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.