Dark Days: A Collection of Short Stories and Poetry

by Chris Harris

  Part Four

  The Tri-sin of Greed, Lust and Gluttony.

  The fall.

  I halted in abject fear, but then continued,

  into yet another chamber. This one was filled

  with men and women, revelling in glorious

  piles of silver and gold, jewellery and gems

  these people’s greed have damned them to eternity

  in here, in this hell, they are taken by demons.

  They feed on the greed, tormenting the purveyors

  of this sin by taking the needless possessions

  of the greedy, the lustful and the gluttonous,

  punishing them for their respective deadly sins.

  The lustful men, paraded by bulging women

  With their plentiful breasts heaving, the scant clothing

  They once wore, torn beyond repair by the clawed hands

  of the lustful.

  I move slowly through the room as if in treacle,

  the thickness of my emotions, slowing me down.

  Greeted by the gluttonous, I stop and stare at

  The vast mounds of drooping cellulite, the bingo wings;

  Those things were what comprised the three in front of me

  With wide, greedy eyes and a gargantuan gob,

  slivers of drool snaking down their chins. Hunger had

  taken hold of them, even as they are being

  condemned for their sins. Despite the vast torturous

  effects of the lack of food, the true gluttons turned

  to cannibalism, eating flesh and drinking

  the blood of the hapless victims that succumb to

  their bulky might. Sharp teeth chattered as they bent down

  to where I once was, but then I was behind them

  fleeing to the end of the room, where the floor gave way

  And I was sent plunging into the depths of this hell.