The Seven Sins

Selene looked at Tazz expectantly and he looked away. “What?” he asked. Selene prodded him with a stirring spoon. “Help me.” “I don’t know how,” Tazz said, helplessly. Selene smiled at him, making Tazz blush furiously. “It’s easy just watch me and listen to me. I promise you’ll be fine.” Tazz nodded. “We’ll start with the banana pie dough. I’m going to start kneading the dough and I want you to watch me. After you think you know how, I’ll let you take over. Okay?”
Tazz nodded. Selene rolled up the sleeves on her blouse and began. Instead of watching the process like he was supposed to, Tazz let his attention wander to her features. She was a really pretty girl. Hardly a blemish on her face and focused brown eyes. He also noticed how her blonde hair seemed to have a shine to it. He shook his head furiously and looked pointedly at her kneading the dough. After a minute or two, she stepped back and looked at Tazz. “You ready to give it a try?” Tazz nodded although he was sure that he wasn’t. He hadn’t even been kneading for a couple of seconds when he made a mistake. “Not like that,” Selene said, stepping close behind Tazz. He immediately noticed that she was just as tall as he was and she reached in front of him, he noticed that her arms were longer than his.
He noticed that she smelled like apples. “What is wrong with me?!’ he thought to himself. He berated himself mentally for thinking like this. Selene took a hold of his hands. “You need to knead like you mean it,” she said. “Like this,” she said, guiding his hands with hers. “Her hands are so soft,” he thought to himself. “Shut up!” he yelled at himself mentally. Then, the finishing touch to his current madness. “See how much smoother it is when you knead carefully?” she asked stepping even closer and touching her breasts against Tazz’s back. For a second, Tazz was positive that he was about to pass out. Then, thankfully, she stepped away and Tazz nearly fell forward. He wiped his nose on his sleeve. “Is something wrong?” Selene asked and from the tone of her voice, Tazz was almost certain that she knew what she had done. “No,” he said. “I’m fine.” “I think I’m going to step out for some fresh air, is that ok with you?” Selene giggled and nodded. Tazz went outside and closed the door behind him. “That was the best and worst thing that has ever happened to me,” he thought. “I said no!,” Tazz heard someone yell. Tazz looked further into town and saw that the church’s light were on and there appeared to be a lot of people there. “Is this really something that you’d do? Think about it. How would this affect Selene, Max?!”
Tazz ran as silently as he could until he reached the church. He wanted to know what they were talking about, so he went to the back of the church to search for a backdoor. He found it covered in shrubs. He brushed them aside and tried the door. Although covered, it appeared to be in good condition and didn’t creak as Tazz pushed it open. He slowly made his way into the church, but almost as soon as he stepped across the threshold, his eye began to burn. The pain was so sudden that he nearly cried out. He touched his eye with his hand and when he brought it away, it was covered in black blood. “What the hell?” Tazz thought. He stepped back outside and his eye stopped burning. Tazz was about to turn around and leave when the argument rose a pitch. “You can’t be serious! You’re willing to help a complete stranger and chance exile because you think he killed a great evil in the mines. You truly are insane!” Tazz had heard enough. He ran around the church and pushed open the doors. Immediately his eye began to burn. “Speak of the devil,” one of the people gathered said. As Tazz stood there, one of the villagers stepped forward and pointed at him. “You see?! The evil demon bleeds from it’s demonic eye!”
Tazz walked forward, pointing at the man who had spoken. “You are a hypocrite,” he said. The man opened his mouth to speak, but Tazz interrupted him. “God is merciful to all people. He shows compassion. He would never turn anyone out. If you stand in His church and say that I am wrong, then you deserve the deepest hottest cell in Hell.” “So,” he said, lowering his hand. “Do you think that I’m lying? Do you think you are right to shun anyone?” The man looked down, humbled and shaking with rage. “No,” he said at last. “And to all of you,” Tazz said, looking around at the gathered people. “I say to you that I mean you no harm and that I plan to be gone by the first light of tomorrow, so please try and bear with me. No punishment is necessary.”
With that, Tazz bowed and walked out of the church. Before he had gone too far however, Max caught up to him. “Here,” he said, holding out a towel. Tazz took it and mumbled his thanks. Max was silent for a moment as they walked. “You know,” he said. “I thank you for what you did in there. You made a lot of sense and saved me and my daughter from banishment.” Tazz shrugged. “It wasn’t right. I just made them see sense.” He pressed the towel against his eye and wiped some of the blood off. They walked the rest of the way to the house in silence. They were about to go in when all of a sudden Tazz had a thought. “Hey Max?” he asked. “Yea?” Tazz dug the metal ball out of his pocket. “You mind if we have one more for dinner?” Max looked at the ball and then at Tazz. He smiled. “It’s no problem at all,” he said. “Show me your true form,” he said to the ball. The ball glowed, but not as harshly as usual. It still forced Max and Tazz to look away and when they looked back, Seighty was standing there, wearing a black and red dress with some dress shoes and her hair was tied back in a ponytail. “Thank you for letting me out of there Tazz,” she said. She turned to Max. “And it’s nice to meet you Max.”
They went inside and were surprised by what they saw. Although Tazz had bowed out and left Selene with cooking duty, she had managed to cook everything and had it sitting on the table. Not only that, but she had managed to clean up and change into a beautiful blue dress. Tazz went up to her slowly. “I’m so sorry for disappearing on you Selene. Please, I’ll do anything to make it up to you.” Selene smile at him. “It’s ok, but I’ll think about what you can do to make it up to me, but for now let’s eat. Everyone took a seat at the table and Max brought out a gallon of fresh water. Seighty helped Selene serve the food and everyone began to eat. Seighty and Selene sat next to each other on one side of the table while Tazz sat with Max on the other side. The food was beyond fantastic and the girls chatted away like their was no tomorrow. Max and Tazz talked about motorcycles. When everyone had ate their fill, the food was cleared away and everyone shared cleaning responsibility. Tazz found himself standing outside looking up at the sky when everyone had finished cleaning. “Hey,” someone said. Tazz looked down and Max threw him a towel and a bar of soap. Tazz looked at it dumbly. “We’re going to take a bath before we turn in.
The night was full of surprises for Tazz as it turned out. “What?” Tazz asked. Max smiled. “This is a mixed public bath. People here aren’t shy.” To add to his bewilderment, Seighty and Selene walked by wearing just a towel and Tazz averted his gaze immediately, blushing. “They should be,” he mumbled. He followed Max into the bath and when he saw the people in the bath, he nearly started bleeding from his nose. There were way more women than men and none of them were wearing any towels or clothes. “Come on,” Max said from beside him. Purposely averting his gaze, Tazz responded. “I think I’ll find a different part of the bath to take mine.” “If that’s what you want,” Max said leaving Tazz to stand there. He walked around the bath until at last he found a part that was secluded from the rest of the bath. He took off his clothes and wrapped the towel around his midsection. Then he slowly slipped into the bath. He sigh contentedly as the warmth of the water soothed him, mentally and physically. He closed his eyes and began to relax, but as soon as he did, he was wrapped up in a hug. He opened his eyes and saw Seighty. The blood rushed to Tazz’s face as he felt her against his chest.
“I found him Selene!” Seighty called. As Selene walked through the water over to Tazz, he knew for sure that he was about to start bleeding. “Let go of me Seighty,” he said. She released him and Tazz turned to face the wall. “You are such a prude Tazz,” Seighty said. Tazz sigh in response. Tazz saw someone’s feet in front of his face and looked up. He was shocked to see the boy that he had saved the previous day. He had blonde hair, blue eyes, and an athletic body. “Hi Tyler,” Selene said, shyly. “Hi Selene,” Tyler said, slipping into the water. He went up and to Selene and hugged her close. For some reason this made Tazz feel angry. He released her and went up to Seighty. “Who is this pretty lady?” he asked. Seighty blushed as he kissed her hand and hugged her. Another sharp pang of anger struck Tazz. “See how weak the bonds of loyalty are?” a voice in his head said. Tazz shook his head violently. “So how about a game girls?” Tyler asked. “What kind?” both girls asked in unison. “How about Tag?”
Tyler jumped at Selene, who giggled and ran backwards followed closely by Seighty and Tyler. Silently, Tazz finished his bath and climbed out. He got dressed and walked outside. His mind was in hyper drive thinking of ways he could hurt Tyler, but he knew this was out of jealousy and shook his head. He about to walk back to Max’s house when a sudden thought struck him. It was time to head out. Without Seighty. He went up the path to the mines and rolled his motorcycle to the gate. He parked it just inside of the gate and walked back to the bath. He went inside and saw the girls still running around with the boy Tyler. Ignoring the ill thoughts that raced through his head again, he approached Seighty. “Hey Seighty,” he called. Seighty held up a sign at Tyler and the game paused. She splashed towards him and Tazz averted his eyes until she was right in front of him. “You finished your bath already?” Tazz nodded. “Where’s the map from earlier?” he asked. Seighty stared at him. “Why do you want to know?” Tazz shrugged. “I just want to make sure it is where you left it.” Seighty stared at him for a moment and for a second, Tazz was sure she knew what he was up to, but then she smiled. It’s in Selene’s closet under the blankets at the bottom in a box.” With that, she turned and went back to Selene and Tyler and in a way she had made her choice about whether to follow him or not.
“The path we are on is one only for us,” the voice in his mind said. “Shut up,” he thought to himself. He got up and jogged to Max’s house. He went in and ran up the stairs. He looked in each room until he found Selene’s. He went to the closet and went through the covers until he found the box. Trusting that it was there, he shoved it into his pocket and ran back down the stairs and out of the house. He jogged to his bike and climbed onto it. “You’re leaving without your friend?” Max asked. “I don’t have friends,” Tazz said. “That’s because you don’t want any,” Max said. “Me and the girls want to be your friend.” “I can’t have any friends where I’m headed.” “So that’s it?” Max asked. “Your not gonna say anything to the girls?” Tazz shook his head. “You’ll be able to take care of Seighty right?” Tazz asked. Max sigh. “Yes.” Tazz smiled to himself. “That boy Tyler can make both of those girls happier than I could,” he said. “Here,” Max said. Tazz turned around and caught a fist sized bag that Max had thrown. “Gun powder,” he said. “It’s hard to come by and hard to use nowadays, but I figure a boy who can build a motorcycle should be able to use it.” Tazz nodded and started his bike. “Tell them I’m sorry,” Tazz said, throwing his motorcycle into gear as the gate opened.
“There’s a gallon’s worth of gas by the abandoned car!” Max yelled. Tazz turned his bike and snatched up the gallon as he passed it. He placed it in the back and kept going. As he rode out into the night, he wondered where he was going. The way he was going, it didn’t look like he had a certain destination, but something in the back of his mind said otherwise, so he rode on unquestioning. It’d only been an hour when he sensed that something bad was about to happen. He stopped his bike and climbed off of it. He went to the back and grabbed the box. With it tucked securely under his arm, he walked forward. He had taken maybe twenty steps when a blinding light tore through the sky. Tazz screamed in pain as blood streamed from his eye. He closed his eye and fell to his knees. “So you have returned,” someone said. “Who’s there?!” Tazz yelled out. “Oh yes,” the voice said. “I forgot that you cannot look upon me with your demon eye. Take off the patch that covers your right eye.” Against his will, Tazz’s hand moved and pulled off the patch that covered his eye. “Now open it.” Tazz’s right eye opened and he was amazed to find that he could see. The light did not hurt this eye as it had his demon eye. He could see what appeared to be an angel outlined in the blue light.