No Mercy

Chapter 14

The purple of my eyelids half block the blues of the world and makes me wonder if I'm even conscious. I keep my haunted gaze on the ceiling as I lay on the blood soaked ground. The muscles in my legs spasm intermittently, causing my foot to bump into the dismembered and crisp corpse of the female rogue. I twitch my fingers to see if I can still even use my left arm and feel a piece of discarded flesh littering the ground move with my index finger. The holes in my arm where chunks of flesh that were gauged out bleed freely. I force myself to lie still as the burns that cover my body try to heal.

Did we win? The thought drifts around my mind without purpose, the only coherent statement I am able to produce.

We won honey, Najee comforts. Just go to sleep.

I shudder out a breath as my eyes drift closed again.

●●●

The smell of charred flesh, tears, and last minute pleas still fill the air as the door unlocks and swings open. I keep my eyes closed as I hear two sets of feet carefully make their way into the room. I'm not sure how much time has passed since I last opened my eyes.

Deniel lets out a low whistle as he takes in the scene before him.

"Do you want me to send for Murphy?" Deniel asks.

"I don't need a doctor," I respond. "This pain is the only thing keeping me alive at the moment."

"Stop being so melodramatic." I hear the squishing of liquid under shoe as Deniel steps closer. "You said that same shit when you tried to cut your own bangs in middle school and it made you look like a fucking poodle."

My face doesn't even twitch with the beginnings of a smile. Instead I close my eyes and try to will my body into healing itself faster. "Is there anyone else being held that needs talking to? I can go for round three."

Silas ignores my statement to ask his own question. "Did you find out why they were here?"

I sigh as I adjust to the pain that is radiating throughout my body, and focus on relaying the information I was supplied with. "They said the same thing that Marcus did. Funny enough though, they said his name was Louis." I roll my head over to look at his body that is flung against the back wall; his flat blue eyes still wide open. "He looks like a Louis, doesn't he?"

"From Torrence?" Silas asks from his position propped against the door. I'm sure he doesn't want to enter the room any further in fear of getting blood stains on his black Timberlands.

"That's what they said at first." I respond. Deniel asks what I mean by that.

"With a little prodding they changed their story," I sigh before I continue. "Then they told me they were sent by the Council."

Both Deniel and Silas pull in a surprised gasp. "Do you believe them?" Silas asks furiously.

"Well the one problem with torturing information out of someone is that eventually they will say just about anything to get the pain to stop." I roll my head to the other side to stare at the disfigured body of the male rogue. "But I don't know why they would say that. Did they think that's what I wanted to hear?"

Wasn't it? Najee prods. If the Council did send them that would give us a reason to leave the Alliance and officially declare war. You never really wanted to be a part of the Alliance anyway.

I could think of a million other justified reasons for us to leave the Alliance, but I never would have thought that the Council would ever stoop this low. I don't know what to do.

You can't be expected to come to a decision yourself. No one could. Najee tries to comfort me the best way she knows how. It's okay to ask for help.