Liam: I

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Haughty eyes and a proud heart—the unplowed field of the wicked—produce sin.

Hubris―

He could still remember how his father once taught him about the cardinal sins and how humanity struggled—and fell. His father taught him of sacrificing one’s self and serving a purpose, of redemption and salvation. As his father had said before, redemption is only the first step to salvation and that this is the process of renewing and freeing people from their servitude to sin by acquiring back their liberty from it at a cost.

The price men have to pay to be redeemed and to serve a purpose to ready themselves to be whole and pure again is their life. Of course.

What could equal life but life itself?

And that’s how his father taught him his purpose. He was missioned to facilitate and make sure that the transformation of sinners to being pure again is carried out. And yes, he gets a little payment for serving this purpose because…because, why not? If earning a little dough for doing a dirty laundry was a crime, then he is guilty and must be punished. But it is not explicitly mentioned anywhere that accepting donations falls in any certain category of a deadly sin, is it? But if it were, he’d gladly accept it and agree to pay such sin with his life.

But what about murder? Isn’t it a sin that is both punishable by the laws of earth and the heavens? True. But the world has long been filled with violence; even the Bible has reflected so much of this savagery. What of those countries using death as capital punishment? Death penalty, premeditated or not, is still murder. He was a murderer, yes, but he had accepted that fact so long ago. He executed the death sentence, just like our government. The only difference is that the government has the people’s permission to kill, to bring and impose justice, while he had none but my purpose.

Now, going back to his noble cause of murdering people to free them from the bondage of sin, he didn’t just go killing people based on hearsays. Let us make that one crystal clear. His clients must provide evidence that the person they wanted him to punish had, in fact, been corrupted and had failed as a human being. His qualifier is meticulous and specific. The sin must be reflected in their actions and be in accordance with either of the seven capital sins they’re most guilty of.

But why the seven deadly sins?

The answer is pretty much simple. These seven sins are fatal to humanity’s spiritual progress, magnifying everyone’s spiritual shortcomings and enslaving them to no end. Many people say that pride is the mother of all sins. Some say that greed is the root of all wrongs in the world. But he’d tell you that all seven of these cardinal sins are the culprit, really. And people living their lives with any of these sins, in copiousness, must be redeemed. As evil as he may be, he still believed in giving second chances, you see. But these detestable—

“Hmmm…”

Oh, wait. She’s finally awake.

And then there was light.

Her eyes fluttered at the flickering strobe light. She let out a hiss of pain, twisting when she realized she was tied up. Her blonde hair was damp with her own sweat, and her pale lips were pursed in an expression of agony. The mass of blood matting her blonde hair and her bruised lips suggested as to why. Her eyes opened and squinted at the pulsating pain belching from different parts of her body, especially her head. She tried to move and opened her eyes once again only to discover that she was hanging. She carefully looked up at the red Shibari knot intricately tied around her wrist that was tied back to the rings screwed into the beam ceiling. She was stretched, and the red knot was digging into the skin of her wrist. Gravity was painfully stretching her body downward, her bare feet barely touching the grimy ground.

Oh, Hilary. What a waste of perfectly pedicured feet.

She flinched at the unsettling sound of two sharp knives scraped against each other; it was the sound of the inevitable. The lights stopped flashing, and her eyes finally adjusted to her surroundings. She couldn’t make out anything else other than the man who suddenly appeared in the corner of her eye.

Hilary blinked and recognized the man right away. His seemingly harmless look, fine facial features, and tired blue eyes could no doubt immediately earn someone’s trust. But the blood splattered all over his naked body was enough to provide anyone a different story.

Blood was dripping from Hilary’s forehead, making her feel light-headed and weak. She soon figured she had been knocked out before being brought here (a dark basement that smelled musty) and tied to the ceiling with nothing covering her body.

He slowly looked at her, his eyes raking every inch of her shaking body, taking in every movement. It was only a couple of hours ago when she fell for the warmth of his blue eyes — deep and mysterious. She looked like she was ready to drown in it. Now the warmth was gone, and the pair seemed so cold and soulless. I should know.

“Liam?”

“Good evening, Hilary,” he finally spoke.

“Why me? Please…let me go…”

“Rejoice, for you will finally soon be redeemed.”

“What the fuck are you?” she spat.

“People like you say I’m the devil. But I say to you that I am not. I am he who collects and redeems lost souls, Hilary,” he told her, keeping his voice calm.

Hilary’s eyes roamed over his body. There was no mistaking when her eyes widened in overwhelming fear, not because of his nakedness in front of her but because of the diabolical smirk he gave her, guaranteeing her of an excruciating, painful experience soon. And perhaps because, in her world, an ass-naked man with a knife in his hand in a dark room was a different level of fucked up.

Liam was, without a doubt, a different level of fucked up.

“‘Everyone comes naked from their mother’s womb.’ That phrase is straight out of the Bible, Hilary. When people—even you and me—came into this world, we were immaculate and uninhibited. But as mere human beings, we are also weak and curious. These things are etched in our nature. And the moment we enter this worldly realm, we give in to the false trappings and disassociate ourselves from our original essence. We sin. There are thousands and thousands of ways that we sin, but the most destructive and root of it all that impedes us from our spiritual progress are the seven deadly ones.”

He groped her right breast with his right hand. She yelped a cry.

“You have really nice breasts. I bet a lot of men desire you, although lust isn’t really the reason why you are here tonight. Do you know why you are here?”

He let go of her breast and stroke her bloodstained cheek before stretching the surgical gloves like a surgeon preparing for an operation.

Hilary wept hard as she shook her head. “No… No… I don’t know. I don’t… Please… Please let me go.”

He moved closer to her. “‘Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.’ Proverbs sixteen verse eighteen.”

“What? I don’t… I don’t understand. I don’t fucking understand. What are you talking about? Please I beg you. I don’t understand what’s going on,” she cried.

It was clear in her face that indeed, she didn’t understand what was happening.

“You’re a fearless lawyer, but your utter arrogance is the reason why you’re hanging up there, Hilary. Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven, right?”

Hilary struggled, a useless effort.

“My dad made me read Paradise Lost when I was a kid. It kinda blew my mind. John Milton was a genius. Anyway, your pomposity and insolence have caused someone to hate you so much that that person actually donated a huge amount to see you being skinned alive. But let me just say that money isn’t the only reason why you are here. You see, I just don’t kill. I have qualifiers and you simply qualified. You committed pride, the very sin from which the other sins arise.”

“No. No. Please…” Hilary trembled in terror. “Don’t do this. Please don’t…”

“Shhh… You fucked them up, Hilary, but don’t worry, you will redeem yourself tonight…with your life. You have to understand that what I am doing here isn’t a mindless butchery to satisfy my needs. No. It’s far beyond that. I am here to help you with your salvation. I didn’t strip you down because I wanted to screw you, silly. You are naked because ‘naked you came out of your mother’s womb, and naked you shall leave this world.’ And I have stripped myself naked before you because I have to be my original self, pure and uninhibited, before I can free you from your filthy flesh. Poetic, right? Is everything clear to you now, Hilary? You see, I’m just the chosen one. I am merely serving my purpose.”

“Oh… no… please… I’m begging you…” 

The sharp edge of his favorite ballistic knife softly grazed Hilar’s face, sending an unmistakable shiver all over the woman’s bloodied, sweaty body.

“Don’t worry. I am actually quite good at this. I’m a professional. Been saving sinners like you since college,” he assured her. All they sometimes needed was an assurance for a quick, seamless death.

Hilary wept harder when she finally realized there was no one to save her. It was certain that she was going to die. There was no stopping her painful death.

“I’m begging you…” she pleaded.

“Don’t worry, Hilary. Pain is temporary,” he said, smiling at her. Even his smile was vacant. He made sure it was. He took a piece of cloth from the medical table in the corner and stuffed it inside her mouth, silencing her.

It was time.

“As soon as I slit your throat and you take your last breath, every bit of your muscle will relax, including your iris. When that happens, your pupils will dilate. Trivia time! Do you know that the eyes are my all-time favorite? There’s something splendid about how it reflects the instant absence of life as soon as one draws its last breath. It’s a beautiful thing to see. It never fails to make me feel…elated.”

Hilary shrieked and fresh salty tears streamed down her face.

“And just an FYI, it’s really not that easy to penetrate the windpipe by just cutting through it. It’s not as easy as how movies make it. I learned that mistake when I was young. I had to repeatedly hack a man’s throat at that time. Had I known, I would have just stabbed through his carotid artery, which, by the way, is what I have been doing now. It made the work easier ever since.”

He heard Hilary’s muffled screams. She looked scared shitless and desperate.

When he was done talking, he raised the knife in front of her. And in one stroke, he stabbed the side of her neck, cutting forward and down. Blood gushed from her open cut in mere seconds. She wiggled, a perfectly normal response since her body was obviously going through trauma. Her hands reached out to him, and he had to move back a little.

He stood there watching her, waiting in anticipation for her to take her last breath.

His eyes lit up with a sudden intense burst of emotions as he admiringly stared at the stream of thick red liquid flowing down Hilary’s body into the drain in the middle of the floor.

A moan escaped his throat. Fuck. He could feel himself getting excited by just watching her gurgling her own blood, choking to death.

Once again, he had sent another wretched soul to the path of salvation.

So a couple of hours later, he finally redeemed Hilary from her sin and had his fix.

The room looked no different than it would at any other crime scene where a heinous murder had taken place. Like a chandelier, Hilary was hanging from the ceiling, blood still dripping down from her lifeless body.

He took a long breath in his seat, his eyes surveying the skinned body idly dangling in front of him. Like a man who just climaxed from having made love twice, he thought he could use a cigarette.

But sadly, he didn’t smoke.

Compared with the actual sex, he didn’t feel sad or any strong emotions after he was done separating Hilary’s skin from her body. Skinning her was no walk in the park considering that the woman was nearly as tall as him.

He was exhausted.

But he could only care less, as he felt peaceful and jubilant for what he had accomplished…again.

Ten more minutes, he thought to myself. He gave himself ten more minutes to take in the bloody scene and recharge. Any sane person would have vomited or even fainted at the gruesome sight like he knew any normal human being would have.

Could he be not normal then?

He couldn’t care less. He was proud of what he had achieved tonight. Truth be told, his inner “savior” wanted to save another soul again.

Kill again.

Although he could, he knew better and hence he must not.

He pushed the thought back before it could cloud his common sense. Just like his father had, he only allowed myself to seven kills a year. That meant saving seven lost souls every year. Seven sinners that the seven deadly sins had inhabited. That was the one rule he had to religiously follow.

As soon as his time was up, a familiar routine followed: he brought Hilary down from the ceiling, placed her on the gurney, and dragged her to the crematorium chamber where she would meet her final fate.

He checked his watch: 12:05 AM. He was still right on schedule. After doing the same thing over the years, he had nearly perfected his aftercare system: the cleanup process that set off after he was done with his victims.

Wait, were they really his victims? Shouldn’t they be called his redeemed ones?

Everything that usually followed after his victim―the redeemed ones―had taken their last breath was pretty much the same: cleaning the playroom, cremating the body into the retort, and grounding the dried bone fragments in the cremulator.

The usual.

The cremains then would take permanent residency in his little indoor garden, inside a special urn within a nice ceramic pot where a beautiful English yew would grow on top.

Then, he would call it a night, go home, and cap it off with a glass of his favorite red wine.

All in a day’s work.

Unexpectedly feeling eager for that glass of wine, he hurriedly dragged Hilary’s body from the gurney and shoved it into the furnace where a column of flames swallowed it almost immediately. His lips edged into a contented smile as he stood naked and gratified at the burning corpse in front of him.

Liam had was finally absolved Hilary from the sin of pride.