Lilith

by Ashley Jeffery

  "Dean my dad."

  He jumped off of me and reached for his shirt trying to tug it back in place. I smiled a little. I'd pushed it up so that I could run my hands across his tight abs.

  "Pacey?"

  I groaned when I heard dads voice coming up the stairs.

  "Dean, pick up the food." I pointed to the mess on the floor and tried to compose myself. I ran my hands through my messy hair and tried to look normal. Dean moved frantically to pick up the food and sat on the floor. I moved to sit next to him and tried to get my heart to stop beating so quickly. I could hear my dad’s smile from behind me.

  "What have you two been up too?" My dad asked.

  We both looked over our shoulders at him and I smiled, of course that was what he was doing in the garage. I eyed the item in his hands and laughed. The metal was freshly polished and gleaming in the light.

  "Nothing."

  Dad frowned and turned away. "Exactly, keep it that way Dean or I'll have to kill you."

  Dean looked at me with panic and I smiled. That was my daddy, shot gun in hand to scare the boys.

  Chapter Seven

  Lilith

  We both expressed a breath of relief. At least my dad hadn't caught us kissing on my bed, God only knew what he would have been capable of under those circumstances. I doubted the shotgun was loaded, but you just never know.

  Dean and I finished watching the rest of Jennifer’s Body ignoring the fact that we'd already missed watching half of it. The movie was funny in an ironic kind of way. I couldn't help but see the small similarities between Needy and Jennifer's relationship with mine and Rhiannon's. Granted we didn't do anything lezy like those two crazy chic’s did. But we had started out friends, and now it seemed like we were becoming enemies.

  When Wes had asked about Rhi I'd felt bad. Ever since I'd started dating Dean I'd been spending most of my time with him. I think I only saw Rhiannon twice in the last week. Although I couldn't really be blamed for the days I'd spent in the hospital, and Rhiannon had only come to visit me the once. But still I was accountable for ditching her for Dean.

  I hadn't heard from any of the Bad Girls either, but then again they did whatever Rhiannon told them to. Which was so freaking similar to how Lexie was with her bobble heads I was really starting to worry.

  If Rhiannon could just let the stuff that happened with Lexie go, maybe, just maybe, our friendship would survive. But if she kept moving forward with this evil obsession and vengeance, eventually, she was going to end up just as twisted and messed up as Lexie was, or used to be. Although, used to be wasn't exactly true yet, all Lexie had proved was that she wasn't the one who’d attacked me, she hadn't yet proved she wasn't the one who screwed up my car.

  God I missed my car. I'd have given just about anything to have the ability to leave my house completely unsupervised. My parents were so overly protective now it was ridiculous. At least today I'd been able to spend most of my time with Dean without them watching our every move.

  I walked Dean downstairs and to the door. We were standing on the front step staring at each other quietly. Neither one of us really knew what to say.

  "So I'll pick you up tomorrow?" He asked.

  I smiled. "Yep."

  He leaned forward and kissed me softly on the mouth. I was surprised when he slipped his tongue between my lips and stroked mine seductively. I breathed in the taste of him. The sweet heady flavor was like liquid fire warming me all the way to my toes. I pushed myself closer to him plastering my body against his rock solid one.

  It was like being on the front step released us from worrying about taking it too far or moving too quickly. For just a moment under the twinkling stars, we could let ourselves go completely, and fully express the passion and the love we felt for each other.

  Dean pulled back reluctantly. I never thought he'd be the one to do it. You always think it’s going to be the boys that want things to move forward. And here I was practically raping him on my front door step. Woo Hoo Pacey way to have some self-control.

  He smiled and turned towards his truck.

  "Bye?" I said in an annoyed voice.

  He chuckled kind of smugly as he walked away. Great, now I was just a big damn joke stroking his overly confident teenage boy ego. I slammed the front door when I was safely inside. I was kind of offended he could control himself so well.

  I crossed my arms and stomped up the stairs to my bedroom. I wanted to talk to Rhiannon I missed my best friend. But it was fairly obvious she now hated me. Maybe if I apologized...

  I started typing into the phone and then stopped short, not only had Rhiannon slapped me, but she'd also kind of threatened me. Did I really need to apologize to her. All I'd done was get the boyfriend she'd pushed me into pursuing, and well I was thankful but did I really need to feel guilty?

  Rhiannon was also severely pissed when I didn't call her from the hospital. But it wasn't exactly my fault, I mean I was practically dead when I'd arrived. So no, there was no way I was going to be the one to apologize.

  I guess it was time to find a new friend. I didn't know why but I immediately thought of Lexie. She had said she wanted to be my friend. I snorted a laugh. What was I thinking, I couldn't be friends with Lexie.

  I groaned and reached for my computer. All weekend I'd been dying to research mind reading, and being able to hear farther than what was considered "normal". I spent two hours delving through websites like Wikipedia and Google. I looked up Near Death Experiences, and people describing the light they saw when they died.

  I couldn't find one experience that described strange abilities. Whatever I was experiencing, there was no one else out there who had the same thing happen, at least no one willing to talk about it. Big surprise there.

  I almost fell out of my chair when I came across a story about a deity named Lilith. Lilith was a Mesopotamian storm demon associated with wind. She was also considered a bearer of disease, illness, and death. Page after page described the different stories and legends that surrounded her.

  Lilith appeared as a night demon in Jewish lore, a screech owl in the Bible, and in the Victorian period, Dante Gabriel Rossetti depicted her as the ultimate "femme fatale."

  In one version, Lilith, was the deity of light and second sight, and otherworldly abilities. If you were greeted by her in death and able to survive, you would be given the gift of second sight. A gift that could mean anything from seeing the future, to hearing the thoughts of others.

  A chill ran down my spine. Lilith. Something about her name pulled at my mind. Like a song I couldn’t remember. She felt familiar. Like I’d read about her before, only I knew for a fact that I hadn’t. So I dug deeper, coming across more and more information about Lilith that seemed to somehow fit.

  In almost every religion, Lilith was described as evil. In Luciferianism she was the Queen of the succubi, a demoness in Judaic literature, and a harlot and a wanton in The Deep Sea scrolls. As I scanned a paragraph about Lilith from the Classical German Period a cold hair, raising chill ran down my spine.

  In Goethe's 1808 work Faust, he wrote of Lilith's affliction for young men. If she caught sight of a young man, and she wanted him, she would pull him and wrap him within her magical hair, and never ever let him go.

  "Adams wife, his first. Beware of her.

  Her beauty's one boast is her dangerous hair.

  When Lilith winds it tight around young men.

  She doesn't soon let go of them again."

  As I read the words, my body erupted in goose bumps. Could something as supernatural and unreal as a demon even exist? And could said demon’s obsession with a young man, Dean, my Dean, have led her to kill his last girlfriend, and now try to kill me? It fit together nicely I couldn't deny that. Even the part about how her attack had ultimately led to my gift of second sight when I survived her fit in perfectly.

  I closed my eyes and covered my face with my hands. I knew it was a woman who was after me, I could feel it the moment Dean had told m
e about his girlfriend. And I'd heard her cold evil voice whisper to me the day I'd returned to school.

  "I know that you can hear me Pacey, I'm not done with you yet." But how, in God's name, was it a freaking demon, and why would she want Dean?

  It’s not like he could go to a store and pick her up somewhere.... Demons-r-us. Now carrying Lilith the ‘Femme Fatale’. Which I was pretty sure didn’t exist. I couldn't exactly come out and ask Dean either. That meant I'd have to tell him about the voices, and that I thought I could hear people's thoughts.

  Even saying it in my head made me sound crazy, hearing people’s thoughts. And then after I'd told him how crazy I was I'd have to explain how I came to my crazy conclusion; that a demon succubi was after him, and trying to kill me because I was in her way.

  It didn't make any sense. I had to be blowing what was happening to me way out of proportion. I should probably just go back to my doctor and tell him I'd been having weird hallucinations. That made more sense than a flipping demoness. I closed my computer and got ready for bed.

  That night I tossed and turned for hours, I dreamt of a demon with golden hair trying to devour me and Dean.

  Dean was waiting in the driveway. My whole body shook with fear as I walked out to his truck. He reached over and opened the passenger door from inside. I slid in beside him and tried to smile.

  "Hey babe, you okay."

  I cleared my throat. "Yep fine."

  He narrowed his eyes and raised a brow in question. Who was I kidding I was a terrible liar. He backed out of the driveway and made his way towards our school. I saw Rhiannon driving in our direction on the way. I guess she was going to pick me up today. My phone vibrated in my pocket.

  I was coming to get you.

  I stared at the words on the screen and sighed. How do you tell the best friend you're not even talking to, you're freaking crazy.

  Thought we weren't talking, sorry, see you at school. I locked my phone and looked over at Dean.

  "I hope that wasn't another crazy message." His voice was sharp.

  "No, just Rhi."

  "You're actually talking to her?" His voice sounded disapproving.

  "I guess, I don't know, we've been friends for so long, something like this just fades away." I wasn't even worried about Rhiannon, I was worried about the crazy demoness I was convinced wanted Dean.

  Geez, it's thoughts like that one that made me need to call my doctor. When we pulled into the parking lot at school Rhiannon was close behind us. She got out of her car and walked quickly over to me.

  "Hey Butch can I borrow Pacey for a minute?"

  He eyed me with concern but nodded his approval. I walked behind Rhi to the sidewalk still completely within sight of Dean.

  "I'm sorry."

  I stared at her face for a few minutes then laughed. "Wow Rhi, did you actually apologize?"

  Her face showed her discomfort but she sighed. "Yea, I was a bitch, I shouldn't have hit you, I don't even remember doing it."

  I stopped laughing at once and felt my heart start to race. Part of the stuff I'd read last night said that Lilith could move into women through mirrors. She could control them, then leave them whenever she wanted. Only women who were under high stress or going through a difficult time could be entered. It had made me wonder if she'd ever entered me.

  "Okay." I couldn't say anymore, I was too frightened to move, I just stood there shaking while Rhi stared at me with concern.

  "Whoa, are you okay Pacey, you're shaking." She took a step towards me and I moved back in surprise.

  "Pacey?" Dean was at my side in an instant. He stared at Rhiannon his eyes slit with anger.

  "What did you do, did you threaten her?"

  Rhiannon shook her head and turned away. It wasn't her fault I was shaking. I was more afraid of the thing I could see looking out through her light blue eyes. The blackness swirling around the white part of them. I covered my ears when I heard the howling wind start. Lilith was here I could feel it, and she now knew, that I knew the truth.

  Ribbons of black were swirling and writhing up Rhiannon's arms like snakes. The same black cloudy ribbons I had seen in her eyes, I knew no one else could see them. The gift of second sight made me aware of what was really there, beneath the normal, socially safe surface. I closed my eyes and tried to block out the thoughts Lilith was trying to pour into me. The howling was unbearable, as piercing as nails on a chalkboard, my ears wanted to bleed.

  "You can't stop me Pacey he will be mine, if I have to go through every female around you, I will kill you."

  I felt a sharp pain erupt in my head and saw a bright shattering light. Even with my eyes closed there was no escaping it, the light was cold, and harsh, and empty, just like Lilith's soul.

  Dean was shaking me gently trying to get my attention. Slowly the light and the howling faded away. I could feel the nausea rolling in my stomach. I tried to swallow it back down and breathe. Just breathe.

  After a few moments, I opened my eyes and looked into Deans dark turquoise ones. Everything made sense now. I couldn't talk myself out of the quest I now knew I was under. I had to protect him, I had to try to save him without letting him know too much, about what was happening. That was the truly remarkable part of her grip on him. I could never reveal the truth, he'd never believe me, and I'd lose him.

  I couldn't go into school. There was no way to know who she'd move through. If all it took was a shiny surface any teenage girl with a compact mirror, or who had previously been to the restroom was moveable, like a pawn piece in an intensely dangerous game of chess.

  "Dean, can you take me home?" I could see the surprise and relief flash through his eyes.

  "Yes, but Pacey, are you sure that’s what you want?" He asked.

  “Yea.” I said softly.

  He lead me back towards his truck. People were staring at us while we walked away. They probably all thought I was crazy. Before we got to his truck Lexie ran forward to speak to me, I could see Rhiannon disappear inside the crowd, evil concealed well behind the face of my friend. How could she not feel the evil that was squatting inside of her.

  "Hey Pacey, you're not going to stay?"

  I shook my head but didn't trust my voice to speak without squeaking.

  "Well, uh here," Lexie handed me a folded piece of paper. "I wanted to give you my number, you know in case you ever wanna talk. I'm sure you could use a friend…I know I could." She smiled and walked away.

  I couldn't help but notice that no one else followed her. She hardly even made a dent in the staring crowd. Their eyes were otherwise occupied, half were watching me, and the other half were watching her; Rhiannon possessed with a demon from hell.

  I wondered how long Lilith had been camping out inside her. She definitely wasn't there the first day I met Dean, no way would the succubus demon obsessed with him tell me to go after him. She couldn't have been there the day Rhiannon helped me pick out my outfit for our date either.

  God I hoped Rhiannon wasn't the one who'd attacked me? Could Lilith even attack me without a body? Did she have a body? There were so many things I still didn't know. I needed to figure out how to save my friend as much as Dean.

  He opened the door and helped me inside. As he drove the short distance to my house I let my mind wander some more. If Lilith could move through anyone, why hadn't she tried to embody me. I couldn't hide at home forever, I had to find a way out, find a way to kill her?

  "Dean?"

  He grunted a reply. Great now he was mad.

  "How exactly did your ex die again?" He slammed on the breaks and pulled to the side of the road.

  "Why, did something happen?"

  I shrugged trying to figure out exactly what I wanted to say.

  "Well, she was ran off the road, right?"

  He agreed without speaking. I hated the tension I could feel between us.

  "Was there any proof like skid marks or damage to the sides of her car?"

  Dean stared out the front window,
his knuckles tightening on the wheel. "Yes, and no, there were skid marks that suggested she lost control of the car, but there were no actual marks on her car. The Police Report said that someone must have swerved at her and caused her to panic and drive off the road. Obviously no one would drive off the road on purpose."

  Ha, that’s what he thought. He didn't have any idea some psycho entity was the cause, and that said entity probably entered his ex's body and made her kill herself.

  My head started to throb in pain. For all I knew she could do the same to me. What a horrible way to die. Would you be aware that your body was no longer in your control. Would you just watch in horror as you took your own life.

  I choked back the fear creeping up in my throat. I needed help, not the psychological kind I wished was the problem. The religious, know it all, Giles from Buffy the Vampire slayer help. I needed an expert or a priest. Some badass Dumbledore type character that knew everything about what was happening. It wasn't like I could go get the phone book and call a “Demon hunter” stuff like that wasn't even supposed to exist.

  When you're standing on the edge of reality, looking into the black abyss of twisted things that could really be out there, what do you do? I could feel it waiting with its open mouth and sharp dark teeth.

  I opened the piece of paper in my hands that Lexie had given me.

  I think I can help.

  I laughed to myself, right like little miss trashy pants, psycho bobble head could help me now. It wasn't impossible, in fact in comparison to what I now faced, her honest help, seemed very possible. I couldn't tell anyone, especially not the girl known for backstabbing. She could know something I didn't, who was I to judge her, I was obviously crazy.

  It would have been nice to go to Rhiannon and tell her what was happening, use the resources of the Bad Girls Club for once. I really wished I'd gone to more meetings. There were a few girls, like Liv, and Jennifer who might help, but I'd have to lie about what they were really doing. And Rhiannon couldn't attack me in front of witnesses, in fact, no one could so ditching school was sounding dumber and dumber.