The Last Performance (Hybrid Chronicles Spin-off)

In The Rose Garden - Gabriel

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Word count: 1126
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Gabriel

I stand, hiding in the corner of Crescent Port's Hospital's garden with rose bushes surrounding me and Payton. I gulp and flinch slightly, feeling a prickly rose dig into my back slightly. "I feel like I'm going to get a thorn in the neck or something." She whispers, trying not to move around.

The space around us is quite packed. "Well, if we get caught, we'll just be merely getting our cuts attended to by Holly after she's lectured us." I joke dryly.

She nods softly, looking me right in the eyes. I look into her eyes too, her eyes a bright green as opposed to when they were dull before when she was running from hospital staff. "You're eyes are beautiful." I tell her. "Wait, scratch that, every inch of you is beautiful and my favorite is your vibrant red hair pulled back and up in a ponytail, Payton most of all."

She nods softly, saying nothing. I can see she's trembling. "It's okay, I'm scared too." I tell her and I gently holds hands with her. We both take a deep breath in and lean in close to eachother, but I tower over her, ridiculously. "I better get to use your chest as a pillow." She jokes.

"What?!" I ask in shock. She laughs and shakes her head, hiding her mouth behind the back of her hand. "Payton, just shut up and kiss me for now. We'll discuss mere cuddling later if we can get away with that at the very least because I can tell you now, more is out of the question in a Hospital." I tell her and as we hold hands again, our lips meet.

Her lips are tender, the kiss is slow and I worry that I'm slobbering as I'm inexperienced as opposed to her. The wind rustles through and past us, the kiss being rather short, but hopefully it's the first of many. I don't want to lose her, I can't bear for my whole life to be taken from me.

Can't I at-least keep one thing so I can re-build it?

I'm not saying she's a possession, but I really doubt my own ability to do this alone. I'm going to shatter, my ex-manager will destroy the remnants of my life that's been left behind. I need help, support.

Payton finishes and breaks the kiss. "How was it? You did okay, Gabe."

"I-I did?" I stammer. She nods. "I see you're distracted, it's okay. We can do this again later, practice." She smiles, trying not to laugh. "You're smile's beautiful." I murmur. "Is compliments no matter how repetitive they are, going to be a constant variable in my life from now?" She questions. "Yes." I tell her honestly.

"Hmm, I think I could get used to this." She smirks, wriggling about slightly and then she looks to a watch on her wrist, stepping away from me. "Our 15 minutes are almost up. Let's head back so no one comes looking and discovered us in the roses bushes together."

"Uh, sure." I answer, smacking my lips together. "I'm kind of hungry and thirsty." I announce. "Me too. It's almost lunch time." She responds as we head back to the door we came through, holding hands. I can see patients, many girls glaring at us and I slip an arm around her shoulders, holding her close to me which causes her to squeak slightly and look up to me in confusion.

"What's wrong?" She asks, then notices the angry gazes. "It's okay, I won't let them hurt you. They're just merely jealous." I tell her. She nods softly, trembling and as we arrive at the door, we see a Security Guard open the door and tell us were right on time so we head in and he pulls the door closed, showing us the way back to the corridor our room is located on, not giving a second thought to my arm around Payton. I don't have too, but I want to protect her.

It's time I cared for someone else other than myself for a change.

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I head down the corridor with a slight spring in my step, swinging hands with Payton towards the room we've both been placed in for the moment, a security guard following behind us. "This your stop, guys. In." He gestures. "Thank you." Payton smiles, letting go of my hand to place her hands together and bows. "You're welcome." The guard responds, holding our door open and we head in together. He pulls the door closed behind us.

"So, what do you want to do?" Payton asks, jumping onto her bed and rocking slightly. "It's boring in hospital, huh?" I ask, taking a seat on my chair in the corner. "Yeah, it is." She responds. "Especially with my city and your city on absolute lock down from this apocalypse...

Gabe, what happens if the authorities and leaders here sort this out, but the rest of the world doesn't recover?"

"Hold on, what? How do you know the rest of the world is experiencing the same thing as us? They might not be, this just might be a minor freak incident and-"

"I just have a gut feeling, okay?!" She shouts at me, seemingly become agitated and pulls her knees up to her chest, wrapping her arms around them and I see sweat start to bead down her face. "Payton?" I whisper, trying to gently approach her, but she shoves me away and picks her pillow up, throwing it at me and starts to yell at me, crying.

I head straight for the door, press down on it to find it won't budge and start banging on the door with me fist, yelling for help as Payton realizes whatever it is she's just down and collapses the floor, sobbing, her breathing rasping while repeating, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, Gabe."

A nurse comes flying in, followed by a doctor who I realize is a colleague of Holly's and a moment later, Holly herself. I bunch up in the corner, trying to block out Payton's fear with my hands over my ears as they throw her onto the bed, holding her down and it's just god awful.

"Gabe, with me. I'd like to talk to you outside please for just a moment." Holly says, walking up to me, stethoscope around her shoulders and her hands in the pockets of her slightly oversized doctors coat. "S-Sure." I stammer and she offers me a hand. I accept it and she helps pull me up, then places the hand on my back, leading me out and pulls the door closed behind us, leaving Payton who's now sedated with her colleagues.