Obsession

Suspect: Chapter 27

"You can't be serious!"

Gabriel gritted his teeth, seething past jaws clamped tight. He let out a frustrated groan and burst into a sprint.

"Get the fuck off my property!" he shouted, bolting up the steps just as two middle schoolers from the nearby middle school clucked and laughed, running in opposite directions, dropping the instruments of their crime in the process. The lower halves of their faces were covered by bandanas, and they carried cans of spray paint which they had used to vandalize the outside of the Hastings' residence.

Petty crimes, Gabriel thought, but at the same time, it was much more than that. It was bigger than just a petty offense judging by the characters and slurs that had been spray painted across the front door, the windows, and the walls. Gabriel grabbed one of the spray cans that went rolling and launched it behind the middle schoolers. His aim was not to hit them since they were minors and the last thing Gabriel wanted was for things to be blown out of proportion.

He had realized too late that the narrow-minded folks of Shaw had the nasty habit of being given an inch and running a mile with it. He was already on the receiving end of nonstop backlash and harassment since S.A. had released the video and the photos to the public, and now, people had taken it upon themselves to vandalize his home in protest of his...existence. It was the best way Gabriel could describe it.

The spray can hit neither of the middle schoolers, zipping past their heads and hitting the light post just ahead of them. It startled the two boys, and they jerked back, one of them turning around to glare at Gabriel as though he were crazy to launch such an object behind them knowing well it could have caused injury.

Gabriel did not care. He had no intention of physically harming either boy, but he saw no harm in scaring them a little since they had no remorse or moral compass to indicate that vandalizing a person's property was worth some form of retaliation.

The boys now gone, Gabriel exhaled deeply and turned to survey the damage, mentally checking off what repairs needed to be made. The spray paint was smeared across the door, walls, and windows in yellow, red, black, and an obscenely bright shade of pink with multiple slurs and grotesque depictions of male anatomy. He stood on the pavement running adjacent to his home and found four Styrofoam crates meant for a dozen eggs each lying on the steps – one discarded on the ground. Now that he inspected the damage closer, and walked up the first two steps, he caught the scent of eggs that made his nose wrinkle and scrunch. His eyebrow twitched in agitation and the corner of his mouth curled up in disgust.

Obscene slurs, male anatomy, eggs, and spray paint, Gabriel thought. What a way to end my day.

But the more he inspected, Gabriel noticed that there had been a new addition to the extent of damage done. One of the windows had been cracked and he made a mental note that it hadn't been like that before. His gaze wandered to the floor below the cracked window, and he spotted, lying on the porch mere feet away from the wall, a stone. His lips pursed and wriggled in repressed anger and his fists clenched.

One week of harassment since S.A. had released those images and the video, and the younger folk – in particular – of Shaw had taken it upon themselves to up the ante. It was not the first time their home had been vandalized within the last week – usually with chalk, spray paint, eggs, and toilet paper – but never with rocks. They were getting dangerous, and Gabriel found himself momentarily worried over his father's wellbeing. He thought about the 'what if' questions he hadn't allowed himself to entertain before.

What if they decided to target his father? And not just the narrow-minded folk of Shaw, but what if S.A. also decided to target his father? Gabriel swore to himself in that moment, should any harm befall his father because people in town – even S.A. – had an issue with him, Shaw would see a very different side of their beloved soccer superstar.