Riley's Box

Part 26

Have you ever had to sneak out of your bedroom window so that you and a bunch of literal sins don't get spotted by your parents? 

I didn't think so. 

Up until a few hours ago, I would never have expected for me to be the one to do that, either. However, stranger things certainly did happen. 

The last Sin was out of the window and it was my turn to follow, but then there was a knock at my bedroom door. 

"Riley!" my father's voice called out to me. "Would you like some lunch?" he asked me. 

I groaned internally. Not right this minute. 

 I swiftly walked out of the closet, so I could open my main bedroom door. 

"Why's the window open? You'll get cold," he said. 

"I feel really, really hot, actually," I replied. "That's why I had the window open, so I could get some air," I explained. 

A question flickered in my father's eyes, but he didn't say anything else on the subject. Thankfully. 

My mother was the next one who wished to speak to me. 

"Riley...I wanted to talk to you to make sure that you're not just staying home today because you didn't want to go to school," she said. 

I swallowed. My throat felt as though it was closing up from my anxiety.

The suggestion made me uncomfortable. 

"No, mom. Why would I do that? I didn't go to school today because I really didn't feel well," I said, with my best tone of sincerity. I then offered her a friendly smile, to really try to convince her that all was well. 

My mother's eyes narrowed a little, but she didn't say anything else. 

"So uh...I think I'll just rest up for the rest of the day," I said, then. I knew that wasn't really what I was going to do, but they didn't need to know that now, did they? 

"Alright. No food?" my dad asked. 

I shook my head. 

"No food. I would stay back if I were you, actually. I might have a fever," I said. 

My mother's eyebrows creased together, but she nodded. She then took a step back, so the two of them were out in the hall again. 

"Alright, speak to you two later! Bye!" I said and promptly closed my bedroom door on them. 

I had tried to be as affable to them as I could be, but now was simply not the time! 

With the thought of the task ahead firmly planted in my mind, I made my way over to the window and jumped. 

I could have screamed, as I felt my heart drop at the same time that my body did. 

However, fortunately I had a very soft landing. 

"Yay, Pig! You made it," Guttur said with a happy smile. 

The 'soft' landing that I had fallen upon soon made an irritated noise. 

"Get off me. This instance," she said. 

At the speed of light, I jumped up so I could remove myself from Prida, who I had been crushing moments before.

I then turned my attention to Guttur. 

"Pig?" I asked. "Does he really think that I look like a pig?" 

"Guttur's short-sighed," Adina explained. "It's rather unfortunate, really."

"Especially when it comes to searching for the shadow spirits," Invidia said and then glanced down to her nails for a moment, as though disinterested in everything that was going on around her. 

Avidicci soon suggested that we should get a move on, so we raced on down the road away from my house. 

We kept running and running and running until...

I slammed into a hard chest. 

"Riley? Are you okay? Why weren't you at school today?" a familiar voice asked. 

I took a step back to meet the gaze of one Whit Album. 

He sounded genuinely interested and I could tell from the warmth in his eyes that he genuinely cared, too. 

I didn't want to have to hide the truth from him. 

"Get a move on!" Invidia hissed at me. 

I offered her a friendly smile, as I replied. "In a second!" 

I felt Whit eyeing me with curiosity. "Uh...Riley, who are you talking to?" he asked.

I promptly turned my attention away from Invidia and back to him. 

"Uh, what I mean to say is that...wait. You can't see them?" I asked him. 

"Can't see what?" he asked, sounding about as confused as he looked. His eyebrows knitted together and his mouth formed a firm line. 

Well, that settled that mystery. Almost. Why couldn't Whit see them? 

I thought back to what the Sins had told me previously and remembered. 

Whit hadn't touched the box. That was why he couldn't see them. 

"Uh...never mind. Oh, April?" I asked, as I saw her catch up to Whit.

"Riley! I thought that something might have happened to you. You know how dangerous things have been recently!" she said. 

I sometimes believed that she feared danger a lot more than she actually experienced it. 

"Uh...have they?" I asked. I really needed to remove 'uh' from my vocabulary as quickly as I needed to remove myself from the situation. 

Invidia was still gazing in my direction and she looked rather vexed by my speed at following them, or lack thereof. 

"I told Whit about the shadows! I wasn't sure what else to do." 

"Obviously, I wanted to figure out what was going on here, as soon as possible!" Whit said. 

I looked between the two of them with disbelief, and then returned my attention to April. 

"You did what?" I asked her. 

"I didn't want to be alone in this," she said. 

She hadn't been alone, though. She had me. Frustrating. 

"I took a day off school because I didn't feel well," I said quickly, returning the focus of the conversation back to what Whit had originally asked. 

I knew that I needed to distract the both of them. There was no way that I could explain the whole Seven Deadly Sins thing to them, any time soon! No way at all.