Sweet Devil [BL]

Chapter 119. An Overdue Conversation

"Although I don't think I need to spell it out for you, I'm gonna say it anyway: I want to know what happened when you were young, including everything about your first coma. And don't you dare lie, or I'm gonna beat you to a pulp. Understood?"

Gabriel's mouth twitched slightly following these words. It was strange to hear a kid, who looked so tiny and frail, threaten him with such a severe expression on his face. Unfortunately for Misha, his soft voice didn't make it convincing, and the same could be said for his sparkling blue eyes; it only made Gabriel want to pinch his cheeks. Maybe even ruffle his hair and tease him a little.

But now wasn't the time, so Gabriel didn't give in to temptation. Instead, he tapped the bed, beckoning Misha to sit by his side.

"All right, I'll tell you everything. This conversation is long overdue, anyway, but before I start, you should sit."

Suspiciously sizing him up, Misha seemed to hesitate before slowly making his way to the bed, sitting at a safe distance from Gabriel. He then peered at the man through a few strands of blonde hair, waiting for him to get the ball rolling.

"Hm, where should I start?" Gabriel wondered aloud, intertwining his fingers together to form a single fist. "It's a bit of a long story, but I'll try to keep it short."

"No need to keep it short, you can go into detail."

"And let Masha entertain Jake for longer than necessary? Do you want her mental health to collapse?"

"...Short is good too."

"Isn't it?" Gabriel chuckled, laughter in his eyes. However, the sparkles didn't last long and quickly vanished, replaced by a dark cloud.

There was a moment of silence as Gabriel took the time to organize his thoughts. He tried to find the right words, ones that wouldn't rub salt into the wounds and hurt Misha unnecessarily. Just as Misha had downplayed it when he talked about his father's abuse and his sister's suicide, Gabriel thought of doing the same. But it wasn't an easy task, considering what he had to say.

"Well, let's start with the coma," Gabriel sighed after a while. "But unfortunately, I can't tell you much because the events are a little blurry in my mind. All I can say is what the doctors concluded back them. According to them, I ingested something bad that had been mixed with my food, probably sleeping pills of some sort."

"Sleeping pills? How could that have caused a coma...?"

"It's like any medication. Take too much of it in one go, and the consequences can be tragic, especially if you're a child or in your early teens. Frankly, I lucked it out by only falling into a coma and waking up a few days later, and all that without any sequels. It could have been far worse."

"But why didn't you notice there were sleeping pills in your food...? I mean, any kind of pills scattered on your plate would have looked suspicious!"

"Indeed, and that's why they had been crushed and mixed with the food. It was impossible to detect it with naked eyes, and the taste hadn't been that different from usual—from what I can remember, anyway. And, you know, a thirteen year-old-kid won't suspect their food to be poisoned just because the taste is a bit off. Hell, even adults won't necessarily think of that."

"Y-you're right, sorry." Misha paused to purse his lips, then spat out, "But what kind of monster would poison a teen?!"

Hearing this, Gabriel smiled sadly, stretching a hand to pat and stroke Misha's back to soothe him. It was only the beginning, and he was already about to blow up. The boy's cheeks had turned bright red with anger, and his breathing had become heavier, his chest rising up and down with every breath.

"According to the police officer's report, it was my mother."

"W-what?"

"They said she wanted to bring her son with her in her death. In their eyes, she committed suicide because she was emotionally unstable. They considered her to be quite the mental case. Moreover, my mother was the one who prepared the food that I consumed, making it all the easier to poison it with her own sleeping pills, or so they said."

Misha opened his mouth but soon closed it, not knowing what to say. What could he even say...?

"But the police had no concrete proof. It was mainly baseless theories; the maid had thoroughly cleaned up the kitchen before the investigation, destroying most of the evidence. According to the maid, she just did her job after I was sent to the hospital, not knowing that she was tampering with a crime scene. After all, at the time, they didn't know why I had fainted, though many thought it was probably due to the sight of my mother's corpse. Who would assume that the young master had been poisoned?"

Gabriel let out a scoff, shaking his head.

"And of course, there was no food left to sample and analyze because the maid threw it away. She told the officers I ate it all, but I hadn't."

If he had, he wouldn't be alive to tell the story.

"The police officers could only base their investigation on what the doctor told them and the testimonies from my family and the house staff."

"But their testimonies aren't worth shit!"

"I know. But who would believe a young teen who went through a traumatic experience over a bunch of adults with silver tongues? What child would want to accept that their mother tried to kill them? So, whatever I said wasn't taken seriously, even when I told them that my mother didn't commit suicide."

"...How do you know? That she didn't."

"Someone pushed her to her death. She didn't jump from the room of her own volition, but I had no proof. Besides, I didn't see the culprit's face, just their arms. I also wasn't aware of many things when I was younger and didn't know who to accuse, unlike now."

Tightening his grip around his hands, Gabriel closed his eyes as the memories of that fateful day flooded his mind. Though some pieces were missing, some were still as clear as day, including his mother's last moments.

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Chapter revised on 2022-06-05

Edited by Clozed! ♥

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