As The World Turns Cold

Truth Sets Us Free

"Take your place for what exactly?"

"My place to die." Lily's voice cracked on the last word and she shivered as she glanced at her older sister. She looked utterly frightened. 

"I'm so sorry, Mercy. There weren't many choices available to me at the time."

The punk style clothes and dip-dyed hair did nothing to hide how feeble and meek her sister truly was. Underneath all of that hardness was a girl too scared to hope.

Mercy growled low in her throat. She could be compelled to make a sacrifice for her family. She had done it before. But for her sister to willingly decide her fate for her was unforgivable. Mercy couldn't stomach the thought that Lily would have let them kill her.

"The officer looking after me told me that I had two options. Option one: Mother, Father, and I would each die of a 'heart attack' and the world would forget completely about the Baudelaire family. Option two: You'd be compelled to find me and once they obtained you, mom, dad, and I would be free to go." Lily paused. "Well, as free as you can get when you're monitored for the rest of your life."

"Everyone expected me to go to that center and die? No questions asked? You assumed that I would sacrifice myself again for you?" Mercy shook with fury.

"It was anticipated." Lily shivered. She cringed at the look of fury in her sister's eyes.

"Is that all I am to you? Some weapon to be killed before it can be released to destruction or saving graces?" Mercy's voice rose with each sentence. "I am not a walking, talking, bobble-head that will sit and take the path to death as if it is nothing."

Lily froze at the ice in her sister's voice. "I figured you would do it to save us."

Mercy scowled, shaking her head with agitation. She fidgeted with her fingers to keep from losing control. "You have done nothing to deserve my sacrifices, little sister."

Lily shrunk back into the seat. "Our family shouldn't all have to die, Mercy." She hesitated and tears fell down her cheeks to her hands squeezed tightly together in her lap. "I honestly didn't believe you would actually come to save me. If you had escaped, I knew you would not wish to come back."

"I would do anything to save our family, Lily, but I'm not going to keel over dead like an armadillo in the Texas heat. I'm not going to fizzle out before the fire has been ignited. I'm a dynamite ready to explode and riot through this sick country if it means saving someone else from the horrors I have seen." Mercy unleashed a heavy sigh and she felt her resolve fracturing. "Despite the terrors that have plagued my dreams for years now, I value my life, too."

Lily glared at her sister. "I know you do and I wouldn't have ever asked you to do such a thing if I had another choice but we didn't have many options, did we? Mother and Father should not have to suffer as much as you or I ever did. They contained me for three days, badgering me with questions, forcing me to answer against my will. It was torture." She hissed.

"Torture? You think being asked questions is torture? Try living like I did." Mercy yelled. Questions were nothing. To be abused until you began to hardly recognize yourself anymore was the real form of the word. Mercy paused as the events unfolded in her mind.

"I was beaten until I was bloody and bruised. They gave me serums to draw out my powers and to sedate me so that I would be unaware of the things they did to me, but they never worked, not the way they were supposed to. The changes that the medications enforced did not happen when the observers were around. I killed countless people without even remembering it." Mercy frowned upon remembering such a fate.