Heaven Sent, Hell Bound pt.1

Pride had a habit of not wearing a shirt when he's sleeping and sometimes around the house whenever his dad was not around. Unbeknownst to him, an invisible watcher saw every move he made around the house. He walked over to the bathroom half naked to start his day.

"YSL or L'Occitane shower products?" he wondered.

He was used to using those 3 in 1 product to save his bathroom time and space for maximum efficiency. Lust had always been the one with an intricate and expensive taste in everything, it was not a surprise that he would splurge on some Yves Saint Laurent products during the Black Friday sale every year. Wrath on the other hand, strived for consistency and organic or natural products. She smelled like a field of flower or forest most of the times though she looked like she would smell like motor oil, cigarette, and cheap bourbon.

He reached for the organic shower gel, it reminded him instantly of her scent. She would rarely smell strictly of soap since she needed to mask the strong smell of her smoking habit. This was the type of scent she left behind as she roamed around the house to do chores in her pajama shorts and oversized baseball jersey that Pride had gifted to her.

Otherwise, she would be wearing a dirty jasmine eau de parfum by Heretic. He dried his hair in front of the bathroom mirror. The steam had covered most his image, a 6' foggy reflection. This time Lust's Tom Ford cologne seemed more appropriate.

The sun was blaring through the window and flooded amber over the living room floor. Pride had made the smart decision of doing chores in his NASA boxer his brother kept in a drawer full of his clothes and other stuff. It would probably be better for Pride to be oblivious to the presence of Wrath's housekeeper who he was not able to see.

This was confirmed when Simbi managed to whistle inappropriately as he walked out of the steamy shower. To his amazement, the flat was astoundingly clean. Every nooks and crannies were spotless, as if someone had been doing their job.

"Didn't think Wrath or Lust had time to clean the house before leaving the house. It's the least I could do," he mumbled to himself.

"Yeah right, I bet all that muscle came from cleaning up your daddy's mansion," Simbi uttered snidely.

The silence made Pride's stomach sound five times as loud. He had never prepared a meal by himself in 17 years of his life. Excluding boiling water, instant noodles, frying eggs, or microwaving ready-made meals. Surely cutting ingredients and guessing the color and texture of the food should not be a problem as it would be a common knowledge.

Unlike his older brother, he preferred to do the washing afterwards. Things were not looking great for him. Should he risk burning his food– and potentially the whole apartment unit– in order to feed himself until the real dwellers had returned. Pride searched high and low for any simple instant foods, but those two were accustomed to gourmet homecooked meals.

"Eggs, soy sauce, chive, and uncooked rice. How the fuck am I supposed to cook this?" he stared at the ingredients he had collected on top of the kitchen counter.

"Maybe put your phone in it. Might help," his ghost companion teased.

Lust had bought a luxurious Japanese rice cooker he ordered from Amazon for the house's one-year anniversary. They barely had any furniture when they had just moved in. Both of them worked part times after school and a 12-hour shift on weekends. It was poetic the way they rebuilt their lives all over again. Since then, Lust swore to never buy any mediocre quality products for their house. He made a promise to only use Wrath's inheritance money for emergencies.

HOW TO COOK RICE (FOR BEGINNERS) he typed into the YouTube search bar.

A five-minute video of a parody channel showed up. He ended up chuckling and scrolling through more funny internet videos. Simbi blowed a waft of deliciously cooked rice smell in his direction.

"Right, back to figuring this bitch out," he shook his head.

Another video was of an old Japanese lady in traditional clothing. She measured her rice in a wooden box and soaked them in tap water before washing them thoroughly and rinsing them multiple times. She proceeded to transfer the clean rice into a pot and filled it with plenty of water before boiling them for 20 minutes.

Pride prepared a bowling-sized wooden bowl from the pantry and pour one cup worth of rice and followed the direction from the video. He put on a timer not knowing he was supposed to occasionally stir the rice to evenly cook it on an induction stove. Instead, he turned on the TV and played FIFA 20 on the ps4.

"Good grief," Simbi face palmed.

The burnt bottom of the pot started to give off a pungent smell in the kitchen. Like a baseball to the face, Pride jumped off the couch in dismay.

"F*ck!" he quickly turned the stove off and poured the pot's content into the sink.

"Master… where do you find people like this?" she titled her head.

"Wrath's gonna kill me! What am I supposed to do now?" he scrubbed the bottom of the pot with a wooden spoon.

Exhaustion and fatigue had taken over his athletic arm after half an hour of laboring himself to scrape the kitchenware clean. He slumped down on the couch and ordered himself a steak burrito bowl with guac on the side and a grilled chicken burrito he could heat up for dinner.

"Who knew cooking was this hard? Should've learnt a thing or two from Lust when I could. I can't blow all my savings on food delivery," he held his grumbling stomach.

Suddenly a random idea popped up in his head. Gluttony loved to eat, he would marry a food chain if it was only legal and possible. Maybe Pride could ask for a simple recipe that required minimum cooking skill and ingredient preparation. Being 180 lbs of mostly muscle, he needed more calories and protein intake daily. He searched through the house for raw edible food as sustenance.

"I guess this should do for now, I might have to order some groceries."