Smoke

[Robert Crisman]

"One other thing," said L'amea, "you'd think in the normal course of events, seeing as we are what we are, you know, like, fuck a piddly-ass tonton macoute; we'd eat him for breakfast and go slap his mama--but those dudes blew us away in that hologram, man, and we were scared shitless the whole fucking way.

"This devil, if that's what this is, is a power, and like Douglas said, he's all the fear that has ever existed, and..."

"Yeah but, you know," I took up the thread, "I keep thinking, Viraan in that window, a little old HItler on velevet, eyes staring, scared, like a cockroach, and us, we're standing there laughing like he was a 15-cent clown show.

"And that hologram, man--it was like Brecht and that Cupid who looked like Jack Oakie, the whole thing was smoke, supposed to scare us to death, but it wasn't real, it was fake, scary monsters and goblins worked up to kick off the willy-con-carnes, and all of that scary stuff came out of us.

"It's like, Viraan sent me down in a barrel and all these old nightmares slammed through me like shit through a goose, all of it stuff I'd been keeping inside--cluck wisdom, ego, this girl I wanted to wear like a suit and call it true love, the armor I wore to keep the wolves off me, narcissist daydreams to make me look good, and this hatred I felt at my own fucking smell--and I'm seeing this shit and I wanted to die, of embarrassment, shame, like my whole life was fake, and this smoke sat in judgement, and it was more real than I was.

"And you all got burned in your own fucking hells before you got changed, and maybe those tontons were sent to roust out your demons and all that good jazz, I don't know--but whatever it was, your fear came from you, like mine came from me, and the devil just used it to get in our brains and start fucking..." 

[Angela]

There should perhaps be eight deadly sins - the eighth being fear.  That's if you believe in sin, of course.