Mercy's All That You Need

Mercedes jogged through the hallways in search of her brother, just two days after the incident regarding the mystery vampire. After she and Val had the semi-heartfelt talk, Matt nearly dragged Mercy all through the house, showing her around even further. He'd wanted to make sure she knew where she was going at all times, and where to go in case of an emergency if she happened to be alone, which wasn't very probable anyway.

If she didn't know her way around the house before, she definitely did then. Thankfully, it didn't take her long to catch on to his directions, and could probably maneuver the place blindfolded if she had to.

The attic was the only space Mercy hadn't gotten the chance to see, and that was supposedly where she'd have to go if there was any trouble, and Matt had promised to show her it tonight. She actually really wanted to check it out, it couldn't have been too scary up there, even in the dark, because the rest of the house was beautiful.

Less than a minute later, she'd successfully located Shadows in the kitchen. She slowed at this, remembering her last encounter in that area, and stopped completely in the living room, straining her ears in an effort to find out exactly who he was talking to. A slight feeling of deja-vu came over her when she heard a familiar, angry voice.

It looked as if she walked in on something likely dangerous again. She seemed to have a real knack for that.

“You're kidding me, Shadows. You have to be fucking kidding me.”

Mercy nearly let out a groan when she heard Brian bitching once again, and hoped futilely that whatever was getting on Syn's nerves wasn't about her, and that Matt wouldn't be in too bad of a mood because of it. He had promised her, after all.

“Nope,” Matt said, actually sounding amused. “Deadly serious.”

Heavy footsteps, or more like stomps, could be heard all through the kitchen. It sounded like Synyster was pacing around one of the islands. “You actually expect me to babysit that kid?”

Involuntarily, Mercedes flinched at Brian's words and really hoped he wasn't talking about her then, because that meant he thought of her as nothing more than some kid he had to supposedly look after.

“I want you to protect her, Gates. There's a pretty fucking big difference. You're the one who suggested that we not shelter Mercedes, so this is me not sheltering her. It's as simple as that,” While Matt still sounded as if he were amused, his tone left no room for arguing. “But she is in danger by putting herself out there in the public, especially with the girls. Since it was your bright idea in the first place, you're the one who's going to watch out for her.”

She was happy she managed to catch Matt in a good mood, but she decided to wait in the living room as not to interrupt their conversation. Whether Mercy could still hear them from her seat on one of the cool leather couches was a plus or not was beyond her.

Nothing was heard from Gates for a few moments, and Mercy could hear Matt breathe an annoyed sigh. “You're the only one free tomorrow, Syn. It's final. Just suck it up, would you? It's just for a few hours.”

“Fuck you, Sanders. I'm not one of your fucking lackeys, you know. Seems like you're turning into your father more and more by the day.” While Mercy took note that, like the other night, Brian called Matt by his last name whenever he got exceptionally angry, he stormed past her so quick she barely even caught a glimpse of him. But she did, however, catch the scathing glare he sent her.

His father? That meant Synsyter was talking about her dad, too.

“You better not let her out of your sight, Haner!” Matt countered, almost mocking his friend with the last-name calling.

It was obvious he was serious, however, and Mercy let out a small sigh of her own. Tomorrow was the day Val and the rest of the girls had planned to go shopping with her, and she guessed that Brian was going to act as her makeshift bodyguard. She promised herself she wouldn't let his inevitable bad mood influence how her day out went, as she doubted she would get another for a while.

Soon after, Matt emerged from the kitchen, a smile on his face even as he spotted Mercedes. She was happy as long as he was happy, even after having to deal with a bitchy Synyster Gates. It just meant that he'd be a little more open to talking about the things she desperately wanted to know about. “Mercy,” He started, plunking himself down on the sofa beside her. “You ready to go check the attic out?”

His conversation with Syn and the incident the other night wasn't affecting him, or at least it wasn't immediately apparent, not in front of her. The only crack in his face was the worry that momentarily flashed through her eyes.

“Uhm, yeah sure, let's go.” Mercedes stammered as they both stood, axing her most recent plan to talk to him on the couch with a nervous smile. She figured he would be more at ease when he was busy with something else, like showing her around a more than likely dark and dingy attic for example.

Quietly, they made their way back through the halls Mercy had just come from, and Matt either decided not to acknowledge her awkward nervousness, or hopefully didn't notice it at all. She was quick to follow him, and promptly noticed they went right on past the hallway that lead to her room.

They eventually stopped below the supposed attic hatch, a small, knotted cord hung down just slightly from the ceiling, and while Mercedes had no hope in hell of ever reaching it, Matt pulled on it with ease. She jumped and back away when a set of retractable wooden stairs came nearly crashing down on top of her, then looked toward her brother wide-eyed.

“I'll get the cord fixed for you, so you can reach it if you really need to,” He muttered, focused on the very top step. Mercy herself wondered if Matt would even fit through the hatch, and she had a feeling he was thinking the same thing. Sometimes it didn't pay to be so huge and intimidating, she figured out. “I'll go first.”

Mercy watched as he climbed the rickety staircase with ease. Before she'd ended up in California she used a ladder practically every night to climb up to her roof—so getting up these stairs wasn't too much of an ordeal for her. When she was up and safely rooted to the floor, Matt pulled on a ball-chain above them and the dim bulb lit up just part of the large space.

The smell of sawdust hit her like a ton of bricks, having not been at all what she was thinking the attic would smell like. After a moment of rational thinking, she realized her expectations had been a little extreme. Really, she didn't know what she was even hoping to find up there, but the antique furniture covered up by sheets, creaky floorboards, and sweltering heat definitely wasn't it.

And Matt actually expected her to go up there in case of an emergency? It would be more of a situation if she was stuck up there. Still, she didn't voice her opinion, not when he was in such a good mood.

“I'll have someone come in and uh, fix it up too. Maybe get some first aid supplies up here, too, and anything else you might need,” Matt said, trying to lighten the mood. “But really Mercy. In the past two weeks there wasn't even one single time where you were alone. Not once. So the chances of you having to come up here are slim to none. Don't sweat it, okay?”

She will if she stays up here any longer. “No, I know... I mean, it's okay... but Matt, can I talk to you?”

Having this conversation up in a place where Mercedes couldn't see even three feet in front of herself wasn't exactly how she'd pictured things going down, but she worked with what she had. He nodded in response. “Sure, what's up?”

She'd thought long and hard about what she was going to say—and how she was going to say it. Hell, she pretty much had an entire speech written up in her head about the dynamics of a brother-sister relationship and how she wanted to sort through everything she needed to sort through with him, but nothing could really prepare her for it—not thinking through what he would say or how she would respond to his responses.

In short, all she could do was give it her very best shot. After all, her only goal was for Matt not to freak out.

“Okay—I just—first,” Stuttering was not how she wanted to start this off. “I understand... sort of, where you're coming from with the whole 'you know what's best' thing, 'cause you're right... I mean you grew up in all of this vampire business, and I didn't—so, like I said, I'd get it if you think it'd be—”

“Mercy—Mercedes,” Matt laughed, placing a hand on her shoulder. She stopped her babbling abruptly, and slowly looked up to meet his gaze. She'd royally screwed that one up. “Just calm down. Whatever you have to say, I'm not going to bite your head off or anything.”

Well, no... but Synyster might.

Finally, Mercedes told herself to just get it over with and blurt it out. “Who was that, the other night? And what were you planning on doing with the SUV... the arsenal, and me?”

Through the darkness, she could see his face drop ever so slightly. He backed up after removing his hand from her shoulder, and looked away to rub a hand tiredly down his face. She heard the friction from his hand coming in contact with the stubble of his facial hair—an almost scruffy sound.

Quick to react, Mercedes began to stumble through a fast, probably half-assed, apology. She really hadn't meant to push him to this extent.

Once again Matt cut her short. “No... no, Mercy. It was wrong of me to try and keep this from you in the first place. Brian was right,” He said the last part somewhat blandly, and Mercedes decided to ignore his change in tone. “That—that vampire was... his name is Gary.”

“Gary?” Mercy scrunched her nose while she repeated the name, for once thinking out loud. “That doesn't sound very threatening at all.”

In order to brighten the mood, Matt let out another hearty laugh and nodded in return. Mercedes could almost feel the vibrations of his deep voice in her chest. “Yeah, he doesn't feel the need to give himself a name like M. Shadows or Zacky Vengeance. He thinks he's badass enough to do without one.”

“Okay... so, what was he doing here again?” Mercy pressed, pushing her hair out of her face. Perhaps this conversation wouldn't go as bad as she'd thought.

“Well, me and the guys, we work for him—sort of.” When she gave him an odd look, he decided to elaborate. “He's one of the most powerful vampires on the west coast, but we—Avenged Sevenfold, as we're known to be—are much more powerful than him as a whole. We only do business with him to keep the peace, or else there'd be an all out war for territory and power and a bunch of other shit.”

Before she could ask another question, he quickly moved to the next topic. “With the suburban, the weapons and you, I was uh... going to take you to a safe house. But along with the points Val made, I realized Gary knew about them, too. So there was no validity in carting you off to another new place.”

While it may have been a lot to take in, Mercedes was just happy he'd been willing to share all this information with her, and with almost no fight whatsoever. She merely smiled up at him, still processing all of it and trying to figure out more on her own. Thanks to her mother, she was like a sponge when it came to acquiring knowledge.

One thing in what he said stuck out to her the most—Avenged Sevenfold. They were, according to how he put it, essentially a gang. That thought scared Mercedes to the point where she was almost frozen in place again, but then she remembered that everyone, even the girls, with the exception of Synysters... outbursts, they were all very nice. Too nice, almost.

“But hey, listen, don't worry about any of that. It doesn't matter. Let the girls spoil you tomorrow and just relax, got it? Gates will be there to protect you in case anything goes wrong, so you'll be fine.” He added, looking like he was afraid he'd overwhelmed her.

“I won't,” She quickly replied, feeling a lot more at east around Matt than she had before—and subsequently, she was a whole lot more outgoing and talkative. “And thanks for telling me all that, Matt.”

One could only hope that he was right, and everything would go fine the next day.