Vanity
Noun
- Excessive pride in or admiration of one’s own appearance or achievements.
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“Next!”
Stepping out of the long winding tunnel, she finally felt like she gained control of her body again. Her eyes watered as bright red light blinded her. Bringing her hand up, she blinked. A huge cavern came into focus. The red glow came from ripples of lava weaving their way through the shiny black rock. In front of her a peninsula of the same black rock reached out into a lake of glowing lava. Between her and the lake was a row of seven metal ticket booths with turnstiles blocking the way.
“NEXT.”
Nope. Fuck this, she was going home. She turned around to head back through the tunnel and promptly smacked into the rock wall. “Dammit,” she muttered under her breath. Grimacing and rubbing her forehead, she tentatively probed the rock. How did that get there? She’d just walked through a tunnel opening, hadn’t she? Looking either side of her, the black rock stretched unbroken to either edge of the peninsula, dropping into the glowing, slightly bubbling, lava. Looking up, the rock disappeared into the shadowy gloom above.
“NEXT!”
She turned back to the booths. With nowhere else to go she resignedly approached one. She was met by a pair of hoofs propped up on a desk next to a monitor. The hoofs were attached to sleek blonde goat’s legs. The top half of a woman was reclining in an office chair, filing her long red nails. The woman had a blonde bob with short red horns popping out the top of her head. Her tits were overflowing out her too-small red tank top. Jesus, I shouldn’t be staring. She quickly brought her eyes back to the woman’s face.
“Name,” the woman said without looking up.
“Kyle,” she replied, catching a glimpse of a forked tail swishing under the chair.
The woman put down her nail file, took her legs off the desk, and leaned forward. The straps of the tank top stretched thin as they struggled to contain her tits. A name badge was pinned to one of the straining straps.
Barbara – Welcome Devil
Barbara’s nails clacked on the keyboard. “There’s three other Kyle’s due this hour, you’ll have to be more specific.”
What? “Uh, Kyle Rivers.”
Barbara’s nails clacked away again. She started murmuring under her breath. Kyle only caught the odd word, drink driving and five deadly sins among them. She wondered what they meant.
“Alright Kyle, you’ve racked up greed, lust, envy, sloth, and… vanity,” Barbara said, peering over her monitor as she said the last word. Her eyes swept over Kyle’s outfit.
Kyle’s blood boiled under Barbara’s scrutiny. She was still wearing her outfit from the party; a low-cut skin-tight red suit, black heels, and diamonds sparkling across her chest. She scowled at Barbara. “My outfit doesn’t make me vain. I look fucking hot, there’s nothing wrong with that,” she snapped.
Barbara raised her thinly plucked eyebrows. “I’m not judging you, hun. Your sins are between you and Satan,” she said, returning to the computer. She hit the enter key. “Alright, you’re good to go. Pop your wrist under the scanner next to the turnstile, go through the gate, and hop in the boat. Welcome to Hell.” Barbara grabbed her nail file and leant back in the chair again. “Next!”
What? Wait… “No, I need to go back through the tunnel. I want to go home.”
“NEXT,” Barbara called again, without looking up.
“But-”
“I said next,” Barbara said quietly, looking up at Kyle with a get-the-hell-out-of-my-face expression.
“Bitch,” Kyle huffed under her breath as she marched over to the turnstile. She stuck her wrist under the scanner. A second later she whipped it away, yelping in pain. As the pain subsided, she looked at her wrist. Two crossed scythes had been tattooed on it in black. What the hell did that mean? Being careful of her wrist, she pushed her way through the turnstile and went to the end of the peninsula. Shit it was hot. She wiped away a trickle of sweat running down her chest. The smell of sulphur made her crinkle her nose in disgust.
As she reached the lake edge, she could make out four openings in the wall of black stone across the lake. A small rowboat rose out of the lava. It was made of charred wood and somehow wasn’t on fire. As she inspected the boat, she heard another turnstile click.
Over her shoulder a huge shadowy figure approached. Lightning was skittering through the shadows. She froze, her heart in her mouth. It walked to the edge of the lake where another boat rose from the lava. It hopped in the boat, which sailed off unassisted toward one of the openings.
She turned back to her own boat. Tentatively she reached out and touched it. The wood was rough and surprisingly cool under her fingers. Was she really about to hop in a tiny rowboat in a lake of lava? She looked behind her again, but apart from the ticket booths and turnstiles there was nothing else, except…
Forget her heart being in her mouth, all her organs were trying to make an escape. A huge bull-like creature with twisted horns and the face of a boar was approaching. Long thick strings of drool hung from its yellow fangs. Sharp hooves clopped menacingly on the black rock. Its tiny eyes fixed on her, and its snout pulled back in a snarl.
Kyle frantically hopped in her boat. Move, move, move, she willed the tiny boat. As it pulled away from the peninsula, and the horrible creature, she let out a breath. Her boat was sailing for the opening second from the right. The shadow figure was heading toward the opening second from the left. Fear clenching her stomach, she turned back to the creature to see where it was heading. Relief washed over her as she saw its boat heading for the opening on the far left. Thank God.
The boat sailed silently across the lake without a ripple. As she drew closer to the arches, she saw a huge pair of crossed scythes carved into a keystone at the top of the opening, the same as the tattoo on her wrist. She glanced at the other openings. The one the shadowy figure was heading toward had a cloud with evil eyes surrounded by stars. The one the bull-boar creature was heading to had a fanged skull with horns. On her right side was a pair of horns and a forked tail.
Through the opening was another long winding tunnel. Maybe she’d be able to get back home if the boat followed the tunnel for long enough. Ports were carved into the walls at random intervals with huge timber and iron studded doors set into the black rock behind them. Some of the quays had barges tied to them. Goat-legged devils and cloaked figures shouted at each other as they loaded and unloaded the barges. Eventually her little boat docked at one of the ports. It was empty.
“No com’on little boat, we need to keep going. You need to take me home,” she said encouragingly as she patted the boat.
It didn’t move.
She scowled. “Take me home,” she commanded the boat.
It still didn’t move.
She let out a frustrated huff. Maybe she could row it herself. Scanning the quay for something to use as a paddle, her eyes settled on a small pile of metal sheets. Maybe she could find one small enough to use. She jumped out. Immediately the boat sunk beneath the lava.
“No, no, no, no, no,” she groaned, kneeling at the quays edge, trying to see the boat through the lava.
The lava only bubbled in mock merriment. Letting out a sigh of resignation she got back to her feet and headed toward the huge timber and iron studded doors. She stood before them, tilting her head back to see the keystone. Carved into the gleaming black stone was:
“Welcome!”
She started. Eyes darting around, she found a smaller door, built into the huge doors, was open. A skeleton with black and white hair in a low fade cut had poked its head out. She blinked and rubbed her eyes. When she removed her hands the skeleton was still there.
“What are you waiting for? Come in, come in!” the skeleton gestured with a bony arm.
She glanced back at the port where the boat had been. She hesitated, but really, she had nowhere else to go. Reluctantly she followed the skeleton through the door.
Sound hit her like a wall. The sound of life. Shouts, laughter, and music filled the light flooded chamber. Before her stretched a huge lush green park. It was surrounded by red and white striped cliffs stretching away into the distance and rising up into a ceiling of water above. Dappled light shone through the water, the shadow of a stingray gliding overhead. The cliffs were carved with layer upon layer of semi-open corridors, connected to the park by tall steel-framed towers at regular intervals.
There was a low whistle next to her. “Well, well, well, look at you.”
She whirled around. A man was standing next to her, wiggling his eyebrows and grinning. Her heart hammered against her ribs. Ho-ly shit, he was insanely hot. Her eyes slid down his body, taking in his fitted black jacket and sleek straight pants which showed off his powerful physique perfectly. Darting her eyes back to his face, his pale blue eyes were alight with mischief and his black and white hair was… the same as the skeleton’s?
His eyes slid down her body in return. “One of your Deadly Sins must be vanity, because there’s no way you could pull off that outfit the way you are without excessive pride in your appearance,” he said with a sly smile.
Her cheeks heated. She couldn’t figure out if it was a compliment or not. Either way he was a huge dick and could… “Fuck right off.”
He laughed. “She’s fiery,” he said with a purr that skittered down her spine.
Heat began to pool below her stomach. Get it together Kyle! She needed a distraction. “Weren’t you a skeleton?” she blurted.
“Yep. We’re Grims,” he said, extending his wrist toward her which had a scythe tattoo matching hers. “Outside these cliffs we appear as skeletons.”
What the… “How?”
He shrugged. “Satan’s Will. There’s a lot for you to learn, but let’s start with my name. I’m Flynn, Flynn Robinson.” He stuck his hand out to her.
She eyed him suspiciously. He looked like a perfectly normal, if not ridiculously attractive, guy, but there was something off about him. Her eyes roved over him, from his smiling face, to his hand stuck out for her to shake, to his shiny boots. His boots were too shiny. Definitely suspicious. She narrowed her eyes at him.
“Aw don’t be like that,” he said, dropping his hand. “Come, walk with me.”
He set off along a paved path into the park. She didn’t move. “You have to take me home,” she said in a steely voice, crossing her arms.
He stopped and turned back to her. “This is home.”
“No… I want to go home. If I go home in my dreams then I wake up. Piglet needs feeding and my sister will be pissed at me if I sleep in again.”
His brow creased with confusion. “You have a Piglet?”
“No,” she let out an exasperated sigh. “Piglet’s my cat.”
He shook his head and chuckled. “Don’t worry about it. Your sister will feed Piglet, and she won’t be mad at you for sleeping in,” Flynn said and started walking off again.
“Wait,” Kyle called, hurrying after him. “How can you know that? You don’t know anything about me or my sister,” she said angrily.
Flynn stopped, turning to her with surprisingly sad eyes. “Kyle,” he said gently, laying a hand on her shoulder. “You’re dead”
***
Read Red Reaper Part Two - Greed out now!