לִילִית: Lilith's Story

Chapter Nine

Ambrose had come home to find Aunt Hilda dirty and cold next to the fresh grave, when she explained what she'd found he tried to convince her to come into the house and wait. She brushed him aside and refused to leave. Sabrina had even come back from her quest with Caliban to try to convince her Aunt to eat and drink something but Hilda refused. She was beside herself; she was determined to be there when Zelda crawled up through that Cain pit. While Ambrose and Sabrina waited anxiously in the Mortuary, Hilda slumped down beside the grave and slept.

Dirt raining down on Hilda's cheek woke her up, groggily she opened her eyes then quickly thrust herself to a seated position as she saw a hand clawing at the surface. Reaching down she yanked upwards, hurriedly moving the dirt around to make way for the person wanting to reach the surface. With a gasp she watched as Lilith's face came into view and the passed two days worth of not eating, drinking, or sleeping caught up to her; she dropped Lilith's hand with a keening wail and began to sob.

Lilith hauled herself up from the Cain pit, retching and heaving, coughing up dirt and bile, the Queen of Hell stayed on all fours in the dirt trying to get her bearings. When she awoke, she had been shocked to find Zelda in the coffin beside her, none of it made sense. If Zelda hadn't already been dead, the Mother of Demons would have killed her for putting her in a coffin in the ground. Instead, she left the High Priestess in the coffin and made her way back up above ground. Warily eyeing the sobbing witch across from her, she pieced together that Hilda had thought to remove the coffin lid and use the Cain pit's soil to revive the dead witches.

"Thank you." Her voice came out as a croaked whisper, barely audible.

"What?" Hilda sniffed, quieting her sobs to hear what the dark haired witch had to say.

"I said, thank you." Lilith motioned to the pit.

"Oh for Hell's sake, I wasn't trying to save YOU!" Hilda wailed. "I thought I could save Zelda!" The younger Spellman started to sob again.

Lilith sighed and settled back on her knees, trying to decide if she was strong enough to stand. She needed some water and a bath. Her body had shrunk from days of dehydration and starvation. Her cheekbones protruded sharply from her face, making her look gaunt and unhealthy. Her hands shook as she brushed dirt from her face and the hair out of her eyes; she was weak. As she was opening her yellow trench coat to shake the dirt out of it, the mound of dirt began to collapse. She watched with awe as Hilda began to dig around the sinkhole and reached in to pull her sister up.

Hilda hauled Zelda Spellman up from the Cain pit in triumph and just as she was about to hug her beloved sister, Lilith tackled the redheaded witch back down onto the dirt. With energy she didn't know she possessed, Lilith wrapped her hands around Zelda's throat and began choking her. Screaming, Hilda pulled at Lilith's jacket then realized she could just use magic to stop the demoness - with a wave of her hands, Lilith was frozen in place.

Coughing and sputtering, Zelda rolled out from beneath Lilith and crawled over to her sister; "Let her go, Hildy." She whimpered, holding her hand on her throat, trying to use Hilda as a shield of dignity as she found herself naked still.

Lilith fell in the dirt and turned to glare at Zelda, "Why did you try to kill me, witch?"

Zelda met the fiery blaze in those blue eyes and her green ones filled with tears as the memories of the Circles of Hell all came rushing to her. She had died out there on the ice in the Ninth Circle of Hell but somehow when past-Lilith was placed in the ice hole with her, she was forced into the Time Travel void and it made the association that her corpse should be with Lilith in the present as it was in the past. She had travelled forward in time to the present moment, dead, and buried with her Queen. She swallowed hard, her body aching with the trials she'd endured in order to witness the truth about why Lilith served the Dark Lord; when she replied it came out in a whisper.

"I wasn't trying to kill you Lilith. Not truly. The only way to hide you from the Dark Lord was to ensure he would think you were dead. By putting you in the coffin, I was making sure you wouldn't crawl out of the Cain pit before you died. Once dead, the Dark Lord would sense it and stop looking for you. Then I could remove the lid of the coffin and bury you properly with the Cain pit soil and wait for you to resurrect." Zelda gingerly moved her body to protect her broken ankle. "What I didn't account for was the possibility that travelling back in time would kill me, thereby ruining all of my best laid plans and sentencing both of us to actually die."

Having heard the commotion outside, Ambrose and Sabrina were running to the graveyard from the house, both screaming: "Auntie Zee!!"

Lilith stared at Zelda, stunned into silence by the redhead witch's brilliant plan and the realization that she had chosen to give Lilith sanctuary after all. As the family reunion overwhelmed the graveyard, Lilith stood shakily and turned to go. Ambrose threw a cloak around Zelda's naked form then he and Sabrina stood on either side of her and supported her, leading her back towards the house but the High Priestess stopped them and turned to Lilith.

"Lilith, please come in. I fear we've only stalled the Dark Lord, Lucifer will find out sooner rather than later that you are alive. We need another plan." Her green eyes found Lilith's and understanding passed between them along with a tender look.

Lilith nodded her thanks and followed the group back into the Mortuary.