Subterraneans (I Am Mercury series - Book 3)

By Grant Piercy

Alex Graves has become unstuck in reality. Not only has he broken free from prison, he has broken free of a single universe, simultaneously experiencing multiple versions of his life--dangerous fugitive, intrepid explorer, questing superhero, dying man. But which one is real? This is the third novella of the I AM MERCURY series.

I AM MERCURY is a nine-part serial suspense thriller about visions of other worlds, the stories we tell ourselves, and the things we do for love. Each short novella in the series features a different narrator, a different lens through which to view the events of the series. We begin with the riot at Yorkville State Pen and follow the journalists investigating what happened, the agent responsible for the incident, and the lone inmate who escaped. What do these interlocking stories mean for each other, and how will they coalesce?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Grant Piercy
• Release date: Jan 8, 2017
• ISBN: 9781370812813

Grant Piercy

Grant Piercy is the author of THE ERASED SAGA and I AM MERCURY. He lives with his family in Columbus, Ohio.

Book preview

SUBTERRANEANS

a novella

I AM MERCURY, BOOK III

By Grant Piercy

Published by Grant Piercy at Smashwords

Copyright © 2017 Grant Piercy

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this work, in whole or in part, in any form.

Cover art by Grant Piercy

Edited by Emily Zapp

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

This book is protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America. Any reproduction or other unauthorized use of the material or artwork herein is prohibited without the express written permission of the author.

This is a work of fiction. All characters, events, organizations and products depicted herein are either a product of the author’s imagination, or are used fictitiously.

Table of Contents

dramatis personae

epigraph

(segue)

1. eros and thanatos

2. i am mercury

3. subterraneans

4. at old comiskey park

5. shuffling earths

6. her conflagration above

(segue)

about the author

Dramatis Personae

- Rose Pozniak, a different perspective [narrator]

- Alex Graves, a fugitive [narrator]

- Tyrrell Garrett, a journalist

- Tom Stockton, a journalist

- Eva Murphy, a wife and mother

- Frances Murphy, a child

- Ryan Hoffman, a theorist

- Dr. Greene, a physician

- Daz Turner, a radio personality

- Marion Olander, a patient

- Larunda Vor, a siren

epigraph:

I sing of the progresse of a deathlesse soule…

- John Donne, Metempsychosis (1601)

(segue)

Each day is almost identical to the last. Blue skies always overhead, a patch of trees to the west, behind which the sun dips at dusk. The scent of flowers waft through the air, up and around the slabs of stone. Outside the boundaries of this place, the world goes on spinning. People live with little concern about what comes next. Usually they’ve made up their minds. Across the street each Shabbat, worshippers meet and listen and talk. Sometimes a few cross the road to visit someone they once knew.

Beneath the grass, they sleep.

And dream.

Their only real friends are the bees that dance from flower to flower and the birds that think the world belongs to them. The birds and the bees are the only ones who visit her on a regular basis, though her family stops by every year on the anniversary.

Her stone, a slab of red granite, stands as a solemn reminder. Next to her carved name is a portrait of roses, mimicked only by the bushel her family brings by once a year. She spends each day here, under her stone, beneath the dirt.

Waiting.

1. eros and thanatos

(Rose)

So sweet the pain.

That’s the first instinct I felt when I found out I was pregnant. This is going to hurt like a bitch. The next thoughts were practical in a way. How much weight am I going to gain? I’m going to need maternity clothes. What space for the baby? We’re going to need a bigger apartment. What am I going to tell my parents?

What will he say?

It didn’t matter terribly in the beginning that something was growing inside me. Some foreign entity, planted into my stomach by a man I told not to wear a condom because I was on birth control. I didn’t feel all that different, except for the nausea. But it all leads up to the godawful pain of childbirth.

And they told me it wouldn’t really hurt because I’d be drugged up and floating on a cloud while people yell to push.

You’re standing here next to me, gripping my hand, the sweat pouring down your face. You’re the only one not screaming at me as I stare at you through squinted eyes. You let me squeeze your hand and I think of how cute you look in those