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“Little raaaa-bbiiiiit…”
Gabriel froze as the voice echoed around him, that southern sweetness masking an unending penchant for horror and suffering. Behind the stitches in his lips, Gabriel bit his tongue to keep quiet. The taste of blood bloomed down his throat, finding its way down into his empty stomach. The ache of something in his hollow gut was better than the brutal touches that came when he uttered any sound.
But that ache kept him moving. Gabriel’s poorly healed and bloody hands maneuvered along the wall of the darkened hallway, the dim candles adding no useful light. If he stopped, allowed his legs to rest, he’d crumble; wait in a huddled pile until his captor found him again.
He had found the strength to abandon his cage. He couldn't give up again.
“...Where aaare youuuu?”
Gabriel stumbled, the sacrinne sound drawing back all the horrible memories of his time in this hell.
He had to get the fuck out of here. A window, a door, anything that lead him out of this nightmare.
Steady as he was going to be, Gabriel pressed on. Turning corners without thought and eyes darting everywhere looking for his salvation. But all he found was nothing. Just more darkness and the screams and pleas of the damned around him.
Through the dark and winding halls, Gabriel ran, as fast as he could on his mutilated legs. One last turn, and he ran right into those yellow eyes and wicked smirk that haunted him.
“Thought you could get away, didn't you, pet,” Asmodeus sneered.
Gabriel staggered, falling back to the floor, hands over his face and trembling in fear.
“Don't you worry, rabbit,” he clicked his tongue as he crouched down, leaning dangerously close, “I’ll make sure you never want to leave your pen.” The yellow in his eyes glowed brighter, and Gabriel pulled back further when Asmodeus raised a hand. “Ever again.”
The first hit of the demon’s power sent him reeling. Gabriel’s own grace mixed with the power of a Prince of Hell flung him high, ricocheting from wall to ceiling and back again. Blood flowed, running down his skin and through his already dirty rags to splatter everywhere.
Asmodeus laughed, loud and evil and when Gabriel pried his eyes open to look at the face of his torturer, the demon licked his lips, tasting the blood of the holy being he held captive.
“Tastes almost as good as your tainted grace,” he spat, and Gabriel looked away in shame. “When are you gonna learn that you are dirty, filthy, unworthy of Heaven’s golden light?!” Each word was punctuated with a kick, a punch, each blow cracking bone and grinding him into the stone. “You are a failure , Gabriel!” he shouted as he raked his disheveled hair back from his eyes before they went dark and his voice dropped to a murmur. “And I will make you my bitch.”
Suddenly, there was a hand in Gabriel’s hair, fisting roughly and dragging him down the hallway. The pain on his scalp was horrible. On instinct, his own hands tried to free himself from Asmodeus’s grasp, clawing and scratching at any bit of the demon he could reach.
But the demon never faltered in his steps or his grip, and soon they were back in that horrible place. Back in Asmodeus's throne room.
“This is what happens,” Asmodeus shouted as he threw Gabriel across the floor, “when you think you can escape me!” Demon power buffeted him from every angle, crushing Gabriel further into the dirty floor. “You think you deserve to be free? To be playing a god?” A twist of Asmodeus's wrist and Gabriel's body seized, electricity locking every muscle tight enough to snap under his skin.
There was a snap, and Gabriel's body relaxed. The pain faded slowly, and between his ragged breathing through his nose Gabriel was aware that Asmodeus was circling him like a shark.
“I do pity you, Gabriel,” he said softly. “You are something weak. No one would possibly want you. Where did you think you could go?”
The words hit Gabriel hard, and before he could catch himself, a tear slipped down his cheek, cutting a path through the grime.
Asmodeus sighed, almost a laugh, at the sight.
“I'll make you see,” he murmured. “The cage is a blessing.”
There was a rumbling below Gabriel. The floor shook, cracks forming and coming together along the floor. With a boom, a massive hole opened in the center of the throne room, smoke and screams and a horrible smell emanating from it.
No, not again, Gabriel thought in anguish.
“Say hi to your friends for me, Gabriel.”
With a wicked laugh and a wave of his hand, Gabriel slid across the floor. He desperately tried to grab for anything to save himself from the pit. But with nothing to save him, Gabriel fell.
He finally screamed, or at least tried to, as he landed, millions of hands grabbing him. Millions of pairs of eyes glaring into him. Millions of demons and souls of the damned trying to tear him apart at the seams, digging into his flesh.
With eyes wide and a cry on his lips, Gabriel watched the hole close up above him, Asmodeus's glowing eyes and evil grin the last things he saw before the darkness engulfed him.