My latest visceral horror story is out today!

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The Compassionate are searching for their best friend, Polina, who has been missing for over a week. They will find out that she has been kidnapped by members of the demonic sixth family, whom she had mercy on and tried to convert from their sinful ways. With this information, they hasten their efforts, knowing how the sixth family violates and tortures their victims to corrupt them.

Mercy's Limit: Chapter 4 – Free from Sin

Chapter 4 – Free from Sin

This is it. My friends have found me. The remaining members of the sixth family wait at the gates, ready for a fight, while my so-called beloved holds me hostage at the upstairs windows. They’ve tried to put my mind under their spell again, but they’ve failed. Yet part of me wants to give in like some kind of demonic Stockholm syndrome. I want to forget the disgusting things done to me and just die. The screams of the demons in my head are like nails on a chalkboard, and keep putting me in the whorish mindset they want me in for a moment before I regain control.

Despite the pressure, I can’t give in. Not now. Not while my friends are approaching. I can see and feel Raziel’s flames as he flies towards us, as if he were a miniature sun. He crashes into the gates with such force that the windows in the house shatter, and I am freed from my captor’s grasp as we both fly into the wall. With them down, I run downstairs and out the door to see my friends fighting to get to me. As I see Raziel, Zahara, and Penelope walk through the flames, a feeling of hope brings a smile to my face, until I’m suddenly grabbed from behind, and a gun is put to my head.

“Don’t come any closer or make any sudden moves. You spent over a week trying to find my prized possession. You don’t want all that effort to be for nothing, do you?”

A flame flies out from the fire that Raziel started and engulfs both my captor and me. The flame empowers me, burns off the blasphemous tattoos on my body, and I can feel my powers return to me, while my captor rolls around the ground in agony until the flames go out.

Looking down at them, I say, “I remember who you are now. You don’t even have a proper name. You’re called Them or They.”

“So…so what? Aren’t you going to have mercy on me now? Give me another chance at life?” They ask.

“No, I won’t. This is the only mercy I’m giving you: pointing out your name and giving you seconds to repent. Just like how no one knows what the true name of the sixth family is, no one will remember you or your name.”

“If you had given in to me, I could’ve given you a better life. With your powers, we could’ve had the city all to ourselves and lived in endless pleasure.”

“I don’t need endless pleasure. I only need God, someone you lack.”

My entire body turns white. Something within me pushes me to touch Them with the tip of my finger, turning Them into white ash. I can hear the demons’ screams again, and so can my friends. With this new power I’ve unlocked, I realize the screams aren’t meant to scare us. They’re afraid we’re too close to God. That’s why they scream and tear at my mind, trying to make me give in to weakness and sin. More members of the sixth family come out of the house in a vain attempt to escape; however, I walk up to each of them in the blink of an eye and touch them all, turning them to white ash.

When they’re all dead, the screams of the demons stop. My body returns to its natural color, and now that our fight is over, my friends and I smile at one another. They’re about to embrace me until a sudden feeling overtakes me, making me throw up and pass out shortly after. When I wake up, I see that I’m in a hospital with my friends sitting around me. Raziel is holding my hand with his head down in prayer, and Penelope and Zahara are praying a rosary.

“Thank you all for rescuing me,” I weakly say.

“Polina!” they all say at once.

My friends talk about how happy they are that I’m alive, what they went through to find me, and how upset they are that I went out on my own to solve what I considered a personal problem.

“Yeah. It was pretty stupid of me. Probably the stupidest mistake of my life,” I admit.

“You could say that,” Zahara says with a chuckle. “Still, we made it out by the end, and the sixth family is pacified for good.”

“Those of the sixth family who aren’t dead are more motivated than ever to make reparations for their actions,” Penelope says.

“You still managed to do God’s will despite your mistake,” Raziel says. “What was that power you showed when your body turned white? I’ve never seen that before.”

“Me neither, and if I knew I had it within me, I would’ve used it soon. I only got it after your flames touched me.”

“It was similar to one of John Elio’s powers that I’ve seen on the internet,” Zahara says.

“It makes sense. John Elio is a hero of mercy, just like Polina,” Penelope says.

“John Elio is on another level to me, like my mentor, L’Obscurité. It’s astonishing that I’d be given such a power by God,” I say.

“It was in your time of greatest need, and who says God can’t give the same power to others He deems worthy? After all you’ve done, you deserve to be rewarded,” Raziel says. “Speaking of which, you deserve a long rest. The doctors say that the weeks of torture have caught up to your body, so you’ll have to stay here in this hospital for about a month…”

“That’s fine with me. I trust that you all will take care of the city while I rest. Is there something else I need to know?”

Raziel looks away from me and seems to be struggling to get the words out of his mouth.

“You’re pregnant,” Zahara bluntly says.

“Huh?” I say.

“We had the doctors see if you were pregnant after all you went through, and they confirmed it,” Penelope says.

“What are you going to do? I’ve heard that children of the sixth family come out with horns on their bodies, making it extra painful to give birth to them.”

“I…I’m not going to have an abortion,” I say.

“I didn’t mean that you should. I just…I don’t know what I meant.”

“It’s fine. The baby shouldn’t have to pay for the sins of whoever the father was, and I’ll make sure he or she will grow up to be better than me. Everything will be fine. Right, Raziel?”

“…yeah. I guess,” he says with his head down.

“Hey…come here. Closer.”

Raziel gets closer to me, and I grab him by the collar and kiss him on the lips to everyone’s surprise.

“Polina?” Raziel says, his face redder than his eyes.

“I’m sorry I never let my feelings known to you. If I did, what happened to me would have never happened, and my first child would’ve been related to you,” I say.

“No, it’s my fault for not doing the same. The blame lies with me more than you. I love you, Polina, and I won’t let what has happened to you stop me from loving you any differently. I’ll raise the child as my own, and will make sure that no one will harm you again.”

“I know, and I love you too, Raziel.”

Raziel and I kiss. Despite everything I’ve been through, I’ve learned three valuable lessons, or rather re-learned them. I re-learned to rely on others for help, that God will never forsake me, and there’s a limit to mercy, as souls have been damned and saved who were guilty of the same sins, with the difference between them being honest repentance. I pray that I will always remember these three lessons, so that I don’t fall into the same sins and test mercy’s limit.

The End

Mercy's Limit: Chapter 3 – Flicking Light and Burning Desire

Chapter 3 – Flicking Light and Burning Desire

Part 1

“Wake up, Polina. Resist the temptation plaguing your mind and remember who you are.”

Lily? Huh? Who’s Lily? I must be daydreaming. It would explain why I’m staring out at Meridian with a strange longing to go to it. Why would I want to? Everything and everyone I want to be around is here, with my beloved. Perhaps, I have the feeling because my beloved and their friends are more concerned about something happening in the city than usual. My beloved told me that several of their friends who usually stop by have to spend more time in the suburbs to capture or kill an incoming threat.

I hope they take care of the threat soon, so more attention can be given to me. I haven’t received as much pleasure as I need, and it’s killing me, and making me feel…strange. Where am I? There it is again. What am I doing here? I need to get back to the Compassionate. Who are they? They’ll save me. I don’t need saving. This isn’t me. God, have mercy on me for what I’ve done.

I’m disgusted by my appearance, and the most recent memories in my head torture me. Forcing the memories to stay in the back of my mind by turning my attention to escaping, I see that the mansion I’m in is heavily guarded by superhumans and their guard dogs. My psychological powers aren’t working as they should, and they feel repressed. My so-called beloved and their friends are away at the moment, so I investigate the mansion further for a possible tunnel underneath it. Criminals and villains like them usually have them as a way to escape capture or execution.]

Going into the basement, I find what looks like a cultist butcher’s room. There are candles, blasphemous symbols all over the room, body parts, and ritual components scattered around the room. In one of the corners of it is a display of four dead bodies.

“They’re beautiful, aren’t they?” my so-beloved says from behind me, scaring me.

“Huh? I…what are you doing here?” I ask.

“Oh, Polina. I knew my spell over you was waning, so I had to do something about it, but first, let’s appreciate some of my best work.”

They grab me by the shoulder, pick me up as I resist them, and carry me over to the glass displays.

“Let go of me!”

“I’m not going to do anything to you, yet. Look at these people. I had people who were experts in corpse preservation keep these bodies in the state they were when they died. They resisted me the most out of every victim I’ve abducted and had my way with. Their names were: Sabor, Jordyn, Ishbel, Allona, and Jerod. Despite them falling to my curse, they kept coming back to their senses, and were in their right minds by the end, a mercy from your God.”

“Your point?”

“There is no point. I just like remembering what I put them through. Perhaps, you’ll end up the same way in the end.”

“I won’t! My friends will find me soon. I can feel it, and I know you’re nervous about their inevitable arrival.”

“Why would you want to go back to that life? It caused you so much stress and grief that it made putting my curse on you fairly easy. Remember, it was you who came to me by yourself to try to help me because you felt guilty that I fell to my sins again despite the help you gave and the other members of the sixth family.”

“You can still change if you stop this. I promise that-”

“I don’t care about changing. The sixth family and I, whom you tried to change, are happy in our sins, and trying to avoid that reality made us miserable. Why don’t you join us in Hell? One of the reasons why you fell to our curse is because you have the same longing for pleasure as we do.”

“Stop it! It’s not true!”

“You’ll see it is.”

I’m chained to the center of the room with an iron collar around my neck, hands, and feet, which are connected to chains that attach to the walls. Other members of the sixth family and their dogs come in from hidden rooms in the basement and surround me.

“It is time to begin the ritual again. As I said the first time to you, this can be a pleasurable experience if you let it. If you don’t, it will be nothing but torture.”

God, please help me. Hurry, my friends, to find me faster because I don’t know if I can make it through this.

 

Part 2

The suburbs are burning because of my angel’s flames. Zahara, Penelope, and I leave no stone unturned as we have used all the resources of our hero association of the Dominion in our search for Polina and the stamping out of the sixth family. I haven’t felt this way since Timeo Severe first found me on the day that I was burning the entire city of Meridian with my flames, but this time, I feel even more justified in using my flames to burn whatever and whoever God wills.

“She’s out there, Raziel. She’s resisting the torture put upon her,” my angel says.

Thank you, my angel. When this first started, I begged my angel to help me find Polina, but he told me it was my responsibility to find her on my own. I feel more responsible for her disappearance than everyone else. If I had professed my love to her, perhaps she wouldn’t have disappeared behind the backs of all her loved ones, but then again, that just feels like a vain guess. At this point, all that matters is finding her.

Today, my divine flames are burning another section of the suburbs, and it seems like we have finally burned the scum from out of their holes. Our search has revealed a vast network of tunnels underneath a farm, which are connected to other seemingly normal farms in the area. My angel’s flames have filled the tunnels with fire, and every ally and member of the sixth family down there has come out, either on fire or just narrowly escaping it, only to find themselves confronting me. My appearance has changed, and closer to that of my angel than ever before. I have two scythes for arms, burning wings, three eyes of fire on my face, and a cloak of flames covering my body.

Behind me, Penelope is interrogating the repentant survivors who had the flames purify their souls, and Zahara is covering me with her sniper from a distance. I’m leading from the front because my flames dampen the demonic power of the sixth family and can free souls from the grip of demons. Though the demons tempt me with their words, they cannot have the final victory over me because God fights with me. The members of the sixth family scream their ear-piercing yell at me, and charge at me like wild animals. They leap around me, trying to cut at me with their claw-like fingers, while those with guns uselessly shoot at me.

“Your girlfriend is already ours,” they say.

“We’ve already had our fill of her body.”

“She’ll never be the same again.”

“She fell to us and is under our spell.”

I cut apart my enemies around me and let the flames of justice burn them and protect me from danger.

“Nothing you can say can dissuade me from finding Polina!” I say. “Your efforts to stop me only show me that I walk the correct path, and there’s a chance she can be saved.”

“There’s no salvation for you or your allies.”

“Your angel allowed Polina to be kidnapped and made you find her yourself, didn’t he?”

“What makes you think she’ll be alive? If she is, she may turn on you.”

The attacks of the possessed intensify along with their screams.

“Begone, demons! Go back to Hell, where you belong, and leave the bodies of the people you possess,” I say.

“They came back to us of their own free will.”

“They belong in Hell just as much as we do.”

“Polina was wrong to be merciful to them. Look at what your God’s mercy has done to her. Everything that’s happened to this city ever since she decided to spare them is her and your God’s fault.”

“There is no such thing as being wrong to show mercy. It is only wrong to show it in different ways. Some of you deserve to die. Others will be spared and allowed to atone, but both have until the moment of their deaths to beg God for mercy and win salvation at the last moment. Here me, you wretched sinners! Take the merciful hand of God to save your souls because these could be your last moments.”

My fires intensify, spew out from the ground, and land on the possessed like hands claiming their prize. Once they die down, they leave charred body marks on the unburnt grass and members of the sixth family with their horns blunted and their original bodies restored to them, and not shaped to be an ambiguous sex. After a few seconds, those who are still living wake up and thank us for saving them. It doesn’t take Penelope using her psychological powers to get the answers we want. They give us the exact address of where Polina is and apologize for what they’ve done to her.

Looking at them, I can’t help but have lingering feelings of hate and the desire to hurt these people for what they did, not only to Polina, but others like Lily and so many men, women, and children. What would putting these people through rehab accomplish? Should I execute them now that they’ve repented and secured their salvation at the moment? Will they lose that salvation again and end up in Hell like those who died? My angel, tell me what I must do.

“Spare them. They have another second chance, and God is allowing them to make amends for their lives, but they will spend the rest of their lives in perpetual penance, and if they turn away in the same manner again, they will die, repentant or not,” my angel explains.

I understand. I thank the repentants for the info, tell them to go back to the rehab centers, and sin no more. With a clear and precise destination in sight, Penelope and Zahara get in a car, and I fly with my wings of fire as we rush to the address we are given. There’s no more time to waste, and I won’t let Polina’s body and soul be defiled by sin any longer.

Mercy's Limit: Chapter 2 – Mind Broken and Spirit Breaking

Chapter 2 – Mind Broken and Spirit Breaking

Part 1

The men and women who guard the house give me the pleasure I crave, but never satisfy it as my beloved does. When they’re gone, I watch the entrance of our house, hoping to see their car coming from the distant city of Meridian, which almost looks like it’s on the horizon. I need more pleasure! The people here can only give me so much of it until they get tired or annoyed, and pleasing myself gets boring after a while. Something is happening in the Meridian that’s making them stay there longer. I hope it’s nothing too serious and something my beloved can solve quickly so they can spend more time with me.

Oh! Here they come, and it looks like they brought company, and the best kind as well. They’ve brought their horned friends from the city. The guards around here are afraid of them, but I’m not because they know how to treat me right, which is exactly what happens. I have more than my fill of ecstasy since they are especially rough with me, and I pass out for several hours afterward. Waking up at night, I get out of bed and sneak downstairs to see them having a party without me with other men and women.

Going up to my beloved, I say, “How could you have this party without me?”

They laugh at me and say, “I thought you had your fill of pleasure for the day.”

“I’m never satisfied.”

Again, they laugh. “That’s good to hear. Nevertheless, let’s see if we can satisfy you tonight.”

What follows is a night of drinking and seemingly never-ending love and pleasure that passes just as soon as it arrives. When I wake up in the early hours of the morning in a bed full of people, I head downstairs and start to clean up the blood, other bodily fluids, and mess on the floor, as it is my duty to my beloved. While cleaning, I can’t help but feel strange. Huh? What is this? Where am I? What am I doing?

 

Part 2

“Are we getting closer, Penelope?” Zahara asks.

“Yes, we are. I can already hear the demonic whispers and screaming that sounds like scratching a chalkboard in my head,” I say.

“Stay strong and keep praying,” Raziel says with his scythe alight with supernatural flame. “God has not abandoned us, and our guardian angels are hard at work, my angel says.”

Despite Raziel’s comforting reminder, the screams still scratch at my mind. Those damnable screams. I hear them when I enter the minds of the members of the sixth family, and when I do, I hear not only one voice but also one or more voices that must be demons, voices that sound like a reverberated male and female voice combined, along with their screams. Right now, the Compassionate and I are exploring the underground city beneath Meridian, where it’s said more members of the sixth family are hiding. We had an escort from the seventh family who kept the sixth family in check, but when we reached the meeting point, we found only their desecrated remains decorating the walls and warnings not to follow them written in blood.

Still, for the sake of justice and finding Polina, we continue forward, following the trails of blood that will probably lead to a trap. We can’t stop now after weeks of effort. Polina would’ve spent days without a moment’s rest to find us, and would’ve found us already knowing her intelligence and unstoppable will. Her pursuit of me is the reason why I’ve changed. When we first met, my grief of being a disposable tool of the government was being used by Lily, and I let that grief aid in the assassination of the previous mayor, his deputy mayor, and so many other innocent people who supported them, but when confronted by Polina, she showed me mercy, helped me overcome my grief, and gave me a chance to make amends.

Zahara was almost manipulated by Lily into doing the same, and is motivated in the same way I am, due to the same kindness shown to her. Even now, she uses that memory to push herself forward and motivates her to find our best friend. Raziel is containing a passionate, burning rage within himself. I can hear the whispers of the guardian angel; only he can see and talk to him, and even though I can’t hear the exact words, I can tell that the angel is doing a lot to keep him calm. I’m certain that when we find her alive and she recovers from what was done to her, he’ll propose.

The whispers and screaming keep bothering me, even as I try to keep my mind off them, so I ask Raziel, “This is where the majority of them used to reside, and you and Polina drove them out of?”

“Yes, it’s where we first met. Under the guidance of the dark hero, L’Obscruite, the aid of my brother, Kane Mundr, and the help of the seventh family, we ended the sixth family’s supernatural hold of Meridian,” Raziel explains.

“It seems like you missed a few,” Zahara comments.

“We didn’t. If anything, the members of the sixth family we are facing are those we converted, but have reverted to their sinful ways. The demonic influence that has scarred their souls isn’t something that can be easily removed. Look at Lily. Even she has to spend most of her days isolated in prayer and penance to keep herself away from sin.”

“Raziel, can you intensify your flame? It’s getting darker in these tunnels,” I say.

The flames on Raziel’s scythe burn brighter. As the light increases, I see some dark things creeping away at the edges of the shadows.

“What was that?” Zahara says with her sniper up and ready to fire.

“Devils or demon-enslaved souls. Did you think they wouldn’t keep a close eye on us?” Raziel asks.

“I expect you both to let me know when you see them and start fighting them because I don’t have any psychological or supernatural powers like you do.”

“Get ready then. The whispers and screams are intensifying,” I say.

Raziel’s flames continue to intensify until they explode from his scythe like a volcano, spreading around the area and homing in on several people around us, killing most, and sparing a few. Among the few, I’m surprised to see one of their leaders surviving, who has more horns on their body than the others, and I say “they” because I’m not completely sure if this person is a man or a woman. This mixed sex appearance is unique to the leaders we’ve come across, and another show of the sixth family’s perversion of God’s original design and making themselves look like their false god.

The leader says, in a distorted male and female voice, “Thank you for freeing me, but my demons will chain my mind to my sins again. You have to kill me before I cause more suffering!”

“We can help you, but you also have to help us,” I say.

“It’s about Polina, isn’t it? She tried to help me…but…but.”

The whispering and screaming of demons is coming back.

“Don’t listen to the demons! Pray and talk to us while we get out of here.”

“You can’t escape the immaterial. Polina tried to help me, but the demons were too strong! They have an eternal hold over my soul, and there’s nothing I can do about it. There’s nothing you can do about their influence. We’ll all be damned.”

The screams of the demons are all we hear and somehow shake the ground, walls, and ceiling. Raziel’s scythe flames go out as the ceiling collapses on us, knocking me out. When I wake up, I don’t see any debris on or around me.

“Zahara? Raziel?” I call out.

I don’t see either of my friends here, and the bodies of the members of the sixth family are gone. There’s nowhere else to go but up to the surface, so I climb up the debris and find myself back on Meridian’s streets. Hearing gunfire in the distance, I run to it, hoping to find one of my friends or some help. For some reason, when I arrive at the source of the noise, I see Zahara shooting people who are already dead, with bullet holes in their heads and bodies.

“Get away from me! I’ve already changed! I’m not the same person I was before!” Zahara says.

“Zahara, who are they?” I ask.

“People I’ve killed. Help me get out of this, Penelope! This has to be some kind of mind trick.”

Right. This has to be some kind of psychological trick. Using my powers, I am immediately met with more demonic scream that feels like fingers tearing at my mind. Regardless of the pain, I fight through it to try to push through this spell; however, I am only met with laughter.

“Do you think your powers have any effect on us?” the demons say.

“We are eons old, while you are a newborn in comparison.”

“You are no saint or angel. You’re not a virtuous woman of any caliber.”

“Polina thought she could save the sixth family, but we reminded them that they’re beyond saving. They’re ours, and you are, as well.”

I’m not. I know that. Remembering Raziel’s advice, I offer up my pain as penance for my sins, the sins of others, and those in Purgatory. This makes the demons stop laughing and go back to screaming. The air around me feels like it’s vibrating, and I feel like my entire body and head are going to explode. Flames start to engulf my body, but they don’t hurt me. In fact, the flames empower me and allow me to shatter this illusion. A loud glass breaking sound breaks my concentration, and I see that Zahara, Raziel, and I are back in the underground city in the area we entered it in. Raziel’s body is engulfed in flames, and Zahara is drenched in sweat and struggling to stand up.

“It…it looks like we haven’t gone anywhere. Did anything we went through even happen?” Zahara asks.

“It happened on a spiritual plane,” Raziel says as the flames on his body die down. “Let’s go see our escorts. Hopefully they’re alive in reality.”

We go to the meet-up location and thankfully find them alive. We explain to them what happened, and they don’t seem all too surprised.

“The powers of the sixth family are terrifying, yet not absolute,” one of the members of the seventh family explains. “It is only through God we can beat them, and God is the reason why their powers are limited.”

“Never give in to doubt or weakness, and if, or rather, when you do, don’t allow your failures to drown you in despair,” the other seventh family member says. “That’s how they had control over me, and as a former member of the sixth family, I can confidently say that they can be redeemed, and aren’t invincible.”

Continuing, we find a strange sight. The area that Raziel previously lit up in our shared hallucination, but the allies and members of the sixth family here are either already charred corpses or writhing in silent agony with flames burning on their bodies.

“Impressive. What happened on the spiritual plane carried over to reality. God has blessed you with a truly good friend, Raziel,” the seventh family member says.

We all thank God, each of us grateful that we don’t have to go through another shared hallucination. Interrogating the repentant members of the sixth family, we find that they’re keeping Polina and others they consider valuable in the suburbs of Meridian. They don’t know her exact location, but the information we do get is invaluable now that we have a general area to search. We’re so close, yet so far, and I pray that we’re able to find Polina soon. If what we went through is a taste of their true power, Polina must be going through the same daily.

Mercy's Limit: Chapter 1 – Loss of Self and Loss of Self-Control

Chapter 1 – Loss of Self and Loss of Self-Control

Part 1

“Polina. Walking around the house half-naked, and making me breakfast early in the morning again?” my beloved says.

“Of course. I know it’s what you like,” I say. “I know you love seeing me in this light blue, see-through apron and eggs in the morning before you go to work.”

My beloved holds me from behind and smells me.

“Your red hair is a mess, and your tears still stain your face from last night,” they say.

“That’s all your fault. Don’t blame me for it.”

“You’re right. I shouldn’t.”

“What you should do is reward me.”

“For doing what you usually do?”

“Or you could punish me for asking for more of a good thing. Both are the same to me.”

“Hmm. I think I will.”

My beloved has their way with me on the kitchen floor. By the end of what feels like hours, I’m unable to move, and the ecstasy of it paralyzes my head. Like every morning, I lie on the floor as my beloved fixes their suit and looks at me, an artist satisfied with their work.

“Remember, to have dinner for me when I return. Also, if you miss my touch, the guards outside will satisfy your craving, but clean yourself up if you have the dogs pleasure you. I’d rather not touch something ravaged by an animal. I have standards, after all,” my beloved says before walking away and out the door.

“Yes…my beloved,” I say, convulsing on the floor. “I can’t wait…for when you come back…”

Part 2

“Where is she?! Where is Polina?!” I yell out at the retreating criminal scum while firing the sniper attached to my left arm.

My shots are more unfocused than usual. I try shooting off arms and legs, but end up missing and killing my targets more than I’d like. When all the retreating criminals are dead or injured, I put my boot on the throat of one of them and reiterate my question, which I’ve been yelling at them ever since I ambushed them in this alleyway.

“Zahara, calm down!” Penelope says as she and Raziel catch up with me.

“I’ll calm down when these scum answer my question,” I say. “Out with it! Where is Polina?”

The criminal under my boot laughs and says, “They could use you three.”

“What do you mean?”

“Heh, a woman like you? One who wears hot pink, has pink and black hair, and fine, brown skin. Oh, you’re in high demand, and you two,” the creepy criminal says as she turns her head to Raziel and Penelope. “People like weird women like you, Penelope, with blonde and purple hair, a purple eye, and a spiral for another eye. Some men will make you a woman, Raziel, and would love to pull on that blonde hair of yours and look into your fiery eyes and make you their bit-”

I blow the criminal’s head into pieces with my sniper.

“Piece of shit,” I say as I move on to questioning the next criminal.

“Zahara! We aren’t going to get answers out of these people if you keep killing them!” Penelope says.

“Fine. Since you’re an expert in this, you do it!” I say as I walk away.

The leader of our group, the Compassionate, and our good friend, Polina, has been missing for over a week, and we’ve been scouring the city to find her. Nothing has come up so far, until now, as the group of kidnappers we’re investigating may be behind her disappearance. Penelope is using her psychological powers to interrogate one criminal after another and seems to be getting frustrated with it because of their resistance to her. I’m beyond frustrated by this situation, and what frustrates me more is looking at Raziel, who hasn’t said as much as I expected to, even since Polina first disappeared. Even now, he blankly stares at Penelope, as if he doesn’t have a single thought in his mind.

“Hey!” I say as I snap my fingers in Raziel’s face. “You awake in there?”

“Yes,” he plainly says.

I slap him.

“Don’t answer me like that! We’re after Polina. I know you love her, so why don’t you act like it for once and stop being so monotone?”

Flames spew out from Raziel’s eyes, mouth, and hands as he yells out. The flames engulf some of the dead bodies and living criminals, turning them to ash, while also keeping the surrounding area intact, and making some of the other criminals alive, but in agony.

“I’m just as upset as you are, and trying to keep my mind focused on the task at hand so we can find her faster and don’t make an emotional mistake that would jeopardize our search for her!”

“Raziel! What you’re doing is working!” Penelope says to our surprise.

As the flames calm down around us, so do the criminals who were wrapped in its embrace. The one that Penelope was questioning looks like someone who had just woken up from a nightmare, and yet, she thanks us.

“I was under the control of horrible people! They made me do disgusting and sadistic things to people and had the same things done to me, just because I wanted to make a living!” the criminal says.

“You wanted to make a living as a criminal, which is no living at all,” Penelope corrects.

“Whatever.”

“Your indifference to your sins is how those people were able to claim your mind since sin already has dominion over your soul.”

“Okay, I get it. I’ll change, I swear it!”

The other criminals give the same story of a group of people with horns on their bodies using their powers, and the criminals’ want for money and possessions to make them do their dirty work. One of the most surprising things we hear is that these same horned people were responsible for what happened to Lily, a nun turned villain who used Penelope and me to kill the previous mayor, his deputy mayor, and many others. Since we’re already in the center for rehabilitating criminals and villains, and where Lily is located, Raziel, Penelope, and I immediately go to question her in her cell. The ex-nun is finishing her daily prayers, and the horns on her body are almost non-existent.

“Did you tell anyone about the horned people?” I ask her.

“Aside from the role they had in corrupting my life, no. I didn’t think it was necessary. I was so focused on fixing myself and confident that Polina and you, the Compassionate, would find them and bring them to justice without my help,” Lily says.

“Well, we need your help now. No one knows where Polina is, and the sixth family has something to do with her disappearance.”

“She’s missing? Oh no. They’re probably corrupting her the same way they did to me. You have to hurry and find her!”

“That’s what we’re trying to do!” Raziel yells out before calming himself down. “Everything you can tell us will help, so please, tell us what you know.”

“I…I can point out to you where some of their hideouts were. Besides that, the only other thing I can tell you is to guard your mind and soul. They take advantage of your weakness to take control of you.”

“We’ll deal with them when we encounter them. I’m sure my psychological powers and Raziel’s fires can counteract them,” Penelope says.

Lily takes one look at us and decides, “Okay. I’ll pray for you more and do penances, so that you’ll be able to overcome your coming challenges. Show me a map of the city.”

We give Lily a map of Meridian, and she points out where the sixth family would conduct their dark, corrupting rituals and human trafficking. She then blesses us before we leave and expresses her hopes for Polina’s safety.

“If I could be saved, I’m sure Polina can be as well,” Lily says.

I hope that’s the case, and Polina can bear with the Hell she’s going through. She’s already gone through so much because of recent events, the drama in becoming mayor, the fight between two groups of cops, and then some in between. It’d be enough to break anyone, but I’m confident that if anyone is strong enough to make it out the other end, it’d be Polina. I share this sentiment with Penelope and Raziel, who agree with me. We then go to each location, scout it out, and find people in most of them, with some of the others being abandoned.

The Compassionate and I handle this the same way we’ve been doing. If I can offer sniper support, I do so from a distance, but if I can’t, I head in with Polina and Raziel. Many of the locations are strategic, and some are underground, making them ideal for the sixth family’s secret meetings. In these areas, we find desecrated corpses, leftover symbols and materials from blasphemous rituals, and what feels like a haunted building because of the tempting whispers I hear. After we defeat the scum, Raziel uses his flames to purify the area, and the whispers scream, then go silent.

We don’t find out much, and most members and allies of the sixth family kill themselves, but the ones we do manage to take alive and bring to their senses tell us about other locations the sixth family deals in and that they, in fact, have Polina alive somewhere. Her location is a guarded secret known by few. Still, it’s a relief to know she’s alive and gives me hope that we’ll eventually find her. Hang in there, girl. We’re coming to save you. I still owe you for changing my life.

My first book of the year is done and out today!

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A protest of police is leaving Meridian without some of its most valued protectors. Two of the opposing groups are nicknamed by the public. One is called the Pigs, who want reasonable pay and better guns and armor to beat the superhuman criminals, while the other, called the Dogs, argue with their colleagues that they should deal with how things are or find a different job. Meanwhile, the new mayor of Meridian, Polina, is overseeing this all and hopes to bring it to a quick resolution, knowing that a new threat will come along to exploit a distracted city.

Dogs and Pigs: Chapter 3 – Forcing a Resolution

Chapter 3 – Forcing a Resolution

Polina and I have been hard at work interrogating and putting down the cybernetic criminals that have been attacking the city with our psychological powers. The information we found out revealed to us what we feared, that a group of criminals would target the city while they were distracted by the police drama. We also found out where the leaders are residing. They plan to attack the city hall from the underground, and move to stop them, and we do by catching them in the act, just as they’re starting to plant explosives under the foundation. I manipulate them by getting into their heads and forcing them to fight each other. While I’m in their heads, I see their ambitions to take out most of the police force.

They planned to do major damage to the city by taking out its police and possibly killing Polina and the Compassionate along the way. They had hoped to blow up City Hall and send another army of robots to attack us while they set up their base in the underground city, but since we’ve stopped them here and have the location of the rest of their friends, we’ll make sure all their plans are stopped here and now. With the rest of the criminals dead or incapacitated, we take them into custody and send a squad of superhumans to take care of the rest. During this whole thing, Polina was upset with herself and the two police groups, and I didn’t need to read her mind to tell that. She was rushing her interrogations, making people bleed from their eyes and head, and causing people to die painful deaths from the inside. Even after everything is done, I can still tell she is mad and helping everyone she can to take her mind off her anger.

When the injured are taken care of, and we’re able to sit down back at city hall, I’m about to say something to Polina, but she says something to me first, that being, “You were right, Penelope.”

“Huh?” I say.

“We should’ve used our powers to calm things down. If we did, then these criminals wouldn’t have attacked us, and all this death and tragedy wouldn’t have happened.”

“I thought you said it would’ve made things worse?”

“At this point, I would’ve taken any other problem than this.”

Polina and I suddenly get a call from Raziel that Tanimura and Munakata are at it again, arguing about what just happened and what could’ve been done to prevent it, with each side’s officers backing their side up and arguing with the other.

“Stubborn bastards,” Polina spits out. “We’ll be there soon.”

Polina and I get in a police car, and she speeds us to the Dominion office, where the drama is happening. During the drive, I see an anger in Polina’s eyes I don’t think I’ve ever seen before. When we get to the scene, we see Raziel and Zahara trying to get the two groups to back down from one another, but they don’t listen until Polina screams at them to stop and uses her psychological powers on them.

“Go ahead and do it, Penelope. We’re more than justified in using your powers on them now,” Polina commands.

I do as she says and use my psychological powers on both police groups to force them to stop fighting. In their minds, I see they’re beyond upset at one another and at themselves for what has happened.

Polina scolds both groups by saying, “This is beyond disgusting behavior from both of you. The bodies of the dead are still on the streets, and you’re here arguing with one another. Tanimura, I want you back patrolling the streets and giving your people a break, and you should expect more from the people who write your checks and arm you. Munakata, I want you to stop this useless protesting. I’m getting what you people need, and causing all this drama to try to make things go faster is what left us open to being attacked today. I expect you to do as I say, or I’ll make sure you get thrown in the same jail as the criminals we faced today. Do you all understand me?”

A majority of them agree with the rest, too scared to speak. There’s no arguing that Polina is right to do what she did in this situation, but still, even I’m a bit frightened by this turn in her personality. The police officers apologize to one another and Polina and promise not to cause any more unnecessary trouble for the city before leaving the scene to help clean up the mess the city is in. Later in the day, the news reports about what happened, and includes what Polina did to the police, which has become national news. Most people in the public say she did the right thing, some say she should’ve done it sooner, and others say she shouldn’t have done it at all.

The next day comes, and we all get back together at city hall, where it’s ominously quiet and not much is happening. Raziel comes up to Zahara and me and says we should comfort Polina, who still seems to be upset. We both agree and enter Polina’s office.

Polina quickly lifts her head from the desk as if pretending not to be lying down, and says, “Yes? Is something wrong?”

“Nothing is. That’s why you need to take a break,” Zahara says.

“I can’t take a break. There’s still so much to do after what happened.”

“They’ll always be more work to do, but there’s a time and place to do it in,” Raziel says. “If God wants us to get it done, it’ll be done, and right now, you need to rest after all that’s happened.”

“Polina, please,” I say. “We’re worried about you. What happened yesterday was unlike anything I’ve ever seen from you.”

Polina sighs and turns her chair to look out the window.

“Okay…okay. I guess you’re all right. I have been letting all this work get to me.”

That was easier than I thought it’d be. Still, when we take Polina out for lunch and to walk through the city, stopping at parks and shops, she looks like her mind is back at work, something that all of us see.

When we stop at a restaurant for dinner, I say, “You haven’t stopped thinking about work, have you?”

“Yeah. It’s still bothering me,” Polina says.

“Then you need to take another day off since your mind is still at work,” Zahara says.

“No, I’m fine. Being with you all has given my mind some needed rest, and I’ve come to some conclusions on things. I need to be more active, taking situations into my own hands so that what happened doesn’t happen again. I was too soft on those officers before, and look where it got us, and I do need to take more breaks. I get so focused on work that I miss the forest for the trees. I tire out my mind, and it makes me make stupid mistakes. I also neglect the people closest to me because of it, so I’m sorry to have worried you and ignored your advice.”

“It’s okay. We just want to make sure you’re not pushing yourself too hard,” I say.

“It’s only going to be okay if she treats us to drinks with that mayoral salary of hers,” Zahara jokes.

“Polina, we’re the Compassionate, the merciful arm of the Dominion in Meridian, a team that makes the city a better place to live in, and we all have each other’s backs, so if you need anything, we’re here for you. I’m here for you,” Raziel says.

Polina smiles and thanks us. We have a nice rest of the night. Even so, I sense the same thing Polina does, the looming presence of future challenges that will test us in ways we’ll find uncomfortable or impossible to overcome. It feels like my life has been nothing more than challenge after challenge ever since the government experimented on me to give me my powers, but after meeting Polina and seeing everything she’s done, I’m confident that we’ll make it through whatever comes our way next, even if it doesn’t end well, just like the situation we’ve gone through. I’m sure that, in the end, everything will be okay.

 

The End