Rain pouring. Heavy knocking.
It didn’t help that my head was pounding.
I opened my eyes. I got up and opened the door. “I told you, guys. The ritual’s already–”, I started. It wasn’t my friends. It was a man. Just standing there, wearing a cloak. I blinked. “Uh, hello? Do you need anything sir?”, I asked the man. If this guy is some edgy teen who’s trying to scare people, I am going to beat him up with a metal rod, I thought.
“Could I stay for a night? I don’t have any other place to go.”, said the man. “I– Oh? You needed a place to stay? Okay then. Come on in.”, I said, giving the man some space to enter through the door. If he attacks me, I can kill him with the gun hidden in the kitchen, I thought. “Thank you, ma’am. You’re too kind.”, he said. “Oh why, thank you!”, I said. He entered my house.
“What’s the cloak for?”, I asked after closing the door. “It’s my makeshift raincoat. It kind of helps.”, he said. “You need to remove it, it looks like it’s drenched. You might get a cold.”, I said. He nodded and removed the cloak. I pointed to a coat hanger stand in the corner. He hung his cloak there.
“What is the reason you were out this late in the night?”, I asked the man, giving him a towel to dry up. “My house burned down a few days ago. I don’t have enough money to buy another one. I received a job offer, but it is a few towns away. I’ve been walking to make sure the burden of money doesn’t increase.”, he said somberly. Ah, he got it rough. At least I’m not in his situation, I thought. “Oh I see.”, I said with as much pity as I could muster.
I like how someone seems to be suffering, I thought. I tried my best to hide a grin.
“Say, what’s your name?”, I asked him. He smiled. “My name’s Diabolus. What’s yours?”, he asked. “Peccator.”, I said. “Oh nice name!”, Diabolus said. “Thank you.”, I said. “Well, I’ll make some food. You want some, Diabolus?”, I asked. “I… would like some food. Yes. Thank you.”, he said. I went to the kitchen and made food, grumbling about another mouth to feed. First the ritual didn’t work, now I have to make extra food, I thought. I made the food, called over Diabolus and then ate. Diabolus ate less, probably because I ate most of the food. I didn’t care. I was starving. While eating, I looked up at Diabolus. He looked like he zoned out, and was muttering to himself. He didn’t seem angry though. He was bearing a wide grin. I had a feeling of dread wash over me, but I thought that it was nothing and shrugged it off. After I finished eating my food, I placed the dishes in the sink.
“Aren’t you going to clean them?”, Diabolus asked, washing the almost broken plate I gave him. “Eh, I’ll do it later.”, I said. He nodded. We stayed awake for some time, he was arranging stuff in his suitcase continuously, like it could never be perfect. I was just watching the TV, which was mostly switching channels every five seconds. “Hey, um, Peccator? I was wondering, where could I sleep for the night?”, he asked. “On the couch, I don’t have any other room.”, I said. “Okay.”, he said. After some time, I went up to my room to sleep.
I woke up the next morning so hungry I could eat three horses. I went downstairs to find Diabolus writing something in a book, and then placing it in his bag. “Oh, hi Peccator! Good morning!”, he said. “I’ll be leaving in some time, could you pass me my wallet? It’s on the dining table.”, he said, packing his stuff. “You’re going to stay for breakfast, Diabolus.”, I said, walking into the kitchen. “No, I’ll go and-”, “Not a question. A statement.”, I said, annoyed. I looked at Diabolus’ wallet on the table. He wasn’t able to see me.
I quickly stashed some money from his wallet into my pocket. I then checked the fridge for food. There wasn’t anything there, so I decided to go buy groceries. I handed Diabolus his wallet and then said, “I’m going out to buy groceries. Stay here.”, and left through the front door. I reached the store, gathered all the groceries I’d needed, and waited at the line to check out.
The line was moving pretty slow. When it was just about to be my turn, the person in front of me called for his son. The son returned to his father, but he was carrying many things like candy and cereal. The father decided that he would buy the candy and the cereal. I groaned and yelled, “Can you do this a bit faster?”.
The cashier checked everything out, then when it came to me, they started speed-scanning the groceries because I threatened them that if they go any slower, I would make sure his death was slow and painful.
I reached back home and made breakfast so that Diabolus could get the hell out of my house. We were silent all throughout breakfast, until we heard rumbling from outside. I got up and looked out the window. “Oh come on!”, I yelled. “What happened?”, Diabolus asked, walking towards the window. “It’s thunder, a storm is rolling in!”, I said, pointing out the window. “Oh.”, Diabolus said, sadness engulfing the strange spark in his eye. “I can’t go out in the rain, can I?”, he said.
“Yes, you can’t. That means you’re stuck in my- in this place for a bit longer.”, I said, pointing out the obvious. I lost my appetite, so I kept my leftovers in the fridge. Diabolus finished his breakfast and sat on the couch, writing in a book. I couldn’t care less about his life, so I looked out the window behind the couch. “Ugh, look at those idiots.”, I said. Diabolus turned and looked out the window at my neighbours. They were two grown adults, still boyfriend-girlfriend, and they were dancing in the storm. “On one hand, I guess they have different ways to express their inner child. On the other hand, however, they could get struck by lightning.”, Diabolus said. “Exactly.”, I said.
I stared at them for some time.
“You know, I’m kind of jealous of the girl. I mean, she has a perfect life and has a perfect boyfriend. And by perfect boyfriend, I mean in every sort of way. Mentally, physically and emotionally. Sometimes I wish I could just take it all from her.”, I told Diabolus. “Is that so?”, he said. “Yeah.”, I replied. He nodded slowly. I didn’t take note of it, after all, I didn’t care.
After a few hours of lazing around and trying to do work, I made lunch. I sighed and muttered about housing Diabolus until the storm passes, and I knew it would stay there until the night. We ate lunch in the loud silence, where only thunder and lighting disturbed. After lunch, I was bored. The power went out and there’s not much I could do. So I decided to do the satanic ritual again. I drew a star in a circle, placed candles on the edges of the star and then headed up to get my necromancy book. I wasn’t able to find it, but in its place was Diabolus’ open diary. I wouldn’t have cared that much, but I saw my name on a page.
It read, “Peccator has shown signs of the seven deadly sins. Mostly I’d say a certain few, but she seemed to show all of their signs. Pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath and sloth, she seems to be a very nice surprise for the seven princes. They’ll have fun trying to determine which area she must be in.”.
I stared wide-eyed at the book.
“Oh it seems you’ve found my diary.”, Diabolus said from behind me.
I turned around and stared at the once human monstrosity in front of me. “What-”, I started. “Let me make this quick. You died a few days ago, that’s why your friends didn’t come to your party. The shop scene was a guise to make sure you didn't think anything was wrong. The angels didn’t want to claim you, so the seven princes of hell sent me here to determine where you go. Funny thing is, you’d fit in any area you’d go to.”, he said. “What do you mean by area?”, I asked, shaking and trying to find something to beat Diabolus up with. “Each sin has its own area. Sinners go to the area of their most prominent sin. I just realised, your name means sinner in latin, Peccator.”, he said.
I grabbed a bottle and was about to smash it on his head.
He grabbed my arm, sighed and snapped his fingers. I could feel myself sink into the ground, and fast. I tried my best on holding on to things to keep me up, like the table, or the chair. But I still sank further into the floor. I tried my best to at least hold on to the solid floor. Diabolus squatted in front of me and he still had to look down to see my face. He smiled and said something. I fell into a void. I closed my eyes.
"Close your eyes, come hell or higher tide
It’s like a salt-wound routine, rinse and repeat
Cast pearls before the swines
But in the end you’ll hide alone
Fearing that this would be all you know
Sometimes morning comes
But you can’t outrun
The warm glow of the sun"
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