The Seven Deadly Sinners

6

"Hey there, crazy. Wake up," someone said. I opened my eyes and immediately shot up onto my feet, instinctively reaching into my pant leg and yanking out the knife I'd put in there. I'd been in less than ideal situations that started out with me waking up somewhere I didn't remember going.

"Jesus fuck, woman. It's me," Colby said. Right. Colby

"Oh," I said.

"Can we lose the knife?" he asked. I realized I'd been pointing it at him. I closed it and put it into my pocket.

"Yeah, sorry, habit," I said.

"I see that. You've got some serious reflexes. Especially for right after being woken up."

"Yeah, um, don't remember falling asleep," I said. I looked around the room I was in. "Is this your room?"

"Yes. A certain someone got a little too drunk, so I brought you up here to crash," he said. I looked over at his bed.

"Did you...," I trailed off.

"I slept on the couch," he said.

"Cool. Sorry about that," I said. "It's been a while since I've drank at all. Can... what exactly happened?"

"Don't remember?" he chuckled.

"Don't really remember anything that happened after you zapped the shit out of me," I said. I put my hand on the spot and felt a mark. It was on the middle of my lower back so I couldn't see it if I tried, so I let it go. Not important.

"What are you talking about? I didn't shock you?" he asked. I noticed his toes wiggle inside of his socks.

"Don't play dumb with me," I said.

"Excuse me?" he asked.

"You're lying," I replied. He clenched his jaw and angrily took a step closer to me.

"You don't get to talk to me like that. I invited you here, I helped you, I kept you safe last night. You are not allowed to accuse me of things. You are not allowed to stand here and antagonize me like this with such a snarky attitude," he said, his voice rising. Was he fucking kidding?

"I didn't ask you to do shit. I know damn well I am not the first girl to get too drunk at one of these parties and I also know that you would not hesitate to push someone out of that front door if the party was over and you were ready for everyone to leave. You decided to let me stay. I didn't expect that of you or ask you to do that. That was your choice. And everyone has a tell when they lie, buddy, and I'm damn good at spotting what that tell is.

"You're also not the one who gets to tell me what I am and am not allowed to do. And I don't want to stand here and be antagonized either, so I am going to leave," I said. I saw my shoes on the ground by the bed and my phone on his nightstand. I snatched them both up and walked over to his door. "Oh, and I know your stupid little fucking secret. I know you weren't kidding. You really gave yourself away there, Wrath. There's still some big holes in whatever it is that I'm starting to piece together, but I will get to the bottom of this and I will figure it out," I said angrily before storming out of his bedroom. It was obvious, now. Wrath. Getting so heated and pissed so fast over something so fucking stupid.

"Mammon. The front," Colby said softly. I didn't want to stand there and figure out what the hell he meant, so I walked out and down the stairs to the front door. I tried to open it, but it wouldn't budge. I realized it was just locked. I turned the lock, but it immediately snapped back into place when I let go.

"What the—," I muttered to myself. I turned the lock again and held it in place to try again, but it twisted back to its original locked position so hard that it literally rubbed some of my skin off, leaving a sort of rug-burn type open wound on my fingertip. This was some bullshit. I turned around and marched to the back door, which didn't have a lock on it.

"Leviathan! The back!" I heard Sam yell from upstairs. I ran to the door, scared that they were going to somehow block this one off, too. I put my hand on the knob but immediately drew it back after making contact. The metal knob was searing hot. I looked down at my hand to see a circular burn mark on it from how hot the knob was.

"Shit!" I hissed, shaking my hand out. I heard people start coming down the stairs, so I ran into the living room that was behind them and ducked down behind the bar.

"Jupiter! Come out here!" Colby yelled. Like I would do that. "Beelzebub," Colby said. Oh, fuck. I recognized that one. That was like, a famous demon.

"I'm in here!" I yelled. Except I hadn't done that. I didn't make my mouth open or my voice come out or my tongue move. I clapped a hand over my mouth. How the fuck had that happened? I felt a noise start to come out of my throat again, another one I couldn't control. I shoved the side of my hand into my mouth to block out any noise that was forced out of me.

"Fucking L," hissed Dev from somewhere in the house. "Asmodeus!"

My hand ripped itself out of my mouth and my legs sprung up straight without my consent. What the fuck was this? Before I knew it, I was walking out toward the kitchen, unable to stop myself. I saw all of them standing in the kitchen, looking pissed off at me. Seriously? They were mad at me? I was trapped in this freak house with seven strangers that were controlling me.

My heart rate shot up higher than it ever had. I was mad. Pissed. And scared, too, for that matter. I had never so strongly felt any emotions in my life.

"Her hair is glowing again," Dev said, my legs walking me to the kitchen. Except I was moving much slower now.

"Asmodeus, you going to speed this up or do we just get to spend twenty minutes watching her walk ten feet over here?" Colby said.

"I'm, I'm trying," Jake said, his voice straining. And then, as suddenly as I'd started involuntarily moving, I stopped.

"What the FUCK!" screamed Kat. I stared at her, but she didn't seem to be looking at me. Not directly, anyway. Just in my general direction. In fact, none of them were looking me in the eyes.

"The hell do you mean 'what the fuck'! I'm the one who should be saying that!" I yelled. I immediately watched all of their bodies coil back, their mouths drop open, gasps and short screams coming out of their mouths. I turned around to see if there was some other fucking evil entity behind me, but there wasn't. It was just me. I walked the rest of the way into the kitchen and dropped my shoes and phone onto the counter, soliciting another flinch and short yell from all of them.

"How the fuck," Corey whispered.

"Can any of you...," Sam trailed off.

"Shut up. Don't tell her. We don't need her knowing," Colby barked.

"Can any of you fucking what!" I yelled. First they're forcing me to do these strange things and now they're acting like they're scared of me? "Is it my stupid hair? Is it because I seem to be the only one with enough balls to stand up to you guys? Huh?"

"Call Charon and Aria right now," Colby ordered. No one moved, like they were all frozen in fear. "NOW!" he screamed. Tara jammed her hands into her hoodie pocket and pulled out her phone, her hands shaking too much to be of any use.

"Oh, for the love of," Colby said. He ripped the phone out of her hands and quickly tapped around on the screen before holding it up to his ear. Everyone else's eyes were darting around the room as if they expected something to appear in front of their faces.

"Get the fuck over here. Yeah, it's her. I fucking told you! I'm not going to say. She doesn't know it's happening, and I don't want her to know she can do what she's doing. Just get over here," Colby said angrily into the phone. "No, it's not the goddamn devil. That would be a fucking man!"

"Lilith," Sam said. Colby looked at Sam and the phone tumbled out of his hands. Colby swallowed and his hands started shaking, too. Being freaked out like that seemed incredibly out of character for Colby. The other people, the other sins, seemed even more uneasy when they realized Colby was losing his cool, too. But who the fuck was Lilith?

"You mean—instead of Him?" Colby asked.

"It's not Him, apparently. It's Her," Sam said, using the pronouns as if they were names, like how the name 'he' and 'him' and 'his' were capitalized in the bible when referring to God. Corey squatted down and grabbed the phone.

"It's not the devil we've been looking for. It's not Astaroth. It's Lilith," he said.