I absolutely love movies or books or stories that take the Seven Deadly Sins and utilize them to shape a character. There are absolutely so many ways that you can twist and take those sins to create a character that is unique, individual and amazing. You created a perfect example of that with this short piece here. You highlighted the mind of a murderer, caught his chilling lack of empathy and skewed view upon death and belief that he was actually doing the world a favor by murdering people that he judged as being "sinners." I also love how you repeated the theme of the sins and highlighted that they are the 7 Deadly Sins by using italics to represent them. That really gave them power in my opinion. Another thing that I found powerful and which made this piece stand out to me is the fact that you wrote it from the POV of the killer. This isn't Mills' thoughts- it's the killers. I loved that and feel that any other POV would have absolutely ruined the tale you were trying to weave. Good job!

Some lines that I really loved:

((He had a wonderfully ordinary life, with a beautifully ordinary wife.))- I love the relation between envy and ordinary here. You create a parody with this theme by suggesting how we all desire uniqueness, to be special, but internally, what we all are envious of are those who are ordinary-who live an ordinary life, who work an ordinary job, who are just simply ordinary and fine with it.

((Mills' wrath, my envy…))- Again, the paradox you create here by relating the two sins to each other is absolutely fantastic. You have taken two individual characters feeling two individual sets of emotions (or suffering from two different types of sins) and completely compared and contrasted them at the same time.

((In the end, sin always leads to one's downfall.))- This was just absolutely a brilliant line. The perfect way to close this piece was to lead it back to the beginning and remind the reader (in this case, little ole moi) about how the entire story has been about sin leading us to our eventual downfall. We all suffer from one (or more) of the deadliest sins known to man, and will all have to answer for that sin when we stand on the other side of whatever plane is beyond life.

I do not have anything that I want to critique- the story is just fine as it is to me and doesn't need anything added to it to make it even better IMHO. You captured the mind of a serial killer perfectly with the manner in which you described them (through their thoughts) and in the manner in which you portrayed them (through internal dialogue. That is why I loved this short piece for what it was- a look into the mind of a killer. You created a fantastically vibrant profile that anyone, whether they majored in psychology or only have a rudimentary idea of the mind of a sociopath/psychopath can easily understand. Absolutely wonderful job, this was an absolutely wonderful story and I am quite glad that I popped over to read it :)

Da, da, da...I present you your gift review. :)

I am so pleased that you wrote a se7en story from The Last Resort. I loved that story too. :) I really adored the fact you wrote one about the box. Because it really summed up why Mills was John Doe's last victim, the one who needed to be taught a lesson. I also loved that you put some of the deadly sins in this story. I also found it extremely intriguing that John Doe himself was harboring one of those sins. I love that the box has the double meaning there, and really, it's quite a perceptive idea, the fact that she was his downfall, the fact he placed so much importance on her. That without her, he was nothing. I really loved the ending. Because even John had to pay for his sin, just as Mills paid for his as well. Really lovely work. Well done. :)

One little thing:

but wasn't there to be envious about?-I think you meant 'but what was there to be envious about?'