Mercy & The Fey Beast, Part 2

Mercy briefly opened her eyes to watch the fey man walk out of her cave. He was definantly handsome. She made sure that she had stopped her thoughts when he was in the cave, but now that she heard him leave, she let go of the barrier.

Are you insane! That was Hurges! The beast that resembles everything you should fear!

Mercy let her thoughts run wild with all the panic and fear it would let, but when she really thought about it – Hurges bringing himself to her as a young man – she wasn’t afraid. She felt a little uneasy of the unknown for sure, but she felt empowered by him. Mercy’s thoughts and feelings were unkindly interrupted as she heard the tune Barbie Girl immerse from her pocket.

“It’s Adrian.” She said aloud. Looking at the phone in her hand with the tune still playing and his name on the screen, she felt at odds for a moment. “I didn’t cheat on him…” she muttered to herself as she opened up the phone.

“Hello, Adrian.”

“Hey, Babe! You’ll never guess! Your grandma gave my mother a call and asked us over for the weekend! How awesome is that?” He practically yelled into the phone. Mercy didn’t answer for a while. Her Grandmother never did approve of Adrian, him being 5 years older and almost finished college, and the fact that he was too-entirely atheist for Grandma Heidi Lepson to handle.

“How odd.” Mercy managed to come up with. Adrian had only been on the Lepson property once, before Heidi kicked him off and banished their relationship. That was 3 years ago.

“Odd? I thought you would be pleased! That wretched old hag finally has come about.”

“That is my grandmother your calling a hag.”

“Please, like you haven’t called her that before. So, me n’ mom are packing now, we will be there by tea time! Love ya!” And he hung up. A shiver went through Mercy’s spine. Her grandmother was highly intuitive, and no doubt Jasper’s outburst of Hurges little incident was probably the trigger. Heidi hated the creature, not for killing her only daughter or Mercy’s mother, but for reasons Mercy had came to understand; until now. What she couldn’t understand now was, why Bertram had kept the fey-beast or even why he kept the creature alive? Mercy knew that Hurges was a Fey-Beast, but didn’t ever take the Fey part seriously, he had never changed to anyone before that she knew of.

Mercy walked about the small room of the cave, touching the walls and pictures that we embedded on them. Something was going on, but she didn’t know what. Hurges appeared to her, Grandma Heidi had invited Adrian the Atheist to stay the weekend, and Bertram had a lot of explaining to do.

Bertram had left Hurges out on the  feeding grounds, where Hurges now had shifted back into the beast. He stared over at the mountains like every other day when he wasn’t thinking of his freedom. Though today, he was thinking about Mercy. And how she could break his curse, break the beast that contained him to this mortal human realm. He could smell her, like fresh spring rain, and freshly mowed wild grass, she smelt like the earth personified. He turned around towards the cave that she had retreated to, only to find her standing at the edge of the beginning of the swamp. She was looking intently at him, and even though she was a distance away, he could tell that it took every ounce of her courage to face him. She began walking toward him, with determination. She glanced up at the house, and Hurges could tell that Bertram was looking on. She continued to him anyway. Her proximity to him made his body change, he was fey again. She stopped.

“You…”

“Changed, yes.” Hurges replied. She looked at him like he were a fairytale and she shouldn’t believe him. She took another step closer, daring herself. Then the emotions of wonder and awe he felt from her dramatically changed as eyes turned from open to dark and cold.

“You tell me what is going on this instant!” she announced, forcing all the anger she could to the surface. “You try to kill me, and then you come to me as a human –”

“Fey.”

“As a fey, and announce that I am now your property! And just now, you change before my eyes!”

“I never meant to frighten you, Mercy. We are meant – ”

“No.” Mercy interrupted. “I am no ones property, even your dear master Bertram knows that.” She said, hurling a glance in Bertram’s direction. Hurges went to speak again, but she put her hand up to stop him. She was angry. “I don’t know what kind of games you two are playing, but I am not in. I have problems of my own, and I don’t need my grandfathers – or yours – to build to it. What ever you want of me, fix it yourself.” She said with finality, and turned away from Hurges, and began walking the slope up to the cottage.

“Mercy – ”

“Good bye Hurges.” And she walked with determination up the hill. Hurges could sense that she fought hard against the need to be near him. Although he never wanted to trek down this path, force was going to have to be the only way now.