Keeper and Protector (Joshler) ✔️

51

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"I'm dying, praying, bleeding and screaming. Am I too lost to be saved? Am I too lost?"

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"Why are you doing this to me, Gabriel?"

Tyler tried his best not to show fear in the face of his ex-Protector, but the more he looked at the gun in Gabriel's waistband, the more his voice shook as he spoke.

"You and I have some unfinished business, Tyler." Pacing back and forth through the living room, Gabriel kept his eyes on Tyler the entire time. "You had a lot of nerve leaving me that night. I didn't think you had the balls, coward."

Tyler wanted to jump up and scream in Gabriel's face until he couldn't scream anymore, but he knew this man could take his life... and the last thing he wanted was for Josh to come home and find him dead.

"How did you even find me? It's been..."

"Eleven months? But who's counting, right?" Gabriel smiled mockingly. "To be honest, I stopped looking for you after the first week. I figured you were probably dead in a ditch somewhere. Because let's face it, no one else was gonna come looking for you. It turns out, though, when it comes to your little Protector and his family... blood isn't thicker than water."

"What are you talking about? Josh... he would never..." Tyler's voice trailed off as the air rushed out of his lungs.

Gabriel scoffed a little. "Please. That's giving that loser way too much credit." He came a few steps closer, eyes burning straight into Tyler's soul. "Four months ago, I met a guy named Bill. Bet that name rings a bell, huh? He was my client, and one day, he kept complaining about how his son was causing family problems because he started dating a Keeper. I thought that was interesting, so I asked him who the Keeper was. And lo and behold... a guy named Tyler Joseph."

A hard shiver went down Tyler's spine.

"He later told me that some sort of "secret organization" had recently contacted him. He also told me that Josh had put in for a leave-of-absence so that you and him could go to Ukraine. Bill was mad that Josh was leaving on such short notice... and also because he had refused to help him get the CEO position he really wanted.

"But that's not the best part. I actually know the CEO of SRN Corporations. He's a relative of mines. I told Bill that and you wouldn't believe the way his eyes lit up. So I gave him a proposition: I'd find a way to get him the position, no questions asked, if he gave me any info he had on you and that secret organization. And you know what? That sneaky bastard agreed to it."

Tyler felt his heart drop to his stomach.

"It turns out... Nico is a pretty resourceful guy. They knew about you way before you even went on your little 'rescue mission' to Ukraine. They would've found a way to kidnap you, just like all those other pathetic Keepers."

Tyler finally found his voice again, words coming out through gritted teeth. "Innocent Keepers died in there, Gabriel."

"Am I supposed to feel sorry for them?" Gabriel laughed. "I kept in contact with Nico the entire time you were in there... so I could tell him all the ways to try and break you. And if it wasn't for those idiots on the TKD, you'd have been buried right alongside the rest of those Keepers."

Tyler felt nauseated, his head starting to spin. "You... you weren't even there and you still found a way to torture me. It was bad enough being put through the abuse, but knowing that you played a part in it..."

Gabriel laughed again as he watched Tyler double over and start dry heaving. "Give me a break. You knew good and well that you couldn't hide from me forever."