Action Adventure / SOTS: The Shadow of Earth--Chapter two

Haunting Memories

        Slowly opening his eyes, Gabriel woke up.  The solitude of a jail cell was the only comfort.  A sharp pain screamed through his body as his hands came to his bruised and battered face.  He gently closed his eyes again as the visions of the fight stole his mind away.
        ”You awake?” a burly voice bellowed.  Gabriel jolted up, feeling an extremely large hand shake his arm.  As he looked down at the man, he was in disarray.  How could a man be so large? The man had a shaggy beard like the hair of a grizzly bear.  His long brown hair was streaked with gray.  The man looked more like a bear than he did human.  On his massive arms, Gabriel noticed two tattoos; on his right, a grizzly bear, and on his left, a lamb and a cross.  His name was inked below that in bold black design—Grizz.
        Gabriel mumbles a vague response.  Hearing nothing, Grizz climbs up on Gabriel’s bed and looks him in the eyes.  ”Yeah . . .I’m awake . . .now get off me!” Gabriel snaps at Grizz.
        ”You were out for a few hours.  I had to ask you something.” Grizz says feebly. “I saw you with a cross around your neck . . . so . . . are you . . . a Christian?” He finally gets out.
        Gabriel glares at Grizz as his fingers form around the cross hanging from his neck.  ”Don’t assume anything.  That was my brother’s cross. I only keep it so i can have something to remember him by.”  Gabriel’s voice has hints of anger.  Grizz scratches his beard and then with two fingers he combs his mustache.  A slight smile formed on his face as he chuckled.
        ”You know,” he paused, putting his hands over his eyes for a second, “that’s exactly how I used to be when i first got in here.” he sighed.  ”When I first got in here, I was not exactly treated the best.  The officers would bring me extremely small portions of food each day, forcing me to nearly starve.  They used food as bait for their games.  Taunting me each night with fresh pizza and wings, they would get me so worked up that I would lash out and try to attack them.  Smashing my fists against the cell door, I would cry out.  But they would only laugh as they enjoyed their food.”  Gabriel could sense the anger beginning to rise up in him as he recalled this. “I don’t know why, but food has always been a comfort to me.”  Grizz sat down on the bunk beneath Gabriel, his weight made it creak.  ”When I was young, I wasn’t the thinnest of all the boys, I was often the first choice of insults and jokes.  My own mother had abandoned me leaving me cold and lonely on the streets.  My closest friend and his family adopted me in.  I looked to his mother for the comfort I never had.  She was my only friend.  I sought love and acceptance, and with that, I figured only thinner boys would be that way.  I took pills and tried every diet I could think of.  My new mother’s pills were no help.  I just collapsed into depression.  Nothing worked for me.  Not even diets or exercising.” Grizz looked at the floor as a tear rolled quietly down his cheek, holding all the pain he had since he was young.  ”I starved myself.  But it only made me weak and even more worthless.  I decided to run away one night.  Fifteen years later, I heard that my mother was waiting for me.  She would meet me at 5630 Old Creek drive.
        ”I rushed to get there, but when I finally did get there, I wished I never would have gone.  My mother was dead.”  Gabriel began to remember how his mother had left him when both him and his brother were young.  The pain was so real.  He wondered what he would do if he met his mother now.  What would he say?  Grizz interrupted his train of thought. “So, my mom was dead.  Everyone else rejected me.  The only thing left for me, was pain and neglect.  I had no life to live.  I found myself standing at the edge of a bridge, the wind whipping around me, and nothing but the comfort of the ground below was going to be there for me.  As I stepped up onto the ledge, a felt two thin arms grab a hold of me.  A hug.  It was something I was not used to.  I nearly fell backwards onto the teenage girl who had wrapped her arms around me.  She sheepishly said she was going to jump as well.  When she saw me however, she got a sudden urge to hug me.  She figured since we both were going to die, it wouldn’t be a problem.  This urge she spoke of came to her as a voice in the air.  She thought she was losing her mind until she saw me jump up on the edge.  I asked her what the voice was, and she said it was God.”
        Gabriel ran his fingers over his cross necklace.  It felt warm to the touch.
        ”Suddenly, my face met the cold concrete of the bridge.  The police officers flung me down and handcuffed me.  My mind was on what the girl had told me.  Could there really be a God who looks out for us?  I couldn’t believe it.  But after a week in the jail cell, it became clear to me.  There is a God out there.  Although we cannot see him, he lives in all of us.”  Grizz rubs his belly as it grumbles.  ”I wonder when the food will be here.” He says.
        ”Phone call for a Gabriel Michaels.” Gabriel looks at Grizz who just shrugs his shoulders. He hops down from his bunk and walks swiftly to the gate.  The guard lets him out and escorts him across the room to the telephone. “You have five minutes.” the officer says as he plopped down in the seat next to him.
        ”Hello.” Gabriel said.
        ”I’ve been waiting to talk to you.  It’s been so long.” The voice sounded so familiar to Gabriel.  He felt something in the pit of his stomach pressing him on to speak, but he could not find the words. “I thought I lost you too.” those words echoed inside his mind as he tried to picture the face of the speaker, and overall remember who he was talking to.  His heart beat faster as he swallowed hard.
        ”Who . . . are you?” he manages to force out.  The phone slips right out of his sweaty palms as the response was said.
        ”Time is up!” the officer said as he grabbed the phone and hung it up.
        Gabriel slowly walks back to his cell as he tries to picture the person he was just talking to.  He suddenly remembers the sweet voice that he heard on the phone.  A song that was sang to him as a child.  And he knows whom the voice belongs to.  His mother.

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