“You're not showing any signs that your body will reject the serum, however, you aren't showing any improvement either. Are you really giving this your all?” Raymond interrogated the young boy who laid shirtless on an examination table. “If you're not careful, the Aonair will go to someone else once Liz falls.”

“I am.” The child grunted as he sat up and reached for his pale blue shirt. “I've just been a bit distracted.” Raymond leaned back in his squeaky chair, put one finger on his chin, and motioned to the kid to explain. The lad avoided eye contact as he said, “Has Ryan really betrayed us? He used to be so determined to defeat Wrath and save this world but now he's supposedly fallen in love with her? Can someone who is so dead-set in their ways really be swayed by evil that easily?”

Raymond sighed, covered his eyes, and rubbed his temples with the same hand. “Unfortunately for us, Ryan has started seeing her through rose coloured glasses. She got to him before he could ascertain her identity and fallen in love with destruction itself under the guise of being somewhat likeable. His devotion to wanting to help those in need probably encouraged him to reach out to a girl who he thought was struggling and was then captivated by something else within her. By the time he realized who she was, he was already mind-controlled.”

“Is the Ríastrad really capable of such a thing? How can we fight against something that can control us?”

“We need not worry, so long as we're aware of her. Ryan would have been fine had he not acted so recklessly and started scouting out any woman with social issues. His heroic complex cost him big time.”

“Is there a way to undo the brainwashing?”

“Listen, Kyle,” Raymond leaned forward and grabbed the boy's shoulder. “Just give up on Ryan. Even if there is a way to help him, the damage that would be done in the time it would take would be far greater than what we'd recover by reacquiring him. Forget about him and make sure you're prepared to work alongside the next candidate for Greed.”

“The next? Only one person can have any of the sins at a time, I thought.”

“That's correct.”

“...And a sin can only be removed by killing the current wielder.”

“Bingo.”

Kyle hesitated, his knuckles white from gripping the edge of the table. “What are you planning on doing to Ryan?”

“I already told you,” Raymond snapped and stood up so violently that he knocked his chair onto the floor. “Forget about that love-sick dumb ass! Regardless of if he stands with us or that girl, the daft runt will be dead in a matter of weeks anyway, I'm sure.”

Kyle jumped onto his feet, clenched his fist, and shot back, “Don't you dare talk about Ryan like that!”

Both of them growled at each other for a moment before abruptly calming down. They exchanged glances and Raymond muttered, “It's unusual for me to resort to yelling when I get frustrated.”

“I can usually guard my tongue a bit better myself.” Kyle agreed. “I just started feeling... hot out of nowhere and couldn't contain it.”

“Yes, even now I feel like throwing you out the window but that aside, do you hear that?” They fell silent and raised an ear each into the air. Muffled screams could be heard from neighbouring examination rooms, stomping in the hallway, and occasional glass shattering. Raymond quickly opened the door and stepped outside where men and women in lab coats, boys, and girls in hospital gowns alike were quarrelling. Many groups pointed threatening fingers at each other, some people pinned others against the walls while the majority vigorously argued over which flavour of ice cream was the best, among other subjects. Raymond took a deep breath and yelled, “What is going on out here?”

As though a hypnotist had snapped his fingers, every living soul in the hallway muted themselves and with blank expressions, scanned their surroundings. One by one they each apologized to each other and stated that they couldn't stop themselves. “I'm not even sure what I was upset about.” They all quietly nodded in unison.

“What the hell is happening around here?” Raymond muttered under his breath.

“Doctor!” A woman shouted and a blonde lady in scrubs elbowed her way through the dense crowd of confused persons. “We have a problem!”

Raymond rubbed his temples again. “Delilah, for the last time, don't tell me we 'have a problem', just go straight to telling me what the problem is.”

“All of the children in the main hall, they've started fighting among themselves. It's evolving into quite the riot very rapidly.”

“There too? Why is everyone so angry-” He cut himself off and his eyes widened. “When was the last time we heard from Ryan or Liz?”

“Why-”

“Just tell me damn it. Walk and talk, let's go.” He growled and jogged down the white corridor.

“Ryan last reported in to us just a few minutes ago, Liz on the other hand we haven't heard from since she left here this morning.”

“Have you tried contacting her?”

“We've called her cell a few times now but she isn't picking up.”

“Fuck!” Raymond cried out, startling Delilah. “Call Ryan right now.”

“And then what?”

“Tell him to get his ass over here before his girlfriend burns this lab to the fucking ground!”

“Should I call Liz again as well?”

“Don't bother. She's already dead.”

* * *

Crash!

Two massive steel doors were dented inwards and broken off their hinges, landing on the concrete floor with a deafening echo. The thick metal glowed red hot as smoke bellowed in through the newly created hole. A teenage girl with silver hair as well as the grey ears and tail of a wolf walked across the blistering debris in her bare feet, unfazed. Her pant legs and sleeves were torched away up to her knees and elbows, smouldering as embers danced around her. Her nails were sharpened into claws and her teeth into fangs. A blood-red blaze hid her left eye while her right snapped from obstacle to obstacle, person to person, and interest to interest.

Two little kids hurriedly crawled backward away from the fallen doors, continuing until they hit a wall. When they did so, the smaller of the two pushed themselves into the other, and the bigger wrapped their arms around him. The bigger one clenched his teeth and gave Luna a cold stare, but despite his front, tears still formed in his eyes and his complexion became increasingly pale. His breathing went shallow and quickened as Luna stepped out of the smoke and into the near-empty, white hall, devoid of any decoration except for the odd potted plant. Both of the kids shut their eyes tight as Luna stepped up beside them. They attempted to block the immense heat radiating from her body which caused the floor at her feet to turn molten. As quickly as the temperature rose, everything around them became cold. The older of the two had once heard that some heat was so hot, that it felt cold after being burned. After several seconds of not feeling any pain, he risked opening his eyes only to see that Luna was no longer around them. All that remained was a trail of charred footprints leading further into the facility. He let out a sigh of relief and picked up the younger child before fleeing out the makeshift exit.

Around the corner, closer to the heart of the lab, Luna was greeted by two timid men in lab coats in addition to a wall of children, most of them with green bands on their upper arms. Some of them cowered, some gritted their teeth and shook their fist at Luna, others stared at her with their jaws on the floor. The two men nodded to each other without a word and sprinted out of sight as fast as they could while the kids blocked Luna's path. “That eye...” The oldest of them, a tall teenager with blonde hair and the only one with yellow bands, started to say, “You're her, aren't you? The bringer of the end times?”

Luna stopped in place, several arm-lengths away from the group, and watched them without giving a response.

The speaker pointed his face towards the floor but kept his eyes on Luna and clenched his fists. “I won't let you destroy this world! I won't let you kill my family! Every last one of us here has been training and preparing for the day you would show yourself. All of us in this place will be the ones to stop you even if it's the last thing we do. Everyone, stand up!” He instructed and began to look from face to face. “If she continues to walk the Earth, everything we know and love will be destroyed. Let's take her down now before she can have that chance.” The majority of the kids cautiously began to form a horseshoe in front of Luna while some still sat on the floor, frozen in fear.

Luna squinted at the leader and in a low, calm voice, she whispered, “It seems I'm not the only one hanging onto my sanity by a thread.” He winced and backed up a step as Luna's gaze pierced through his soul like a dagger. “Protect your family? Protect the things that you love? What utter rubbish. You've only convinced yourself that you have something to protect in order to hang onto yourself for a little while longer, to give you some false hope that this is nothing more than a terrible nightmare. I can see your pain clear as day. You're angry at your parents for leaving you in a place like this, for disposing of you like some common trash. You stubbornly hold onto the idea that if you kill me, you'll be able to return to your former lives as though none of this ever happened. You'll be free of the burden of having to 'protect' this world from a foul beast such as myself. That's not the reality though, is it? You already know that even if I'm gone, the only thing that will change is that you'll no longer be needed. You'll have no home to return to, no parents to tell you they love you because they've already rid themselves of you. No, your desire is not to protect them from me but instead to defeat me so that you yourself can be the one to crush them beneath your heel. So that you can exact your revenge on them personally. You're not trying to save the world by killing me, you're trying to destroy their world and to that end are preventing me from robbing you of that satisfaction.”

All of her opponents paused and gave the blonde teen a sideways glance, waiting for his response. A bead of sweat dripped down his forehead and he stomped forward. “Don't listen to her words! If she gets into your head like she got into Greed's, it'll all be over. Block her out, focus only on defeating her right here and now. We will protect everyone.”

Luna dipped her head but kept a poker face. “How sad it is, to be lost within the labyrinth of society, unable to be yourself. You hold onto a fabricated sense of justice in an attempt to give yourself some kind of purpose, some reason to keep on living. Only the weak and foolish can find comfort in those lies. People like you, who can do nothing for themselves but follow another truly disgust me. If you truly believe these thieves to be just, then you will only perish alongside these ridiculous ideals.”

“Get her!” The blonde one commanded and all who rose up to fight her charged. Most attacked head-on while some tried to flank her on the sides. Luna exhaled in boredom and swiped her hand in front of her, her fingers curled slightly. Claw marks were etched into the walls on either side of the hallway and the entire front rank of the combatants fell to the floor as nothing more than clumps of meat in pools of blood. Those that came at Luna from the side were engulfed in scarlet flames the moment they made contact with her. Their bodies were burned through so rapidly that they couldn't even scream. A smoking, blackened skull rolled from the blaze to a foot of one of the scared spectators who jumped when it came to a stop in front of him. The bone crumbled and became nothing more than a pile of dust. The onlooker cried out in fear and ran away, struggling to maintain his balance as he got up. The rest that didn't get up to fight watched Luna nervously as she slowly blinked once and continued into the lab without looking at them. They held their breath as she brushed past and prepared to make their exit when she was out of sight.

Luna came upon another set of steel doors, barred off and chained from her side. Her eye twitched as she inspected them but didn't pay them much mind. Rather, she placed one hand flat against the door and it shattered like glass, spraying shrapnel all over the floor on the other side. It opened up into a very large room with a lot of open space. Walking in, Luna resisted the urge to recoil as a smell almost as bad as death hit her in the face. Within the room was easily several hundred children dressed in hospital gowns, each with either a red or blue band on their arms. She gave each of them a quick once over, noting that all of them had untamed, greasy hair, reeked of sweat, and had black fingernails. Some picked themselves up off the floor as best they could when Luna entered the room, some didn't even react to her. Almost all of them had some kind of wound that was still bleeding or bruises that were visibly swelling. The floor was littered with what looked to be old, stained bed sheets that were hardly fit to be called rags. The walls extended up to what could be a second story and a tinted window wrapped around the entire chamber, just below the ceiling.

The sound of static suddenly echoed and all of the children froze in place as Raymond began to speak over an intercom. “Welcome, destroyer of worlds! You've certainly made quite a mess of our home in the very short duration you've been here. Not exactly proper etiquette for being a guest, is it?” Luna grunted in response and focused hard on the centre most window, where she could smell Raymond just behind. “Everyone,” He turned his attention to the children, “The woman standing before you now is the apocalypse herself. She's an aimless soul who creates new enemies for sport and destroys them when she needs some entertainment. In time she'll wander from person to person, killing anything that moves. She is what all of you have been training so hard for, putting up with such cruel treatments for so long in order to defeat. Whichever one of you are merely capable of injuring her shall be moved up into the next class.” Life returned to their eyes with Raymond's last word and all who were able looked straight at Luna, trembling as though they got a newfound strength that couldn't be contained by their frail bodies. “Make sure she doesn't leave this room alive!” The static stopped and the intercom fell silent as the herd of filthy kids started converging on Luna. Those that laid down, not reacting to anything continued to not budge even as the other stepped on them, using them as footstools. It was like an army of zombies marching towards a potential meal.

Luna clicked her tongue in frustration. “So the man who hides behind kids is calling me evil? Pathetic.” She sighed and rammed her heel into the floor, igniting her body. Those nearest to her halted their approach and shielded themselves from the intense heat. She yelled, “Those who want to run are welcome to do so. There is no staff in the direction I came from, I can promise you that.” Before she finished talking, a cluster of the cretins jumped at her. The runes in her right eye began to spin and the three of them were cleaved in two at the shoulders. The remainder backed away from her slowly, tears forming in their eyes. “If you attack me, I'll kill you without hesitation. If you run though, you'll have a chance at life away from this shit-hole. Tale your pick, die here, try to live or...” Luna crossed her arms and watched the windows over top again, observing that there had yet to be any notable movements. “Punish the people who put you here.”

Through the glass, Luna could hear Raymond curse under his breath and grumble, “That rotten bitch!” None of the kids moved for several seconds, they only looked at her in disbelief. Then, one by one, they all turned to face the back wall and gazed into the obscure window. “A bunch of ungrateful brats, the lot of you.” Raymond cried. “I'll have Andy teach all of you what happens when you don't follow orders.”

A siren blared through the chamber loud enough to make most of the kids cover their ears. Luna resisted the urge to do the same and scanned the room. “Andy?” She muttered. A segment of the wall opened up like it was a thick garage door and the children all hurriedly backed away from it. Some of the older ones dashed past Luna and sprinted out of the room altogether. Behind the door was a pale boy about Luna's age with only spots of hair left on his head. The chamber he sat in was littered with bloody limbs, still spilling their crimson fluids. Andy's eyes immediately fell on Luna even as he chewed on a disembodied hand. It dropped to the floor and he started to drool and let out a blood-curdling scream. Everyone was engulfed by a green, odourless mist. “Limiting my field of view isn't going to give you much of an advantage.” Luna started to think aloud but was distracted by one of the kids nearest to her falling to the floor. He laid on his back, one hand clasped over his throat, the other reaching towards her. Tears streamed down his face and his eyes became bloodshot as he let out a long, painful squeak. His already-skeleton figure became more pronounced and he fell limp. Luna could hear the other sharing a similar fate within the veil. Over top of the mist, a large, grotesque humanoid beast grew, its head stopping just shy of the ceiling. Its skin was like a baby-vomit green sludge that swallowed the corpses as it walked over them. Luna squinted at it, “How you're still alive aside, I wasn't expecting the power of gluttony to be so vulgar. That being said,” Luna snapped her fingers and the green mist was lit ablaze, consuming the bodies within. “You've just made a lot of enemies.” With the veil cleared, all that remained was the trails of smoke coming from burning piles of ash. The smoke turned scarlet and began to form spectres of the children who lost their lives. “Your vengeance is at hand.” Luna stated quietly and the army of spectres let out a collective war cry as they charged towards the sludge monster, climbing on top of him like a swarm of rats. In his new form, Andy tried to swat them away but their sheer numbers made it impossible. For every cluster he swatted, two more of the same size replaced them. Each time they were knocked to the ground, crushed or otherwise beaten, they merely stood up again, shrugged it off and continued their assault.

“This isn't looking good.” Raymond declared and Luna could then hear a series of fast stomps down the length of the window pane.

“Don't let him escape.” Luna instructed to no one in particular and turned her attention back to the grotesque freak who by now was hardly visible through the dense clump of red. She raised one hand into the air, pointing her palm towards Andy. “Disappear.” She mumbled and a massive, crimson ball of fire formed in front of her, burning away what remained of her sweater. It launched forward in a blinding flash of light, leaving only a wake of fire and molten metal. The spectres emerged from the flames, waiting. Screams of pain and agony rattled the glass as the tint became increasingly opaque due to splatters of a dark liquid on the other side of it. The window shattered and Raymond fell through into the main hall, two blood-stained wolves following close behind. As he attempted to pick himself up off the ground, Luna commented, “Any normal human would have broken a number of bones from a fall that high.”

“You're... one to talk about being... normal.” He winced and rubbed his shoulder. His tone remained even despite his pale complexion and the sweat running down his cheeks. He held two cautious hands up towards the wolves that growled at him. “We can talk about this. It was nothing personal.”

“Irrelevant.” Luna snarled, her back to him.

He turned to start begging but gasped. “That's... in between your shoulder blades... that's...” He pointed at her with a shaky finger, pointed at a marking visible just above her tank top that could only be described as a dragon's skull facing forward. “That's the Aonair. How could you possibly have Pride when you already possess Wrath?”

“Your discovery is a bit late.” She sighed and turned to face him.

His jaw only dropped further when his eyes laid upon the Dúil. “Three of the seven...” He grumbled to himself. “Three of the seven...” He started to laugh nervously. “Three of the- ow!” He cried as his face was pressed into the floor and his elbow was locked. With difficulty, he looked up to see who was pinning him only to begin giggling. A familiar red spectre held him by the wrist as well as his bicep and pushed his arm towards the ground like it was a spear. “I didn't think I'd be seeing you again like this, Liz.” The spectre only smiled mischievously in response. “To think you'd be the one to betray us.” He turned his attention to Luna. “Too bad for you, only Gluttony was here. Let's make a deal, shall we? I can tell you who the others are, what their abilities are, and how to counter them in exchange for letting me go.”

“Ryan is Greed, Liz was Pride, Andy was Gluttony, Sloth has yet to be discovered, I hold Lust and Wrath while you, the final piece, hold Envy.”

Raymond flinched. “Liz didn't even know that. Even if you managed to search her memories somehow, there's no way you could have known that.”

“It's because I can't search yours that I realized. Before you, Liz and Ryan were the only two that I couldn't detect pain from. When I learned who they were, the dots connected themselves. Then it was just a matter of determining your inner workings. You try much too hard to take from other people to be Sloth. Now then, as Liz assured me, our destiny is to fight to the death. I assume you've already realized that you won't be leaving here alive.”

“Wait, wait! I can still tell you where Sloth is most likely to show up and what his or her weakness will be. Surely leaving me alive long enough to give you that information won't be a burden on someone as strong as yourself.”

“In all of mine and my father's memories, this has to be the worst attempt at begging I've ever heard.”

“Then what about if I erase your pain? Would that be a sufficient price for letting me go free?”

“Sure.”

“I can spice up the deal- er, did you say sure?” Liz released him and backed away. He continued to lay on the ground motionless.

“Are you going to stand up or not?”

He cautiously rose to his feet, his eyes darting between Liz and Luna repeatedly. “What game are you playing? You haven't even asked me how I intend on erasing your pain.”

Luna shrugged her shoulders. “Can you do it or not?”

He continued to stare at her for a moment longer then quickly grabbed her wrist. “I can do something better.” Both of them were encompassed in a red aura that flowed from Luna to Raymond. I'll steal all of your abilities while I'm at it. If your body can hold three sins, I see no reason why mine can't hold four! I'll teach you to look down on me, dumb ass.

“Eh?” Luna called out, startling him but made no attempt to break his grip. “Steal my powers, huh? I don't mind, they're a bit annoying anyway. Without them, assuming I survive, I might actually be able to live out the life my parents intended for me to have. Perhaps I could go on a vacation of sorts with Stella and Aileen, free of worry about losing my temper at any time. Well, that being said, if you want the Ríastrad, you'd best be prepared to handle the stress and torture that comes with it.”

“Torture?” He echoed.

“Hey creep!” He peered over his shoulder to see a man about twice his height, wearing a black toque, black leather jacket and ripped jeans approaching him. The newcomer put his arm around Raymond's shoulders and squeezed tight while simultaneously pushing him off balance. “You got my money today, pip-squeak?”

“You're-” Raymond stopped himself when his voice came out an octave higher than usual. He scanned his surroundings, no longer seeing the walls of the lab and the piles of ash around him. In place of them were chain-link fences, a green, grassy field with large colonies of dandelions and a large brick building with several hundred teenagers strutting around, oblivious to his presence. He reached up and felt that he was wearing a pair of glasses so he took them off and inspected them. They had a thick, brown frame and were duct-taped together in the middle. He eyed his reflection in the slightly dirty lens and in place of what he thought was a handsome face, a chubby boy littered with freckles and bowl-cut brown hair stared back at him. “This is...” He started to say.

“You listening to me ass hat?” Black toque snapped and slapped Raymond's glasses out of his hands, onto the ground. “I asked you where my money is. You deaf?”

“You're supposed to be dead...” Raymond mumbled, still eyeing the glasses even as they sat in the grass.

“Huh? You think pretending to be crazy is going to get you out of this week's debt Ray-ray? Now pay up, or else.” A ring of thugs began to form around the chubby boy.

“This is just an illusion.” Raymond continued and tried to break free from the man's grasp. At the slightest hint of struggle, he slapped Raymond in the ear, making it ring. He clasped a hand over top of it and coughed as he was then punched in the stomach. It's just an illusion formed by the Ríastrad, I'm sure of it, but this pain is all too real. He was forced onto the ground where he held his arms in front of his face and curled his knees up to protect his core as the ring of thugs began kicking him from every angle.

Mixed in with laughter, Raymond could hear spectators talking among themselves. “Fat ass is getting his shit pushed in again.”

“I almost feel sorry for the ugly bastard. Almost.”

“I'd hate to be that guy, unable to defend himself, always at the mercy of other people. Being that weak would be unbearable.”

“You think we'd be able to get extra money out of him too if we threatened him? He doesn't look like he'll ever be capable of fighting back after all.”

“Raymond? Raymond Charles Baxter! Listen to me when I'm talking to you.” A woman hollered and Raymond opened his eyes to find himself sitting at a worn, wooden table. In front of him was a plastic bowl filled with water and bits of vegetables. Something hard hit him over top of the head and an ice pack fell into his lap. “Honestly, first you lose more and more money at the hands of that meathead and now you've gone and broken another pair of glasses. We can't afford to get you a new one. Not to mention your grades are starting to drop significantly and the PE teacher filed another complaint against you because you keep refusing to participate. When are you going to start pulling your weight around here, you no-good freeloader?”

“No kidding.” Another girl spoke up and a chair scraped across the floor. “I was supposed to go out with some of my classmates today but as soon as they found out you were my brother, they turned tail and ran. What the hell is wrong with you?”

Raymond gingerly placed the ice against his cheek and winced. After recovering, he mumbled, “If I could do what they could-”

“Bull-fucking-shit!” A man screamed. “You couldn't even figure out how to hold a hammer last summer. It took you years to learn how to make your bed without help. I'm surprised you're even capable of operating the toilet on your own. What do you think you can do? Being able to do the same thing as anyone else out there is naught but a pipe dream for your sorry ass. I should throw you out on the street for all my money I've wasted, currently wasting and will waste on you.”

Raymond gritted his teeth and threw the 'soup' to the floor. Some people are born talented, others are born without even so much as a sense of direction. Some people are born into money, some are born in an alley. Some people are loved unconditionally, other are abandoned by their own flesh and blood. If I could just take that talent for myself, take that money for myself, take that love for myself, take it all for myself... “I'll show all of you! I'll teach all of you what happens to those who look down on me!”

The room faded away into a red mist and Luna appeared in front of him, holding her hand out. “You think you can do it?” She asked him.

He reached for her, laughing. “With this, they won't stand a chance.”

“Guess again pipsqueak.” A man growled and instead of grabbing Luna's wrist, Raymond found himself placing a wallet on the thug's palm. “I knew you didn't have it in you.” He said with a smirk.

Raymond froze. “It wasn't supposed to be this way.” He stammered as countless scarlet spectres grabbed him and began pulling him into the dirt. He fell backward, his head landing on a concrete floor, unable to move, unable to think, unable to live.

Luna stood over top of him as the ghostly children all faded away. “For someone so confident, he didn't last very long. No, I suppose it would be more accurate to say that he was dependent on a power he couldn't control and sought it out, ignorant of the consequences.” She raised her left arm in front of her face, inspecting her fingers as all five of them were black and withering. “Those who rely on this power can never live to see the light of the new dawn.” Luna nodded towards Liz and started fishing around in her own jeans pocket. Liz squatted over top of Raymond's chest, put one fist in another, raised them both over her head and...

Smash!

Blood and fragments of bone sprayed all over the floor and the brain-dead doctor's arms bounced upward in response. Liz stayed where she was but relaxed her posture. She then turned to face Luna, grinning ear to ear with her eyes closed. She mouthed a silent, “Thank you.” And disappeared as Luna covered the Ríastrad once more. She watched disinterestedly as two red lines, side by side, one big and the other small, were etched into the skin on the bottom side of her forearm. Afterward, she lifted up her shirt to just above her belly button where a thin, scarlet ring enclosed a darker, filled-in circle.

Something crunched behind her and she quickly whipped around. In a blur of movement, she caught a baton out of the air, effortlessly stopping it. “There's still more of you?” She asked the boy with a yellow band who had swung it and he went wide-eyed. His feet refused to move and his mouth refused to make a sound as Luna pressed her fingers together. “I'd have given you a choice like I did the rest that was in this room, but it seems like you've already made it.” She swiped at his neck with her claws and he crashed to the floor, clutching his throat. He gargled loudly as red bubbles foamed in his mouth and leaked down the sides of his face. He fell limp in only a matter of seconds. Luna eyed his corpse and spat, “Dumb ass.”

“Kyle...?” A familiar voice asked from the entranceway and Luna turned to see who it was.

“Ryan?” She asked, her voice monotone.

He hesitantly stepped into the room. “Kyle...?” He said again.

Luna canted her head and blinked twice. “Who?”

He stayed silent and clutched the black box in his right hand. He clenched his teeth tight and tore off the lid, pulling out a rose-like flower with red and black petals. As tears welled in his eyes, he stared into Luna's and cried, “You damn monster!”