The Devil's Descent

Chapter 5: Friends

Chapter 5: Friends

Home is a place where you feel comfortable. Home is not a castle in the woods. Home is not a dark stone room or a white stone room. Home is not a throne. But if some of us weren't homeless—or at least away from home—then none of us would have a home. Balance, right? That's key.

"So, what's up?"

"Hmmm."

"I'm going to imagine you said, 'The sky.'"

"Hmmm."

"And the ceiling?"

"Hmmm."

"Sloth?"

"Hmmm."

"Got any other jokes?"

"Hmmm."

"Sloth...I'm glad you're here with me." A head of wild, dirty-blonde hair rests on a near-motionless shoulder. Gluttony and Sloth clasp hands.

"Hmmm," grunted with a slight smile.

Home doesn't have to make sense; one is not owed an explanation about home.

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"Why can't you move on? I know you're Wrath, but that doesn't translate to, 'Grudge-holder,' believe it or not...You could at least talk about someone other than God, you know," Greed complains, pacing a short, furious line in the main, common room. "Honestly, all you're doing is tormenting people, a-"

"You don't understand! You don't know! You could never possibly see! But, blind man, who sees the sun rise over here," Wrath's face twists in confusion, looking down at her hands, "please see that I'm the only person who wants to be this way—is dedicated—to being really sinful! Because I have reasons, John; I've seen," she flounders for words, searching the stones," the sun set," gaze fixed on the massive doors to the outside, "and now I'm blind." A limp surprise overtakes Senna. She turns back to Greed. "I don't understand, John, what you mean by 'moving on?' I...it doesn't matter." Another wave of limp surprise washes over Senna, and then her face sets in that familiar glare. "I'm leaving." And Wrath turns to Hell.

"Don't walk away from me." Greed catches Wrath's shoulder. "You don't get to be blind because I can't imagine the view you'll see when you find you could open your eyes the whole time. And stop making a martyr of yourself—'Boohoo, Senna's family is dead.' Do you even know what I've been through? What all of us have been through?" Greed wears a mask of determination. Wrath, having never turned to look at the owner of the hand on her shoulder, shrugs it off and leaves. Greed's expression doesn't waver.

But one can request an explanation.

________________________________________

A naked Lust and Patience lie on the lawn. Looking up from her head's perch on his chest, Lust asks, "What will you wait for now, Patience?"

Looking down, Patience answers, "For the next time, Lust." Lust grins at him, and the smile is returned.

"You know I've never actually wondered since I met you, but what were you waiting for that first time? When I met you on the cliff?" Lust pauses for a moment, searching Patience's eyes, then quickly resumes when no answer comes. She lays her head on his chest again. "I had been wandering—not lost, just not...found—when I came upon that village. It wasn't a remarkable village; I didn't care at all when one of the women started to speak to me. But then she told me of a boy who stood on a cliff all day and all night without moving—a boy who hadn't slept, eaten, or drank in a month...When I went to the cliff the woman spoke of, I did see a boy, but he was a boy with a blanket and scraps of food strewn about him. He had probably been drinking from a nearby stream, too. And so I nearly left, but then I stayed. I wanted to see if he did, at least, stand at the cliff all day and all night. So I waited a day and a night, and the boy did stay by the cliff except once to go toward the stream. You think I'd be amazed, but I was bored. See, I wanted the boy to move. So I went up to the boy, and I said, 'They lie about you in the village.' The boy looked at me, but he didn't answer. His eyes were as blue as the ocean beyond the cliff. I tried again, 'They say you don't eat, drink, or sleep, but you obviously do.' Again, the boy didn't answer. So I tried again, 'The only thing they say you do that you do do is stay by the cliff.' Still, the boy didn't answer, and it so irritated me that I spent the rest of the day trying to get him to speak...At night, I was bored by my game and had decided to leave. But as I made to leave, a thought occurred to me, and I voiced it, 'What are you waiting for?' I hadn't stopped leaving because I didn't expect an answer, but then the boy said to me, all nonchalant, 'You, I guess.' And then you want to know what you did, Patience? You, little prick that you were, got up and started following me. It didn't matter where I went or how far I walked, you followed. And I guess I was found...So here we are..." Lust looks expectantly to Patience. A pleasant breeze combs through her scarlet locks and his blonde locks.