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Emizel sat at a table in some dingy motel room in the outskirts of L.A. The sun was almost setting, and he still hadn’t laid his eyes to rest. Ever since they got out of the games, he hadn’t been able to get any sleep.
How long had it been? Three days? He honestly hadn’t been counting. Day and night kind of blur into each other when you’re up thinking about other things.
With having his best friend taken from him, committing an unforgivable vampiric sin, and seeing his entire life shatter before him in the span of a couple months, it just didn't feel right to rest.
He carefully got up from his chair, and headed towards the bathroom. He carefully treaded the carpeted floor, trying his best not to wake anyone up. Shilo slept right next to the bathroom, so he had to take extra care to not disturb him. It had taken hours to talk him into sleeping in a regular bed, (the motel they were staying in didn’t have a bathtub) and Emizel wasn’t too keen on having to convince him all over again.
He got to the bathroom, and slowly closed the door behind him with a soft creak and a click. He flicked on the light and turned around.
The room looked about what you’d expected from a cheap roadside motel. A grimy little washroom with a bust up shower, a subpar-ly clean toilet, and a sink with a stained mirror.
He was about to dismiss all of this, before his eyes laid upon the mirror.
His heart skipped a beat when he noticed the reflection staring back at him. He didn’t even see it at first; seeing an image in the mirror every morning had been the norm for most of his life, and when it started to fade after his turning, he never mourned it.
He instinctively reached for the knife in his pocket, but realized he had left it on the living room table. Unable to act, he slowly backed away from the mirror.
He scanned the reflection in front of him like he had so many times before:
Tattered clothes that had gone through many struggles, a pierced face with dozens of rusty faux silver piercings, tattooes that had started to become unrecognizable beyond thick scarring and stitching, and a shit eating grin.
None of it belonged to Emizel.
“It’s about fucking time!” The figure in the mirror declared. “I know you weren’t expecting it, but come on, how long can a guy go without looking at any sort of reflective surface?”
Emizel rubbed his eyes, hoping to wake up from some weird dream “This is not fucking happening.” He mumbled to himself.
“OH YES IT IS!” Gabriel hollered. “Did you miss me?” he asked tauntingly.
“How could I miss you? You never go away!” Emizel hissed.
“I guess we’re just destined to be rivals for eternity!”
“Cursed might be better.” He sneered. “How the fuck are you doing this?”
“I was about to ask you the same thing!”
“Is this some kinda Bruhja magic shit that nobody told me about?”
“If I knew, do you think I’d be stuck watching you piss through your bathroom mirror?”
Emizel ignored him, and continued firing off questions, “How long have you been here?”
“I don’t know. Three days? I’ve been here since you killed me the second time. I think this might be your karma for absorbing my spirit on live television.”
“So, Arthur gets to have sick fucking bat wings, and I am stuck with you in my mind like some kind of bootleg Jekyll and Hyde?’’
“Damn right! And ya can’t kill yourself outta this one!”
Emizel stopped to think for a moment, “Are you sure though?”
Gabriel hesitated “I… I think so? I mean, why bother diablerizing anyone if it’s not going to last a life- unlifetime?”
“Look, man, I couldn't care any less about obtaining your powers. I can already do everything you do, well, did, but better.”
“Then why the fuck did you do it?”
“I thought it looked sick. You being gone was nice too.” Emizel admitted.
“Oh fuck you dude. I almost forgot about how much of a prick you are.”
“Watch your tone there, buddy. There’s a really nice ledge over there, and I’ll waste no time testing that little killing-myself-theory of yours.” He walked out of the bathroom door, heading for the hotel balcony.
“DON’T.” Gabriel panicked.
Emizel calmly strolled back and smirked “Who’s in whose head now?”
“Kill yourself.”
“If you insist!” He headed towards the living room again.
“You know that's not what I meant! Come back you smug bastard, I’m not done yet.” He hissed.
Emizel turned around, “You’ve come back once before, what could you possibly have left to say?”
Gabriel scoffed, “Well, first of all, fuck you. I can’t repeat that one enough. Second of all, if I won’t make your remaining lives a living hell, I think you should help me out in this one.”
“What the hell do you mean by that?”
“I had a normal life before all this too, you know? A job, my own dreams, friends-”
“I have a hard time believing that one.” Emizel interrupted him.
“Oh shut up! I had a lot of fellow Fangs. Those guys were like family to me!”
“Pretty shitty family if you ask me. Y’know, considering the unforgivable blood curse they gave you.”
“Can’t you just let me have one thing in life? I have unfinished business, and I need you to help me finish.”
“Okay, Ga- Gavin?” Emizel paused mid sentence to seek confirmation.
“You don’t even remember my fucking name?”
“No- I do. It’s at the tip of my tongue…” he paused for an awful long time.
“It’s Gabriel.”
“Ah yes! Little old Gabe. How could I forget?” Emizel said mockingly.
Gabriel didn't reply, but there was a fire in his eyes that said more than any insult he could throw at him.
“Listen up, Gabe-” Emizel continued, “If we’re going to share the same consciousness, you’ve gotta work on the way you word things. It only takes five minutes for you to make things weird”
“Well, maybe you just have to stop interpreting my words like that. Have you thought about that?”
“We both know that’s not the problem here.”
“Whatever man. Just help me out here!”
“What’s in it for me?”
“I’ll stop nagging you as much.”
“That's not enough. A claw through my head might just do the same.”
“I’ll give you insider information! I’ve got first hand experience of being a Fang.”
“We don’t need that anymore. We share assets now.”
“What?” Gabriel asked quizzically
“Oh, you didn’t know yet? We fused gangs.”
“WHAT?” Gabriel repeated louder this time.
“Turns out our life long rivalry was useless after all. Remember the Weylin twins?”
“You mean the guys who abducted me, mutilated me, and turned me into a human spider? Yeah. Yeah we’re quite familiar actually.” He hissed.
“They straight up orchestrated the entire gang war so that they could have more bodies for their experiments and shit. Our entire rivalry was bullshit!”
“Wait, so everything’s just cool now? And I didn’t even get to live to see it?”
“Oh no, we fused months ago. I just don’t think anyone on the Fangs’ side bothered to tell you.”
“What the fuck dude?” He sounded genuinely disappointed.
“Don’t shoot the messenger. I’m just relaying the news! What else have you got to offer?”
Gabriel went quiet trying to think of something before hesitantly suggesting, “My wits..?”
Emizel sighed, “Look, dude, if you’ve got nothing left to give then I’m just going to-”
“I can help you find your friend!” Gabriel blurted out.
Emizel’s brows furrowed, “Go on.” He pushed.
“They took him during the games, right? When they resurrected me, I got to have a little look behind the scenes of that Zoolander looking ass’ regime. I saw how they handled shit back there. I didn't catch a whole lot, but what I know might just save your buddy.”
Emizel hesitated, “How do I know you’re not lying?”
“You don’t, but seeing you pout over it day and night, I know you’ve got nothing left to lose.”
Emizel stood silently in front of the mirror, weighing out his options. If Gabriel is just trying to manipulate him into doing shit for him, then he might just be wasting a whole lot of time. On the other hand, he was running out of time anyway, and even a little push in the right direction might be enough to find Theo alive.
He thought about it for only a moment before he decided it was worth the risk.
“Fine.” He gave in. “Tell me what you know.”
“Woah, slow down there big shot! Hold up your end of the bargain first.” Gabriel demanded.
Emizel groaned, “What do you want?”
“I want you to tell my mother about my death. Maybe even deliver some final words for me.”
“Alright!” Emizel sounded both surprised and relieved. “Not gonna lie, I was expecting something worse. Where does she live?”
“San Juan.”
“Where the hell is that?”
Gabriel rolled his eyes, “Puerto Rico.”
“Oh fuck that! I’m not going to cross the entire country just to be a funeral director!”
“Who are you to deny a dead man’s wish?”
“An undead man with 30 dollars to his name.”
“Come on man, I haven’t reached out to her in years! She must be so worried.” Gabriel pleaded.
“Well that’s too damn bad! Maybe you should’ve thought about visiting her after your third near death experience.”
“My mom is just as important to me as your friend is to you!”
“My friend is probably still in the same state. Also, if she’s that important, why didn't you reach out earlier?”
Gabriel fell silent before mumbling, “Things got in the way…”
“What if we write her a letter?” Emizel proposed. “I’ll write down whatever you’ve got to say, and maybe we can actually visit her after you’ve helped me.”
“Alright...” Gabriel grumbled. “But you’re going to copy me word for word!”
“That’s fine by me.” Emizel agreed.
“Now, let’s talk business!” Gabriel switched up the conversation almost immediately. “Let’s say we do share all those lives of yours, how many have we got left?”
“I don’t fucking know.”
“You’ve lost count?”
“Wasn’t counting in the first place.”
“Well, how many do you have in total?”
“Probably nine?”
“PROBABLY??”
“I told you I didn’t know! I might be sharing them with this one cat, but that’s up for interpretation.”
“My god, of all the people I could’ve shared a consciousness with, why did it have to be you?” Gabriel lamented.
“Hey, I didn’t ask to have you in my mind forever!” Emizel sneered.
“Probably should’ve thought about that before you sucked my soul out of my body!”
“I’d do it again!”
Gabriel got as close toward the mirror as he could possibly get. “If I could claw my way outta here and rip your throat out, I would!”
Emizel leaned in, “...and I wouldn’t hesitate to kill you a third time.”
Gabriel opened his mouth to double down, but quickly stopped as his eyes darted to look at something behind Emizel.
Emizel immediately noticed this, and turned around to find Shilo standing in the doorframe of the bathroom, carefully holding the door open.
“Are you alright?” Shilo asked with a worried look on his face.
“I’m good.” Emizel replied softly.
“Did you have another one of those nightmares?”
Emizel hesitated, “Something like that… How long have you been standing there?”
“About a minute.”
“Ah…”
An awkward silence fell between the two.
“Well… I’m going back to bed now…” Shilo turned around to leave, but almost immediately turned back to Emizel. “I want you to know that if there’s anything you need or want to talk about, you can always wake me up, okay? I’m here for you.”
Emizel gave an uneasy little smile and nodded, “I understand, thank you.” He took a deep breath before continuing, “I’ll come with you. I was on my way out of here anyway.”
Both of them didn't say a word as Emizel awkwardly shuffled his way towards his brother.
As the two of them headed out of the bathroom to their respective bedrooms, Emizel looked back at the mirror one last time.
“Don’t you fucking leave! We’ve got a letter to write.” Gabriel fumed from the reflection.
“Tomorrow.” Emizel mouthed as he turned back to his brother.
Shilo quietly looked Emizel in the eye. His expression looked almost pitiful.
He sighed and whispered, “You worry me sometimes.”