Greed: A Short Story

Far away in a big city, a besuited man idly tapped his fingers on the inside of the door of the limousine he rode in, the driver focusing intently on seeing his employer safely and swiftly to his destination. On the surface, it was simply another wealthy person being chauffeured to some private business, beyond the concern of the working class. And even beyond the surface, in some ways that's exactly what it was; the physical embodiment of Greed, known to some as Mammon and others as Arthur Varis, was indeed in town on private business, collecting on a debt long overdue. Of course, how long overdue it was didn't truly matter to him, for eventually all things of value became his, whatever his coal-black eyes fell upon being, in his view, property …show more content…
Long golden hair fell in waves around his small, subtly-tapered ears, and a pair of sunglasses rested in the breast pocket of his suit jacket. The city rolled by outside the limousine, eventually giving way to suburbs as the diver closed efficiently upon his destination. Not an hour after he had arrived in that city's airport, the man who was Greed itself, now wearing his sunglasses and carrying a gold-capped cane of polished obsidian, stood at the doorstep of a certain family who had, twenty years past, placed their names upon a contract with him. The doorbell rang without him needing touch it as, with an infuriating swagger, one of the Devil's seven faces walked up the steps of the front porch. A commotion within gave away their presence that afternoon, and, slowly, the door crept open to reveal the frightened face, that of a wife who knew what was about to happen and recognized its inevitability, but nonetheless wished it didn't have to be this way. It was the sheepish expression of someone who was thinking desperately of a way out. He hadn't left them one; Pride was not his sin, after