MENTIONED:
DEATH MERCHANT
ELI


Sin lifted the top end of the travois back onto her shoulders and tried to continue on. Her strength abandoned her, however and she stumbled forward onto the wet flooded ground, almost dropping the litter. Landing on her knees, she succumbed to fatigue, just for a second, and closed her eyes, a single moment of weakness that threatened to linger on forever.

SINCERE LEE WILD: “No!”

Her eyes snapped open. She looked back at Death Merchant and the others following behind her who had stopped as well taking drinks of water from their canteens. She looked down at the man whose labored breathing seemed to be getting worse by the second. He was gasping for air like a fish out of water. He shivered uncontrollably beneath the heavy blankets Sin had swaddled him in. She smiled at the awful sounds coming from his chest. His lips were a purplish color.

She crawled over the litter, until she was kneeling down beside his trembling body. The cool temperature seemed to be competing with the sickness inside of him to see which would kill him off first. Shrugging off the rucksack, she opened it and retrieved the knife she had tried to give to Death Merchant earlier.

SINCERE LEE WILD: This is far enough, no one will ever look this far brothers and sisters.”

Sin said standing to her feet. Death Merchant looked down at the man and then at Sin who was still holding the knife.

DEATH MERCHANT: “Wait a second Sin, what is going on here I thought we were taking this man to get help?”

Sin rolled her eyes laughing as she pointed down at the mass wilderness below them. Death Merchant looked down from the mountain top seeing nothing land for miles and miles as the weather got progressively worse by the minute.

SINCERE LEE WILD: “Help? And what kind of help do you think we should give him Death? “

DEATH MERCHANT: “I don‘t know maybe some medical attention, a hospital anything.”

SINCERE LEE WILD: “Look around Death, there isn‘t anything for miles, we didn‘t hike up here to get him fucking medical attention.”

DEATH MERCHANT: “Then why Sin, why tell me?”

Death Merchant said throwing his hands in the air waiting for an answer, the tone in his voice very condescending.

SINCERE LEE WILD: “You think I give two fucks about this man and the pain he is in, because if you do then you don‘t know me at all Death. We came up here to end the world of this disease that is spreading over the population……”

Sin looked down at the man who was still gasping for air and spit towards him.

SINCERE LEE WILD: “He is to weak for this world, to weak for the congregation and he knew the risks when he came to the Promise Land, Eli warned all of us.”

DEATH MERCHANT: “Then why not just let him die in peace Sin, why take him all the way out here to kill him, do you know how crazy that is?”

Sin lunged forward knocking Death Merchant onto the ground holding the knife up to his neck, both of them intensely breathing.

DEATH MERCHANT: “What the hell Sin?”

SINCERE LEE WILD: “Don‘t call me crazy, do you know I have been listening to people call me crazy for the last year. The Xtreme Wrestling Federation locking me up in a mental institute because they feared me and what I was capable of in their business. You Death, I‘m only going to warn you this one time, DO NOT CALL ME CRAZY!”

Sin pulled the knife away from his neck and pushed herself off of him. The two looked at each other knowing that a lot had changed over the years and that they were not the same people they once were. Death Merchant knew that Sin always battled the demons in her head, hell he did too, but there was a kindness to her back then when it was just the two of them, a kindness that had apparently left and changed her forever.

SINCERE LEE WILD: “We have to take them out here because we do not want their weakness and their disease spreading to the other occupants of the Promise Land, especially Eli.”

DEATH MERCHANT: “Then why drag me all the way out here, this is something you could have done yourself Sin, you apparently show great pleasure in it. So do what you need to so we can get the hell out of here.”

Death Merchant said tucking his hands into his coat pocket and pulling his hands towards his stomach to try and shield him from the relentless rain. Sin smile shaking her head as she motioned the knife towards Death Merchant.

SINCERE LEE WILD: “As much as I would like to end this mans life so that I don‘t have to listen to his disease filled lungs polluting the air anymore, it is not my task. It‘s yours.”

Death Merchant took his hands back out of his coat pockets and threw his hands in the air.

DEATH MERCHANT: “What do you mean my task, this is the job Eli left for you and you alone.”

SICNERE LEE WILD: “It is, but you need to prove yourself to him, you need to prove yourself to me, after all I was the one who brought you in, because I know deep down the man you really are Death. Admit it there is still a side of you that wants to kill…..to hurt. One voice in your held tell you not to because its not morally right, but the other voice the darker voice tell you it‘s in your nature. We both battle the same voices Death, you just have to choose which one to listen to. In the end we all choose the darker voice because it‘s the easiest.”

Sin moved towards Death Merchant and placed the knife into his hands as he looked down at it his mind racing with a million different thoughts. His breathing increased rapidly and his eyes began to tear as Sin moved him closer to the man on the litter. She knelt down with him as he held the knife up over his head almost as if he was ready to bring it down with such force that he would go through the mans sternum and straight out the other side through the litter, but he didn’t. He knelt there with the knife over his head and dropped it down unable to follow through with Sin and Eli’s request to prove himself.

DEATH MERCHANT: “I-I----I can‘t Sin, this isn‘t who I want to be anymore.”

Sin raised her hand and ran it through his wet hair.

SINCERE LEE WILD: “But it is who you are Death. You lost yourself, now it‘s up to you to find the true you again. You‘re a killer, a murderer, a man who loves to torture and hurt others.”

DEATH MERCHANT: “NO I‘M NOT. I‘M NOT THAT MAN ANYMORE.”

Death Merchant said slamming his hand down angrily as he looked over at Sin. It was a very emotional moment for Death Merchant, he had been battling the demons in him for years and he wondered how she could be smiling at him with such a sinister look depicted on her face. Had she lost everything inside her that she once was. Was there no longer once ounce of kindness left in her body.

SINCERE LEE WILD: “I told you Death, it‘s who you are.”

Sin shifted her eyes down towards the man and Death Merchants eyes accompanied hers. He let out a loud moan as he looked down at the knife shoved deep into the mans sternum. The blue blood from inside his body gushed from his chest. As the blood his the air it quickly turned red because of the oxygen in the air. Tears began to fall from Death Merchants eyes as he rested his head on the mans motionless body. During his moment of rage he forgot that he was holding the knife and when he slammed his fist down he did the one thing his body raged him not to do…..he took a life.

SINCERE LEE WILD: “It‘s okay Death it‘s been a while, but I promise from here on out it will only get easier. This is why I told Eli to choose you as part of the congregation, because you can do what is necessary.”

Sin said still running her hands through his hair trying to console him. He grabbed her by the wrists and shoved her away looking at her with pain and hurt behind his eyes.

DEATH MERCHANT: “I have tried Sin, I have tried to be a better man. I didn‘t want to become this monster again.”

Sin flashed another smile staring at him emotionlessly.

SINCERE LEE WILD: “But there is no fighting who we really are Death. We all have a monster in us, it‘s just the stronger ones that allow it out of its cage.”

The hike back down the mountain was a quiet one. Sin did what she did best leading without fear down the massive and treacherous mountain. Death Merchant on the other hand walked alone without question fighting the voices in his head that were now worse than ever. Maybe Sin was right, maybe there was no fighting who he really was, but he had to believe that there was something better than who he was, after all it was the only hope that kept him going.