Beginnings - 1/1 - 100heroesfics and <lj site="livejournal.com" c

Characters: Gabriel Gray
Fandom: Heroes Season One
Rating: PG
Word Count: 454
Prompt: 1/100 Beginning 100heroesfics and "Breaks my heart to see a boy that young goin' bad." for scifi_muses
Notes: Right after Gabriel kills for the first time.


My head was spinning. I had to grab onto one of the display cases to get on my feet. A lurch of my stomach sent me rushing for the trashcan next to my workbench. I didn’t remember eating most of what I threw up. The pain in my head didn’t stop. Around me the clocks kept ticking, and I found my heart fighting to slow down until it could keep pace with my favorite grandfather clock. I focused on the swinging pendulum until the next bout of nausea passed. That wasn’t one of my brighter ideas. All the motion did was make me puke again.

For once the shop didn’t smell like dust and mildew. Now it was filled with the cloying copper stink of Brian Davis’ blood. My hands were covered in it. The rug was ruined, and I’d have to throw it out. I couldn’t hold back the laugh at the old cliché of a body wrapped in a rug in a New York alley.

“Well, mom’s been saying I needed a new rug for a long time,” I said still laughing. “This was stupid, Gabriel. How are you going to take care of this mess?”

The mess. I had to focus on that, not on what I’d done. I’d murdered a man. An innocent man who’d come to me asking for help. God was never going to forgive me. The guilt sent me to my knees, and I nearly curled into a ball under the front window away from prying eyes and the eyes of God.

“The mess,” I said, letting out a deep breath that was filled with tears. Sobbing as I tugged the rug free, I rolled Brian’s body as tightly as I could. Hefting his body by the ankles, I started dragging it toward the back of the shop and my van in the alley. It was covered with evidence that would lead the police right back to me. I’d seen enough CSI episodes to know it wouldn’t take them long to come and arrest me. “You deserve to get caught, Gabriel. This was stupid. It was evil. You’re going to hell.”

“Shut up,” I told my reflection in the rear windows of the van. Brian was nestled on the pavement beneath the bumper as I dropped my keys. Kicking them as they fell, they landed under the van out of my reach. Crouching low, I stretched out as far as I could, my face nearly touching the shrouded corpse. “Dammit. Please.”

My keys skittered over the ground, catching on the uneven pavement and into my waiting hand. Breath caught in my throat, I smiled. “Now I’ve got something to show Doctor Suresh. He won’t send me away again.”