Pandora is given a box. Quite simply, she must never open it.
And Pandora is normally very good at following rules.
Until she isn't.
Out comes her curiosity and out comes the contents of her box.
It's not all the disasters you've read about in t...
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𝑣𝑒𝑛𝑢𝑠. GOOD GIRL
•••
"I did." He nodded, that wicked grin unfaltering on his mouth. "Gluttony's liquor doesn't suit everyone."
I sat up onto my knees, my lungs constricting in on themselves with rage.
His face blanketed over in a mask of seriousness. "I just changed you. I didn't see anything." Frowning, he cleared his throat, "Or try to see anything, for that matter."
"I can take care of myself."
He let out a strangled noise from the back of his throat. "I didn't say you couldn't. But watch yourself around here." His eyes travelled to the pillow in my lap. "You'll find your senses heightened and when we offer you help, do not take it as an insult."
His voice was stern and cold as if any slip of a mistake would send me tumbling down into the arms of the Seraphic. Those cold, pale arms.
"Okay. I won't."
His smirk returned, curving through the plumpness of his lips. "We're quite set in stone around here but they've agreed to have breakfast when everyone arrives."
The realisation that I was soon going to be in a court full of dangers struck once again: the Virtues and the Ophidians.
Shadows befell around him and only smoke rivetted in his absence as he disappeared.
I dropped down into the cushioning mattress, sighing to myself. My eyes travelled to where the sunlight had escaped the darkness of the curtain and I rose to pull the fabric apart.
Only, it wasn't a sun.
There were nine.
Each one with a brightness to compel another. They were arranged over the horizon in a perfectly symmetrical arc and I stood, gaping in awe until the glow became blinding.
I drew the curtains shut again, a hint of wonder bordering my mind. Flashes of white light continued to dance before my eyes as I located the bathroom behind a door of cold marble. It stretched out before me in a marvel. I ran my palm over the golden lion embossed into the bath, the metal sending cool races up my arms.
Within seconds, I had the water running, my clothes forgotten in a heap by my feet. The water hugged every inch of my skin as I lowered myself in, letting the warmth soak into my skin.
My eyes fell shut and I willed calmness into my limbs. They remained tense as I tried to reimagined the flashes of images I'd seen, each figure looming behind my eyelids for split second. And then they drifted away, fogging into a mist of darkness. I felt my forehead knit together with focus as I conjured the images out from the depth of my memory once again.
Colours began to shift—the forest green of Greed, Gluttony's blinding ambers, the crimson hue of Wrath, the warmth of Envy's blue, the pink lure of Sloth and—and Beast, the golden shade of Lust.
