Once Upon A Time ✓

09 | story; sleep

^ above is Secrets by One Republic

this chapter's slightly rough, I don't know how to write "exposing secrets" sort of stuff. i'll try my best to edit it later though.

anyway, enjoy :)

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"WHAT?" I EXCLAIMED after several silent seconds that were spent registering the bomb Gabriel had dropped on me.

His eyes fluttered open and were littered with silent suffering. "It's true."

I suddenly felt faint. I had been conversing with a dead being. Oh my god. "What- How- Why-" I sputtered, shock and pity flooding my mind eyes glazed over as a thousand terrible thoughts haunted me.

"My brother... he k-killed Ariana and himself," Gabriel's voice wavered as his body trembled, trying to keep his emotions at bay.

I groaned and rubbed my temple, feeling a familiar throbbing in my head, one that I always felt whenever I was bombarded with heavy information. "This is so messed up..."

Gabriel's eyes watered as he stared down at his clenched fists, knuckles whitening by the second. "I wasn't there, you know," he whispered, deep pain laced in his voice. "I wasn't there to stop him. I could've stopped him, but I wasn't there."

Pitiful emotions tugged at my heartstrings and I felt my own heart break at the sight of his anguish. "Gabriel...," I said softly, smoothing my hand over his back in comfort. "You can tell me what happened..."

Rubbing at his watery eyes, he tried to restrict the tears but failed horribly when they started flowed down his cheeks rebelliously. "I don't know where to start...," he admitted, brushing away his tears with his arm.

"Take your time," I told him with an assuring smile.

Gabriel sucked in a deep breath, his eyelids fluttering shut as he began, "My family was really happy and whole at first, you know."

His voice wavered but with my gentle coaxing, he continued, "Then I don't know what happened but Dad just... disappeared. He was with us one day, and the next he was gone, with just a snap of a finger. He didn't return home after his work hours, he was just gone...

"Mum had p-psychosis and her condition had actually gotten better when she got together with Dad. When he hadn't returned home that day, she had a mental breakdown and passed out in the middle of our living room. I was scared and young, I didn't know what to do so I did the most logical thing I could think of; I called the police. I told them about my father's disappearance and my mother's mental state but all they could do was call the hospital for Mum. They didn't even try tracking Dad immediately, because in their context, he had to be missing for at least 24 hours before action was taken," bile rose in his throat as he spat, fury burning in his darkened green eyes.

I rubbed at his back, urging him to carry on. Gabriel inhaled deeply, before nodding as if to reassure himself and continued. "He has been missing for seven years Kaylee, seven. And the police had given up on their search! It was only two years ago when I found out that Tobias had inherited Mum's psychosis. I-I-" he choked, tears spilling from the crevices of his eyes, soaking my shirt that he had buried his head into.

I gave him a light, comforting squeeze in my arms. "Calm down," I murmured soothingly, running my fingers through his soft tousled hair.

Gabriel bobbed his head, shifting away from me to rub his nose with the back of his hand. I reached out to his nightstand and plucked several tissues from the tissue box, holding it out to him. Managing a shaky smile, he took it and held it to his nose, blowing harshly into it. Dabbing at his nose to clean the excess snot, he then crushed the tissue into a ball and tossed it into the dustbin that sat in the corner of his room. Somehow it made it in, but that was probably courtesy to the fact that Gabriel was a basketball player and had great aim.