In A Sinful Woman, They Awaken

There were witnesses, so many witnesses. She couldn’t do it. Not now.

Thick black hair flowed over Imogen’s shoulders, shining in the midday sun. She twisted around to chatter with her friend beside her, causing her hair to lift and flick wildly about her right shoulder.

Lily hungrily stared at her through the windscreen of her car as Imogen crossed the road from her parking complex to her office. Every inch of Lily’s body urged her to close the distance between them. She could just press her foot onto the accelerator...

Imogen disappeared into her office building and it left Lily staring at the spot where she once stood, mulling over her plan.

I could kidnap her when she leaves, but friends always surround her, Lily thought.

I could wait for her at her house, but my brother needs to be away when I do it.

I could follow her over the weekend, do it at the park she goes to on Sundays.

Or was it too soon? There was something nagging at Lily, a thought pulling in her brain that she couldn’t quite identify.

Lily’s anticipation for Imogen’s death had been building up like lava in a volcano about to explode. She wanted to explode. She wanted to let go already and rid the earth of this dreadful woman and save her brother’s family from her foul little fingers.

Trying to outpace her troubled thoughts, Lily drove around the city all day. Morning quickly swung into afternoon and afternoon melted into evening. Lily passed men, women, children, elderly, and precious pets - spoiled for choice for victims - but none took her attention. The world was grey-scale and fuzzy, completely unimportant to her while Imogen walked in sharp colour and sound, very much alive. She had to change that.

But how?

Night had fallen across the city, and Lily cursed herself for being indecisive. Now she would have to wait another day before making her move. She exited her car and stood in front of a large building, a black shadowy wall against the tainted brown night sky, half constructed and sloppily fenced off from deviants like herself. The gap in the fencing was as good an invitation as any. Lily crawled through and stepped over the rubble and chunks of concrete and rebar which littered the ground level. A stairway ushered her up to the second level, which overlooked the abandoned street below.

The city’s gaudy artificial street lighting filtered into the exposed building, spreading a dim light that cast long shadows across the walls and nastier dark figures in the corners. Unperturbed, Lily watched the shadows twist and shift, taking form into something that would terrify her victims more than herself.

“Lily, welcome.”

A chorus of whispers and hissing voices pierced the otherwise quiet night air. Lily squared her shoulders and faced down the hulking shadow that took a human form.

“Hello. I hope you don’t mind if I join you tonight,” Lily said, her heart giving a nervous leap.

“Not at all, darling,” said a smooth female voice from behind her. “You belong here.”

Distracted by the abnormally tall woman leaning close enough to feel her breath on her neck, Lily didn’t notice the shapes taking form around her. Lily’s attention was glued to the emerald eyes and curved lips of the slim 7ft tall woman circling her like a shark would circle its prey.

Warm light flooded the space as a pile of mixed debris and trash ignited. A heavy-set muscular man stood staring down at the flames with a similar fire in his eyes, which burned brighter as he watched the contained chaos. A thin man, hardly skin and bones, lay wasting away in a daze with his eyes closed, draped like a blanket across a slab of concrete by the fire. Seven strange beings who had formed from the darkness now accompanied Lily.

Their existence wasn’t something she wanted to question aloud. Instead, Lily sat on the floor by the fire, glancing around at the people as she took swigs from her small pocket flask, waiting for them to speak.

“I like this girl, Envy,” said the flimsy man. Lily couldn’t identify any facial features in the thin, paper-like visage. “She does nothing.”

“Yet. She has done nothing yet. But you will, won’t you, darling?” Envy’s eyes flashed with a green light, an emerald spark, as she leaned toward the light of the fire. “You can’t let Imogen go, after all. You want what she has, so take it. Your brother gave you a simple silver ring for Christmas, but he dotes on this mistress with riches and love she doesn’t deserve. Take it. Better yet, scalp her head and that pretty hair of hers is all yours, too.”

Lily froze and clenched her teeth, captivated by the glowing green light in Envy’s eyes. They know.

“Of course we know,” said the fragile man, still seemingly in a daze. “If you ask me, you should just wait until fate plays out. Eventually, a freak accident will befall what’s-her-name and all you have to do is… nothing. Don’t even lift a finger. Just let her die there and ignore your societal obligation to help. Technically, it will still be because of you she dies. Everyone wins.”

“Ugh, how dreadful! Don’t you have any pride in your work, Sloth? You disgust me,” spat a monstrously large man, looming over Sloth. While Envy was abnormally large, this man was gigantic with a tremendous presence. He squared his shoulders and stood tall, head almost touching the 10ft high ceiling. “Lily has more self-respect than that. That is where her true greatness begins. Our young lady here is full of a quiet confidence and loads of self-esteem tucked away in there. Yes, I like it. Cultivate that. You murdered your brother’s last girlfriend, the horrible wretch she was, and got away with it like a professional. Nothing can touch you, now! You are so deserving of this kill, Lily, you have earned it! The careful patience you have put towards this, the quiet stalking, the brooding tonight - yes, you are a master at work! Don’t let a pathetic nobody take this moment away from you. You are going to make it extraordinarily painful for her, feel the slick red blood on your hands and -”

“And it is going to be delicious.” A tiny round-faced woman sitting against the wall by the stairs, moaned as she licked her lips, half her body graced by the light of the fire.

“Gluttony! I was talking, know your place! In case it isn’t clear, your place is below me,” the giant man sneered. “As I was saying, you are unstoppable. Killing Hailey was pure art; you made it look like an accident, that she just drowned at sea. Very well done. You know, though, this needs to be a more impressive murder.”

“I don’t know about all that...” Lily hesitated. “I was thinking about doing it when nobody was aroun-”

“Here, have a drink,” Gluttony said, growing larger as she approached to refill Lily’s flask with straight liquor, which burned her throat with each mouthful. “Think about it, Pride has a point.”

The spiced liquid burned through Lily’s apprehension and settled her doubts. “Okay, I can make it public, but what if I get caught?”

“Nonsense!” Pride swung his arms out, almost touching each side of the room with his enormity. “The police can’t touch you; that is proven. Your skills are too great for their pathetic investigations.”

Gluttony swelled beside Lily, filling out into a hefty figure as she refilled Lily’s flask again. “Have another drink, Lily. It helps you think.” A wide smile stretched ear to ear on Gluttony’s ever-warping and ever-growing face.

Lily nodded, finishing the flask quickly. “Yes, okay, I can do this publicly. I nearly hit her in my car today. I could do that. Painful too, if she doesn’t die on impact.”

Gluttony’s cheeks inflated with pleasure. “Imogen is a tasty morsel, yours for the taking. It’s like Pride said, you deserve it.”

“I am sure Imogen has a lovely brother.” A silky voice near Lily’s ear mesmerised her. A full-figured miniature woman reached her hand up and traced her long index finger along Lily’s collarbone, looking at her seductively through her lashes. “That whore is a leech on your brother, who hides her from his wife. Maybe you should seduce her brother first, repay the treachery.”

A thrill zapped through Lily, and her mouth turned dry. She swallowed, feeling her breath taken away by the beautiful small woman standing beside her who grew a foot taller to reach Lily’s shoulder. Lily could draw this out, torment Imogen by manipulating her brother somehow.

“You crave it,” whispered the woman, lips kissing Lily’s earlobe. “It’s like Pride said, you deserve it.”

“Do whatever Lust says,” a childlike figure said, interrupting Lily’s excitement. “Or get drunk and eat Imogen for all I care, or kill her slowly and publicly like Pride said, or let it be an accident like Sloth says, but you need to promise me one thing. You are going to take more than just her life.” Lily’s heart raced with excitement as the figure bulged and morphed into something larger than human. “You spend weeks following this girl merely to take her life? No. Take it all. Take her skin. Take her flesh. Take her life. Take her things from her room. Envy was right, your brother dotes on that woman just to spite you, his one and only favourite sister. Once you kill her, all of those precious gifts are yours. Call yourself Imogen and take everything she has. It’s like Pride said, you deserve it.”

Envy’s eyes sparkled with a green light as she bared her teeth in a hungry smile, standing to join the being on the opposite side of the fire. Together they combined their strength and twisted into a grotesque, human-like giant on par with Pride, who was now stooping to stay below the ceiling.

Pride’s voice was deep and commanding, his presence godlike, his stare drilling holes into Lily. His sharp teeth shined in the fire’s light with his pleased smile as he continued to swell beyond the limits of the room. “Thank you, Greed, Envy. As always, I am right. Lily deserves this. Go on, tell her, Wrath.”

The muscular man sitting on top of Sloth by the fire had a grim expression, but his eyes were alight with chaotic energy. “That bitch is going to die by your hands, just like the last one. She can’t crash into your brother’s life, steal his affections away from his family, and manipulate him with her evil ways. You hate Imogen. You hate her for what she has, for how she acts, for how she looks, for how she has completely disregarded you. You despise her! How dare she not acknowledge you? How dare she steal your brother from you? KILL HER!” he roared. “Make it slow. Have your vengeance. It’s like Pride said, you deserve it.”

Lily’s hands squeezed into fists and her skin turned hot with hatred. Wrath grinned as he towered taller.

Pride was now a hulking beast pressing into three of the four walls, with Envy and Greed caught in his shadow. The green light of Envy’s eyes from Pride’s darkness was hypnotising, like the shining jewellery waiting for Lily to take from Imogen.

Lily took three measured breaths, looking around the spacious room of shadows swimming in the corners as the light of the fire and the seven figures vanished.

It’s like Pride said...

I deserve it.

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