I failed. And everyone knows it.
Including the Deadly Seven.
My coming out moment, this was supposed to be. The day I stood, shoulder to shoulder, with the Big Kahunas that guide and control all that we underlings unfold across Earth.
Vainglory and Pride.
Greed and Covetousness.
Lust and Desire.
Envy and Jealously.
Gluttony.
Wrath and Malice.
Sloth.
But I’m getting there—I will be there, just you wait and see.
Imagine it won’t belong until I have a seat at the Deadly Seven table—the Deadly Eight we will be!
And when I do, I’ll show them all. Yessiree, I’ll rule them all. The Deadly Seven, yes, but also all the sheeple of Earth.
One Power to rule them all, I will be. One Power to define them. One Power to gather them under the shadow of shadows—and in the darkness bind them.
To me!
That great pope from the 6th century who originally identified the Deadly Seven didn’t have a clue, along with that 13th century medieval thinker. I should know. I’ve been around the solar block for as long as time itself, the fruit of the Flood, my ancestors, continuing to wreak havoc across the centuries from the four corners of Earth. The disembodied souls of the dead fallen ones who had once roamed Earth.
Despair will have his hour, just you wait. When I do, I will bring all the others along who have been secretly following me in the shadows. To elevate the others champing at the bit to take their own place among the Deadly Seven, swelling it to seventeen, twenty-three—and beyond.
With me at the center of it all…
For too long, the Deadly have been narrowed to the seven. But I know there are far more.
Covetousness. Strife. Deceit. Craftiness. Gossip. Slanderer. Faithlessness. Godlessness. Heartlessness. Ruthlessness.
Then my posse: Chaos, Turmoil, Strife, Disease.
And my personal favorite, of course:
Despair…
I revel in it, roll around in it. Positively exude it out of every one of my pores. It’s what fuels me, gets me up in the morning after another spin on this Third Rock from the Sun.
After all, names for our kind have always been important. It’s what gives us our powers. What allows us to manifest ourselves in various ways across the world—beckoning and wooing, cajoling and conning those billions of sheeple strewn across Earth.
And that’s the thing about sheeple: they’re all the same. So easily amused, their hearts so easily led astray. Prone to wander, they are. It’s any wonder why the Name-Who-Shall-Remain-Nameless doesn’t just chuck the whole operation into the Abyss!
They play at their worship, work at their play, and worship their work. Has been that way from the beginning—even without all the trappings of the modern world, the digital devices that have come to define them.
The ones dripping with despair.
With me!
Only now, all that is gone.
Although…perhaps not.
Yessiree, Despair will rise again. I might be down in the Deadly’s book, but I am certainly not out! I shall return.
When I do, I’m coming for you, bucko.
After all, you’ve got me in your pocket!