Horns

Two: Lilith

Two:

Lilith

My hands are shaking. I haven’t said anything this entire time because my voice is down in my toes. I can’t feel my fingertips. How do you even respond to something like this? How do you come up with a legit reason to not be afraid for your life? How do you even find the courage to say anything?

My hands are clammy with a cold sweat. My breathing is labored. It’s hard to remember to exhale, how much I keep holding my breath. I don’t know why I’m doing that. I guess I’m waiting for something spectacular. Though I don’t know what’s more proof than a broken door sliding across the floor and adding itself back onto the door frame like nothing ever happened. Plus I’m not sure I’ve ever heard of said broken doors locking themselves once they’re reattached.

Levi speaks for us at first, then Sam takes over. The girl who announces herself as Lucifer or Satanas or something knows Sam. I don’t know how, but she knows his name. She even addresses him directly. This is maybe the most terrifying thing.

She wants something from us. That’s evident. She wants something serious. Though I don’t know what’s more serious than what’s happening now.

“You all stare at me as if I am not real,” she tells us, her voice dismissive. “I assure you, this is truly happening to you. This is your life, plain and simple.”

I sink back into the couch. Maybe if I sink enough, she won’t see me. Maybe she won’t see any of us. Maybe she’ll leave.

No such thing.

“What do you want from us, devil?” Azazel asks at last. She usually doesn’t talk a lot. I’m surprised her voice sounds so normal and unafraid whereas Sam sounded like he was about to start crying.

“Azazel,” the woman with the horns says with a grin. “You, I like you. Naturally. Mind if I sit?”

No one says anything. We won’t condone her presence nor deny it. I mean, if she’s the real thing, I’m not taking any chances. I’m not even talking.

“Please, call me something other than ‘devil’. It is such a bland term. You humans blame everything on devils. You are the real monsters.”

“What are you, exactly?”

She goes to sit in the only open armchair, smoothing her perfect, white dress. “I am the essence of your fear. I am the highest ruler of hell.”

“You’re Satan? That’s what you’re saying?”

“You humans are so simple minded. You have no imagination. It is as if over the span of your race, you have learned nothing. There is no eternal Satan. There is no eternal God. Many of times have both powers been killed and replaced. Overthrown and replaced. Just... replaced.”

It seems as if Azazel has become our voice. Her level-headed nature is in our favor this time. “So what does that make you?”

“I have said it. The ruler of hell. I am the God of the underworld, the lost souls, the demons, the sinners. They bow to me.”

I’m getting more and more scared as she goes on. It’s becoming too real. When she was just standing there it was as if there was at least a small chance that it was all a joke, that it was all fake. But the more breaths she takes, the more I suddenly realize there’s light glinting off her horns-- her sharp, sharp horns-- and there is no way to know what’s going through her mind because her eyes are black. Reflecting me with no prejudice. Finalizing the fact that she is a living, breathing body.

And it terrifies me to my bones.

“What do you want from us?” Ahri asks after a long, tense silence. Her and Levi are still stiffly standing on the stairs, her behind him as if he’s protecting her from something. I think if this woman is what she says she is, she’d blow straight through him so there’s no point in protecting anyone.

The devil directs her gaze at the stairs. All I can see is Ahri’s black hair ducking behind Levi’s shoulder.

“Ah, yes, that.”

I don’t know what to call her. I mean, she’s the devil. How do I just casually call her Lucifer or Satanas or whatever without feeling stupid? We’re not exactly old friends. I don’t really want to just start throwing out nicknames as if I’ve known her for a while. Frankly, I don’t want to know her at all. I want to wake up from this nightmare, and that’s all.

“Well, I have this problem.” The monster tucks a strand of hair behind her ear. “I have revealed that I rule hell, correct? And that our respective Gods become replaced?”

“Yes,” Sam says.

“I was replaced. And after that, they cast me out. So I am here.”

My breath hitches for a second and I feel like I’m choking.

“I require your assistance in reclaiming my throne.”

“We can’t do that!” I blurt suddenly. When she snaps to look at me, I regret ever saying anything. I realize now how that could possibly have been the worst decision I’ve ever made in my life.

Well... one of the worst.

“Why can’t you?”

“You’re... you’re the devil... I mean...”

“I told you to call me something else, Lilith. Do you have a hard time understanding? Is it really the most complicated thing anyone has ever said to you?”

I feel as if I’m shriveling up into nothing.

“But back onto other matters. You do have a choice, you know. Would you like to hear them?”

Even Caim and Ahri speak up as we jump at the chance of a way out. Everything just feels so wrong. It would go against everything in the moral part of me to help someone so horrible regain something of hers that was lost. She’s been in hell, torturing souls and causing chaos to mankind. She doesn’t deserve anything other than what she’s already got. Maybe she deserves worse.

“You can either help me like I want you to... or I can brutally kill all of you. It’s your choice.” She smiles and relaxes back into her seat. “I’ll give you some time to think, of course.”