Lilith
by Timothy Wilkie
I stood by his bed and held his thin, trembling hand, and he dragged me into the void…
On and off for five minutes I stood there watching the lightbulb flicker on the table. It seemed to be in sync with the beating of my
heart. Crippled by my own obsessions he had looked into my eyes and demanded I see him. He wanted his affinity confirmed.
I opened my eyes and suddenly I felt something all around me. It got closer, and it stunk of ancient evil. I could feel its fetid breath
on the back of my neck. I spun around on my heels. Howling winds and the sound of a tolling bell in the distance. Giant horses with pounding
hooves and steamy breath gushing from their nostrils. The shadows of stone towers pointing up towards heaven. "No joy of the afterlife,
just we live, we die, and we rot." A female voice whispered in my ear.
Even though I felt lost in my isolation, all around me, just out of sight, hidden by billowing clouds of white were the vague shapes of
hideous, lunging, lurching beasts. Nightmare creatures from somewhere beyond. Terrified, I searched frantically for an escape.
Suddenly I felt a strong gust of wind as something huge rushed past me only inches away. In its wake was the strong coppery stench of old
blood. I felt weak and helpless, like I was much too fragile a creature to be in this brutal place. Vengeful god-like creatures reaching out
from the womb of the multiverse.
Receding into the shadows I curled up in a ball and wept. "What's happening?" I cried. Help! Help!" My last shout
pierced the heart of the darkness. My eyes widened in fear as a Woman's face covered with open oozing sores appeared in front of me.
Streams of blood ran down her cheeks from each of her eye sockets.
"I am the lover of the dead." She hissed.
At the sight of her I was paralyzed with fear. I screamed and my voice echoed all around me.
"Do you remember me?" She asked as she slithered around in mid-air just above the ground. "I am the horrid deceiver of
innocence."
"Where am I?" I asked.
"You have been yanked out of the world." Her words like a knife slashed at my heart. "I am the first and the last. The
Alpha and the Omega. The one betrayed and forced to slither in the dust. You will know me by the name of Lilith, and I am born again through
you into the world of the living."
"But, this is not the world of the living." I sobbed.
"Time is man's invention. All things here happen at once."
She began to fade before my eyes. "You can't leave me." I cried.
"It is time to be born again," she replied.
© 2023 Timothy Wilkie
Timothy Wilkie's stories have been featured with Aphelion, Horrizine, Dark Dossier, The Big Book of Bootleg Horror and many
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