Chapter 6 - MERCY HOUSE
Mercy House was neither merciful nor a house.
It was an abandoned orphanage outside the city that had become neutral ground during the worst years of the old family wars.
Men who would shoot each other on a street sometimes sat at the same table there.
Not because of rules.
Because the building belonged to Father Michael Crane.
Not a priest anymore.
Not officially anything.
He had grown up around the families, heard their confessions, buried their dead, and somehow survived long enough that even violent men became superstitious about crossing him.
Dominic Sorrento had served as his protector for years.
Arthur had not been back in more than four decades.
The front doors remained.
The roof had collapsed on one side.
Graffiti covered the lower brick.
Clara came despite Arthur’s objection.
Sienna came because the key was hers.
Arthur brought two bodyguards but left them outside.
The three entered.
Dust.
Broken glass.
Old wooden stairs.
Sienna held the silver key.
“Where?”
Arthur remembered a basement.
They found it beneath the chapel.
A steel door stood behind a collapsed partition.
At its center were several narrow locks.
Not one.
Seven.
Sienna inserted her key.
It turned.
One lock opened.
Arthur stared.
“Gabriel’s key.”
Clara looked at him.
“We need it.”
“It disappeared with him.”
Sienna examined the door.
“Seven families?”
Arthur nodded slowly.
Mercy House had once been protected by seven old groups.
Vance.
Sorrento.
Sterling.
Two others still active.
Two gone.
Clara looked at Arthur.
“Sterling.”
“Julian’s family.”
“Yes.”
Arthur’s expression hardened.
Julian had always claimed the Sterlings were minor.
Respectable but weak.
Perhaps minor did not mean irrelevant.
“Did Julian know?” Clara asked.
“I don’t know.”
Sienna almost smiled.
“Now you know how everyone else feels.”
Arthur accepted it.
They searched the upper rooms.
No dramatic treasure appeared.
Only remnants.
Names carved into old benches.
Children’s drawings.
A wall where family symbols had once been painted over.
Then Clara found writing inside a closet.
Not recent.
Knife scratches.
G.V.
D.S.
Beneath:
WE LEAVE TOGETHER OR NOT AT ALL.
Arthur stared.
Gabriel Vance.
Dominic Sorrento.
Not enemies.
Allies.
Perhaps friends.
“Did you know?” Sienna asked.
“No.”
“My father was accused of betraying yours.”
“Yes.”
“And your brother disappeared around the same time.”
“One year apart.”
Sienna looked at him.
“What if they disappeared together?”
Arthur considered.
The Ferryman takes only the living.
Maybe the Ferryman was not one rescuer.
Maybe it was a network built from men who wanted out of family wars.
Mercy House.
Neutral ground.
Keys from multiple families.
A system capable of moving people.
Clara spoke.
“Maybe the Ferryman isn’t Gabriel.”
Arthur looked at her.
“Maybe Gabriel was one of them.”
Footsteps sounded upstairs.
All three froze.
Arthur reached inside his jacket.
A man descended slowly.
Julian.
Clara’s expression hardened.
“You followed us.”
Julian looked at Arthur.
“You left two men outside.”
Arthur said nothing.
Julian held up a matching silver key.
Sienna stared.
“Where did you get that?”
“My grandfather.”
Clara looked at him.
“You knew about Mercy House.”
“I knew the name.”
“You lied.”
Julian laughed bitterly.
“We have established I’m not the only one.”
Arthur’s gaze turned cold.
Julian lifted one hand.
“I didn’t come for a fight.”
“You put your hand on my daughter.”
“I know.”
“You will know longer.”
Julian looked at Clara.
“I’m not asking forgiveness.”
“Good.”
“I came because someone called me.”
Arthur narrowed his eyes.
“Who?”
“The Ferryman.”
Sienna stepped forward.
“When?”
“Forty minutes ago.”
“What did he say?”
Julian looked toward the seven-lock door.
“He told me to bring my key.”
Arthur stared.
“How did he know you had it?”
“I never told anyone.”
Sienna looked at him.
“Not even me?”
“No.”
That mattered.
Julian continued.
“My grandfather gave it to me when I was fifteen. Said one day a man might ask whether I knew how to cross water without a boat.”
Arthur felt an old memory.
Gabriel once said the same thing.
As boys, Gabriel would ask:
How do you cross water without a boat?
Arthur always answered bridge.
Gabriel said:
You become the river.
At the time it was nonsense.
Now it felt like language.
A code.
Julian walked to the steel door.
He inserted his key.
Second lock.
Click.
Sienna’s was already open.
Five remained.
Clara studied the symbols around them.
One lock bore the old Vance crest.
One Sorrento.
One Sterling.
Another symbol resembled a crown.
Another a hawk.
Another an oak.
The final lock had no symbol.
Just a circle.
Arthur touched it.
“Who?”
A voice came through an old speaker above the door.
Distorted by age.
“You finally brought the right people.”
Everyone turned.
Arthur looked upward.
The speaker crackled again.
“Arthur.”
His blood went cold.
He knew the voice.
Older.
Rougher.
Impossible to mistake.
“Gabriel.”
Clara stared at her father.
Sienna covered her mouth.
Julian froze.
The voice laughed softly.
“Eighteen years and you still sound angry.”
Arthur stepped toward the wall.
“Where are you?”
“Close enough.”
“Open the door.”
“No.”
Arthur’s expression darkened.
“Gabriel.”
“You haven’t changed enough for that tone.”
Clara looked at her father.
He had become a boy arguing with his brother again.
“Why Julian?” Arthur asked.
“Because he had a key.”
“Why Sienna?”
“Because she had another.”
“Why Clara?”
Silence.
Arthur’s voice changed.
“Answer me.”
Gabriel finally did.
“Because she was the only person you might love more than being right.”
Clara stared at the speaker.
Arthur said nothing.
Gabriel continued.
“I needed to know whether you would choose her or the hunt.”
Arthur’s face hardened.
“You put her in danger.”
“No.”
“You sent people into her marriage.”
“I did not send Julian.”
“Then who did?”
A pause.
“The man who wants this door open.”
The speaker died.
At that exact moment, one of the five remaining locks clicked by itself.
Everyone stared.
Third lock.
Open.
May you like
Someone else had arrived at Mercy House.
And they had another key.
