Lilith [editing]

Chapter 09

╚»★ 𝕷𝖎𝖑𝖎𝖙𝖍 ★«╝

"So you're telling me, you've never tried to eat this apple? See what's in the Tree of Knowledge?" I ask Zeki.

"Well, I never noticed it to be frank. Our abode is way miles off from here," ze frowns.

I hear a distant rumble in the background but Zeki doesn't as ze stare at the apple in my hand. "Where's Eve?"

"Cooling her mind, apparently," I roll my eyes and note Zeki shaking zir head.

"She's been gone far too long," ze say, eyebrows drawing together in worry.

I feel incredibly nervous as it registers. "I...oh gosh."

Zeki stops me and doesn't say anything. "Wait." Ze make zir way to the Tree of Knowledge. "Come."

I understand what ze's trying to tell me. For years we weren't allowed to have the fruit. Never told why, never given an explanation. After all that I've seen, I assume it can't be as bad as what it was made out to be.

I try to enter the circle that protects the Tree but I feel some kind of barrier. Hitting the barriers furiously, I think about Eve. I don't know what she's going through, but I'm infinitely scared.

Zeki puts an arm on me. "Stop," ze whisper softly. "Maybe you aren't allowed. Eve ate the fruit though..."

"Yes, she did," I reply and I can feel my breaths come out in short gasps. "Use...use my sword."

Zeki shakes zir head and grabs my wrist. "Hey...calm down. We'll figure this out. We can't think like this...."

"Shut up!" I shout at zem in rage. "You know nothing...nothing. Eve could possibly be...in danger. And all you tell me is to calm down!"

Zeki doesn't respond and I see zem pass through the barrier and easily pluck the apples. Ze comes out and hands the apples to me and bites into one of them.

"Well?" I ask, looking at my own apple. "Is it..."

I don't wait for zir response, and bite into it. Why is this forbidden?

As the taste of the apple set in, I knew why it was forbidden. I saw a thousand years flash before my eyes and I could hear the laughter and screams of millions of people pass before me, before it all disappeared and I made out just one screaming sound. Eve!

"Zeki, we need to go!" I call out to zem but ze look transfixed at the tree.

Shaking me by the shoulders, ze peer at me. "Lilith, what did you see? I'm guessing you can hear Eve. I can see...almost the whole place."

"What?" I look at zem dumbfounded as ze hands me the rest of the apples.

"Just eat those quickly."

I bite into them and chew them as fast as I can, nearly choking, but then I see how much sense he's making. I see the greens and blues of the heavens disappear, turning it a nasty shade of brown and grey. Everything looks the same and everything looks different.

The gardens look the same but I see a whole layer of things I couldn't see before-almost as if the Tree protected a substantial part of the whole garden.

Is this what they were hiding all along? Some pathetic greying area? What a disappointment, I think dejectedly.

Zeki pulls my sword from me as I stare helplessly at the surroundings and I scowl at zem. "What do you want with that?"

Ze plunge the circle protecting the Tree of Knowledge into the ground and makes a clean cut, cutting the circle in half as the Tree splits into two and the garden shakes with ferocity.

"There's something hidden underneath, like a chest!" ze scream as I rush to zir side to aid zem.

"A...chest?"I mutter, taking my knife and trying to scoop the mud out. This is going to take a long time.

Ze plunge it further into the ground and I can see the Tree split further and further down. "This could break it from its roots!"

Zeki keeps thrusting the sword into the ground further and pulls it out and thrusts it with greater force everytime. I can hear Eve screaming somewhere far away along with multiple others and I'm afraid. Of what they would do to her. If she would be okay.

The Tree falls to the ground and I cut the remaining parts away and grab the sword, using it to remove the soil and any magic aligned with it.

We stare into a gaping endless chasm, looking at each other as something glimmers and I put one leg in, closing my eyes and hoping for the best.

"I could fly down there...and see," ze offer. "I'm not sure if you waiting for me or you going to Eve would be the best bet right now."

I heave a sigh. "I'll stay with you. Perhaps this might help us...get there even more stronger."

I wait for zem as ze go off down into the depths of a gap and I watch with cold shivers. I put my sand clock out and watch it, tick away, the sand dripping down ever so slowly. Somehow the sight makes me even more anxious, and I tap my fingers furiously and look away, waiting.

Zeki emerges, heaving a big chest and I help zem out, looking at it. We both nod and heave it open and watch a pulsating thing as my eyes widen.

"Is...is that a fucking heart?" Zeki asks in shock. There are a thousand knives stabbed into it and I am appalled, amused and disgusted all at once.

A thousand knives stabbed into her heart and she yanked one and used it to kill all of them.

"Yes, it seems like it..." I whisper. "This...this is it. The heart of the heavens."

I yank a knife out and I feel a distant rumble in the heavens. "I don't think...this is a good idea. If heaven falls, we fall too."

"Yes, we might," I frown at it. "You have to remove all the knives. I'm going to get to Eve with my sword. We can do this. I still have my clock and we can...get out of here."

I feel a maddening rush and I implore with my eyes. "Please."

Ze nod and heave a deep breath. "Okay."

"I'll come for you."

I sprint to where Eve is, hoping against all odds she's okay.