This is the tale of Cinder Fall, Mercury Black, Emerald Sustrai.
Some time ago, in a little shed off the coast of the reef.
Black.
Dark grey.
The chimes of a grandfather clock fade in.
The pattering of rain is audible.
The creaking of wood. Human moans, and sighs.
Mercury Black was above her.
Her toned body below.
He fucked her, carefully, but not too gently.
Great glowing eyes of red stared back up at him.
The rain. It slid down the window panes. Thunder boomed outside. Lightning streaked across the landscape of barren cliffs. Blazing, yellow pylons of light.
Reality fades and falls around them. Despite the storm outside, right now, contained in a little shed…Emerald Sustrai and Mercury Black felt nothing but each other. The bed beneath them. And the heat they generated.
Their moaning grew loader. The movement increased. Mercury began to fuck faster, more vigorously, and Emerald's hips buckled, moving with him.
"Oh…oh! Ah! Ah! Fuck! Ahhhh!"
Smoky condensation creeped up and framed the windows.
The creaking ceased.
Thunder and rain took over.
A single black spider scurried across the window sill.
Mercury Black crumpled on Emerald.
And grey swallowed them.
Lust.
Love.
Death.
The sky was dark.
Heavy clouds hung.
2 figures walked across the hills.
Tall pine trees with faded colours opened a path for the travellers.
A harrowing breeze pushed the tall grass north.
Toward the travellers, another hill, more massive than the one they currently stood on.
And atop it, a single wooden home. Oblivious to its surroundings, it had a warm light and billowing smoke from the chimney.
The stone walls had a faded brown hue, and chopped wood was stacked against it. Several aged garden ornaments lay buried in the muddy fields.
Marcus Black sat at the dining table, reading the paper. Beyond him was the living room, and the front door.
His son was hunched over on the couch. His hair was matted and covered his eyes.
The door was knocked. Repeatedly.
Marcus looked up. Grimaced.
"Mercury!"
The sound of knuckles against wood stopped.
"Get the fuck up and open the fucking door already."
Mercury Black stood up, slowly.
"Hurry up, get the fucking door!"
He walked towards it, placed his hand on the bronze door knob.
Two women stepped inside.
One had a blazing red oriental dress, with two knifes holstered at her back.
The black choker she had around her throat matched the lifelessness of her eyes, and the colour of her hair. A stoke of crimson on it.
She smiled warmly. A fake warmth. Like the sadistic smile of a lion before it pounced.
"Ah." She raised her arms gently, in a pleasantly surprised gesture.
"Could this be, perhaps, the Black house?"
"Who's asking?" Marcus had his paper down, and was sitting facing away from the visitors, but his body had tensed.
The woman's smile deepened. "Cinder, Cinder Fall. Me and my associate were looking for this very, particular house." She tapped her foot sheathed in a black leather boot on the floor beneath.
"We, or should I say I," She added with a little laugh, "Have certain matters of great importance that we need to discuss."
Mercury tried to glance behind Cinder to peek at her associate, but the darkness outside had swallowed her figure.
"May I, be welcomed into your humble home? I'm sure, you wouldn't mind?"
Marcus stiffened.
"What's the big idea?"
"I'd be happy to explain, but first, may I sit next to you, and discuss it?"
"The distance between us, is enough."
Cinder's eye twitched just enough to be noticeable.
She nevertheless maintained her composure.
"In that case, let me introduce my partner."
Stepping aside, a familiar hue of green was reintroduced to Mercury.
"Emerald…" He growled softly.
Emerald Sustrai stared him down, smiling in the same sadistic way as Cinder was.
"Hullo Mercury. Missed me? How coincidental that we cross paths again." She hissed kindly.
A sudden clattering and scuffling noise broke out.
Marcus and risen and was marching towards them.
"I don't give, a bloody fuck, on who you sons a bitches are, all I fucking know, is that I want you out!"
His bellowing was tremendous.
Cinder struggled to keep up the kind demeanour.
"Look, I-"
"OUT! GET THE FUCK,OUT!"
Cinder bowed and stepped back.
Marcus pushed Mercury back roughly, and faced Cinder.
"Get the fuck out faster!"
Emerald and Cinder were thrust out to the entrance of the house.
The woman in red glared at them.
Then Marcus slammed the door shut.
Back up on a hill that overlooked the hut, Cinder and Emerald stood, the edge of the forrest behind their forms.
Emerald spoke, softly, respectfully.
"What was that all about?"
Cinder replied in a different tone. A rough, commanding one.
"We are looking for an assassin. One that is worthy. Worthy of witnessing the downfall of Beacon, and the rest of its sickening relative schools. One that is willing to kill, without hesitation."
"Are you sure this is the right place to look? I know the other man in the house. He was my…" Emerald faltered. "I knew him well before."
"This is. Trust in me. In that house, holds another member for our little party."
Back in the hut.
The flames of the fireplace crackled and spat.
An iron fireplace poker prodded the stones and shuffled them about.
While Marcus tended to the fire, his son stood with his back facing him and the window in his sight.
He had thought about a memory from his past. What he'd promised his childhood sweetheart. What he'd promised Emerald. Meeting her rekindled his thought.
Then he made up his mind.
He walked to the window.
"Dad. Want to hear a story? I promise it'll be a killer."
Marcus stayed silence. Then he spoke.
"Yeah, why not? I'm sure one of your fucking stories will do me some good at this age."
Mercury grinned to himself.
"There was a boy. When he was young, he had a friend. A close one. That he'd met in school. They were the best of friends. Other children saw them as outcasts. Weird. Annoying. Losers. They'd later on go on and fall in love, girlfriend and boyfriend, ha ha, but thats a different story."
The flames licked the stones and the poker. Crackling. Softly.
Mercury continued. "Little ol'Jimmy, in their class would punch them. Hit them. But no one else treated them worse…than their parents."
He chuckled quietly.
"They would beat them. Cut them. With knives. And burn them. For the fun of it. Or something about tough love. The children, in their anger, vowed to overthrow their parents one day."
He paused. Marcus said nothing. Then Mercury drew the curtains on the window shut.
The air grew thicker.
There was a pause.
Marcus slicked back his greying hair. "Nice story kid."
His son was still faced away from him too.
"I haven't told you how it ends yet."
Crackling flames.
Pause.
"How does it end?"
Pause.
There was no sound now, other than the sizzling and snapping of the fireplace.
"It has a curious ending."
Then Mercury leaped at his father, slamming him to the ground, seizing the throat and strangling Marcus.
He choked.
Marcus yelled and kicked. "You ungrateful motherfucker! I raised you! I fucking raised you!"
He raised the hot poker and stabbed it into his son's leg.
Mercury yelled in pain, the blazing metal searing into his flesh and puncturing bone. Blood sprayed out onto the carpet and into the fire.
"You motherfucking motherfucker!" Marcus bellowed
Mercury sunk his dirty nails into the throat of his father.
"Want to hear another story, Dad? Of Mum? Remember how she died? The officials said it was a grimm attack! They killed each other! But they were wrong!"
Marcus's face was going blue and blood was trailing down his neck.
"Mother had beaten me earlier that day for my bad results! And when she defeated the Grimm, and lay oozing blood from her stump leg, guess what? Guess fucking what?"
The fire was reflected in his eyes. He shook Marcus's head.
"GUESS!"
Marcus gargled and tried to raise the poker again, but Mercury kicked it aside.
"I fucking watched! I watched as she cried for my help! I watched her, for an hour, die of loss of blood! And you know what?!"
Pause.
"I liked it! Just like I'll like seeing you dead!"
Marcus roared, and in one last attempt, grabbed the poker again and struck it through both of Mercury's legs.
Smoke rose were the molten hot rod had pierced flesh.
Mercury yelled in pain, and thrust his father's neck upon the fender, and let the fire consume Marcus's head, and his cries of agony.
Marcus writhed and shook with all his might, the flames licking the side of his head and the inside of his mouth.
"YOU ROTTEN, DIRTY, MOTHERFUCKING PIECE OF SHIT!"
Embers of flaming stone were catapulted onto the blood soaked carpet, where they ignited.
Marcus shook and shuddered, and then froze.
And the fire consumed him.
Mercury dragged the body with him.
Away from the burning house. His fingers in the charred skull of Marcus Black.
The two women, Cinder and Emerald stood waiting outside.
He dropped the corpse.
They seemed calm enough, and reserved. Not afraid. Of him.
He growled at them.
"Whaddya look'n at?"
His knees buckled. Ripped tendon and muscle, coursing with his remaining aura, was the only thing keeping him standing.
Cinder looked at him.
"I'm looking, for Marcus Black."
Instantaneously, Mercury spat.
"There you go."
He gestured to the body.
"That's, the assassin?!"
Emerald scoffed. Sure, she'd made the vow with him, but she'd never tag Mercury as the assassin type.
"And you're his son." Cinder said pleasantly.
Mercury wiped the blood trickling down his face with the back of his hand.
"We saw your fight from the tree line. He's taught you well."
The house collapsed behind them loudly.
Mercury remained unfazed, his face stony.
"I guess so."
"Whats your name?"
"Mercury."
"Mercury." Cinder repeated.
"Tell me. Are you anything like your father?"