girls of effulgence | bts

twenty-five

Shocked wasn't even a word Wrath could have used to describe what he was feeling.

He had been expecting some sort of dragon or some fireball demon to come spitting out flames on him and his robes to match his internal temperature, but it was quite the opposite. In fact, Wrath wasn't even sure if what he saw was correct. Was his eyesight failing him?

In front of him, stood Pandora's Box.

The box that had given him life, and had set him free - his mother. Pride had brought Wrath to see their mother, who was locked up in a deep dark cellar underneath their manor, which made Wrath wonder how many more of these secret rooms Pride had in his possession. Did he have his dad too?

Wrath turned over to Pride, his eyes huge. "What the heck is this?" Wrath said, pointing to the box. He could swear that the box was destroyed after he and the others escaped. He wasn't sure whether to cry of happiness or sorrow. It was his mother after all, but the evil apple doesn't fall far from the evil tree. If he could barely trust himself, he doubted he could trust the object that gave him life.

There was a difference between mother and mom - mothers simply gave birth to the child and stopped there, like a C minus paper. Moms truly helped their children grow and stood by their side as if they were spirits inside their hearts. Wrath wasn't sure which his mother was, but he could certainly say that she was some kind of nasty spirit around him.

Why didn't Pandora's Box open when Wrath begged for it to be opened? He sat in his mother for years upon wasted years, screaming and crying like he was in chains, but it was far worse than just an imprisonment, it was a family tie that kept him bound to his mother. His mother could have easily moved her hinges open for him, but the fact she didn't upset him even more. She and him were more alike than he thought.

"It's Pandora's Box, you dummy," Pride said, acting quite the opposite as Wrath, who had watery eyes and was trying not to get near it. Pride reached up and caressed his fingers on the box. It shuddered in reply. "Beautiful, isn't she?" Pride said dreamily, in his own little world with his creator. "She's the reason why the world is ending." Whatever fear Pride had in him, it was not being shown whatsoever.

"Then why are you locking up your mother if you love her so much?" Wrath asked, totally confused by Pride's actions. Next thing, he was probably going to babble to Wrath about a magical unicorn he had, which really wouldn't be surprising at all.

"Just because something is beautiful does not mean it deserves to have love." Pride jerked his head and glared at him.

"She made us. Isn't that the most regrettable thing that any mother can do?" Pride clenched his hands together, and looked at the box, his dreamy state gone. "As much as I'd love to take over the world and have the girls lying down on my feet -"

"That's already happening," Wrath muttered.

"I'd almost enjoy seeing what the world was like if we were never born." Pride walked over to one side of the box, where intricate designs covered the creator. "We were accidental," Pride commented, and pointed out to the carvings. Wrath recognized them as a drawing of each of the seven of them. It showed a man being greedy, or angry or eating all the food he wanted to. The scars of having kids. "We should never have had the chance to grace this Earth. We had no idea about our abilities, and we still don't. Look what we did now."

Silence enveloped the dark cellar, making the cold the least of anyone's worries.

"If we were never born, the world would be happy and accident-free. Because of one accident of innocence, accidents are spreading all over the world because of our accidents."

Pride turned and looked at Wrath, turning his attention away from the box. His eyes were glistening with tears.

"If we cause enough destruction, I'm sure our mother will cause even more. We're so alike." Pride sniffed, a few tears dripping down his face, not affecting Wrath. He too wanted to burst into tears, but knowing Pride, he would want someone to cry because of him, and Wrath didn't want to be that person. "I've decided to let mommy help us. And then I'm locking us all up. We're going to switch places with her and hideaway. We don't deserve to rule. But to do that, I need you to touch her and transfer some of your wraths to her, the wrath you have for the Gods, Wrath. Make her mad, so she can fight, and then we will hide into exile."

Wrath was now crying too, unknowingly. Exile? The Seven Deadly Sins, the most supercilious one of all of them, was willing to become benevolent for the world? Since when would they ever lock themselves up? If Wrath's mind wasn't failing, he was sure they were the ones that wanted to do this in the first place.

"Why are you doing this Pride?" Wrath choked and looked at his mom, also being unfazed by her sons' emotions.

Pride wiped his face, his usual pretty face all blotchy. "Because I have realized I care for the girls. In all my time, I never would have realized that while we were trying to change them, they changed us just the same. And I don't want anything to happen to Humility, Chastity, or any of them.

"If it's any indication of our mom, we're violent like her. Now put your hand in Pandora's Box before I sever off your hand and put it on for you." Pride fell to the floor sobbing, his hands on his face. "We need to save them, and the world."

Wrath put his hand on the box and felt it shake. Concentrating on his anger, he growled and felt some of his anger flowing through him and into his author, his creator, his writer that made him into existence. But, perhaps, was he an evil character that should have never lived, and was only there for entertainment. A misconception, a stupid idea. The girls had lived without them before. They could do it again.

He then collapsed and sobbed next to Pride while his mom woke up, full of Wrath's anger.

"We do care for them, don't we?" Wrath said and looked at Pride, who nodded.

"We honestly do."

As the two sobbed, they realized something. Was their decision on power and control, wrong?

Neither of them really knew what could be right and could be wrong. And neither did the world. But who could blame either party?

All of their strengths had been taken away. What was left, was a weak attempt of the world trying to build itself together using tape that was meant for paper.

Next, to them, The Mother woke up. Like her sons had said, this was no ordinary caregiver. It was not a species of normalcy. She had been crafted by the gods above, and now, she was ready to protect her children from the wrongdoings they did.

Pandora's Box shuddered, and then slowly glowed red, casting shadows in the dark, where only those without sight could see the terror that was about to be unleashed everywhere.