The Mercury Palace

Chapter 1: I Cheated Death and He Wants a Divorce

     As usual, Nilly's dreams were a jumble of random characters and chaos.

     The sloth sat beside Batman at the salon, carefully doing her nails.

      "You should invest in the stock market. I think you could make a lot of profit from it," Batman said.

      "I don't know anything about the stock market thought," Nilly protested.

     "Eating a bucket of noodles will help you gain the knowledge to conquer the stock market," the sloth told her.

     "Uh- is that so?" She responded. "I can't eat a bucket of noodles. I'd get fat."

     "That's alright. You can always ask the easter bunny at the end of the rainbow for unicorn cupcakes," Batman suggested.

     "What does that have to do with anything?" She asked, pulling her hand away from the sloth and examining his work. She couldn't hear Batman's response as she was starting to regain consciousness. The image of the nail salon was beginning to fade. She was about to call out to the sloth when she became aware of a rather disturbing development in the real world.

     I can't breathe-!

      Her eyes flew open. She stared at the pale face of a serial killer towering over her. Her hands flew to her neck, where he was choking her with one hand. In his other fist, he held a large kitchen knife.

     Nilly manages to let out a few short screeches as she kicks and twists, in a desperate attempt to shake him off.

     "Damn it!" The boy atop her growls. "Shut UP!" He violently shoves the knife into her shoulder.

     She screams at the top of her lungs in agony. He withdraws the knife and continues to stab her over and over again until someone suddenly appears behind him. They put him in a chokehold and drag him off Nilly. The killer thrusts his knife behind him, sinking it into the other boy's side.

     "Gah-" The kid throws him on the floor in anger and is about to stomp on his face, but the killer rolls out of the way. He gets back on his feet and runs at him, plunging his knife right into his stomach.

     They pause for a moment, the killer's bloody Joker-like smile widening.

     "Why don't you go back to sleep?" He asked in a soft, eerie, tone.

      The boy tried to take a few steps back and turned a bit, but the killer held onto the knife still embedded in his stomach. The kid's grip on the knife promptly increased. He then jumped and spin-kicked the killer right through the window. The killer fell onto the pavement below with a shower of glass shards raining down on his now unconscious body.

     The kid went to the window and took a glance at the guy to make sure he wouldn't be getting up again. When there was no sign of movement from him, he pulled the knife from his abdomen and turned his attention to his sister.

     "Aiden..." Nilly called weakly from her bed. Aiden placed his palm over his wound and the flesh started to move, connecting the slit tissue and healing himself. He did the same with his little sister, Nilly; though she had lost much more blood than he had, and was still unable to move afterward.

     He carefully picked her up and brought her downstairs. After laying her on the couch, he went back upstairs to begin packing their bags.

-Nilly- 🥀

      A few of you might be thinking; so this girl just got stabbed. No context? Who the hell is she anyway? This guy suddenly appeared in the first chapter and started stabbing the main character. Why?