Nothing. NOTHING. it's been weeks. 

"you're back," she says. the hairs on the back of my neck stand up and my skin crawls at the sound of her voice. The first one. Always the first. I never do make it far. Only past two or three of them before I can't take it anymore and ask to be sent away without my book or my pen. 

"you," i mumble. 

"Miss me?" She traces her finger over my shoulder, walking around my chair. She crouches down in front of me, taking my pen from my hand and putting her long-nailed finger on my chin and making me look at her terrible face. she's beautiful. her tattoos, her perfect makeup, her curves are perfect, she looks like an angel. well, a demon. a demonic angel, in a way. "You won't be needing this pen, will you?" She snaps it and tosses it onto her makeup table. The small, white room contains several mirrors so Pride can look at herself, a makeup table, and a huge bed with dozens of pillows. Pride loves her room and won't let anyone say it's anything less than beautiful. 

"Leave me alone," I growl. 

"Is that what you want me to do?" 

"Yes." 

"Do you not recall what happened the last time you suggested that? I mean, you suggest it every time. But who knows. My father could change this up at any time. It's like a mine field in here." 

"I know." I looked away from her. I hated her. She's right. Her dad could change the order or show himself or surprise me in any way at any time as long as I'm in here. He hasn't yet, but he could at any moment. 

"I need this," I said. "Just let me get this done. I'm trying to-" 

"Enough. I can't stand it. All I hear from you is work, work, work. I have to get this done. I have a deadline. I need to finish. You don't need to work. Come…be with me. Tell me I'm beautiful. I mean, I know I'm beautiful, but it's nice to hear." 

"No." 

She holds up another pen and offers it to me. I'm hesitant. She is not to be trusted. But…it's only a pen, is it not? What could possibly happen with a pen? 

"That's what they said when they wrote faggot on your desk or kill yourself on your door. Was it only a pen then?" 

I'd forgotten about that part. She knew what I was thinking. Always. Even when I wasn't there. She knew. 

"You still want this? It'll get the job done." She's standing now, admiring her fingernails, or claws, rather, and stretching her back. She holds out the pen and I snatch it from her. Immediately I regret it. Never take something from Pride. She'll…

"Did you just…someone's being a bad boy today. You know, I admire that about you. You are my favorite person to…torture." I winced at the word. "I don't like that word, you know." Neither do I, P, neither do I. "People think my daddy likes to torture people. He just wants… I- I can't help but notice, you've brought your bag today. How come?" 

"I've got a lot of work to do." 

"You work too much. You never give me things anymore. Or even compliments that we both know I deserve. I could be doing that work, you know. I'm better at it than you are." 

"You're acting like your sister." 

"Who, Envy? No, no, no, I'd never stoop so low! I'm better than Envy. Now, put that pen down and listen to me!" I drop the pen and look at her, crossing my arms in frustration. "That's what I thought. Now, listen-" 

"Go away." 

"Do you really want me to?" 

"Yes. Go. Away." 

"You know who comes after me. Of course, I'm first because I'm…the best. My sister will be here soon. Stay there, love." She snaps her fingers and I'm in a different room. This room has a nice, big bed, and a wardrobe with loads of shelves full of…toys. This is Lust's room. She's sitting on her bed doing what she does best when I arrive. 

She gasps. "You're back!" She jumps off of her bed and makes her way over to my chair. Lust wears lingerie—well, when she's not naked—heavy makeup, and she always has her hair curled and dyed red, black, or orange. Her room has deep crimson walls with black curtains. The bed is a blood red with black lace on the duvet and all of the dark red pillows. There's a black carpet with red designs on it as well. The walls are covered in framed posters of playboy and hollister models. 

"I have work to do, I can't-" 

"You always have work to do! Won't you come love me, boy?" 

"No." 

"I could keep you feeling good you work. Would you like that?" 

"No. I want to do my work with my pants on." 

Lust sexily pulls off her thin shirt, revealing a lacy bra underneath. "You wanna touch me?" I gulp. I do…but I can't. I have to get my work done. It's already 7 o'clock. Every time I ask to leave, I lose an hour. "Please? You know you want to." 

"I do want to," I admit. "But I can't." 

"Of course you can baby." 

"Stop it." 

"No, come on. Take that shirt off, boy." 

I want her to go away, but I'll lose another hour. I need to finish my work. "Leave," I command. 

"You don't want to touch me?" Lust is so sexy. Of course I want to touch her. I'd do wild things with her any day of the week. If, that is, she wasn't her. 

"No. I want you to leave." 

"You sure?" 

"Yes, go." She snaps her fingers and I'm onto the next one. This room has tables and tables of food. There's beautifully decorated cakes, steaming pies, imported cheeses, fancy wines, fresh baked goods, and loads more. This is Gluttony's room. She's huge, but sexy huge. She walks around the corner with a glass of wine in her hand. 

"Look who's back," she says excitedly. "Care for something to eat?" 

"No." 

I can't accept food from Gluttony. Just as I can't have sex with Lust or tell Pride she's pretty. All I want is to get my work done. Why do they have to do this to me? Every single day, for weeks. More than weeks. For too long. I'll lose my job at this rate…

"Come on. The baker just delivered some cookies. Nice…soft, warm, cookies. You know you want one. And a nice glass of milk." I shake my head and focus on my paper. It's 8 pm already. "Have a drink," Gluttony insists. She pulls up a chair next to me and tries to force a sandwich into my hand. "Stop working. Have something to eat. You haven't had dinner. I'm worried about you, you haven't been eating." 

"I like Pride better than you," I spat. "Don't…tell her I said that." I immediately regretted it, knowing it'd be passed on and held against me. 

"You like Pride? Better than me? Ah! You should-" 

"Go away." 

"Really?" 

"Yes." 

She sighs and snaps her fingers. 9 o'clock, in a room with everything you could ever want. That and stacks of money. There's piles of books, riches, and jewelry, along with lots of servants. Covetousness is sitting on her throne, fanning herself with money. She has everything in the world she could ever want. She has blue hair, dark skin, heavy makeup, and soft blue eyes. Not her natural eye color, but beautiful nonetheless. 

"It's you," she says in her warm, deep voice. "You never make it this far. It's good to see you again." 

"Leave me alone," I command, not wanting to face Covetousness. Not again. I'd only gotten past her once or twice. Anger, Sloth, and Envy—even though they weren't the worst sins—were awful to be around. Anger made me want to burn the world to the ground, she was the worst. She was the closest to hell. I'd only gotten there once. I shuddered at the thought. I was never going back there. Not even tonight when I had a ton of work. 

Sloth wasn't too bad, but she was second closest to hell, which meant I never got there to do my work. I could work in her room, but only for an hour before I went to Anger. I never got there though. 

The deal was, I had to visit the sins in order. I had an hour with each of them. If I wanted to, I could skip a sin, but then I lost an hour. I had to bring home my work, but the sins wouldn't let me do my work. If I asked them to let me go, they'd keep my briefcase until I had to leave for work the next day. It was torture. Pure torture. 

Envy—I knew—was next. I'd skipped right past her and Covetousness that day, not wanting anything to do with either of them. It was now 11pm in Sloth's pigsty of a room. She was laying in bed blowing bubbles with her gum, wearing sweatpants, a tank top, and her hair was loose. She was wearing fuzzy socks and no makeup. 

"Sup," she said when I arrived. 

"Hey," I said. It was no secret that Sloth was my favorite. I could work in there, plus she was too lazy to torture me. I was exhausted, however. It was 11pm and being around Sloth made me want to sleep and hang out and never look at a page of work again. It took some doing to stay awake, but I did and got quite a bit done in my one hour. "Can you let me go home?" I asked at 11:59, dreading what was about to come if I didn't ask. 

"Yup." 

She snapped her fingers and I was in my bed. Just me. My room. Just how I liked it. I hadn't gotten much done, but it was more than usual. I hated that I had to do this each night, but that's how it was. 

I soon fell asleep and didn't have to worry about a single thing until the next day at 6 o'clock when I got home from work and the whole thing started over again.