No Mercy: A Darker Continuation Read online

  “Get… off me,” Sade whispered, his words breathless.

  Fear helped Mercy pry her eyes open. Her vision swirled on two blurry figures. One standing one… sitting. They both seemed naked. Terror sparked through her at why they would be.

  “It’s a sign really!” Abraham’s excitement rose with his voice. “Just like with Abraham and Isaac. He was supposed to sacrifice his own son you know, but it was a test,” he hissed then giggled. “Abraham passed and so have I. I was prepared to give the offering required, and look,” he squealed in utter joy. “The Lord has provided a ram to take the place of our sweet lamb. God is good.”

  Terror pumped through Mercy at the sickness behind the tirade.

  “The clouds in your head will soon pass. Do we have a name for our little ram?”

  Mercy watched through slitted eyes as Abraham stood before the man who had attacked them, face between both hands.

  “He looks like a Rick to me. Is your name Rick?”

  “Fuck you,” the man barely croaked, sounding half dead.

  Abraham’s laughter boomed with a wheeze before he angled his head toward Mercy. She gasped at the realistic skeleton mask staring at her. “Perfect response from a ram, don’t you all agree?” He regarded the man again and tapped his swollen, bloody face.

  Mercy looked around again, her sight clearing. The horror grew at seeing the nightmare around them. They sat tied to chairs in a circle, an old wooden table between them. The silver objects on top made her look away. She couldn’t handle the confirmation of what she already knew in her gut. Basement. They were in the basement.

  “Alright then.” Abraham clapped once and rubbed his hands together. “I see no point in waiting any longer.”

  Mercy fixed her gaze on the monster, her eyelids no longer closing on their own. He was naked and aroused, his manhood swinging and bouncing as he moved around comfortably. She didn’t want to look at Sade or Bo, and yet needed to. She was afraid of what she’d find and what it’d do to her already strained psyche.

  A chill hit her body and she realized her skin was exposed. Looking down, she saw her own nakedness. Heart hammering, she looked quickly around. They were all naked.

  Her stomach burned with the need to heave. There was something different about the horror of it and tears surged. She gasped in effort to keep the weakness back. She couldn’t break. God, please, no breaking.

  “First of all, I’d like to welcome you all to Mount Sinai. Right here in this room, God has transcended—through me.” He palmed his naked chest. “Entered this broken realm to perform this… transbobulation.” A shot of hysterical laughter followed as he slapped his leg. “I’m kidding, it’s not really called that but it’s a funny name.”

  Giving in to the desperate need, Mercy allowed her gaze to crawl along the floor to where Sade sat on her right.

  “It’s important to maintain your humor in these dark times, you know what I mean?” he said in all seriousness. “Father Ass taught me that—not the Father Ass. This Father Ass was a genuine ass who loved all things ass—” more laughter shot out “—if you get my drift. He was one of those, yes. That’s not what I am, I hope you know. I find the concept truly insulting and wasteful. A man of the cloth is more than his flesh.” He flicked his hard penis, making it bounce. “I used to wish the Lord had chosen me to clean his house, but it’s the children he’s assigned me to.”

  She finally made it to Sade’s feet and her breaths came too quickly as she stared. Nails stuck out of the top of them. Oh God. Blood leaked from the large heads and pooled on the floor around them. He’d nailed him to the floor. Mercy’s breaths turned shallow until she grew dizzy. He’d nailed him to the fucking floor.

  “I’m going to keep this very simple. Black and white as it actually is. And don’t worry, I’ll let you know what I’m going to do before I do it,” he said easily. “And most importantly boys and girls, if you must address me during this process, you will do so by my ceremonial name—Purgatory.”

  Mercy realized she couldn’t move her legs. Or feel them. Her gaze swerved to Bo’s hanging head on her left then shot down to his feet. Sickness gripped her stomach at seeing them nailed to the floor too.

  “I just find that guiding the children as I go is the most merciful way to conduct this. I’m too soft, I know. But I’ve learned that a little tenderness goes a long, long, way. Who wants ‘oh my God, what the hell’ moments? Not I.”

  Her teary gaze slid to the man’s feet across from her and found the same nails through his feet.

  “Starting with our ram—and thank you Lord again, for such a miraculous provision,” he said reverently at the ceiling before gesturing to the man. “I’m going to sacrifice him and use his blood to purify the threshold that the Lord shall perch upon in my spirit.” He slid his hands along his body in an elegant show.

  Mercy’s gaze fixed on Abraham’s hand now hovering along the torture instruments on the table. He paused and picked up a dark knife with jewels on the handle, wagged it briefly, then waltzed over to the man, humming as he went.

  “There is no need to torment or torture the ram.” He stood behind the man, stroking his greasy gray hair with one hand. “Simple. Black and white.” Abraham placed a hand on his forehead and forced it back against his chest.

  The man grunted and fought his hold. “Please… please don’t,” he rasped.

  “Don’t look!” Sade whispered harshly.

  Mercy’s eyes refused to disengage as Abraham brought the blade to the man’s straining neck.

  “Black. And. White.” He slid the knife slowly across the skin and the jolting man began to gurgle and choke on his blood.

  “Ah, damn!” Abraham hurried to the table and returned with a dirty looking cup. He pulled the thrashing man’s head back again and caught the spurts of blood. “That’s okay,” he said softly, his scary mask angled at her. “Any of the life force is fine.” He looked back down at the man, his breaths sounding excited behind the mask. “Don’t fight it little ram.” He gripped his head tight as the man battled for his life. “Swing loooooow, sweet chariot… comin’ for to carry me home.” Abraham’s soprano voice mixed with the nightmarish sounds of gasping and choking, making Mercy’s stomach sicker.

  “Oh don’t cry little darling,” Abraham cooed. Mercy realized her tears were pouring. “He’s a hero, really.” The man finally went still and Abraham let the limp head slowly fall forward before leaning and kissing it. “He spared our little Bo-Peep.” Abraham raised the cup in the air with both hands and muttered some words before downing the blood. He strolled over to the table and set the cup gingerly down then picked up a pure white cloth and dabbed at his mouth over the hole in the skeleton mask.

  “And now… the cleansing can begin,” he sang lightly. The red tint of bloodied teeth showed from behind the mask as he looked around at them. “Starting with…” he swirled his finger then pointed at Bo. “My heart is saying the little lamb.”

  “Me first,” Sade gasped. “Please. Me first! Me first!” he roared and jerked.

  “Oh no, no, no.” Abraham clicked his tongue. “That’s not how it works, Johnny. As the spirit leads, that’s out of my hands, I’m sorry.”

  “Please,” Mercy begged.

  The skeleton mask jerked to her. “You don’t even know what I’m going to do and you’re all ‘please, please,’” he wailed. “Show a little faith, honey. I’m not a monster. God is not a monster.”

  “W-what are you going—”

  “Glad you asked that.” He cut her off with a jab of his finger then hurried to the table and picked up a small silver scalpel. He held it up for her to see. “Two rivers. One flowing out…” he began to dance and twirl before her, waving the blade through the air. “…and one flowing in.” His sick dance ended at Bo who whimpered and thrashed his upper body around.

  “Stop, stop!” Mercy cried. “Don’t, please, please don’t!”

  “Do me!” Sade roared. “I fucking hate God! Do me, I hate that
sick fuck as much as I hate you! I will never be clean no matter how much you make me bleed, you sick fuck! Your God is a prick just like you, he’s weak and sick and can’t clean a fucking thing!”

  Abraham stormed to Sade and aimed the blade at him. “Take it back,” he roared right in his face. “Take it back or I cut her tongue out!”

  Sade’s body heaved with visible hatred twisting his face as he looked at Abraham for many seconds. His mouth trembled with fury and disgust before he gritted, “I. Take it. Back.”

  “That’s. What I. Thought!” Abraham nodded a few times then hurried back to Bo. “He took it back, didn’t he?” The man used the blade to turn Bo’s face, hissing like he’d not seen the hook in his cheek. “That looks so nasty. And painful.”

  Dread tightened the knot in her guts. There was no escape. There was only surviving somehow. They had to survive.

  “You know…” Abraham let his face go. “I’d remove it, but there is a window of opportunity involved in this process. So it will have to wait. Now…” He straddled Bo’s knees and grabbed a handful of his hair from behind, tugging his head back a little. “First, I’m going to carve a river from here…” he touched the blade to the right side of his head then traced along his body, “…down to the sole of your foot. That will be the river going out, the sewer drainage if you will, draining all that nasty sin congregating in your soul. And then…” He aimed the blade at his left foot. “Starting from your sole…” He moved the knife back up his body. “I’ll carve a second river all the way up to your pretty little head.” He angled his ugly mask their way. “River of sin out. River of life in.” He turned back to Bo. “Simple, see? Black and white. Sin out, righteousness in. All clean.”

  “We’re here, Bo,” Mercy gasped. “Focus. Focus your mind.”

  Bo’s fingers strained white where he gripped the edge of the chair while Abraham wasted no time and put his blade on his starting point. Beginning to lightly hum another hymn, he slowly dragged the surgical instrument down.

  Bo growled and gasped.

  “Focus!” Mercy yelled when he let out a small sob.

  His body shook as the monster continued to hum and cut so very slowly. The blade reached his hip and Bo screamed.

  “Oops,” Abraham hissed in apology. “May have gone too deep. Easy sailing from this point out though.” He lowered to his knees and continued. “Unless that shot is wearing off, then maybe not. Think it might be, since he’s feeling it here. Ah well,” he muttered, dark gaze angled intently on the job before him. “No pain, no gain.”

  Once he got to the bottom of his foot, the maniac stood. “Now we let the waste bleed out.” Abraham held the handle of the knife between his teeth and took hold of his penis. Yanking it a few times, he aimed it at Bo and muttered around the knife, “Eye for an eye. Tooth for a tooth. Waste for waste.” He urinated along the incision letting out moans and wails as though it burned him as much as it did Bo who screamed and fought to jerk away from it.

  Sade roared and pulled uselessly at the restraints, and Mercy felt his agony and hunger to kill.

  “It burns,” Abraham’s words rasped as he wagged his tick shaped body until he was done. “That should do it.” The skeleton mask shot from Mercy to Sade then back to Bo as he took the knife from between his teeth and lowered to the floor for the second river.

  “God doesn’t want this,” Mercy whispered.

  The monster began cutting at his foot and Bo’s screams escaped between his growls. “Sorry if I go too fast,” Abraham whispered, ignoring Mercy. “I’m just so excited about this.”

  Bo jerked around when the blade cut along his upper thigh.

  “Be still and take it!” Sade growled.

  “He’s right,” Abraham muttered with a carefree tone. “All this dancing around isn’t helping in this delicate operation.”

  “Bo, think about something,” Mercy hurried. “Remember fishing? I’m going to show you how to fish.”

  “Ohhh, that sounds like a lot of fun,” Abraham said happily before hissing when Bo let go of a sharp scream. “That hip does it every time. You need some meat on those bones young man.”

  Bo roared in response, before screaming, “You sick fuck!”

  “Don’t say that,” Abraham warned with a near delicate whisper. “Not that. I don’t like that. I’m your redemption, I’m not sick. Now Father Johnson, he was sick. Putting his cock into little boy’s asses for funsies. I won’t have any part of that unless it’s sanctioned by a higher authority. See, Kane is a lot like me, he’s a rebel with a cause, disbanded from the family of which he was born. He understands purpose and reason even though he misunderstands my purpose and reasons. Technically, we’re on the same side. He wouldn’t agree but see…” He stopped cutting Bo to aim the knife at Sade. “That so-called prophetic dream Father Peters had that put me in line to be an eternal guardian of the abyss?” His scary mask shook. “I called bullshit on that even at ten. Then I had my own prophetic dream.” He gave a low, eager chuckle. “Ohhhh, Father Peters didn’t like that. Of course he didn’t.” He went back to work, putting a hand around Bo’s neck while cutting along his side. “He didn’t think I was holy enough to have dreams and visions. The nerve, right?” he muttered, focused on his demented job. “He especially hated my given name. Blasphemy!” Abraham hissed, then chuckled. “He wasn’t saying that when God made him my first assignment, now was he. What a champ. Now that cleansing was messy. I’d never known a person could live that long without that much blood. But the Spirit assured me it was fine, so I pushed on in obedience. It was my first true act of faith and not too shabby for a lad of sixteen. And lo, the man did survive. Of course he’d live the rest of his days blind and mute and unable to… you know… enjoy the little boys the way he loved. Almost done little lamb,” he said to Bo’s increased whimpers.

  “Father Peters was very dirty. He’d have spent eternity in hell if it weren’t for God’s merciful purging while here on Earth.” He jerked that mask to them. “Contrary to what they think, there is no purging in the afterlife. Ohhh-ho-ho-hooo they did not like that one. But God told me so. This is it. Right here, right now. This is the only purgatory and his servants are like his little scrubbing bubbles.” He giggled and nodded before standing back abruptly. “And we. Are. Done!”

  He put the knife on the table behind him and turned. “And now for the transfusion.” His words wisped in excitement as he planted his feet apart before Bo. “God, yes,” he whimpered, grabbing the base of his erection and stroking the length with his other hand. His masked breaths huffed loud and shallow as he yanked on himself with hisses, gasps, and grunts. He cupped his balls and squeezed, letting out a lusty half roar as he inched his way closer to Bo. “Fucking hot, so fucking hot when the spirit enters the tree of life. Ohhhh, are you ready?”

  Abraham let out a long eager hiss. “I’m going to rain righteousness all over you, little lamb.” He moved close enough to rub the tip of himself along the incision. “Ohhh yeah,” he whispered heatedly. “Now it’s coming.” He yanked on his penis faster. “It’s fucking coming!” he roared, bobbing his body and squirting semen in the open cut.

  Bo screamed and thrashed until the horrific sound tore Mercy’s mind and heart apart. She screamed with him, screamed with all she had. Then Sade’s thunderous roar joined in until the room filled with the deafening mixture—humiliation, agony, fear, pain. But it was terror’s dark intentions yet to come that crawled through the stifling basement and raced like black spiders all over her skin and mind. Please God. Please help us.

  Chapter Four

  Mercy became aware that Abraham was now licking along the incision. “Has to be properly mixed. An even penetration.” His gaspy tone said he loved this part and the taste even more. Mercy’s stomach revolted finally and emptied onto the floor next to her with loud gagging and coughing.

  “I’ll take that as ignorant applause,” Abraham said, strolling to the table while Mercy fought the urge to vomit again. “And now t
o seal the doorways.” He brought several things to the floor next to Bo, and Mercy’s breath came faster as she tried to decipher his intentions.

  “What are you doing?” she couldn’t stop from asking.

  “Oh!” he said. “Cauterizing is the quickest and most complete closure. I call it the triple C: Concise, complete, closure.” He poured alcohol on a white cloth and began swiping in long strokes along the incision, making Bo scream.

  She gasped as low constant sobs escaped her. “Can’t you give him something for the pain, Abraham?”

  The skull face snapped to her.

  “Purgatory,” Sade gritted.

  “P-Purgatory,” she gasped.

  The skull face remained on her for agonizing seconds before going back to what he was doing. “Pain, my dear, happens to be a probiotic against sin.” Again he cleansed in long, rough strokes while Bo growled and panted with his eyes clenched tight. “Without pain, one can’t come to the crossroad of repentance. Without pain, we continue to do that which kills the spirit. And I already removed more than I should have.”

  He lifted up some kind of pen tool and clicked a button that brought a light buzzing. “This here is a blessed little tool, got it for a great deal on E-bay, something like thirty-five bucks. I just love a great bargain. It uses electricity to do the job.” He pointed to the handle. “Set at sixteen, it heats the flesh to the perfect temperature, melting the surface together for that concise, complete closure that we want and need.”

  Bo began breathing faster as he approached his temple with the tool. Mercy sobbed as the maniac hummed and burned his incision closed while Bo fought to be strong and take it, his screams and groans escaping when it was too much. Mercy no longer cared that she cried, she wailed nonstop as the smell of burning skin made her gag and dry heave through her sobs.

  “Goddamn, Bo!” Sade roared. “Fucking take it! You take that fucking pain, you hear me?”