Lilith’s House Guest

You shuffle across the parking lot to your car, exhausted after working all morning, but excited because it was finally April 2nd. A friend is coming to visit. He drove from Gable Mel, Georgia, and you cannot wait to see him.

Your boyfriend Lander has taken the day off and is waiting for you to get home. As you drive down the road in your busted car, you catch glimpses of your emerald eyes and the puffy white clouds in the rearview mirror.

The sky is turning grey as you pull into the parking lot of the Pinewood Village Apartments. You let your hand caress the gear shift and push it into park. When you swing open the door noises of the outside flood in, and you pull yourself to your feet.

You slam the car door, close your eyes, stand next to the white lines dividing the parking spots, and listen to the birds sing. You feel alive. It’s been a long time. All the shit you’ve had to endure tries to come crashing down on you, but you shake your head and push it away. Smiling, you start to walk toward the apartment that you have called home for the past few years. When you come to the steps that lead to your apartment, you take a deep breath and pull yourself up one step at a time.

An old doormat greets you with the word ‘Welcome.’ You hold your hand out to turn the knob around but it opens for you without much effort. This is not concerning though because Lander always forgets to lock up when he comes and goes from the apartment.

With a sigh, you go in. The inside is gloomy, and the curtains are still closed from the morning, but Lander never opens them. You walk into the bedroom to wake Lander from sleeping, but he is not there. “Lander?” The words find their way out of the corner of your mouth. A firm call that drops to a low wary question. There was no reason for him to be gone, you think, he had taken time off of work and no friends.

You walk to the back of the apartment, past the living room with the lumpy, brown sofa and tv, down a short hallway that leads to a guest bedroom and bathroom. The door to the bedroom is open. You peek in and your eyes dart to every corner of the room. There is nothing on or under the bed. Then a noise makes your ears tweak. Something is in the bathroom.

You creep closer to the closed bathroom door and press your whole head up against it. Your eyes search the corners for light but there is none. Just the dark sealed away. Then you hear a familiar noise. A faint muffled meow on the other side. Your heart sinks into your belly as you swing the door open to see the large round eyes of Santana, the cat. You yank her off the floor and hug her to your chest as you peer into the dark bathroom. In the large mirror over the sink, you catch a glimpse of yourself. All your color is washed out leaving you looking like a corpse. Without warning, Santana growls and digs her claws into your flesh as she pushes off and darts away.

“Ow, You little shit.” spills from your mouth.

You hear a faint knock of knuckles on the door of the apartment that calls out to you to answer. You go peek through the eyehole and see an odd-looking man. He stands a few feet from the doormat with his arms crossed and legs spread apart with a thin black notebook in his hands. You realize it is your friend from Gable Mel, and you swing the door open.

“Very nice to see you, Lilith,” he says softly.

You go in for a hug but are rejected.

“Oh, please, please. I would hate to ruin this,” he says, holding out the black notebook in his hands. “Did you find Lander?” he asks through gritted teeth. His dark eyes are watching as he opens the black notebook towards you. Pictures fly out, spewing on the floor.

You pick one up and look. It’s a photo of Santana’s litterbox sitting in a pool of blood. You crumple the photo in your fist, spin on your heels, and with unsure legs, sprint to the bathroom. Santana hisses at your presence. You crouch low, peek inside the litterbox, and gasp at what you see. Lander is peering out at you, his pasted-on smile and cloudy eyes staring. His arms and legs are folded in a way that could only be achievable if they were pulled and twisted, his fingers eaten away by your cat. Your breath catches in your throat as you reach for the wall to steady yourself. You hear the flat pitter-patter of feet racing toward you.

Lilith turns to stare at me with round eyes.

“You were bound by my mind. You could only obey my words. I gave you sadness and fear. Your tears soaked my black pages. You cannot scream, fight, or hide anymore.”

Lilith’s head slumps back, her mouth falls wide open.

“I created you. I wrote you down on paper. You were a sea of potential, but I am bored with your story. It is time to end it.”

I crawl inside. Her bones shift out as I move deeper in. You really don’t know your main character until you get inside their head.