לִילִית: Lilith's Story

Chapter Seven

Lilith's dreams haunted her with memories of her time in the Nine Circles of Hell and lingered on the moment when she heard a voice comforting her and felt a presence squeeze her hand. To this day she never found out how that voice had reached her or why, but it had been there in her greatest moment of need. That voice had spurred her onward when she had only been wanting to die. That voice had reminded her of her heritage, her birthright, and her purpose. She was Lîlîṯ, the first woman to have graced this Earth, and she deserved the life she'd been given. That voice had been her lifeline and she'd gripped onto the small mercy with everything she had.

The second final circle of Hell, Fraud, was meant to break her further but Lucifer had made a mistake, tossing her body into the trench with the demons. They immediately recognized their Mother and with a vicious shriek, they descended upon her. Their whips tossed aside, their claws and wings caressing her broken body, their cries and screams echoing throughout the circles. They swarmed her and fought off the minions sent to pull her back from them, tearing them apart with sharp teeth and devouring them as a snack. The voice that had accompanied Lilith to the Eighth Circle faded and in her gratitude for the presence of her children, the Mother of Demons forgot about the comfort she'd been given.

In the darkness of her wooden prison, present-day Lilith smiled tenderly, memories of her children nursing her back to health soothed her aching soul and gave her hope. Suddenly, Lilith gasped with the revelation that just occurred to her - the voice belonged to Zelda. She wouldn't have recognized it until she met the redheaded witch and that meant that at some point in the last few months of knowing Zelda (as Lilith), the Spellman witch had travelled back in Time. Lilith frowned, licking her parched lips as she tried to work out why Zelda Spellman would travel back in Time at some point between when she'd met Lilith and the present moment; but the knowledge that the High Priestess chose to travel to Lilith's past and had been the comforting voice that had seen her through torture and torment must mean she didn't intend to kill her.

But Lilith was tired. So tired. Dehydration was taking its toll on her body; her mortal cells were shrinking, her kidneys were failing, and her brain was swelling. She had always occupied a mortal form in all her time on Earth and she didn't know what would become of her if her spirit was caged in a dead human flesh suit. Lilith was too exhausted to care about anything other than sleep, so she closed her eyes and drifted gratefully into the abyss.

When her heart stopped, demons all over the World fell to the ground screeching.

---

The demons in the Eighth Circle had cast Zelda aside as they rushed in to save their Mother. She found herself pushed and shoved to the edges of the narrow trench; distracted by the flurry of movement, the redheaded witch forgot herself and tried to stand. Crying out at the pain that seared through her, she fell again to the ground but this time the minion was at her side. It hissed, blindly reaching out for whatever had made that noise; angry that Lucifer would see Lilith's rescue as his failure, the minion wanted retribution. He snarled and caught hold of Zelda's hair. With a shriek of triumph, he yanked at the hair, dragging the Time traveller across the trenches to a ditch. Still unable to see what he'd captured, he had a suspicion that it was a person of interest who had no business being in Hell. That didn't mean he was going to release her without showing her what happens to uninvited guests.

The Ninth Circle of Hell was Treachery. The minion dragged Zelda down through Hellfire to reach the final circle; if he couldn't torment Lilith, at least he could torture whoever he had in his grasp. Using his hand to outline Zelda's body, understanding where she was in space, the minion thrust her into a hollowed out hole in a giant lake of ice. The moment Zelda was in the hole, it closed up around her and she was trapped, frozen, with only her head above the water. Laughing as Zelda tried to negotiate with him, the minion turned his back and disappeared into the white blizzard coming her way.

Zelda Spellman began to panic. The ice was crushing her ribs, she struggled to breathe, and it tightened around her torso, putting pressure on her internal organs. It felt like the ice was breathing and with each exhale, its grip tightened. The pressure combined with the burning sensation of the frozen ice against her bare skin was more than Zelda could take. Already wounded, she felt her body giving up. She began to shiver uncontrollably, her breathing was slow and shallow as she tried to gulp air into her lungs, and hypothermia was beginning to set in. The High Priestess closed her eyes, unable to help herself in any way, she gave in to the exhaustion.

When her heart stopped, somewhere in the future Hilda Spellman fell to the ground gasping.