Mercy took a step back. She actually took several steps back. Her back brushing leaves. She had to think of her next move quickly. Perhaps a neighbor will be home early from home and she can take refuge there until the police arrive. With the commotion that the beast caused, Mercy was shocked to not hear police sirens yet.
She turned back to the women and sent her a disarming smile. "Very sorry, but I must get hom. My parents are expecting me."
"We both know that not to be true, Miss Lockhart." That name again.
"You seem to have me mixed with someone else."
"No, I know quite well who you are. No need to keep up the act. Your body guard will not bother us. I have charmed the alley." The woman takes her hand out of her cloak. She is holding a stick. A bloody stick. Why is she holding a stick? "I am here to take you in. No need to fear. We will not discriminate against you because of your family history. No need to alarm your guard dog if you are thinking about me hurting you."
"I have no idea what you are going on about. I need to go, my mother. She might be hurt." The woman gives Mercy an exhausted look. Was she annoyed? Mercy was bleeding from the knees and has just run from a monster, and now trapped in an alleyway with this insane woman. And she had the audacity to look put out?
"No need to worry about your parents, it is not as if they are your real parents."
"I know they are not. They are my adopted ones." Mercy could not help the Vernon that shot off her tongue. The woman smiled. A sort of triumph in her eyes. Had she wanted Mercy to release that outburst? Then her gaze became serious and analyzing. As if Mercy were a puzzle she was trying to put together.
She came to a conclusion.
"Oh, you poor dear. Do you not know? Have they kept this secret from you all this time?" Her words made even less sense to Mercy than any she had spoken thus far. All Mercy knew was they were coated with a thick layer of pity. Mercy hated pity. She rarely got it, maybe once or twice, from a substitute teacher. Other than that, none. And she liked it that way.
"What are you saying? You are making no sense. Now if you excuse me, I really must go."
"Go back to what? Those shapeshifters you think parents?"
"Those what?"
"Shapeshifters, they are wizards or witches that can transform into their ancestral creature for periods of time. Those wizards that you call parents are shapeshifters. They have been keeping you hidden for years."
"Hidden?" Mercy hated the short questions coming out of her. They were not at all signs of being unfazed. She could not help it, though. Her world was falling apart. It was making sense. She hadn't sensed her mother move. She stopped talking, and that monster was in her place. Right where she stood, to the dot.
It couldn't have taken her mother or killed her without a sound. That monster was her mother, and it tried to kill her. Old memories came back to her. Moments of her childhood, she tried her hardest to hold on to.
Her mother and father telling her the story of her scar for the first time. The day she came home crying because no one wanted to be her friend anymore. They told her how much they loved her. They adored her and were so grateful to have her. To have found her. She was their act of Mercy. Their blessing. It saved them from a crumbling marriage; they told her. They were stronger because of her. And that they would always protect her.
And just minutes ago, her mother had tried to kill her. She heard a howl, ear piercing and deafening. Her body shuddered at the picture of that monster's teeth, its fangs. They could slice right through her.
She could not process this. Her detachment shields came up once more, and she faced the mysterious woman that knew more about her life than she did.
A discomfort passed through the woman's features when her eyes met Mercy's. Could she see the walls? The calm nature of them. Was she freaked out as well?
"My name is Mercy Denair. I am seventeen years old. I celebrate my birthday on June 15 each year. My parents are shapeshifters and my mother tried to kill me." The woman seemed confused by the sudden declarations. "Of all of that, what is actually true?"
"Everything but your name." Her name. It was Mercy, that much she knew for sure. Then she remembered the woman's first words to her. From the shadows.
Lockhart.
Her last name was Lockhart.
"Mercy Lockhart." She stated. Looking at the woman. "I am Mercy Lockhart." She did not want to think of how strange the name was. It fit a strange girl like her. She hated it.
"Yes, you are indeed." Another voice. Another woman came out of the shadows, same attire as the first. Where did these women do their shopping?
"You say that they aren't my parents? Are you sure both of them are monsters?"
"They are not monsters. That is just a form they take." The first woman spoke.
"They are monsters." The second muttered under her breath. Mercy heard it.
"They loved me!" Mercy took a breath and step towards the second woman. "They cared for me. When no one else did."
"They deceived you. It was their mission."
"You are wrong." Mercy gripped the wall. It was sleek because of the rain. Her body was hot. She thanked the cold that numbed her hand. "They found me and took me in. Instead of just walking past me. So many others did. But they didn't. They wanted me. They saved me."
Her body was trembling. Her heart hammering in her chest. She was on the verge of losing it completely. The detachment was not working. She was too crazed.
"They loved me. They had to. There is no way none of it was real. They accepted me, my every flaw."
"they had to make you believe that. They did an excellent job."
Pity. More fucking pity.
"Please stop. Just stop." A sob broke free. She choked the next down. Refusing to give in.
"We need you to come with us now. It is not safe here."
Mercy freezes. "I will not go with either of you anywhere. You are both insane. This must be one hell of a lucid dream. That must be it." Mercy squeezes her eyes shut. Then the bush is sliced in half and the top half falls away. The monster is there, right before her eyes. She is frozen once more. Mercy goes to scream, before she can open her mouth wide enough to do so a hand clamps down on her shoulder.
Mercy is dragged back into the alley and a string of fire shoots past her head and hits the monster. A quick apology is whispered in her ear. Then it hits her.
A sensation she had never felt. A feeling no unnatural. As if her every molecule was fighting to break apart and then shoot a million kilometers in every direction. It only lasted a second. The pain brief as the wind. Then Mercy is crashing to the ground. Damp grass under her fingertips. Her stomach lurches and she vomits.
Her organs feel as though they may come up her throat and expel themselves from her mouth as well.
"What the h-hell…" she gasps. Trying to catch a breath. Just one would do. "Was that?" Her gaze is blurry and turning towards the two ladies until her stomach lurches once more. Back to the ground, the contents of her stomach go.
"That was a transportation spell, we will get to that. Can you stand?" Mercy tries to lift her head long enough to glare, but even the slightest movement has her head pounding.
"Westwood, why would you do that?" The first women reprimand the one now known as Westwood. The rude one that manhandled Mercy. "She had never been exposed to magic before. We are lucky she came in one piece."
The thought has Mercy gagging once more and tears slipping down her face. She might have died. That is why it had hurt like hell. Why she was now vomiting on this vibrant green lawn? Awesome.
All that comes out is the acid in Mercy's stomach. It burns her throat. She blames herself for not having a proper meal in days.
Westwood rushes an apology. Not towards Mercy, though. Towards the first woman that Mercy encountered.
"Rose, you are back. Thank Merlin." A male's voices shouts out. The loud voice causes Mercy to groan. "Oh dear, is she alright?" There didn't seem to be enough concern in his voice. If Mercy could, she would have rolled her eyes.
"I did not know she had never been exposed to magic before. I should have asked. She was just not cooperating, and I had to step in."
So this was now Mercy's fault. Fantastic. Whoever's these three are, Mercy was sure they would not get along. Not at all.