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Written for the third day of the 2017 "Holigay" prompt challenge.
The prompt was: "Pick 3 (or more) elements and incorporate them: a children’s game, a box of matches, a blizzard, a spell book, betrayal, a torn letter, a secret someone already knew, trick handcuffs, tinsel, an overfull suitcase, a safe haven that doesn’t feel safe." [Italicized are the ones that at least make a passing appearance.]
Summary: Fleeing from a bad situation at home, Kenna has little choice but to seek refuge with their boyfriend Daniel, and Daniel's partner, Gabriel. In addition to a literal port in a storm, they might just wind up with a guardian demon.
Some angst, slightly dark fantasy.
TW for a mention of domestic violence, and themes about familial rejection. And blasphemy, I guess.
“Would you go grab the matches from the kitchen? You know where they are, top middle drawer.”
As Kenna cautiously stepped toward Daniel’s kitchen in search of the matches, hands out to feel for obstacles, Daniel busied himself finding the candles that were in a box in the hall closet. He couldn’t see any better than they could in the near pitch black, but this was Daniel’s house, and at least he knew about where the box should be.
And if they took a little longer on the errand to the kitchen, well, a quick moment to talk to Gabe would be welcome.
Speak of the devil: “I’ll get them.”
Daniel ducked down as Gabriel reached around him, his always-warm skin somehow even more obvious in the total darkness. Or maybe it was already growing cold in the house.
The blizzard had started sometime around midday. Kenna had barely gotten there, clinging to their single suitcase containing all their remaining worldly belongings, before the roads would have become completely impossible to navigate. It was lucky they had done so; Daniel hated to think of any of the alternatives. It wasn’t quite the circumstance Daniel had imagined when he’d even let himself entertain the thought of Kenna moving in with them, but… it had been suddenly necessary.
The power had just gone out minutes ago, but was clearly out for the entire area.
“Of course you can see them,” Daniel grumbled, listening to Gabe pulling the box down and then the dull thock sound of the wax tapers bumping each other as he pulled them out.
Daniel felt the air move as Gabriel turned back toward the living room, and the small coffee table where they were going to settle in. Daniel put a hand on Gabe’s arm to stop him.
“Did you do it?” he hissed, so quietly anyone else wouldn’t have heard. “The power outage?”
Daniel could picture the smirk on Gabe’s face, even if he couldn’t see it. “Why would you think that?”
“Because, you’ve been suspiciously well-behaved all evening.”
“I can’t be supportive of a friend in need?” Voice thick with assumed innocence.
“You’re always supportive of those in genuine need. But your kind of support typically comes with vengeance, so I know you’re planning something.”
When Gabe replied, his tone was simultaneously sincere and colder than the snow outside. “Of course I’m planning. There is a very particular corner saved in Hell for those who cast their children out. But my breed of vengeance comes only when the one who has come to harm wills it. So I will have to discover more about Kenna and what serves their needs best. The power outage was not my doing.”
Daniel let go of Gabe’s arm, and followed him back to the living room, where they started to set up the candles. Gabriel, being equipped to see them, did most of the work.
Kenna arrived a few moments later, announcing their presence with a muffled curse when they banged their shin into the leg of the end table.
“Over here,” Daniel said. “On the floor by the coffee table.”
Kenna joined them, managing not to trip or run into anything else.
Daniel handed them a candle to light. As they struck the match, he looked toward Gabriel. The flare of the match turned Gabe’s eyes more reflective than any human’s; like the glint of light across a cat’s eyes in the dark. Kenna did not notice, their attention taken with lighting the first candle, and using it to light the others set along the glass-topped table.
The candles provided a warm glow that reached most of the room. Daniel grabbed an armload of blankets from where they were draped over the back of the couch, and all three of them wrapped up against the chill. The candles didn’t truly provide much warmth, but bundling up near them seemed better anyway.
“Now what?” Daniel asked.
“Let’s play… truth or dare,” Gabe suggested, as if it were a perfectly reasonable suggestion for a grown man to make under the circumstances.
Daniel shot him a sharp look, but Gabriel’s gaze was fixed unwaveringly on Kenna.
“I don’t think I’ve played that since I was a kid,” they said with a nervous sounding laugh.
“You don’t have to,” Daniel was quick to offer.
“No, it’s fine. It’ll be fun,” they said, though the nervousness hadn’t seemed to disappear.
It was decided that Kenna would go first, then Daniel, then Gabriel. They could each choose to challenge either of the others.
The first few rounds were pretty basic: Truth about their most embarrassing moment, dare to do a shot from the bottle of vodka Gabe oh-so-kindly retrieved from the kitchen, truth about any number of ‘firsts,’ dare to sing the chorus of a trashy pop song.
Then on Kenna’s turn, they chose Gabriel, and Gabriel said, “Truth.”
Kenna licked their lips. “How did you and Daniel meet and get together?”
It was something that had never really come up; of course Kenna knew about their relationship, as Daniel had never been anything other than upfront about it when he first asked Kenna to go out for drinks. All three of them had spent time together before, and by necessity, Kenna had moved in earlier that day. But the specifics of Gabriel and Daniel’s relationship had just never been discussed.
“May I give the truth?” Gabriel asked, his attention all on Daniel for a moment.
Daniel appreciated that he asked, but he gave a tight nod. He trusted it would be truthful, if simplified.
“I met him when he was going through a difficult time,” Gabe said, turning his gaze back to Kenna. “Not quite like you; his betrayal was not at the hands of a cruel and judgmental parent. His betrayal was at the hands of a false lover, the kind who profess love with their lips while dealing pain with their fists. It was some time before that one was dealt with appropriately, but we made it through.”
Kenna poured another round of shots. “I- I didn’t know. I’m sorry. But thank you for telling me.”
They did their shots, and went a few more rounds without the questions getting too heavy, though Gabriel’s truth questions to Kenna pushed around the edges of their hurt, without ever pushing too hard. Even so, the depth of Kenna’s still-raw emotional wound was becoming more clear.
Finally, Kenna was given the opportunity to ask Gabe another truth question. “Why do you care so much about me and what happened?”
Gabe tossed back another shot. “My… ‘father’ also kicked me out.”
“Oh, God, I’m sorry.” Kenna shook their head.
Gabriel laughed, not a bitter or rueful laugh, but the deep laugh at something genuinely funny. Even Daniel couldn’t keep from letting out a bark of laughter of his own.
Kenna looked baffled, which seemed to make Gabriel laugh even harder.
“I am sorry,” Kenna insisted. “I didn’t mean something offensive.”
“No, no,” Gabriel said, finally getting himself under control. “My father cast me out when I first questioned his authority, believing that only blind obedience was an appropriate expression of love from his children. I should have anticipated it; other siblings had been cast away for the same reasons. I suppose we all felt we would somehow be immune, that he would surely love us so much he wouldn’t drive us away.”
“That’s awful. Your father kicked out other siblings of yours, too?”
“It was a very large family. It still hurts me that we became so divided. But perhaps it was the number of us that did the most harm; why accept a child who questions you when you have others who will grant you uncritical devotion? It was a long time ago, and it mostly doesn’t hurt me now. Although Gabriel isn’t even my real name. It’s the name I chose to go by, but it’s actually my older brother’s name. One of my brothers who remained in our father’s good graces. An additional rebellion on my part, maybe. But for a father with only a single child to harm that child, because that child does not live up to a rigid set of expectations… To throw their only child out into the literal cold, where they truly could have come to harm, that seems even more monstrous don’t you think?”
“It hurts,” Kenna admitted. “I tried for so long to be what he was asking, and I just couldn’t. I thought if I acted the part when I was home, that’d be enough, but of course he found out.”
“There is a very particular place in Hell for those who would cast out their children,” Gabriel said, repeating what he’d told Daniel earlier. “And I think it will be waiting for your father, if you don’t mind me saying so.”
“I can’t truly wish anything bad on him,” Kenna said. “But thank you. I’m sorry you know what it feels like.”
“My turn,” Daniel interrupted. “Gabriel.”
“Truth.”
“What are you, exactly?”
Gabe’s stare was intense, the shadows cast by the candlelight suddenly not softening his features the way it did everything else. “You know what I am,” he said.
“But Kenna doesn’t. And shouldn’t they?”
They both looked to Kenna, then. This was a dangerous gamble.
Kenna swallowed, visibly, before murmuring. “You aren’t fucking with me, are you?”
“No,” Daniel said.
“And you… aren’t human, are you?” they asked Gabe.
“No,” Gabe also replied.
They took a deep breath. “Am I in danger?”
“Never.” Gabriel’s tone was firm, leaving no room for argument. “You will never come to any harm because of me. Never at my hand, never by my decision not to act in prevention. I protect those who have been wronged by the ones they should have been protected by, and I turn my vengeance toward the ones who failed them.”
Kenna nodded slowly. “I’m not ready to wish harm on my father.”
Gabe bowed his head. “Very well.”
Kenna’s voice was very small when they said, “But I feel like I could use the rest of it.”
Daniel gathered them close, tightening his arms around Kenna’s shoulders. Gabriel moved closer as well, his embrace slightly more tentative, but tightening when it wasn’t rebuffed. The three clung together, warmth and connection in the midst of the cold and dark. “You’ll have it,” Gabriel said. “You’ll have it from us both as long as you need it.”
Gabriel would keep his promise not to truly harm the man, for now, but if Kenna’s father was soon to be plagued by minor misfortunes… well, could anyone say that hadn't been earned?
[This got a SPAG and word choice edit in 2023 when it was posted.]
Note in 2023: this is one of my favorite stories I wrote for the challenge, but I think it needs some cleanup. The one person who read it didn't come away with the right conclusion about what Gabriel is, and just in general I think it could use some improvements. But I like the central theme I went with, and still think it has some potential, ha.
The prompt was: "Pick 3 (or more) elements and incorporate them: a children’s game, a box of matches, a blizzard, a spell book, betrayal, a torn letter, a secret someone already knew, trick handcuffs, tinsel, an overfull suitcase, a safe haven that doesn’t feel safe." [Italicized are the ones that at least make a passing appearance.]
Summary: Fleeing from a bad situation at home, Kenna has little choice but to seek refuge with their boyfriend Daniel, and Daniel's partner, Gabriel. In addition to a literal port in a storm, they might just wind up with a guardian demon.
Some angst, slightly dark fantasy.
TW for a mention of domestic violence, and themes about familial rejection. And blasphemy, I guess.
“Would you go grab the matches from the kitchen? You know where they are, top middle drawer.”
As Kenna cautiously stepped toward Daniel’s kitchen in search of the matches, hands out to feel for obstacles, Daniel busied himself finding the candles that were in a box in the hall closet. He couldn’t see any better than they could in the near pitch black, but this was Daniel’s house, and at least he knew about where the box should be.
And if they took a little longer on the errand to the kitchen, well, a quick moment to talk to Gabe would be welcome.
Speak of the devil: “I’ll get them.”
Daniel ducked down as Gabriel reached around him, his always-warm skin somehow even more obvious in the total darkness. Or maybe it was already growing cold in the house.
The blizzard had started sometime around midday. Kenna had barely gotten there, clinging to their single suitcase containing all their remaining worldly belongings, before the roads would have become completely impossible to navigate. It was lucky they had done so; Daniel hated to think of any of the alternatives. It wasn’t quite the circumstance Daniel had imagined when he’d even let himself entertain the thought of Kenna moving in with them, but… it had been suddenly necessary.
The power had just gone out minutes ago, but was clearly out for the entire area.
“Of course you can see them,” Daniel grumbled, listening to Gabe pulling the box down and then the dull thock sound of the wax tapers bumping each other as he pulled them out.
Daniel felt the air move as Gabriel turned back toward the living room, and the small coffee table where they were going to settle in. Daniel put a hand on Gabe’s arm to stop him.
“Did you do it?” he hissed, so quietly anyone else wouldn’t have heard. “The power outage?”
Daniel could picture the smirk on Gabe’s face, even if he couldn’t see it. “Why would you think that?”
“Because, you’ve been suspiciously well-behaved all evening.”
“I can’t be supportive of a friend in need?” Voice thick with assumed innocence.
“You’re always supportive of those in genuine need. But your kind of support typically comes with vengeance, so I know you’re planning something.”
When Gabe replied, his tone was simultaneously sincere and colder than the snow outside. “Of course I’m planning. There is a very particular corner saved in Hell for those who cast their children out. But my breed of vengeance comes only when the one who has come to harm wills it. So I will have to discover more about Kenna and what serves their needs best. The power outage was not my doing.”
Daniel let go of Gabe’s arm, and followed him back to the living room, where they started to set up the candles. Gabriel, being equipped to see them, did most of the work.
Kenna arrived a few moments later, announcing their presence with a muffled curse when they banged their shin into the leg of the end table.
“Over here,” Daniel said. “On the floor by the coffee table.”
Kenna joined them, managing not to trip or run into anything else.
Daniel handed them a candle to light. As they struck the match, he looked toward Gabriel. The flare of the match turned Gabe’s eyes more reflective than any human’s; like the glint of light across a cat’s eyes in the dark. Kenna did not notice, their attention taken with lighting the first candle, and using it to light the others set along the glass-topped table.
The candles provided a warm glow that reached most of the room. Daniel grabbed an armload of blankets from where they were draped over the back of the couch, and all three of them wrapped up against the chill. The candles didn’t truly provide much warmth, but bundling up near them seemed better anyway.
“Now what?” Daniel asked.
“Let’s play… truth or dare,” Gabe suggested, as if it were a perfectly reasonable suggestion for a grown man to make under the circumstances.
Daniel shot him a sharp look, but Gabriel’s gaze was fixed unwaveringly on Kenna.
“I don’t think I’ve played that since I was a kid,” they said with a nervous sounding laugh.
“You don’t have to,” Daniel was quick to offer.
“No, it’s fine. It’ll be fun,” they said, though the nervousness hadn’t seemed to disappear.
It was decided that Kenna would go first, then Daniel, then Gabriel. They could each choose to challenge either of the others.
The first few rounds were pretty basic: Truth about their most embarrassing moment, dare to do a shot from the bottle of vodka Gabe oh-so-kindly retrieved from the kitchen, truth about any number of ‘firsts,’ dare to sing the chorus of a trashy pop song.
Then on Kenna’s turn, they chose Gabriel, and Gabriel said, “Truth.”
Kenna licked their lips. “How did you and Daniel meet and get together?”
It was something that had never really come up; of course Kenna knew about their relationship, as Daniel had never been anything other than upfront about it when he first asked Kenna to go out for drinks. All three of them had spent time together before, and by necessity, Kenna had moved in earlier that day. But the specifics of Gabriel and Daniel’s relationship had just never been discussed.
“May I give the truth?” Gabriel asked, his attention all on Daniel for a moment.
Daniel appreciated that he asked, but he gave a tight nod. He trusted it would be truthful, if simplified.
“I met him when he was going through a difficult time,” Gabe said, turning his gaze back to Kenna. “Not quite like you; his betrayal was not at the hands of a cruel and judgmental parent. His betrayal was at the hands of a false lover, the kind who profess love with their lips while dealing pain with their fists. It was some time before that one was dealt with appropriately, but we made it through.”
Kenna poured another round of shots. “I- I didn’t know. I’m sorry. But thank you for telling me.”
They did their shots, and went a few more rounds without the questions getting too heavy, though Gabriel’s truth questions to Kenna pushed around the edges of their hurt, without ever pushing too hard. Even so, the depth of Kenna’s still-raw emotional wound was becoming more clear.
Finally, Kenna was given the opportunity to ask Gabe another truth question. “Why do you care so much about me and what happened?”
Gabe tossed back another shot. “My… ‘father’ also kicked me out.”
“Oh, God, I’m sorry.” Kenna shook their head.
Gabriel laughed, not a bitter or rueful laugh, but the deep laugh at something genuinely funny. Even Daniel couldn’t keep from letting out a bark of laughter of his own.
Kenna looked baffled, which seemed to make Gabriel laugh even harder.
“I am sorry,” Kenna insisted. “I didn’t mean something offensive.”
“No, no,” Gabriel said, finally getting himself under control. “My father cast me out when I first questioned his authority, believing that only blind obedience was an appropriate expression of love from his children. I should have anticipated it; other siblings had been cast away for the same reasons. I suppose we all felt we would somehow be immune, that he would surely love us so much he wouldn’t drive us away.”
“That’s awful. Your father kicked out other siblings of yours, too?”
“It was a very large family. It still hurts me that we became so divided. But perhaps it was the number of us that did the most harm; why accept a child who questions you when you have others who will grant you uncritical devotion? It was a long time ago, and it mostly doesn’t hurt me now. Although Gabriel isn’t even my real name. It’s the name I chose to go by, but it’s actually my older brother’s name. One of my brothers who remained in our father’s good graces. An additional rebellion on my part, maybe. But for a father with only a single child to harm that child, because that child does not live up to a rigid set of expectations… To throw their only child out into the literal cold, where they truly could have come to harm, that seems even more monstrous don’t you think?”
“It hurts,” Kenna admitted. “I tried for so long to be what he was asking, and I just couldn’t. I thought if I acted the part when I was home, that’d be enough, but of course he found out.”
“There is a very particular place in Hell for those who would cast out their children,” Gabriel said, repeating what he’d told Daniel earlier. “And I think it will be waiting for your father, if you don’t mind me saying so.”
“I can’t truly wish anything bad on him,” Kenna said. “But thank you. I’m sorry you know what it feels like.”
“My turn,” Daniel interrupted. “Gabriel.”
“Truth.”
“What are you, exactly?”
Gabe’s stare was intense, the shadows cast by the candlelight suddenly not softening his features the way it did everything else. “You know what I am,” he said.
“But Kenna doesn’t. And shouldn’t they?”
They both looked to Kenna, then. This was a dangerous gamble.
Kenna swallowed, visibly, before murmuring. “You aren’t fucking with me, are you?”
“No,” Daniel said.
“And you… aren’t human, are you?” they asked Gabe.
“No,” Gabe also replied.
They took a deep breath. “Am I in danger?”
“Never.” Gabriel’s tone was firm, leaving no room for argument. “You will never come to any harm because of me. Never at my hand, never by my decision not to act in prevention. I protect those who have been wronged by the ones they should have been protected by, and I turn my vengeance toward the ones who failed them.”
Kenna nodded slowly. “I’m not ready to wish harm on my father.”
Gabe bowed his head. “Very well.”
Kenna’s voice was very small when they said, “But I feel like I could use the rest of it.”
Daniel gathered them close, tightening his arms around Kenna’s shoulders. Gabriel moved closer as well, his embrace slightly more tentative, but tightening when it wasn’t rebuffed. The three clung together, warmth and connection in the midst of the cold and dark. “You’ll have it,” Gabriel said. “You’ll have it from us both as long as you need it.”
Gabriel would keep his promise not to truly harm the man, for now, but if Kenna’s father was soon to be plagued by minor misfortunes… well, could anyone say that hadn't been earned?
[This got a SPAG and word choice edit in 2023 when it was posted.]
Note in 2023: this is one of my favorite stories I wrote for the challenge, but I think it needs some cleanup. The one person who read it didn't come away with the right conclusion about what Gabriel is, and just in general I think it could use some improvements. But I like the central theme I went with, and still think it has some potential, ha.
