Lust: Sins of Mercy

By Hildred Billings

"Mercy Devereux stood on the edge of a bridge, looking into the abyss below."

Life has not been kind to Mercy: her girlfriend is gone, she's unappreciated in her corporate job, and depression has always haunted her. That's how she came to stand on the bridge where she meets Acedia, the deity who oversees the Seven Sinners, bringers of peace and carnal healing.

Now Mercy must embark on a journey to reclaim the sinful delights in life, beginning with Lust, the crimson-colored deity who hopes to reawaken more than just a woman's heart. But Mercy soon discovers that a spirit's power is not meant for most mortal flesh - a dire thought, when there are seven ethereal women waiting for her, each with their own sinful agendas!

Sins of Mercy is a series of short stories about one woman's reawakening to the world around her. It includes topics regarding depression and self-harm. The overall serial has a HEA.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Barachou Press
• Release date: Feb 2, 2021
• ISBN: 9781393345312

Book preview

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LUST

—-

Straddling the line between corporeal and ethereal was never easy.

To be fair, this was the first time in nearly a hundred years a being like Acedia had touched a wispy foot upon the earth.

She was used to watching from afar. Or was it considered adjacent to the mortal world? She was an immortal being who neither existed on the mortal plane nor in some heavenly sphere. She simply was. Like she could split herself into any number of independent personalities, Acedia could be both visible to the naked eye and never once spotted as she moved between shoulders and breathed the same air as the people going about their lives. Some of them had called to her. Wasn’t that why she was there? Wasn’t that why she gazed into the sad faces of forgotten women and heard the whispers of forgetful men?

Their pain touched her. From the day she was created – or was it born from the earth? – she had been keenly attuned to the silent wails of those who suffered deeply on a spiritual level.

Once, so long ago, a cult had worshipped her. Those fearless women of ancient times were gone now, their ways also dissipated upon the wind, but Acedia remembered them. She recalled the happy faces she had touched with her divinity. She would never forget the young women and the wizened crones she blessed with her endless, bountiful love.

Unlike some other deities that roamed the earth, Acedia’s strength was not reliant upon the number worshiping her at any given moment. She was not empowered by prayer. How was that possible? Every time she came across that sentiment, she could only laugh. Imagine! A goddess that didn’t exist unless someone worshipped her! Only a mortal could come up with such silly notions. Probably a man. Acedia had nothing against them. It was men who allowed her original temples to be built, although they had also been the ones to tear them down. Once, she had been a blessing upon the people who called her. Soon, she was devolved to cult status. Then a nuisance. Soon, she was a danger. A demon who came into the night and stole women away from perfectly decent homes and husbands. Girls were given objects to wear to ward her away, not that such things worked. Maidens ran from her, even if she took the form of their best friend. Young married women prayed to find happiness in their marriages while uttering breaths meant to fend off Acedia, the goddess who was all too soon forgotten by the very class she swore to heal and protect.

She had never known any differently. Even when she was forgotten, she continued her divine work. Like her sister, the entity born alongside her, fulfilled her dark duties in another realm.

Acedia hadn’t interfered with a mortal’s life in so long. The last time had been a miserable failure, the poor dear succumbing to Acedia’s sister’s dark and twisted promises. It hadn’t always been like that. Acedia won, more often than not. Did she condone the games she played with her sister, though? No. She didn’t think of them as games. She thought of them as duties they fulfilled, and it was her duty to turn all spiritually destitute women away from the darkness.

Such a call had brought her to the mortal realm once more. After a hundred years of dormancy, licking her wounds and recalling a time when her followers embraced her, Acedia was ready.

A young woman had fallen asleep on a park bench, slumped over from the weariness of a long day at work before she was to return home to her sick mother. The woman didn’t yet realize that a major source of fatigue wasn’t the stress weighing upon her shoulders, but the new life growing inside of her – courtesy of a one-night stand she swore would relieve her tension four weeks ago. Yet as she slept, she afforded Acedia the perfect opportunity to borrow her body and readjust to the world.

So much had changed in the past hundred years, never mind in America, a country that hadn’t existed the last time Acedia successfully turned a woman away from the darkness. She of course knew about technological advances, great strides in medicine, and changes in social mores that meant the world as an ancient life knew it was no more, but Acedia was no less amazed to gaze upon bright lights, busy people, and buildings so tall that she lost their rooftops to the sky. The gaping mouth she now commanded let out a low whistle of appreciation. Human ingenuity. Who knew? This was a deity who had been impressed with Roman aqueducts and praised the Chinese for their impressive houses of worship. If there was an unveiling in history that had hosted a languid woman who suddenly chirped up in raucous, sometimes inappropriate applause, it was probably Acedia’s fault.

For, unlike what her named implied, she was quite involved in human affairs. She was simply in a strict place of viewing from the sidelines, never to directly interfere unless a voice had cried out to her.

Whether they knew it or not.

Acedia left the woman on the bench and once more blended into the crowd, invisible yet leaving a chilling breath on the backs of necks and warmth in stomachs. The men also looked around as Acedia passed a busy intersection full of cars and bicycles. One woman nearly slammed on her breaks when