#gabriel garza

This family had always been propense to tragedy. From the father’s side, chronic illness in every generation. From the mother’s side, accidents and misfortune plagued them.

All that tragedy fell in the children of that union.

The youngest found himself paralyzed, surrounded by his family. Surviving a fire was a miracle, but it didn’t matter. He was only able to stare at the roof, and once in a while, the horrified faces of his brothers and father. The mother could not enter the room, since she cried inconsolably every time she tried.

“We heard he would come soon, only he can save him.” the boy heard the town doctor said one time he was awake.

He didn’t know for how long he was like that, barely clinging to life and consciousness. Each day that passed, Gabriel Garza wished more and more that a miracle were to occur and that they would let him die.

One night, he heard it. He heard the town’s rejoice, their screams of celebration, their begging to get healed of any ill that soon turned into joy and thankfulness.

For a moment, Gabriel heard nothing in the room. No cry, sob, encouragement words, not even his own breathing. The world had stopped.

Did he die? He wasn’t sure, but it felt nice.

“Gabriel?” asked from the door a weak and trembling voice.

“Palmer?” He wanted to ask, but he hadn’t been able to speak since the accident, so everything stayed in silence.

“Gabriel...I’m...I’m sorry...I didn’t-” From the tone and volume, it was clear Palmer was in the border of breaking down, but he was getting closer rather than running away. “I’m sorry…”

Gabriel was annoyed. “Why didn’t you stop me?” He wanted to ask, but thinking about the accident only made things hurt more.

“I heard your dad calling...the...the horseman so you...you will be-” A sob stopped Palmer, but he managed to continue “You will be fine soon, Gabriel.”

The world stopped again, with the difference that now only two friends existed in it. It was peaceful despite all the pain and cries, all of that didn’t matter, Gabriel just wanted to leave and play with Palmer, do anything again. If things could stay this tranquil...

Then, it all broke when he heard his dad and brothers enter the house again, with a stranger following.

Palmer left the room and shyly greeted everyone that entered, staying with the brothers to stare from afar.

“Please...my son….my son...you have to save him, please” begged the father.

The figure observed the kid. Nobody knew how he looked at that charred body, if with mercy, disdain, or pity, the plague mask obstructed any resemblance of humanity from the horseman.

Gabriel opened his eyes to find himself face to face with that terrifying mask. He knew who was behind. Pestilence, horseman of the apocalypse, savior and protector of the town. The only person able to cure him.

Gabriel saw how the hand of the horseman slowly approached him. What was he going to do? The man abruptly lowered his hand to the boy’s forehead, this being as painful as the fire he had survived. Gabriel felt his life was leaving him, and painfully screamed at the top of his lungs. He was dying. He was dying.

Gabriel never felt in so much pain before.

Then he felt nothing.

Was he still in bed? There was no more pain, yes. But there was no hand petting his head, telling him everything will be okay. There was no delicate touch from a father who thought his son would never run or play around the house anymore. There was no hugs or kisses from a mother that saw how her son looked like a kid again and not a charred corpse. There were no light touches and teases from curious brothers that wondered if anything still hurt. There was no trembling hand from a friend who held and grasped with fear the hand of someone who he never thought he would see again.

There was nothing.

-----

Blessed to feel no pain, they told the kid. It really was not feeling anything at all, heal of anything that hurt him, and the sharp and pointy teeth all the marked in town had. It was difficult the first months. Nobody thought badly of the gift and everyone wanted Gabriel to find the benefits of his new abilities.

When he fell face first into a pot and horrified his family with his face covered in blood, he started to understand how most saw as a benefit his new gift.

But Gabriel could not fully take advantage of it.

Palmer was there.

Since the accident, Palmer dedicated himself as Gabriel’s new protector. Not even his parents cared so much for him as Palmer did. It was boring.

A kid needs to find a way to entertain himself.

It started with some scissors. An accident while doing homework, he defended himself with that excuse, but he really wanted to see how deep he could hurt himself with them. Palmer was horrified and ended up making the two's homework by his own. A knife while he was eating. A burn while he tried to cook. A fall from the stairs for being careless. All these "accidents" put Palmer in an state of immense panic and worry. There were moments when he didn't know how to help his friend and he would cry from feeling so useless. That was one of the biggest joys Gabriel found after receiving his gift. He couldn’t quite explain it, but there was something about reaching that breaking point. Accidents increased and then they stopped being accidents.

Threats started next year. There were things as “I’ll fall down the stairs unless you do my homework” but then they turned into bigger and more impossible things to complete that would give to more terrible and painful consequences for anyone that wasn’t Gabriel. There were time he had hurt Palmer, but it wasn’t as fun. Gabriel had done almost anything that would’ve kill any average person before becoming a teenager, from getting stabbed, shot several times, dismemberment, and even eating things like glass, blades, poison, and nails.

He had told other all of these, but besides some scolding from his parents calling him out in his cruelness towards his friend, nobody seemed to care. The world kept spinning as if nothing wrong was going on, as if all that was just how things were.

In many of those moments, Gabriel swore he could feel again.

------

Gabriel bandaged his wrist while his friend still recovered from the show. He didn’t need them, but they would be good evidence for his finding.

“Did you finish?” Palmer asked, still recovering  from the nausea of seeing so much blood. It really hadn’t been much, but some drops were too much for him.

That being said, it hadn’t been some droplets.

“Yeah, yeah, it was nothing.” Gabriel cut the gauze and moved his fingers. All were moving. All was fine.

“That was a bear trap, Gabriel.” Palmer turned around to see his friend.

They were both using the town’s sentinel uniform, just with some variations. Their job was to watch out the town’s perimeter.

“Worse if any of us stepped on it” He stood up from the log he was sitting in and watched the forest around him “Not me, but what if you stepped on it? Or Robin? Imagine if Carla stepped on one, what would the sheriff think if his daughter lost her leg?” he made a mocking face of anger and crossed his arms, taking the usual posture the sheriff would have “He would say something like: And you call yourself a sentinel! My sweet angel is in the hospital now because of you! Which one of you didn’t report the strangers who set up these traps?”

“It’s not funny. Carla has suffered enough because of our negligence.”

“In my defense, she wanted to run away from here with that guy from the neighbor town. The one time I follow orders correctly and you all got mad.”

“You shot her in the leg. She had to be marked to not lose it.”

“But, didn’t you see how she runs now?” Gabriel got closer to Palmer and put his arm around him “I still got the best gift in town but...running that fast is kind of cool.”

“Stop. This isn’t a game. We should head back and report this.”

“I know, I know.” Gabriel pushed Palmer aside, heading to the zone they haven’t revised yet. “But I doubt whoever that put these just left one trap.”

“Gabriel, let’s...let’s head back to town. Nobody gets out anyways…” Palmer instead looked back at the town.

“We all can get out.”

“You know I can’t.” He kept staring, with a more bleak expression. Palmer knew the rules. The marked could leave town as long as they brought new people in, the unmarked had to stay.

“I can change that.”

“Gabriel, I can’t-”

Palmer was interrupted by the sound of a gun cocking.

He quickly turned towards Gabriel “You said you...you wouldn’t bring...bring it…”

“I knew you wouldn’t go with me alone if I told you I was bringing it.” Still pointing, Gabriel approached Palmer slowly and grinning “One shot in any of your organs and we could get out of this putrid town.”

“Gabriel, I don’t-” He wasn’t sure of what to answer. He had always wanted to leave, but the town had been so nice towards his family since any of them could still be perfect hosts. This town was all he knew.

Gabriel changed his expression to a more serious one “What’s wrong? Afraid of death? Afraid that they won’t save you? That you will bleed to death in the woods?” He smiled mockingly “I thought you were scared of being chosen, do you not want to end up like me?”

And he was. Palmer was frozen with fear, he knew that choosing the right or wrong words didn’t matter, that in any moment his childhood friend could end his life by shooting him with no mercy.

“Please…” was the only thing that could get out of his mouth.

Gabriel shot.

The bullet grazed Palmer’s arm.

He sighed with relief, closing his eyes to enjoy living for a few moments again, being saved from all his fears by mere millimeters.

Then he fell a strong and precise punch to his gut, for a moment his breathing completely stopped. Palmer fell to the ground in pain, barely registering what had happened.

“Coward” Gabriel didn’t give time to Palmer to recover and kicked him in the stomach, hurting too the arm that was trying to protect him.

Palmer groaned in pain. He cowered into himself and feared that this was how he would die. The bullet would’ve been a mercy.

“You are a fucking coward” Gabriel was furious, he raised his leg, ready to stomp but hesitated for a moment “I give you a chance to do something for us for once and you just-” and stumped Palmer’s side.

He screamed in agony. It wasn’t his full strength, and Palmer knew this because he was still breathing, with difficulty, but still breathing “Stop! Stop! Please!”

He heard the gun cocking again.

“You never changed.”

Strength was abandoning Palmer, his vision could make nothing more than a blur, he whimpered and broke into tears “Please…” His voice was broken and trembling, almost sounding like the scared boy all those years ago.

“Why didn’t you stop me?”

He didn’t know what to answer. He couldn’t think, all the pain was unbearable. He whimpered and tried to speak.

“I don’t know...I never...never…” he couldn’t go on and kept crying, mumbling to get forgiven. Curled up, he closed his eyes and hoped the last thing he would hear to be a gunshot.

It never came.

When Palmer opened his eyes, it was dawn.

His walk towards the town was slow and painful. Nobody had to know what had happened. Nobody had to know he was injured. There were so many things in his mind and they were all reaching to a daunting conclusion, but Palmer only wanted to get home and be with his rats.

Gabriel watched Palmer’s arrival from afar. So many thoughts flooded his mind, but he wasn’t sure how to feel about them. He thought of the routine that everything had become, his place in town as a trophy and shield, the lives he had ended with no problem, and the ones he let go to see if they could bring anything new to his life. New experiences, new reasons, something, anything.

The week passed like any other with no changes.