Lilith:
Lilith* ran down the deserted alleyway. It was midday and the sun hung high in the sky. She shouldn't be here. She had gotten careless and overconfident and the DIS had caught up to her. Lilith was a Vengeance Demon. Unlike others of the Djinn class she had a very special set of powers.
As Lilith understood it the original Vengeance Demons, then known as the Ultionis**, were created by God to dispatch the people of the world too wicked to live. That had not lasted long. Hell offered much more reward and enjoyment than the strict running’s of Heaven. When they had turned to Hell God stripped them of their rank but as they descended to the lowest levels rather than take their specific gifts God cursed them to hear the screams and wails of all the sinful acts upon the earth in the hopes that there pain would drive them back to their intended purpose.
It seemed to work, for a while before they discovered a taste for blood. They began burning the souls of those who had committed minor sins with the Flames of Damnation. A golden fire that sin could not tolerate the presence of. God like all the other demons banished them to Hell but like all the other demons the ones with enough determination clawed their way back out.
Lilith was not one of the originals, very few of them remained. No Lilith had been forged from the anger and vengeance of a thousand humans souls, then loosed upon the world. She had been exercised a half dozen times but she was one of the smarter ones. She was a demon that had lived on the Earth for a long while without attracting the attention of the light dwellers. Recently however her blood lust had overtaken her and now a petty human organization called the DIS was hunting her and they were skilled at their task.
They couldn't be more than half a minute behind her. She needed a way to hide. Lilith jumped and kicked herself off a loose brick on the wall narrowly grabbing a fire escape which she then swung herself up onto. She looked down, Lilith could see the agents with their armaments raised and she started to run again. Her current host had been track runner and so this came easily to Lilith. The Demon ran up the fire escape and onto the top of the building. She heard the screech of metal behind her as the fire escape was lowered but she didn't pause, she just kept running over rooftops leaping from building to building. The apartments in this part of LA were built so close together that it wasn't difficult. All too soon she came to the end of the residential district. There was a great field at the foot of building that had an old dilapidated school centered in the middle.
Lilith looked back and saw six agents surround her position. All point various weapons from sigils to Sig Saucers. "Not this time boys." She said her voice rasping like the smoke that made up her true form. Lilith jumped from the rooftop. As she hit the ground she heard both of her hosts legs snap breaking at three places along the bone. Her head hit the concrete and her skull caved in slightly but it didn't matter to Lilith. The now animated corpse would serve her well till she found a new body. Lilith took a moment to set the bones back in place and before she stood and kept running.
The school was her best bet for a new host, besides she liked her hosts young, in their prime. This one had been wearing out anyways. Every step she took Lilith felt the bones of her legs threaten to snap. It was only her smoky form that kept this body together. She didn't have a lot of time till the agents got here which included time to get through the schools doors. Instead Lilith climbed a maintenance ladder that someone had forgotten to retire and climbed up to the roof.
The top of the school was covered in gravel and a variety of sports balls that had failed to be retrieved. Lilith was looking for the door the janitor used access the roof.[/i] "Freeze demon." Lilith sighed. "That is such a generalization. I'm a Djinn and a Spirit of Vengeance to be more specific." The man's gun never wavered. Lilith closed her eyes and breathed in. "Mmmmm, delicious. Do you smell it too... Jason. The blood of the innocents on your hands, and the blood of those you determined had to die. Who gave you that authority?" "Does that give you anymore right to kill?" "I was given the right and the duty to kill by God." Not quite true but close enough. "What is your excuse? Now that little girl, the blood slave in the Southern East side, the one they devoured because you were to cautious. Will you be judged for that when you reach St. Peter's Gate... or will it happen now?"
Lilith drew her hand from behind her back where she had been carving a sigil into her palm with her finger nails. In her hand she held a great ball of Golden Flames. "The Flames of Damnation burn all but the purest." She threw it at him not expecting it to hit as it didn't but it forced him to dive for cover and in that time Lilith ran. There was a glass dome on the roof that no doubt led into some sort of performance hall, possibly a theater. Lilith punched the glass and it shattered. She leapt through with grace falling with the glass to the ground below. Her broken bones buckled again and she collapsed. The red smoke that made up her body started to swirl around her host as she searched for a way to get it running again.[/i]
Susanna Grace:
Susanna was a grade 11 student attending a Los Angeles Correctional for all the children that had too much in their past to be admitted anywhere else. Despite the fact that she was going to a school for delinquents and drop outs Susanna actually enjoyed it. The school had better funding than most places and as a result there art programs were running smoothly with decent teachers. She was currently in music class performing a solo of “The Voice” by Celtic Woman.
“I am the voice in the wind and the pouring rain
I am the voice of your hunger and pain
I am the voice that always is calling you
I am the voice, I will...”
Susanna was interrupted by a crashing sound as the glass of the dome above them shattered and the body of a person fell with it. Susanna dove out of the way of the glass hastily packing her fiddle way in its case then in her backpack. The girl that had fallen into the room was pretty; she had long dark hair that was tied in a braid to keep it out of her face. Her features were delicate like an angel.
As she hit the ground dark red smoke starting to pour from her wounds staining the ground all around her as she lay still. The teacher and the students screamed and ran from the room yelling for someone to call the cops. Susanna didn't know why but the black red smoke didn't seem to frighten her. It should have it was clearly unnatural with no fire to cause it but Susanna felt like it was calling to her to help the poor girl on the ground.
Susanna approached the girl's broken body and let out a scream when the girl opened her eyes. Her gaze was malicious not one of pain. "Looks like we have ourselves a volunteer." Before Susanna could scream the smoke condensed itself and flew at her very fast. It funneled into her mouth and she choked on it coughing and hacking as it filled up her stomach and her lungs and her whole being. Until the smoke was all she could feel.
"Hello dearie, nice of you to offer up your body. I did so need a new vessel.
Susanna was shocked but she tried to speak. Who are you? Susanna tried to say but her voice became lost somewhere in her throat. The question appeared to have reached the demon’s ears though because it answered with a laugh. “Me, I’m Susanna Grace and I’m sure no one will dispute that when I’m cutting their throats. You however, you are clearly too strong to be banished to the furthest corners of this mind so you might as well have something to scream when the guilt collapses on you. Call me Lilith.” She said still laughing. Her laugh was unlike anything that Susanna had ever heard, unlike anything that had ever come out of her mouth. What scared Susanna even more was that everything the demon said she said with Susanna's voice, the voice of an innocent. No one would know that it was not Susanna that committed the crimes this demon had intended. The creature laughed again as this realization hit Susanna. Pausing only to select a few choice objects from the corpse of her former host Lilith went skipping down the hall.
"Sue wait up." said a voice from behind her. Lilith turned around. She was still becoming used to her new body but from Susanna's memories she could see that this girl was named Chelsea and she was best friends with Susanna. "Sue, history is that way; you can't go skipping class again. The Principles is watching you already, you don't want to get expelled." Lilith looked into Susanna's memory for a moment for a single fact about Chelsea and went she found what she was looking for the demon smiled maliciously. "The heart of a virgin, this will do nicely." Before Chelsea could scream Lilith plunged her hand into the girl's chest and ripped out her heart. A blood curdling shriek escaped Chelsea's lips before she fell down dead. Lilith smiled and stored the heart in Susanna's lunch box as Susanna looked on in horror.
Lilith was about to start running again for fear the DIS agents might turn up but she stopped. She needed an ace in the eventuality that she was caught. Lilith ducked into a janitor's closet and extracted a knife that she had taken from her previous host. She used it to shave off a layer of skin from Susanna's upper arm. Susanna screamed inside her skull but the sound did not penetrate the red smoke that filled her. Lilith used blood from the wound to draw a sigil on the newly made parchment. It was a triangle with an eye in the center. From the eye a spiral emanated forming a circle outside the triangle. Lilith rolled up the bloody paper and stuffed it into her back pocket. It was time to go.
Lilith needed a portal to escape and the heart would do nicely for a sacrifice but it wasn't enough if she was making the portal here. Luckily there was a Ley Line that converged in the city three blocks from the school in an abandoned warehouse. Lilith ran fast and was there in no time. Her host was in peak physical condition.
Lilith entered the warehouse and used the blood from her still wounded arm to draw the necessary markings onto the cold concrete. When she was finished Lilith placed the heart in the center and snapped her fingers. Black flames consumed the heart and Lilith started to chant in a long dead dialect that only the demons understood.
The heart, and the flames and the sigils morphed into a blue white light. Her portal was ready.
A shot rang out and a searing pain burned across Lilith's shoulder. Lilith tried to walk into the portal and escape but her legs would not move. "Devil's trap carved on a bullet. You're not going anywhere."
"Smart, Lilith said her true voice ringing out in the stillness. "I wonder how much good it will do you beyond the grave." Lilith pulled out the parchment and threw it at Jason's feet. He dove for cover as the golden flames expanded in front of him. The fires missed burning him by inches. With the time she had bought Lilith dug into her shoulder and pulled the bullet out before she stepped into the portal and vanished.
Over the next four years Lilith performed unspeakable acts with Susanna’s body, murder and torture and seduction and destruction and through it all nothing Susanna did could stop Lilith, not when she slit a barman’s throat and made a cocktail with his blood, not when she cut the limbs one by one off a group of triplet children, not even when Lilith hacked apart a convent and all the sister’s in it. Lilith had several more encounter with the DIS most specifically the agents of the LA field office who had come to be experts on her particularly. The one demon they couldn't catch. In their last encounter Lilith succeeded in killing Jason, the one agent who was always inches away from destroying her. That was why she chose to leave America for a little while; Ireland seemed like a good place to hide out.
Lilith:
Lilith strode through the Ireland hills. It was a beautiful country and Lilith loved the smell of the air. She was not like other demons who merely sought destruction. Lilith could enjoy the air and the sky and the sea even if she did think it would look better coated in blood. Lilith had been lying low in Ireland ever since she had killed one of the DIS agents three months ago. She knew after that there entire fighting force would be put up against her so she needed somewhere to hide. The outskirts of Ireland seemed as good a place as any. Since she could no longer threaten and kill for what she needed Lilith had taken to playing Susanna's fiddle for money or room and board. Susanna had been a top notch fiddle playing and now so was Lilith. She was course did not stop killing but she became more discrete luring her victims out into the hills and leaving no trace of their existence or death behind.
This particularly fine day Lilith had a set goal in mind. There was a remote monastery that the people spoke of in awe and Lilith planned to show them just how little protection there "God" really offered. Soon she was at the location on top of a hill overlooking the sea. Lilith composed her face into a scared and pathetic look before she knocked on the door. A spy whole opened and a Monk looked out. "What is your business?" "Please sir, I wish to beg forgiveness for my sins." The monk closed the hole without a word or sound before the gates of the monastery opened. The Monk led her to a central chamber. "Wait here while I fetch the brethren."
Lilith waited in anticipation. She wanted all the Monks together when she started to strip off their skin. Twenty four monks filled into the room forming a complete circle around Lilith. "It is funny," said one who appeared to be there leader. "I never knew demons wished to attend confession."
Lilith reacted immediately holding her hands out meaning to cause the torch brackets to impale the monks but nothing happened. "Come now, did you think we would be unprepared for the soldiers of Hell." He pointed upwards where an intricate symbol consisting of hundreds of runes and sigils was drawn carefully. It must have taken months to construct a trap capable of not only containing any demon but also keeping their powers within the trap.
"A Devil's Trap." said Lilith real fear filling her voice for the first time. The fear woke Susanna who though awake for the whole four years had sunk back into a state of apathy to deal with all she had watched her hands do. Susanna watched excitedly not saying a word. “How long do you think till I figure a way out of this, and you know I will.” Lilith said it with a gusto that she did not feel.
“Most likely a couple of days perhaps weeks but you don’t have that long. Monks prepare the circle of obliteration.”
You finally bit off more than you could chew Lilith. This is where you pay for everything you forced me to do. This is my revenge.
“Shut up you insignificant fly, I have more things to worry about than a silly girl still thinking she can make a difference.”
The monks around the circle froze and all turned to look at the eldest for instructions. “The vessel lives.” He said simply. He nodded at his brothers and they changed their tactic, moving into a different formation and aiming their magicks at the ruin trap rather than at Susanna and Lilith. A light shot from each of their hands and converged over the ruins. It filled the room with a golden light that caused Lilith to scream. For the first time in a long while Susanna found herself present, not just an onlooker. “Thank you, thank you. I can never repay you for this.” Susanna’s voice burst forth and for once in the last six years it was truly her own. “This is not permanent child. What is your name?” said the eldest monk.
“Susanna,” she said barely able to breath for the tears trailing down her face. “Does this mean that she’ll come back?” “Yes,” said the monk slowly “once you leave this light she will return.” “Please, please,” Susanna begged. “Cast her out, I can’t go through that again.” “She is a special and specific kind of demon, she had not only taken over your body but pollute your entire being. Your soul is tainted with her powers. There is a length procedure which could be undertaken to rid you of her but act of untangling two souls bound together would be very painful and most likely kill you and set her free. None of us want that least of all you.”
Susanna looked at him the hope draining from her eyes. “Then kill me. Destroy us both like you were going to. Better one girl dies than a hundred or a thousand.”
“There is another option Susanna. We could swap your roles. We could bury her in your soul and give you control. We can't promise that she will remain dormant. She may rear up within your mind.”
“Do it.” Susanna said without hesitation.
“Susanna, this is not something done lightly she could make your life a living hell if she awakens. You may come to curse us before your life ends.”
“She’s already led me through hell and back. She murdered my father with my hands and countless other people. So do it, push her down. Give me my life back.”
The eldest monk looked at her sorrowfully “As you wish my lady.” He and the other monks lowered their beams of light till they converged on Susanna and Lilith. The scream that escaped their lips was a mixture of Lilith’s hideousness and Susanna’s pain. This hurt them both but when the light cleared Susanna could move freely outside the light.
Susanna slept in the monastery that night and the next day the monks gathered enough money for a boat ticket back to America. Susanna spent several months trying to get home but the Monks were right. Her freedom was not what she had expected or wanted.
Lilith was more powerful even bound than Susanna had been in her place. She whispered into Susanna’s mind. As the months went on Susanna’s consciousness started to blur with Lilith’s. She heard the sins of everyone she passed and it left her with a desire to make the guilty party pay. Susanna did her best to push out the voices with loud fiddle music and noise cancelling headphones. She had to keep moving from place to place to avoid hurting anyone and she had to stay on the road because of the warrants for murders that Lilith had done with Susanna’s name and face.
Even though they demanded that she burn sins with them Susanna had trouble conjuring the Flames of Damnation without the demons help. When she went to long without punishing anyone the Flames started to whisper and shout and it was only then when Susanna was on the point of madness that Lilith would help her summon the flames. The monks were right, Susanna’s freedom was not all that she had expected or wanted and she often cursed them for the magic while still feeling that she owed them everything.
*Just a note, this isn't the Lilith from Christian mythology, the first wife of Adam and mother of the demons. This is just a more ordinary and standard demon who shares the same name.
** I really suck at naming things, if anyone else has any suggestions I'm all ears.
