Valediction

An Excerpt from “The Devil’s Game”

By Marti A. Silent

"You're not who I thought you were."

The warmth of the embrace became fire, and Eve’s eyes flew open. A blaze ripped through the worn fabric of her crimson jumpsuit, crawling across her arms until she wrenched herself free of Lilith’s grasp. She clutched her forearms to her chest, the burns raw, and turned to face her sister, taking note of the black expanse they now stood in. Lilith was unwavering - a portrait of stillness - the little flames that licked her skin dying out as they ran along her.

Eve squared her shoulders. This was one of His displays; a final attempt to fracture her resolve. She looked her “sister” up and down - dressed in her standard set of clothes over the medical gown they’d grown so familiar with - trying to see the seams between flesh and performance. What parts of Lilith were real, and what parts seemed… produced. Her hair was perfectly kempt, and her skin bore no signs of withering. She glowed, in fact. Evidently, she was indisputably… alive.

“Who am I to you then?” Eve strained, wincing slightly as she straightened.

“You were everything to me,” Lilith said, and for a beat, the words were a memory. “Everything I wanted to protect, Eve.” She stepped closer, not to threaten but to place herself within reach. Her thumb brushed the edge of Eve’s singed sleeve as if familiar with the damage. “But now… you’re different - cold, lifeless. Winner of nothing.”

A breeze brushed against Eve’s hair, and when her vision cleared, Lilith stood behind her. “I couldn’t keep stealing your life by staying in mine - an endless loop of tragedy. I wanted to set you free. I thought if I let go, you’d finally breathe. And yet… the air damned us both.” She turned away and glanced around at the black expanse, the sounds of the underworld awaiting just beyond the endless dark ether.

“Us…” Eve mouthed. “I gave my soul to you… You used it to disappear.”

“It hurt to breathe, Eve,” Lilith spun back around, “Air that wasn’t meant for me anymore tasted like ash. I choked on it. Every day.” Lilith tilted her head, studying Eve as if studying an animal. “Why did you do it?”

“Do what?”

“The deal.”

“I did it to give you a new life.”

A small laugh escaped her, “And what did that cost you?” Her tone softened for a blink. She paced the space around her. “You could’ve just let me die, Eve. Then neither of us would be here. You could’ve been home.”

“I chose this. I chose to be here.”

“So did I,” Lilith began a slow strut in Eve’s direction, causing her to take an involuntary step back. “You chose to drag me into a bargain. But did you ever wonder how loud the machines were to the person they left in the dark? And once all that was gone, how loud the voice inside my head would wail that I was better off dead?” The smile that crossed her face, replacing anger, was almost fond. “You traded your soul to give someone a new life when they didn’t even value the first, and then expected the rest to be easy?”

For a moment, Eve saw a glint in Lilith’s eyes. Not life, but truth. Was this Lilith? Was her resentment true and undeniable? 

“It was a mistake. I know that now. But I had to undo what I’d done somehow. I had to. He had us both, Lilly,” Eve’s voice wavered. The tips of Lilith’s hair flared up like match heads, and Eve heard the wails of the damned behind the blackness, signaling their readiness to take Lilith back with them as soon as she was done here. She made no mistake. Whether this was truly Lilith or not, He knew Eve would not walk away without what she believed belonged to her; not just the victory, but the very thing she intended to save from the very start. “I’m not done with him. Clearly, he’s not done with me. I don’t intend to walk out of here alone. I don’t know how yet, but I’m getting you out of here.”

For a fraction of a second, Lilith’s expression softened. Something human - terrified, and ashamed - passed behind her eyes. “Get me out?” she repeated. “Eve, the game is over. You won. Take your soul and go. I wasn’t part of the bargain. Go before we’re both swallowed,” Eve moved to step away, but Lilith grabbed her wrist with an urgency unexpected of her. “Don’t play the game you were never meant to win,” Lilith commanded with a dreadfulness about her that Eve didn’t recognize.

Eve’s jaw tightened. What stood before her was not a demonstration of love… but power. This was no reunion. If He had one last bullet, He’d make it wear her skin.  She knew Lilith was in there, listening, but she redirected her attention directly to Lilith’s intruder.

“I am not afraid of him,” Eve proclaimed, not reassuratively, but declaratively. The thing inside Lilith snapped the window shut, and her smile grew too wide for her face. Her fingers closed on Eve’s wrist with a metallic strength, cold and unfamiliar. A layered, amused voice pushed through.

“You could’ve just done nothing. Stopped caring so much; let me shit the hospital bed one last time, but you just had to see me cheat on Death!” A maniacal laugh escaped her, and it echoed unnaturally. “Well, joke's on you, Evelyn. I’d fucked Death long before I died… and I enjoyed making him squirm.”

A ghostly wind swept through Eve, knocking her back some steps, followed by a guttural gasp from Lilith. When she opened her eyes, Lilith was gone. The spotlight above them had finally gone out, and all Eve could see was the fire at the tips of her own hair. Although she patted it, the flames did not die.

Even straightened, her palms were clammy and her jaw set. “I will find you,” she promised into the dark. It was a vow. “I will drag you back from hell.”