Mercy's All That You Need

Mercedes stayed awake for a few minutes, unable to sleep for several reasons. The first was because she didn't trust Matt enough to even close her eyes around him, and the second... was about twenty different reasons crammed into one. She was confused, and when she was confused, sleep didn't come easily... no matter how exhausted she was. She wondered why he couldn't just tell her everything already, or at least enough to let her mind rest easily. Yet he seemed to be determined to give her as little information as he could.

Couldn't he at the very least tell her why she was here traveling with him to another state, let alone out of her own little town in Oregon? She didn't think it was unreasonable for her to ask that much of him. If she wasn't there with him for an unknown reason, and there was indeed a legitimate explanation... well, let's just say she would be a little more cooperative.

After a tense minute passed, she decided to break the silence. "So... does—does my mother owe you money or something?" She squeaked. Nothing had been brought up at all so far to make her think that, but it would explain so many things, and it was the only logical explanation she could think of.

Ariel owed them money and wasn't paying... so obviously, they kidnapped her kid to make her cough up the dough, right? Admit it, it was a little realistic. Where else would her mom have gotten the money to support the both of them through the years if not from these five, shady men?

Matt's loud laughter filled the large SUV, and Mercedes relaxed in her seat. He may have been laughing at probably a silly question, but he had lightened up a lot since he got in the car and Mercedes took that as a good thing. Maybe he'd be more open to answer her questions, then.

"Yes, Mercy, your mom does owe us money but that's not the reason you're here, with me."

"Then what is?" She pressed, leaning over slightly, as if she could hear him better that way.

He stayed quiet for a second; Mercedes guessed he was thinking, so she waited patiently. "I'll tell you once were in Huntington and you're settled in, okay?"

As she observed him, she noticed that he had put his aviators on since he'd gotten in the car, and it only made him all the more intimidating. Her mood brightened slightly after hearing his promise, however, and she was going to take a leap of faith and hold him to it. In the meanwhile, she briefly wondered how he could see in the dark with his sunglasses on, because from the clock in the dash it was still only five AM.

"How do you know my nickname?" She asked suddenly, even surprising herself with her question, but quickly played it off, looking over at him in mock-disinterest. She wanted to see how far she could get him to go before he grew annoyed with her questions.

"I know a lot of things about you." He replied, not looking over at her as his full attention seemed to be on the road ahead of them.

That wasn't creepy at all. His answer wasn't good enough for Mercedes, and she figured that would be a trend with him. Finally, she let out a defeated sigh and slumped in the comfortable leather seat. "Why can't you tell me anything now?”

So she could actually trust him and get some sleep, because he was right about one thing... she really hadn't gotten much sleep in the hours he'd been gone, and it wasn't good sleep at that. And she was really beginning to feel the drowsiness set in, as well as the hunger when she realized she hadn't eaten since breakfast yesterday morning. She was not about to tell Matt that, though.

"No," He answered sharply, thoroughly waking Mercedes up with a slight jump. "I'm not having you freak out in a moving vehicle or back at some shitty motel, Mercedes. Just wait til' we get to the house and I'll tell you exactly why I'm bringing you there."

Mercedes was shocked at the amount of authority in his tone. As intimidating as he was, she wasn't expecting that from him. While serious, he seemed like a semi-laid back person. "So it's bad?" It honestly slipped out on accident, as Mercedes could not help but wonder even further when he got so defensive.

Of course, he didn't answer the question she'd asked, and she could tell he was growing irritated with her. "Look, don't worry about it okay? Just get some sleep. It's gonna be a long drive."

She wanted to ask so many more questions, like what exactly had they been talking about with her mother last night... or the night before? And were they talking about her? If it actually was, then Mercedes' assumptions were correct. It was bad.

Since she was a very light sleeper, Mercedes woke up to Matt talking quietly on the phone. She jolted awake, but forced herself to remain quiet, knowing if she could listen in she might be able to piece a few more things together.

"Yeah man, we're almost home. Did Brian go back with you?" That was interesting, mainly because Matt was talking about Synyster and Mercedes needed desperately to know if she was going to be forced to be around him any time soon. "He what?” It was hard not to flinch at the abrupt harshness in Matt's voice, but somehow she kept cool. While she felt bad about eavesdropping on Matt's personal call, Mercedes felt as if it was her only option.

She held her breath, waiting to hear what was so unreasonable that Matt thought it was okay to raise his voice about. "You're trying to tell me that... that fucking idiot is walking all the way back in the sun? I thought he'd get a ride with you!"

"Well fucking find him then, and tell Short-shit to stay back because we're going to be home in two minutes."

Mercedes waited... and no longer being able to hold it in, she opened her eyes and asked the question of the minute. "What's so bad about the sun?"

Even attempting to walk to Huntington Beach from Sacramento was just a stupid idea, plain and simple, but the way Matt said 'in the sun' made it seem as if that was the worst thing about the walk in general.

As soon as he heard her voice, he did a double take on Mercedes, looking perplexed while he bit his lip ring. "I thought you were asleep..." He muttered, and just as Mercedes knew he would, he ignored her question yet again. If her constant questions weren't getting annoying, him not answering them was certainly a lot more aggravating. "We're almost there."

"Where?" She asked faintly, looking out the window at the palm trees and the beach for the first time. If she was there under different, better circumstances, she would have loved this so much.

"In all honesty," He began, finally turning off the PCH. "We're going to my house. And it's also gonna be your new home."

That answered one of her unasked, most dreaded questions. So she was supposed to stay with him... that wasn’t good. His honest reply had left her short of breath, and unable to speak without stuttering and making a fool out of herself. A few minutes later, Matt turned off onto on a long, winding driveway with the perfect view of everything; the hills, the ocean, and the beach... but she was focused on staring straight ahead and not breaking down.

They were quickly approaching an undeniably huge house, and it was the definition of the classic beach house, and extravagant in every way possible. Matt parked in front of a large, three car garage, and Mercedes could do nothing but gawk. Palm trees surrounded the house in almost a protective way, and the house was a relaxing, yellow-beige in color... nothing like what she would expect a man like Shadows to live in.

Matt killed the engine and looked over at Mercedes questioningly, and she only shook her head. "I'm not going in there," Because she knew that once she went in, there was no way she could ever escape that house. God only knew who was in there and what was going on. It may have looked nice on the outside, but looks could always be deceiving.

Looking over at her again, Matt gave Mercedes a pleading look. He seemed worn out, but Mercedes couldn't blame him. She doubted he had slept at all in the past twenty four hours. Mercedes internally groaned, she should have tried escaping when she had the chance, not when she was at his mansion of a house. She'd basically set herself up for this.

"This is the safest place you could possibly be right now Mercy," He began in a soft, tired tone.

Obviously, Mercedes didn't believe him, not for a second. In all probability, Synyster stayed there, too. And any place he took up residence wasn’t safe. "I'm not going in there." She repeated in a much strong, surprisingly confident tone.

He groaned and leaned forward, resting his head against the steering wheel. Quietly, Mercedes debated whether or not she should try making a run for it then and there. "What's stopping you now," He snapped, surprising Mercy with his tone. She guessed he was finally getting fed up with her. "We've gotten this far, so why not?"

"Because... because." She whispered, not knowing the answer. It just seemed logical not to want to go inside her kidnapper's house.

"Please don't make this any harder for yourself," He tried again, turning his head to the side so he could lock eyes with her. "Because I will carry you in if I have to."

When he got no reaction from her, he huffed and hopped out of the SUV, remarkably leaving his keys in the ignition. Right away Mercedes noticed this, and as soon as he got out her hand was on her door, pressing practically every single button until she heard the satisfying 'click' of the doors locking.

Matt was to her side of the car in an instant, his face close to her window with a glare, then fully pissed off with her. She gulped at that, knowing it wasn't good, because beside Johnny, he had been the only one to try and protect her. He pulled his hood up, leaning forward against the car until his arms rested on either side of his head.

"You don't know how good you have it here Mercedes," He snapped. "If anyone else had found you before I did, you'd have it a lot worse."

She shivered at the coldness in his tone, too scared then to open the door in fear of what he might do to her when she would eventually get out of the car. He tosses her one more glaring look before backing away from the SUV. "Johnny!" He nearly screamed, scaring the daylights out of Mercedes. "Get me the spare key for the suburban!"

Like a cornered mouse, Mercedes scattered over the console in between the two front seats and into the back seat, trying to get as far away from Matt as she could. Within seconds Johnny appeared seemingly out of thin air, holding the key out to Matt while he squinted at Mercedes in worry.

Instead of waiting for Matt to unlock the doors and pull Mercedes out himself, she unlocked her own door and jumped out, hurling herself toward Johnny with a cry for help. Johnny hesitantly wrapped his arms around here, staring at Matt in confusion.

"Just take her inside, will you?" Matt ordered, stressfully rubbing his eyes under his aviators.
Johnny kept one hand around Mercy's waist, leading her across the large, brick drive way and up the steps leading to the entrance of the beach house. Although shaking in fear because Matt was behind her, watching the two of them go inside, she couldn't help but be taken aback by the interior of the house.

The foyer was painted a deep, rich red and the floor looked to be a very expensive dark granite tiling. A patio door was placed on the far end of the foyer, and it looked like it lead out to a pool. Johnny paused, letting Mercedes take in the house for the very first time. On either side of the room, Mercy could make out a large kitchen and living room opposite to each other.

Before she could make out any smaller details of the house, two women walked out of the kitchen, talking and laughing. Mercedes stood; shocked to see anyone that wasn't a foreboding guy in this house. One was a tall blond, while the other lady was much shorter and had honey brown hair.

"You didn't see us." The blond quickly said, grabbing onto the brunette's hand and tugging.
The brunette on the other hand, had different plans. While the taller woman was all but dragging her away, she looked back at Mercedes and gave her a bashful grin. "You're adorable though!" She yelled, just before they disappeared back into the kitchen.

With a smile tugging on his lips, Johnny pulled Mercedes along, going into the living room instead of where the two girls had went. Mercedes really didn't know what to make of them; she had been much too surprised to even acknowledge their existence. They passed the living room, which Mercedes didn't get much of a chance to look at all, and continued down a long hallway, and turning down another... and another. Mercedes made sure to remember each way he turned very carefully though, knowing it might come in handy at some point soon.

Finally, Johnny stopped quite abruptly in front of a large, white door that contrasted greatly against the dark red paint of the hallway. He gave Mercy a short look of reassurance before pushing the door open, revealing a large bedroom. Hesitantly, she stepped inside and walked toward the large, comfortable looking bed.

To Mercedes' surprise, Johnny stayed, leaning in the doorway. "Stay in here okay? I'll be back to check on you in a bit. I just have to go make sure Shadows isn't throwing a fit and then I'll be back."

Mercedes nodded, and when Johnny shut the door, she took in a deep breath. She could smell the salt water ocean even in there, and she guessed it was from the open window on the other end of the room. There was no hope in calming her down though, as she had previously hoped she'd never see that side of Matt... at least when she was on the receiving end.

She had not a single clue as to what she should do until Johnny came back, if he did at all. He had probably only been saying that so she'd stay in here for as long as he could get her to. After a moment, she decided to just explore the room she was in. She didn't know if it was hers, but it was nice to say the least.

The four poster bed took up the majority of the wall it was placed against, and a fireplace was in front of the bed on the opposite wall, a TV propped on top of it. On either side of the fireplace, there were two large bay windows. The entire room was painted in a color that reminded Mercedes of a chestnut, but it was a relaxing, calming color and it fit the room very well.

Really, what else could she do but wait? The bed looked a little more than inviting, but she could not sleep. Not when she didn't know what was coming next. Would Matt hate her? He had seemed pretty upset, and Mercedes found herself actually regretting locking him out of the car.

After looking around for a phone (she knew they weren't stupid... but still, she could only hope) in the bedroom and pacing hopelessly around the bed, Mercedes let out a soft groan and went to investigate the two other doors in the room.

As she had guessed, one of them was a bathroom. She was shocked at the size of it, being nearly as big as the bedroom itself and complete with a Jacuzzi, while the other room was a walk-in closet. She wondered where Shadows got all of his money, especially since he looked so young. He either had very wealthy parents, or was involved in some sort of gang activity. Those were the only two reasons he would have such an amazing house.

Twenty minutes was all she'd managed to kill. Only when she checked out the window to see if she could escape out of it, did she decide to explore the rest of the house, regardless of what Johnny said. She could have tried going out the window since the house was a one-story, but it would take her at the very least ten minutes to get back to a main road... and someone would surely notice her absence by then.

Her next logical thought, of course, was to explore the house. While she knew it could very well be dangerous, she wanted to know exactly what she was dealing with there, and Matt really didn't expect her to stay in that room all the time, did he? What would be the purpose of her being there, then? And he had promised to explain things to her, but after that... episode, she thought that maybe he'd forgotten about it altogether.

Johnny must have been pretty damn trusting of her, because he had left the door unlocked. Momentarily she felt bad for abusing said trust, but Mercedes silently thanked him and hope she wouldn't get into any trouble. She stepped out into the hallway and slowly, she retraced his steps, taking her time to make sure she got every detail just right, as she really didn’t want to get lost in that house and have to wait for someone to find her. That wouldn't be good at all.

Soon, Mercedes was back in the living room. This time however, she didn't hear the loud laughter of the two girls who had been in the kitchen earlier, the entire house was completely silent and Mercedes found that a little too creepy. Where was everyone?

The front door opened with unneeded force, and Mercedes flinched and stopped, nearly frozen again. Okay, so that was probably a lot worse than someone finding her lost in a hallway, because this person sounded angry and an angry person was never good news for a person being held captive.

Frantically, she looked around for a hiding place, but the best she could come up with was behind a large sofa, but it was too late then. The sofa was much too far away, and person who had walked in was almost to the living room. Mercedes kept her eyes wide, focused on the large archway where she could see into both the foyer and kitchen, holding her breath.

Mercedes' jaw dropped when she saw Synyster, and more specifically what condition he was in. It looked like his face had been terribly sunburned, and there were large, dark circles underneath each of his eyes. Despite his effort in walking normally, his entire figure seemed to be practically sagging. Mercedes was too frightened to ask what happened to him.

As soon as he caught sight of her however, he looked absolutely murderous and Mercedes was no longer concerned for his health, but her own. The only thought running through her mind was that he was going to kill her if she didn't get out of there, and in a rush of adrenaline she took off toward the hallway. If she could just get back to the bedroom, she'd be safe.

Synyster obviously had different plans, and even in his wretched state, he easily caught up with her. Her heart jumped into her throat when he caught her around her waist, his large arms easily lifting her up. "And where the fuck do you think you're going?" He hissed, shoving her up against the wall.

She uselessly struggled against him, beyond confused. Yes, okay. He'd had this irrational, unexplainable hate for her the minute he laid his eyes on her, she understood that much. But what was he doing then, or what was he planning on doing?

"I can't fucking believe Shadows." He said scathingly, looking down at her with disgust written plain across his features. It was only then that Mercedes noticed his eyes. They were blood-shot, and his pupils were so dilated they looked black, and there was no sign whatsoever of his usual chocolate brown eyes. There was something terribly wrong with this man.

"Matt!" Mercedes cried, forcing herself to look away. Someone saving her then would be her only hope. "Johnny! Please, someone help me," She sobbed, ignoring whatever Synyster was saying.

With her back pressed harshly against the wall, she felt as if her spine was going to break in half. "Please—Synyster, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, just let me go!" She didn't even know what she was apologizing for, but she felt like that was the only thing she could say.

This may have been the evil, sadistic Synyster Gates who had her pressed against the wall, but Mercedes knew that this was a little much even for him. Before then, he was never as violent as he was then; he wasn't himself, even for Synyster.

More than anything Mercedes wished she had just listened to Johnny and stayed in the bedroom, she should have known that something like this was going to happen and she was going to get really, really hurt.

"Stop struggling," He mumbled, his eyes half closed as he leaned closer. Mercedes let out a whimper when he sucked in a lungful of air through his nose, as if he were smelling her. When he opened his eyes, Mercedes could tell that something inside of him had taken over just about every one of his sense.

He grinned, and the sight was just like something out of an episode of True Blood. With a soft sound, his canine teeth seemed to grow right before her eyes until they jutted over his bottom lip. Had she not been completely awestruck by them, she would have fainted from fear then and there.

They looked like they were very sharp, and very lethal. "Oh my god," She whispered while trying to drown out his feral growling, every ounce of optimism leaving her within a second. I’m going to die.

It all stopped. The sounds, the sight of him in front of Mercedes, and she only realized it when she slid back down the wall. She leaned against it for support, her heart vibrating in her chest. Synyster had left her gasping for breath and on the verge of passing out, and it took her a moment to notice the chaos going on around her.

Shadows was yelling, she could make out that much, and when she craned her neck to the right, her eyes widened. Matt was struggling with Brian in the living room, this time having him pinned against the wall much like Synyster had with her. "Rev—take her back to her room now!"

Finally, she noticed the only other witness, and she looked up at the much taller man with wide eyes. He too looked frantic and for once, dead serious. Knowing her only options were to either go to Jimmy or be forced to stay back with the bat-shit Synyster (Matt only just barely had him under control), she ran toward Rev, unexpectedly wrapping her arms around his lanky waist.

"P—please, get me out of here!" Mercedes said, burying her face into his shirt. She didn't know how, but she was still managing to ignore the sounds of Synyster struggling with Matt.

Jimmy effortlessly picked her up, aware that she was in no state to be walking back to the room, and held her bridal-style while he jogged past the living room and down the hallway. "I'm sorry you had to find out like this," He muttered, looking down at her with sympathy.

Mercedes could barely figure out what he was sorry for... or what she had even just witnessed. She just wanted to forget all of it.