Lilith

by Ashley Jeffery

  She was Candy’s younger sister, and the one I felt the worse about. The two other deaths were Avery’s girlfriend Melanie, and Candy’s boyfriend Trey. Now six people’s lives were lost because of me. Six people that had nothing to do with Lilith and her crazy ambition to kill me, and own Dean.

  “Miss O’Brien, can you please answer the question?”

  I stared at the angry face of the officer in confusion. Of course, I wasn’t paying much attention to him. How was I supposed to give my undivided attention to anyone after everything that had happened. I rubbed Bitsy’s ears absentmindedly and sighed.

  “I’m sorry officer…”

  “Williams.”

  “Officer Williams, can you repeat the question?” I watched his face turn a darker shade of red.

  “Do you know who could have done this?”

  I jumped a little at the question but tried to calm down. Of course, I knew who did this, but I couldn’t tell him that, I’d end up back in a padded cell.

  “No, I don’t know who would do this, this is horrible. I don’t know anyone who would want to do this?” I said.

  “I’ve been told by quite a few witnesses that you yourself have been the victim of an attacker two times before this. Do you think that this could be linked to those attacks, to you personally.” He asked.

  I glanced past the officer out the open window to the bodies covered by sheets on the deck. Paramedics were helping Liv and her boyfriend to the ambulance. They were the two surviving victims. Liv had been shot through her arm, and her boyfriend Sway through his leg.

  “I really don’t know, I don’t know who attacked me the first time. So no, I don’t know anything really. I saw the shots from the woods and that’s all. I didn’t see who it was, and I don’t know why.” I stood and walked away from him.

  Clutching Bitsy in my arms. She jumped down from my tight grip and ran through the door. I tried to reach down to stop her but she descended down the steps and into the darkness of the trees.

  “Bitsy, no.”

  Dean came up behind me and kissed me on the head.

  “Don’t worry Pace, she’ll be back.”

  “But what if...”

  He held his finger to my lips and shook his head.

  “Don’t think like that, she’s fast, she’ll be back. We’ll put some food out for her.”

  I nodded and felt the tears spring to my eyes. The victims were being loaded onto stretchers and taken out to the waiting ambulances. Their bodies wouldn’t go to the emergency room, or trauma, their bodies would go straight to the morgue.

  I felt the nausea rise up my throat and fill my mouth with the sick acidic taste of vomit. I moved quickly to the kitchen sink and emptied my stomach. Dean came up behind me and rubbed my back, and ran the water. I watched through tear-filled eyes as the water washed away the signs of my discomfort. I reached shakily into the stream and splashed my face.

  “Miss O’Brien, I know this is hard but we aren’t done questioning you yet.” I sighed and walked back to the couch.

  Rhiannon was sitting next to Wes answering questions softly. She couldn’t remember much of what happened just the loud shot’s and hiding in the darkness. I watched her from the corner of my eye and shuddered.

  I knew it had to be her, although her face and skin showed no signs of possession by Lilith, I knew that if the cops checked her hands for residue, they’d find it there. But it wasn’t really Rhi who had killed them, and she didn’t deserve to go to jail.

  “We are going to place two officers here to watch the cabin. We don’t have any reason to believe that the shooter will be back tonight, but just in case, we want to be prepared if he or she does. Wes here has promised to have all of you moved later this morning. This cabin is no place for a bunch of teenagers, even if you are of legal age.”

  I looked towards Wes in question. Where in the world did he think we were going to move.

  I stared at the squeaky fan moving clockwise overhead. With every rotation, the blades screamed in protest. I sighed, this was Wes’ marvelous plan, some fleabag motel right out of a bad movie. Dean was sleeping in a separate bed beside me. I hated the distance between us, but with psycho demon girl playing peeping tom I didn’t want to push it.

  The last time we were intimate…Lilith had a crazy breakdown and took over my mom. I wasn’t going to think about that though. After all, of the nasty devastation she’d caused I really did fear her. I had no idea what her warped effed up head was capable of. I felt the tears fill my eyes and cussed silently. Bitch

  It’d been a week since the shootings. Wes told me and Dean to get out of town and stay in contact through phone calls. So we loaded up his truck packed what little we had at the cabin and hit the road. Wes refused to tell Rhi anything about our plan, but just to be safe he didn’t ask where we were headed, or where we were staying.

  I had a dozen pissed off messages from Rhi. She wasn’t very happy that we’d kept her out of the loop. The worst part was I knew that this wasn’t even near over, Lilith was just getting warmed up. Whatever was next would just be more horrifying than the last.

  I hated that our running away caused us to miss the funerals. I tried to talk Dean into staying behind, but that was never going to happen. He’d thrown me over his shoulder and told me to shut my trap and get in the truck. Wes was staying with his parents. The Cabin had been taped off for an indefinite period of time.

  It was a crime scene, and the police were moving slow. I honestly think that if not for Wes and Dean’s statements they would have thought it was me who was the shooter. Too many bad things kept happening around me, and they weren’t stupid enough not to see the connection.

  Bitsy was still missing. Wes went back every day to fill up her food bowl and water, but he had yet to actually catch a glimpse of her. If Lilith…I shook my head and rolled over to stare at Dean through the darkness. I could hear his even breathing, my one solace in a world full of horrors.

  He’d never once questioned me or made me feel crazy. He believed whatever I told him with a kind of unfathomable trust and loyalty I never knew existed. I knew that in this life he was the best I’d ever have or ever find.

  Before we left Rhiannon and me had a huge fight. She’d told the cops all the empty unimportant details that she overheard from everyone else. After they left she started complaining about how the Bad Girls Club was disbanded now, and her little plan for Lexie was probably off.

  I lost it. Of all the things to say at that time, all she cared about was how the loss of members would affect her little revenge plan. I called her a number of bad names and told her to go to hell. As much as I hated how she was acting, I didn’t really mean it. And now knowing that Lilith was nowhere near done, I wished to God I could take it back.

  If anything happened to her I’d feel responsible. I was responsible. I was still going over in my head how to get Lilith to leave Dean alone. Even if I killed myself she’d still go after him, and anyone else she felt was in her way. Suicide was not an option.

  The cell phone beside me vibrated violently and made me jump in shock. I reached for it blindly and stared at the lit up screen.

  Want to play a game Pacey?

  I could feel my heart pounding and the nausea roll in my stomach. Only a week and she was already planning something else. I jumped out of bed and reached for Dean.

  “Dean, hey babe, wake up…Dean.”

  He jumped out of bed and rushed to turn on the light and grab for his bat. I stared at his naked body wide eyed.

  “What’s wrong…Pacey?” His voice barely registered in my mind. My eyes traveled down his muscled chest to his defined stomach, I swallowed and followed the trail of hair---

  “Pacey.”

  My head snapped back up to his face and I felt the heat rush to my cheeks. I was caught.

  “What happened?” He said.

  I swallowed hard and handed him my phone.

  “Do you know this cell number?” He asked.

&n
bsp; I closed my eyes against the pain. “Yep.”

  “Who?”

  I took a ragged breath. “Rhi.”

  “Shit.”

  “Yea…” I felt the terror run down my limbs and I shook with fear. Dean took a seat beside me and put his arm around me.

  “Dean.”

  “Yea babe.”

  “Can you put on some clothes please.” I felt him shift and look down, then chuckle softly.

  “Why?”

  “Dean.”

  “Come on Pacey, life sucks, but it isn’t over. Should we really let this demon freak affect everything we do?”

  I sighed and shook my head in frustration. He didn’t get it. Anything we did could cause more people harm, could cause more death. I didn’t need to add any more blood to my hands.

  “Yes, I will not be responsible for another person’s death.”

  Dean groaned and stood up and pulled on a pair of ratty shorts. “You are not responsible for her actions Pacey. You didn’t do anything wrong. This is ridiculous, if she wasn’t killing our friends, she’d be killing somebody else’s. It’s not your job to save us all. She’s crazy, you can’t reason with a psycho.”

  The phone vibrated again and I groaned. Dean reached for it and sat shakily on the bed.

  “Oh God.” He whispered.

  I ran a hand through my tangled hair wincing at all the knots. “What now?

  Dean’s face was pale and his mouth opened and closed without speaking.

  “What’s it say.” I asked.

  He shook his head and handed me the phone. I felt the tears in my eyes before I’d even finished reading.

  “Oh where oh where has my little cat gone,

  oh where oh where can she be,

  With her soft silky hair and her little black paws,

  Oh where oh where can she be.”

  I dropped the phone and ran to the bathroom. Below the text was a picture, a horrible picture I couldn’t even describe. My little kitty, my beautiful birthday present from Dean was dead. I tried to block out the images in my head.

  “I’m so sorry Pacey.” Dean was standing in the doorway opening his arms for me

  I ran into them and nuzzled my face in his chest. I heard the phone vibrate again and I sobbed. What more could she possibly do?

  Dean picked the cell up off the floor and held me again tightly. I could feel his voice rumble in his chest as he recited the words.

  “Boys and girls come out to play,

  The moon does shine as bright as day;

  Come with his son, and come in a crawl,

  Come do my will or not at all.

  You’ll lose your supper, and lose your sleep,

  Then find your playfellows dead in the street;

  Up the ladder and down the wall.

  A half dozen more will serve my call.

  And you know why I must do what I do!

  Those who defy me must die - 'tis true.’”

  Whatever her little game was, she wouldn’t stop until she killed everyone I cared about, and running wasn’t going to save anyone. We had to go back. And I had to find a way to save my friends.

  The whole drive back I felt like a zombie. My body and heart were so overwhelmed with loss and pain I finally felt nothing. Every belief I had in the good overcoming evil was dead inside me.

  How could I fight a being that had no heart, no sense of remorse, and never slept. I wiped a stray tear from my cheek and tried to formulate a plan. Dean had begged me not to go back; he’d raged and screamed at me in anger.

  I knew she was winning when she could make a guy like him scream like that. We were losing the battle, my mom, my friends, and now my cat were dead. How in the world do you fight something invisible, something you’ve convinced yourself can’t even exist.

  Dean hadn’t spoken a word to me during the whole drive. He stared through the window in silence, his hands tightening so intensely I was sure the wheel would break in protest.

  “Dean?”

  He grunted in response.

  “I know you’re pissed at me, but this silence is killing me.”

  He jerked the truck when he turned his head in surprise.

  “You think I’m pissed at you? Pacey this isn’t your fault it’s mine. I don’t want to take you back to be slaughtered. To watch your friends die, to watch your father turn from you. If I were any kind of man, I’d leave you somewhere safe and never contact you again. I’d let her have me, because at least then you might be safe.”

  My body started shaking in fear. Could he leave me like that, just walk away in the hopes that it was the best for me. To be her slave, her plaything and whatever that all entailed. I choked back the nausea that rose in my throat and started crying.

  “You can’t leave me Dean, you can’t. What would I do without you, what if it didn’t work and I was alone. She’d just come kill me and you’d never even know.”

  He pulled the truck to the side of the road and pulled me into his arms. For a moment, we just sat there clinging to each other. I buried my face in his chest and cried, I cried for all of the things I couldn’t change and for the horrors that awaited me.

  Lilith was playing a game that had no rules.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Un-Welcome Home

  Dean drove the rest of the way in silence. He didn’t agree with my need to go home to my father. He wanted me to stay with him at his house where he could keep a vigilant eye on me. But the truth was Lilith could find me where ever we went. There was no escaping or hiding out. Not when the people I cared about were in danger.

  So the first line of defense was getting back my father. I was still angry; he’d broken a part of my heart I didn’t realize was even there. You never expect your parents to betray you. He’d signed the papers and locked the doors that kept me in a mental prison.

  The man before my mother died, would never have been capable of such a horrible act. My mother was probably cussing her heart out at him in heaven. My mother...Her loss was the one I felt the most.

  The one good part about my return to Culliver City was that Wes had finally made a breakthrough. I guess his roommate back at Cal Poly had a girlfriend that was majoring in religion and mythology. He put out a feeler for information on the demoness Lilith and hit gold.

  Tomorrow we were all going to meet this new expert at the University library. It was one more person I didn’t want to know my crazy secrets, but Wes insisted it was necessary. Female meant moveable but her possible help made it necessary.

  I needed to find out how to get to Lilith’s Hall of Mirrors so I could entrap her. Before she had a chance to hurt me or anymore of my friends. The dream about her taking me over haunted me while Dean and I stayed away.

  It didn’t seem to matter that we emptied the room of mirrors. I still saw myself sucked inside the cave while I watched my body through a reflective doorway. Lilith mocked me by taking on the shape of dead friends, and sometimes even my mother.

  My dad was waiting on the front porch when we arrived. A thin woman with shoulder length strawberry blonde hair stood beside him. My heart raced inside my chest and I glanced over at Dean for confidence.

  “She seems normal to me.” He said.

  The sunlight hit my eyes and I held my hand up to block the bright blinding rays. I couldn’t tell if her skin squirmed with black writhing ribbons of evil. I was too far away. I had a feeling it wouldn’t really matter even if she did. I needed to fight for the family I had left, for my dad.

  Dean parked the truck and ran around to open my door. He smiled when he opened it and took my outstretched hand. My dad’s eyes hardened when he caught sight of our intertwined fingers. Dean would always be the boy who stabbed my mother, no matter how much time went by.

  “Mr. O’Brien.” Dean said.

  He held out a hand. Neither my dad nor the dark eyed female took it.

  Dean dropped it and leaned over to whisper in my ear. “I’ll get your things.”

  “Dad.
” I said between clenched teeth.

  He put an arm around the unknown female and she curled into him like she was afraid of me and I smiled. She should be, if Lilith was using her then I wasn’t her ally or her friend. If it came down to protecting my father or her…well she was as good as dead.

  “Pacey, I’d like you to meet Bridget York. She has been helping me cope with losing your mother.” He smiled down at her, and I felt something inside my chest break. Bitch.

  I held out my hand despite my reservations. “It’s um…nice to meet you.”

  Bridget turned to meet my gaze and frowned. She stared at my hand for a moment before taking it. My father beamed at me. I squeezed her hand a little harder than necessary.

  “Ouch.” She squeaked.

  My father’s face fell. Bridget’s eyes were empty of blackness but I felt a shiver of evil under her skin.

  Her inner voice said, “Could she be more rude?”

  As he tried to pull her fingers from my grip, I kept holding on searching her arms and face for black ribbons of evil. Nothing stirred. My father made an annoyed noise and pried her hand from mine.

  “Jesus Pacey.” He barked.

  I shrugged. I had to wonder how long he’d known Bridget, especially if she was already comforting him. Were things between my parents worst then I thought. Could my father have been cheating on my mom without my knowing? An uncomfortable wave of nausea twisted in my stomach.

  Dean appeared at my side with my suitcase and reached out a hand to touch my face.

  “Are you okay Pacey?”

  I swallowed down the bile rising in my throat. “Not really.”

  My father led Bridget back into the house. He held her like she was some precious fragile thing. I hated him. I hated her. My mom had only been dead for a few weeks. Twenty years of marriage tossed aside at the nearest floozy. I wanted to scratch her eyes out.

  Dean pulled me to the side and turned me so that my eyes were torn away from my retreating betraying father and his whore.

  “Pacey, calm down.”

  Tears filled my eyes and a sob tore from my chest. He dropped my bag and pulled me into his arms. I buried my face in the familiar curve of his shoulder. I breathed in his warm honey scent. I couldn’t do this.