the fuck are we?”

I reply as he pushes himself up onto his elbows and looks around for himself. I watch his face intently, wondering if he knows where this is.. and I get my answer when his eyes widen in shock.

“This… It’s… It can’t be…”

“What? Where?”

The tone in his voice makes my stomach go sour. This isn’t good. I can feel the concern as I move closer, wondering what’s going to happen next.

His eyes widen in horror as I follow his gaze to see a white panel van turning the corner and pulling up under the bridge.

“This… Is where I met… Him.”

Suddenly I feel a chill wash over my body as I keep my eyes on the van and my hand on Gabriel’s sleeve.

“Your father.”

Until I hear those words. Then I rip my arm away from him and take a step back, shaking my head.

This can’t be.

“What the fuck Gabriel. Why are we fucking here?”

Does that mean… I’m in that van?

“Lucy… This…”

He begins saying as a figure steps out of the van.

“This… Is the night it happened.”

“The night you gave me to him! Sent me off to fucking die!”

I snap, shaking my head and trying to hold my shaking hands in my pants pockets so that he can’t see my fear.

“That’s not what happened! You have got to believe that.”

He isn’t looking at me as he says this, and he moves and slips down the slight embankment towards the van. I’m not really sure what he wants me to believe as I follow him. All I know is what I experienced after I was taken from the back of that van.

“That’s what fucking happened Gabriel. I’m in that van unconscious. About to become a victim of that sadistic asshole, and all because you wanted to win a fucking title.”

“Yes! But… No! Not… It wasn’t like…”

He stammered as he walked towards the van with me in close pursuit because I have to hear his rationale for what he did.

“I wanted you safe. Just… Scared… Tired… Off your game.”

“I ALMOST DIED!”

I shout, wanting him to understand.. fully understand what happened to me… what happened when he left me and went back to his comfortable life, forgetting all about me and what I was about to endure.

He doesn’t argue with me. He’s just intent upon getting around this van. I wouldn’t understand wh…

My jaw drops as I round the van behind him and see him holding me to his chest.

“What the fuck were you doing? You’re insane.”

I look over at him with disgust, wishing I’d never of opened that damned door in the headquarters. Just what I need. Reliving this shit.

Gabriel glances over at me before his eyes are drawn back to what’s in front of us.

“I was talking to you…”

He stops speaking, his eyes widening again. But this time it’s dread I see in his face when I look over at him.

“Which means… Wait… Lucy… Just… Go. Please.”

My eyebrows raise in question.

“What? Why…”

I say as a pair of bright headlights blind the both of us. The car pulls into view, stopping behind the van and immediately the door opened.

“You there! Take your hands off my daughter.”

Instinctively, I reach out for the first thing I can find, Gabriel. He reaches down and takes my hand, at first I don’t want anything to do with it.. but I clamp onto it as my father’s face comes into full view for the first time since…

Since…

I pull in a tight breath and grip onto his hand tighter.

“It’s Okay… It’s the past. I… I don’t know why… But it can’t touch us.”

He says, trying to reassure me.

“Are you sure?”

I manage to squeak out, trying to keep my voice from shaking.. Trying to just be an observer.. not trying to feel threatened or scared. Even though.. I’m standing here watching past Gabriel talk with past Gary like their old fucking friends… while holding onto the real Gabriel as if he’s my only lifesaver…

Irony.

“Like old friends.”

I say softly, sneering over at him. He sighs.

“We had a deal – I almost walked away there and then.”

He replies quietly, brushing his thumb absentmindedly over my hand.

“I wish I had.”

“Hindsight twenty twenty.”

I reply, shaking my head. There’s no way he could possibly think I’d feel sorry for him after all of this.

“You knew what he was. You do your research. Still you sent me off to him.”

“And I’m sorry.”

He replies softly, turning his attention in my direction for a split second..

“I truly am.”

I.. I don’t know what to say. I guess I never really expected him to apologize for this… I never expected him to feel anything about what he did to me in these moments.

I’m shocked.. to say the least.

But it makes me wonder…

“Are you sorry because you’re sorry? Or are you sorry because I can end your fucking career at Horizons?”

He shrugs his shoulders.

“If you do… Ask me again after. I’ll say the same thing.”

He replies, not taking his eyes off of the scene in front of us. Watching himself and my father talking to one another while I just lay there unconscious.

“You’re the same you and I – yet you dare to judge me? We’re both willing to do whatever it takes to assert our authority? Our dominance. Both willing to crush everyone around us to get what we want. You want… That belt. I want… My daughter. Don’t you dare look at me like I’m less than you when we’re both stood here right now bargaining the life of a woman we both once held in our arms.”

I don’t like being witness to this… It makes me feel unwanted and worthless all over again. I don’t think he could ever understand that… ever.

But I’m surprised when Gabriel swings his cane upwards and into Gary’s neck.

“I press this button and enough of my serum will course through your body to ensure you never move again. You’ll feel. You’ll exist. But your ability to move your muscles will be taken away from you. Life given to you through a fucking tube. Don’t you dare try to tar me with your brush, you cretin.”

“Do it.”

I say softly, trying to will him to press that button as I squeeze his fingers.

“I wish I had,”

He says with a bit of a croak in his voice.

“I should have done.”

“Everything I do is for the betterment of those who I care about. My family, my friends. I would die for each and every one of them if it kept them safe. I have forgiven the greatest of betrayals for that which we call love. You stand here talking about the life of your daughter. That’s what she is – your fucking daughter. You forgive everything for your children. You suffer the consequences and the pain so they don’t have to. That’s what a fucking parent is supposed to do.”

I move closer, holding tight to Gabriel’s elbow as I see my father’s face contort with what I can only guess is panic. Wondering if this man who was so willing to give me over would really do something like that to him.

God.. I wish he had..

“My father was like you – selfish. Arrogant. Always thought he knew what was for best. He fathered three children and did nothing about trying to raise them until it was too late. Yet in the end, he showed remorse. He showed… Regret about all of the things he’d done. My father was evil, and cruel. Yet he’s a thousand times the man you are.”

My heart flutters in my chest as he continues. I can feel the real Gabriel tensing up and relaxing over and over as I cling onto his arm like a child. A child who wishes her father would have gotten what he deserved before anything more could have happened to her… Especially when he begins pulling Gary towards him with that cane.

“Make sure your daughter is locked away until after the Massive Melee, Gary, and do whatever it is that you feel you need to do. She and I are no longer friends. But I will make you a promise – should any damage remain permanent, I will make it my life’s work to ensure you spend the rest of your days in a confined cell suffering all manner of horrors. Do you understand?”

I feel like a lightbulb just came on inside my head… Illuminating things that I never knew I remembered… The breath catches in my throat as I turn towards him.

“I remember…”

I say, covering my mouth with my other hand.

“You threatened him. I remember…”

“And I’d have come through on that promise if your mother hadn’t gotten there first.”

He replies, a hint of annoyance in his voice. The same annoyance Joe felt when he wasn’t the one to have ended my father’s life.

It’s so odd, watching myself being moved from Gabriel’s vehicle to my father’s. Not something I’m going to forget anytime soon… Especially not being here with the man who perpetrated this entire thing…

And then past Gabriel yells, telling Gary to wait.

I didn’t expect that…

“Did you try to stop it?”

“No…”

He replies bitterly.

“But I did the next best thing.”

We watch as Gabriel moves in and grabs the World title from Lucy and I nod my head.

“You took the title away so he didn’t sell it. Great job.”

I say, sighing softly, watching him hug my unconscious body.

“And hugged me. No wonder everyone thinks you’re creepy.”

“That’s not what… Wait… Everyone? Seriously?”

He asks, looking down at me. I shrug my shoulders in return. As if he didn’t know that he comes off incredibly creepy sometimes… He knows alright.

“Never mind that… No – I placed a tracking dot on the back of your neck. Keeps a note of your vitals.”

I watch with a chill in my spine, watching the van drive off with me inside.. Knowing full well where I’d wake up hours later. Gabriel turns to me as the van leaves our view.

“You were never in mortal danger – not once. You are such… A fighter, Lucy Wylde. In fact, you didn’t give up at all until… “

His voice fades out and I nod my head.

“Until Joe… And Maggie found me. Until I didn’t have to fight.”

“It should have been me. It was… Supposed to be me. But then…”

I half chuckle and nod my head again.

“You chose Eden. Again. How very Gabriel.”

“It wasn’t that simple… She was being shot at by an army.”

He says, his voice almost pleading.. Justifying his actions to me. As if he needs to do that. I get it. I mean.. Kind of.

“And I had been kidnapped by my psychotic, sadistic father.”

“You were monitored. They knew that JC and Maggie were on their way. I had no-one anywhere near Eden and Caleb. Yes, I made a choice. If I could have split myself in two I’d have been in both places at once. But I’m sorry I wasn’t there…”

I look away from him, wondering if I’d of even wanted to see him instead of Joe and Maggie. If I’d of asked myself that months and months ago.. There would have been a time when his face would have been the only one I’d of wanted to see.. But that time has long since passed..

“Not sure your face is the one I’d have wanted to see anyway.”

I finally say, tilting my head to the side. I turn my attention back to the other Gabriel, still standing there beside the van, talking to himself. I almost… almost feel bad for him… At least knowing what I know now…

Almost.

“Lucy… I really am…”

I turn towards him as he begins speaking.. But everything around him begins turning to black again… I reach out for him but when I do…

“Gabriel?!”

…

Date ??? / Time ??? / Status ???
Location ???

“Gabriel?!?!”

The scene around me is blurry and dark… I have no way of knowing where in the hell I am… All I know is Gabriel isn’t here with me. All I know is that I’m alone…

“Lucy?!”

I hear his voice, but it’s far away. I start walking, hoping that I’m somehow getting closer to him but instead of his voice, I start hearing something else… and suddenly… the scene around me starts clearing up.

“Oh God….”

I hear something thrashing around behind me and every fiber of my being is telling me to keep walking.. Keep going.. Maybe I’ll find Gabriel and we can find a way out of here.

“You look angry, Lucille.”

That calm, collected voice of my father echoes through my surroundings and against my better judgement, I turn around to see myself.. Tied up against that wall in that warehouse, anger etched upon her face as Gary watches TV across the room.

“Let me out of this and I’ll fucking show you how angry I am you piece of SHIT!”

Lucy spits at him, hatred flowing from her mouth like a raging river. I shake my head and back away from them.

“No…”

No. I can’t do this. I can’t relive this again. I won’t. But I can’t take my eyes away from them.. us. I can’t stop looking at the exhaustion on my face, the anger, the fear.. And the contentment on his as he watches me struggle. I remember how much my arms hurt as I sat there.. I remember how hard it was to sit up, and how everytime I tried to lay over on the ground, he grabbed me up by my hair and put my right back where I was.

“Lucy…”

I whip around to see Gabriel standing behind me, staring at the same thing that I was just entranced by.

“LOOK AT ME YOU WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT! LOOK AT WHAT YOU’RE DOING!”

I hear myself scream out as I slam my legs down on the ground, wincing with every loud thud as I keep staring at Gabriel’s face.

“Jesus…”

He says, finally glancing at me.

I turn back around to see Gary cross his arms over his chest, looking annoyed that I’m interrupting his show. I shake my head and back up again, brushing up against Gabriel as I do.

“Trust me.. It gets worse.”

“I know exactly what I’m doing. I’m doing exactly what I should have done all those years ago, Lucille.”

“And what is that exactly? What ARE you doing, GARY?”

Gabriel and I watch as Gary finally looks over at Lucy and he sits up in the chair, leaning forward on the couch with a grin on his face.

“You’re going to die, Lucille.”

I glance over at Lucy and I remember that look on her face.. I remember feeling all the air pull from my lungs as I heard those words.. And I feel that same feeling standing here right now, unable to breathe.. Unable to move as I feel that same dread that Lucy is feeling right now.

“I really felt like I was…”

Gabriel reaches down and takes my hand in his and I can feel his hand shaking. I look over at him, and I see the emotion etched all over his face. He opens his mouth to speak, but nothing comes out. I know that feeling..

I know that feeling all too well.

At the same time, we both notice everything around us fading to black again… I lunge forward, wrapping my arms around him as things fade away.. Not wanting to be alone again.. Not here.

“Are we?”

“Yeah… I think so..”

Gabriel says, his arms wrapped around me too as everything begins to clear up again and we both see Lucy, still sitting up against that wall – looking much, much worse than she looked before…

She squeezes her eyes shut shaking her head as she tries to hold the tears back.

I squeeze my eyes shut, trying to hold the tears in – trying to think of anything but what’s happening right now, in this moment with Gary knelt before her, grinning down at her bruised and bloodied face.

“Don’t block me out, Lucille.”

Gary says, reeling back and hitting Lucy again with another closed fist, as her blood drips from her mouth down onto her shirt.

“He always wanted me to be in the moment… especially these moments.”

I finally say, letting go of Gabriel and sighing.

“Even when we were kids.. He wanted us to feel every cut, every blow.. everything.”

Gabriel doesn’t speak, he just listens as he watches what’s happening in front of us, no doubt thinking about his part in what he’s witnessing first hand. He had no idea what went on in here after he gave me over. I don’t think he could have ever prepared for… this.

Lucy smiles up at Gary and I know exactly what’s coming.

Gary grabs her by the front of her shirt, pulling her face to his.

“What are you smiling abo–“

Before Gary can finish the sentence, Lucy spits the blood from her mouth directly into Gary’s face, but instead of letting her go – he yells and starts slamming her head against the wall viciously. I wince with every dull thud, remembering feeling like the back of my head was going to cave in with every crack of my skull against that cinderblock wall.

“You.. Little.. BITCH!”

I feel the tears stinging at the corners of my eyes as I watch her close her eyes, trying to close herself off again, knowing how impossible that is.. Knowing that no matter what she does, no matter whether she feels the pain of it right now.. That she will and it’ll be worse than any pain she’s ever felt in her life.

“LUCILLE!”

Gary screams and slaps Lucy across her face. I hear Gabriel gasp.

“What.. What did I do…”

Gabriel says softly, his voice shaking as he tries to make sense of what he’s seeing.

“Gabriel…”

I say, laying my hand on his arm as Gary forces Lucy’s eyes open, making her look into his blood covered face as he slaps her again, grabbing a handful of her hair and throwing her face first into the floor. We both hear the loud crack and I nearly vomit right here. Gabriel puts his hand over his mouth, knowing full well that that’s where my cheek bone broke.

I put my hand up to my own cheek, remembering as the pain shot through my entire face.

“Just kill me already…”

Lucy says after a few moments of laying on the ground.

“Not until–“

“JUST FUCKING DO IT YOU PUSSY!”

Gary stands up and starts kicking Lucy in the ribs over and over – each time she coughs harder, the puddle of blood under her mouth growing bigger by the second. Once she’s barely able to breathe and one side of her face is entirely coated with blood, he walks away, leaving her to suffer.

“I really wanted him to end it right there…”

I say, turning to Gabriel and looking him in the eyes. I want him to know what I went through, and while watching this is a good reminder of the consequences of his actions… I don’t know, I feel like telling him right here, right now…

“I was tired… I wanted to die. I didn’t care about that world title anymore. I didn’t care about anything anymore. I don’t know if I could ever truly describe it to you, Gabriel…”

I point at Lucy, laying on the ground.

“How that feels.”

“I…”

He says, barely able to get that word out before he closes his mouth and looks past me, to Lucy – his eyes telling the entire story. A story of guilt and sadness.

“I might have to tell your little boyfriend Gabriel that I couldn’t wait until the… Massive Melee.. Is that it? Whatever. I might have to let him know that you weren’t able to watch him do whatever it is he’s going to do… I’m not sure you deserve to stay alive that long, Lucille.”

Lucy takes a deep breath and tries to roll over.

“I’m not sure I do either, Gary…”

“What was that?”

He says, stepping back towards her.

“Are you finally admitting it, Lucille?”

I nod my head along with Lucy.

“Whatever you want, Gary… I just want it done.”

“Normally I would oblige, Lucille. Normally. But since you want it so badly… I’m going to have to make you wait.”

My breath catches in my throat as everything fades back to black aga–

…

My stomach turns in knots as everything again comes into focus because I know what this is.. I know what this has got to be.. And as much as I didn’t want to relive everything before this.. I want to relive this even less.

“Today’s the day…”

“What?”

Gabriel says, wincing as he stares across the room at Lucys limp body, barely able to keep her eyes open for the bruising and swelling around them.

“Today’s the day he tries to kill me…”

We watch as Gary walks in, saying a few things to Lucy but she doesn’t immediately respond.

“He told me I should have been thankful for a day of rest to ‘heal up’…”

I say, scoffing as I sit down on the cold, unforgiving floor – Gabriel sits down beside me and sighs. Their conversation carries on in front of us until finally that deranged look comes over Gary’s face and he clamps his hand around Lucy’s face again. She struggles against him, but she’s too weak. She’s too damn vulnerable to do anything about the life slowly leaving her body as he wrenches in the hold harder and harder.

“You know.. Afterward.. After I got home.. I never got this out of my head. Feeling his hand over my mouth, slowly suffocating.. Yet somehow feeling like I deserved this.”

“You didn’t deserve this…”

“Maybe not.. But I felt like I did for the longest time afterwards, Gabriel. I felt like I should have died here.. I felt like you wanted me to die here.. Hell, I felt like everyone I ever cared about wanted me to die here too. I couldn’t save Rogan and Jase. I couldn’t help Maggie.. You made sure of that…”

I say softly, sniffing back tears.

“I’m..”

“You’re sorry.. I know. I–”

“GAHHH!!!”

His blood curdling scream startles us both as we turn our attention towards him, watching Christine plunge that knife all the way through his back, blood pouring from his chest as she murders him right in front of our eyes.

“He died there.. I know he did. I laid beside him as he took his last breaths, covered in his blood, unable to get away. Unable to do a Goddamned thing about it. But even now… I still hear him in here..”

I point up at my head.

“I hear him telling me that I should have died. And for the longest time afterwards, I believed him, Gabriel.”

“Lucy…”

“I believed him so truly that I tried to kill myself before Day of Reckoning. I couldn’t handle it anymore. I couldn’t deal with his voice in my head telling me things that I should have known weren’t true but I was too damn weak to deny him… He–”

Gabriel pulls me into him, hugging me with all his strength as Lucy repeats the names ‘Joe’ and ‘Maggie’ as she laid beside that phone.. Her only lifeline to the outside world as Gary lay dead beside her and her mother sits in a dark corner by herself, rocking and crying as her entire world fell apart.

“Jesus Christ, Lucy… I’m so–”

I wrap my arms around him and finally, I let those tears go, crying into his shoulder as everything begins fading to black again…

Date November 20th 2018 / Time 12:29PM / Status Not Recording
Location UGWC Headquarters – Chicago, Illinois

I open my eyes, realizing almost instantly that I’m back inside the room at UGWC headquarters, and I look to my side seeing Gabriel laying there unconscious. I move over to him, laying my hand on his arm, trying to make sense of everything that just happened…

“Gabriel…”

I say softly, feeling like I’d just gone through hell again.

“.. SORRY!”

Gabriel says suddenly, his eyes flying open as he gasps for breath.

“You’re awake… You’ve been unconscious for hours.”

I say, trying to calm him down as he looks up into my eyes.

“Are you Okay?”

He asks. I shrug my shoulders.

“I think so… I had a dream… About the night…”

“Me too…”

He says, maintaining eye contact with me.

“Did you have another after… About…”

I nod quickly, trying to keep my composure, trying to keep my hands from shaking as I lightly rub his arm.

“But… You disappeared. I wandered around that place, trying to get out… I couldn’t.”

He continues, obviously shaken up by the entire thing.

“I was alone there and I couldn’t do anything. I just… Sat with you.”