Warning: This chapter includes mature theme (violence). 

***

"Harder, stronger! Let all of your anger out!"

Lust poked Wrath with an irritation written on his face.

"That's cheating."

Wrath folded his hands and relaxed in a chair.

"That's called winning."

Lust took a deep breath. With Wrath there was no way to win without a fight and screams. He knew way too well that sometimes it was better to let him get what he wanted, because infuriated Wrath was not something anybody would like to see. Especially not with a whole party upstairs. In other circumstances Lust might have played with him that little game, but he already got what he came here for and so he leaned back on chair and set his eyes upon two fighting boys, who used to be friends.

"Go, go, go! Don't back up!" Wrath's words were like a spell for the guy who was all wrapped up in blinding fury that possessed him. "My, my, people are cruel creatures," he said to Lust, watching as a guy named Rick knocked down his friend.

He pressed him onto the floor, like a professional wrestler and started punching him more and more in the face. Blood was everywhere. On the floor, dripping from the face, which with each next punch was becoming difficult to recognize. Rick's hands continued killing the man under him, possessed by the anger he used to keep hidden inside. Maybe he would never kill anybody, but with a bit of help from bored demons it became more than possible.

"Don't stop now."

Wrath's anger filled the room. Rick let out the last punch and spit blood, watching what he had done. The face that used to belong to his friend was no longer a face. It was deformed, smashed like a porcelain doll, drowning in the sea of blood and pain. With injuries like that, the guy died almost instantly.

"And that's how you do it, Lust. That's how you make people forget who they are and fall for their ferocious nature."

Both of them were sitting in a basement, hidden from stupid students having a party upstairs. Finally they had a bit of what they perceived as fun. Destruction, blood and death.

"What will you do with him now?" Lust asked, even though he knew perfectly.

There was only one way out of here.

It was through the door of death.

"What have you done?" Wrath stood up and stepped forward, looking at the guy with bloody wounds on his fists he got from the fight. The man was in shock, but adrenaline and anger were still filling his entire body. "So much blood around, but you simply don't have enough, do you? You just killed another human being, your friend. Can you even live with that? With such despicable action, with blood on your hands?" He asked him with outrage. "Free yourself." Wrath took his hand, scuffed from blows, and laid a knife on it. "Spill more blood and let your anger disappear along with everything else."

Rick clenched the knife in his hand and with one precise move he cut his throat. His body fell on the ground while he was choking on the blood, waiting for death to take him straight to Hell as for the sinful ones there was no other place to go.

"I enjoyed the show quite much." Lust clapped in his hands, showing his appreciation for Wrath's masterpiece.

Suddenly there was a loud thud on the door and the stairs. Straight-haired girl fell down, bumping against the steps. Achy and confused, she didn't have the strength to get up from the floor. It seemed like she had broken her leg as it was bent at a strange angle.

"Hello, pretty." Lust crouched down beside her.

"Get away, Lusty, she's ours."

He looked at Envy, who came downstairs along with Greed.

"Party moved to the basement?" Wrath looked at the two of them wearing fancy costumes. He didn't want to dress up, but changed his mind, when Pride sweetly asked him for at least a few Halloween elements. He just had a soft spot for her.

"What that poor girl did to deserve your attention?" asked Lust, while Greed picked her up from the floor and sat her on a chair. She took the rope lying next to the table.

"She said something offensive," replied Envy, but she didn't seem offended at all. "I can't remember what, but I didn't like it." She showed Greed to seal the girl's lips with duct tape, because she started crying and screaming at once, when she saw all the blood on the floor and dead bodies.

"One more sound and you'll be next," Greed warned her.

"And what has this guy done?" Envy pointed at the man, who was hanging upside down. He was tied with a rope by the legs and the wrists. Blood trickled slowly down, from many precisely made incisions. These were surgical. Lust did it to him so that his death would be slow and full of suffering. He wanted him to feel unimaginable pain while bleeding out.

As demons, they've known all kinds of ways to die and inflict pain, but such drastic methods they've saved only for the ones who were the worst.

Lust came closer to him, taking care not to step into a puddle of blood. The man's skin was unhealthy pale and clammy from sweating. He couldn't speak, but his breathing was shallow and rapid, probably just as his heart rate.

"This guy, Mark or Frank, I'm not sure, because I asked him for name after cutting his tongue out, anyway, he tried to hurt Hailie. She hasn't wished for his company and surely not for his hands and lips on her. And so Wrath helped me with convincing his fellow buddies to hang and cut him." He pointed the dead guys on the floor. "They're no longer with us."

"Making them fight for life and death? So typical of you. Aren't you two bored of that?" Envy rolled her eyes and looked at the dying guy.

"Not with that." Lust checked the pulse on the man's wrist. It was weak. "He's at the edge of losing consciousness, and has a typical symptoms of hemorrhagic shock. I'd say he lost 30-35 percent of the blood already, so he doesn't have much time left. His organs are failing and his heart can't properly maintain blood pressure, pumping and circulation."

"That's a cruel revenge." Envy turned to Greed and her own victim, but an idea popped in her head. You don't turn off good fun. "But it can be even more cruel." She smiled, gasping from one demon to another. "Like old times."

Wrath was the first one to catch up with what she meant.

"Hell waits for him, let's not keep it waiting for too long," he proposed and Lust at once agreed, so did Greed.

All four of them lined up in a circle around that man. They looked at each other and smirked. It has been a long time since they've summoned Hell, definitely too long.

Lust stretched hands and raised his chin, beginning to quote well-known words with full concentration.

Let the gates open

Envy took a pleasant breath and joined Lust.

Let the Hell open

And so did the other demons, creating a frightening spell together.

With two worlds apart

Make the barrier disappear

And combine them into one

With those words, the blood on the floor ignited. Everything around them burst into flames, forming a dreadful circle. The light flickered and the bulb broke, letting the fire be the only thing to illuminate pitch-black basement.

Let this soul burn for eternity

Let it be consumed by the flames

With all the sins committed

Make the Hell take him

And bury in the underworld

The fire started spreading. Like a snake of its own existence it was creeping along the path of blood, until it reached the man, who was hanging upside down. Flames entwined his entire figure, keeping him alive, but dead at the same time.

Hence those whose souls are sinful

And full of atrocious

Shall burn in Hell

As their sins must be expiated by sacrifice

Thus take this soul and let it burn

Their faces lightened by the flames, showing small, but meaningful smiles as they've brought doom upon the sinner. With one last glance at each other, they've finished, condemning his soul for eternal misery.

For there'll be no rest for the wicked.

The floor under the man parted, letting the hellish flames consume everything that stood on their way. The stench of the fire was in the air, but it took only a moment for the room to appear normal again. The ritual has come to an end and the guy who tried to hurt Hailie was no longer on Earth. His soul was taken to Hell, where it was supposed to stay.

"What is the meaning of all this?" asked Pride, who suddenly appeared in the basement. It took her a minute to take a look at everything and come up with a partial explanation. "You were summoning Hell. Guiding somebody's soul to the afterlife?"

"A very bad soul." Lust smiled. For Pride it surely seemed like his idea. No wonder she wasn't invited to their inner circle of partying with flames. "If you wouldn't be so busy with some lower grade human, maybe you could look after Hailie, like I did."

Pride started laughing. What an imprudence!

"Hey, watch yourself here, Lust." Wrath stood up in Pride's defense, but she didn't need it.

"If you're looking after her so dearly and firmly, please tell me where I could find her?"

He seemed so sure and amused, thinking he knows it all.

"In the garden. I ordered Sloth to watch her while she's sleeping."

Pride raised her eyebrow.

"Really? Because I was in the garden and the only one sleeping there was Sloth, on his garden swing. No sign of Hailie though."

Her words puzzled him. He clearly commanded Sloth to watch over her. How did he manage to lose her already? And where was she?

"Impossible."

"Very, very possible. You're an arrogant asshole, you know? Now, has anybody of you seen her?"

"What were you doing the entire evening?" Lust asked her. It was weird not to see the two of them together. He was sure Pride wanted to party with Hailie and yet she left her alone.

And for some boy? No, it wasn't her style. Not a chance she could fall for some young student at first sight. There must have been something more to that. Wrath said that the guy she was talking to was her victim. What did that mean?

"Not your business."

He clenched his mouth with anger.

"It must have been something important then?"

"Could you quit your games?" Envy sighed with irritation. "We still have somebody to take care of." She pointed at the girl that she and Greed took downstairs. She was tied to the chair with her lips sealed and eyes absolutely terrified.

"That's your problem, not mine," he said.

Now it'd be the best to find Hailie. Her state of mind wasn't in the perfect condition. Even after using his advantages to help her with dizziness and calming nerves, she was still drunk.

"Fine." Envy was happy about it as she didn't want to go and look for Hailie. Wrath and Lust already had their fun tonight, it was girls turn now.

"I'm not going to look for Hailie with you," Pride said at once as she was not in the mood for enduring Lust's company.

"Lovely, we can search for Hailie separately, if we can't get into agreement with at least one thing."

"There's no agreement with you."

"Quiet both of you!" Greed yelled at them. "You feel it too?" She asked the other demons.

"Anger," stated Wrath.

"And fear," added Envy.

All of them remained silent for a moment, but the next thing that happened took them by surprise. There was a loud gunfire sound in the house, which they've heard even in the basement. Everyone at the party fell silent, even the music stopped.

"It can't be good." Envy kept calm, but Lust seemed frantic with worry, his eyes wild. She has never seen him like that.

"Take care of the basement!," he commanded them with nervousness and disappeared.

"Just like he said," Pride repeated and vanished as well.

"No, now I'm curious!" Greed sighed with dissatisfaction.

"Should I bring more popcorn for this drama?"

Wrath, Envy and Greed looked at Gluttony, who was sitting in the dark corner of the basement with, indeed, popcorn in a bowl. How long was he there?

"That wasn't funny!" Greed admonished him.

"Oh, but it actually was." Wrath laughed.

All of them gasped at the ceiling, wondering what was happening upstairs.