Sinner's Song

"But how can you live and have no story to tell?"

Part 4: Gluttony

We are all born wanting.

We want love, nourishment, safety, but as we age we begin to want for more than our basic needs.

Money.

Power.

Pleasure.

We take and take until our bellies swell painfully, begging us to stop but yet still we want more. So then how do you know when it's too much? Is it when you're so ravaged by addiction that you forgo your humanity? Or maybe it's when you become so lost in your indulgence that nothing ever satisfies you anymore.

I could hear my bones rattling as I walked into the office. People were gathered around whispering at their desks. I ignored them, thinking it was nothing more than idle office gossip making its rounds through the department. As soon as I sat down to clock in a long boney hand emerged from the other side of the screen.

"Dyani did you hear?"

"Hear what?" I asked through a mouthful of mints.

"Apparently the Lust Department was having a little trouble inciting souls this month so we're ahead of them by quite a bit. If we stay ahead it looks like this month we'll be winning that pizza party!"

My co-worker chirped, practically salivating at the thought. I rolled my eyes, though she couldn't quite see that through my helmet. The sleek golden helmet locked onto my neck only ever opened when it was time to eat. Boss says it's to keep us from accidentally devouring each other. Honestly, with the way Aren over here was breathing so heavily over a pizza party we hadn't even won yet, it was a reasonable enough measure. The folks down here are prone to...well...having big appetites. Once you start to indulge, it becomes quite difficult to stop. It was a toil I knew well.

"We've still got a few more days left in the month, they could make a comeback."

A muffled scoff came from beneath Aren's helmet. "Don't jinx us! If they do manage to pull through I think I might just eat that little toy Asmodeus keeps around out of spite."

I shrugged. "Go ahead...if you don't mind dying a second time."

She kissed her teeth and scurried off to the kitchen. Aren was a greedy pig in every sense of the word. In fact, it was thanks to her that I found myself down here in this hell hole. Stuck with her in life, stuck with her in the afterlife, she seems to think we're the best of friends. I can't tell if she's brain-dead or just doesn't care. I've been trapped here with her for 112 years and no matter what I do, she insists on pestering me.

Maybe it's a sentimental thing for her. I doubt other souls she's managed to capture have ended up working here with her. Or maybe she pulled some strings with the boss in light of our friendship during life. Was she expecting me to be grateful? To forget all the pain she caused me?

My stomach grumbled and I felt that incessant ache that hasn't once left me all these years. I stood from my seat, bones cracking and begging me to sit back down as I angrily made my way to the kitchen. I'll never forgive her. People think us demons are to be feared but sometimes it's your own people, the living and breathing that have it out for you the most.

•~•~•~•

112 years ago

"Listen...I know how hard you've worked on this, but I honestly think it's still missing something."

"What! But I've edited everything the way they wanted me to!"

Aren sighed. "It just doesn't feel like you're writing anymore." She plopped my manuscript back onto the table.