Prologue: Seven

In life, God chooses whether or not the person shall live tomorrow or the next minute before he cuts their life’s string and sends them to either Heaven or Hell. It is said in the Bible that he who believes in the Lord’s son shall be spared an eternity in Hell. I don’t know if it is true or not… My beliefs as a Catholic are strict amongst my own, but my opinions are different than the people who surround me, the hypocrites. Adam had been spared a life’s hardship for he was not the first to eat the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge. However, Eve was considered mostly at fault. In truth if God is so righteous and mighty, why did he let Eve be enticed to eat the fruit? There is another opinion about this: A pastor once said that if Eve had not eaten the fruit, we would all be of the Lord’s children and not born from sin; this being that all of us would be God lovers and the robots of obedience. There wouldn’t be such thing as unique or different, simply normal and alike.

With that said, this is where we get the Ten Commandments and the seven deadly sins as well as virtues. In the Ten Commandments it is said that He shall not: have any other gods before him, make a carved image of yourself, shall not swear God’s name in vain, remember the Sabbath day, honor your father and mother, shall not commit murder, adultery, shall not steal, shall not bear false witness to your neighbor, and shall not envy your neighbor’s home or things. As for the seven deadly sins, he shall not: hate, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy, or gluttony. On the other hand, the seven heavenly virtues are the complete opposite: he shall commit to chastity, temperance, charity, diligence, patience, kindness, and humility. And this is where our stories begin.

 

I was a full time bartender at your local bar and men didn’t dare look me in the eye unless they wanted to die. My work was okay, usual customers or newbs hitting on chicks and not even looking for the real thing, what you call hook-ups. You had your ladies in a nice cocktail dress, or your men in a nice snazzy shirt, and then there were the depressed drunks. I listened to their stories sometimes, other times I just wanted to get tipped or something. Either way, this smoke filled area for some hot sex just wasn’t for me. So why am I working here you ask? I need the money. Recently, I was living with my dad but I moved out and live with my friend who works at the local supermarket and my dad told me to never work at a market so I just listened to what he said. His intentions weren’t on getting me this job but it was easy money and good pay for good hours. Besides, boxing classes sure did pay off pretty well. You got your daily c**k fights going on and the room filled with testosterone and greed.

“Hey.”

My eyes look up from cleaning the cup with a nice white rag that was hanging lonely in the front pocket of my apron. From what I could tell, this guy didn’t look like he was from around here but he sure as hell looked like he could definitely hold his liquor, even though his face didn’t seem like the drinker type, damn those Asians. He didn’t seem too comfortable being here and I didn’t want to intrude on his personal life but he looked like he needed a good drink to keep him up.

I whip up some of my specialty drink, a straight up Jimmy in strawberry confusion, with a lemon squeeze, “On the house.”

He looked up at me with surprise and I went back to cleaning the cups, pretending he wasn’t in front of me or anything. The black hair coiled around my face hanging loosely down my titled head; my short bangs curved nicely above my eyes and my ponytail keeping the rest of my uncontrollable curly hair back.

“Hey Michaela!”

I stared blankly at my friend, wearing her supermarket apron, some people stared others didn’t seem to care.

“Ashlyn, what are you doing here? You don’t get out until eleven…” I remembered because it happened to be one of those days where manager liked to keep her in.

Her light brown hair bounced as I noticed the aqua blue tips at the end, “I know, but I need a shot right now! I’m getting really sleepy and I’ve had a long day a work! Please!”

I glared at her with my dead black irises. She stared at me with a face and I still glowered when I secretly put the shot in front of her. She continued staring then I look down when she finally notices the shot.

“Thank-!”

“Ah! Don’t make me regret it…” I grind my teeth in the utmost irritation.

In a quick flash, she runs out the door with the empty shot glass sitting there pliant in front of me. I take the cup back slowly and then go back to cleaning, the clock striking ten thirty in the night. What felt like forever finally ended when my shift was over. It was enough my friend Gerard wasn’t here to help but things seemed pretty swift for tonight’s shift. My boss told me to scat with a job well done and by the time I was out of that hazardous wasteland, I turned to leave for the apartment. In Los Angeles, the Downtown area can either be dangerous or okay, depending on your area and the day. It’s Thursday and I’m more in the west side of the city so it’s decent.

Getting into the beat-up apartment and moving ever so slowly, I made my way up to our room on the third floor and inhaled the fresh air of uncontaminated nicotine. At times, I do wonder if I will die of secondhand smoking, but then I just ignore it and pretend to live on with my life happily. I look around the cozy room and notice that nothing is out of place. I drop my backpack next to the navy blue futon and lie there comfortably, my back straining as if takes about two minutes for it to relax and align to the couch. When I can finally get some shut eye, the door is knocked on by that of knuckles. The exasperation is swelling in my mind as I get up and make my way back to the door that I had just entered five minutes ago.

I open the door with a blank stare at the UPS guy, “Uh…Michaela Chavez?”

He looked new, judging from the shaky hands and embarrassed red marks on his cheeks, “Yeah…”

“T-This is for you…” he hands it to me as well as the clipboard for me to sign.

I take the pen, sign my initials because my signature takes too long and slam the door in his face. I can already feel the headache coming to my head as I dump the box on the coffee table and grab some Tylenol. With a cup of water in hand I chuck the pills into my mouth, drinking the water straight up and leave it on the counter. The package interests me when I sit in front of the table with a pair of scissors in my hands, looking like a murderer about to stab someone. When I can finally open the box of mystery sent from an unknown person, the only thing that caught my eyes was the stuffing. I grabbed one of them as they made their airy squish sound and tore it in two between my two fingers. I sighed, realizing I would have to dig for whatever it was that I was supposed to get. When my hand reached into the fairly small box I grabbed a hold of something smooth like satin.

I pulled it free from its refuge and saw that it was just one of the two part ribbons to a mask. The ribbon was black like the darkest recesses of my mind and I couldn’t help but stare at its beauty. It wasn’t until the fine lines of the mask soon caught my attention. Its marks around the nose were perfect and the mask itself was not even scratched. The snout of the mask was well made and from the feeling it was made from clay but could pass as porcelain. The picture of the mask and how even details were added to the holes inside, although there were no eyes, it was unbelievably realistic and yet surreal.

“Weird…” I finally breathed out, looking at the inside as it was white like a sunny cloud.

When I finally had the gall to try it on, a part of me didn’t want to. The moment my face was so close to it that I had almost felt the clay against my skin, my roommate slams the door shut and it makes me jump.

“Jesus Christ! Did you have to slam the damn door?” I yelled at her as she came around to the living room and looked at me in shock.

“Where did you get that?” her brown robs were locked onto the mask in my hands.

“Um…UPS guy came in and delivered it?” I inquired, confused by her expression.

She looked through her bag and took out a similar mask from her bag but the difference was the color and the shape of the nose.

“Is that a beak?” I ask.

“Apparently, some of the co-workers were saying the same thing after some UPS guy delivered it to me two minutes before my shift was over,” Ashlyn said in a revolted voice.

I stared at the mask a little longer, the shimmering gold catching my attention. Shiny things tend to get to me after a while.

“What does yours look like?” she said, walking over here in her comfortable Vans as she looked at it for a moment, “It’s has a cat’s snout.”

“I thought so,” I said, recognizing the nose.

“But the snout is too big to be a cat’s…” she pointed out.

The only creature that came to my mind was a panther, especially because of the color, “Looks like a panther to me.”

“Probably, oh well. More gifts for us,” Ashlyn dropped the subject as the two of us made our way to the kitchen, leaving the masks behind on the coffee table.

While her hair bounced around as she walked, I washed some of the little dishes we had in the sink. The knocking on the door left us no surprise that it could’ve been a neighbor or friend so Ashlyn goes to answer it. I continue to wash dishes as I hear the door open.

“Yes?” Ashlyn answers.

The sound of a thump on the floor had me turning around with my eyes flung wide open. At point blank I was shot immediately to the head, not even my memories could flash before my eyes prior to. I didn’t even had to chance to scream my friend’s name in agony, or acknowledge the fact that I was going to die. Either way, it was a swift and quick death. I guess that’s the only thing I am glad for.