the seven virtues [tom riddle]

chapter ten

CHAPTER TEN

Death was God's creation—it was the transitive stage between stagnant life and absolute judgment, a stepping stone divinity had created to ascend the soul into its next phase. As such, it was the cobblestone path that led to one final bifurcation, a cross-road between Heaven and Hell, virtue and sin.

Death was God's plague on humans for betraying his word, for daring aspire to something he had forbidden—the apple of truth. It was his whip against sinners, the court and law of his verdict, and a manifesto of negations and orders.

Rosier found it humorous that a diety built on forgiveness and acceptance would so quickly banish souls into the underworld, have them suffer from the hands of those he had forsaken for things he had allowed them to do.

Ren was a sinner—that made him undoubtedly headed straight for the cauldron of the Devil, and as such, he indulged in all of life's offerings, ripped as many forbidden apples from the trees of depravity as he could. The wizard made sure that when he would walk past the gates of Hell, they would whisper his name with terrible acclamations.

Above all, he sinned by consumption, naturally letting the treacherous poison of alcohol pulsate through his bloodstream until it would be fifty-six percent plasma, forty percent red blood cells, two percent other commodities, and two percent liquor—to be fair, more than zero-point-forty was fatal, but Renold Rosier was a visionary.

For that reason, his immediate reaction after dinner was to dive into his room, flask held tightly in his fingers, and lounge on the floor until the coldness of the marble made him actually feel something.

A knock sounded at his door.

In a matter of seconds, any trace of discomfort was erased from his face, and as Ren moved through the room to open the door, he stopped by one of the mirrors by his dressing. He stared at his reflection, gazed into the hollow eyes, then lifted the corner of his lips in a half-believable smile. It would do for now—nobody would expect him to be ecstatic after the awful meal.