Chapter 1
"Momma, can I have a snack?" Koda Dickson asked.
"Sure," Mercy told her son.
Koda got up from his seat at the table and hugged his mother then went to get a snack.
Mercy smiled over at the four year old as she ran her other hand over Raven's hair. Raven was coloring in her color book that Ernie had brought back for her from town.
Mercy went to walk away from the small table set up. She walked to the door, but had to stop only five feet from it. The dragging of a chain and the collar on her neck pulled, preventing Mercy from getting any closer to the door.
Ernie would be back at any time. He had gone out to do some hunting. The spring snow outside would have prevented Mercy from trying to escape. Not that she knew exactly where he had been keeping her. From what she had seen Ernie had taken her to Alaska because of the fact that there was daylight at midnight for part of the year.
She had been anticipating Ernie back. The slight rut in the floor had told her she'd been pacing the length of the cabin for years, mostly with a child on her hip or lost in her mind.
"Momma," Koda walked up to the window that was to the side of the front door. "I hear people."
Raven got up and went to look out the window, pushing the tarp to the side to see out. There weren't any cawing coming from the ravens that were outside, but to have Koda say that there were people outside, it made her step back.
"Come here." She said. "Koda, Raven, come here."
They went back to their mother's side. Even though it was still daylight, they could see lights coming through the front of the house. Ernie had never brought people over before, it had always just been him coming and going, bringing animals for her to prepare for storage. No, there was no chance anyone would know what was going on, or what was waiting for them on the other side of that door.
"Alaska State Patrol!" Someone yelled, the door banging loudly.
Raven gripped Macy's dress and buried her face in her mother's hip. Koda didn't say anything as the pounding continued.
She counted six sets of two loud knocks. Each set would get relatively louder. The person kept yelling that they were Alaska State Patrol, but it wouldn't have been the first time she answered the door in hopes it had been the police, for it to only be Ernie there. He would test her every couple of times a year just to see if she was still her sinner self. Whatever that meant.
"Break it down." Mercy heard the yeller say.
The next thing she knew was that the door was getting kicked in, which had never happened before. Raven screamed, Koda went to hide behind the nearby stove but Mercy was rooted in place.
"What the hell?" A man asked as they shined a light on her.
Mercy didn't look at them, not directly, but more so on their lowering guns. Handguns, she didn't ever see any of those, there were rifles in the house but that was about it.
"Ma'am, are you okay?" Another asked.
She didn't say anything. She blinked as their lights roved over her, noting the chain that came from the leather collar around her neck. Raven continued to cry, holding onto her mother tighter and Koda poked his head out from around the stove. Neither of the kids had seen people other than Mercy and Ernie.
"What's your name, ma'am?" The first officer asked.
"Mercy Dickson." She said.
Should she tell them? In the pit of her stomach it squeezed, it squeezed hard. Was this another test? Was Ernie outside waiting to see if she failed again. These thoughts and other horrible things fluttered through her mind as she looked at the four men, no six because two more entered the residence.
Ernie had told her that everyone out there beyond the house was going to rape her, maybe kill their children.
"You're safe now. Don't you worry. Where's Ernest Dickson? Do you know where he is?"
"He's outside." Mercy said as she took a step back.
"Call in EMTs. She's has a collar locked on her neck." One of the police said.
Was this really the end? Was she going to be let go and set free? What about her family? Where were they? Did they know?
"Get a female officer here, too."
"Momma," Raven whispered, though she still had tears in her eyes. "I'm scared."
"Me, too." Mercy said. "Me, too."
Koda came out of hiding if only to get away from one of the cops that was coming through to do a search of the property. He had gone back towards where the two bedrooms were. Mercy didn't know how long he was gone, as other cops came in, one with a bolt cutter to get to the eye bolt that was connected to the chained collar.
They left the collar on, but they brought Mercy and the kids outside, after finding some coats for them. Considering that Mercy was only wearing a simple white dress and the children weren't wearing shoes, they had to sit down on the chairs outside, on the porch. A police officer, his name was Lucas, Officer Lucas, was asking them questions about Ernest.
"Ernie was supposed to go out to get food." Mercy said as she held Raven on her lap.
Koda was staring at the cars with their red and blue lights flashing. People were marching around the property, some going out to the kill shed where Mercy had told them about the guns.
She watched as one officer walked out with something Ernie had buried in the darkest part of their closet. It was a red and black backpack with WWF pins on it. There were other pins as well, like a Stone Cold Steve Austin, a Bret Hart pin, even one for ECW star Raven, her daughter's namesake. They were old names, people she had liked or watched when growing up. Memories of these people, the people on her pins popped up as the officers talked.
"There's a wallet in here." The officer told Lucas.
He opened it and looked at the ID that was within. It was just a school ID, it was something she hadn't seen in a long time, containing the name of the person she once was.
"Mercy McMahon?" Both officers looked at her.
She looked down. Her attention was caught by the fact that both Koda and Raven's hair were both tangled, she would have to brush them out when she got the chance.
"Are you really Mercy McMahon?" Officer Lucas asked her.
It would only take one word, one word to make all those old memories to go away. If she said yes then she would be lost.
If she said no, maybe she would just get to go back in the house with her kids.
There's the actual start of the story. I hope you guys like it. I'll keep updating when I have the time.