Lilith Between Flesh And Spirit

Chapter Five: Static Black And White Noise (Part 2)

Her heart pounded into the twelve strokes of midnight, the twelves of perfection, the twelves of cosmic order, like the numbers of little gasps escaping her mouth, gutting her of any feelings. It left Norea there, as if poisoned by the venom of fear. It numbed her face till each of her limbs, generating lightheadedness and sweating; her vision blurred, then it focused again on the corpses of her parents.

One tear stuck under her eye. She was at the mercy of the unknown lurking behind her armchair shield. He grunted louder, his body crawling nearer to her on the floor.

"Norea, I heard you screaming!" Seth staggered back on his feet while Norea grabbed the nearby heaviest objects around her. A vase that she smashed right into his face with all her strength.

This would give her enough time to run away from the scene, from this nightmare, and from Seth.

Norea ran with a slam of her house door; she hastened to somewhere and anywhere far, forgetting everything apart from her need to flee. She made it to the park where her foot got caught in a root, and she tripped on the ground.

Her bad luck.

Blood was now on her hand after she removed it from her nose. It tasted metallic; it tasted like the churning of her stomach.

"Please, Norea, tell me what happens." The disembodied voice of Seth resounded, and she turned around, unleashing a roar of madness. He now towered over her.

Seth only raised his arms up. "I meant no harm; I am here to protect you, Norea; you got to believe me!"

Rubbing his hands over his face, Seth sniffed. "I'm sorry if I arrived too late for your parents, but in this life you can't allow yourself to be attached to anyone because they will take everything and anyone from you!"

Norea froze on the ground, her fists tightened.

"Please, believe me, Norea; I'm not the bad guy here!" Seth pleaded once more in between two excruciatingly deep sighs. Stretching his back, he took a notebook out that was tucked between his trouser and stomach under his t-shirt.

"In this, I have written all of our past lives since I was five years old until now. This is thousands and thousands of lives. Someone from the afterlife sent me back with my memory to protect you, while you are sent back without your memory because the Luminary told you a revelation long time ago that made us burn down Noah's Ark, something that the Archons must not know about."

Seth kneeled down, flicking through his book before pointing to some entries in his diary.

"On August 30 B.C., you were thirty-nine years old, and your name was Cleopatra, and I was Mark Anthony. I nearly saved you, but they killed you with a poisoned hairpin, and then I died. They stabbed me; I did not stab myself."

Licking his lips, Seth turned more pages before continuing.

"February, 647, you were Queen Seondeok of Silla, thirty-seven years old, and I was Bidam—your nemesis. Yes, I tried to take the power from you to meet you, but they killed you before I could even reach to you. You were poisoned again. You didn't suffer from any ailments!"

The blank stare of Norea weighed on him, causing his frustration to escalate.

She had to believe him.

"In 1430, you were Joan of Arc in the prime of your glory and freshly nineteen years of age, and I was Gilles de Rais. I failed you again, and they killed you; then they got me too."

This time, Seth snorted, his voice breaking as hopelessness conquered him. "Then, as the years went by, they got you younger and younger. This time they will kill you on your eighteenth birthday, which will be tomorrow night, but I won't let it happen!"