hc + mirrors ! what he thinks of them, does he like seeing himself in them, how he perceives himself, etc.
It is a resemblance he cannot AVOID; the same brown skin that deepens in the summer-time, a nose that never healed quite right - a slight curve he notices more than anyone else. Eyes that border the color of COAL are his mother’s only claim, a deepness piercing in its own right. Scars long-since healed rest across the side of his cheek, small lines interrupting thick stubble. In his face, it is clear to Gabriel; HE IS HIS FATHER’S SON. There is a need to succeed, to climb the ranks, to prove himself worthy of the name. In his dress blues he cannot help but feel PRIDE, the HOPE he is doing right by the name REYES. He does not hide from his image, faces the reflection without HESITATION.
He cannot say the same for the face he sees now; illuminated by sickly yellow tones of the motel’s bathroom. Smoke slips, tendrils dancing from scars seen only when he is WEAKENED, exposed sinew of his cheek, ivory bone of his jaw peeking through. Crimson eyes that burn too hot to be HIS, a smile that's warped, an anger that bubbles underneath the skin. There is DISSATISFACTION, SHAME. This is what he has become, this is what he was MADE to be. There is nothing that reminds him now of his father, only whispers of a man he once was, the GHOST that walks with a FACE he can hardly claim as his own.
It takes time before he can face the mirror again, longer still before he dares shows himself to anyone else.
