Achieving Serenity

The Eighth Deadly Sin

Misusing faith

As I lay on my bed, I reminisced of my frequent fears I had felt on a daily basis, often times using them to justify inaction. I never did the things that I truly wanted to do because I was always too afraid of what people might say.

I was twenty-five years old and had been dealing with depression for the last two years of my life. I lived at home with my parents who were reluctant to put me out on the streets, and my days were only growing grimmer. I had some sort of social disorder- I knew it to be true even though I had never been diagnosed. I saw the way people were in social settings and it was as if they had something I felt I could never achieve. The internet was suggesting I could have something called "Social Anxiety Disorder".

After digging deeper into medical explanations, I also came to the conclusion that I am most definitely a sociopath. I was a notorious people pleaser; all of my relationships centered on me playing to others' harmony in order to maintain emotional comfortability or gain material goods such as drugs or money. I could never keep a job for long and always preferred sweet isolation.

I felt a sense of security knowing exactly what it is that is wrong with me, and I continued with these new beliefs despite my disagreeing parents. As I felt myself drift off into sleep, I awoke with a sudden gasp and pain in my throat. I couldn't breathe! I began inching over to the corner of my desk to attempt a self-Heimlich when my body instantly rejected, and I hit the floor.

I awoke on a red marble floor to the sounds of cheers and applause. I look up and see a group of people standing next to a smiling monster. "Finally! An eighth deadly sin!" the monster said. I rose to my feet and walked toward the seven people, assessing no physical threat from them.

"What is going on?" I asked.

"I lifted the curse, is what is going on!" the demon said. "Relax, you don't have anything to worry about now. You're dead though- that is... you are dead, that is a fact."

"Is this Hell?"

One of the seven men spoke up, "No, this is De-" until the demon interrupted:

"Don't you make that hacky Detroit joke, Darrell- I will burn you for eternity, do you understand?" the monster put an arm on my shoulder. "Look. I'm Satan, you're dead, and this is Hell. We've been waiting for the first man to die from the eighth deadly sin for millenniums!"

As frightening as the realization and acceptance was for me, I felt completely at peace with no anxiety present. I had felt the best I probably had ever felt in my entire lifetime.

"So what's the eighth deadly sin?" I asked.

"The living all have the power to create before them any future they can imagine. With patience, persistence, effort, and faith, any man can achieve anything. The human brain is wired to take self-beliefs and register them as facts. If one believes they are at peace, they shall be at peace. If one believes they are lonely, they shall remain.

The demons in Hell have been trying to lift the curse but the living is too caught up with their escapism. If humans use external vices to escape their negative self-criticism, then they shall live on as a miserable soul.

We lifted the curse, and now all those Label themselves critically shall see watch their depths of misery unfold, until it becomes their demise. The eighth deadly sin- appellation."