Hers

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Thirteen

            I pushed myself off of the door and turned the lock.

            “Hello?”  I called into the darkness of my home.  I flicked on the living room light.  The ceiling fan hummed as its blades began their rotation, the pale light from the bulb flickering on the uneven surface above the blades.

            “Lilly,” a voice taunted.  It was clear and strong, no longer a whispered hiss.

            Out of the corner of my eye, I could see a shadow taking the form of a man.  I whirled around, desperate to find the source of the voice, but the shadow moved too, slithering along the wall, never leaving my peripheral vision.

            “Lilly,” a collection of whispers and voices hissed all in unison.

            I began to feel their icy hands against me.  They grabbed clusters of hair and pulled, trailed their fingers on my arms, breathed their chilled breath against my neck, and wrapped their invisible hands around my throat.

            Deserting all notions of bravery and valor, I ran from the living room.  Standing in the doorway to my room was another dark shadow with green eyes, glowing bright against the disfigured blackness that surrounded it.  I turned left down the hallway, shadows nipping at my heels and pulling on my clothing.  I burst into the spare bedroom and slammed the door shut behind me.  I could hear the snickers and dark chuckles of voices from the other side.  My eyes flittered around in search of something to help me.

            There wasn’t much in the guest room.  A glass door lead onto a concrete porch and then into the backyard.  That was out of the question.  No way was I going outside in the dark, especially not after I saw that shadow by the shed a few days ago.

            Shadow.

            Realization sparked through me.  I pushed myself away from the door and began shuffling through the drawers.  My hand clasped around the object I was searching for.  I charged towards the door, my gallantry renewed and opened it wide.  I flicked on the flashlight and began waving it around.  The shadows snaked away from the light.  I turned light after light on until the whole house was lit up like a Christmas tree.

            Only when every nook and corner of the house was filled with some form of illumination was I finally able to relax.   I sighed and took a seat on the couch.  I contemplated calling Sam or maybe Ace, but quickly deserted any notion of calling on either of them.  I lied down on the couch and clutched the flashlight to my chest much like the way a child would hold a stuffed animal.

            I tried telling myself that this was all just a dream.  But it wasn’t.

            Ace is a demon.

            Sam is an angel.

            I am a succubus.

            The shadows are real.

            Sighing, I covered my eyes with the hand that wasn’t gripping onto the flashlight.  I knew I needed some kind of plan.  I obviously needed to avoid Ace at all costs.  From what I could tell, Hell is not a pleasant place to be and Ace is not a good person.  But avoiding Ace was better said than done.  After all, he is the demon of lust and therefore, gets what he wants.  Plus, what would happen to Ace if he was the demon that let me go to heaven?  Satan didn’t necessarily seem like the most understanding guy in the world.  Ace could be tortured, destroyed, and it would be all because of me.

            No, part of me insisted.  I’m not the one who made him a demon.  I didn’t ask for any of this.  I shouldn’t have to protect him.

            Another part of me wondered if I deserved hell.  After all, Lilith did betray God.  Sure she felt bad about it afterwards and she didn’t make more demons, but that obviously didn’t fix everything.   Plus it wasn’t me who deserved Hell, it was Lilith.  But I was- am- Lilith.  I don’t deserve Hell.  I had never done anything so wrong.

            Oh, yes you have, my thoughts hissed.

            For some indefinite reason the picture of Jesus we used to have up in the living room.  I remembered the nightmares it gave me and how unease I felt around it.

            Religion was always a touchy subject for me.  Something I chose to politely ignore but now it was staring me in the face and demanding to be acknowledged.  Now it was laced in my history, in my DNA.

            That was it, that’s what I had done wrong in this lifetime, that’s why there was still debate.  Sam was the answer.

            This was more than just my fate at stake here.  If Ace wins and I go to hell, what will happen to Sam?  Will he be cast down?  If Sam wins and I go to heaven, what will happen to Ace?

            It’s a lose-lose situation either way.  Unless I decided to be selfish.  I scoffed.  When had I ever been selfish?  Never.

            What if this whole thing was a test?  Choose between heaven and hell.  Choose Ace and I’ll end up in hell.  Choose Sam and I’ll end up in heaven.  Or maybe it was about sacrifice.  Give up Sam, the very man who helped land me in this position, and I’ll be in heaven.  Make the mistake of choosing Sam again and I’ll end up in hell.  Give up my chance of happiness so Ace doesn’t get damned and I’ll be in heaven.  Or fall for his dark, mysterious allure and burn in hell.

            I gritted my teeth and sighed venomously.  At this point I was so frustrated I could scream.

            “You know, God,” I said, glancing up at the ceiling, half expecting to see some big guy looking back at me.  “This whole thing is really confusing and I have no idea what I’m supposed to be doing.”

            My skin started to crawl in discomfort and I couldn’t help but think that it was her, that it was Lilith inside me, making me so uncomfortable.

            “I guess that’s the point though,” I continued despite the irritation rising up inside me.  “I guess I’m just supposed to have a little faith.”

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Filler chapter... gotta love them.

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