by Lillian Grey
“But you are God,” I said as we began down another long hall with a low light at the far end. ”Why shouldn’t they worship you?”
“I don’t deserve to be worshipped." He said his tone very different from the day before. "When I became spiritual leader of the Solarians, that’s all I was supposed to be. To my people, God does not have the same implications as it does to humans. I wasn’t called God in a human sense until a few of my followers started to spread rumors of powers I did not have to boost morale. I did not want to be worshipped, but duty forced me to go along with it. I was the most powerful Solarian for three hundred years and endowed with near omnipotence, what else was I supposed to do? Sit by and watch my people die around me while I did nothing?”
“Of course not, I mean I didn’t mean to imply.”
“It’s okay. I’m probably being a little over dramatic,” he said with a weak smile. “Although, when I made you humans, it was with the intent to blend in and just fake my death so often as to not appear as anything different. It didn’t work out that way when I found it,” he said and there was something odd about his tone.
“Found what?”
“Her soul. I thought the gates had been destroyed and there was no way to recover or reach it. I shouldn’t have been greedy and called her back; she had left already,” Eden seemed to be whispering to himself. I wasn’t sure if he was sure of what he was saying or even knew he was saying it. “When she died, I lost it. The Lunarians were gone and the Solarians were also gone. I acted out of anger and ruined that chance. That technique I declared forbidden and yet I did it and I shouldn’t have; thousands died in my rage. Our people became prisoners of that damned dimension at the mercy of the Lunarians. I was left alone on this planet; despair reigned my soul and I tried to fill it with failed creation after creation. Falling deeper and deeper…” If I could hear Eden, June and Lucifer had to as well, but they seemed to be ignoring it as we walked down the hall, the light becoming brighter. “I don’t know how it happened; I hit a low point, called out to her, and she came in my despair. I thought I failed again, but she sat up, touched my face and it was like I was reborn. With her by my side, this was the result.” He looked around the hall. “Then he got out and turned her against me. My anger took over again and I removed her; I couldn’t bring myself to kill the woman I loved. Everything began to fall and I acted to save my creations from the one flaw I put into their system. Still, there was death and desertion; I did no better and left them to their own devices. It created a rift and wars spread, families torn all because of me,” Eden said as we crossed the doorway into a larger chamber. I couldn’t describe the emotion in his voice
“The sentiment of a coward,” said Aaliyah.
“The cold words of a bitch,” Eden retorted, his broken and pained emotion covered in an icy coldness.
“Sticks and stones, love. Well, I guess that was a long time ago, but some habits are hard to break, Eden.” Was there something that I was missing? Aaliyah smiled into Eden’s face and his stricken expression made his moment of cold vanish and it seemed like her words stabbed him. Lucifer watched Aaliyah and his face mirrored Eden’s. What had she done to them or they do to her to make her act this way? Aaliyah waved her hand and it was like hands grabbed us and we were pinned against a high wall. “You kept me waiting quite awhile.”
Eden closed his eyes and we dropped; June caught me just before I hit the ground and Nela came over worried. “Stop with the games, Aaliyah.”
“You mean life?”
“Life isn’t a game,” I said.
“Yes, it is. We are all dealt a hand, and depending on how you play it, you’re better or worse than the person across from you. Now, please sit down; we are waiting for one more, before we discuss the destruction of the planet,” she said, pointing to four chairs that sat across from her. One chair on her left sat empty. Lucifer and Eden both took seats and June and I followed. Nela sat on the ground next to me, her head in my lap. “This is pleasant, isn’t it?”
Vanessa Stanton
Chapter 47.0
Aaliyah just smiled, her eyes moving across all of our faces slowly. She then leaned back in her chair and looked up. I followed her gaze; the only light in the room was coming from a few thousand tiny orbs of various sizes slowly drifting in a clockwise circle. The table we sat at was rectangular and had a chart inlaid on it; I guessed it was a cipher for the star thing above us. Then I looked back at Aaliyah, who was now humming to herself, and I wondered why none of them took this time to attack her. Lucifer was sitting there trying to seem relaxed with his eyes focused on Aaliyah while Eden seemed tenser, as if he was ready to strike. She was alone and judging from their last battle, it looked like they could have easily taken her if Alik had not shown up. Something had to be going on that I couldn't see.
“Aaliyah,” came Alik’s voice.
"Alik, love, you’re back," Aaliyah said as she smiled.
"Sorry I kept you waiting so long; how is everything here?"
"Just that awkward silence you get at the best of dinner parties I hear. Maybe we should have fed on Vanessa," she suggested. I didn’t know if she was watching me as I was focused only on Alik.
I stared, unable to speak again; Alik would not look at me as he sat down next to her. Behind him was a young girl I had never seen before. Her eyes were blue but they glowed like Aaliyah’s, as well as her skin was the same beautiful golden brown. She caught my eyes for a moment and a smile flickered and died on her face as she quickly looked away. Alik’s eyes were trained on Eden and Lucifer, more focused than I had ever seen him. It started to hurt to look at him, so I watched the young girl who was carrying a sword almost her height. Nela nudged me as she purred and I scratched her ears for something to do. Why wouldn’t Alik look at me? Was he scared to see some pain in my eyes that he may have caused? No, now that he had Aaliyah, it couldn’t have been that. She was beautiful for a vampire; she was more powerful than any vampire, and she wanted him so completely. What more could he ask for? These were things that I could never give him. I was lucky to have him for the brief time that I did, and I was stupid for keeping him away for so long. So much time wasted that I could never get back…
"June," Alik’s voice interrupted my thoughts..
"Yes," she replied, looking at Alik.
"Thank you for this," he said, holding up the sword. "It’s beautiful."
"Lilith always had great taste."
"Yes, she did." When he said that, I caught the use of past tense.
"You know," I couldn’t help myself from saying.
"Do I know what?" he asked, still not looking at me, he had removed the sword from its sheath to examine the blade instead.
"That Lilith is gone!" I finished even louder.
"Yes, of course he knows. Did you think I would keep that hidden from him, little girl?" Aaliyah questioned, tauntingly.
"Shut up; I wasn’t talking to you, was I?" I yelled, flashing an angry look in her direction. "Alik, please tell me you had nothing to do with your mother’s death."
"Vampire do not have mothers; she was no more than a stepping stone into a life he was
made for," Aaliyah stated.
"Why do you continue to talk when no one is speaking to you?" The anger grew in my voice to new levels. "Alik, answer me!"
"Yes, I did know." He was hiding the sadness in his tone, but it was clear to me. I was too angry to care what that meant.
"And you let that," I pointed at Aaliyah, “live afterwards?” I finished.
"Yes I did." He finally looked me in the eye, he was telling the truth and that pissed me off more.
"How could you?" I screamed, getting up and walking around to him, forcing him to look into my eyes again. "Tell me you didn’t agree to let Aaliyah kill your mother."
"I killed Lilith because she betrayed me by forgetting her place, she instead sided with them.” She pointed to Lucifer and Eden. “Once Alik knew, he agreed it was a necessary step."
&nb
sp; I reached down and pulled Alik’s sword out of its sheath. I swung at Aaliyah who grabbed my wrist, stopping me. She then flung me across the room like a toy she got fed up with; Nela just managed to help break my fall. "Maybe I should have killed you instead, girl." She moved to attack me and a lot happened at once. Eden and Lucifer saw it as a chance to attack Aaliyah; Ceil and Alik stopped that both with blades at Eden and Lucifer’s necks. Aaliyah
held June’s sword between her fingertips, I hadn't even noticed Ceil enter the room.
Aaliyah laughed. “Can you feel the tension in the air? You could cut it with a knife.”
“Yes, you could,” Alik agreed.
Alik then took his sword from Lucifer’s neck and with a twist of his wrist, plunged it into where Aaliyah’s heart would have been. She released June’s sword and Lucifer twitched toward Alik. The young girl caught him off guard splitting the hand he twitched down the middle, Lucifer screamed. June twisted her sword around and plunged her blade into Lucifer’s back and he fell to his knees clutching his hand.
“What is this, Alik love?” coughed Aaliyah in a nervous and shaky voice..
“Enough time has passed; all three of you have played this little game long enough,” Alik replied.
“I loved you,”she sobbed.
“Did you love me, or my power? In this life I doubt you ever knew what that word even meant. You say you loved Lucifer once Eden had casted you out, but you betrayed him. As Eve, you claimed to have loved Eden. However, for your own ends, you betrayed him for Lucifer. You have no more than a taste for power, something you infected the rest of the vampire with. It was only a matter of time before you would try to betray me.” Alik looked at Eden, whose face was torn with pain. “Your Eve died a long time ago, whatever you wish you brought back, she is not it.”
“How do you know that?” whispered Eden.
“People are not pawns for you to play with. This is for my mother,” said Alik, twisting the sword in Aaliyah’s chest and she fell to her knees screaming.
Lucifer tried to move again, his eyes blazed with hate for Alik. June then took that opening to take off his head. Ciel's blade was already at Eden’s neck; Eden didn’t care though, his pain was replaced with anger. He also twitched toward Alik, and Ceil twisted around at the same time as June and lopped off Eden’s head as well. Aaliyah screamed as Lucifer and Eden’s bodies dropped to the ground and lay motionless, .
“Even you lost yourself in the start of all this,” Alik said to Aaliyah. “You no longer know where the lies end and the truth begins.”
“I know the truth!” she yelled.
“You only know the lies. Lies that were repeated until you told yourself that they were true to keep that smile on your face and the guilt at bay for what you did.”
Alik pulled the blade out of Aaliyah and she tried to use that as an opening. She failed in her attempt and Alik dodged her grab and got around behind her to place a hand around her throat with his free hand. She tried to break his grip, but he matched her movements. It was the first time I had ever seen any fear in her eyes as she coughed up more blood and fell to her knees. Slowly, a black smoke rose from her eyes and mouth and formed the same ball I had seen three times in my life already; her soul was leaving her body. Alik released her and her body fell limp to the stone ground. He then closed his fist around the dim sphere that was her soul and the sound of the crack bounced around the room. Aaliyah was more than dead now.
Alik then ran to where I sat shielded by Nela and she let me up at his touch. He held out a hand and he got me to my feet. His touch was something I missed more than I had realized and and a familiar tingle began making its way up my arm. My eyes filled with tears as I hugged him and he placed his arms around me. Then, I remembered what he had done to me and my anger boiled, getting the better of me, and I pushed away from him.
“What’s wrong?” he asked with concern in his voice.
“Nothing,” I said, walking away from him.
“Vanessa, you’re a horrible liar,” he said, looking into my eyes. I turned for the entrance to the room and he followed me out. He kept back, letting me cool for a moment until we reached the light of the steps outer steps.
“I’m sorry, Vanessa. Really, I am.
“You think sorry will make me forgive you for what I have been put through in the last week?”
“Of course not. I wish I would have been able to keep you from seeing any of that, but I couldn’t.”
“And Lilith?”
“I swear to you that I did not know anything about it until Aaliyah told me the moment she got back,” he sighed and placed his arms around me again.
“Why did you leave us? Why did you leave me?!” I yelled, crying in anger.
“It was the only way to keep you alive; if I had fought Aaliyah, she would have killed you seeing how your life was the reason that was keeping me from her. You see how she was; it’s all I could do. I didn’t expect her to find us that night.”
“What do you mean?”
“Lilith knew Aaliyah had been in New York for awhile and was avoiding us. She was looking for something; well, looking for you. She couldn’t find you until she gave up and went to Lilith herself to ask; that’s why I got you and Sam away from your house.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I didn’t want to frighten you. I hoped that if she saw us together, she would make it one of her playful visits and leave. But she didn’t; she sent Ceil ahead and got us apart and I saw that leaving with her was the only way to keep you alive. Ceil wouldn’t hurt you as she was really just there to fight me.”
“Go on...
“You have no idea how hard it was to leave you there hurt. I was hoping to get a message to Lilith and have her pick you up, but Lucifer turning up complicated things.”
“Why did you kill him and Eden?”
“Actually, I killed Eden,” Ceil corrected.
“And I killed Lucifer,” June chimed in. “We had to; they were going to kill Alik.”
“What?!”
“Vanessa, Eden and Lucifer both loved Aaliyah and in Aaliyah’s mind, she loved both of them back. Both found her in her time of need and both saved her; how could she not fall in love with them?”
Alyon Alik
Chapter 48.0
I was just glad Vanessa had stopped yelling, I could see she was angry at me still. I couldn’t blame her for that I would be angry at me too. I hoped that the reasons behind all of this would at least let her start to forgive me.
“How do you know that?” Vanessa asked, looking into my eyes.
“Eden and Lucifer both kept journals that were lost long ago, but recorded in the archive; that model of the galaxy in the room we just left keeps track of everything that happens within Heaven, Hell and Earth and records it with in the garden.”
“Just explain why did she do all of this first, the garden can come later.”
“Aaliyah, or Eve, was originally a Solarian, second only to Eden in power. However, where she lacked in raw power, she made up in control and cunningness. It was her idea to seal the Lunarian’s away and it was her who came up with the manipulation to do it. The war between the Solarian and Lunarian was so vicious and filled with hate that at its start literally created the afterlife. Death was new to both the Lunarian and the Solarian, and if the war could create another dimension that attracted souls trapping them, she thought, why couldn’t she. But in order to pull off her plan, thousands of Solarians would have to die so the power of their souls could be harnessed, to upset the natural balance of things and then be directed to where they were to be kept. Apart from the mass murder of her people this would subject all sacrificed Solarians to have their souls blackened and at the mercy of the Lunarian for eternity.”
“How come souls are different colors? Lilith’s was pure white.” Vanessa cut me off.
“Was it?” I gasped shocked.
“What? Should it not have been?”
“No, The main diff
erence between the Lunarians and Solarians was their souls. The Solarians were the light of the galaxy while the Lunarian’s were its darkness. If her souls was white it meant she was more Solarian that Lunarian which all vampire innately take after. This distinction was vital as in killing so many of their kind, the one who cast the Lunarians out would have become what they hated the most. Eden didn’t want this to happen to Eve, but she would not let Eden perform this ritual alone. Eden lied and agreed to her terms only to learn the power. Before they were to perform the act, Eve was sent an urgent message and she had to leave Eden for a while. That message was a lie sent by Eden to spare her his fate. Eden began the ritual, but something went wrong and he lost control. The Solarians they had chosen for the sacrifice were not the rituals target, Eve was. Eve and nearly a thousand other Solarians near her had their souls ripped out of their ethereal bodies and hurled around the Lunarian’s, casting them from Earth and into hell.