The Flesh of Freedom

Lilith takes a deep breath, filling her chest with air. She opens her violet eyes and with a shake of her raven haired head looks God squarely in the face.

"No." She says simply. She watches God's face darken, the bushy brows coming together. It occurs to her he has never heard the word before. He waits, daring her to elaborate with his silence. Fear threatens to stop her heart, but she doesn't let it reach her eyes.

"I will not lie with Adam." She does not look away nor flinch as God steps before her, towering over her. She feels anger at the violation of her space and jerks her chin up, unwilling to bow before him.

"And what is it you find so... unacceptable about my son?" He stares unblinkingly into her eyes, voice hard as flint.

"The very fact that you command me to lie with him." A small gasp sounds next to her. She cuts her eyes to Adam, regarding him with a cool hatred. His flaxen hair and unblemished golden skin repulse her. Not because he himself is repulsive. What he symbolizes is what Lilith cannot accept.

"I will not lie with him against my will, nor will I serve him. You have made us equally from the same clay, therefore I will NOT make myself less." She was breathing heavy now, her voice raised, the fire of rage fueling her courage. She sees a twin rage flash in God's eyes.

"You DARE to defy me child? I CREATED you. You will do as I command. Who has put these thoughts int your head? I command you tell me!" The full force of his anger was a mighty thing to behold, but Lilith did not waver, nor did she answer him, for these thoughts were her own and she had begun spreading them throughout the Kingdom.

"If you will not tell me I have no choice but to banish you from the Kingdom. Was it Lucifer? I have seen the same defiance in his eyes as I see in yours." Lilith starts at the mention of his name. She and Lucifer were in agreement on the subject of Free Will, a subject entirely barred from being mentioned in the Kingdom. God reads her reaction as confirmation.

"These thoughts are my own. The very presence of them and the act of my defiance proves Free Will to be real. This proves you are a FARCE and we are not fated to follow you!" Lilith screams, now ablaze with a wild fire of rage and righteousness. This rendered God speechless for a moment before he stepped back and raised a hand to her, pointing to the center of her chest.

"You are no daughter of mine. I send you from the Kingdom of Heaven to live on earth as a creature fitting to your treacherous soul." God spoke directly as a beam of green light shot from his hand to hit Lilith directly in the chest. Lilith felt herself fly backwards. She felt herself crash through the many layers of the kingdom and enter the earth's sky. Then she was falling and transforming, a great writhing pain consuming her. She felt herself change from impermanent, etherial material to something solid, then felt every bone break while being turned inside out. She hit the dirt ground of the Garden of Eden with a deafening crash and is stunned, unable to move. After what feels to be an eternity, Lilith tries to move, but she no longer posses arms nor legs. She does not view the world through the same eyes, and finds her tongue to be forked, her skin to be scaled, her blood to be cold. The realization sparks such panic she tries to flee and finds herself slithering under a rock. She peers up into the sky, into the clouds from which she fell. Her body wraps itself around her and she catches sight of her coils, dull gray scales upon scales in the shade of the rock.

What have I become? She thinks to herself. She does not have another moment to ponder before a clap of thunder sounds from the sky overhead. She glances up to see what looks to be a star falling towards the earth. With a bright crash it hits the ground and disappears. Lilith moves towards it in her new form, scattering birds and small animals as she slithers over rocks and between trees. It takes her all day but by sun down she reaches the place where the star landed. She knows because there is a great hole in the earth with a glowing red light emanating from deep within it. Lilith peers down into it and sees what she had feared. Lucifer lay far below her, broken and bloodied on an outcropping of rock amongst smoldering earth. Without thinking she slithers over the edge and joins him in the sweltering pit. The heat quickens her blood making her movements lightning fast and sharp. She reaches him and touches his cheek, bleeding from a shallow cut, with her forked tongue. His black hair is askew around him, the feathers of his broken wings blackened and smoking still. Lilith mourned to see his beautiful bared body injured so. She touches him with her tongue again, this time eliciting a response. He furrows his brow, then slowly opens his eyes the color of coldest glacier. Those eyes slide towards her as he turns his head. His face is unreadable, then a slight smile tugs at one corner of his full mouth.

"Lilith, what has he done to you?" his voice is amused. Lilith for a moment feels her anger flair, but then he he raises himself to a sitting position. Looking as casual as if he were still lounging on a cloud bed, he raises an eyebrow at her.

"We are no longer in his domain. He has no power here. You may change into whatever form you wish in my world." He waves his hand dismissively. Lilith feels her snake eyes widen. She envisions her original form and feels herself become very light, almost evaporating, before the transformation begins. This time it is not painful, but seamless. A moment later she is herself again, kneeling beside him. She finds herself unclothed as well and sweating despite it. The moment Lucifer looks to her and sees her bare body his eyes widen, and the coals of the underworld glow bright with heat. It occurs to Lilith they have not seen each other this way before, as such things were not permitted in the Kingdom. As she regards him his wounds begin to heal. The smile returns as he rakes her with his eyes.

"I have so long desired to see you as you are now." He says to her in a low voice. He brings a hand to her face and traces her lips with a finger tip. Lilith feels heat rise in her cheeks, in other parts of her body. He makes to move his hand lower but she grasps it before he can distract her further.

"As have I Lucifer, but tell me... what has happened?" Lilith asks of him. He looks from his hand in hers back to her face, and smiles triumphantly. He stands and she releases his hand, watching him walk and turn, taking in the entirety of the underground.

"God came to speak with me about your outburst. It seems our scheming did not go unnoticed. He commanded me to bow to him and swear to serve him and only him, the One True God." He said all this without looking at her, his voice wry and sardonic.

"And what did you tell him?" Lilith questions. He is silent and still for a moment before turning to her.

"I told him I would rather rule in Hell than serve in Heaven."

Lilith feels her eyes widen in awe. Feels a bead of sweat roll down her neck.

"So here we find ourselves, in my realm. The demons who inhabit this space will surly come to pay tribute to their new ruler. Will you sit beside me when they do?" As he says this he turns his back on the earthen wall and from it forms a great smoldering throne of brimstone. He sits, staring at her expectantly. Lilith rises and walks to him, sitting on the arm of his throne. As she does this a great shaking begins around them. Lilith is alarmed, but Lucifer puts a hand on her arm, signaling all is well. The earth around them begins to quake and open up, falling away to reveal a great open expanse of burning earth. The core of the underworld exposes itself to them, vast, churning, and sulfurous. Lilith's breath leaves her.

"This is all yours?" she asks, in awe.

"This is ours, if you will have me." He corrects. Lilith feels a heat growing inside her that has nothing to do with the fire and brimstone that surrounds her. She looks down at him and nods. He smiles the wickedest of smiles and brings a hand back to her face, cupping her cheek, pulling her face close to his. He stops, his lips a hairs width away from hers.

"May I kiss you?" He asks of her, his hot breath tickling.

"You may." She answers. He wraps his arms around her and pulls her on top of him, pressing his lips to her. They are soft and wanting. She tastes his tongue, sweet, hot, delicious. What god would have called sinful. She indeed feels herself fill with sin. She is aware of his skin on hers, their limbs, intertwining. His hand slides up her thigh, stopping before he reaches the space between her legs. He pulls his lips away and she finds herself biting at air, wanting his mouth back on hers. She opens her eyes to find his locked on hers. His fingers brushing closer and closer to her womanhood.

"May I?" he asks again. She can tell he too is barely holding back his wanting.

Breathless, she answers. "You may."

~

"We have just indulged in the most egregious sin." Lucifer says to her, panting, sweating, exuberant. Lilith feels a languid smile stretch her lips.

"Indeed we have." She looks to him, rests her chin on his gleaming chest

"It feels so much better to devour than to abstain," she remarks. Lucifer's smile widens.

"Well may we always indulge in the underworld," his fingers trace the dip if her waist to the rise of her hip. As he does so, they both become illuminated by a light shining down to them from the sky. They turn their faces to the light, squinting.

"No doubt He is creating your replacement now," Lucifer muses. Lilith feels her eyebrow raise wryly, but then a growing sense of dread begins to seep through her.

"I wonder what poor creature he will enslave to carry out his bidding," she questions aloud. Lilith rises to her feet, leaving Lucifer to lounge sensually.

"Curious, are we?" He asks of her, his smirk audible.

"Indeed I am," she answers, contemplating how she would be able observe the new creation. She decides on transporting back into her serpentine form, and within a moment is slithering up the walls of Hell to Paradise.

Once there it does not take long for her to find the couple. Both naked and flaxen haired, looking as if made from the same mould, they run and laugh together, enjoying the splendor of Paradise. Lilith watches them from her chosen pear tree for three days before He pays a visit to the land He took credit for creating. This is where Lilith feels herself tense, as seeing Him brings back the memories of their last meeting. Lilith does not flee, but rather stays wound around the branches of the pear tree and over hears the commands being made.

"Eve," says God, addressing her warmly. "I have made you from Adams rib,"

-Lilith feels herself wretch-

" ...so that you two may unite and create more inhabitants for Paradise. All you must do, as you know, is lie with Adam, and neither of you must ever eat an apple of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Now, the time has come for you to lie with him." God orders.

Lilith feels herself wanting to rush at God and sink her fangs into his face, but doing so would surly mean death. Lilith can do nothing but watch. Watch the fear widen Eve's eyes, watch it catch in her throat. She shakes her head, but God does not allow it.

"You will do as I say, for it is the will of God, and no one can go against me!" he yells at her. Now Eve was cowering, but she nods. Adam does not look pleased himself, seeing how afraid Eve is. But he will not stand up to his father, only follow his orders.

Eve timidly descends to the grass, keeping her arms and legs about her, covering herself when not moments ago she was relaxed and free. God instructs her to lay flat, and for Adam to climb on top of her.

Lilith can not bare to watch the rape. As it happens an anger she had not felt before begins to swell in her. She throws herself violently from the tree and slithers towards the opening to Hell, knowing she could not let mankind be doomed to the will of God, and swearing on Hell she would do everything in her power to help them.

After speaking with Lucifer and deciding on a plan, Lilith slithers up to Eden and waits in the apple tree, eyes scanning the land and tongue tasting the wind, waiting for a sign of Eve. A day passes, and Eve appears, walking alone. She doesn't seem to see Lilith in the tree and comes to stand at the base of it. Lilith slithers down so that her head is a foot from Eve's, just out of eyeline. Eve turns to go but shrieks and stumbles backwards, her back making contact with the trunk of the tree. Lilith blinks and retracts a bit, moving her head away from Eve to show her she means no harm. Eve is breathing heavily, staring wide eyed at Lilith.

"What do you want, Serpent?" Eve asks warily, recovering herself.

"I did not mean to startle you Eve, I mean merely to make your aquaintensssssse," Lilith cant help the long "s" at the end of the word.

"Well, hello..." Eve replies, seeming to relax a measure. She eyes Lilith warily still.

"Wonderful weather here in Eden today, and with the fruit so swollen and ripe..." Lilith motions to the shiny red apples surrounding them.

Eve smiles knowingly, not taking the bait.

"Indeed, but these apples contain more than just sweet flesh." She replies.

"Oh yes. These apples contain freedom." Lilith responds, struggling to keep her voice light. She does not want to scare the girl off. At this Eve's face changes. Curiosity lightens her features.

"Freedom, you say?" She asks, then looks away, feigning indifference. No doubt she had been warned about the clever ways of serpents.

"Yesssss, freedom. To do as you please. To defy God's will." At this Eve cut her eyes back to Lilith.

"There is no defying God's will," she snaps back at Lilith, though her voice wavers.

"If you eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, what you will find is called Free Will," Lilith responds, staring levely into Eve's eyes.

"Would you not like to make you're own decisions? Instead of have them dictated to you...?" Lilith lets her words settle. Eve looks down and away, considering.

"But that would end Paradise, and it would be a sin," Eve whispers the last word, as if speaking it was equivalent to committing it. Lilith feels herself laugh.

"You think Paradise is found in following orders? In living a life dictated to you?" These words weigh heavily on Eve, Lilith can tell. Eve finally looks to Lilith, her shining green eyes alight with something Lilith cant place immediately. Then it dawns on her. Hope. Thats what she sees in Eve's eyes. Lilith knows this is her moment. She takes the end of her tail and plucks a single apple, ready for the plucking, from the tree. She holds it out to Eve. Eve eyes the apple, not with fear, but with longing.

"You tempt me, serpent." Eve sates, eyes still on the apple.

"It is not I who tempts you, but your own autonomy," Lilith responds as evenly as she can. Eve looks from the apple to Lilith then back.

Eve takes the apple and smells it, inhaling its sent. She closes her eyes as she does so, savoring the aroma. Then she stares directly at Lilith and opens her mouth, sinking her teeth into the flesh of her freedom.