Mercy

by Lucian Bane

  She hurried out of the room and to the basement when she was sure the coast was clear. She searched around the scary place and finally spotted something that could work. But dared she?

  When doing things that are hard, but necessary, never quit. See it through.

  Her father’s mantra decided it.

  She would hide and learn exactly what it was that Sade had this woman do to him twice a year.

  Now, to appear like she’d left and wasn’t there. Oh, she knew what to do. Just like he’d done. Hide her car at the parking garage and jog back. Thank you Mr. Sade for that idea.

  An hour later, Mercy sat just outside the basement door, listening for the sound of him returning with his well-paid whore. She’d nearly fallen asleep twice before the dreaded sound finally came and sent her bolting up and carefully entering the basement. Hurrying to her hiding place behind the desk, she prayed he didn’t need anything at it. Worst case scenario, he’d find her and… well. He’d find her.

  The hope that he’d changed his mind died when he heard mumbling. The door to the basement opened and she heard the lock engage. “Worried about company?” a sultry female voice asked, turning Mercy’s stomach.

  If he answered her, it wasn’t audible.

  “You know the drill,” she muttered. “Get undressed.”

  “Yes ma’am.” The low rumble of perfect submission made her heart race.

  Mercy swallowed at finally seeing him. He stood naked next to that weird round thing on the wall. The one that looked like a human-sized dartboard with the restraints. Dear God would she be able to watch this?

  He faced Mercy, blindfolded, and stretched out his arms. Mercy’s breath froze at seeing him naked again. So much muscle. Her heart hammered in her chest now. He reminded her of that body in the biology books, the perfect one. Except for his penis. That reminded her of that horse she’d seen in the field when she was nine. She noticed something along his inner thighs, white exact lines. Scars? They looked like marks you make when you take score. Judging by the number of them, the game was nightmarishly long.

  Mercy’s gut clenched when she finally got a look at the woman. Dressed in all shiny black—pants, top, and high-heel boots. What did she think this was, the Matrix? She approached Sade and guided his arms into the restraints, then secured them, her long pony tail swishing around as she went about her jolly business. Bound at the wrist, elbow, and shoulder, the woman then strapped his legs the same. And wide open. Lord. Mercy’s eyes couldn’t leave his giant manhood, standing straight out. Her tummy felt weird and tingly at the sight. He was terrifying and maybe… fascinating.

  Mercy watched the woman put something around his neck, speeding up the butterflies in her stomach. A chain hung from it all the way to the floor. Mercy fought to see what she did at his groin now. Sade made grunting, straining noises that scared and angered her.

  The woman stood and walked to a table nearby and did something, but Mercy couldn’t look, she was too busy trying to discern the contraption she’d attached to his groin. It wrapped his penis in some kind of harness, covering his scrotum, upper legs and waist. She realized the thing around his neck was now attached to that. Her heart raced at panic speeds imagining what it was for.

  Pain.

  The idea that he had to do this just to have sexual satisfaction brought a sob in her throat. She bit her lip hard, blinking back burning tears. “Groomed by my father and his whores since I was seven.”

  Jesus.

  The woman returned, holding some kind of… holy mother of God she had better not hit him with that. It appeared to be a club bearing long black straps with metal tips.

  “Are you ready baby?” she heard the woman ask.

  Mercy watched Sade’s body heave without answer.

  The woman stooped and took hold of that chain leading to the contraption strapped to him then swung that thing in her hand and struck his chest. “I asked you a question, you piece of shit.”

  Blood trickled from the holes she’d made on his chest and he stifled a groan before growling, “Yes!”

  Mercy clamped her hand over her mouth as the woman slowly wrapped that chain around her hand and yanked a little, making him groan hard.

  Mercy couldn’t tell if it hurt or felt good, she hated this.

  “Do it,” he rasped, his head turning right. “Fucking do it!” he roared. “Do it to me!”

  She yanked the chain hard with a yell and swung the cruel whip. She flicked the chain between yanks and it made his manhood jolt around, bringing another long groan encased in pain. She whipped him and tugged the rope and Mercy realized it was strangling him. His head thrashed and every muscle bulged and strained, but it was the blood the woman drew with her next lashing that launched Mercy from her hiding place.

  “Stooooooop!” she screamed.

  The woman jerked around as Mercy ran and stood before him, blocking the way. “Who the fuck?”

  Mercy turned in panic at hearing him choking still. “Undo him,” she screamed, fighting with the hellish ties, “he can’t breathe! He can’t breathe!”

  “I have a job I’m paid very well to do.”

  “Ta-bitha,” Sade barely managed.

  She turned to the woman. “Let him go!” she grabbed her and pushed her to Sade. “Untie him!”

  She did as told finally. “Who the fuck is this, Sade?”

  Sade gasped on air. “Mercy, what the fuck,” he said while coughing.

  “Tell her to stop,” Mercy whispered up to him. “Please. Or I’ll make her stop, I will and she will need an ambulance, so help me God.” The words barely strained out with her crying.

  “You want me to kick her ass?” Tabitha asked him.

  “No!” he yelled. “Don’t you fucking touch her. Undo me and leave.”

  “I’ll pay her, I promise,” Mercy said.

  “Fuck you Mercy,” Sade muttered.

  “I’m sorry,” she wailed. “I won’t let you do this.”

  Chapter Nine

  Sade finished ripping off the restraints and blindfold in time to see Tabitha get in Mercy’s face with her finger, which Mercy broke in a flash before shoving her back.

  Tabitha flew at her in a screaming rage and Mercy met her with a foot to the chest and sent her sprawling.

  “Tabitha!” Sade yelled. “Leave!”

  Gasping for air and clutching her chest, the woman didn’t argue. She stumbled her way out of the room and Sade’s fury took him by surprise. He stormed over to Mercy and grabbed her by the upper shoulders and shook her.

  She only clenched her eyes shut and let out a cry. He wanted her to fight him! Fuck! He shoved her away and paced in useless fury, his sadism clawing at his dick, begging him to use her. Right there in the basement, he could do it. He could let his sadism have her, he so fucking could. Three more seconds and he would have been done if she hadn’t interfered!

  “Are you happy now Mercy? I was seconds away from what I’m dying for and you just took it from me!” he yelled. “You call yourself a friend?! Is this your normal sexuality? —Fucking show me how!” He slammed his palms on his bloody chest. “Make my dick come with it Mercy.” He snatched his clothes form the table when he felt himself getting to that point of wanting to kill. “Everything but my dick in that treatment. Thanks friend! Who the fuck needs their dick in sexuality? Who needs their dick for fucking, well it doesn’t matter with me.” He got in her sobbing face now. “Because I can’t fuck—I. Can’t. Fuck! There! Now you heard it. I can’t keep my dick hard in the pussy of a woman, are you happy now? Are you going to let me practice on you, Mercy? No, I don’t think so, because you lock up when I’m six inches from you, Miss normal sexuality. You wouldn’t know normal if it hit you right in your pretty pussy that drips down your fucking thighs for me. Just for me!” He grabbed her face and kissed her with a brutal force and his sadistic needs exploded at feeling her perfect mouth turn to eager plump silk. He stormed to the door and turned to her. “This contract is over! You’re just anot
her fucking mirage on my road to hell.” He pounded his chest with a fist. “This is my pain and misery, and it’s my way! Not your way! I decide that, I control the pain! Not you! Not anybody, not ever!”

  He slammed the door on her begging and her lies. He’d not be lured a step further into her game. It was sicker than any he’d ever played and more lethal. Nobody would take his control from him, his way of dealing. No fucking body.

  ****

  Mercy fell to her knees feeling like such a failure. He was so right. She was such a hypocrite with the normal sexuality crap. Oh my God, she didn’t realize how desperate he was. She didn’t know. She needed to explain that to him, make it right. They could figure out a solution, she just needed to understand more, talk to him.

  Mercy hurried out of the basement in time to hear the front door slam shut. “Sade?” She ran to the door and yanked it open. “Sade!” she yelled. “I’m sorry!”

  Mercy ran back in and found her phone and called his cell while pacing in the living room. Of course the voice mail would come on. “Sade, please come back,” she said. “I’m so sorry, I was wrong, you’re right. I had no idea how serious it was, I was wrong, please,” she strained around a sob. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry, okay?”

  The message cut her off and she hung up the phone. He was so furious. She didn’t blame him. How embarrassed he must be. And then she hurt that girl. Pretty sure she cracked her chest bone, she hadn’t held back, she was scared and-and furious.

  Mercy flew to her room and got her purse and keys. She’d go look for him. Maybe he was going to the club. Running out of the apartment, she looked for her Juke. Gone. Did he take it? Why would he? God, the parking garage. She ran the few blocks and got in her car and sped through the city, calling his phone every minute and leaving a more calm voice mail while wanting to scream. “Sade, listen. We all have our things, our issues. I want to help you with yours in a way you approve.” She went on and on with words that amounted to a broken record then threw the phone onto the seat.

  Parking as close as she could to the club this time, Mercy hurried to the place, bringing her phone and leaving her stick. She approached the front, not wanting to deal with that back crowd. A big Saturday night meant a packed crowd.

  Getting into the building required her ID, which sent Mercy running back to her car for it, as well as money. By then she had the sense to grab her walking stick before racing back.

  Still calling his phone, she left another voice message. “I’m at the Black Velvet looking for you. Please, I need to talk to you.” She stuffed her phone in her back pocket and her collapsed walking stick in her bra under her arm. Thankfully she had on her running shoes, she just might need them. Took her thirty damn minutes to get to the front door again where they finally let her through after telling her they didn’t know a Sade. Yeah right.

  She entered the club and her survival instincts exploded with the booming music and thick smell of smoke, cologne, and perfume. And one other smell. Body sweat. It raised her hairs more than anything. The smell of bodies grinding in ways that lead to gratuitous and often unsolicited sex triggered all the wrong instincts in her.

  She made her way through the thick crowd, looking for Sade. Looking for anybody that might be in charge in some capacity. She finally spotted a bar and five minutes later, stood behind the wave of people placing orders. She looked around, still unable to see anything but the dense wall of people moving to the thumping airwaves suffocating her. How the hell did they stand it in there?

  A murmur of sound gradually rose with the music, loud voices among it. Mercy searched for where it was coming from while a bar tender climbed on the bar and peered out into the crowd.

  Mercy read his lips. Fight.

  Shit. Why was she sure Sade was in it? Opening her stick, she wove her way through the bodies in the direction the bar tender had pointed. She finally made it to the edge of the crowd. “Ah shit,” she whispered, seeing Sade in the open square that was officially now a fight rink.

  The dude he was fighting was a head taller than him and giving him an ass beating. “Sade!” she screamed from the edge, her voice drowning in the violent hungry chanting.

  She pulled out her phone and dialed 911 and reported a deadly fight at the Black Velvet. Mercy’s stomach was in knots watching Sade get beat. Then she realized what was going on. He was getting his pain. One way or another.

  This was her fault. If she’d just let him finish he wouldn’t be getting beat to death now. This was worse. The man clothes lined Sade and slammed him to the floor. Mercy was once again at that threshold where survival instincts kicked in to protect. And in this case, Sade was the victim.

  The giant sat on Sade now, delivering blows right to his face. He appeared unconscious and the man was content to beat him till there was no more life in him!

  Mercy raced out and struck the man on his fat neck, where it counted the most.

  The crowd exploded in shock as the giant jerked an angry glare her way. Ah shit. He had to be on something for that hit not to do more than piss him off. She backed up and glanced around, calculating her options. The man slapped at his neck while approaching with lethal intent and a sneer. Mercy swung the stick in a blur of moves, hoping to confuse him. Seconds later, she planted it hard between his legs, making his eyes pop. He dropped to his knees at the roaring approval of the crowd while the music blasted on. Mercy jabbed the stick into his trachea just as two bodies came at her from the right.

  Here we go.

  She spun, her fighter’s eye seeing dummies with woodenheads, not humans. Using an old-fashioned bat swing, she hit the side of one head and used the momentum to slam her foot into the other. Another body came at her and it got really hairy. Bodies began dropping as she put more power in each strike with lethal aim before they outnumbered her more.

  Mercy’s head snapped with the sound of breaking glass. Shit, hit from behind. She stumbled and shot the stick over her shoulder, connecting with teeth.

  A roar came through the crowd followed by a flying body through the air, slamming the dude that hit her. The circle of bodies all around suddenly widened, letting Sade have at him. Sade’s fists rained down fury on the man as the yell of cops rang in the air.

  Another ran for Sade and Mercy saw the flash of metal in his hand. Her heart faltered and she torpedoed her stick at his arm. The weapon hit the floor and Sade broke free, diving on it then springing up to aim the gun at the guy he’d already half killed.

  Shouts erupted around them, “Drop your weapon! Drop your weapon!” Four policemen aimed guns on Sade and Mercy flew to shield him.

  “Don’t shoot!” she screamed then turned to Sade. “Give me the gun,” she gasped, “before they kill you.”

  He wiped the dripping blood on his shoulder. “Let them,” he said, pushing her aside.

  Mercy refused to move as they yelled threats to shoot if he didn’t comply now.

  “Please,” Mercy shrieked. “I’m sorry, I’ll do what you need me to! Put the gun down!”

  “It ends tonight, it ends right now,” he roared at her, trying to push her aside.

  He was going to get himself killed. Mercy eyed the gun and obeyed the instant weapon disarming reflexes she’d mastered. Two seconds later, she was sliding the gun onto the floor toward the police.

  At the rush of policemen, he hit his knees, hands behind his head, with eyes on her. So full of… hate. They wrestled him to the floor and Mercy ran forward. “It’s not him! I’m the one that called, he didn’t have the gun I knocked it out of a guy’s hand and he picked it up. He was just protecting me!”

  “Follow us to the police station for questioning,” the one kneeling on Sade’s back yelled.

  “Yes sir, yes sir,” Mercy whispered before following out behind Sade and the other cops. They let her drive herself to the police station and she went in and gave her story. After reading her statement, the policeman sighed and left out with it. Nearly an hour later, they brought Sade to her and releas
ed him. They didn’t have anything to keep him on. But Mercy was sure they did, only chose not to.

  Once in her car, they drove in silence all the way back to the condo. The tension in the air was hard to breathe in and while she didn’t want to make it worse, she had to say something. She went back and forth between nice and firm. She was still very sorry but didn’t want to be mushy about it. Fine line.

  “I’ll renegotiate the contract. To include physical.”

  No answer.

  Mercy waited in torment. “I’m really sorry, Sade.” She kept her tone firm, not mushy.

  Still no answer. No answer until they got back and he opened the door. “It’s all gonna work out. I wanna thank you for having my back. Nobody’s ever done that. Not for free. I hope you enjoyed the ride.” He glanced at her for several seconds. “Because your illusion of control is over.”

  She stared at him as he slowly got out of the car, her stomach in knots. She didn’t like his tone. It sounded too calm.

  Chapter Ten

  Mercy followed Sade up to the apartment, staying close in case he needed anything. Like another human to fall into. She hurried ahead and opened the door for him and without a word he went in and walked toward his room.

  “Are you hungry? Thirsty? I have leftover meatloaf.”

  Still nothing. She closed her eyes, ready to collapse in relief. He was home at least. Safe. Please God, help me out here. Help me know what this man needs, give me the strength to help him.

  She saw blood on her hands and frowned. Was it hers? His? Somebody else’s? She went to her room and grabbed clean clothes then headed to the spare bathroom shower. Before she did, she checked on Sade and found the light in the bathroom on and the door shut. Good. He needed a shower.

  The idea of showering with all those wounds on him, made her cringe though. Mercy got in the shower and began going over what she could do different. She had to concede that helping change his sexuality couldn’t be done without engaging his… sexual parts. How foolish to even try. Especially with him and his needs. Live and learn. Mercy rinsed her hair and lathered up her body next. She’d have to break down and incorporate physical. Somehow. She shuddered at the thought as she rinsed.