Regiphobia

The Always

Goda had woken up that day as he always had: Alone, cold, and with nothing but the ticking clock to fill the room with sound.

He got up and wrote a note for Juan, knowing that Gabe would be wrapped up in work until he suddenly swooped in around dinner, assuming that Goda wasn't doing anything and demanding they spend the rest of the night together. He ignored the way his brain phrased it and slipped the note in his sleeve. Before he could even go to the mailroom, he had to stop by the doctor.

He took the elevator down, probably for the last time, he remembered as a small smile graced his lips. He made his way to the hospital wing, talked to his doctor, and then laid down. A nurse came over with a cast saw, and less than ten minutes later, his cast was off. He lightly moved his ankle in circles. It still felt stiff and weak, but he'd known what to expect. This hadn't been his first broken bone.

His smile fell when he remembered why it would be his last, at least at his father's hands. He put his shoe on, thanked the doctor and nurse for everything, and walked out. It felt a bit awkward to walk on the stiff limb, but he managed. He started down the hall towards the stairs when he was stopped by two unfamiliar guards who he assumed had only recently been hired.

"Your Highness," one said, "Your presence has been requested by the king in his study."

"Ah, alr-right... did he say what for?" Goda said, both curious and worried.

"No, sir."

That was a bad sign. But Goda nodded, and he turned. He started towards the way upstairs, and soon enough he was standing in front of Gabe's door. There was a noise coming from inside that he could quite make out, but he knew it was just Gabe's voice. It sounded like... a melody? He didn't know Gabe sang.

He pushed the door open as quietly as he could, as to not interrupt. He closed the door behind him, and as he recognized the words being sung, his face paled and his eyes widened. Gabe was singing the lyrics slower than they'd be sung in the actual song, making the song take on a terrifying sound that sent shivers down Goda's spine.

"...the Devil wears a suit and tie,"
"I watched him driving down the 61 in early July,"
"White as a cotton field and sharp as a knife,"
"I heard him howling as he passed me by."

The room was silent. Gabe was sitting behind his desk, looking at the monitor against the back wall. Goda could just barely make out the sight of security footage. His heart was pounding in his throat, and he couldn't make it go away. It was hard to hear anything else as it thumped in his ears and made him feel like he was going to be sick.

Gabe turned around. Rage laid in his expression. He stood, leaning forward and resting his hands on his desk. "I underestimated you. You were smart about this. Avoiding cameras, playing it all off. Just the first letter of your name on your notes. You thought all that would protect you, didn't you?"

He walked around his desk, slowly making his way towards Goda. Goda started trembling in fear as he backed him against the wall beside the door. Gabe held out one hand, and the smaller hesitated before reaching into his sleeve and placing the scrap of paper in his fiancé's hand. Gabe flipped it over, scanning his eyes over it before crushing it in his fist and letting it fall to the floor.

His voice was deathly quiet and immensely cold.

"But I always find out, doll."

"G-Gabe, I-" Goda started, but Gabe slammed his hand against the wall beside Goda's head, causing him to cry out in fear. Tears welled up in his eyes as he clapped both hands against his mouth, not wanting Gabe to hurt him more than he knew he was already going to.

"Shut up, you pathetic little shit! What did I tell you about trying to make friends with the help? What did I tell you about wasting your time with them? What did I fucking tell you?!"

Confusion filled Goda's mind until he realized. Gabe didn't know. Gabe thought he knew, like he usually did, but because he thought he knew it all, he didn't look closer. He didn't know about the stolen kisses or the nights they'd slept in each others arms. He didn't know about how he felt for Juan. He knew, now, that he wouldn't hurt Juan. Juan didn't know, he hadn't been told the rules Goda had to abide by, so while the king would be angry and jealous, he wouldn't hurt him.

Goda, on the other hand...

"I-I didn't mean-" Goda shifted his hands to say, but he was cut off.

"I don't give a single shit what you meant!" Gabe growled, grabbing at Goda's collar and lifting him with ease, roughly pinning him against the wall, "You broke the rules, and you're going to be punished. I don't care what you have to say about it, so keep your whore mouth shut."

Goda had started to cry. He nodded quickly, just hoping that agreeing with him and doing what he said would mean he'd hurt him less. Gabe looked into his terrified eyes, a sadistic smirk appearing on his lips.

"Aww, you think I'm going to cut up your stomach again, don't you?" he raised an eyebrow, "Oh, doll, you wish I was that merciful."

He dropped the other, making him land uncomfortably on his weak ankle. He stifled a whimper. Gabe grabbed his wrist so hard it stung. It was sure to leave a bruise. He dragged Goda out of the room and down the many flights of stairs. Goda was trying to move his wrist, to make it stop hurting, but he couldn't. He was trying desperately to stop crying but it wasn't working. He looked to the security cameras, trying to get someone to see, trying to beg someone for help, but they all faced the floor, completely shut off.

He would have cried out for help, but he knew Gabe would have silenced him, convinced everyone he was crazy, and hurt him worse.

They ended up in the basement, where he finally asked, "G-Gabe, where-"

"I told you to keep your fucking mouth shut, pig," he sneered, and Goda went silent. He walked to the door to one of his two private rooms, the ones that only he had the key for. He unlocked it, threw Goda inside, and slammed the door without going inside. Goda heard the sound of the door locking as he hit the stone ground.

He scrambled to his feet. It was so dark he could hardly see three feet in front of him. "G-G-Gabe- Gabe where are you-" he said, stumbling towards the door. He hit it, no Gabe in sight. As realization filled his eyes, he started trying to open the door. "G-Gabe th-th-this isn't f-funny- let me out- p-p-please- Gabe, wh-where are y-you? Gabe? C-Come back-" he started saying. No response.

She started knocking on the door. Then pounding, screaming out for someone to let him out. "P-Please-! It's dark, I c-c-can't see, someone, p-please let me out, I-!" tears welled up in his eyes as he kept knocking.

On the other side, not a soul could hear him, and not a soul was trying. The security cameras came back online, and Gabe was gone.

Goda fell to his knees, sobbing, "A-Anyone... Juan... P-Please save me..."

Gabe watched from the night-vision camera hidden away in the back corner, set up to transmit right to his monitor in his room before he manually deleted it all. He smirked, watching Goda sob and plead to no one. He enjoyed every moment of his suffering, watching him curl into a small ball against the door. He let that recording run and looked down at the notes he'd been writing for himself. Mostly him making decisions that he didn't want to forget. How often he'd actually give Goda food in there, if he'd wait until he was sleeping or if he'd let Goda have that fleeting hope of maybe, just maybe he's here to let me out. He decided the latter would be much more fun to watch. Maybe he'd take a second to kick him while he was down, literally, or make him suffer more for what he'd done.

A few minutes later, Juan walked downstairs, a note for Goda tucked in his hand and a smile on his face. He walked into the mailroom and dropped it off. As he started climbing the stairs, he could have sworn he heard his name, but he assumed it was just him mishearing someone in the mailroom and walked towards the hedge maze to wait for a boy who would never arrive.