Fires Raging
Four Brothers
Jack Mercer
Garrett Hedlund
fanfiction
DISCLAIMER: I do not own any recognizable events, characters, or places. This is a pure work of fiction and nothing further.
NOTE: I will NEVER again say that Jack died. MERCER LIVES. Also, this is loosely based on the ideas of Dante.
The screaming. All I could hear was that screaming. It wasn't me. I wasn't calling out anymore. It wasn't even cold anymore. It was the heat that cause me to finally open my eyes. I wasn't on the street. Bobby wasn't near me. No one was. But the screaming. It was so loud.
I turned around and tried to get my bearings to where I was. A hallway lit up as I turned and I hesitated but stepped forward. Slowly, torches lit up the wall that led out to a heavy and hot ledge. Fire roared right off the side and I leaned over. The fear rose in me and I felt it in my throat. Fire but it wasn't just any fire. I was in the pits of hell.
There was no other way to explain it. I went from laying in the snow crying out for Bobby to here…gazing at damnation with the songs of screaming echoing around me. I stepped back from the ledge and tried to back up to the wall but it was gone.
"Mercer, isn't it?" he gaped at me. I turned and nodded. He wasn't a pretty face, that was for sure. His skin was rough, patchy, and distinctly different shades that made him look ill. His horns weren't helping him either. "You know I hate introductions so let's just make this short."
"Who are you?"
"My name is not important. What is important is you and what you've done." He stepped towards the ledge and a bridge built up as he started to walk across. I eyed the drop. It didn't ease me as I started to follow him across. The flames seemed to try to grab onto me as I crossed. I didn't want to be here. There's no way I deserved this. "You do deserve this. It's no use to try and change things now. It's useless. You're here. Get used to it, Mercer."
I squinted my eyes as I shook my head when finally on the other side. "Why do I deserve this? I haven't done anything wrong. I'm not my brother. I haven't killed anyone."
He glared at me. "That doesn't matter. Do you know what the seven deadly sins are?"
"Not really, why?"
"Because, moron, committing the sins gets you here. And when you're here, you're stuck here. At least until your humanity runs out. Then you're all ours to do with as we please."
I stopped following him as he approached a large set of stairs that built from skeletons and skin. "And how would you use me? As a staircase?"
He laughed and left a grin on his face as he spoke. "No, these are centuries old. These," he put his hand on the wall and the light illuminated the corpses that made it up, "are our sacrifices. We can't just use anyone to create our home. Now," he clapped his hands, "stop wasting my time and come on. I still have to deal out your sentence."
"Then do it now and stop wasting my time-"
"Don't get mouthy with me, Mercer. It won't get you anywhere." He continued down the staircase and stopped at a pit. Inside the pit were people struggling to reach down to what looked like a great treasure of gold. They struggled and cursed at one another as they tried to move down but they never moved an inch. "Let's keep going. We don't need this level. You were relatively free of greed in your life. It's amazing, really. Most people are so greedy."
I rolled my eyes and followed him down another set of bodies that were set to be stairs. "How many levels are there?"
"Do you know nothing?" he snorted. "Seven. There are seven sins and seven layers of your new home. Up next is gluttony. Such a terrible sin. I mean really…I don't understand how humans spend all their time like this. Or even like the fourth level? Sloth? How are humans so lazy? They're worthless if you ask me. But of course we don't wipe them out because we need reinforcements from time to time."
"Reinforcements?"
"Yes," he ignored the two levels and continued down to the fifth level. "We keep you around because when you loose all that precious humanity that you hold dear we get you. All of you. The minute your feet hit the fire we own you and that soul of yours. The more the flames bite at it the quicker you loose your humanity and eventually you become one of us."
"What? What are you?"
"Humans, they don't know the basics about anything," he sneered as we kept walking until we were down another two levels and finally reaching the bottom. Finally, he stepped over to the ledge on the seventh level.
I could already tell I wasn't wanting to stay. I didn't want to stay in Hell at all but this level-I really didn't what to stay on. The screams were louder than anywhere else. The fire raged harder and the heat felt like it was melting my skin away. The pit looked endless with streams of what looked like barbed wire holding up the many people inside. I could hear the howling. It was there but I could barely hear it over the screams. "What is this?"
"This is your level, Jackie Ol'boy. Anger, wrath, hate…such a lovely thing. Shouldn't take long until you break here. This is the last level," he smiled, looking up at the makeshift ceiling of skulls and eyeballs.
"Why? Why am I here?"
He shook his head. He was getting mad at me. I knew it but I didn't want to be here. I didn't belong here. "Because you're an angry little fucker. Just like all the Mercers…but tell you what, since you're annoying me. Let's make a deal."
"Like what?"
"If you go back, you kill your dear old daddy and I'll overlook this death. Maybe next time you won't even end up in level seven. What do you say?"
I looked at him as a grin showed up on his face. "And if I do?"
"Then you'll live to see another day."
I looked into the pit. Stay and be torn apart until my humanity is gone or leave and murder the man responsible for me running away and eventually becoming a Mercer. I shook my head and looked at him. "Alright, you have a deal."
Author's Note: I really appreciate the feedback from this but to quickly answer question #1:
I do not plan on making a sequel to this. As of right now, I consider this to be my prequel to No Surprise. Thank you guys for reading!
mercer lives