Anger & Reproach
The world was in ruin, civilization’s remains slowly consumed by the surrounding wilderness. Before long, humanity’s footprint might be extinguished all together, the surrounding marshes encroaching on abandoned cities, their asphalt splitting, their concrete cracking, all of which sprouted with signs of the life beyond its boarders.
Envy’s stood on a rooftop, his eyes heavy with sorrow. His black wings tucked against his back, his sleeveless black garb showing a left arm that was criss-crossed with deep scars that extended all the way to the wrist of a hand that clutched several loops of gold chain. His opposite hand held a symmetrical dagger, which the chain was attached to.
Across from him, a figure crouched and peered over its edge, a great scythe drawn behind him, his crooked wings twitching as though he was about to pounce at any moment. He was shirtless and lean, his hair a shaggy brown that he kept forcing back away from his eyes.
Envy peered over the ledge to spy what Anger was looking at, though he suspected he already knew. Far below was a line of four figures traversing the broken and overgrown city street—Pride, Lust, Sloth, and Gluttony.
“There’s no reasoning with you, is there?” Envy asked.
Anger bound away and oriented on him, a snarl marking his face.
“I had hoped...” Envy shook his head. “Doesn’t matter. I’ll not let you near them.”
“You maggot!” Anger bellowed. “You won’t escape again!” He lunged.
Envy threw the dagger, staking it in the ground and drawing the chain taught.
Anger jumped over it, Envy meeting him in the air with a kick that sent him backwards. He landed on his back, his feet passing over his head before regaining his feet to lunge anew.
The dagger and chain returned to Envy’s hand, the chain stiffening to become the staff of a spear. A series of parries, deflections, swipes and jabs followed, Envy losing ground as the arcing blade continued passing near him, each swipe aimed to kill.
Lust stopped in an intersection, Pride and the others continuing on without noticing his distraction. His hair was blond and sleeked back over his head. An open trench coat fell around his slender frame, his eye twitching as his finger lingered on the trigger of his grenade launcher. A series of shouts had reached his ear, his attention probing each of the neighboring asphalt paths in an effort to determine the sound’s direction.
An echoing ting! eventually drew his gaze up, where he spied brief flickers of figures clashing atop a rooftop. He grinned, aimed, and fired.
Anger heaved in a horizontal swipe set to cut Envy in half, who dove and slid past him, his own blade swiping upward to tear it the wing he brushed past. Several more swipes followed, a swing from the opposite direction leading to Envy duplicating his strike on the opposite side.
Boom! The building rocked, Envy staggering forward as more explosions followed, causing their footing to remain in a state of flux.
“Die!” Anger bellowed, charging with an overhead chop.
Envy planted his hand into the roof, and pushed upward with a kick that met his opponent’s face, the entire roof shifting and sending him jogging to the roof’s ledge. He turned back to see his pursuer, and hurled his blade like a harpoon, missing Anger to embed in the roof.
Anger stepped over the chain and chased Envy off the roof, where the chain quickly became a leash with an evaporating amount of remaining length. They were both airborne, Envy at the end of his rope and hovering, Anger leaping to deliver the killing blow. Then—his expression shifted to uncertainty, his upward flight not carrying him higher like he expected, his wings flapping uselessly behind him.
Envy’s expression was still one of sorrow as Anger’s recaptured his own hate, fuming at the ribbon’s in his wings place as he fell back towards the street.
A section of building broke away from the roof, acting like a pendulum as the chain drew taught. Envy grunted as he took on the added weight, the muscles of his arms, shoulders, chest and neck straining.
Anger struck the ground, the asphalt fracturing and cratering under his impact, subsurface sand and grit pluming into the air as his skin ruptured to spill its contents into the new bowl. Still, his malice saw the blood retreating into its wounds, the skin slowly knitting back together as he stared up at Envy, who was in the process of setting the new ball and chain on an adjacent roof. He was seething, eager to inflict Envy with the mutilating death that couldn’t arrive soon enough.
His vocal chords healed, he howled anew. “You maggot!”
Envy looked down on the fight that wasn’t yet over, hovering at the top length of chain which was still embedded in the slab of sundered roof. You really are too far gone... I’m sorry, Wrath. It seems there’s nothing left of you to save.
The chain once again shifted into a solid staff, Envy tucking his wings behind his shoulder as he grabbed the new pole and leaned out over the street below. The slab of concrete shifted, the lever lowering, the verdict decided. The erect chain levered down, passing its counter point, where Envy spun around to perch atop it.
The rock came free of the roof and he took position below to grasp at the chain which had become the staff of a great hammer, now plummeting from the sky. He flapped and pulled on the staff, forcing it to collide with and impale a neighboring building, the weapon once again levering, the bludgeoning end hastening towards its target.
Anger’s eyes widened as the massive slab of concrete converged on his position, his arm healing enough to reach towards the incoming attack, his head lifting as he glared up. “You maggot! You’ll never stop—”
Boom!
A shockwave of debris radiated out in all directions, rusted light poles and decayed signage folding or sailing away in the passage of a dust wave that traveled adjacent streets.
Envy flew in place as he observed the settling dirt and debris. Goodbye, my friend.
[WP] The horror version of Pixar’s “Inside-Out” franchise. I want to know how the emotions operate within the mind of a deranged person. Subtly dark, or full of splatterpunk. Your choice.
