"Dead? He can't be dead!" Envy said, kneeling over his body.

"How?" I asked.

"Maybe the meat is poisoned?"

We all looked at the pork, then to Pride.

"Whoa, hey, I swear I didn't poison that hog," he yelled. "All I did was catch it!"

"And you cooked it," Greed said. "You were the only one close enough to do anything to it."

"I swear on my life, I didn't have anything to do with this."

Lust stood up, holding her head. "Maybe that lady did something to the pig? We don't know where she is, she could have poisoned it before Pride caught it."

I thought about when we were all around the ring and she was explaining the rules. She had looked right at Gluttony when she had said 'you will not.' Maybe that meant something. Or maybe it was just a coincidence. "She had looked right at him...," I said. "Maybe because it was his test. I think we're all going to have individual tests...."

"If that's the case then we're going to have to examine every detail of each test to figure out whose it is."

"I have a feeling mine will be something to do with exercise."

"I'll probably have to give something of mine up."

"I'll have to...not be jealous?"

"I'll have to keep my temper."

"I know I'll have to be less egotistical."

We all looked at Lust, who was blushing. We all knew what hers would be like.

"So we help each other. Simple."

Lust butted in, "But she said that sometimes we have to compete. What will she do to us if we don't?" She hugged herself. "Do you think she'll...?"

"We don't know what power she has. So we have to be very careful. If she did poison that pig, she can poison us. But as long as we don't turn on each other, we should be fine. We're in this together now, like Lust said."

"I also said that we can't let anyone fail a test...and yet...." She started sobbing.

"Hey, hey," I said, hugging her. "We didn't know what to expect. It was inevitable."

"We failed him!"

"His sacrifice will just help us keep everyone else alive, Lust. We have an idea of what things are going to be like. We will miss Gluttony, but I'm sure he wouldn't want us to sit around and mope about it."

"You're right."

Awkwardly, Envy spat out her gum. "So, uh, I guess we can't eat tonight." She sat on the ground. "Someone should move that pig. And the, er, body."

Wrath picked up the pig by the spit and put it back over the fire, saying, "It'll burn and turn to ash eventually." Then, with a grimace on his face, began to pull Gluttony's body towards the fire by his chubby, lifeless arm.

"Wait!" Lust called out. "We could have, like, a funeral or something. We shouldn't just burn the body."

Greed stopped Wrath, placing a hand softly onto his arm. "I know you want to get rid of it as fast as possible, but we should honour him before we do this." Wrath dropped Gluttony. "Everyone grab a stick, light it on fire, and stand in a circle around Gluttony, so we can say some words to say goodbye."

Greed pulled a long stick from a tree, then lowered one end into the fire until it caught. We followed his example, and stood around Gluttony's body, which had been drug into the Ring, in the same order as we had around the fire before, excluding Gluttony's place, as he was lying on the ground in the middle, eyes open but seeing nothing. Lust started sobbing again and handed her flaming stick to Envy, and bent down to close Gluttony's eyelids.

"I can't stand that lifeless gaze," she said through sobs. Envy handed her back her stick.

"We are gathered here to mourn a loss," Greed started. "He was a friend to all, and he didn't deserve to die. Gluttony never got a chance to overcome his sin, and in a way we failed him, because we let him eat the pig."

A tear slipped down my cheek, and I touched my face, surprised.

"We hope that Gluttony will rest in peace. His death will forever remind us to help each other, so that we can all get off this island together."

We bowed our heads in silence--aside from Lust's sobbing--for a minute, then dropped our flaming sticks onto Gluttony's body.

* * *

I laid on my back, looking at the stars from my torch. My hands were behind my head, and a few rocks were pressing into my flesh, but I didn't care. Greed walked over to me and laid beside me.

"It's strange," he said. "It's as if she wants us all to die. We had no idea what to expect--"

"It's over now," I said, rolling onto my side so that my back was to him. My eyes laid upon the bonfire that was devouring Gluttony's body. It had been burning for about an hour. The body inside was black. I grimaced and closed my eyes, and a sudden wave of fatigue washed over me.

I must have groaned, because Greed asked, "What?"

"I'm really tired all of a sudden," I replied. For some reason, I wasn't able to open my eyes again.

"It's been a long day," he said.

"Mmm...," I mumbled. "Don't close your eyes...," I said to him as I drifted off.

* * *

I woke with a jerk, sitting up straight. It was morning, and there was a person standing over me.

"Ah!" I screamed, throwing a rock that I had found on the ground at it. "Get away from me!"

"Ow! Sloth, you need to stop hurting me when I scare you," said the person in Greed's voice.

"Greed?" I asked.

"Stop throwing!"

I looked at my arm, which was stopped mid throw. "Huh. That's weird."

"Jeez," Greed said, rubbing his arm. "You've got a good throw for someone who hates exercise and athletics."

"Ahaha," I laughed awkwardly, dropping the rock that was in my hand. I stood up and stretched. "Yeah. I go a little bit over the top when I get scared."

"What's all the fuss about?" I heard Wrath ask angrily. "I was sleeping you know."

"I scared Sloth," Greed replied, still rubbing his arm.

Wrath scoffed. "Did she really hit you that hard?" he asked. It sounded like he didn't believe it.

I narrowed my eyes, picking up a rock. I locked eyes with him, then threw the rock. It hit him in the forehead and I smirked.

"Ow! What the heck!"

"Don't insult me, Wrath," I said, the smirk still on my lips.

Lust and Envy were laughing, along with Greed. "I should have warned you," Greed said.

Pride stood up from where he must have been sleeping and scratched at his head. I had to suppress a shriek, as there was a giant spider on his chest.

He raised his eyebrow at me. "What?"

"Tarantula on your chest!" I squealed, pointing at him.

"What?" he yelled, looking down. He screamed and ran around, trying to wipe it off. Lust and Envy went crazy too, screaming and holding onto each other. I grabbed a stick that was conveniently in front of me from the dead fire and ran over to Pride to try and squish it.

"Die!" I screamed as I whacked his chest.

"Ow!"

"Die!" His hand flew out and caught the stick before it made contact with him again.

"Stop hitting me!"

"It's going to bite you!" I pulled off my shoe and threw it at the spider. "It could be poisonous!" The shoe hit the spider, dislodging it from Pride's chest, and I screamed and ran, because it had fallen just before my feet.

Pride followed me, after grabbing my shoe, screaming higher than I was.

"You could have died!" I said loudly, eyes wide with shock.

"Thanks," he replied.

"I'm sorry I hit you," I said as he lifted his shirt to examine for any welts or bruises. Sure enough there was a welt going across his pectoral area, which was just above where the spider would have been.

"It's okay," he said as he gingerly touched the welt. He winced when his fingers grazed it. "Ow."

I cringed. "Sorry."

Lust and Envy were still screaming, and Wrath was looking at them funny. Greed was standing awkwardly in his spot, trying not to stare at them.

"Shut up!" Wrath screamed after another minute. They shut their mouths and composed themselves, Lust clearing her throat and Envy scratching her neck.

Greed cleared his throat too, and then said, "So does anyone know what we're supposed to do now?"

My eyes wandered across the ground, laying upon the pile of ash in the middle of the Ring. My stomach lurched and I fell forward. Pride caught me, and I felt him wince when I landed against his chest. In my mind I could see Gluttony choking, and dying. I could see the fear in his eyes again, when no one would help him. I could hear the echo of Lust asking if anyone knew the Heimlich, and of the gurgling sounds Gluttony made as he was dying. It replayed over and over. What if we had kept him from eating it? He could have still been alive. The thought made me feel sick, and I covered my mouth.

"Sloth? Are you okay?" Pride asked.

"I'm going to be sick," I replied through my hand. Pride let go of me and I fell to the ground, dry heaving into some bushes at the edge of the clearing.

"Omg, Sloth are you okay?" Lust asked.

Shaking, I stood back up. I wiped my mouth with my hand, then, averting my eyes from the Ring, I said, "Can someone get rid of Gluttony's ashes?"

Lust looked at me wide-eyed, then passed out and fell backwards. Pride ran up behind her to catch her, wincing again when she landed against him.

"Greed?" he asked, suggesting that Greed should be the one to clean them up.

"Where am I going to put them?"

"Throw them in the water," Wrath suggested. "I'll help you." He walked into the Ring and scooped up two handfuls of the ashes. "Hmm...this might take a while."

"Good point." Greed agreed. It would take a while to get all the ashes to the ocean. He looked at the bag that was once again hanging over his shoulder, sighed, and said, "We can pack them into this." He shrugged the bag off and opened it up, picking up handful after handful of the ashes and dropping them into it. It fit all of the ashes except for a few small piles that Wrath just kicked around, like that one line of dirt that's left after sweeping. Greed picked up the bag, and Lust shot awake.

"Omg."

"Well at least you don't throw up," I said to her, a half-smile on my face.

She nodded slightly. I laughed awkwardly.

"Alright, let's all head to the ocean. Lust, do you think you can lead us to where you found Gluttony? Maybe we could find the place he woke up."

"You're going to pour him into the ocean?" she asked. She started to blubber.

"Do you want us to just leave him here instead?" Wrath asked.

She shook her head wildly, then took a deep breath and turned, looking for the place that they had entered the clearing. "I think it's this way," she said, heading in between two torches.

We all followed her, and I looked down to see that they were Envy's and Gluttony's torches. Greed shifted the bag onto his other shoulder and fell back to walk beside me.

"That's nice of you," I said, gesturing to the bag.

"Yeah."

"It goes against your sin, so it means even more." I paused looking at the bag. "I just hope I'll never have to be carried in it."

"Yours would be the heaviest weight," he replied.

"Hey," I said, "that's kind of rude."

"I meant emotionally," he said, looking at the ground just in front of his feet.

"Oh."

"I imagine Lust feels the same way I would if this was you. She did meet him."

I looked up to the front of the group, where Lust was looking back and forth, trying to remember which way Gluttony had came.

"I had my back to him...," I heard her say to Pride. I looked back to Greed.

"Yeah. She seems pretty torn."

Greed sighed. "I hope it's never me," he said, his voice wavering.

Without thinking, I threw my arms around him in a hug. We both stopped walking. "You won't be," I said, "you're already showing signs of getting over your sin."

"Oh! This way!" Lust suddenly said. She bounded through some trees and the rest of us followed. She led us through the foliage and we emerged onto the sand. There was a big boulder to the right that Envy started to climb. I looked out to the ocean, watching the water flow up and then recede again. It was calming, until Greed walked past me, taking off his bag. He kneeled on the ground, the water soaking his knees, and placed the bag in front of him.

Everyone gathered around him. I didn't care about getting wet, and, as it seemed, neither did they. I looked at Greed, who picked up the bag and turned it upside down. The ashes fell as one big lump into the water, the waves taking smaller clumps away every time they receded.

Lust started to cry again, into Pride's chest. I just watched the water take the little pieces of Gluttony away. Wrath stood up and walked towards the boulder, arms crossed and hunched over. I stood up and followed him.

"Wrath?" I said cautiously.

"Leave me alone!"

I set my arm on his, and he turned towards me, smacking it away. I could see two wet streaks down his face. "Wrath, it's okay to cry," I said.

"Just leave me alone, Sloth."

My eyebrows furrowed, and then I hugged him. He was tense, but then relaxed and hugged me back, crying into my collarbone area, as he wasn't that much shorter than me. It was then that I realized that he was just a young kid. This must all be so much for him.

Greed walked up to us, and then hugged me from behind, his arms wrapping up both me and Wrath. A second later, Envy and Lust joined us, both crying. Their arms didn't reach all the way around, but it was nice to have them there. Pride joined us last, and his arms didn't make it all the way around but none of us cared. Because we were all in this together.

We stood there for a little while, and then we broke apart. Wrath looked at the ground, and Greed turned me around to look at him. He had been crying too. His eyes locked onto something on my face, and he wiped it away with his thumb.

He smiled softly. "I guess you were crying too."

I touched my face, and sure enough it was wet.

"Let's get back to the Ring," Pride said, picking up Greed's bag and wiping it off. He handed it to Greed, who took it and slung it over his shoulder.

With that, we all headed into the bush again.