Mercenary: Disappointment, Darkness and Doubt
May 6, 2021 6:30:43 GMT -6
Jason Anderson The Boss likes this
Post by MERCENARY on May 6, 2021 6:30:43 GMT -6
New York City
His heart beat heavy in his chest as he stood outside the door trying to find the courage to knock. Facing up to the things that he had done in the past few years and making amends for his sins was not an easy thing for him to do and he'd made a point of putting off some of the hardest apologies. He wasn’t at all sure what he would find behind this door. With a heavy sigh he knocked and for a long time after there was nothing. His stomach was a battleground for nervous bees and he was about to turn and leave when the door opened just wide enough for a young woman to look out with a suspicious expression.
“Can I help you?”
It was not Leather’s voice that asked the question and it was not her face that looked him up and down with a frown. The woman was beautiful, with chestnut hair, high cheek bones and a pouty mouth that wore a forbidding glare.
Mike: “I was looking for Lizzy... um, Elizabeth Cordowan. I’m not sure if this is the right address. I might be in the wrong place.”
The lines on the sides of her lips deepened as her frown became more pronounced. She looked him up and down again before shouting back over her shoulder into the apartment.
“Leather baby, there’s... some guy… here looking for you.”
From inside he heard her approach before her face took the other woman’s spot in the crack of the door. The expression that met him: A mixture of shock, anger and surprise caused his heart to beat faster. He did his best to offer her a friendly smile.
Mike: “Long time, no see.” he mumbled, regretting it almost as soon as he’d said it.
She didn’t answer. She just stared at him as if she were not sure exactly what to do. He shuffled and shifted, wishing that she would say anything to break the awkward silence. When she finally spoke there was no warmth behind the words.
Leather: “Michael? What are you doing here? What do you want?”
The sound of his name said in her voice hit him harder than he was ready for. His own words caught in his throat when attempted his answer.
Mike: “I… I came… I came to try to… apologize I guess. I came to tell you that I was sorry. Can I come in for a minute? Please? I really don’t want to do this through the door.”
Leather hesitated before she pulled back the safety chain and opened the door. She let it swing wide on the hinges as she walked away from him and back into the apartment. He followed her inside, shutting the door gently behind him. Inside Leather stood with her back to the entry hall. She wrung her hands and stared at the wall. From the other side of the room the other woman walked over and the two shared a whispered exchange that caused her to send a scowl in his direction.
Heather: “So you’re HIM huh? You’re Mike? Leather’s told me a lot about YOU. I’m Heather. I’m her girlfriend and I wanna know what the hell you’re doing here? What do you want from her?”
Leather whispered her girlfriends name and put a hand on her wrist but Heather pulled away. She was openly angry now and had no desire to hide her hostility.
Heather: “She loved you, you know. She did. You meant the world to her and you ripped her heart out without thinking about it once. You hurt her like that. You betrayed her like that, and now what, you’re here to what, say I’m sorry? You don’t deserve that! You don’t even deserve to be here! I think you should leave.”
For the entire duration of the verbal assault he endured the venom and said nothing to defend himself. He knew that he deserved every word. He knew that he deserved much worse. But his eyes were not on Heather as she spit her hate. His gaze never left Leather and after awhile she turned her eyes to meet his. She put her hand on Heather’s shoulder.
Leather: “Baby, it’s okay. I’ll be okay. Maybe you should leave us alone for a few minutes. Just give us some time to talk. Okay?”
She took her face in her hands and kissed her softly on the mouth. Heather pulled away and walked slowly from the room, never removing her glare from Michael’s face. When she was gone Leather sat in a chair across the room and stared at him in a way that made him very aware of himself. He shifted and spoke nervously.
Mike: “Well, she’s one helluva chick. Where’d ya pick her up?”
Leather frowned and shook her head.
Leather: “Mike, please, just get it off your chest. Say what you came to say.”
The cold brutality of her demeanor checked his natural instinct for sarcasm. He could see that she was all business and no bullshit. He struggled with a place to begin.
Mike: “I’ve run this shit over so many times in my head. What I was gonna say to you. How I was gonna try to make it right… as if I ever could. What can I say? I fucked up. I was selfish. I was stupid. I let myself be led… be manipulated. I was weak, but I never should have done that to you. Not to YOU. But I didn’t think that you were in love with her. I thought that you were just having a good time. I never for a second thought that she would be special to you. I… I didn’t think…”
Leather: “And you think that makes it okay?” she said in a bitter voice. “You think that’s a good excuse for fucking my girlfriend and breaking my heart?
He ground his teeth and shook his head in frustration. He didn’t know what to say. The volume of her voice increased with her accusations.
Leather: “The worst part of it is that I trusted you. I LOVED you, you fucking bastard. I cared about you like I never have anyone. You were my best friend. You were my only family. I would’ve done anything for you. Shit, I would’ve let YOU do anything to Me. How sick is that? How could you? You bastard! You saved me from that asshole only to turn around and hurt me more than he ever did with his hands. You gave me a home and then you took it away? You treated me like trash. How could you do that, To ME!”
He put his head back and sighed in frustration. This was harder than he had ever imagined that it would be. But he couldn’t argue a single word of it. It was all true. So all that he could do was endure the bludgeoning as best he could. But now she sat silent with tears running down her fragile cheeks and somehow that was so much worse than her angry words. He found himself wanting desperately for her to yell at him again but it seemed she had nothing left to say.
Mike: “You’re right… I don’t know… I don’t know how to say what I want to say. I always do this. I always end up hurting the wrong people. I just… I’ve just never been able to really believe that anyone really good could ever care about me. I’m a BAD person Liz. I’m a fuck up. It doesn’t matter what I do. I just can’t make it right. I just screw it all up. Every time. But I never meant to… hurt you. You do mean everything to me. You’re everything that should matter. You and Thorn and Shade, you were the only family that I had left. I just wish that I could have that back again. What can I say? What can I say to make it better? I’m just. So. Sorry. Please don’t hate me.”
He turned away from her and tried to hide the water welling up under his eyes. Self-consciously he tried to hide the tears by wiping at his cheeks with the back of his hand. His blood pressure pumped in his head. He felt desperate. At that moment he was trapped in the depth of his transgression and he would have done anything to feel her forgiveness. Rising from her chair she slowly crossed the room and with a brief moment of hesitation wrapped her arms around his shoulders. The relief he felt in that moment was a release beyond any he’d ever felt before. But the embrace only lasted for a second. She pushed him away from her and stared up into his eyes with a calm but cold expression.
Leather: “I know that you never meant to do what you did and I know that you care about me, I really do know that. I owe you so much. You saved me. You helped me find myself. You gave me a new chance to live my life and I’ll always hold you in my heart for that.”
He smiled and went again to take her into his arms but she stopped him with a palm on his chest.
Leather: “Michael, I’ll always have love for you, but I’m not ready to LIKE you yet. You betrayed my trust and I just can’t know if I can trust you right now. I hope you can understand.”
Mike: “But you can though.” he said, very quietly but with the greatest of conviction.
Leather: “But I don’t.” She responded with a certainly that completely overruled his own.
She pulled away from him and took a step back. Michael stood still with his head hanging. His eyes were closed as he absorbed the force of her final blow. From the back bedroom Heather came back into the room where she took her place by her girlfriend’s side. Leather took her hand and squeezed it hard to strengthen her resolve. Heather pulled her closer and cocked her chin defiantly at the dejected Mercenary.
Heather: “I think you should go now..”
Breaking hands Heather guided him back out the front door. He offered her no resistance. He had become very attuned to the feeling of defeat that came with losing a fight. As he found himself again on their doorstep with suspicious eyes on his back he turned to answer her hateful stare with an imploring glance.
Heather: “You know she thinks you saved her. She thinks that she needs you. But she didn’t need you. You needed her… and you had her. But you threw that all away for an exciting piece of ass. I pity you.”
He closed his eyes and shook his head, taking a tick to absorb what she’d said.
Mercenary: “Take care of her.” was all he said in a heavy whisper. The pain in his voice was evident and seemed to almost soften her expression.
Heather: “I ALWAYS do and I Always will. I know what I have.” she replied before slamming the door in his face.
Retreating back down the hall he leaned against the cold steel of the graffiti strewn elevator wall to steady himself before banging the back of his head a few times against its smooth and unforgiving surface. He wasn’t sure what he had expected when he came here, but he had not expected it to hurt as much as this. It was a heavy load to carry. It was the impossible weight of his own sins that were dragging him down and it now proved to be his own lonely burden to bare. The cruel reality of the realization that this bridge was all but burned left him feeling empty and uncomfortably numb amidst the ashes of a near unbearable disappointment and he stumbled out into the New York night knowing that he would find no solace alone on these hard and heartless streets of shame.
He walked for countless blocks as a drizzling rain pissed down from grey smoke skies. In his head he was drowning out the darker thoughts with the song Fairytale of New York by The Pogues, which ran through his inner monologue on a loop as he tried to recall a time when everything didn’t feel so miserable. Turning down a dimly lit side street his attention was drawn to a basement entrance with stairs that disappeared downward into the dark recesses of a shadow shrouded underworld. The song in his brain stopped as his memory was pulled back to a similar set of stairs that took him underground to a steel and concrete cell where Sinestro waited to offer him a chance to become a monster in the name of justice.
Leather Cordowan had been nothing more than Michael's neighbor when he had lived in San Francisco for a brief time between stints on the road. He had been refreshing his skills at the Steele Mill training school where he had first learned to wrestle from his first mentor in the business Josh Steele. Josh's son Jason had become one of his close friends, and one night in November the two of them had been hanging out with nothing to do at Mike's crappy little rental, sharing Guinness and Jameson boilermakers and watching The Big Lebowski on cable, when the noise from next door called for their attention.
Mike had heard the noise from next door before, but had just chalked it up to young love. He himself had had some very loud relationships in his time, and he knew how loud a good battle of wills could be. He grimaced and grunted at the sound of raised voices. He didn't make it common practice to get to know the neighbors when he moved into a new place. He knew he would never be there for very long, and he never saw the point in trying to make friends he would never be able to keep. He had seen... Elizabeth... Lizzy, he thought people called her, in the hallway a few times and had never really taken much notice of her. But last week he'd noticed the dark blue bruise she was trying so hard to hide and he'd started to get his suspicions. The sound of something breaking next door caused Jason to look up at the wall. Taking a long gulp from his Pilsner he cocked his head in Mike's direction.
Jason: "What the F’s up with all that then?"
Mike stared with a hard expression at the wall and the sounds from the other side.
Mercenary: "I don't know Man. Some dude and his girl having it out. I don't know."
Mike sighed heavily, not hearing Jason's reply as he rose from the chair and headed for his front door. Throwing the door open he stalked the few steps to the neighboring door and wrapped on it with a loud bang. Jason stood in the entrance to his apartment with a grim look on his face, knowing what was about to go down. He didn't say a word. He had known Mike long enough to know that it was pointless to get in his way when he went into Mercenary Mode. Mike wrapped again louder and was this time met by a large man in a black tank top and cargo shorts. He looked first at Mike, and then at Jason, then back to Mike. He held the door partly closed to obscure the view of the inside of the apartment.
POS Boyfriend: "The fuck do you want big boy? Can I help you with somethin?"
Mercenary: "I don't wanna talk to you man, I'm here to talk to your girlfriend, so get her out here."
The man in the doorway looked amused. He didn't give up too much in the way of size to Mercer. He was a big guy in his own right, and the look on his face told the world that he knew it. Looking back over his shoulder he called into the apartment.
POS: "Lizzy. Babe. C'mere. Got somebody wants to ask ya somethin'."
The look on the down-turned face of Elizabeth Cordowan was immediately recognizable to Michael. So was the angry red mark, slowly turning purple on her cheek.
Lizzy: "Can I help you with something? What do you want? It's dinner time... we're eating dinner. Can I help you?"
He could read the shock in her features, and the feeling that had been eating at his guts tore itself a huge mouthful. Elizabeth looked up meek and nervous, not really sure what to do.
Lizzy: "We... we really need to get back to eating dinner."
Her boyfriend stepped back into the doorway with a smirk on his face and a chicken leg in his hand. He took a large bite and wiped the grease on his arm.
POS: "You heard her. Get what you wanted? Satisfied? We'll try to keep it down. Have a good one now."
And he went to shut the door. Jason tried to get Mike's attention, but before he could Mercenary had kicked the dude through the door and into his apartment. He was on him before he could react, perfectly silent as he kicked him over and over, stopping only to punch him back down when he tried to rise. The traumatized girl did nothing. She put her back to the wall and stared wide-eyed at the scene. Jason pushed his way into the apartment trying to get a hold on The Mercenary before he did some damage to the guy he couldn't take back. Mike was in his own head. He saw nothing but red with fuzzy edges. He put his knee into the fallen boyfriend's sternum, right below the ribs, pushing his weight down to rob him of his ability to catch his breath, and he let the hammer of his fist hail down wherever it wished. Jason put his friend into a choke and wrenched him off the fallen form. Mike did not fight his friend, allowing himself to be dragged away. Elizabeth never moved from her place on the wall.
Mike pulled himself free of Jason's vice grip, his pulse hammering in his ears. Walking down the two flights to the ground floor. Michael sat on the outside stoop to compose himself. Jason eventually joined him, draping one of his leather coats over his shoulders to keep some of the weather off him. Jason stayed silent. He knew well enough what happened next. The front door to the building pushed open behind him and he could hear the sound of commotion upstairs, but was surprised to see Elizabeth Cordowan emerge. She looked sheepishly at him, but she also had a look he had not noticed before: a look of near relief... almost peaceful. She sat down on the step next to Mike, and after a moment she took his hand and placed her head on his shoulder. This was the still life scene which greeted the PD when they pulled up to the curb. Then there was the interviews and the paramedics and Michael Mercer in handcuffs. Before they hooked him up Mike slipped out of his leather coat and placed it over Elizabeth's rounded shoulders.
Merc: "Keep it" he said in a gravel laden monotone as the police led him to the back of a cruiser. Seeing his friend in handcuffs made Jason angry:
Jason: "I got you man. I got you. Bastard beats his girl and it's my buddy going to jail. Bullshit man! Bull. Shit."
Mike just looked up with a heavy look on his face, and didn't say a word as they shut the door on him. He would end up doing five months in county for the assault, losing several bookings as a result. Not good for an Indy guy just coming up. In the end it was Elizabeth Cordowan's testimony that got him a shorter stay. She told the court that her boyfriend Danny had been abusing her for weeks, and that night he'd hit her more than once because their dinner had been late to the table. She told them that if Mike hadn't intervened when he did she was afraid that he would have hurt her badly. She told them that Mercenary had saved her life.
Saved her life? Sure. Only to ruin it later by betraying her trust and treating her like she meant nothing to him. She probably would have been better off if, after that one night, she had never spoken to him again. In a moment of weakness he had befriended her and he had taken that friendship for granted and abused it without a second thought and that made him more terrible than anything he had done down in that dark and dusty basement. At this point was he really any better than that dude Danny, the scumbag he’d supposedly saved her from?
Shoving his hands in his pockets he went back to walking. He wanted a bottle. He needed a bed. He needed to greet the end of this night that, like so much else in his life of late, had not gone anywhere that he had hoped it would. He walked back out onto the busy street, making his way downtown towards his hotel, doing his best to be just another anonymous face among the crowd.
His heart beat heavy in his chest as he stood outside the door trying to find the courage to knock. Facing up to the things that he had done in the past few years and making amends for his sins was not an easy thing for him to do and he'd made a point of putting off some of the hardest apologies. He wasn’t at all sure what he would find behind this door. With a heavy sigh he knocked and for a long time after there was nothing. His stomach was a battleground for nervous bees and he was about to turn and leave when the door opened just wide enough for a young woman to look out with a suspicious expression.
“Can I help you?”
It was not Leather’s voice that asked the question and it was not her face that looked him up and down with a frown. The woman was beautiful, with chestnut hair, high cheek bones and a pouty mouth that wore a forbidding glare.
Mike: “I was looking for Lizzy... um, Elizabeth Cordowan. I’m not sure if this is the right address. I might be in the wrong place.”
The lines on the sides of her lips deepened as her frown became more pronounced. She looked him up and down again before shouting back over her shoulder into the apartment.
“Leather baby, there’s... some guy… here looking for you.”
From inside he heard her approach before her face took the other woman’s spot in the crack of the door. The expression that met him: A mixture of shock, anger and surprise caused his heart to beat faster. He did his best to offer her a friendly smile.
Mike: “Long time, no see.” he mumbled, regretting it almost as soon as he’d said it.
She didn’t answer. She just stared at him as if she were not sure exactly what to do. He shuffled and shifted, wishing that she would say anything to break the awkward silence. When she finally spoke there was no warmth behind the words.
Leather: “Michael? What are you doing here? What do you want?”
The sound of his name said in her voice hit him harder than he was ready for. His own words caught in his throat when attempted his answer.
Mike: “I… I came… I came to try to… apologize I guess. I came to tell you that I was sorry. Can I come in for a minute? Please? I really don’t want to do this through the door.”
Leather hesitated before she pulled back the safety chain and opened the door. She let it swing wide on the hinges as she walked away from him and back into the apartment. He followed her inside, shutting the door gently behind him. Inside Leather stood with her back to the entry hall. She wrung her hands and stared at the wall. From the other side of the room the other woman walked over and the two shared a whispered exchange that caused her to send a scowl in his direction.
Heather: “So you’re HIM huh? You’re Mike? Leather’s told me a lot about YOU. I’m Heather. I’m her girlfriend and I wanna know what the hell you’re doing here? What do you want from her?”
Leather whispered her girlfriends name and put a hand on her wrist but Heather pulled away. She was openly angry now and had no desire to hide her hostility.
Heather: “She loved you, you know. She did. You meant the world to her and you ripped her heart out without thinking about it once. You hurt her like that. You betrayed her like that, and now what, you’re here to what, say I’m sorry? You don’t deserve that! You don’t even deserve to be here! I think you should leave.”
For the entire duration of the verbal assault he endured the venom and said nothing to defend himself. He knew that he deserved every word. He knew that he deserved much worse. But his eyes were not on Heather as she spit her hate. His gaze never left Leather and after awhile she turned her eyes to meet his. She put her hand on Heather’s shoulder.
Leather: “Baby, it’s okay. I’ll be okay. Maybe you should leave us alone for a few minutes. Just give us some time to talk. Okay?”
She took her face in her hands and kissed her softly on the mouth. Heather pulled away and walked slowly from the room, never removing her glare from Michael’s face. When she was gone Leather sat in a chair across the room and stared at him in a way that made him very aware of himself. He shifted and spoke nervously.
Mike: “Well, she’s one helluva chick. Where’d ya pick her up?”
Leather frowned and shook her head.
Leather: “Mike, please, just get it off your chest. Say what you came to say.”
The cold brutality of her demeanor checked his natural instinct for sarcasm. He could see that she was all business and no bullshit. He struggled with a place to begin.
Mike: “I’ve run this shit over so many times in my head. What I was gonna say to you. How I was gonna try to make it right… as if I ever could. What can I say? I fucked up. I was selfish. I was stupid. I let myself be led… be manipulated. I was weak, but I never should have done that to you. Not to YOU. But I didn’t think that you were in love with her. I thought that you were just having a good time. I never for a second thought that she would be special to you. I… I didn’t think…”
Leather: “And you think that makes it okay?” she said in a bitter voice. “You think that’s a good excuse for fucking my girlfriend and breaking my heart?
He ground his teeth and shook his head in frustration. He didn’t know what to say. The volume of her voice increased with her accusations.
Leather: “The worst part of it is that I trusted you. I LOVED you, you fucking bastard. I cared about you like I never have anyone. You were my best friend. You were my only family. I would’ve done anything for you. Shit, I would’ve let YOU do anything to Me. How sick is that? How could you? You bastard! You saved me from that asshole only to turn around and hurt me more than he ever did with his hands. You gave me a home and then you took it away? You treated me like trash. How could you do that, To ME!”
He put his head back and sighed in frustration. This was harder than he had ever imagined that it would be. But he couldn’t argue a single word of it. It was all true. So all that he could do was endure the bludgeoning as best he could. But now she sat silent with tears running down her fragile cheeks and somehow that was so much worse than her angry words. He found himself wanting desperately for her to yell at him again but it seemed she had nothing left to say.
Mike: “You’re right… I don’t know… I don’t know how to say what I want to say. I always do this. I always end up hurting the wrong people. I just… I’ve just never been able to really believe that anyone really good could ever care about me. I’m a BAD person Liz. I’m a fuck up. It doesn’t matter what I do. I just can’t make it right. I just screw it all up. Every time. But I never meant to… hurt you. You do mean everything to me. You’re everything that should matter. You and Thorn and Shade, you were the only family that I had left. I just wish that I could have that back again. What can I say? What can I say to make it better? I’m just. So. Sorry. Please don’t hate me.”
He turned away from her and tried to hide the water welling up under his eyes. Self-consciously he tried to hide the tears by wiping at his cheeks with the back of his hand. His blood pressure pumped in his head. He felt desperate. At that moment he was trapped in the depth of his transgression and he would have done anything to feel her forgiveness. Rising from her chair she slowly crossed the room and with a brief moment of hesitation wrapped her arms around his shoulders. The relief he felt in that moment was a release beyond any he’d ever felt before. But the embrace only lasted for a second. She pushed him away from her and stared up into his eyes with a calm but cold expression.
Leather: “I know that you never meant to do what you did and I know that you care about me, I really do know that. I owe you so much. You saved me. You helped me find myself. You gave me a new chance to live my life and I’ll always hold you in my heart for that.”
He smiled and went again to take her into his arms but she stopped him with a palm on his chest.
Leather: “Michael, I’ll always have love for you, but I’m not ready to LIKE you yet. You betrayed my trust and I just can’t know if I can trust you right now. I hope you can understand.”
Mike: “But you can though.” he said, very quietly but with the greatest of conviction.
Leather: “But I don’t.” She responded with a certainly that completely overruled his own.
She pulled away from him and took a step back. Michael stood still with his head hanging. His eyes were closed as he absorbed the force of her final blow. From the back bedroom Heather came back into the room where she took her place by her girlfriend’s side. Leather took her hand and squeezed it hard to strengthen her resolve. Heather pulled her closer and cocked her chin defiantly at the dejected Mercenary.
Heather: “I think you should go now..”
Breaking hands Heather guided him back out the front door. He offered her no resistance. He had become very attuned to the feeling of defeat that came with losing a fight. As he found himself again on their doorstep with suspicious eyes on his back he turned to answer her hateful stare with an imploring glance.
Heather: “You know she thinks you saved her. She thinks that she needs you. But she didn’t need you. You needed her… and you had her. But you threw that all away for an exciting piece of ass. I pity you.”
He closed his eyes and shook his head, taking a tick to absorb what she’d said.
Mercenary: “Take care of her.” was all he said in a heavy whisper. The pain in his voice was evident and seemed to almost soften her expression.
Heather: “I ALWAYS do and I Always will. I know what I have.” she replied before slamming the door in his face.
Retreating back down the hall he leaned against the cold steel of the graffiti strewn elevator wall to steady himself before banging the back of his head a few times against its smooth and unforgiving surface. He wasn’t sure what he had expected when he came here, but he had not expected it to hurt as much as this. It was a heavy load to carry. It was the impossible weight of his own sins that were dragging him down and it now proved to be his own lonely burden to bare. The cruel reality of the realization that this bridge was all but burned left him feeling empty and uncomfortably numb amidst the ashes of a near unbearable disappointment and he stumbled out into the New York night knowing that he would find no solace alone on these hard and heartless streets of shame.
He walked for countless blocks as a drizzling rain pissed down from grey smoke skies. In his head he was drowning out the darker thoughts with the song Fairytale of New York by The Pogues, which ran through his inner monologue on a loop as he tried to recall a time when everything didn’t feel so miserable. Turning down a dimly lit side street his attention was drawn to a basement entrance with stairs that disappeared downward into the dark recesses of a shadow shrouded underworld. The song in his brain stopped as his memory was pulled back to a similar set of stairs that took him underground to a steel and concrete cell where Sinestro waited to offer him a chance to become a monster in the name of justice.
He shivered even though the damp air hung thick and humid and seemed to threaten suffocation. He had thought about that day many times since, but despite how much his actions had disturbed him, he had always found some solace in the certainty that those young punks had deserved what he had done to them because of what they had done to Dalilah. Now he wondered how much his motivations had been manipulated. How much of it all had been true? How much of himself had he lost to a lie and what the Hell was he now? Maybe Leather was smart not to trust him because he was definitely not the same guy that she had met back in San Francisco in what seemed now like another person’s life.
Leather Cordowan had been nothing more than Michael's neighbor when he had lived in San Francisco for a brief time between stints on the road. He had been refreshing his skills at the Steele Mill training school where he had first learned to wrestle from his first mentor in the business Josh Steele. Josh's son Jason had become one of his close friends, and one night in November the two of them had been hanging out with nothing to do at Mike's crappy little rental, sharing Guinness and Jameson boilermakers and watching The Big Lebowski on cable, when the noise from next door called for their attention.
Mike had heard the noise from next door before, but had just chalked it up to young love. He himself had had some very loud relationships in his time, and he knew how loud a good battle of wills could be. He grimaced and grunted at the sound of raised voices. He didn't make it common practice to get to know the neighbors when he moved into a new place. He knew he would never be there for very long, and he never saw the point in trying to make friends he would never be able to keep. He had seen... Elizabeth... Lizzy, he thought people called her, in the hallway a few times and had never really taken much notice of her. But last week he'd noticed the dark blue bruise she was trying so hard to hide and he'd started to get his suspicions. The sound of something breaking next door caused Jason to look up at the wall. Taking a long gulp from his Pilsner he cocked his head in Mike's direction.
Jason: "What the F’s up with all that then?"
Mike stared with a hard expression at the wall and the sounds from the other side.
Mercenary: "I don't know Man. Some dude and his girl having it out. I don't know."
Mike sighed heavily, not hearing Jason's reply as he rose from the chair and headed for his front door. Throwing the door open he stalked the few steps to the neighboring door and wrapped on it with a loud bang. Jason stood in the entrance to his apartment with a grim look on his face, knowing what was about to go down. He didn't say a word. He had known Mike long enough to know that it was pointless to get in his way when he went into Mercenary Mode. Mike wrapped again louder and was this time met by a large man in a black tank top and cargo shorts. He looked first at Mike, and then at Jason, then back to Mike. He held the door partly closed to obscure the view of the inside of the apartment.
POS Boyfriend: "The fuck do you want big boy? Can I help you with somethin?"
Mercenary: "I don't wanna talk to you man, I'm here to talk to your girlfriend, so get her out here."
The man in the doorway looked amused. He didn't give up too much in the way of size to Mercer. He was a big guy in his own right, and the look on his face told the world that he knew it. Looking back over his shoulder he called into the apartment.
POS: "Lizzy. Babe. C'mere. Got somebody wants to ask ya somethin'."
The look on the down-turned face of Elizabeth Cordowan was immediately recognizable to Michael. So was the angry red mark, slowly turning purple on her cheek.
Lizzy: "Can I help you with something? What do you want? It's dinner time... we're eating dinner. Can I help you?"
He could read the shock in her features, and the feeling that had been eating at his guts tore itself a huge mouthful. Elizabeth looked up meek and nervous, not really sure what to do.
Lizzy: "We... we really need to get back to eating dinner."
Her boyfriend stepped back into the doorway with a smirk on his face and a chicken leg in his hand. He took a large bite and wiped the grease on his arm.
POS: "You heard her. Get what you wanted? Satisfied? We'll try to keep it down. Have a good one now."
And he went to shut the door. Jason tried to get Mike's attention, but before he could Mercenary had kicked the dude through the door and into his apartment. He was on him before he could react, perfectly silent as he kicked him over and over, stopping only to punch him back down when he tried to rise. The traumatized girl did nothing. She put her back to the wall and stared wide-eyed at the scene. Jason pushed his way into the apartment trying to get a hold on The Mercenary before he did some damage to the guy he couldn't take back. Mike was in his own head. He saw nothing but red with fuzzy edges. He put his knee into the fallen boyfriend's sternum, right below the ribs, pushing his weight down to rob him of his ability to catch his breath, and he let the hammer of his fist hail down wherever it wished. Jason put his friend into a choke and wrenched him off the fallen form. Mike did not fight his friend, allowing himself to be dragged away. Elizabeth never moved from her place on the wall.
Mike pulled himself free of Jason's vice grip, his pulse hammering in his ears. Walking down the two flights to the ground floor. Michael sat on the outside stoop to compose himself. Jason eventually joined him, draping one of his leather coats over his shoulders to keep some of the weather off him. Jason stayed silent. He knew well enough what happened next. The front door to the building pushed open behind him and he could hear the sound of commotion upstairs, but was surprised to see Elizabeth Cordowan emerge. She looked sheepishly at him, but she also had a look he had not noticed before: a look of near relief... almost peaceful. She sat down on the step next to Mike, and after a moment she took his hand and placed her head on his shoulder. This was the still life scene which greeted the PD when they pulled up to the curb. Then there was the interviews and the paramedics and Michael Mercer in handcuffs. Before they hooked him up Mike slipped out of his leather coat and placed it over Elizabeth's rounded shoulders.
Merc: "Keep it" he said in a gravel laden monotone as the police led him to the back of a cruiser. Seeing his friend in handcuffs made Jason angry:
Jason: "I got you man. I got you. Bastard beats his girl and it's my buddy going to jail. Bullshit man! Bull. Shit."
Mike just looked up with a heavy look on his face, and didn't say a word as they shut the door on him. He would end up doing five months in county for the assault, losing several bookings as a result. Not good for an Indy guy just coming up. In the end it was Elizabeth Cordowan's testimony that got him a shorter stay. She told the court that her boyfriend Danny had been abusing her for weeks, and that night he'd hit her more than once because their dinner had been late to the table. She told them that if Mike hadn't intervened when he did she was afraid that he would have hurt her badly. She told them that Mercenary had saved her life.
Saved her life? Sure. Only to ruin it later by betraying her trust and treating her like she meant nothing to him. She probably would have been better off if, after that one night, she had never spoken to him again. In a moment of weakness he had befriended her and he had taken that friendship for granted and abused it without a second thought and that made him more terrible than anything he had done down in that dark and dusty basement. At this point was he really any better than that dude Danny, the scumbag he’d supposedly saved her from?
Shoving his hands in his pockets he went back to walking. He wanted a bottle. He needed a bed. He needed to greet the end of this night that, like so much else in his life of late, had not gone anywhere that he had hoped it would. He walked back out onto the busy street, making his way downtown towards his hotel, doing his best to be just another anonymous face among the crowd.
