Gabriel refused to accept it... He held his father's fading form, trembling uncontrollably as tears streamed down his face.
"Please... don't leave me. You're all I have," he choked out, gripping his father's spirit so tightly, as if holding on could stop the inevitable.
He didn't want his father to die, the one thing he had left in this world. If he lost that, he would lose himself...
No, he needed his dad.
His father, ever the calm presence, placed a ghostly hand on Gabriel's shoulder. His touch was warm but faint, like the dying light of a candle.
"Gabriel, mi hijo... no puedes detener lo que ya está hecho (You can't stop what's already done)," he said softly. "Mi tiempo terminó... pero tú tienes toda una vida por delante (My time has ended... but you have a whole life ahead of you)."
Gabriel looked at his shattered chains... He had a gut feeling that he could not return to his human body. However, he did not have the courage to tell his father that.
He could not stop the tears from leaving his eyes.
"No! I don't want a life without you!" Gabriel sobbed, his voice breaking.
His hands clenched the air where his father's form shimmered, desperately trying to hold onto him. "You promised me! You promised you'd be there—when I got married, when I had kids. You can't leave me, Papá! You can't!"
He was getting really desperate. He watched in horror as his father's form flickered out of existence, becoming more translucent with every passing second.
"Te amo, hijo (I love you, son)," he said, his voice now barely a whisper. "Recuerda quién eres. Vive con orgullo (Remember who you are. Live with pride)."
His father's fading smile was gentle, yet it pierced Gabriel's heart like a blade.
And then, he was gone.
Huh...
.....
He felt a strange emptiness, as if his heart had been shattered, as if his sense of self was vanishing with each passing second.
He fell to his knees, already missing his dad.
Tears fell from his eyes as he began sobbing uncontrollably. He clutched at the empty space where his father had been just a second ago... He felt so hollow inside.
He wanted his father back.
"I should have done something..." he whispered hoarsely. "I should have been stronger. Faster. I could have saved you, Papá... I could've—"
If only he wasn't such a damn coward... If only he had moved faster.
Doubts began clouding his mind... He began to drown in his own negative emotions.
He sobbed where his father had died for what felt like hours.
He wanted his dad to have a proper burial, to at least retrieve his father's body in order to bury it.
However, his hand passed through his father... So he couldn't even do that...
A sharp, searing pain tore through his chest, cutting off his words.
Gabriel gasped, his hands instinctively moving to his sternum, where the broken chain that connected him to his physical body now dangled.
The chain, once whole, was now severed, and the links at the break were beginning to corrode. They dissolved one by one, vanishing into black ash as an unbearable emptiness gnawed at his soul.
Despair overcame him. He wanted nothing more than to have his father back. Why did the world have to be so cruel, taking away the only person that meant something to him?
He felt a hole in his chest, but he didn't care about the corrosion of his chain.
The emptiness within him began to grow and grow, his mind screaming in agony as his memories with his dad played in his mind in a relentless loop.
His first soccer game. The way his father's laugh would fill the house. Late nights talking about life over his favorite food. The promises his father had made to always be there. And now... gone.
All was stripped away from him.
"It's not fair," Gabriel whispered, his voice cracking under the weight of his despair. His nails clawed at the floor as his body began to contort unnaturally, the pain growing unbearable. "I don't want to live without him. I can't live without him."
His screams turned guttural as his chest exploded in pain.
His chain had fully corroded away—a process that usually took months, happening in mere seconds. The vast despair that the boy felt was so immense that a hollow hole appeared where his heart used to be.
The void inside him began to expand. It consumed every ounce of his humanity. White substance oozed from his mouth and eyes, spreading across his face like liquid bone.
He clawed at it, but it was no use.
A mask was forming. It covered his features and reshaped him into something monstrous.
"Papá..." he whimpered one last time as his voice began to distort, losing all semblance of humanity.
The hollow mask hardened, jagged and sharp, reflecting the anguish and rage that consumed him.
His body twisted and grew, his limbs elongating and his hands becoming clawed.
Black and white markings spread across his skin as he writhed on the floor, screaming in pain and despair.
His humanity slipped away, piece by piece, and the darkness began to consume him.
His scream shifted into a primal roar, echoing through the now-destroyed room.
Gabriel was gone.
In his place stood a Hollow, a monstrous being born from the depths of grief and regret.
The Hollow's red eyes burned with unbridled rage, but deep within them, buried beneath the monstrous exterior, was a soul crying out in endless agony.
The last trace of Gabriel clung to one singular thought:
"I just wanted my dad back."
A/N
Gabriel human form.
Gabriel hollow form.