I gaped around the room as seven pairs of curious eyes were all directed towards me. There they all were. Instead of inhabiting my dreams, the… the Seven Deadly Sins were casually sitting in my dining room- like it was an everyday occurrence to have a plethora of ungodly beings in your home. "You're finally here, Persephone." a man griped, rolling his eyes. "The name's Damien." "A-and what sin are you?" I asked quietly. "Wrath, of course!" He snapped, the base in his voice causing the nearby wine glass to vibrate. A woman sharply edged in front of him, blocking Damien from my view with her head. She smiled, but it didn't meet her eyes. I'm Gina. You know, Envy." she sniffed, flipping her hair over her shoulder. She pointed a perfectly manicured finger to the man next to her, who was fast asleep, slumped over on the table. "And that's Patrick. Or Sloth. Hey… why does he get to sleep all the time? I wish I could sleep like that…" she whined. "Oh, shut up Gina." A man groaned, flipping through a pile of fifty dollar bills, counting and recounting them one by one. "I'm Chris. Greed." He spoke quickly, not even bothering to look up from the money, until the woman next to him spilled a drop of gravy onto a bill that wasn't counted yet. He flinched, snapping his head up. "Hey! You never do, but try to watch how you're eating!" "Sorry-" she said between bites of food. Her plate was overflowing, food ready to spill over the sides, but she maneuvered a knife and fork with surprising precision, setting them down every so often to take a drink. What was even more surprising, she wasn't overweight at all; her figure was what society considered normal. "That's Phoebe. Or Gluttony." Susan said, her nose crinkling up a bit. "You obviously know who I am, darling. Pride." she said haughtily. Suddenly there was a breeze at my ear, and I heard a voice, low and… seductive. His voice. "You already know me very well, love…" he murmured. I could almost feel him smirking. "Lust." My breath caught in my throat, and I felt my entire face heat up to a bright red. Dammit… it was so unfair how he could still affect me like that! I fought the urge to kiss him, struggling to compose myself as I ran a hand through my hair instead. Susan rolled her eyes, gesturing to the chair at the head of the table. "Well? Have a seat. We don't have all day." I groaned inwardly as I made my way to the chair, sitting down uncomfortably. This wasn't a nice dinner; it was a meeting. My eyes widened as I scanned the table, and noticed everyone had their notebooks with them. I was surprised I hadn't noticed them sitting out on the table before. They were hiding in plain sight. "Let the meeting begin." Gina said, obviously pleased that she was the one to call the meeting to a start. Ian shifted in his seat, flipping open his notebook. Everyone mirrored this action, and I felt very lost. I didn't have a notebook or anything; why was I even there? "As you know, Persephone is one sin away from becoming… well, sin itself." he began. It was quiet now, almost silent- except for the occasional slurp from the still eating Phoebe, who now used one hand to write. "And, as much as I'd like to stop it, the change is inevitable." "What does that mean for me?" I piped up. "It means you'll become a top name on a nice little hit list." Damien growled. "What? Why?!" I snapped, looking around the table. This time, they all shifted uncomfortably. "I haven't done anything wrong!" "Darling, are you blind? Ever since the tattoos started appearing on you, your behavior declined. Rapidly. You've been acting in ways you never would've even thought of before." Susan said, crossing her arms. "Once Mr. Greedy over there affects you, you'll change even more. For the worse. Obviously you'll do something wrong." Gina huffed, pouting. I leaned back in my seat, trying to process everything at once. People were going to try to kill me… because of what unwillingly turned into? It wasn't like I wanted this, was it? I bit my lip as I thought about it; if I never kept speaking to Mr. Hall, my parents would still be alive. I wouldn't have beaten a few people senseless. My best friend would trust me. I wouldn't have turned into an unpredictable… mess. Yet, there were a few good things. I stood up for myself without hesitation. People in school respected me. I've had the most interesting past few months in my boring life. Still, the bad outweighed the good. I stood up from the table, keeping my gaze on the floor, walking out of the dining room, pushing past the front door to a cold lawn. It didn't take a genius to know that Ian was outside already. "Persephone? Are you okay"- I cut him off, turning to face him. "We need to talk." --------------------------------------------------- Extremely sorry for the late update. Extremely late update. >.<