John sat in a chair across from Eden, holding the Book of Joseph in his hand. He traced his hand over the cover, his eyes not moving off of Eden. Next to him lay a large group of tools displayed on the floor. Knives, saws, blindfolds, no doubt all scare tactics.

"Have you ever been to confessional, Deputy?"

Silence.

"It isn't bad. Actually, it's quite therapeutic. It teaches you to be unselfish, it shows you that you can be saved! You can be pure once again. The way a child is pure at birth, before the world and its sins snatch it, and turn it ugly. Confession is not easy, it is hard to scream your wrongdoings to God but he will listen and he will hear you. And he will grant you, relief.

"Confessing is not meant to be rushed, so I will ask you one question first: Who is the first person you killed?"

Eden didn't back down from his stare, she stared right back with a mustered intensity. "I don't remember." She spat and John clicked his tongue.

"Tsk tsk, do not lie to me, Deputy. A woman such as yourself wouldn't let yourself forget the first person you killed." John tilted his head in an almost intrigued expression. "Let's try this again. Who is the first person you killed, Deputy?"

"I have a name you know, or were you too busy thinking of your own face when I told you?" Eden hissed back. Speaking with John was almost enjoyable, it was an intense game of cat-and-mouse. Each of them hoping to land the fatal hit.

John chuckled. "Attitude will not help you. You must have forgotten that you have no one to impress now! Your band of sinful hooligans has no bearing on your life now."

Eden bit the inside of her cheek to stop her from lashing out at John, that would just be giving him what he wanted.

"Now, let's try again, shall we? Who was the first person you killed?" John said again with more intensity.

Eden stayed silent, her eyes boring into John's.

John let out a frustrated chuckle. "Maybe Joseph was right. Your sin is not Wrath, it is Pride. You can't even give up your pride long enough to answer a simple question."

     Eden didn't say anything.

     John looked down at the holy book. "We can do this one of two ways: the first is you answer my question and you get the relief your soul has been craving for so long. Or you can continue to resist and make this much much worse for yourself.

     "The second option is not better for anyone, me included." He twisted his voice to sound sincere.

     "Oh sure, you wouldn't want to shit-kick me! Sounds like you." Eden snarled and John fought back a grin.

     "That's not the punishment I had in mind." His eyes flicked towards one of the knives on the ground. The blade glistened in the painfully bright light of the room. "One more time. Who is the first person you killed?" John asked slowly, making sure every word had a bite to it.

     Eden mulled over the thought, and John could see her thinking. It was a painful memory, one she didn't like to relive, but she also didn't want to fuck around with John. He was easy to tease and mess with, but when he had a knife in his hand he became way more dangerous.

     She couldn't let her guard down.

     Eden motioned for him to get closer, using a single finger to beckon him in. John obliged and came closer to her, kneeling in front of her, dangerously close. She leaned in closer to him and when she was almost a single hands distance away she paused.

"Fuck. You." Eden backed away just enough to see the Baptist try to force away the rage on his face as he took in a deep breath.

He had his head tilted towards the ground and looked up at Eden, a frustrated and yet smug look on his face. In the blink of an eye he was on top of her, holding her face down with one hand and a knife in the other.

"I told you, Deputy! This can go one of two ways, and you chose wrong." John gloated as he flicked the knife dangerously close to Eden's throat. "This will hurt you a lot more than it will hurt me, Deputy. And that is no lie."

     Eden winced as warm water hit her shoulders, dripping down her body as she showered for the first time in...well it had been a while. She grit her teeth together as she reached back to touch the sore skin on her left shoulder. She touched ragged skin and it felt like fire was running across her back, causing her to yelp in pain.

     Eden couldn't see what John did, but she could feel as he carved out the word 'Pride' into her flesh. Maybe that was the point of putting it somewhere out of sight, now Eden wouldn't be able to see her new branding, it was just torture enough to feel it.

     Eden pulled her hand away from her shoulder and dipped her head under the water, trying to keep her shoulder out of the stream and save herself some pain. She was happy to shower, now when she cried she wouldn't be able to tell because the water would just wash it away.

     Scrubbing the dirt, ash, blood, and tears off of Eden's body took quite a while, especially with how drained she still was in recovery. But god damn, hot water had never felt so good. Running her fingers through her hair and her fingers not hitting a barrage of knots and dried blood was like a vacation. The steam opened up her lungs and despite the aching that was definitely due to bruised and cracked ribs, Eden was able to take a deep breath.

A real deep breath, not a huff and not a wheeze. Honestly she was too tired to be pissed off, part of her wished that she would have cooperated sooner, maybe she could have saved herself a lot of pain and suffering. But maybe she deserved it.

After Eden's shower she dried off and put some actual comfortable clothes back on. For weeks she had been trapped down in that bunker in jeans, a tee shirt and a jacket, none of which were very comfortable after being in them for so long and covered in what she was covered in. It was a relief to pull on a pair of loose fitting pants and a comfortable long sleeved shirt.

One thing about the shower was how quickly she realized that she couldn't recognize herself. There was a small mirror in the shower room and after scrubbing away everything Eden couldn't understand who was looking back at her.

At least with the grime on her face you couldn't really tell how much weight she lost but now that she was fresh and scrubbed clean she was unrecognizable. Pale, gaunt, skin loose on her face because of all the weight loss, her eyebrows, cheekbones, and eyes were so much more pronounced. And her body was skinny, skinnier than when she was a teenager. She could see her ribs without even sucking in, her pants kept falling below her hips so she had to use a small rope belt to keep them up. She hated seeing herself like this, it was like seeing a walking corpse just waiting to rot.

But Eden did as she always did, she ignored it. Shen she left the shower room with her clothes she didnt say a word to the Seeds all sitting around the table by the kitchen. She just walked right past them and went back to her prison room, slamming the door shut.

     After leaving and coming back she was suddenly aware of how foul it was. The stench of dried blood, vomit, dirt, and ash clung to the room. They had moved Dutch out of the room a long time ago, but it was honestly like he'd never left. The looming sense of dread, despair, and pain was stifling, almost like Dutch's ghost was still there to torture her.

     Eden knew that Dutch wouldn't have held a grudge against her, but honestly after the mind fucks  she had put herself through she wasn't very sure of anything anymore.

     Eden cautiously edged further into the room, she didn't want to sit anywhere, she felt too clean and she wanted to keep that feeling to herself for a while. So she found a fairly clean part of the wall and leaned against it, she sunk down until she could wrap her arms around her knees and buried her face in her knees and arms. It was the first time she could have done that without getting some sort of dust or debris in her eyes.

     She stayed that way for a few minutes, blocking out the light from the bulb that was constantly on above her. It hadn't turned off once since she had been there. Her circadian rhythm was totally fucked, she just slept and slept as much as she could, although it was hard with all of her constant interruptions by the Seeds.

     The door opened with a creak and Eden lifted her head to look up. Jacob was standing in her doorway, he closed the door behind him and walked into her room carefully.

     "How was the shower?" He asked quietly.

     "Better than I've ever had." Eden mumbled and tilted her face back into her knees. Standing for that long had been really tasking on her system, she could probably have slept for the next few hours if she was lucky enough.

     "You don't have to stay in here, you know. You could leave this room." Jacob said and Eden let out a small laugh.

     She looked up at him again, squinting into the light. "The demons in here are far better than the ones out there." Eden told him and he nodded.

     "Maybe, but it doesn't mean you can't face them."

     "I don't care, I don't care anymore Jacob! I don't care that you care, I don't care that you want to help, I've been on my own for a long time, I don't need you to try and give me pep talks or tell me that it's safe out there! It's not. You are the one that put me here, you and your so-called 'family' put me here."

     Eden found the strength somehow to stand up. "I don't want to be out there, I don't want to be anywhere they are. They did this to me, they did this!" Eden turned around and tore her shirt down far enough for Jacob to see the fresh 'Pride' tattoo carved into her skin. She turned back around to face Jacob and he didn't have an expression.

     It wasn't unique for Jacob to be expressionless, but in this moment she was expecting some sort of a reaction from him. At least something.

     "You can't even say something, can you?" Eden asked him and stepped closer to him, feeling woozy as she did. Jacob just stared at her blankly.

     "Say something!" Eden yelled at him, for the first time in a long time she actually yelled. And it sounded weird, like someone that hadn't gotten their voice after losing it had tried to yell.

     "I'm sorry." Jacob said and stepped away from her. "This is the plan." He muttered and opened the door.

     "What do you mean? What is the plan?" Eden demanded but her vision tunnelled and got all weird when she tried to walk after him.

     As she tried to walk her whole body felt weird and detached, losing balance almost like being inside a ship as it tips from side to side. Eden fell over and tried to crawl towards the door and after Jacob. Then her nose caught a familiar whiff of something, something sweet, floral, almost bitter.

     The Bliss.