Lilith

by Ashley Jeffery

  Ick. I did not want to be related to her. She reacted to my thoughts like I’d slapped her.

  “I’m sorry that upsets you little sister. In another time maybe we will be friends again, and then that tie to you won’t seem nearly as…repulsive.” Was that hurt I heard in her voice.

  “Well I’d say it’s been nice but you’d know I was lying.” I said.

  Lilith licked her lips and her eyes narrowed.

  “The pleasure was all mine rest assured.” She said the words around another evil giggle. She ran on two different modes crazy and crazier.

  I raised the knife and scratched at the edge of the mirror. A ripple of power glided out towards me. I smiled and glanced back at Lilith.

  “See you around.” I said as I slammed the knife into the mirror.

  It exploded out towards me the force throwing my back hard against the cave wall. Lilith’s laughter danced with the sound of glittering broken glass. I felt her kiss my cheek.

  “Thank you dear sister,” she said, and she was gone before I gave into the pounding pain that forced me to black out.

  When I woke up all the mirrors around me were broken. They rained down on the center of the cave slicing everything that they touched. Silvery shards were wedged deep inside the big wooden table. I thanked God silently for not blacking out inside the large chamber.

  My arms stung with thousands of tiny cuts. I looked down at my sweater. Tiny red spots covered it as if hundreds of pieces of sharp sand had flown through the light fabric and cut me. I stood up shakily and found my knife buried under broken wood and glass. I tucked it back inside my backpack and left.

  I couldn’t shake the feeling that something had gone horribly wrong.

  Epilogue

  Grave Mistake

  It started like most dreams. Swirls of scenes spinning past me so fast I couldn’t keep up. They were like grains of sand slipping through my mind. The moment I started to focus on one another appeared. When the tornado of images finally settled I was standing in a barren desert.

  A man in long dark robes stood next to a shallow river. The sun above pierced down in hazy shades of red. The light was so bright I had to squint to see. I was across the river in front of him. Two ornate matching mirrors were at his side. He spoke in Hebrew…words jumbled together so quickly there was no way for me to translate.

  A woman lay before him on the ground. Her body wrapped in gauzy blue and black silks. Her long golden hair pulled from his face in the breeze. I knew who she was without seeing her closely. Her skin luminescent and glowing in the harsh sun. Lilith’s beauty was unmistakable. No one else on earth could ever have looked like her. She was that unearthly.

  The man held a blade in his hands, the tip covered in a thick dark sludge. Lilith’s arm dripped with the same dark liquid, too black to be normal blood. Her shrill laugh vibrated in my mind while he recited eight names.

  “Lilith, Abitu, Abizu, Hakash, Avers, Hikpodu, Ayala, Matrota…”

  Lilith stopped laughing as one of the mirrors glowed bright with eye burning light. She started shaking and writhing on the ground. Her body bucking as it was dragged towards the glowing mirror. Before her beautiful face disappeared inside, she spoke one verse in Latin.

  “Elijah…neutiquam erro.” I am not lost.

  A cruel smile split her face and she was gone. The man recited another chorus of words than spat on the mirror, and sealed it with his blood. He took the mirror in his hands and wadded into the water. He chanted three words. The water boiled up around him. Frothing and churning with foam. He tossed the mirror into the water, the bubbles disappeared, and the river was again still.

  He walked back to the other mirror with a large stone in his hand. The sunlight was dimming as it dropped towards the horizon. He lifted his hand to smash the glass when a person appeared in the distance. As she drew closer, her figure was revealed. A woman, older in age like the man, walked confidently across the hard dirt and sand. Black ribbons of evil swirled across her skin.

  I tried to call out in warning, but my voice was lost in the wind. He said the woman’s name in greeting. She smiled at him, and reached out one hand to soothe him while the other flashed forward holding a blade. She stabbed him twice before he fell to his knees. His face a mixture of betrayal and confusion.

  “Neutiquam erro.” She said with a harsh smile. “Neutiquam erro.”

  A tragic look of dawning crossed his paling face. She reached forward with her free hand and grabbed the top of his head by his hair. She jerked it back and pressed the tip of the knife to his neck. She spit in his face, the black evil writhing against her skin, and slit his throat.

  I cried out in horror when his body crumbled to the ground. The woman looked up at me and smiled. She dropped the knife and grabbed the discarded mirror. She kissed her reflection and then glanced back across the river to me.

  “Neutiquam erro.” She laughed and spun on her heel. Disappearing into the darkness that swallowed her.

  I woke up in a start. My skin still hot from the desert sun. I glanced at the mirror on my door and I knew what I’d done. I’d unleashed a demon on the world by messing with things I didn’t understand. I’d made a deadly mistake, one that was sure to cost me more than just my life and those of my friends. I’d broken the wrong mirror…and now Lilith was free.

  Special Thanks

  I just wanted to thank my family and friends for all of their support and belief in me. Without their ears and heads to bounce ideas off of, I may never have finished any of my books.

  I set a goal a few years ago that I would be published by the time I was thirty. As the years went by and the big 30 approached, I realized for the first time that my goal was within reach the only problem was I had to self-publish. In this new business of eBooks and the market flooded with new authors and stories, self-publishing is beyond terrifying…but I made my goal times two.

  Sometimes the small things are the ones we should be thankful for, I know I am.

  To the readers: Thank you for taking time out of your lives to read my stories. I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed creating them.