• [ t h r o u g h t h e i m a g e s ] •

♥ gabriel ♥

IF I HAD to describe myself in one word, I can guarantee that prude would most definitely not be on the list, but right now I was millimetres away from publicly declaring myself as a celibate. Cathy the receptionist at Holland Park and Norland Square Hospital was extremely eager to jump my bones and had me pressed me against the wall of the storage room, her hands gripping my biceps desperately.

I grimaced, forcing myself to press my lips against hers whilst warily eyeing the computer in the corner of the room. We'd been at it for the last 7 minutes judging by the clock fitted high up on the wall above the numerous storage cabinets and documents; frankly, I couldn't have begged for time to go any faster.

Then she began unbuttoning my shirt.

God no, please no. Save me from this situation. I promise I won't drink for two days. Three days. Four? That's extensive. Three days. I won't drink for three days. Just help me come up with an excuse.

A grin grew from the corner of my mouth as something clicked. Holding back an eye roll, I moaned even louder, running my hands down her dress before leaning away from her. I did my best to ensure it looked as if I had to force myself to move away from her when in reality, it came quite naturally. "Babe, slow down a minute. I need to check those records before we carry on. Otherwise, I'll get too damn distracted by you and forget."

Cathy groaned after the lack of contact before shaking her head. "Fine, I'll give you that one," she said breathlessly before biting her lip. "Don't keep me waiting too long otherwise I'll pounce."

Smirking to hide a sigh of relief, I walked towards the computer in the corner of the room. She followed me, typing in her credentials before giving me a nod. "Go on then, this stays between us though."

"Of course, my lady," I responded with a wink, before going on the files area of the computer.

To be completely honest, I didn't have any fucking clue what I was looking for or how I was going to find anything. All I had was a date, a loose description and a wrecked car to help me. Holland Park and Norland Square Hospital was the flagship hospital of the National Health chain and I hoped they would have a shared portal of documents for all their hospitals. Thankfully they did.

After a couple of minutes of useless browsing, I exhaled and leaned back on the chair. "This is pointless," I mumbled under my breath, rubbing my forehead. I wasn't getting anywhere.

I was hoping I would find something. Anything. Big or small.

I felt a hand in my shoulder and looked up to see an almost naked Cathy who had taken it upon herself to undress whilst I was on the computer. "You're looking for records, right? I'm not going to ask why because I don't want to hear something that I can't keep to myself. I probably shouldn't be telling you this but try looking in the cases folder. There might be something there. It's worth a shot." She placed her hand on top on mine on the mouse before moving it to the cases folder that I'd somehow missed and clicking twice.

"Oh. Um, thanks." My eyes fell upon a folder named 'young cases' inside which there was a huge number of folders. The image of a ghostly female figure of small height and stature was deeply engraved in my mind after uncountable long nights of those memories torturing me.

Well, she was certainly young.

Gulping as those terrible thoughts invaded me again, I focused my mind on what I was doing right now, blasting away the emotions of guilt, confusion and fear.

Let's do this, Gabe.

My eyes scanned through the numerous folders that were labelled with years. Naturally, I pressed upon last years folder before going in July. I remembered waking up at the wheel of my father's crashed car in the early morning of the 13th yet I wasn't sure how long I had been unconscious for. It could have happened on the 12th or the 13th.

Taking a punt, I went on the 12th folder and came across a list of folders with different names. I squeezed my eyes shut. This was it, I hoped. Even if it wasn't, I was getting closer. Maybe this was the chance I'd finally get closure.

That feeling didn't last long for my face dropped immediately when I realized how long the list was. It was arranged alphabetically by surname and contained a large number of files. I sighed, dragging my hand against my face. Who knew that so many young people were admitted to this chain of hospitals in a single day? "Fuck this, I've got no chance!" I exclaimed, exasperated and frustrated. I needed a drink as soon as possible.

I glanced over the list one more time.

AADCOTT, SOFIA

ABBEY, TIANA

ABDIN, KALEN

ABEBE, DLAMINI

ACAR, REHAN

ADAMS, JOANNA

AFFLECK, HECTOR

AGARWAL, FARAS

.

.

.

BABANGIDA, ZURI

BAGSHAW, CREE

BAINES, DIANA

BAO, SAKURA

BEAMONG, ARIES

BEER, LUCIANO

BENNETT, MASON

BETTENCOURT, JOSE

BHATT, PRISHA

BIGGS, AADYA

.

.

.

BURKE, ELIAS

BUTTERS, RHIANNA

BYRANT,

BYWATERS, MAYA

CAO, AL

CARTER, KIARA

CHEN, LILLY

CHIRATHIVAT, SANJANA

CHOUDARY, MAANAV

CHUKWUNYELU, JESSICA

CHUNG, LI WEI

CIVITA, RAFAEL

D'ALIA, AMELIA

DANG, WAYNE

DARLING, ROCHELLE

DASSAULT, ELENA

DATE, MIA

DAVIES, VEERA

.

.

.

I paused, looking back at the familiar surname I'd just spotted. Darling. For a moment, I paused wondering if Lou knew her. I contemplated asking her but disregarded the thought when I saw even my surname as well as my mother's maiden name, Eadon, on the list. There were thousands of people with the same surname as each other.

"Any luck babe?" Cathy asked, clearly getting more agitated by the minute. I bit the inside of my cheek knowing there wasn't much point continuing yet simply unable to stop.

I noticed that the name for each patient was printed twice; once in a folder and twice in a normal document.

Wait what?

Furrowing my eyebrows, I realised that one had the photo icon and presumably was headshots of the patient or any other important images. In the very small possibility that the girl I barely remembered was actually admitted in this branch, her photo must have been taken too. "Hang on a minute," I called to her, staring at the screen and changing the document format to medium icons. She let out an impatient sigh.

A series of photos of young people aged between 2 and presumably 18 presented themselves on the screen. This is so wrong, Gabe. You can't be invading people's privacy like this. I shoved the thought away. I needed to do this. I was going crazy without knowing, I was becoming insane.

My hands trembled in anticipation as I scrolled through the images hoping for a girl who had some resemblance to the one in my mind. I paused as a probably six-year-old girl with brown hair came into my view. CAMDEN, KIRSTY. Was that her?

No, it could have been. The figure was definitely taller than the average height of a primary school child. I moved to another image. Then another. And another and another. Until an image of a face that had been tormenting me every single day for 15 months flashed on the silver screen of the iMac.

My left hand clenched into a fist, the veins in my hand tensing as my muscles involuntarily contracted in recognition. For the past year, I had felt like I'd been dropped in a crevasse or well, plunging into a vertical tunnel of darkness that certainly had an end but one that I couldn't see.

In this moment, I'd hit the bottom of that tunnel, the face of the girl haunting me and throwing down dirt and rocks on top of me. It was almost as if these very rocks had been forced into my lungs, as I struggled to breathe in air. "Fuck," I whispered under my breath as I took in her appearance. I couldn't believe I'd found her.

I was chuffed at the start yet that emotion slowly transfigured.

Dark brown, almost black hair. Olive skin. An early teen. Round cheeks as if she had completely skipped the stage of losing the baby fat. Bruises and large open wounds encasing the left side of her face, covering her eye. A large cast around her broken neck. Eyes clamped shut.

Words were printed in the bottom right-hand corner of the images, black letters. The time, date and location of admittance.

23:46 12/07/18 Brixton Hospital

Brixton Hospital? I groaned, realising that was where the party I had been at was. Shivers went up to my spine as dread filled me, a sinking feeling in my stomach. Does that mean it actually was me? Did I really hit that girl?

Hang on. A frown fell on my face. I woke up in Kensington. Kensington was a while away from Brixton. How could I have possibly hit her and then miraculously travelled 5 miles to a quiet residential area and woken up in the crumpled car?

It didn't make sense. I leaned my head against my hand.

Perhaps I drove away myself. I shook my head. No, that's not right. I may have been an asshole but I'd never drive away after an accident like that. I would call an ambulance and wait.I'd never run away, drunk or not.

The ringing of my phone tore me away from my thoughts, causing me to jolt in alarm and make a noise. "Jesus," I cursed under my breath, my eyebrows crinkling as I looked at the caller ID. Unknown?

"Hello?" I asked hoarsely, my mind still busy trying to digest all the information I'd just been exposed to. Tremors were still shaking my body. "Who is this?"

In response, I heard a feminine, distressed voice. "Gabriel! Can you hear me? Gabriel, you need to get the fuck out of there! Right now." She emphasised her words, attempting to get the severity of her statement across. Despite her evident attempts to remain calm, anxiety oozed into her words and perpetuated across the phone.

"Darling?" I questioned breathlessly in confusion. She was usually so composed but after seeing her on the bus that day, I'd figured that things weren't as they seemed. "Are you alright? Calm down. What's going on?" I stood up in confusion, pressing the phone closer to my ear.

"You need to leave! As fast as you can!" Lou shouted through the phone, completely leaving any form of composure that she had been gripping. "The hospital. The police know you're there and they're on their way. Get the hell out there while you can." Her words almost came out as chokes as disarray invaded her.

The phone almost slipped out of my hand as my eyes widened. "W-Wait, what? They can't! How? I don't understand." My eyes darted across the room in panic as my breath quickened. "Louisa, tell me what the fuck is going on. Wait, how do you know where I am? How does the police? I don't understand what's going on." I inhaled and exhaled deeply, pulling myself together and running my hand through my dark hair.

I wasn't even scared of the cops after the many times that I'd been caught doing illegal shit by them. Nothing like this, but still pretty serious. The discovery of that girl and properly seeing her full face had completely rattled me.

"Gabe, we haven't got time for this," Lou breathed, frustrated as I quickly logged out of the computer. "Som-Somebody gave them a tip. They don't know your name so you can still get out of it. Just leave!"

She didn't have to tell me again. I rushed towards the door of the storage room, gesturing to Cathy whose face had dropped faster than her clothes had. Lou had been speaking pretty loud on the phone and the receptionist had understood what was going on, using her initiative to get dressed again. In less than a minute, we had left the room.

Only when I was in a taxi on the way home did I realise that in the rush of things, I'd forgotten to look at the name of the girl.

DAMMIT GABRIEL, WHY DIDN'T YOU LOOK AT THE NAME!?

Sorry guys, that would be my fault but I promise it will be worth it lol
It looks like Louisa made her choice to save Gabriel even though it meant giving away some hints about the past.
KiwiAndKoalas

♥ 𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝐯𝐨𝐭𝐞 𝐢𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐞𝐧𝐣𝐨𝐲𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫! ♥