Tempting Sin

Sin Craving Heaven

After taking a sip of his poisoned tea, Sin leaned back in his chair, closed his eyes, and waited for the effect to take hold. In mere moments, a rush of exhilaration erupted through his veins, throwing him into a fleeting state of delirium. He let the euphoria envelop his senses, but only for a brief moment. After coming down from his short-lived high, he drank up the rest, daring poison to do its worst, and set the glass down on the table- a ritual repeated countless times over a decade. The small consumption of toxins daily had now turned him immune to the poison. 

In his 31 years of life, poison remained the only thing that would evoke a semblance of emotions within him- a rush of thrill. A reminder that he was alive. Emotions had abandoned him long ago. Pain, happiness, fear- they were just words for him. He considered it to be a blessing though. Efficiency thrives in the absence of feeling; emotions; mere hurdles. Life is smoother and easier without their burden. 

His eyes flung open upon hearing his phone's ringtone. It was Mikhail. Sin reached out and put the phone on speaker. 

"What is it?" he asked, reclining back in the chair with his arms draped over the headrest of the couch. 

"Have you moved there for good or what?" Mikhail asked sarcastically. 

"Getting a break from seeing your face every day does make it a tempting option but nah, I'll be back soon," Sin replied coolly.

"Don't admit but I know. You are just jealous of my unparalleled beauty. Explains why you didn't take me with you. You were afraid that your actress would fall for my charm and ditch you," Mikhail stated, adopting a convinced tone. Sin smirked. Looked like his friend was still sore about him leaving him behind.  

"Why has this "beauty" called me?" he mocked. 

"We got some information on your grandmother," Mikhail revealed a moment later. Sin straightened up his posture, now fully attentive. 

"What is it?" he demanded, eager to know. 

"Can't say how authentic it is but there is an old man who is claiming that he had rented his place to your grandmother about eighteen years ago. They stayed there for two years but then disappeared one day out of the blue," Mikhail told him. 

"Where did they go?" Sin questioned, his patience stretched thin like a taut wire ready to snap. He was looking for his lost family for years now but to no avail. They had disappeared without a trace as if they never existed. No records, no pictures, they were documented nowhere. He wondered how his granny must be and his sister.... She was so little when he had seen her last. She must have grown into a beautiful girl now. He knew he wouldn't be able to recognize her if she was to come in front of him right now. 

"They have left no traces to follow. But we've got a breakthrough now. We'll locate them soon," Mikhail answered. Sin knew these were just hollow words meant to calm his rising temper.

"Ask every soul in this city about them. Someone must know something," Sin commanded. There has to be someone who knows where they went. Mikhail responded with a complying yes. Sin hung up after that and fell back against the couch. He closed his eyes and tried to remember his grandmother's face. Her face once vivid in his memory had now blurred with time. 

.........

A whole day had passed but no one came to free her from her cage. Her broken finger was still broken, relentlessly throbbing with pain. But it was least of her concern when corpses surrounded her. Her tear glands had long dried and her throat clogged. The bodies had begun to rot now- half torn apart by the rats. A pungent foul smell permeated the air, making each breath a struggle. She craved to breathe in fresh air, and yearned for sunlight to caress her skin. She was desperate to escape this hell.