Genesis Taylorson's Story

Ah, success. Gabriel thought to himself as he sat back in the conference room. Really, he felt he had done a rather excellent job. Everything had worked out perfectly, and the things that didn't... Well, the physical wounds were healing from it all, and he had accomplished the main goal, so he was content. He had simply overcome obstacles, and that put a smile on his face. Of course, he couldn't have done so without his pawn, but Gabriel knew he was much more important to the entire situation than his pawn. He was the one with the brains, skill, and the initial idea, after all. Without Gabriel, Genesis would probably be in some asylum by now. Not that Gabriel would really care either way. Genesis was a mere pawn, and Gabriel would treat him as such. Well, maybe not. Had to make sure he stuck around somehow.

Regardless, he had captured four new victims successfully with little complication, and this made him happy. Well, the only happiness he could really feel. This was an occasion to celebrate, and he was quite enjoying his celebration. An expensive bottle of extraordinary wine was on the table next to his chair, and a large wine glass was in his hand. Genesis sat across from him with his own glass of wine. Gabriel didn't particularly care if the other boy drank it or not, but he was going to enjoy his wine. Celebrations were the only time he celebrated, and the red wine taters exquisite as it passed over his taste buds and down his throat. The horrifying music in the background made this a rather strange scene, if not creepy. Two men sipping on red wine in a rather large cellar type room with four desks and a main table with that haunting and horrid music in the background. Seeing it in his head, Gabriel gave a slight smirk.

His celebration, it seemed, was being cut short. He heard the terrified shouts and thumps of his captives. Well, this would be interesting. He set his glass of wine down and motioned for his partner to shut off the music. Soon it was silent except for the thumps and yelling, and shortly after, even that stopped. A rather sick smile spread across Gabriel's face as he picked up a small stack of papers and began loudly whistling a rather haunting melody as he strode quickly down the hall. He paused at each door to slide a paper under it. One sheet of paper was blank, but had braille on it, and he slid that one under Sebastian's door. Each room got a paper, a letter typed up by Gabriel himself. The letter read:

Welcome.
I have brought you here because you have show that you have an extraordinary talent. You may be wondering where exactly "here" is, but for obvious reasons, I cannot tell you that. I can tell you that there is absolutely no way to escape and I am not working alone, so you cannot simply overpower me. Though I am sure you are terrified of your new whereabouts, and of course, me, but so long as you follow the rules, you have nothing to fear.

The rules are simple, though I will not tell them to you in this letter. I suggest that you find the plaque on your wall and read it, for on that plaque are the rules you must abide by. So long as you follow said guidelines, you will be properly taken care of and rewarded. These rewards will vary of course, on what is available and how long you have been cooperating. But be forewarned; if you should misbehave there will be consequences and punishments.

Though you are surely wondering why I have taken you, that cannot be revealed to you quite yet. Though, in the future, you may know my reasons for keeping you here with me. I will be visiting you soon, so try to prepare yourself.

Sincerely,
Gabriel
A.K.A.
The Collector.

Gabriel made his way back to his seat, still whistling for a short amount of time before sitting and drinking his wine again. He turned to Genesis. "It's almost time. All the preparations have been made?"

Tick, tock, tick, tock, a silent clock was sounding in his head. Genesis was nodding his head to the steady beat despite the music that was pulsing through Gabriel's lair. In front of him sat a glass of wine, gleaming red just like blood. While he wasn't an overly sadistic type of person, his mood swings were cause for concern to most. He had found in previous attempts to function correctly when alcohol was in his body that it was more difficult than usual to concentrate on whatever task Gabriel had given him. Needless to say, the Collector was the only one drinking tonight.

Genesis looked up as Gabriel signalled him to stop the music. He simply nodded and stood, quickly crossing to the wall to turn it off. His head remained as Gabriel walked off down the hall, delivering his welcome letters to each of the cells. Genesis wished that he had been able to make a greeting letter, but he was not the Collector himself.

Oh well, at least he had Marie with him. He lifted his right arm to find that she was gone. Hmm, perhaps he should stop daydreaming if he didn't want to lose another ball python. The last one, Marietta, had wandered off when Genesis was upstairs in the abandoned warehouse. He was sure that she was in a better place, free from the cement walls that kept her caged in. Not that he minded most of the time, but there was a sort of monotony to capturing and watching victims. Most held his interest for a week before he became annoyed by them. The ones that couldn't be fixed were the worst of all- thrashing about and yelling all sorts of things at the poor young man. The cycle was about to start again as the next four had awoken in their new home.

"Marie... where are you dear?" he called sweetly, walking back to the table and looking underneath of it. No python here. Next he looked at his chair and then Gabriel's, but still did not find his snake. "Marie, I am on a very tight schedule and need to help Gabriel. Now please come out!" Marie did not seem to be cooperating with him however, as she continued to relax under a lamp by the security monitors, warming herself.

Genesis stood up and looked at the entryway as the familiar tune entered the room, being whistled by Gabriel. He smiled before spotting his beloved snake, picking her up off the counter and curling her around his arm. He then returned to his seat, though he was eager to see if these new victims would act any differently than the others. Chances were they wouldn't.

"It's almost time. All the preparations have been made?" Gabriel asked after a few minutes. The helper looked down at his albino python before nodding again, looking at the wall behind Gabriel. "Yes, sir."

Standing, he walked over to the wall of monitors, flicking each of them on so that the two could view Ace, Sebastian, Giselle, and Avelyn. There were also cameras in the meeting room as well as the security room. Genesis turned and gave a small salute to the camera in the corner. "Ready to record if you want too. Hmm... Marie messed something up," he mumbled. He moved over to the control panels and toggled the camera in Sebastian's room a bit, then focused it. "There we are. So how long until we let them out?" he asked, eager to see their talents. This batch seemed to have potential, especially with the unusual selection of the Animal Handler. Maybe he could teach Marie a trick or two.

Gabriel was calmly sipping on his glass of wine as he awaited Genesis and his answer. "Hmm... Marie messed something up," Gabriel slammed his wine glass down, but not quite hard enough to break it, and stood fast. "What. The fuck. Do you mean. Messed something up?!?" He seethed toward his partner. He absolutely hated when things went wrong, and it obviously showed. "I told you that having that damned snake down here would be nothing but trouble! One more time, and I will gut her myself!" He snarled toward the younger counterpart, who had just fixed whatever was wrong.

And then the screaming started. Dear God, the screaming. If he was angry before, he didn't know what to call this emotion. And he had just sat back down too. He threw his wine glass and it his Avelyn's door, shattering to pieces. "Damn you all!" He stood up so fast that his chair flew back. He would fix these problems one at a time. They would learn to behave themselves if he had to kill them to do so. They would all learn, he was not one to be toyed with.

He first made his way to Avelyn's cell. She had started all this ruckus, and she would pay for it. He stood in front of her door, calming himself enough so that he wouldn't do anything idiotic, like leave the door open. He pulled out his key card and scanned it, unlocking the door. He carefully put the card away before opening the door, so she wouldn't know what he had opened it with. He then opened the door, strode in, and closed the door quickly again. He stood for a moment, glowering at Avelyn. "I thought. I told you. Not. To. Scream." Each group of words was separate and distinct, his anger resonating in each on as he spat them through his teeth. He smacked Avelyn hard across the face with the back of his hand. "And you've gone and wrecked the furniture I was so kind to leave you?" He smacked her again in the same manner as before. "How dare you treat me with such disrespect." He picks up the chair she had been using earlier to hit the door and he hit her leg with it hard, so as not to damage anything important. "You will learn to abide by my rules and respect my things." With that he turned and opened the door once more, got out, and closed it behind him, then locking it firmly.

Next was Sebastian. He thought he could be a wise ass, eh? No. Not under the rule of this sociopath. Gabriel went to his door and unlocked it in the same fashion he had Avelyn's and stepped in to see a hysterical Sebastian on the floor. He scoffed in disgust and closed the door, picking Sebastian up and smacking him across the face. "Get a hold of yourself, idiot." He said and forced him to stand. "Now, obviously if I gave you a braille letter, I know you can't see. We call this the path of logic. Now, if the letter was in braille, wouldn't you think the plaque would be too?" He shoved Sebastian into the wall under the plaque, then guided his hand up to touch the plaque, moving over the different bumps. "1. Don't Scream. 2. Don't resist. 3. Don't run." He read aloud as the boy's fingers passed over the cluster of bumps. "Think you can handle that? Good." He said, not letting him answer before smashing his face into the concrete wall and walking out of the room and locking the door behind him.

That left Ace, who was still howling. Gabriel felt his anger inside him, raging like a forest fire and a volcano eruption all at once. He despised yelling. With a passion. He marched over to the door, opened it, shoved it open, and punched Ace in the face as hard as he could before he couldn't realize the door was even opening. Gabriel then closed the door behind him and saw the mess the boy had made all over his floors. "You sloppy little fuck! You may live in the forest, but I live in a house, and I expect it to be clean!" He punched Ace again, across the right cheekbones, hard. He then grabbed Ace by the throat and held him up against the wall, choking off his screaming. "You want to k ow where your stupid little mutt is? Hm?" Gabriel used his other hand to pull a remote out of his pocket. He pressed a button and a panel in the wall opposite them moved, revealing a screen with a pacing Sandi in a rather large cage. "There she is. Want to know what happens to her when you fuck with me?" He pressed another button, and the dog on the screen let out a heartwrenching yelp and jumped up, then slumped to the floor. "She's got a rather powerful shock collar on, and this remote controls it. The other button gives her food and water as reward. So I suggest you need to shut the fuck up." With that, Gabriel threw Ace to the ground and opened the door once more, got out, and locked it.

Giselle seemed to be the only quiet one. He would have to reward her for that. But not right now. No, Gabriel was still far too worked up to reward anyone. He stalked down the hall to the control room and turned on the psychotic music that wasn't really music up full blast in every room excepts Giselle's. They would learn to cooperate. Or die. He turned to Genesis. "Go get Giselle food. She's the only one who has behaved thus far. And I am too infuriated to reward anyone." He glared at the snake in the boy's arms. "And I suggest you get that thing out of my sight if you want to come back to a living pet."

The Collector's dear helper cringed as he began to yell, threatening to hurt poor Marie. He turned quickly, panicking. "I fixed it, it's fine. See? We can see everybody here in perfect clarity. No problems here- just some kids yelling," he managed to get out. He loved Gabriel like a brother, but was honestly intimidated by him. Without his boss he would have no direction in life and only God knows where he would be right now instead of assisting in the kidnapping of prodigies. He glanced at Marie and pet her delicately, loving the feeling of her scales.

Genesis turned to look back at the screens as the four began what he liked to call the Screaming Contest. There was a prize for whoever screamed the loudest, who screamed first, and who screamed until their voice was raw. His favourite was the last category. He heard Gabriel leave, obviously enraged by his simple mistake of letting the snake out of his reach. He would now take it out on the geniuses, as was clearly heard even without the security system.

Gabriel stormed into the first cell, the writer. Genesis watched with slight indifference as the yelling continued before his physically violent side was brought out. The girl was struck by a chair and was silenced, obviously shocked by the situation. The first had also been the last, which wasn't terribly unusual. She'd just been the unlucky to one to be visited first hand. Next was the blind one, followed by the animal handler and finally the artist. His mood seem to instantly change. Gen couldn't blam him- it was nice to have somebody quiet for once. For right now, she was the winner of the contest.

The man looked back to Gabriel as he reentered the room. He was noticeably less tense than when he had left a few moments ago, but was still not to be messed with in this state of mind. Genesis frowned as his snake was threatened again, but nodded as he understood. He quickly left the room and went upstairs to the mostly abandoned warehouse, which lay desolate and in ruins. However there was one room that remained slightly untouched by natural decay. This was the helper's room. Quickly, he placed the snake back in her cage before closing the door to the small, windowless room. It was almost like one of the cells.

He returned to the basement quickly, partially because he was afraid Gabriel might kill him if Giselle didn't get food soon and partially because there was a fierce wind coming through the broken windows. Leaves cluttered the floor and Genesis was careful not to step on them. After dancing his way to the stairs he descended and retrieved a couple of slices of bread and a small plastic dish with water in it. The basic meal- bread and water. At least she was getting any food.

Genesis quickly continued through the security room and then down the hall to Giselle's room. He knelt down and slid the tray of food under. He did not wish to give away his presence as the helper of the collector just yet. Having his identity unknown had proved useful in the past. Of course, the poor kid had ended up dead after refusing to behave. It seemed that the lonely sociopaths would never have any true friends but each other.

Gabriel was sitting in an office chair, gently rubbing his temples. All this yelling and dammed music was giving him a headache. Oh well, the music he could tolerate it was the yelling that had sent him over the edge. But all was silent now in the little cells he had for everyone, except for the music of course. Now they knew that he meant business. This was good. The sooner they learnedly fear and respect, the smoother things would go around here. That's pretty much how he felt on the whole matter. Tolerance was really the key in all this. If they tolerated each other, then no one would have to die. A lesson his past group had failed to understand. But he had fun killing them too, that was for sure. However, that did make the entire experience a waste of his time. He was supposed to be mentoring these people, improving their skill with his own. Not just killing them for fun. No, no, that would get him no where but the FBI's most wanted list. Not that he wasn't already on his way there.

Regardless, he'd have to whip this group into shape. And he could already sense them becoming more docile. This was good. This was part of the plan. Now, to attempt to charm at least one of them for a bit. He took a deep breath and stood from his chair slowly, then made his way out of the security room. He saw Genesis getting up from placing the food down under the door. "What all did you give her?" Without waiting for his response, he began to unlock the door. "I hope you don't intend on starving her. That will do terrible things to such a lovely and creative mind." He gave Genesis a look, showing that he was being serious and to get her a better meal. Without another word, he opened the door, closed it behind him, then looked to Giselle and gave her a warm smile.

"Why, hello. I hope the others didn't scare you too badly. My name is Gabriel. I know you aren't one to talk much, but I thought I might drop by to have a small chat with you. Do you mind if I sit?" He motioned to the desk chair that be was asking permission to sit in, giving off the impression that he was quite the amiable young man. He was using his wonderful charm, the one he always used when not angry. This was how he would win them all over. Hopefully get this one to talk, too. She'd probably fail most of the challenges if she didn't start speaking soon, and it would be such a waste to get rid of someone just because of that.

The helper gulped as the boss came down the hall, eying him with the same sense of coolness and calm that he almost always seemed to have. It was unnerving to see somebody who harboured as many emotions as you did, but somehow kept them in check with great care. He wasn't one to be messed with, that was for sure. Genesis quickly scurried off as Gabriel opened Giselle's door. He hadn't meant to starve her- Gabriel said give her food and so he did. But oh well, he could always go shopping later.

Grocery runs were mainly his responsibility and weren't made often, thus the large freezer next to the refrigerator and in the makeshift kitchen by the security room. He opened the refrigerator and looked inside for something more suitable than bread and water. There was no point in upsetting Gabriel or keeping a good victim hungry. Genesis pulled out some left over meatloaf and set it in the microwave.

As he waited for any further instructions or for the meatloaf to finish warming, he walked back to the numerous monitors in the other room. Glancing at them, he saw that not much had changed. Sighing, he ran his fingers through his hair and sat back down at the table. His eyes wandered to the ceiling, as if it were the source of the tune he knew so well. Of course it wasn't, and as much as he would love to change it when it had been playing for hours, he knew he could not. It wasn't terribly bothersome though. Genesis was usually an agreeable fellow and loyal beyond words. He loved Gabriel like a brother and would probably do anything for him.

Da-ding! The microwave soon started beeping at him. "I know, you're done. Thank you very much," he said to the machine, rising and retrieving the food from it. He placed it on a plate and set a fork on it, before hurriedly walking back to Giselle's door. He set the plate down off to the side so that when the door was opened it would not knock it and ruin her meal. He knocked on the door to let his friend know his latest task was complete before retreating back to the surveillance room and sitting down again, setting his ankle on his thigh and beginning to whistle. His whistling was somewhat pathetic sounding.

When the young girl nodded consent, he sat in the chair that he had indicated. He then looked to the girl to see if maybe she would surprise him and actually talk, or prove him right and stay silent. It seemed that she would prove him right. Ah, well, that was a pity. It wasn't long after that Gabriel heard a knock at the door. Genesis was an efficient young fellow. Gabriel stood and opened the door once more and retrieved the plate of meatloaf that was next to the opening. He then promptly closed the door once more and went back to Giselle, handing her the warm plate of food.

"There you are, dear. Some warm food for you. I'm sure that bread wasn't very satisfying. You must forgive me for that, my apprentice e has much to learn. You aren't here to be tortured or starved, no. You are here to be mentored and taught. It would simply be a waste of my time to sit around and tortured and kill people. Not to mention, a waste of my money." He smiled kindly to the girl in front of him. "Well, I do hope you enjoy your meal. You'll be able to meet the others shortly, after they are given a bit of first aid of course. And cleaned up a bit. If you need anything, all you need to do is ask. But keep the rules in mind." He flashed her one more charming smile before getting up and walking out the door and locking it properly behind him. He then walked down the hall back to the security room, where he heard Genesis pitifully whistling.

"Ah, Genesis, you really must improve your whistling skill. It's quite atrocious." Gabriel said as he walked into the room and began preparing two carts full of first aid supplies. "We have to go fix the mess they inflicted on themselves now." He handed Genesis a tranquilizer gun and wheeled one of the carts in front of his chairs. "Lock all the main hall doors from here, be sure that if they bolt from the door they have no where to go, and keep your gun loaded. And Genesis," he paused, looking him in the eye. "Do not screw up." With that, Gabriel took his own first aid cart and wheeled it out of the room and down the hall to Avelyn's door, gently knocking. "I'm here to fix you up. But fight and you'll get punished worse than before. Understand?"

The awful noise was stop almost instantaneously as Gabriel entered, letting his helper know that there was a reason he was in the basement of an abandoned warehouse and not somewhere else. Genesis was somewhat aware that he was rather useless without direction. He just wasn't the person to give orders but rather to follow them, albeit with his own twist. He twirled the tranquilizer gun in his hand before standing and setting it on his first aid cart.

"Do not screw up."

The seriousness in the Collector's voice did not need his equally intimidating stare. "If I would have screwed up that much, I wouldn't still be here," he returned as Gabriel turned and left down the hall. Both knew that Genesis was not the smartest nor the strongest, but over all he hadn't been such a bad friend. There was no way that the man would be able to pull off such an operation without his helper, who took great pride in what he did. As long as he didn't end up in jail, life was rather satisfying for the useless pawn.

His dark hair glimmered as he stepped out of the security room, his first aid cart in tow. He turned and locked the security room with one of many keys dangling from a ring. As he continued down the hall, he closed and locked each door before securing each pattern of bolts on the intricate doors. He did not have access to the scan security system and thus relied on physically closing the doors to keep their guests in. Once all the doors were sealed, ensuring that nobody would leave here unless it was in a body bag, he rolled his cart to the end of the residential hall, adding another road block to anybody wishing to escape. Genesis picked up the tranquilizer gun and gave it a small twirl before gripping it confidently. If any of these four tried to run, he'd be waiting to catch them and toss them back into their cells as if they were nothing more than animals. Then again, one might regard them as such. It was all about personal opinion.