A Trickster's Daughter

Chapter 10: What?

September-ish 2001, Monteplier, North Dakota, United States

Three months ago Maya ran away from her father, and he wasn't handling it well. He was angry when he received no message from God, the one time he really needed his own father to help him. In his anger he took it out on nearly every asshole and jerk in Fort Dodge, Iowa. Gabriel was so bad he found himself being hunted by a whole group of Hunters. There must've been like five. He didn't even bother playing around with them. For the better really. Peeking at their souls he found they were twisted with revenge and hate, and had let all their work hunting monsters turn them into monsters themselves. They enjoy torturing what they hunted. Ugh. He just snapped his fingers and exploded them. With them gone though it wouldn't be long before other Hunters come sniffing around.

He made his way back to his safe house in North Dakota near the Monteplier. It stood hidden by a small forest along the James River on the East side. The same house he brought Maya to 4yrs earlier. For weeks he wracked his brain for ideas of how to find her. Those plans fell flat. Gabriel began to resent the dawn, as it represented just another morning without his baby girl.

Now Gabriel laid about in his bed filled with grief and anxiety over his daughter. He would plan what he would say to her if he ever found her. Sometimes he would just stare at his cellphone, hoping it would ring and she would be on the other end. He'd wonder if today would be the day she would send a prayer to 'Loki' to let him know if she was alright, or where she was. He was no longer sure of what he should do now. He was barely holding himself together.

He tried keeping his spirits up. He tried candy binges, and maybe in other situations eating his absolute favorite candies and chocolates would make him feel better, but not in this one. Instead Gabriel's mind would wonder to times when Maya would try to join him and try to eat her own weight in candy like he did, only to have a very upset stomach later and subsequently emptying it in the toilet. She'd even begun flipping him the bird now when he'd do the 'I-told-you-so' song and dance, while she groaned puking her guts out. Or when they would hold mock serious debates about which of two random treats were better. Their arguments getting more and more ridiculous until both were wheezing from laughter, especially when they'd start using mock posh voices. Gabriel stopped his candy binges from the grief of not being able to do them anymore with his daughter.

He even tried lots of meaningless sex to get the endorphins pumping. Unfortunately, when he'd wake up with a body curled up beside him he'd momentarily forget the previous night's activities and think it was Maya snuggling him instead. Gabriel would jolt awake to check, his heart soaring, only to find it was just some random woman or man he bedded. His heart would immediately plummet and fill with pain. His sex-capade marathon lasted only five days. He didn't want to keep waking up to false hope and crushing disappointment.

He thought about getting back into his groove of being a Trickster, but that just brought everything that happened leading up to Maya's disappearance to his mind. He'd fill with deep regret and anguish, flinging away the notion like it was diseased. Being a Trickster and wanting Maya to be a Trickster like him was exactly what made him drive her away. Not to mention his own arrogance at thinking because he was her father he knew best, so he didn't even try to listen to her.

Gabriel wanted his daughter back. Hell, he wanted to go full nuclear archangel on the whole blue marble the old man created. Give the world a taste of the way he felt. Why should the world keep turning if his was already destroyed? The only thing keeping him from falling down that path was the thought that Maya could get caught up in his pain and he'd never know. If she was still alive that is.

Tears fell from his eyes as he choked back a painful sob, while his heart constricted in grief. He couldn't think like that. His daughter was bright, she was kind, and she was so clever. Until he was sure she was—he couldn't think it. Unless he was sure, he'd let the world keep turning. Until then he'd avoid the morning's first light that tried so hard to chase away the darkness wrapping around his heart. Only his daughter had that gift. Only Maya could chase it away now. Only his own little Morning's Glory.