⊱Puis-je être libre?⊰

Can I be free?

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"Report," Humility ordered as he sat down in front of me after calling me into one of the thousands of rooms where we had meetings.

I sighed internally. "Fifty murders, hundred and fifteen violence cases, thirty-"

"How many did you save? Not directly of course."

"Nine people," I briefly said and waited. I honestly didn't think much of it.

He raised an eyebrow. "From what?"

I wracked my brain. "Mostly car accident. One was murder."

"Anhye," he sighed and covered his forehead with his palm. "Your stats are so low..."

"Well, what am I supposed to do? We can only do so much. My powers work only temporarily. I can't change someone's thoughts!"

"Anhye!"

I flinched. My heart leapt to my throat. His voice sounded scary when he yelled my name and I couldn't move a muscle. It was absurd, really. He didn't even yell that loudly or angrily.

I hadn't recovered after coming to Heaven after all.

"That still doesn't excuse what a bad job you're doing. Have you ever dealt with extreme cases?"

I stared at him to assess whether he was mad at me or not. He sat still, staring back at me with his narrow eyes.

"What do you mean by 'extreme'?"

"Horrible cases. Uncommon ones that would make people uneasy. You know?"

I shifted my gaze to the ground.

"Judging by your reaction, I see you haven't. Means you're not doing a very good job being Patience." His voice dropped lower, making me clench my fists.

"I'm not an employee. Why should I be judged by my performance?"

"No, you're not an employee." He stood up and leaned down to whisper, "It might've been better if you were just an employee, but you're a Virtue. You're bound by rules and tormented by your Sin for eternity."

He brushed past me and disappeared. For a while, I stood there, letting his words replay in my mind. When I became a Virtue, I honestly thought that I would be at peace. I never signed up for a shackled life like this, always powerless at what I must do every moment.

Defeated, I closed my eyes for a moment. Just for a moment. I hushed my mind and rested in complete silence. I was nearly going back to how it used to be - not a moment of silence in my head, always chaos and worry.

No, I just wanted a moment of peace.

When the comfort of silence became too unsettling and got overpowered by the need to go on to my duties, I teleported to wander among humans until I noticed intense feelings in someone. Unless they were at home, people were very good at hiding their anger. To save face, perhaps. I had to tune into my intuition.

A bright red color caught my eyes and I frowned when the person's eyes met mine.

"Why are you stalking me?!"

"I'm not!" His popped out. "I'm doing my job."

A moment of peace. Was it too much to ask?

"Whatever," I barked and stomped past him. I was not strong enough to deal with him every day, every darned hour.

"Is something bothering you?" Wrath asked as he walked beside me. This man just invited himself to hang out with me all the time.

"Why do you say that?"

"I've never seen you having emotions other than annoyance. Today, you look extra... waterproof."

His choice of words made me crack a smile but I quickly dropped it. "That's because I don't have other emotions. I'm not a human anymore. You're not a human either."

"Oh... Sure..."

We wandered the streets and when I realized it, we were walking on a road up an empty hill with older houses and trees, away from the gray city. So much for carrying out my duties. Everything was too overwhelming and it was finally catching up to me because of what Humility said. I didn't ask to be like this.

"Can't you just disappear?" I turned to the red haired man beside me.

"Am I... bothering you?" He innocently asked. "Should I leave?"

"No. Can't you just disappear altogether?"

He stopped in his steps and stared at me. He had no expression, just a blank face so I didn't know what he was thinking. Maybe I should have thought about it.

"Would that make you happy?"

I exhaled deeply. "Not happy. Just at ease since you're my enemy. You're doing bad things to people anyway."

He smiled, a sort of comforting one that I was not alone. "Well, I'm trying to live, too, you know?"

I breathed out a laugh. "Fair enough."

"Maybe burgers can make you not annoyed anymore. My treat?"

I gawked at him. "Why should I?"

But then, there I was, sitting opposite Wrath on a table with two cheeseburgers for each and a soda for him. Honestly, I couldn't remember how I got there. Perhaps it was stress that made me unable to think anymore. Or perhaps I was just going insane. Either way, he seemed delighted to have me dine with him like normal people.

"Do you want fries?" His eyes sparkled and it made me want to laugh.

"No, please. We're already wasting food."

He laughed so boisterously. "You sound like Yoongi. I see him in you a lot."

"Yoongi? Who?"

"Oh. He's the Sin of Sloth."

My jaw dropped. How could I be compared to a Deadly Sin. And Sloth at that?!

Just then, Humility's words came back to echo in my head. Fair enough. I might had been like Sloth. Still, what a taint to my name...

I grabbed my burger and took a huge bite. As I chewed, there was not much flavor and it was like I was eating a stale bread with a drop of ketchup. So tragic. Wrath, on the other hand, had a smile on the whole time. I was puzzled at how he was always so positive.

"You... like that?" I asked.

"Yeah! Used to eat burgers often back when I was human."

I scanned his body. "How were you still fit?"

"I danced a lot. I loved dancing."

"Oh, okay."

"What about you? Do you have a hobby?"

I shook my head. "No. Maybe just watching movies?"

"That's nice. Then you can watch new movies for free now, right?" He giggled and the sound was bursting with twinkles.

I chuckled. "I'm not- Okay, yeah, sure."

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I refuse to play this game and get addicted 🥹

Thank you for reading this chapter and please don't forget to vote if you liked it 🌸