The 7 Deadly Sins

Chapter XIII

SAM

Music: Season of Darkening Skies from Jikkyou Oshaberi Parodius

"What do you think this 'pre-training' assignment is?" I asked, while we were on a boat.

"Probably some weird boat tri-" Luke was interrupted by us hitting the shore of a island.

"ALRIGHT! TROPICAL GETAWAY!" Chomata yelled. He ran off of the boat, but Mrs. Sandy grabbed by the scruff of his shirt. Mrs. Sandy held him there for a few seconds, then dropped him to the ground.

"Okay, let's cut to the chase here: If you wanna be back into shape and even have a chance of surviving out in the world on your own, you must survive on this island for one month. Without using your powers."

"One MONTH?" Anastasia complained.

"Yes. Want more?"

"Um, no thanks," Shanna muttered to herself. Thankfully, Mrs. Sandy didn't hear her. Then Mrs. Sandy barked, "If you can survive on this island for one month without anyone dying, I will consider you all worthy enough to go back on your own. If you don't, it's gonna be tough for you once you come back." She pointed towards the shore, and the eight of us reluctantly stepped off. She tossed me a knife, which I was able to catch without killing myself.

"Now, I must be going. Good luck," she told us. Than she began sailing off.

"What a physco," I muttered to myself once she was outside hearing range.

Next, we made some huts out of tree logs, which is just as hard as it sounds without powers to help. The only problem is that Sean and Shanna's strength kinda comes to them naturally, and there's no way for them to get past it unless they didn't try at all.

But what Mrs. Sandy doesn't know won't hurt her. *winks*

Once we had made two huts (one for the guys, one for the girls), we made beds. Or I guess you could call them beds. They were just gigantic leaves. I slept great the first night aside from having to tell Heath and Luke to shut up. They wouldn't stop arguing for some reason. It also smelled terribly, although I guess that was to be expected.

The next day, Luke shook me awake, holding the knife and grinning. "Let's go hunting."

I slapped him. "What the hell was that for!?" he exclaimed.

"Don't wake me up in the middle of a good dream, you bastard."

"Whatever." Luke walked outside, and I got up. It still smelled terribly, and I figured out why. There was a really old block of cheese right next to my leaf-bed. I snuck it under Heath's bed and went outside with the others.

I went outside and joined Sean, Heath, Luke, and Chomata. We had made about 12 snares last night, and we planned on setting them out today. We laid out about three before something caught Sean's eye.

"You guys, Elle's with Shanna and Anastasia, and she looks upset. We should check on her." We heeded Sean's suggestion.

ELLE

Music: Sad Story from Super Mario Galaxy

I don't know how it happened. One minute I was doing just fine, and the next, the memories came flooding back.

The awful, awful memories of my past.

Anastasia and Shanna had asked me several times what was wrong, but I couldn't answer. I was too busy fighting back tears.

Then Sam and the other guys came over. Sam and Heath sat on either side of me, Sam patting and rubbing my shoulder. "What's bothering you, Elle?"

I managed to look at him. He looked really concerned. And I sensed that he was. The others clearly felt the same way. Even Luke and Chomata had hints of concern in their emotions.

"Well... I saw a squirrel. Squirrels were always my dad's favorite animal..." I started to say. I looked at the others and they wanted me to go on, so I did. "But when I was 5 or 6... my dad was diagnosed with lymphoma. They only caught it at stage 4, so he was given weeks to live. He passed shortly after."

"Aw, I'm sorry, Elle," Anastasia said, wrapping me in a hug.

"That's not all, though," I said. "My mom got past it and remarried. But my new dad got transferred at his job. We had to move here all the way from California." I felt really bad since I didn't tell Sam the truth the first time, but he didn't seem to mind (just to be sure, I checked. He didn't). "After we did... they've been growing kinda distant from me... like, they care about me and love me and all, but they constantly leave me to fend for myself... it's just hard for me." At that point, I couldn't help it. I let the tears flow out.

Now Sam was the one wrapping me in a hug. Meanwhile, Heath and Luke were giving me pats on the shoulder, and Shanna held my free arm in sympathy. "I-I'm sorry, guys. I didn't mean to have an outbreak like this."

"It's perfectly understandable, Elle. You've had a rough past, and we get it," Luke told me.

"Why don't you head back to our hut," Shanna suggested, "and we'll continue the hunting from here?" I liked the suggestion, so I nodded. As the group began to get up and leave, a thought came to my head.

"Sam?" I whispered, loud enough for him to hear. He turned my way and replied, "Mhm?"

"Can you stay with me? I need a friend with me."

"Sure thing. Just gimme a second to let the others know," he answered. He ran off, and I began to feel just a little bit better, knowing that I was around a group of people who cared.

SEAN

Music: Silvery Wings Again from Salamander 2

Sam came running back to the rest of us, and he told us, "Elle asked me to stay with her, so I'm going to. Just letting you guys know."

We all nodded our approval, although Luke and Chomata didn't seem sure about it. Sam then ran off, and we continued setting up snares.

"Don't you think that they're acting a little... too much in love?" Luke asked while setting up our 5th snare.

"Oh, leave it, Luke. They're probably just really close now or something," Shanna said.

"After, what, 2 days?"

"I said leave it. I doubt they're actually in love." At that moment, we heard the sound of one of our snares catching something. "GUYS! WE GOT A RABBIT!" Heath yelled.

We went over to it, with Luke holding the knife. The rabbit looked at me, then Luke, who had the knife. Luke handed the knife to me. "You do it," he said.

I couldn't. "Let's try fish," I suggested.

To our benefit, there were two fishing rods right next to the shore. I grabbed one and so did Heath, and we fished for the next half hour or so. I caught about 5 or 6 small fish, and Heath got about 3. We stuffed them in a bag, and ran back to our huts to feast.

"SAM! ELLE! We're home!" Shanna yelled when we arrived. They both came out of the same hut, which for some reason made Chomata suspicious.

"Sam, what were you doing with Elle in there?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Chatting. Now, I see you have food, so let's eat," Sam replied, licking his lips.