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