Gabriel - Sneak Peek

Boxes were stacked to the ceiling, gathering dust and grime from neglect. It hadn’t hit me how long it had been since Gabriel had been to the office until that moment. There was always a sense of disorganization from Gabriel. He had too much going on and always refused help from anyone who offered. It left his office in a hoarders state of papers and books. But today it was the sheer amount of grime that had gathered, was shocking. The doors to the Warden’s sanctuary had been sealed off at some point, but I doubted he had been in the office much before that. In fact, I didn’t know where Gabriel had really been. From the memories I could gather, it seemed far more likely he had been wandering the streets on his rampage than here doing paperwork.

I stood behind him now, watching as he took it all in. He didn’t seem as big as before. I remember when his presence took up the entirety of the office. The glare that settled across his face anytime anyone knocked to ask a question. Gabriel was a taciturn man married to his job. And all of that had fallen apart when the madness began to settle in his veins.

“What have they done?” He stormed into the room, but had to stop before he reached his desk. A stack of papers had fallen over at some point, littering the ground. A few boot prints were outlined against the ink. “This is unacceptable.”

“You aren’t the Warden any longer,” I told him. “They aren’t going to run it like you do.”

“Debatable,” he said.

It wasn’t. But Gabriel still was having a hard time coming to the conclusion that he had essentially been kicked out of office. He still wore the uniform. He still demanded respect. But sometimes that respect ended at knife point.

“What is all of this?” I asked. We were here for personal effects. Not for business. “Is any of it important?”

“It’s all important.”

I refrained from sighing. “Is any of it personally important.”

He looked around, his brow furrowed. I had suspected already that there were no personal effects to gather. Gabriel didn’t even have personal effects at his own home. I had to be the one to buy him a bed frame.

Ignoring me, Gabriel crouched down, gathering the papers in hand. “These are years of documents. I have cataloged every arrest. Every new soul that has entered the market. Their rehabilitation after leaving the cells. I have a watch list of those that may be involved in business deals that could harm the populace. I have a list of informants. A list of lying informants. I have a detailed map of where the gangs have gathered and where they move through the years. Every bit of the market has been written and mapped out in this room, and they didn’t even take advantage of it. Instead, they stomped all over it. This is entirely unacceptable.”

His hands were trembling as he continued to stack the papers. Moving them to his desk. But with each stack he picked up, another layer of documents was revealed. The room was so crammed full of them that I was beginning to wonder if Gabriel did have some organization system in place. While it looked like chaos to everyone else, he did seem to have an idea of where everything was supposed to go. That, and I couldn’t remember ever seeing this amount of papers within the office.

Coming to kneel beside him, I placed my hand over his cracked skin. “Gabriel,” I said gently. “This isn’t worth your time.”

He snatched his hand away. “This is the market. Your market. You. Of course it is worth my time.”

I shook my head. “No. You are not the Warden. What is gathering all of this going to do? They don’t even want it. This cell was not locked. They could have come in here at any time. The new Warden is going to be elected, and they are going to have their own system.”

“There will be no new Warden,” he growled.

Individuals were already casting their name for the role. There would be a new Warden. It didn’t matter what Gabriel said. All of this was going to be lost to him. And since none of this made sense to anyone but him, I was almost positive it would be stacked up and burned and this office would be converted back into a cell once more.

“Gabriel.” I tried to keep my voice steady. Soft. He always did respond better to gentleness, even if it did take him awhile to come around to it all. “We are here for your personal items. We are not here to get your job back.”

His eyes flashed silver. “I am the Warden,” he told me. “I do not care what they say out there. This is my job. I took a vow to do this job until the end of my days. So if they truly do not want me in office, they will have to kill me.”

Grasping both of his hands, I squeezed hard. “Gabriel, they just might.”

He ripped them away, unconcerned about my statement. But Gabriel had never been concerned about his own life. It had never mattered to him as long as the Night Market was safe. And now, as long as I  was safe.

“Help me get my office back in order.” It was stated as a demand, but I knew it to be more of a plea. 

I didn’t know what to do. Gabriel would not leave the place like this. Even if I could force him to, he would pace for days. In the end, I knew that this once shrine of his working days, would be nothing more than garbage. Any usefulness it may have contained would be lost. I dreaded that day. But for now, Gabriel was still not dealing. Or maybe this was his way of coming to terms. I had a choice to either walk away from it, and effectively him. Or get on my knees and help.

There was really no choice. I got down and began gathering the papers. 

We worked in silence for a long moment, the only sound the soft feather rustle of parchment. When Gabriel’s hand came to rest over mine, only then did I look up.

He didn’t say thank you. He didn’t need to. There was such pure anguish in his eyes. The end was coming. We both knew it. But for now, we would do what we could. Flipping my hand so my palm faced upwards, I squeezed it slightly, giving him the softest smile I could muster.

For now, it would have to be enough.