The Fourth Whore, page 19
“Happy because you managed to tear open the flesh of both my arms with this one?” Sariel asked, brushing past him, and stooping for the first soul. Enoch landed beside the head and cawed.
“What is it? Are you going to help me or stand there looking foolish all day?”
“Oh, it probably just noticed the surprise I left you in the big rig over there,” Lucifer smiled and winked.
Enoch cawed again.
“Damn it all to Hell, Lucifer! I’ve spent an eternity cleaning up for you and The Creator. Would it be too much to ask to be left in peace to do it?”
Lucifer laughed. He bent over, holding his stomach, tears dripping from his eyes. Enoch took off and landed on the roof of the truck. Sariel continued collecting souls from the bus as if neither of the other two were there.
Stifling his laughter, Lucifer followed him. “Look, all I’m saying is how many parents would be OK with their little princess dating Death?”
“What are you talking about?” Sariel asked.
It was easier at this point to keep working and try to tolerate Lucifer’s presence than to stop and humor his nonsense. He found the more souls he gathered and wounds healed, the more he could handle the demon.
“I killed her dad. That’s what I’m saying. I mean, there were some innocent casualties.” He swept his arm across the tipped bus scene in front of them. “But Mac Brooks took a light nap and well, the bus was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, I guess.”
Sariel looked down at his arms, turning them around every which way until he saw it. Cut in diagonally beneath another name. Enoch cawed out from the truck.
“Lucifer,” Sariel growled. “Why? Why would you do such a thing? The girl has no one as it is.”
“I don’t know. I guess I’m bored. I mean, I’m out here all alone, so few like me to talk to. And you, I’ve tried so hard to be friends with you but you’re always so busy. I guess I just needed attention, good or bad.” He did his best to keep a straight face, but a smile flirted at the corner of his mouth.
Sariel walked to the cab of the truck. Flames licked out at him. Enoch hopped off onto Sariel’s shoulder. Its claws warmed by the hot metal it had perched upon. The body inside the truck was charred and lacked any identifying characteristics. On the dash, a piece of pink construction paper with a child’s drawing of the big rig and two rudimentary people—one big, one small—waving in front of it, was signed, “Love, Kenzi”. The edge was smoldering. He picked it out of the truck, folded it, and slipped it beneath his belt. Enoch pecked at the dead man’s head and dropped Kenzi’s father’s soul into Sariel’s awaiting hand.
“Thank you, bird.”
“Look, I’m sorry, Sar. Really. I just don’t understand why you won’t listen to me. Do you love this girl? Because you need to take my word for it when I say that she is in danger. Lilith is much stronger than you think. You need help, more than that bird—sorry sweetie—but you’re going to have to let me help you. Release my demons before it’s too late.”
“Enoch is a male. Don’t call him sweetie. Why does everyone think he’s a girl?” Sariel pushed past Lucifer and continued his work. “I have seen nothing that makes me believe I need more help. Kenzi is a strong girl, she will be fine. She barely knows her father. This isn’t the worst thing she’ll go through.”
There were at least twenty more souls to gather. The bus had been filled with a high school band returning home from a competition in which they’d come in second place. The broken trophy lay among the rubble. Enoch was back at it and together they collected most before the bus too caught on fire.
“I wonder what Lilith is telling Kenzi right now. I wonder if she read that sweet little bedtime story you wrote to Kenzi. Imagine if she had, would she agree with your memory? Would it make her happy to read what you wrote? I think you should be considering—”
“Lucifer! I demand you go. There is no woman, demoness or mortal, that could cause me near the difficulties you have. Do you understand? I will never release your demons. I do not want nor do I need their help. I do not want to spend any longer on this earth with the likes of you. Do you understand? Now, go and leave me in peace.”
Lucifer looked at the watch on his wrist, nodded, and turned around to walk away. Sariel watched with furrowed brow. The demon was up to something and it was more than his usual “release the others” campaign.
“Let’s get this shit taken care of, Enoch, and get back to Kenzi. Something’s up.”
Enoch cawed in agreement.
Chapter 33: Book of Conquest 6
The graveyard-scented chill enveloped her and Kenzi knew she’d pulled them into Sheol. This time, the darkness wasn’t as frightening. She’d been here before and survived. Lilith was beside her still, Kenzi could sense more than see her.
“So, this is his prison?” Lilith said. “More room than he gave me, but reminiscent of the cave where I learned just how painful it is to be created a woman.”
“Yeah, we sure got the shitty end of the stick,” Kenzi agreed. “There’s a room in here though, where it’s warmer and lighter. I think I can find it.” She began to walk, remembering to stay toward the center. “Watch out and stay close to me, there are…uh…things in the walls that will try to grab you.”
But nothing reached out at them. It was as if those sad creatures had retreated into the dirt walls; as if the Nods were more afraid of them than they were of the Nods. The maggots and death beetles did not shy away, and the ceiling sprinkled its creatures upon the pair like holy water. Lilith showed no bother or even acknowledgment of their existence so Kenzi tried hard to be nonchalant as well, suppressing the shivers while brushing them out of her hair. The gooseflesh, however, had a mind of its own.
The light grew from pitch to storm to dusk to grey as they traversed the main passageway. Neither was interested in following the trails branching off back into the darkness. Kenzi wished Enoch were with them. The bird left no doubt in her mind where she stood. Or what gender she is, poor thing. What would Enoch think of her bringing Lilith here though? But Sariel needed more information. He said he needed help. He couldn’t ask for help, offer Sheol as a safe place and then get mad at her for using it.
Up ahead, golden lights danced like fireflies beckoning them to the cavern filled with the enormous tree decorated with millions of trinkets, many of which were gold.
“That’s where we’re going.” Kenzi pointed.
There was a slight curve in the tunnel obscuring the entrance. They picked up their pace. For Kenzi, it was simply a matter of getting out of the insect rain, but Lilith had a look of determination on her face as if she were about to engage in a duel.
When the tree with its pageantry of talismans came into view, Lilith froze. She took in the enormous lifeform, all its branches and décor. She shivered and stepped through the threshold into the honey-glow of the cavern. Kenzi followed her. Lilith touched the trunk of the tree. She rubbed her hand up the trunk and the snake, which just seconds before had been a two-dimensional tattoo, slithered up her body, across her arm and encircled the tree.
“Did you know this is the Tree of Knowledge, Kenzi?” Lilith asked.
Now free of the snake, she walked beneath the branches, allowing her fingertips to gently brush the lowest hanging baubles.
“No.” Kenzi didn’t know if there was an expected reaction for this particular revelation, so she left it at that.
“You know the story of Adam and Eve, the Garden of Eden, the forbidden fruit and all that, do you not?”
“Sure, yeah. She picked an apple and gave it to Adam and then they got kicked out of the garden for it. Right?”
“Yes, they did. Because this tree’s fruit bore the knowledge of good and evil, it was the motherboard, if you will, of the entire creation. Like the computer in The Matrix, do you follow?”
“I think so.”
“And so, The Creator’s secrets were within this tree. He did not want His creations to ever reach the same level of enlightenment as He because they would then be His equals and He would no longer have any sway over them. He plays the dominant role, always.” The snake slithered around the tree, finding a limb from which it could anchor itself.
“I suppose eventually, I too would have eaten the fruit of the tree, but my stay in the garden was short. Eve would never have dared had it not been for the serpent who told her the secret. Do you want to know my secrets, Kenzi?”
“Yeah, honestly, I would. That’s why I brought you here. I mean what do you want Lilith?”
Lilith plucked a shining medallion off a low hanging branch. She studied it for a moment before looping it onto her wrist, where it fell to her bent elbow. She then took another and did the same.
“Hey, you can’t—” Kenzi began but the snake whispered in her ear. She quieted. It told her an ancient story. One of betrayal and suffering.
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“Look upon Eve, Lilith. See that I have made another, a true servant and partner for Adam. You are no longer welcome here. You are banished from this paradise I have created.”
The booming voice of The Creator came from all around. There was a blink of darkness. The hue of light that appeared was orange rather than green.
A clay-colored sea spread out to the horizon where it curved, seemingly falling off the face of the earth. The rocky shoreline was stippled with caverns and crevices. The sun shone hot, baking the peaks so that they shimmered like a mirage. Dark shadows at the mouths of caves promised cool air and respite from the insufferable heat.
Inhuman cries of pain and torment echoed from the dark abysses. Moans of eternal misery slithered onto the scrub grass just outside the entrance. Lilith flinched and gave those caves a wide berth. Lilith’s fear chilled her veins even as her skin burned red beneath the unforgiving sun.
A cold breeze blew out of a broad, but low-mouthed cave set back among the tall mountains. Drawn by the comforting music of the wind singing over hollows of various depths, Lilith entered the respite of natural shelter.
For many nights she lay curled around herself aching for acceptance, for love, for company, and sobbing into the dirt. Days were spent foraging for what few edible plants and shore creatures could be found. It seemed that no matter how long she went without food, she did not die. She grew painfully thin, her lips cracked, and skin sloughed from sun exposure.
“There were days, Kenzi,” Lilith’s voice whispered from the snake’s mouth, “when I imagined returning to the demons who raped and tortured me just to break the isolation and hunger I suffered under The Creator’s banishment. I was weak, and I had come to the realization that I was meant to suffer upon this earth for centuries as punishment. For what, I did not know? Asking for equality? To be treated the same as His other creations? What had I done to deserve this misery?”
“You didn’t go back to them!” Kenzi shouted. It was more of an exclamation than a question.
“I couldn’t stay there anymore. I’d lost count of the years I suffered in isolation and I couldn’t take the chance of going back to the demons in that cave. I chose emotional pain and starvation over physical and sexual torment. My hatred for The Creator and all his biased power fed me and kept me alive. If I were to suffer, it would be in my own way and of my own doing, but I wasn’t going to rot away in the dark, unseen. I set out to wreak as much havoc upon His earth as I could.”
The serpent’s narration began again. The abrasive sand and brittle shrubs wore away at her skin as she made her journey. Hunger evolved from a minor annoyance to racking pains to finally numbing relief. The days were suffocating, the nights were long and cold. The Garden of Eden shimmered on every horizon and faded away with each step she took toward it.
When she arrived at the forest that bordered the Garden of Eden, the opaque shimmer like a veil of spider webs billowing just in front of the trees mimicked every false vision she’d had so far. Crestfallen, believing this too was just a mirage, she continued forward awaiting the fade away, but it did not. Instead, the veil held her back. It would not give. Turning but trailing a hand along this strange new addition to the oasis, she walked on attempting to circumnavigate it and enter the garden at its far end.
“But I found it surrounding the entire garden. I’d been locked out. There was no admittance. I was going to die here, just outside the home that by all rights should have been mine. I did not think I had the strength to go on, but I could not allow any of them the satisfaction of watching me die such a pathetic death.
“On my knees, I sat watching through the milky screen for the two humans who were living a life without a thought to the evil that their creator did to me. Yet, I saw nothing. No signs of life within. Was it possible they too had been banished? Was The Creator busy making new creatures, ones that never erred or questioned his motives?
“It was this curiosity, this vague satisfaction of something I couldn’t explain but I now recognize as revenge, that built in my middle. A surge of energy drove me on. I would find them and revel in their misery, for they deserved their punishment.”
Here in the more tropical inland, the journey was easier. The rain wet her lips and provided much-needed moisture to her broken, peeling skin. Lilith came upon a valley where the scent of animals and smoke drifted out to greet her, the sounds of life, both human and livestock, followed. Rounding a bend, there sat a small hut made of mud and grasses, roofed by large palm fronds.
A field stretched out behind the hut where tall green stalks of grain waved in the scented breeze.
“In that neatly grown garden, I crouched, watching the family go about their work; tilling the soil, caring for many beasts both large and small. I watched as a woman carried woven baskets filled with water from a stream somewhere beyond the shelter and a man with his back turned to me tended a fire. He controlled its flames. I was astonished. I saw no signs of The Creator.
“And then the man stood and turned to look out at the very field where I sat watching. It was Adam, my husband. He’d aged, and his skin had darkened from his time under the sun. So, he had been driven from the garden. It was not hard then, for me to see the familiar features of the woman who’d replaced me in the water bearer beside him. Her body which had once been thin and healthy now sagged with loose skin and her hips had spread so that her curves were greater than my own.”
“Who are you?” a voice surprised Lilith and she fell over. “Hey, you’re crushing my wheat, get up.”
She dared looking up at him, a face that resembled Adam’s, but was thinner with a well-cut jaw and stunning dark eyes, was staring down at her. His brows furrowed in both confusion and anger.
“I apologized for ruining his vegetation and kept my back to Adam and Eve as I walked away. He stopped me and asked who I was. I lied and said I didn’t know, I said I’d been living on the edge of the sea for so long, I couldn’t remember. Surely everyone had heard of my failures by now. He walked me to the stream and I did not stop him from watching me as I washed. I could see that he was aroused, and a plan began to unfold in my head. I would seduce him, perhaps even bare a child, gain as much information as I could about his parents, take what food I could, and burn them all down.
“That’s not fair, Lilith. He was helping you. Not all guys are evil, you know.” Kenzi said.
She’d become so mesmerized by the serpent’s storytelling that she felt as if she were seeing rather than hearing. The tree, the talismans, and Lilith herself were gone. Kenzi sat in a field of wheat watching the tale unfold.
“But something happened.” Lilith’s voice continued as if Kenzi had not spoken. “Cain built me a shelter in the woods just beyond the stream. He brought me food and nursed me back to health. I grew stronger. He was all the good things I remembered about Adam. Some days, when he’d finished with his farming, he would spend hours telling me about his mother and father who were often so unhappy they’d go for days without speaking. In fact, he told me they had not attempted to procreate in sixteen years, since the birth of his brother Abel.
“Karma,” Kenzi added.
“Perhaps I should have pitied them in their misery, perhaps I should have blamed The Creator solely for all of our mortal pain, but I could not let go of what Adam did to me and I hated Eve for being weak. I wanted to love Cain but there was no room for love in my heart. All that I could offer him was focusing my hatred on his parents and his younger brother, who was favored by Adam and clung-to by Eve who, I’d discovered had such pain in his delivery, she feared ever having more children. She knew he was her last.
Abel was a herder. He would often drive his flock of sheep through Cain’s fields, letting them trample and destroy his brother’s crops. He was all the things I hated in Adam. He felt privileged, he was selfish and greedy. He kept other animals too. He would set traps and keep anything he caught alive. Rabbits, minks, goats, foxes, wolves, even cats ended up fenced in small areas under the care of Abel.”
Kenzi could almost hear the animal cries, Cain’s angry rages against his brother, and Abel’s mocking laughter. She could smell the acrid smoke on Cain’s clothing and in his hair. She imagined the taste of bland and tough meat on her tongue, as she listened to Lilith’s tale of living the dichotomous life of a kept woman and at the same time one plotting revenge and independence.
One day, Lilith discovered Cain pacing angrily in his field.
“How can He choose Abel over me? I offered the best of what little of my crops survived Abel’s flock. I checked each individual blade of wheat, each bundle of millet, every ball of cotton. Every one was the best I had. I made the offering, I asked for His blessing and He forsakes me!”
Rage boiled inside Lilith. It was in empathy, a flashback to the unfair and confusing treatment by The Creator during her own time in the garden as Adam’s wife. Cain pumped his fists, kicked at stones and trees. He stormed off further into the woods without another word to her.
