Creation

Hermes first appears in House of Slaughter #6 by Sam Johns and Letizia Cadonici

Major Story Arcs

Edwin Slaughter's Totem

Hermes made a home for himself in the pool of an expensive housing complex. He was feeding on the residents' fear, but he quickly became bored with their flavorless fear until he came across young boy named Edwin and his mother. Hermes singled out Edwin for two reasons. His mother had a single, unique fear of losing Edwin, and Edwin was so introverted he lacked emotional bias, making the stories he told born from his memories instead of his imagination. Hermes killed his mom and set Edwin up to get the attention of The House of Slaughter. During his initiation, Hermes secretly killed the testing monster so that he could replace that monster as Edwin's totem, giving him the opportunity to continue nibbling at Edwin's tasty memories of his mother.

Camp Sturgeon

At Camp Sturgeon, the body of a nine-year-old girl washed up on the shore of Lake Michigan with her eyes missing. Common eye injuries among children started accumulating at the camp. The House of Slaughter does not believe it is the work of a monster; however, the suspicious frequency of these common injuries could spread fear through the kids and thus birth a new monster. Edwin is sent to investigate and report back.

Unfortunately, his presence at the campground starts gathering too much attention, so he takes a boat out to the middle of the lake where he cannot be watched. While contemplating some weird memories that are half-formed, he confronts his totem about stealing bits and pieces of it from him. Hermes comes clean about everything, just as the two are stalked by the dragon that lives in the lake. Edwin acts out of character and tries to kill the monster.

This prompts Hermes to reveal himself and attack the dragon to rescue Edwin. This gets the attention of the some of the campers, but they only get to see Edwin emerge from the bloody lake alone. Hermes was presumed dead, but sometime later, he emerged from the lake having become a duplicitype of Edwin. He started preying on the children, adding them to his body as additional eyes. and calling on their memories when he wants too. The House of Slaughter could never figure out this string of killings.

House of Slaughter

Hermes makes it back to Slaughterhouse where he is initially written off as a glitch since the security system picked up two bio markers for Edwin. He hid in the space between the walls, occasionally contacting the retired totems and rousing them awake by possessing them with the memories of the children he had collected. He also befriended the paper doll that Bait used to use as his totem but forcibly retired. Hermes figured if he was a hunter now, he should have his own totem.

To aid him in becoming a hunter, he needed to feed on the residents of the Slaughterhouse. While feasting on the white masks, he was interrupted by Nolan, Bait, and his old hunter, Edwin. They had been investigating the duplicate bioscan and other strange phenomena. Hermes attempted to fight them, but since Edwin was never properly trained, neither was Hermes. Nolan was able to hold him off, until Edwin could try something bold.

Edwin realized all the memories he absorbed were just stories, making them weak oscuras, like the rite of initiation, which meant they had a chance. Realizing he is in danger, Hermes uses his psychic abilities to trap the three hunters’ minds. They were rescued by other azure masks, who had been investigating in secret as well. They weakened Hermes by knocking out his extra eyes one by one until he exploded into meat and viscera.