The Crimson Z

by Robert Cloud, Lee Rush, Richard Savage

  "No, Lilith, I know what thou hath done. Thou hath eaten from the Tree of knowledge, and hath gained the knowledge and yet thou stand before me with no shame. Thou doth not care that thou are naked before me?"

  "Why should I care? Thou made me. If Thou wanted to use me Thou could at any time."

  "Lilith, did thou not know that I commanded thou not to eat of those Trees?"

  "No one told me, Lord."

  Thunder clapped in the sky, and lightning struck down to the ground around Lilith but did not strike her. God's fury with her for her vile thoughts and lies was beyond compare.

  "That is not what I asked. Thou knew I had commanded it?"

  "Yes, I knew, but no one had told me, so I did not disobey Thy command."

  Again the lightning struck the ground before Lilith and she was thrown into the air. Her hair smoked, and crackled. She landed on her hands and knees before God. “You did disobey, for you knew what my command was.” The ground shook with the booming resonance of the anger in the voice of God. His eyes were filled with fire as he looked down upon her and said, “Thou vile creature, and you have not only eaten of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge so you know of all the things that I wanted to keep you innocent of but you have also eaten of the Tree of Life.

  "You thought to hide this from me.

  "Lilith, you were created for Adam. Not he, for you. Yet from the moment I breathed life into you it has been in your mind that you were the one that I favored. You have done nothing but be a hindrance to Adam. You have tormented him. You have taught him things I did not want him to know yet, and you have disobeyed my commands. Your pride has been your undoing.” God looked down at Lilith as she tried to raise her eyes to look at him, but the power of the lightning bolt that had scorched through her had weakened her too greatly and she fell to the ground.

  God lifted His hand and pointed it at Lilith. “Therefore I give thou what thou sought, life! I curse thou with life. Thou will feed upon the life of man, upon the very fluids that give him life thou will depend. I curse thou with an enemy, the very Sun. It shall burn thine flesh, and devour thy bones. I curse thou with life, for thou will not die neither shall thou see sunlight again until thou finds one that will love thee even though they hath seen the monster that thou art."

  With those words God lifted His hand and Lilith was lifted into the air and flung out of the Garden and into the world of man. She landed hard, breaking every bone in her body, but within a matter of only a few moments wracked with great and horrendous pain, her bones knitted themselves together and mended. Her split and broken flesh healed, and she was whole. With tear filled eyes she took one last look toward the Garden and saw that an army of angels had surrounded it with blazing swords lifted.

  Slowly she turned and walked away from the Garden, never to return.

  Chapter Two

  With the Garden to her back Lilith walked toward some unknown future. Hours passed and she began to grow weary, yet she continued along her path knowing only that the Garden lie behind to her. It began to enter into her mind that it was her pride that had been her undoing and she wondered if it was truly worth all the marvels she had lost. For a moment she turned around and thought that perhaps if she were to return to the Garden upon her knees that God would forgive her of her sins but as soon as she turned thinking to return she stopped. She knew that she could never kneel before God.

  So she returned again to her path and began her long trudge along trails that some large beasts must have made for they were worn smooth. When the trail turned she would follow a different path for she wanted to continue in as straight a line away from the Garden as it was possible to take.

  As she continued to walk it struck her that she would be alone on the earth. She would have no one to talk to and only animals for company. Was life really worth this emptiness that she felt growing inside her? Slowly she sunk to her knees and wept. Her tears were full of anger and she screamed up at the heavens and at God, cursing Him for what He had done to her. Looking down at the ground her eyes caught a glint as the moon's light reflected off the edge of a black crystal formation. Within it was a long sharp rock, which when she touched its edge it bit into her fingers and drew blood. Lilith lifted her fingers and watched as the wounds upon her fingers closed and the blood flow ceased. Rage and emptiness tore into her making her feel all that she had lost.

  Suddenly she realized that she had indeed felt something for Adam. She did not think it was love, but it was something. Lilith could not live a life like this, with no one, no person to share her life with, no one to talk to, nothing but herself in this world.

  She reached to the long black blade like rock and lifted it with her hands. The pain she felt was worse between the mounds that swelled from her chest, it had to stop so with one quick motion she plunged the blade between the swellings and into the beating, pulsing part that hurt so deeply.

  With a crack Lilith was thrown from the spot she was kneeling. She flew through the air and crashed hard against a tree that had been more than ten strides from where she had been. Slowly she slid to the ground, her flesh grating against the bark of the tree. She could see the remnants of the black crystal as it lay on the ground where it had been shattered into fragments that were all bathed in a crimson hue that was so brilliant it hurt her eyes to look upon it. Each one slowly winked out of existence as they burned away to nothing.

  Lilith could feel her shattered bones already knitting and her flesh growing. She screamed in agony as the pain cut through her like a million razor shards. When her healing was complete she stood and looked to the stars and screamed out again. Tears rolled down her cheeks as she wept. Her curse was life. Her knees folded beneath her and she cried bitterly, her sobs carrying across the empty night.

  When the moon had traveled half way across the sky she finally rose and began walking again. She now knew that she would not be allowed to take her own life, at least not by that method. Tears still flowed down her cheeks as she walked.

  Time passed but it had no meaning to her. Slowly her senses began to notice that the nights chill was turning to a sweet warmth and about her a gentle mist was rising, but it was peculiar it was not rising from the earth or stones around her. She lifted her hand and from her fingers the mist danced and swirled into the air. She smiled for it was beautiful to see this veil of vapor surrounding her, but as those pleasant thoughts entered her head they were quickly dashed to bitter and harsh fragments. Like the bolt of lightning that God had struck her with, searing pain erupted over her entire body. She watched in horror as first small blisters began to appear upon her hands and then larger ones. It was as if her skin was turning to fluid and she was beginning to boil.

  With a frantic start she looked over her shoulder and on the distant horizon she saw the orange glow that was the precursor of the coming sunrise. Her gaze darted about her wildly from right to left and back again looking for anything that might provide her some form of shelter from the coming blaze of the sun. In the back of her mind it did strike her as ironic that only hours before she had wanted to die, but the thought of bursting into flames, and the pain that was intensifying with each passing second had suddenly increased the instinct of survival within her. Her eyes caught site of a stand of trees that were the outcrop that led to a deeper woods, they were about forty running strides from her. She looked back at the horizon. The bright yellow orb was beginning to crest the horizon. Her eyes felt as if they had been struck by fire.

  Turning toward the trees she dashed toward them, hoping she still had time to make the distance, but afraid she had already taken too much time. As she ran she noticed that she was moving faster than her legs had carried her before, it was like she had moved in slow motion before, even when she ran. Still the distance seemed to close maddeningly slow, and though she knew God would not listen to her she prayed that the trees would shade her until she could find a better shelter from the sun.

  As she ran the pain in her hands and arms grew even mo
re intense, she could see flames beginning to shoot from the ends of her fingers. From behind her she heard a wailing scream but she did not dare look to see who it was. Then it dawned on her that it was her own howl of pain. The sun crested the horizon and she was engulfed in flames. With all that she had in her she dove for the trees and landed hard, rolling through wet muck and moss that quickly and thankfully extinguished the flames.

  Slowly Lilith rose to her hands and knees and looked down at the charred flesh. The pain was already diminishing and as she watched the charred black shell began to flake away and new skin appeared beneath the black soot. She heard it from somewhere, a laugh, coming from somewhere close by. It sounded like it was a female laugh but from a very small female. She looked about but there was no one. As she turned her head the sound shifted with her. Then as it had been with the scream she realized the laugh was coming from her. She slammed her fist into the ground and her fist sunk far deeper than it should have, but she barely noticed as she lifted her head and screamed out every vile curse she could think of at God for what he had done to her. Yes, she knew she had done wrong, but she did not deserve this.

  She pulled her hand up out of the dirt and scooping a handful of the wet green moss she began cleaning herself as best she could of the black scales and soot. She lifted her long ash coated black hair and laid it upon her lap as she began to divest it of the ash and bits of leaves and twigs. She took a great deal of time in preening herself even though there was no one else that would see her. As she stood and looked down at her body, satisfied that she was clean she noticed a light shining upon the ground not far from her.

  She turned her eyes to the canopy of the trees and realized she had spent too much time. The sun was high in the sky and the trees would soon offer her no protection for the sun's fingers would penetrate the canopy like spears of fire. She might be able to survive but each time one of the fiery fingers hit her it would cause that horrendous pain and she had no desire to repeat the experience of being a living fire. She needed to find some other form of shelter.

  As she stood looking about the small canopy that covered what was the beginning of a much deeper wooded land she turned toward the darker hidden environs of the forest and began to push her way through the undergrowth. The branches that scratched and tore at her were an annoyance but she healed almost as quickly as they cut through her flesh so she just kept pushing through and tried her best to ignore the pain. Lilith screamed piercingly when she brought her foot down on a three inch long briar whose barb pierced through the top of her foot just behind her large toe. She tore the branch from her foot and pulled the barb out. Once she found shelter she would have to figure a way to protect herself from the environment.

  The deeper into the gloom and dark of the woods she walked the more she noticed her senses were becoming more alert. She began to hear sounds that were much farther away than she had been able to hear before. Small creatures would dart into hiding places and her eyes would catch sight of them, except now they seemed to glow with a reddish hue, like they were a warm fire. Her nose could pick up scents that she had never been aware of, the smell of the moss, and leaves, even the musk of the animals. It was from that musk that she was able to tell that a large animal had recently been traveling along the very path that she was now following.

  Lilith set her mind to following the scent of that beast and she soon found she could pick up every single place it had set its large paws down upon the earth even though the moss and brush had risen and hidden the prints. She could follow its scent markings as easily as she could have followed it had she seen it before her. From the smell of the beast she could also tell that this beast made its home beneath the earth in some form of large shelter. There was a damp dirt smell that surrounded it, but not enough to tell her that it dug its way into the earth. Though she had never seen a cave, from the scents that penetrated into her inner mind an image of one took up residence in her mind. It was a perfect place for her to be hidden from the sun and sheltered from all that the environment threw at her.

  The beast she followed had stopped once and Lilith noticed that high above her head on a tree were four large claw marks that had been dug deep into the bark of the tree. The scent of the beast was also strong here, as if it had urinated upon the tree after gouging out its markings to prove who owned the territory. Deep within her chest Lilith's heart raced. A beast of that size would surely protest her trying to enter its home, but she had little choice for as she looked upward she could already see the fingers of the sun beginning to break through the canopy. They were at an angle but within a short time they would penetrate to the ground and then she would be in trouble. Maybe, Lilith thought, she might be able to sneak in undetected and find a corner small enough to keep her out of reach of the beast.

  Then a lance of light struck her shoulder and the searing pain erupted in her mind as her shoulder turned black and charred. She shrieked out with the pain as she jerked her arm out of the ray of God's wrath. All around her the beams were beginning to pierce through the canopy. She was running out of time, but whatever was guiding her was on her side for her gaze lit upon the entrance to the cave. It was hidden behind some branches and had she not pulled out of the light suddenly the way she had she may not have seen it. Yes, her sense of smell would have guided her to it, but she needed haste, and that may have taken too much time.

  She had already learned she could run faster than had been possible for her before. Now she needed to avoid a myriad of beams that could cut her to ribbons. Lilith gathered all the strength she had in her legs and leapt, and found herself gliding through the air. She landed on her feet like some feline and then leapt again, bounding from one surface to another. She would spin in the air and avoid the beams and catch a limb only to reflect herself to a safe surface and then bound off again to another. Like an ape, a monkey, and a feline all combined her agility was unmatched and she found herself standing outside of the cave untouched by even one of the beams. Even more surprising to her was that she was not even the least tired for her exertion. It was as if she had merely walked from where she had been to where she was now. Lilith looked up to the sky and wondered, Are there gifts with this curse that are equal to the curse?

  Lilith lowered her gaze to the foreboding and dark entrance to the cave. Deep within her stomach she felt a churning as fear of what might happen to her if the beast were to discover her sent her heart thundering against her chest. She slid next to the edge of the wall and as slowly and silently as she could she began to inch into the cave. Even though no light penetrated into the shadows that concealed its inner depths Lilith's eyes could make out every detail. Several tiny mammals scurried along the ground and she watched as their glowing red shapes crossed the caverns rough floor and then vanished into smaller holes or crevices deeper inside.

  This new attribute to her sight fascinated her, especially as she watched a larger creature, still small, but larger than the tiny ones she had seen. She could see the red better and with the red she could actually see a pulsing object within the creature and something almost fluid like coursing through the creature's body. Lilith did not know how she knew it but the knowledge suddenly came to her that she was seeing the life of the creature, the fluids that kept it alive and the pulsing thing was what made the fluids flow. This was the very thing that the Lord had told her she would feed upon, but not the life of beasts. He had said the life of men. With that thought of feeding Lilith felt suddenly very hungry, a hunger so deep it made her nearly double over in pain and a moan escaped unbidden from her lips.

  That moan was a mistake, for no sooner had it come to life than it reverberated off the walls of the cavern and echoed deeper into its depths. Lilith stood up straight pressing her back against the wall but she knew it was too late, she could smell the spore of the beast as it approached.

  From the depth it came on all fours, and still it was nearly as tall as she was. Even in the red hued form she could see that its head was large en
ough that a single bite of its jaw could bite her into two. It paused in the center of the chamber and stood on its hind legs, rising to a height that nearly touched the ceiling of the cavern. The beast towered over her by more than twice her height and it very obviously could either smell or see her for its massive paws clawed menacingly at the air in front of her.

  There was no hope for escape. Lilith knew that her death had come, and if she were going to face death she should at least do it with some courage. She took a deep breath and took a step forward. The beast lunged and its paw struck her hurling her against the far wall of the cave and smashing her hard against it. Slowly Lilith slid to the ground. It felt like every bone in her body had been broken, but she could feel the horrendous pain as they began to mend. She could see the beast charging toward her and thought that this would be a curse indeed, to be beaten and healed over and over for eternity.

  However something in the healing process was different, there was a shift in the nature and intensity of the pain. It was sharper, no longer grinding, but piercing and felt like it was coming from deep within her outward, not from the healing of her flesh and bones. Then in a single instant her breath was ripped out of her lungs. The scale of pain was so intense that it was beyond pain and her mind could not comprehend it any longer.

  In shock she stared at her hands. They felt as if they were being shredded from within by millions of tiny sharp teeth as her flesh tore open and then literally erupted and flew off her fingers and palms. Long black fingers slowly unfurled. From their ends protruded talons of pure ebony that were as long as her fingers had been. Her new avian-like hands were twice the size of her old hands. As she flexed the five razor sharp talons the pain tore into her arms and her skin began to peel away revealing a black scale covered skin beneath her old skin that now floated off of her like the dead skin of a reptile. Her new skin pulsed and expanded as the muscles beneath it grew and took shape.