SEVEN: Cursed Souls

CHAPTER 8: SIN OF ENVY

SOPHIA

April 15, 2018.

Today, Olivia will surely end and I, SoPhoenix... will rise. I packed my bag and went out, wearing my favorite clothes and spent things like there's no tomorrow.

This will be the best day ever! No more Olivia. The true Queen shall rule.

Hours later...

"Did those 'One Eyed' gang forget to do their job?!" I asked in rage, there is no update about the plan and they are not even replying to my messages.

I went inside the house. No one was home yet, and it is almost eve. Of course, no one is home, I am all alone now, because my selfish brother also left me.

I went in my room and stayed at the bathtub for some minutes, as I got out of bath, my eyes were locked on my bed. An envelope?

The cold wind hugged me, and it whispered something to my ear.

I grabbed the envelope. It was covered with stains of blood. I looked all over the room if there is someone and no one is here so I locked the door and closed the glass windows.

Did my neighbor leave their stove open? I smelled smoke but do not know where it was coming from.

I hid in fear because someone might come to kill me, this envelope is literally stained with blood, I was afraid to go out.

I opened the envelope, and a letter was inside, it is addressed to me. I looked down, hoping there was a name or signature but there was none except mine.

I started reading what was written.

Sophia Enriquez

Sin of Envy

28, Pigeon Street, Silver Feathers Subdivision, Sinagtala, Corazon

The crab can never rule the tides! You let your envy devour you! 

You are a crab that pulls down his fellow if they reach the top. 

A crab that planned to kill someone whom you've assumed that wronged you.

 The time is ticking! Remember what you planned. 

You wish to have what they have, don't you? 

How about you get what you wanted to do with Olivia?

Death be upon you!"

By the time I ended reading, I heard a bang. A gunshot? Then heard it again, now it is louder. I looked at my right arm and felt an unbearable pain. My white bathrobe is stained red from my wound.

I opened the door to get down but the house is burning. This was my plan against Olivia-- to shoot her and burn her to death.

"Please don't kill me! I'm sorry, please. I'm begging you!"

I asked for help but no one could hear me, I kept yelling but it's no use.

No!!!

Everything is devoured by the blazing fire. I tried to go downstairs but it was hot. I couldn't breathe and my flesh slowly cooks. I felt it crunch up due to the intense heat. It hurts!

My head feels like it is about to explode and blood continued flowing from my shoulder.

I tried to reach for air, but I couldn't.

There was no way to go, if I try to go out through my window then I'll die by bullet, if I stay upstairs then I'll die through suffocation, and if I go downstairs then I'll die from the blazing fire. It's hopeless.

I am running out of breath, and my chest felt heavy. I surrendered to my fate, closed my eyes, and lied down the stairs. My skin continued to be cooked by the blazing fire.

"If someone is listening to me, I am sorry that I sinned! Give me a chance, I'll change! I'm sorry!" I begged as I slowly lost consciousness.

Until the end, everything I felt was just pain. It was so hot! Everything hurts!

RYDER

The letters are warnings, a means for them to escape or to repent their sins.

"Were you the ones who started the fire and shot Sophia?" I asked them.

I was shocked because I was expecting that they were the ones who did it but no, she was betrayed.

She did have the fame she wanted because she is all over the news. The group of men who killed her was caught and imprisoned.

An argument between her followers and other people started because the truth was told--the group of men later told the cops that it was her own plan against Olivia but because they were not satisfied with what she paid, they did it to her instead.

They also stole things from Sophia before they burned the house, but Sophia might've not noticed.

The letter burned with Sophia, so no one found it.

***

"Sophia Enriquez, known as SoPhoenix, burned with her house this Sunday night. Neighbors of the 23-year-old vlogger heard gunshots while her house was burning, and today, 5 men were caught and admitted the crime."

"So-Sophia?! That's...m-my daughter!" a man in ragged clothes said when he heard the newscast, his hands are near his chest, his fingers and head flicker uncontrollably.

"Crazy! Maybe she really is your daughter, both of you are crazy!" a barber said when he heard the man in front of his shop.

"She is n-not! She l-loved me! S-she looked for me, Sophia looked for m-me!"