Kaiser of the New World

I didn't realise backstories were so long (17)

Alas, tomorrow is not always a bad thing, as it is that fateful tommorow when she met him...

Gabriel.

Noelle was doing one of her nightly patrols around the compound when she saw someone sitting in one of the watchtowers, gazing at the stars.

Approaching him, he offered her a seat which she reluctantly took. Looking a bit closer she saw that the boy was about her age, maybe a little younger.

The boy talked to her night, but Noelle only responded with blunt or one word answers, after the night was over, Noelle returned to her duties. They met at the same spot the next night, and the next, and the next, and the next.

Slowly but surely, the boy grew on Noelle. He was like a flame melting a block of ice, the cold exterior of Noelle being the ice.

He was different, nothing like the men you would usually see in a gunrunning group. He was kind, polite, caring, funny, and kind of cute. Noelle started to enjoy the nights they spent together, she learned to enjoy herself again, to smile again... to laugh again.

Eventually, a month had passed and Noelle realised she loved him. She always thought her father was
overexaggerating when he said her mother's smile was the most beautiful thing ever and could light up a dark room, but after seeing Gabriel's she finally understood he was right.

As it turns out, he loved her too, he didn't just see her as a piece of eye candy like all the others in the compound. Noelle was ecstatic, he loved her...

He loved the Noelle who would always call dogs mutts even though she secretly loved them, the Noelle who's body was covered in scars from the abuse she endured, the Noelle who developed a phobia of men after that night... The Noelle who was secretly a scared little girl under all her muscles and scary attitude.

Noelle had never experienced her teenage years due to being locked up the whole time, and this was the most fun she's ever had, except when her parents were still alive.

And after three months, on one of the watch towers around the compound, under the shining starts of the sky... She kissed him, and he kissed back.

Their relationship continued to progress, even going a step further on their year anniversary and having a night of passion after sneaking out of the compound through a gap in the fence hidden behind a barrel.

All was perfect for the two years since she met Gabriel. Noelle didn't even care that she was basically a prisoner in the compound. Over this time, the mentality she had weakened, seeing that there was still some good in this world.

She still kept up her work outs though, sure her muscles didn't pop out as much as when she just got out of the cell, but they were still visible. She always smiled when Gabriel touched them and said he loved them.

But her illusion of happiness was shattered a week after her nineteenth birthday, when she overheard her uncle, his second-in-command and a few others, including a red headed woman, talking about how one of their men got caught by the authorities planting a bomb somewhere in Cairo and they were closing in... and they needed scapegoats.

They decided that they would sacrifice a few of their men for the greater good of the group... Gabriel was one of those men.

Panicking, Noelle scurried away and went somewhere private to collect her thoughts. After much deliberation, there was only one option...

That night, under the cover of darkness, she entered her uncle's room while he was sleeping and... slit his throat.

He went out peacefully in his sleep...