Kei stayed up all night.
The house was still, save for the soft ticking of the kitchen clock and the occasional creak of Nebu floating in her sleep again. The journal lay open in his lap like a wound. He turned the next fragile page.
---
Entry Five – Rika
> "I thought rage would make me strong. But it just made me loud. Back then, I fought for everything—food, land, love. I picked fights just to feel something. It worked, until I couldn't tell the difference between defending and destroying."
>
> "When they branded me Wrath, I didn't scream. I smiled. Because at least now, I had a name that made sense."
Kei stared at the words. He glanced toward the hallway where Rika slept, her door always slightly open—like she never fully let her guard down. He remembered her shielding him from a falling beam during the kitchen remodel, bruised but grinning. Fighting for him.
Not destroying.
He turned the page.
---
Entry Six – Vel
> "They said I seduced kings and ruined empires. Maybe I did. But I remember the cold. I remember being a girl who danced because she had no voice. Because no one listened unless I batted my eyes. Lust wasn't born in the bedroom. It was born in survival."
>
> "I liked being looked at, sure. But gods help me, I just wanted to be *seen.*"
Kei closed his eyes. He'd thought of Vel as confident, dangerous, even manipulative. But suddenly, her teasing felt like armor. Her flirtation—her shield. She wasn't trying to conquer him.
She was trying not to disappear.
A quiet shuffle startled him.
Tobi stood in the doorway, barefoot, holding two mugs. "Midnight snack therapy?"
Kei blinked. "You're…awake?"
"Sugar senses tingled." She handed him hot chocolate. "You're reading the book, huh?"
He nodded. "I shouldn't, right?"
Tobi sat beside him, staring at the pages. "Maybe not. But someone has to remember who we were. Even us."
He turned to her. "Did you write anything?"
She smiled, eyes misty. "Keep reading."
---
Entry Seven – Tobi
> "They called it gluttony. But what I wanted wasn't food. It was *comfort.* My mother starved herself feeding me. My village burned before I ever turned twelve. I grew up thinking love was something you rationed."
>
> "So when I found warmth, I never let it go. I *devoured* it. Joy. Laughter. Seconds. Thirds. I kept eating so I'd never be empty again."
Tobi leaned on Kei's shoulder. "I'm not proud of it. But it makes sense now, huh?"
Kei nodded. "Yeah. You feed everyone. Even when you're hurting."
"I learned from the best," she whispered. "Now go on. The next one's scary-good."
---
Entry Eight – Mav (Greed)
> "They say I hoarded. Gold. Power. Secrets. They weren't wrong."
>
> "But no one saw the rest. How every coin I stole paid for a cousin's surgery. How every deal I made bought silence to protect a friend's crime. I *earned* everything, and I *lost* everyone."
>
> "Greed was just how I measured the price of love."
The page was smudged with ink—like tears had fallen on it long ago.
Kei exhaled shakily.
These weren't sins.
These were survival stories.
---
Entry Nine – Nebu (Sloth)
> "I wasn't lazy. I was *tired.* Tired of watching time pass. Of seeing cities rise and crumble, people bloom and fade."
>
> "When you live as long as we do, you start slowing down. You stop running toward things, and start just being. But that stillness? It kept me sane."
>
> "Stillness isn't failure. It's sacred."
Kei felt his chest tighten. How many times had Nebu silently guided him, made him stop, made him breathe?
How many times had he mistaken her stillness for weakness?
---
Entry Ten – Aera (Envy)
> "Envy was easy. Being second was all I ever knew. Second daughter. Second love. Second best."
>
> "I copied others to survive. To matter. To fit. I thought if I looked like them, talked like them, *became* them, I'd stop feeling so hollow."
>
> "I didn't want their lives. I just wanted someone to miss me if I vanished."
Kei touched the page gently.
Aera had always worn masks. But they weren't for fun.
They were shields against forgetting who she was.
---
Entry Eleven – Aris (Pride)
> "Pride isn't the sin. Shame is."
>
> "I built myself tall because I was broken. I looked in the mirror every day and told myself I was divine, because no one else ever would."
>
> "When you stand above everyone, it's because you're afraid of being seen below."
>
> "I wasn't born regal. I made myself a crown from the pieces of who I used to be."
Kei closed the book.
He didn't speak for a long time.
In the morning, the house smelled like pancakes.
Kei walked into the kitchen like a ghost, clutching the journal. Rika was flipping eggs. Tobi was humming. Vel twirled in a stolen hoodie. Mav was arguing with the fridge again. Aera peeked over her sunglasses, pretending not to watch Kei.
Aris stood at the counter, regal as ever.
"You've read enough," she said.
Kei looked her in the eye. "No. I haven't."
A silence fell.
He held up the book. "This changes everything."
"It doesn't," Aris replied. "We're still who we are. Pride. Lust. Greed. Wrath. Gluttony. Sloth. Envy."
"But you were *more,*" Kei said. "And maybe you still are."
The Sins exchanged uncertain glances. Even Nebu paused mid-yawn.
Vel broke the silence. "So what now, Professor?"
Kei looked at them—his housemates, his mentors, his… friends.
He smiled sadly.
"Now we figure out what comes after sin."