Remembrance (Of Things Past) - Below: Part One
Images flickered and Gabriel slid into the memory of a dream, the memory of hiding and sleeping. He wasn’t sure what had woken him from his dream, whether it was the dream itself, a noise outside or the discomfort of his physical body. His face was sticky with drying tears, his throat sore and dry. One arm had fallen asleep under the weight of his body, itching tingles spreading agonisingly under the skin as blood rushed back through arteries and veins.
He had no idea how long he slept for. Sometimes in the past he had slept for years, sometimes only for days. He pushed his body slowly upwards, ignoring the swirling feeling from his empty stomach, the cramps that spread through ignored muscles. He headed over to the window that looked out over the forest, pulling the curtain back to reveal trees still clad in autumn colours. A glance downwards showed him the Buick, chrome still gleaming in the pale sunlight. Not that long then.
A flicker of movement drew his eyes back to the tree line, a small figure disappearing into the trees, another group remaining on the road, arms raised, faces contorted. Gabriel couldn’t hear them through the glass but he knew well enough the words were cruel and hurtful. He watched as one of the larger children took a couple of steps towards the trees, before turning back to his companions, laughing. After a couple of minutes they clearly grew bored with waiting for their prey to return and wandered slowly back down the road, the occasional glance sent towards his house, and the wide berth they gave it, showing that the group were not as brave as they pretended to be.
Bullies thought Gabriel. Maybe a taste of their own medicine would be in order? He turned his eyes back to the woods, watching for a child returning. After a while, worry started to niggle at him. Gabriel tried to ignore the feeling, he wasn’t here to get involved in anything, this was his place to hide, to give up and slowly disappear from the world. He turned from the window, tried to curl back up on the floor, but his body was not in agreement with his plans.
A faint hunger gnawed in his guts, hips and shoulders protested the lack of padding between them and the wooden floor, and the small thread of interest and worry twisted through his brain. His grace wasn’t strong enough to create a bed so he dealt with the hunger first, a click of fingers bringing a bar of chocolate from the shop in town. As he chewed, he savoured the way the chocolate melted against his tongue, the crunch of peanuts, the combination of sweet and savoury just what he wanted.
He found himself walking downstairs and through the house towards the back door. Another quick look along the road showed no small figure trudging its way back towards civilisation. Gabriel cursed under his breath, knowing that he would not be able to return to sleep until he got rid of this itch in his conscience.
He trailed back through the house, collecting his coat and the keys, before letting himself out the back door and heading into the trees. He let what was left of his grace spread softly outwards, feeling the pull of the small child’s soul. Carefully he made his way through the trees, and as he neared, the sound of muffled sobs came to him.
Gabriel arrived in a small clearing, clearing his throat awkwardly to announce his presence. A shock of brown hair lifted from the ground, revealing a tear-stained face, hazel eyes wide with fear and hurt.
“Who are you?” The boy struggled to his feet, one arm hanging limply at his side. “My big brother is coming for me, you know.”
Gabriel felt a small smile curve the corner of his mouth at the child’s defiance. “Easy kiddo, it’s okay. I saw those others chasing you, when you didn’t come out I came to see if you were okay.” Gabriel was shocked at how rusty his voice sounded. He coughed again, and looked the small boy up and down. He looked about six, brown hair falling down over his eyes, flannel shirt and jeans covering a body that seemed too skinny.
“How about I walk with you back to the road, see if your brother is there waiting for you? That okay with you kiddo?”
“My name is Sam.” the boy declared strongly. “My arm hurts.” The second sentence came out on a more tremulous note.
“Well I reckon that if we can make it back to the road your brother will be there, and then we can see about taking you to a doctor, so he can have a look at it. That sound like a plan?”
A small nod sent the boy’s hair into his eyes, the automatic reaction of raising his arm to move it out of the way bringing tears and a soft cry of pain.
Gabriel crouched in front of Sam, showing him how to tuck his sore arm in against his body, and support it with the good one. He looked around, quickly using his grace to work out the quickest and easiest way back to the road.
Just as they came out on to the grass verge at the edge of the road, Gabriel noticed a taller boy coming running down the road, almost tripping to a stop in front of them.
“Sammy, where have you been? I been looking all over for you! And who the hell are you, dude? You better not have hurt my little brother or you’re going to be in a whole world of trouble!”
Gabriel snorted with surprised laughter.
“What’s so freaking funny dude?”
“Well first of all kiddo, I think you need to learn to mind your manners. And second, I found your brother in the woods after he was chased in there by some of the local feral monkeys.”
This brought a snort of laughter from Dean. He quickly turned to Sam, who backed up Gabriel’s version of events, showing Dean how Gabriel had told him to hold his injured arm.
“I think you’ll need to take Sam to the doctor’s, just to make sure it is not fractured. Is your house close by?” Gabriel had checked Sam’s arm when he had been showing him how to support it and knew it was just badly bruised, but it wouldn’t hurt them to visit the doctor.
“Nah! Our dad dropped us off at the park, he said he was just going to be a couple of hours, then he would be back, we’re staying at the Sunrise Motel. Does Sammy really need a doctor?” Dean started leading the way back along the road towards the town, his worried gaze flickering from Sam to Gabriel and then back to his brother.
Gabriel realised that under the bluster and bravado the older child was genuinely worried. Annoyance bubbled through him. Parents should take better care of their children, not just leave them in parks.
Dean blinked hard as a thunderous expression drew the man’s brows together.
“Look, I’m sure my Dad’ll be back soon and I promise I’ll take real good care of Sam ‘til he gets here. I was just distracted for a minute, I thought those kids were playing with Sam.” Dean’s voice trailed to a worried close, green eyes staring up at Gabriel pleadingly. A small hand tugged at Gabriel’s sleeve.
“M’okay really, Sir. Dean’s real good at taking care of me. It was my fault for running off.”
A strange feeling trickled through Gabriel, his grace reaching out again to the young boy. Cursing internally, he tried to cut off his interest in the two children. He needed to get out of here, get back to his house, back to his slow decline into oblivion.
He crouched down to Sam’s level, reaching a hand into his pocket, pulling out two bars of chocolate.
“Well, I happen to have here two bars of magic chocolate…”
“Magic - dude it’s a Snickers, it’s pretty awesome but it’s not magic,” Dean interrupted.
“Ah, but it is if you believe.” Gabriel winked at Sam. “I reckon that this bar of chocolate will make you feel all better Sam. That you’ll forget all about your injured arm and the accident. You’ll just remember having a nice time playing in the park with your brother. You just have to believe. Do you have faith Sam?”
Even at the age of six, Sam knew that Gabriel’s question went deeper than chocolate. He stared into the man’s golden eyes, head nodding. “Yes, I believe.” Gabriel’s eyes flickered closed, the small child’s faith and trust warming his grace, replacing something which he had thought long lost. He smiled softly at Sam, passing him the two bars of chocolate. “One for your big bro too, Sam-I-Am. You two take care of each other. Think I hear your Dad coming.”
Gabriel rose back up, shaking Dean’s hand. “You’re a good kid Dean, take care of this one.”
“Yes Sir,” Dean nodded, head turning as the rumble of a familiar engine came from down the street.
“Try to stay out of trouble, Sam, okay?” Gabriel smiled at him, hand reaching out to smooth the tumbled brown locks, removing an autumn gold leaf, trapped in the waves.
As the children turned towards the car, greedily eating the chocolate before their father spotted them, Gabriel raised his hand. The leaf lay flat on his palm and Gabriel blew softly sending it floating upwards, spiralling in a sudden gust over Dean and Sam. As it disappeared so did Gabriel, from the park and from their memories.
Gabriel hoped it would be that easy to remove his own memories.
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