The Wrong Sister

In The Forest

Gabriel flicked a folder in the doorway to his room. 

"I told you I would have the contract ready for signing." He handed me one dossier, "Ready to go through it?" 

Warmth filled my chest and the world felt lighter as Gabriel took the seat vacated by Haley. 

"Okay, lets do it." 

The meat of the contract was short and didn't full one page. I was accepting responsibility of the debt, and he was acknowledging that I would need time to recover before I could pay him back. He would not charge me interest and the debt was nontransferable. He could not go after my family for it. 

"... Party A may under no circumstances sell party B's organs..." 

Gabriel nodded enthusiastically, "Thought that should be clarified. After all the obvious assumption in the absence of a prohibition is that you would be fine with the organ selling."

I laughed. It was so stupid, but he wasn't mad with me. He was still joking around. 

"Well I'm glad I said it then." I leaned back in the bed, "Pass me a pen." 

"You don't want to revise the organ rule?"

"I'm good." 

"Damn." The pen was passed over. 

Document signed, Gabriel fetched us both glasses of water. 

"Gabriel, is Asta okay?" 

He rubbed his temples, "How can you worry about her? She helped him." 

"He took advantage of her and she's the one who got me out of there." 

Gabriel glared at the floor, "From what she told me you were getting yourself out of there." 

"What did she tell you?" I could hear my heart beat. If he knew I killed my best friend what did he think of me? 

He looked over me before answering, "She told me about everything she saw." 

I gulped. Suddenly my throat felt a lot smaller. 

"I don't think we should be talking about this right now. It hasn't been long-"

"I forgot to tell you. I might get arrested." I couldn't look at him. 

Gabriel handed me my glass of water and stood back.

"You're not getting arrested, Artemis. It was self defense." 

I took a big gulp of water. It hurt going down my throat. I wiped my lips with my wrist , "He was unconscious I don't know if you can stretch it that far." The glass clinked as I set it on the night stand.

"I know. Artemis, you don't need to tell me anything. I've fixed everything." Gabriel's eyes never left me. 

"The cult might come try to kill me..." I wasn't sure why, but I didn't believe he could possibly respond how he was. So I pushed, waiting to see when his support would faulter and prove me right. Prove that I was not the shining treasure he treated me as. 

"We can deal with that when and if the time comes." He smiled reassuringly at me. 

The knot in my stomach tightened. He wasn't understanding how difficult helping me would be. The only reason Gabriel was willing to help me was because he had some kind of crush on me. He didn't know how terrible of a person I was. When he found out he would realize that all his kindness was for nothing. The contract would protect me, but I couldn't let him ruin himself and the many people he seemed to be responsible for. 

Seeing my face, Gabriel sat next to me. His arms wrapped around me and he guided my head to his shoulder. 

My heart thudded in my chest. I pushed my face against his shoulder as I shook gently. Heat rose in in my cheeks and my vision got more and more blurry.