10 Envy And Pride

There's no escape here any more. The snake felt that Father Sev wasn't even trying to get away anymore and further tightened its hold.

"GAAAAAAHHHHHH!"

Sounds of bones breaking were heard and Father Sev screamed out in pain. The snake , making eye contact with the suffering priest, started to speak,

"To sigh yet not recede; to grieve yet not repent."

With those words, it uncoiled its body and crawled out of the cube, passing through the glass like it doesn't exist. Father Sev fell to the ground coughing, his face ghostly pale. He couldn't move his body as if all his bones were crushed and broken. He closed his eyes hoping for rest to come.

In the other cubes the same were happening to each of the sinful nuns and priests. They were all terrified that such things exist in the orphanage if they had known, they wouldn't have done the things they did. But it was too late for regrets now.

Sister Min looked outside the glass cube and could clearly see what was happening inside the other cubes. All of them leaned on the walls of the cube motionless, pain evident in each others faces, and hoping nothing would happen next. They were wrong.

"Level One - Envy. Envy shoots at others and wounds itself." the automated voice buzzed.

All of them, startled and confused, braced themselves for what is coming.

Suddenly, knives slashed out on all the walls of the cube. The nuns and priests eyes widened in shock. They were terrified, knowing that once all these knives come off they would be dead, if not greatly wounded.

"No! no! please no!" one of the nuns cried.

"I repent on my sins. I promise not to do them again! Please don't kill me!".

The words were sincere, but her sincerity didn't come from wanting to change her old ways but her from her fear of dying.

She was crying when a knife went flying straight to her heart. Falling to her knees in pain, she looked at the blade buried deeply in her chest. A teardrop fell from her eyes, no words coming out from her mouth that was widely open in shock.

The others reeled back in terror. The other nuns covered their own mouth in shock and the priests started to pound on the glass doors, trying to escape from this nightmare. All at the same time, the knives started flying out of the wall, stabbing those inside one at a time. They felt the pain of each knife but they can't avoid it. The last of the knives finally came out flying, revealing the stabbed bodies that looked like dolls full of needles. All of them were crying in pain. But it didn't end there. One at a time, the knives dislodged, twisting out of their bodies carving out gaping wounds. The pain was unbearable.

As the blades retracted inside the walls, Sister Min laid motionless on the glass floor. She was amazed that she isn't dead yet despite all the knives that stabbed her. She crawled her way to one of the corners of the room and sat leaning on the wall. She looked at her wounds but to her shock they weren't bleeding. She could feel the excruciating pain but there isn't a single drop of blood from her wounds, only deep cuts left behind by the knives. The knives on the walls were gone now and for a while they let a sigh of relief.

"Level 2 - Pride. " the automated voice beeped once again.

"Be cautious when you go too high because the only way left is down."

The people in the cubes groaned thinking about what the automated voice meant but soon a strong gust of air burst into the cubes, lifting them into mid air. Face down, they felt the cubes starting to vibrate. The vibrations turned into violent shaking and the floor parted in two ways, revealing a deep dark pit below. One of the priest remembered he had a lighter in his pocket. He took it out, lighted it and dropped it into the abyss. The light was already out but he was waiting for the sound of a metal dropping. He was about to turn his head slightly to hear more clearly but just then something dropped on his back. He reached out to grab it and he was shocked. It was the lighter he had dropped. He couldn't believe what happened so he dropped it again one more time. Once again it dropped on his back. He tried his best to twist his head to look at the ceiling and he saw it was also parted into two. It was also then that the air holding them mid air faded and they fell in to the abyss. Their screams echoed as they fell into the dark pit, passing through their cubes and again falling back to the pit.

The rushing feeling of falling rapidly added a stinging feeling into their wounds from the knives. Some of them were feeling nauseous already. They felt like their souls had left their bodies already but the falling still did not end. It continued and it left them completely helpless. Most of them started to think that death is way better than this.