Malum {Undergoing Major Editing}

Chapter Eight: The Reading.

The first sound I heard was the sound of the birds chirping as I walked out of the RV for a stretch. I saw Joshua sitting on a rock by a beach. He wore a soft beige sweater with his plain white t-shirt and blue jeans. I walked over to him, the wind pushing against my hair. I sat next to my best friend as I took a deep breath of the sea air.

"You love beaches, don't you?" he asked.

I nodded looking around. I could feel Joshua's stare on me. I turned to him and stared at him with an eyebrow raised and a small smirk playing at my lips. He looked away and sighed. I leaned against his shoulder and closed my eyes. I remember the long nights Joshua spent with me on my balcony as I cried myself to sleep after my mother died. Once I had slept, he took me to bed and remained by my side all those years. I remembered my dream so I decided I should probably tell someone about the dream. I poured out everything about that dream to him. Once I finished and tears were streaming down my face, I sobbed, "It scared me because I wanted to choose you instead of my mum."

He remained quiet as if he were absorbing the heaviness of my words. "You were by my side through all my tough times. You stayed with me when I had nothing and nobody. I had you with me Joshua. I couldn't have asked for someone better in my life. I would have chosen you over anyone because when I needed you, you were there, even my own mum wasn't there. You remained so strong for me but I could see your pain, Josh."

For the first time in three years, I saw Joshua break. Today he cried and he didn't stop. I held him close to me, reassuring him that I'll never leave his side, ever. He just broke the wall he surrounded himself with and let out all his emotions that day.

"After I saw Azazel yesterday, I realized how unpredictable life is. I thought that either one of us could lose each other at any moment and I don't think I'll be able to survive if I don't tell you this," he told me. Before I could ask what it was, he pressed his lips against mine. For a brief moment, I thought that this was wrong but then it felt right. I pulled his closer to me, I felt my world dissolve in hundreds of vibrant colours as our lips melted together. I could feel his heart pounding against my equally racing heart. I felt like I was on cloud nine. After what felt like hours, we parted, panting and gasping for air. We made eye contact while our foreheads were pressed together, and started giggling.

***

We began walking towards the "black house" where the cult meetings were held before they stopped. My heart was pounding as we finally reached the place that made my skin crawl. The house was literally black and we walked up its old, broken and creaking stairs. Someone had pushed the door open and one by one everyone went in. I slipped my hand into Joshua's as we walked in together.

The house was basked in an evil glow. The furniture looked like it wasn't changed in centuries. The only sounds echoing in the house was the sound of the floorboards creaking with our every step. We went into each room, splitting into twos or threes to try and find the room where most of the meetings occurred.

"Guys you might want to come see this!" Sloth called.

All of us ran towards the sound of his voice and found ourselves in a room covered in drawings. Words were written on the wall with blood and carved into the floor with knives. Wrath ran a finger over the words.

"Yeah, these are all different names for Fa-" he chocked on the last word.

"Now what?" Joshua asked.

Wrath eyed our interwoven hands and replied, "quis enim est."

Smoke began to fill the room, causing me to hold onto Joshua's hand tighter. A boney figure formed by the door as a a timid breathy voice asked, "why have you come?"

The voice sent shivered up my spine because I've heard that voice before. The voice of my mother. I chocked a sob, "m-mum?"

"Stop it, Maia! Seers use the voice of someone who has brought immense pain of someone. It's not her, trust me!" Wrath pleaded.

Suddenly, an ear piercing scream filled the room as the figure contorted. A green glow filled as her voice changed into her normal voice. The sort of voice you wish you would never hear, the kind to haunt your dreams.

She began to speak in rhythm, "you've come to seek what you've travelled for a week?"

"Yes we have," Lust answered.

It appeared her mouth never moved, but looking closer I realised she didn't have a mouth.

Then she began to chant things in a foreign language and Wrath gave me the look that the reading was about to start:

"Where lovers first glance,
Where friendship takes a chance,
Where souvenirs of the past,
Where happiness and sadness contrast,
The object that you seek,
Which you thought was an antique,
Rather it held the power of birth,
That has caused chaos on the Earth,
7 + 2 makes the team,
To fulfil your father's dream,
But beware the path,
For it will be a blood bath."

Just as quickly as she appeared, she just vanished. Leaving us all in confusion, we quickly scrambled out of the room into the van.

Gluttony wrote down the reading and we began to ponder over it.

"The 'power of birth...chaos on earth' is talking about the Chalice, right?" I pointed out.

A few murmurs of agreement and nods of approval were given.

"Where lovers glance? Friendships take a chance? What does that mean?" Wrath yelled.

"Hey hey calm down Wrath," I spoke softly. He eyed me and nodded, focusing on the task ahead. We only have six days before the full moon to get this chalice to lucifer.

"7 + 2 makes the team, that could mean us seven plus Maia and churchy," Pride suggested, "wow I'm so smart," he quickly added.

"Okay genius, figure out the rest!" Envy sneered.

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Author's note:
OKAY DON'T KILL ME FOR MAKING JOSHUA KISS MAIA! LET THE POOR BOY LIVE! JUST...TRUST ME!

Wow two chapters in one day! I'm proud!! Also that reading poem thing took my friend and I two days to write 😅.

Quis enim est means is anyone there?

I'll be giving you the definitions at the end of each chapter.

Question: what do you think the reading means?

Lxrxib.