Lilith Between Flesh And Spirit

Chapter Thirteen: No Paradise

Eden stood on the east, the place of pleasure and yet, it was just a small garden.

A piece of land in a stone enclosure, circular walls that were erected so high that it made the sunlight flicker throughout the day. Pensile paradise of greenery coated it as if to give it a deep sense of infinite beauty—the greatest lie that a bountiful eye could be blessed.

The gates of gods.

Only four rivers were allowed at its heart and they met at a crossroads. Wealth streamed in with gold, bdellium and onyx stones to satisfy the hunger and the thirst in a river named Pishon. In turn, the desire to serve rippled in the great water of Gihon to overflow with joy by the Tigris creek. And there she was, facing an obvious love through Euphrates, the river that carried copper.

Her legs were two free stems of a flower, long with small prickles. They joined into her stomach and she adorned a pair of breasts like the extension of a jewellery hanging from her slender neck. She was a wild splendour in its barest form, uncovered and unashamed of what made her. Ashen in flesh of delightful fragrance, and yet armed to deter.

"Lilith," he called and her head whirled around, revealing her layered rose petals' hair in an array of red with her matching ruby eyes. She didn't even bother to answer. Lilith just snorted, bringing the apple back to her lips with her thin arm and she bit into the forbidden fruit as his eyes widened.

Lilith froze him into a statue of terracotta, the colour of his flesh, as he stood facing her. He was the lion by the black mane rested on his head—a shield to protect his neck during fight. A glimpse of the ox glowed also in his dark eyes, the mirror to his soul that came round and large of love. Whereas his body possessed the powerful build of an eagle, muscular legs, strong talons and, just like Lilith, he too wore no clothes.

After rolling her eyes, she answered, "yes, Adam?"

"I'm sorry," he said with his chin dipped into his chest of an unknown guilt. Lilith shook her head and smiled at him with curled down lips.

"And He blessed them to multiply and fill the earth." Lilith cried at those words while Adam tightened his fists.

"They have no right to force you."

"They have all the rights." She paused, panting louder. "They created us, Adam."

At her despair, his voice became taut, retorting back, "They created us indeed but they shouldn't create pain!" and he came closer, turning back her wrist by force to expose her bruises.

Lilith let go of the apple, and it fell to the ground with a harsh sound. "I'm broken. That's why they do this to me."

"You're not, Lilith!" Adam said while closing the gap between them with a sudden embrace. He, too, wept at her ache. "I'm alive because of you, Mother of the living, tree of life. You are my mother, my midwife, the woman through whom I was born."

Lilith pressed her lips together in bitterness at his declaration while he washed her tears away with his fingers. Adam then rubbed a hand through his face and turned around, ready to devise a plan with her for their escape, but Lilith didn't give him the choice. She ran away, vanishing into the horizon before he could even mutter a syllable.

***

And even the most beautiful gardens could look dull if seen every day. Flowers grew the same, the trees smelled the same and even the fruits all tasted the same. Boredom grew within Lilith.

This was no paradise but a cage in disguise.

She walked back on her steps; maybe Adam had forgiven her, and there he was, his legs rooted firmly on the ground with his arms crossed over his body. Lilith waved at him from afar, but he didn't answer, nor had his squinted eyes left her shadow.