1 one-shot: Supernatural
Jul. 24th, 2008 03:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
amorphousTitle: The Time Has Come
Words: circa 8000
Rating: R
Characters/Pairings: Bela, Ruby, Lilith and a few other "original" characters
Warnings: Spoilers for season three. language, character death, incest
Author's Notes: This story is has my "version" hell in it. If you don't like it fine but NO FLAMES. It also takes speculates on other canon of the girls. I had a canon-checker (and I have watched all three seasons). I do want to mention one thing: Ruby SAID that the demons communicate somehow. So I created a way. So sue me.
Keep in mind that in mythology Lilith is the "destroyer of children and the seducer of men".
Also, a big HUGE thank you to the fabulous and amazing Issa (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
hinky) for being so kind as to look over each part for me as I slowly continued to write. AND for introducing me to Supernatural at all. Not to mention for being an amazing soundboard as I wrote this. Your kind words and encouragement means the world to me! Thank you, Issa!
Summary: Bela, Ruby, and Lilith all have a story. This is their tales.
I. Bela
His nightly visits started when she was only ten-years-old. She didn't understand what was going on in the beginning, but knew in the core of her very being that it was wrong. The way he touched he wasn't that of a loving father but of a cold-hearted unbalanced man. It was pathetic. She couldn't fight or cry or else he would slap her, forcing her to endure a pain that no child should. The staff had all gone to sleep or gone home and her mother was safely tucked into bed, at first unaware of her husband's disturbing visits to her daughter's room. The way he murmured her name "Abby" made her skin crawl, so she just closed her eyes and wait for him to leave again.
When Bela was fourteen, she'd had enough. Her mother had walked in on her husband doing the unimaginable, but she just backed up again, escaping the scene as silently as she could. Her husband didn't turn his attention from his daughter, but the girl's eyes sought the mother's blank stare, begging for help.
"Mum?" Abby's voice inquired in the morning. Breakfast was spread out in front of them as a completely meal of eggs, bacon, toast, coffee, and orange juice. The maid just disappeared behind the swinging door leading from the dining room to the kitchen. They were alone.
Abby knew that it was time to speak up. Any strength she had had vanished years ago, and the way her mother ignored what she saw with that cold, cruel heart of hers made Abby's blood boil in an uncontrolled fury. For years, she had tried to convince herself that if her mother knew, the woman would do something. After seeing her mother just leave without a word of protest told her she had been wrong to put her faith in the vile woman. She was no better than Abby's father.
This morning, her mother was gazing at her with a look of pure disgust. Abby felt a sickening hatred for the woman who had she tried to believe in all those years build up in her heart. It was unbearable. This woman – her mother – was supposed to protect Abby, but instead she was doing nothing. She blinked twice before saying, "Yes, Abby?"
"Last night…" Abby started slowly trying to gauge her mother's reaction. Maybe it was just a trick. Maybe her mother was just trying to get her father to believe that she was still in the dark and was going to whisk Abby away to somewhere safe during the night.
The cold look in the woman's eyes told her she was wrong. "What about last night? I slept all night. It was peaceful and undisturbed. I didn't even wake up once."
Abby blinked. Fury was creating tears in her eyes that her rapid blinking made spill down her cheeks unbidden. It wasn't sadness or despair. It was worse. She had been more than wrong to have faith in the woman. The woman was even worse than the monster she had to call her father. She was prepared to sit idly by and let it happen.
Abby was standing up at the table before she knew it. "Of course you didn't. I had a nightmare though."
Her mother nodded. "You're fourteen. Why would you be telling me this? You are not a child anymore."
Looking at her mother in the eyes, she nodded. "You're right. I'm not a child anymore." With that, Abby left the room while her breakfast only half eaten. Her mother didn't call her back, and the tears came cascading down her face. She was angry. She had no hope left. Her mother wasn't going to stop her father, and Abby was left to her own devices. But a fourteen-year-old girl had no chance at overcoming this on her own.
When she finally made it outside the house, she broke into a run. Her feet pounded against the pavement and grass as she headed to the only safe place she had left. The blond girl named Catharine was sitting on the swings already, gently swaying back and forth.
As she approached her sanctuary, though tainted by the other girl, she slowed her pace to a walk. Catharine turned as she grew nearer, making Abby feel as though the girl had known that she was going to be there already.
Catharine had shown up to the swing set located on the grounds of Abby's family's estate three weeks prior. The girl seemed strange to Abby, making her wary of actually engaging in talk. But soon, Catharine had told her that she, too, had a secret that she harbored deep inside her. But unlike Abby, she had no one she had faith in to help her.
The confession didn't phase Abby, she just shrugged not letting the inevitable interest should on her face as she looked at the blond girl.
This morning Catharine couldn't hide her concern when she saw Abby's tear-stained face. "What happened?" Catharine asked, without a proper greeting. The blank stare in the other girl's eyes made Abby recall the same cold look in her mother's as she stealthy denying what she had witnessed. Abby turned around, thinking that she'd head back to the house and come out when Catharine was gone.
"Abby? What happened?" Catharine persisted, pushing herself harder on the swing.
"Nothing. Nothing happened," Abby muttered, shaking her head in denial that seemed to run in the family. She slid unto the swing beside the girl despite her better judgment. She lowered her gaze, not wanting to look at Catharine's blank eyes any longer. It was bad enough she couldn't block out the girl's cold words. Catharine always seemed to be able to read her mind, especially when Abby didn't want her to.
"Something happened."
"Catharine!"
"Did she see?" The words were whispered and Abby's heart began to pound in her chest. "Did she see and do nothing?"
"What? What are you taking about?" Abby burst out at the girl, unable to hide the truth behind the girl's words.
Catharine turned away, looking out into the grounds. "Same thing happened to me. She saw and did nothing. I was angry and sad. It was suddenly a more hopeless situation."
Abby shook her head. "I don't know what you're talking about."
Catharine turned backed to Abby suddenly. "I can help you. And you don't have to pay me for ten whole years."
"Ten years?" Abby echoed, confused.
"I can get rid of them – both of them – and you won't have to pay me anything for ten years."
"I don't have any money."
"Payment isn't money."
"Then what?"
"Interested, are you?"
"No. I was—"
"If you want rid of them, to be free of the burden, I can help you."
Abby shook her head. "I have nothing to offer you in return." And the truth was, Abby didn't believe she could help. Catharine was a strange girl, that was true, but there was nothing a fourteen year old could do in this situation or else Abby would have done it.
"You have… your soul."
The words didn't hit Abby right away, but a moment later, the confusion was overwhelming. "What?"
"I'll get rid of your parents, and all you have to do is promise me your soul in ten years," Catharine offered, looking at Abby with probing, cold eyes. "I can do it."
"No you can't," Abby protested.
"Well, then agree to it and when it doesn't happen…" Catharine started slowly.
"Fine!" Abby yelled jumping up from the swing. "Fine. I'll do it."
Catharine grabbed Abby's hand without hesitation and shook it. "Then it's a deal."
For a brief moment while the blond girl was shaking her hand, Abby could have sworn that her eyes turned a deep, pitch black with red irises. Gasping with fear and shock, Abby pulled her hand from the other girl's and stood up. She ran back to the house as the anger of her mother subsided into fear of the strange girl's words.
"Get rid of them."
What did Catharine mean? What would Catharine do? What could Catharine do? Fear eroded at any residual strength that Abby had when her father came to her again that night. As he came over her, touching her in ways and places no father should touch his daughter, she only had one thought running through her head:
I hope you die! I just want you and mother to die!
But no words came out of her mouth as he touched her. The door creaked a bit and Abby turned toward the sound. Her mother stood at the door, her mouth pressed into a thin line and tears in her eyes. Then her mother was gone, and the door was closing in the family's secrets once again.
The next few days ticked by in a routine that made Abby sick. Her mother would ignore her in the morning, pretending like she saw nothing. But every night, her father would come to her again, and her mother would peek in the door, watching the horror without stopping it. Abby kept going back to the swing set, hoping to see Catharine again, but the other girl never appeared. Four days later, Abby escaped the house to find Catharine sitting on the swing set.
"You lied!" Abby accused, running up behind her.
Catharine swung around, her eyes a shocking black with a stark red in the middle once again. "It'll happen tonight."
"You lied!" she repeated in a whisper as she took a step back from the frightening girl.
"Tonight. I'll collect my debt in ten years' time."
Abby shook her head. "I call it off!" she screamed. "You lied to me! Don't you dare try act like you haven't. You lied!"
Catharine smiled a cold, cruel smile that made Abby back away. "Ah, my dear, you can't escape this now. You already made the pact with me. Your soul will be mine for eternity in hell." Evil laughter erupted from Catharine's mouth and Abby couldn't take it anymore. She swung around and ran back to the house as fast as she could, running to her room, and throwing herself in desperate tears onto the bed.
Why can't they all just die? Why can't Mother, Father, and Catharine just die already?! she thought wildly and full of hate.
Her parents left to attend a party that night without saying goodbye to their daughter. Abby had lied to the staff and told them she wasn't feeling well, and they had believed her. Her parents couldn't be bothered with such a trivial thing as their daughter's well-being and health.
After the staff had retired for the night or went home, Abby went downstairs and grabbed food. She had refused dinner, because it had meant being in the same room as her parents. Just as Abby was heading up the stairway to her room again, the phone rang.
"Hello?" she answered the phone at the base of the stairs in the foyer.
"Abby, it is done," Catharine's unmistakable voice came from the other end of the phone before the line went dead.
Abby was still staring blankly at the phone when someone knocked on the door. She hung up the phone and went to answer the door, in a daze of confusion and fear. "Hello."
Two policemen stood outside the door. "Abby?"
She nodded.
"Can we come in?"
With those words, Abby's fate was sealed. She had ten years before her soul would be Catharine's in hell. Catharine didn't come to see her once after she heard about her parent's death in the car accident. Abby was shuffled from relative to relative before she turned eighteen. With the knowledge of Catharine, the world became a much colder place to live in. Things that she never would have believed before sprang up from the woodwork, making her frightened before she decided to embrace her new destiny. On her eighteenth birthday, she rid herself of anything that tied her to her family, but her money she inherited, and changed her name to Bela Talbot.
As Bela, she had nothing more to fear. She didn't even fear her past. It wasn't long before she had discovered ways to use her rare knowledge to make herself a comfortable life of luxury and privilege. Her parents were never mourned in her heart, making it easier for her to pull on the identity of Bela Talbot and shed her Abby skin, the useless, blind, weak girl she had once been.
The only thing that she regretted, ten years later, as the blood hounds came after her to take her soul to hell where she had promised to go, was that she had to go to hell for her parents' sins.
II. Ruby
Everyone was scared when night came, but this night was worse than most. It was the winter solstice which was the longest, darkest night of the year and normally reveled in by many. Not many people celebrated tonight. They weren't sure who would be alive when the sun rose again. The world was cursed with a Plague that had no cure, no treatment, and no way of preventing the sickness from spreading. The town that Ruby called home was infested with dead bodies in the morning. Those bodies were burnt leaving loved ones sick with grief and worry that they would be next. No one was safe on their own. The world was a dark, Plague inflicted place and no matter how many people prayed to God, nothing changed. But Ruby had found a powerful book hidden on bookshelf in the bookstore that promised to deliver Ruby and her family from this painful existence.
Ruby sat before her alter, feeling the powerful darkness wrap over her like a cold blanket. The Latin words flowed from her tongue easily not even faltering as the fear started to surface once again, summoning the power that had protected her from this Plague for five months. With these words her life was safe and long and her family was protected by a power they didn't know. When she was done with the summoning, Ruby opened her eyes to see the same woman standing there as before.
She was dressed in a black cloak over her wool dress. Her brown eye flowed down her shoulders, curling slightly in waves pretty little waves. This face – this body – it all used to below to Ruby's friend, Willow, but now the friend was gone. They had found this book together and decided they would do anything to spare their families of the cursed Plague. But her friend was gone one day and this demon was in her body. Her brilliant green eyes that had held so many memories with Ruby since childhood had been replaced by this horrible monster with blank, black eyes.
"Ruby," the figure spoke – it wasn't a woman. It was a demon and Ruby knew it was evil to the core of her being but she always knew that it was the only way to protect herself. She was terrifying with her pure black eyes and the radiating power that made it impossible for Ruby to deny her. She had pledged her loyalty to this demon. "Ruby," she repeated in a sing song voice that made Ruby's flesh crawl. "What did you want?"
"You said you'd protect my family but my father—" Ruby started, her voice boarding on hysterical.
"I protected them for months," the woman said starting to walk toward her. Her attitude was casual but Ruby knew that the woman was anything but harmless. She could kill Ruby with a flit of her hand. Ruby had seen her. She had seen her kill in cold blood.
"He's dying!" Ruby said backing away from the closing in woman.
"Well, I couldn't hold the Plague off forever," the demon said, shaking her head. She almost looked amused. "All I said was that I would protect your family until the winter solstice. Tonight is the longest of the year. Actually," the woman said, smiling slightly. "It's time to pay."
"No." Ruby shook her head fervently. "No," she whispered again.
"Didn't you pray to me? Didn't you pledge your loyalty to me? Didn't you promise to pay the price when the night was the longest and darkest of the year?"
"I didn't mean— I didn't know—"
"Ruby! You knew. You knew exactly what you were doing." She clicked her tongue in disappointment. "You prayed to me! You used you little book of yours to call me to this… this hellhole of a place and now you want to feign ignorance?" She shouldn't her head. "I can't allow that, now can I?"
Ruby grabbed the hex bag in her pocket and thought of her options. Her family will die; her father first. No one was safe anymore. The protection she sought – well, she gave her loyalty to this evil demon and she wouldn't be able to back out. Words offered in prayer and belief was like bonds; they were chains binding Ruby to this demon.
The woman flung her hand up, the hex bag flying from Ruby's pocket and into the air. "A hex bag?" the demon laughed. "You're not that smart, are you? A hex bag won't do any good. You have to put it where someone lives to inflict your doings on the person. You don't know where I live. This won't do anything." She paused, turning her solid black eyes to Ruby. "Except to show your defiance." She frowned. "I had such hope for you, child, but obviously I was wrong."
Ruby watched the hex bag - the useless hex bag – fly out the window. There was no sound as it inevitably hit the ground, hundreds of feet away from Ruby. Taking a deep breath, Ruby closed her eyes, feeling herself grow more hopeless by the second. "My family… My father… Willow…"
"Rest assured they aren't going where you are. They will be much better off," the demon told her. "They might die, but you – you're mine. You have no hope to rest. They may die painful, violent deaths, but you have the hounds to look forward to. And Hell."
Ruby shook her head. "I didn't know! Tell me who you are!"
"Liar! You knew what you were doing, and you certainly now who I am."
"I didn't know what I was asking for. You already took Willow…"
"No. No, she's still in there. Willow is disappointed in you, Ruby. She thinks that you really should have known better." The demon shook her head in mock disappointment.
"Shut up!" Ruby screamed.
"Ruby, I own you! I am your master! I am the only hope that you have to make it through Hell. It's not smart to tell me to shut up!"
"No one can make it through Hell," Ruby shot back; "I'm damned either way."
"Ruby, child…" The demon walked to her, placing her hand on Ruby's cheek in a way that would be comforting if she wasn't so terrifying. Though no heat came from the woman, Ruby felt as if her skin was burning merely by the woman's touch. "You'll forget your family where you are going. I promise you, it might take years or centuries, but you will forget them. You'll forget all of this," she promised, throwing her arms out in gesture. "If you think this Plague is hell, you won't believe how you'd wish that you could have this hell back. The real hell…"
"Stop! I won't go!" Ruby turned on her heel, running toward the door.
The door slammed shut, narrowly missing Ruby. She stumbled backward, suddenly bumping into the demon. "You have no choice. You promised…"
"No! Shut up! I'm not going anyway! My family!"
"Will never forget you. But you will forget them. Child, you'll forget everything. It will be okay."
Ruby was pushed up against the door, and for a moment fear shot through her that she would be harmed. Barking erupted in the distance as the town's clock tower rang to signal midnight had finally came. The barking grew louder as if the dogs were coming toward her, closer… closer…
"I'll make it painless," the woman said slowly.
The next moment, Ruby was there. She was tied down as a pain she had never experienced before shot through her body and consumed her every breath. The world smelled of burning skin, blood, and sulfur. It was like the Bible had said – fire and brimstone. Ruby couldn't believe that she had used the book with Willow to begin with just to end up here. Just to end up without anything to show for it. She stayed there, tied down and tortured for so long she lost track of time. The more she screamed, the more the fire consumed her. Not once did the demon come to see her, but her promises echoed in Ruby's head, making her wonder when it would come true.
She could still remember her family's faces, hear their laughter in the recesses of her mind, and any time she closed her eyes when the pain got too great, they were there. Her father with his kind smile and gentle way; her mother with her huge smile of pride every time she looked at Ruby; Willow with her giggle and mischievous nature. Ruby wondered if Willow was there again, living out the life that Ruby should have had. If Willow was there, Ruby hoped she had burnt the book they had used to call that demon to them. If Willow played with the book and summoned the demon, Ruby knew that Willow would be down there with her, being tortured like she was. It was heart wrenching. She called for them as the nightmare continued as if she thought they could actually hear her. Her screams and pleads were in vain as no one came for her but these nameless, soulless grey smoke creatures.
"Come on you bitch!" Ruby screamed, feeling that the torture had to have lasted decades by now. Her body couldn't possibly take anymore of this pain. She wondered how long it would be before her body gave out and her mind would surely follow.
The world that had stayed the same – a cesspool of fire and pain riddled with the screams of those being tortured – but suddenly, it changed. She wasn't tied down; she was free to wander. Perhaps the world thought she had forgotten herself by now but she couldn't let go of what she had had. She had a good life, a God fearing life of everyone else that feared the Plague, but now she wished she could shut out the images, to forget everything like the demon had promised she would. Demons lie, though, Ruby figured out. Remembering wasn't worth the pain that shook her body each time their faces appeared behind her eyes as she moved around the world that she was stuck in.
She tried to understand her new life. But she couldn't. It was all too incredible. Puffs of grew smoke roamed around her. They were the same beings that she had seen as she was tied down and tormented. The screams still echoed off the nonexistence walls and surfaces, sending chills down Ruby's spine. Something told her to travel upward. Hell was supposed to be below them, and if she traveled up she might just find a way out. It seemed like a ridiculous notion to Ruby, but she did it anyway. The higher she climbed the more hopeless she felt. There was no way out. It was a hell. She was stuck there for entirety. The grey smoke spoke to her, telling of that they were all once human but had forgotten. They had forgotten what it was like and each human she walked by being tortured would just be another one. No one was safe here; they all shared the same destiny. They were doomed – they had sold their soul to a demon just like Ruby had. Some didn't even realize what they had done – claiming dogs came after them and brought them here – and others seemed to know exactly what as happening and accepted their fate quickly, becoming another grey cloud before Ruby's eyes.
Ruby tried to talk to the others about what it was like to be human, but they seemed to have forgotten. They couldn't remember who they had been or even what year it was when they had died, but they all remembered one thing: they had given their soul for something.
Occasionally, a grey cloud would be hurdled downward. Feeling curious of her new… home… she asked what had happened. "I made it! I was on earth!" it exclaimed in a bittersweet tone. "But those bastards sent me back here!"
Humanity wasn't welcome down here. Anyone who was down here hadn't lost their humanity would loose it in time as their body was inflicted by pain and flames licked their skin.
Something burst open above her – something new that Ruby had never seen before in the world that seemed to never end. Shadows flew at it, escaping through the opening like it was paradise. Anything is better than staying in here, she thought, trying to recall what she had heard. She ran toward the opening, leaving hell behind only to realize that she was no better than the others.
She was just a grey cloud of smoke. Breaking through the door into a long since changed world, she realized that she was just another demon.
III. Lilith
The events really weren't Lilith's fault. She was just an innocent bystander who got caught in an assorted web of lies and crimes. Death was just the inevitable outcome for the turn of events that had overtaken Lilith's life.
Their servant, Arabella, seemed to think that Lilith needed real help, though. Lilith had just turned ten when she was running into the dining room to complain that the cooks hadn't finished dinner yet when she overhead her mother and Arabella talking.
"That girl isn’t right!" the black servant was saying. Her voice tinged with fear.
"Arabella!" her mother exclaimed. "How dare you say something like that about my daughter? She is your master as much as I am. I think it might be time for you to go back out into the fields."
"Madam!"
"No. I'll tell Elliot tonight."
"Madam! I'm just worried about the safety of the family."
"Well, that is not your place either!" There was a slight pause before her mother added, "Maybe we should just sell you."
Lilith's mother came around the corner, without noticing Lilith, and was muttering, "How dare she say such a thing about my daughter? Lilith is a strange girl, I know, but she is merely a slave! She has no say!"
Lilith wanted her mother go upstairs and thought, I'm a strange girl?! Fury rose up inside the little girl's body before she had time to soothe it. She walked into the living room where Arabella was and smiled sweetly. "Arabella!"
The servant swung around, her brown eyes peering at her with fear not hidden quite enough. "Hello Miss."
"What's that around your neck?"
Arabella always wore a necklace with a symbol for protection against evil around her neck. It was an item that she had been able to keep with her when the slave traders brought her to the Americas. The black woman's hand went up to stroke the charm as she looked at the little girl fearfully. "It's just a charm."
"For what?"
"Protection."
Lilith smiled widely. "Thank you!" She turned around and started to run back out before stopping with her back turned to the woman. "I hear you'll be out in the fields by morning. I hope… I hope you don't get into an accident out there."
She heard Arabella sucking in a breath before she ran from the room to her mother's rooms to complain about dinner.
The next day, Arabella was found dead behind the barn. A wild animal – presumably a bear – had come of the woods not too far away and attacked her. Her body was ripped to shreds. Lilith's parents had the other slaves take her out back and bury her body in an unmarked grave. Late that night, Lilith looked out her window to see the other slaves gathered over that plot and praying. Their chanted prayers rang loudly over the fields so that not a soul within a mile could be deaf to them. She scowled at the sight. The chanting made her uneasy. Lilith was certain that there was no god no matter what the church said, but it looked like even the slaves believed in some higher power. The idea sickened her so she crawled into bed, ignoring the noise.
When Lilith was twelve, her brother was found in the creek behind their house. Lilith and her little brother had gone swimming, trying to cool down in the scorching heat. They had a manservant with them, but he had stepped away to go to the restroom. He ran back when he heard Lilith screaming. Her screams alerted slaves from their property that were working nearby. They came running.
"He killed him! I couldn't do anything to stop him!" Lilith screamed, pointing at the manservant. "He held him down! He made him drown!"
Everyone took Lilith's word over the poor man's. He was hung, but not before Lilith came to see him alone. She was no longer crying and didn't seem to mourn for her brother one bit. The sight of the little girl without grief shocked him. "I did it. I killed him. He fought me, trying to push me off, but I made sure he stayed under the water."
"Miss Lilith!" the manservant exclaimed.
"Goodbye," she whispered as she turned and walked from the room that he was being kept in. Forcing tears to fall from her face once more, she looked at the slaves guarding the man's room. "Thank you," she whispered tearfully to them. "Thank you for letting me tell him what an evil man he is for killing my brother."
"We are sorry for your loss, Miss," one of the guards said with genuine sympathy in his eyes.
It wasn't until Lilith had turned away from the men that she allowed the smile to creep onto her face. Her brother had been a pest. He had deserved to die.
When Lilith was fifteen-years-old, her mother set her down to talk to her about sex. It wasn't a comfortable talk. Lilith was told that only married woman had sex and that she would marry some wealthy plantation owner. That was all.
Lilith was curious though. She ran into her father in his study the next night and decided to see what this "sex" thing was about. She dropped her robe the moment she walked into the room, making her father look up.
"Lilith! What are you doing up?" her father asked, confused.
"I couldn't sleep, Father. Can I… Can I stay with you?" Lilith put on her best innocent face and her father nodded. "Thank you." She went to his desk and stood in front of it. "Mother talked to me yesterday."
"About what?"
"Sex. She says only married woman do it."
"She's right. Respectable women do not have sex until they get married." Her father didn't even look up from his paperwork.
Carefully, without getting her father's attention, Lilith pulled off her thin nightgown. She was naked underneath. Her body was that of a healthy female's. "Father?"
He looked up at the sound of her voice. His eyes glanced over her body. "What are you doing?"
"Teach me," she whispered, "So I can please my husband. Teach me what sex is."
Her father shook his head. "It's improper."
"Father! Please. I have to be a good wife!"
"Your husband will teach you."
"No! I want you too!"
She ran behind the desk and threw her arms around him, her mouth searching for his but only getting his cheek. Her chests rubbed against his arm, and he grew tense underneath his daughter's touch. "Please, father! Teach me!"
After a few minutes of frustrated refusal, her father did. Many nights, Lilith would go to his study and lock the door. It was their special time. Each time they were done, her father would tell her it would never happen again, his voice and body racked with guilt over the deed, but she would always come back. And it always happened.
Four months later, her monthly cycle stopped and her mother got worried. Her father had gone away on a trip and it was only the two girls in the house. Knowing that her husband would never allow his precious daughter to be questioned when he was around, her mother waited until he left to take Lilith aside. "Lilith? Have you… Have you been with a man?"
Lilith shook her head. "Proper ladies would never!'
"Lilith… We should get the doctor then. I'll call him and have him stop by. You've been without a cycle for three months now, it's not normal!"
But the doctor never came.
Lilith couldn't risk someone finding out what had gone on. She went into the kitchen that night and asked the cooks if she could help serve dinner. No one questioned the little mistress, though they found it odd. After she helped cook the dishes, she claimed she had a stomach ache and took to her bed, leaving her mother to eat the food alone.
Her mother fell deathly ill the next day. The servants had no idea what had happened, and tried to call the doctor, but Lilith's mother was getting worse quickly. She fell asleep and wouldn't wake up. "Mother!" Lilith cried, throwing herself on her mother's unconscious body. "Leave me alone with her!"
The servants exchanged looks of confusion, but a moment later all of them left. Alone with her mother, Lilith sat up, smiling at the woman. "Mother, I suppose the white oleander I found outside wasn't good for a spice. I was just trying to make the food taste better for you!"
Before her father came home from his trip, her mother died. They had a proper burial ceremony for her and left Lilith to cry in her room. She cried day and night, screaming for her father. He arrived two days later and immediately went to his daughter's room. It was nighttime and Lilith was already in bed with the lights dim.
"Come in," she answered his knock softly.
Her father entered her room, looking at his daughter sadly. "Lilith…"
Before he could say anything else, Lilith threw the covers aside and beckoned him. "Come join me, Father. Please."
He shook his head, but she urged him. After a few minutes, he sighed and crawled into bed with his daughter. She took off her nightgown and rubbed her naked body against his clothed ones. He truly tried to resist, but it wasn't long before they were doing what they had always down in his study. Lilith found that the bed was a lot more comfortable than the chair, floor, or desk they had used in the past.
While she slept, Lilith's father brushed the hair from her face and murmured, "I'm sorry. Something is wrong with you. I can't let this go on." Without another word and waking his daughter, he slit her throat.
Lilith woke up in hell.
The pain was almost unbearable to the girl who had never really felt pain. She relished in the torture and not a single scream escaped her lips as the torment ravished her body. Closing her eyes and breathing deeply, the pain seemed to lessen the longer she was there. As the screams and yells of pain and help surrounded her, she seemed to be in her element. The grey smoke that floated around her mentioned it to her many times. "You don't seem to be in pain," one spoke one day, stopping fully.
"This is nothing," she muttered softly, unblinking.
The grey smoke drifted away again. Barely anytime had passed before she was free to wander herself, she loved the freedom. The cries of pain seemed to thrill her and many grey smoke beings avoided her completely; others seemed to be drawn to her. They practically worshiped her unfeeling, pain-loving personality. She wondered how long it would be until she had their full loyalty. She could do so much.
If this was hell, it was nothing. It was laughable that so many people on earth seemed to be afraid of this place. Growing bored, she asked what she could do.
"What can you do?" one of those who loved her asked confused. "You have to go down to the next level to actually do anything. Isn't this… life okay?"
"No. It's boring," she responded without pausing.
She traveled lower, ending up in a level of hell that she never knew before. It was darker, colder, and the screams from those who just arrived in hell – or refused to succumb to their new existence – still could be heard. They weren't as loud, but Lilith reveled in still being able to hear them. They were a reminder that not everyone was equal in hell.
She met with another grey being who seemed to be like her. He didn't care either about the pain and suffering of those above and was not happy with just a boring existence of wandering hell. He told her to meet with a man name Lucifer. "Lucifer is on the lowest level. It's a bit farther now. He'll give you a job, and if you're lucky, he'll show you a way to go to earth." Lilith could practically see this faceless being grin at the thought of leaving the boring hell behind.
She didn't bother to show appreciate as she traveled lower. Lucifer was easy to locate once you went low enough into the depths of hell that many never knew existed. Unlike the others, he wasn't a grey poof of smoke, he was a man. He sat on a thrown made of ice as the smoke beings catered to his every whim. In the ice room, the cries of pain could be heard like they were still on the first level of hell. The screams seemed to echo off the slick walls and rattle the person's very bones.
"Lilith," he said before she introduced herself. "I was wondering when you would arrived."
"Lucifer, I presume?" she shot back, not faltering under the immense power he radiated.
Lucifer smiled. "Yes. Now, what can I do for you?"
"A job. I want a job. Just wandering is boring."
Lucifer continued to smile. It was a nasty smile; Lilith wondered if she could really trust this man. He wasn't like the other beings in hell. He had a sinister and otherworldly air about him. "Alright. It just so happens some human killed the demon who holds the contracts."
"Killed a demon? And what contracts?"
"Yes. Demons can be killed. Rarely does it happen, though. Few humans now it's even possible. Most just think banishing them to hell again would get rid of them." Lucifer laughed manically and shook his head. "How stupid of them!"
"What contracts?"
"Demons go to earth time to time and made deals for souls. Those demons are lowly. More lowly than these poor miscreants who serve me," he explained gesturing toward the demons around him. The grey smoke beings all seemed happy that Lucifer said they weren't the lowest demons around; their work grew faster with pride. Lilith couldn't help but wonder if his words were just a way to manipulate his workers to do his bidding with more life and vigor than before. But then Lucifer spoke again she pushed the thought aside and listened. "However, they are so low that they can be trusted. They are merely… sales people. I need someone to hold those contracts. To send the dogs on the dealmakers and gather souls. It's an easy job, I suppose, but it won't ever be boring. I promise you, Lilith, you will never be bored again."
Lilith nodded. "I'll do it."
With a wave of his hand, Lilith felt herself change. She didn't know what had happened, but suddenly she felt powerful and those servants around Lucifer turned to her. She could feel their admiration and smiled.
"Can I send one of those… salespeople to a person on purpose?"
"You can do whatever you want. Now leave. I have work to do."
Lilith shrugged, not bothering to thank him, and left. The new power seemed to make the grey smoke avoid her more. Yet one grey smoke stopped near her. "Lilith!"
"What?"
"What would you like me to do?"
"Oh. You're one of the salespeople."
"Yes." The voice was full of untainted worship.
"Find my father. Give him a few months only. I want him to rot here in hell. I want to hear his screams. He deserves hell for what he did to me."
The grey smoke left her and she looked upward, toward earth. "Come to hell with me, Father, and then you'll never be alone again."
Words: circa 8000
Rating: R
Characters/Pairings: Bela, Ruby, Lilith and a few other "original" characters
Warnings: Spoilers for season three. language, character death, incest
Author's Notes: This story is has my "version" hell in it. If you don't like it fine but NO FLAMES. It also takes speculates on other canon of the girls. I had a canon-checker (and I have watched all three seasons). I do want to mention one thing: Ruby SAID that the demons communicate somehow. So I created a way. So sue me.
Keep in mind that in mythology Lilith is the "destroyer of children and the seducer of men".
Also, a big HUGE thank you to the fabulous and amazing Issa (
hinky) for being so kind as to look over each part for me as I slowly continued to write. AND for introducing me to Supernatural at all. Not to mention for being an amazing soundboard as I wrote this. Your kind words and encouragement means the world to me! Thank you, Issa!Summary: Bela, Ruby, and Lilith all have a story. This is their tales.
I. Bela
His nightly visits started when she was only ten-years-old. She didn't understand what was going on in the beginning, but knew in the core of her very being that it was wrong. The way he touched he wasn't that of a loving father but of a cold-hearted unbalanced man. It was pathetic. She couldn't fight or cry or else he would slap her, forcing her to endure a pain that no child should. The staff had all gone to sleep or gone home and her mother was safely tucked into bed, at first unaware of her husband's disturbing visits to her daughter's room. The way he murmured her name "Abby" made her skin crawl, so she just closed her eyes and wait for him to leave again.
When Bela was fourteen, she'd had enough. Her mother had walked in on her husband doing the unimaginable, but she just backed up again, escaping the scene as silently as she could. Her husband didn't turn his attention from his daughter, but the girl's eyes sought the mother's blank stare, begging for help.
"Mum?" Abby's voice inquired in the morning. Breakfast was spread out in front of them as a completely meal of eggs, bacon, toast, coffee, and orange juice. The maid just disappeared behind the swinging door leading from the dining room to the kitchen. They were alone.
Abby knew that it was time to speak up. Any strength she had had vanished years ago, and the way her mother ignored what she saw with that cold, cruel heart of hers made Abby's blood boil in an uncontrolled fury. For years, she had tried to convince herself that if her mother knew, the woman would do something. After seeing her mother just leave without a word of protest told her she had been wrong to put her faith in the vile woman. She was no better than Abby's father.
This morning, her mother was gazing at her with a look of pure disgust. Abby felt a sickening hatred for the woman who had she tried to believe in all those years build up in her heart. It was unbearable. This woman – her mother – was supposed to protect Abby, but instead she was doing nothing. She blinked twice before saying, "Yes, Abby?"
"Last night…" Abby started slowly trying to gauge her mother's reaction. Maybe it was just a trick. Maybe her mother was just trying to get her father to believe that she was still in the dark and was going to whisk Abby away to somewhere safe during the night.
The cold look in the woman's eyes told her she was wrong. "What about last night? I slept all night. It was peaceful and undisturbed. I didn't even wake up once."
Abby blinked. Fury was creating tears in her eyes that her rapid blinking made spill down her cheeks unbidden. It wasn't sadness or despair. It was worse. She had been more than wrong to have faith in the woman. The woman was even worse than the monster she had to call her father. She was prepared to sit idly by and let it happen.
Abby was standing up at the table before she knew it. "Of course you didn't. I had a nightmare though."
Her mother nodded. "You're fourteen. Why would you be telling me this? You are not a child anymore."
Looking at her mother in the eyes, she nodded. "You're right. I'm not a child anymore." With that, Abby left the room while her breakfast only half eaten. Her mother didn't call her back, and the tears came cascading down her face. She was angry. She had no hope left. Her mother wasn't going to stop her father, and Abby was left to her own devices. But a fourteen-year-old girl had no chance at overcoming this on her own.
When she finally made it outside the house, she broke into a run. Her feet pounded against the pavement and grass as she headed to the only safe place she had left. The blond girl named Catharine was sitting on the swings already, gently swaying back and forth.
As she approached her sanctuary, though tainted by the other girl, she slowed her pace to a walk. Catharine turned as she grew nearer, making Abby feel as though the girl had known that she was going to be there already.
Catharine had shown up to the swing set located on the grounds of Abby's family's estate three weeks prior. The girl seemed strange to Abby, making her wary of actually engaging in talk. But soon, Catharine had told her that she, too, had a secret that she harbored deep inside her. But unlike Abby, she had no one she had faith in to help her.
The confession didn't phase Abby, she just shrugged not letting the inevitable interest should on her face as she looked at the blond girl.
This morning Catharine couldn't hide her concern when she saw Abby's tear-stained face. "What happened?" Catharine asked, without a proper greeting. The blank stare in the other girl's eyes made Abby recall the same cold look in her mother's as she stealthy denying what she had witnessed. Abby turned around, thinking that she'd head back to the house and come out when Catharine was gone.
"Abby? What happened?" Catharine persisted, pushing herself harder on the swing.
"Nothing. Nothing happened," Abby muttered, shaking her head in denial that seemed to run in the family. She slid unto the swing beside the girl despite her better judgment. She lowered her gaze, not wanting to look at Catharine's blank eyes any longer. It was bad enough she couldn't block out the girl's cold words. Catharine always seemed to be able to read her mind, especially when Abby didn't want her to.
"Something happened."
"Catharine!"
"Did she see?" The words were whispered and Abby's heart began to pound in her chest. "Did she see and do nothing?"
"What? What are you taking about?" Abby burst out at the girl, unable to hide the truth behind the girl's words.
Catharine turned away, looking out into the grounds. "Same thing happened to me. She saw and did nothing. I was angry and sad. It was suddenly a more hopeless situation."
Abby shook her head. "I don't know what you're talking about."
Catharine turned backed to Abby suddenly. "I can help you. And you don't have to pay me for ten whole years."
"Ten years?" Abby echoed, confused.
"I can get rid of them – both of them – and you won't have to pay me anything for ten years."
"I don't have any money."
"Payment isn't money."
"Then what?"
"Interested, are you?"
"No. I was—"
"If you want rid of them, to be free of the burden, I can help you."
Abby shook her head. "I have nothing to offer you in return." And the truth was, Abby didn't believe she could help. Catharine was a strange girl, that was true, but there was nothing a fourteen year old could do in this situation or else Abby would have done it.
"You have… your soul."
The words didn't hit Abby right away, but a moment later, the confusion was overwhelming. "What?"
"I'll get rid of your parents, and all you have to do is promise me your soul in ten years," Catharine offered, looking at Abby with probing, cold eyes. "I can do it."
"No you can't," Abby protested.
"Well, then agree to it and when it doesn't happen…" Catharine started slowly.
"Fine!" Abby yelled jumping up from the swing. "Fine. I'll do it."
Catharine grabbed Abby's hand without hesitation and shook it. "Then it's a deal."
For a brief moment while the blond girl was shaking her hand, Abby could have sworn that her eyes turned a deep, pitch black with red irises. Gasping with fear and shock, Abby pulled her hand from the other girl's and stood up. She ran back to the house as the anger of her mother subsided into fear of the strange girl's words.
"Get rid of them."
What did Catharine mean? What would Catharine do? What could Catharine do? Fear eroded at any residual strength that Abby had when her father came to her again that night. As he came over her, touching her in ways and places no father should touch his daughter, she only had one thought running through her head:
I hope you die! I just want you and mother to die!
But no words came out of her mouth as he touched her. The door creaked a bit and Abby turned toward the sound. Her mother stood at the door, her mouth pressed into a thin line and tears in her eyes. Then her mother was gone, and the door was closing in the family's secrets once again.
The next few days ticked by in a routine that made Abby sick. Her mother would ignore her in the morning, pretending like she saw nothing. But every night, her father would come to her again, and her mother would peek in the door, watching the horror without stopping it. Abby kept going back to the swing set, hoping to see Catharine again, but the other girl never appeared. Four days later, Abby escaped the house to find Catharine sitting on the swing set.
"You lied!" Abby accused, running up behind her.
Catharine swung around, her eyes a shocking black with a stark red in the middle once again. "It'll happen tonight."
"You lied!" she repeated in a whisper as she took a step back from the frightening girl.
"Tonight. I'll collect my debt in ten years' time."
Abby shook her head. "I call it off!" she screamed. "You lied to me! Don't you dare try act like you haven't. You lied!"
Catharine smiled a cold, cruel smile that made Abby back away. "Ah, my dear, you can't escape this now. You already made the pact with me. Your soul will be mine for eternity in hell." Evil laughter erupted from Catharine's mouth and Abby couldn't take it anymore. She swung around and ran back to the house as fast as she could, running to her room, and throwing herself in desperate tears onto the bed.
Why can't they all just die? Why can't Mother, Father, and Catharine just die already?! she thought wildly and full of hate.
Her parents left to attend a party that night without saying goodbye to their daughter. Abby had lied to the staff and told them she wasn't feeling well, and they had believed her. Her parents couldn't be bothered with such a trivial thing as their daughter's well-being and health.
After the staff had retired for the night or went home, Abby went downstairs and grabbed food. She had refused dinner, because it had meant being in the same room as her parents. Just as Abby was heading up the stairway to her room again, the phone rang.
"Hello?" she answered the phone at the base of the stairs in the foyer.
"Abby, it is done," Catharine's unmistakable voice came from the other end of the phone before the line went dead.
Abby was still staring blankly at the phone when someone knocked on the door. She hung up the phone and went to answer the door, in a daze of confusion and fear. "Hello."
Two policemen stood outside the door. "Abby?"
She nodded.
"Can we come in?"
With those words, Abby's fate was sealed. She had ten years before her soul would be Catharine's in hell. Catharine didn't come to see her once after she heard about her parent's death in the car accident. Abby was shuffled from relative to relative before she turned eighteen. With the knowledge of Catharine, the world became a much colder place to live in. Things that she never would have believed before sprang up from the woodwork, making her frightened before she decided to embrace her new destiny. On her eighteenth birthday, she rid herself of anything that tied her to her family, but her money she inherited, and changed her name to Bela Talbot.
As Bela, she had nothing more to fear. She didn't even fear her past. It wasn't long before she had discovered ways to use her rare knowledge to make herself a comfortable life of luxury and privilege. Her parents were never mourned in her heart, making it easier for her to pull on the identity of Bela Talbot and shed her Abby skin, the useless, blind, weak girl she had once been.
The only thing that she regretted, ten years later, as the blood hounds came after her to take her soul to hell where she had promised to go, was that she had to go to hell for her parents' sins.
II. Ruby
Everyone was scared when night came, but this night was worse than most. It was the winter solstice which was the longest, darkest night of the year and normally reveled in by many. Not many people celebrated tonight. They weren't sure who would be alive when the sun rose again. The world was cursed with a Plague that had no cure, no treatment, and no way of preventing the sickness from spreading. The town that Ruby called home was infested with dead bodies in the morning. Those bodies were burnt leaving loved ones sick with grief and worry that they would be next. No one was safe on their own. The world was a dark, Plague inflicted place and no matter how many people prayed to God, nothing changed. But Ruby had found a powerful book hidden on bookshelf in the bookstore that promised to deliver Ruby and her family from this painful existence.
Ruby sat before her alter, feeling the powerful darkness wrap over her like a cold blanket. The Latin words flowed from her tongue easily not even faltering as the fear started to surface once again, summoning the power that had protected her from this Plague for five months. With these words her life was safe and long and her family was protected by a power they didn't know. When she was done with the summoning, Ruby opened her eyes to see the same woman standing there as before.
She was dressed in a black cloak over her wool dress. Her brown eye flowed down her shoulders, curling slightly in waves pretty little waves. This face – this body – it all used to below to Ruby's friend, Willow, but now the friend was gone. They had found this book together and decided they would do anything to spare their families of the cursed Plague. But her friend was gone one day and this demon was in her body. Her brilliant green eyes that had held so many memories with Ruby since childhood had been replaced by this horrible monster with blank, black eyes.
"Ruby," the figure spoke – it wasn't a woman. It was a demon and Ruby knew it was evil to the core of her being but she always knew that it was the only way to protect herself. She was terrifying with her pure black eyes and the radiating power that made it impossible for Ruby to deny her. She had pledged her loyalty to this demon. "Ruby," she repeated in a sing song voice that made Ruby's flesh crawl. "What did you want?"
"You said you'd protect my family but my father—" Ruby started, her voice boarding on hysterical.
"I protected them for months," the woman said starting to walk toward her. Her attitude was casual but Ruby knew that the woman was anything but harmless. She could kill Ruby with a flit of her hand. Ruby had seen her. She had seen her kill in cold blood.
"He's dying!" Ruby said backing away from the closing in woman.
"Well, I couldn't hold the Plague off forever," the demon said, shaking her head. She almost looked amused. "All I said was that I would protect your family until the winter solstice. Tonight is the longest of the year. Actually," the woman said, smiling slightly. "It's time to pay."
"No." Ruby shook her head fervently. "No," she whispered again.
"Didn't you pray to me? Didn't you pledge your loyalty to me? Didn't you promise to pay the price when the night was the longest and darkest of the year?"
"I didn't mean— I didn't know—"
"Ruby! You knew. You knew exactly what you were doing." She clicked her tongue in disappointment. "You prayed to me! You used you little book of yours to call me to this… this hellhole of a place and now you want to feign ignorance?" She shouldn't her head. "I can't allow that, now can I?"
Ruby grabbed the hex bag in her pocket and thought of her options. Her family will die; her father first. No one was safe anymore. The protection she sought – well, she gave her loyalty to this evil demon and she wouldn't be able to back out. Words offered in prayer and belief was like bonds; they were chains binding Ruby to this demon.
The woman flung her hand up, the hex bag flying from Ruby's pocket and into the air. "A hex bag?" the demon laughed. "You're not that smart, are you? A hex bag won't do any good. You have to put it where someone lives to inflict your doings on the person. You don't know where I live. This won't do anything." She paused, turning her solid black eyes to Ruby. "Except to show your defiance." She frowned. "I had such hope for you, child, but obviously I was wrong."
Ruby watched the hex bag - the useless hex bag – fly out the window. There was no sound as it inevitably hit the ground, hundreds of feet away from Ruby. Taking a deep breath, Ruby closed her eyes, feeling herself grow more hopeless by the second. "My family… My father… Willow…"
"Rest assured they aren't going where you are. They will be much better off," the demon told her. "They might die, but you – you're mine. You have no hope to rest. They may die painful, violent deaths, but you have the hounds to look forward to. And Hell."
Ruby shook her head. "I didn't know! Tell me who you are!"
"Liar! You knew what you were doing, and you certainly now who I am."
"I didn't know what I was asking for. You already took Willow…"
"No. No, she's still in there. Willow is disappointed in you, Ruby. She thinks that you really should have known better." The demon shook her head in mock disappointment.
"Shut up!" Ruby screamed.
"Ruby, I own you! I am your master! I am the only hope that you have to make it through Hell. It's not smart to tell me to shut up!"
"No one can make it through Hell," Ruby shot back; "I'm damned either way."
"Ruby, child…" The demon walked to her, placing her hand on Ruby's cheek in a way that would be comforting if she wasn't so terrifying. Though no heat came from the woman, Ruby felt as if her skin was burning merely by the woman's touch. "You'll forget your family where you are going. I promise you, it might take years or centuries, but you will forget them. You'll forget all of this," she promised, throwing her arms out in gesture. "If you think this Plague is hell, you won't believe how you'd wish that you could have this hell back. The real hell…"
"Stop! I won't go!" Ruby turned on her heel, running toward the door.
The door slammed shut, narrowly missing Ruby. She stumbled backward, suddenly bumping into the demon. "You have no choice. You promised…"
"No! Shut up! I'm not going anyway! My family!"
"Will never forget you. But you will forget them. Child, you'll forget everything. It will be okay."
Ruby was pushed up against the door, and for a moment fear shot through her that she would be harmed. Barking erupted in the distance as the town's clock tower rang to signal midnight had finally came. The barking grew louder as if the dogs were coming toward her, closer… closer…
"I'll make it painless," the woman said slowly.
The next moment, Ruby was there. She was tied down as a pain she had never experienced before shot through her body and consumed her every breath. The world smelled of burning skin, blood, and sulfur. It was like the Bible had said – fire and brimstone. Ruby couldn't believe that she had used the book with Willow to begin with just to end up here. Just to end up without anything to show for it. She stayed there, tied down and tortured for so long she lost track of time. The more she screamed, the more the fire consumed her. Not once did the demon come to see her, but her promises echoed in Ruby's head, making her wonder when it would come true.
She could still remember her family's faces, hear their laughter in the recesses of her mind, and any time she closed her eyes when the pain got too great, they were there. Her father with his kind smile and gentle way; her mother with her huge smile of pride every time she looked at Ruby; Willow with her giggle and mischievous nature. Ruby wondered if Willow was there again, living out the life that Ruby should have had. If Willow was there, Ruby hoped she had burnt the book they had used to call that demon to them. If Willow played with the book and summoned the demon, Ruby knew that Willow would be down there with her, being tortured like she was. It was heart wrenching. She called for them as the nightmare continued as if she thought they could actually hear her. Her screams and pleads were in vain as no one came for her but these nameless, soulless grey smoke creatures.
"Come on you bitch!" Ruby screamed, feeling that the torture had to have lasted decades by now. Her body couldn't possibly take anymore of this pain. She wondered how long it would be before her body gave out and her mind would surely follow.
The world that had stayed the same – a cesspool of fire and pain riddled with the screams of those being tortured – but suddenly, it changed. She wasn't tied down; she was free to wander. Perhaps the world thought she had forgotten herself by now but she couldn't let go of what she had had. She had a good life, a God fearing life of everyone else that feared the Plague, but now she wished she could shut out the images, to forget everything like the demon had promised she would. Demons lie, though, Ruby figured out. Remembering wasn't worth the pain that shook her body each time their faces appeared behind her eyes as she moved around the world that she was stuck in.
She tried to understand her new life. But she couldn't. It was all too incredible. Puffs of grew smoke roamed around her. They were the same beings that she had seen as she was tied down and tormented. The screams still echoed off the nonexistence walls and surfaces, sending chills down Ruby's spine. Something told her to travel upward. Hell was supposed to be below them, and if she traveled up she might just find a way out. It seemed like a ridiculous notion to Ruby, but she did it anyway. The higher she climbed the more hopeless she felt. There was no way out. It was a hell. She was stuck there for entirety. The grey smoke spoke to her, telling of that they were all once human but had forgotten. They had forgotten what it was like and each human she walked by being tortured would just be another one. No one was safe here; they all shared the same destiny. They were doomed – they had sold their soul to a demon just like Ruby had. Some didn't even realize what they had done – claiming dogs came after them and brought them here – and others seemed to know exactly what as happening and accepted their fate quickly, becoming another grey cloud before Ruby's eyes.
Ruby tried to talk to the others about what it was like to be human, but they seemed to have forgotten. They couldn't remember who they had been or even what year it was when they had died, but they all remembered one thing: they had given their soul for something.
Occasionally, a grey cloud would be hurdled downward. Feeling curious of her new… home… she asked what had happened. "I made it! I was on earth!" it exclaimed in a bittersweet tone. "But those bastards sent me back here!"
Humanity wasn't welcome down here. Anyone who was down here hadn't lost their humanity would loose it in time as their body was inflicted by pain and flames licked their skin.
Something burst open above her – something new that Ruby had never seen before in the world that seemed to never end. Shadows flew at it, escaping through the opening like it was paradise. Anything is better than staying in here, she thought, trying to recall what she had heard. She ran toward the opening, leaving hell behind only to realize that she was no better than the others.
She was just a grey cloud of smoke. Breaking through the door into a long since changed world, she realized that she was just another demon.
III. Lilith
The events really weren't Lilith's fault. She was just an innocent bystander who got caught in an assorted web of lies and crimes. Death was just the inevitable outcome for the turn of events that had overtaken Lilith's life.
Their servant, Arabella, seemed to think that Lilith needed real help, though. Lilith had just turned ten when she was running into the dining room to complain that the cooks hadn't finished dinner yet when she overhead her mother and Arabella talking.
"That girl isn’t right!" the black servant was saying. Her voice tinged with fear.
"Arabella!" her mother exclaimed. "How dare you say something like that about my daughter? She is your master as much as I am. I think it might be time for you to go back out into the fields."
"Madam!"
"No. I'll tell Elliot tonight."
"Madam! I'm just worried about the safety of the family."
"Well, that is not your place either!" There was a slight pause before her mother added, "Maybe we should just sell you."
Lilith's mother came around the corner, without noticing Lilith, and was muttering, "How dare she say such a thing about my daughter? Lilith is a strange girl, I know, but she is merely a slave! She has no say!"
Lilith wanted her mother go upstairs and thought, I'm a strange girl?! Fury rose up inside the little girl's body before she had time to soothe it. She walked into the living room where Arabella was and smiled sweetly. "Arabella!"
The servant swung around, her brown eyes peering at her with fear not hidden quite enough. "Hello Miss."
"What's that around your neck?"
Arabella always wore a necklace with a symbol for protection against evil around her neck. It was an item that she had been able to keep with her when the slave traders brought her to the Americas. The black woman's hand went up to stroke the charm as she looked at the little girl fearfully. "It's just a charm."
"For what?"
"Protection."
Lilith smiled widely. "Thank you!" She turned around and started to run back out before stopping with her back turned to the woman. "I hear you'll be out in the fields by morning. I hope… I hope you don't get into an accident out there."
She heard Arabella sucking in a breath before she ran from the room to her mother's rooms to complain about dinner.
The next day, Arabella was found dead behind the barn. A wild animal – presumably a bear – had come of the woods not too far away and attacked her. Her body was ripped to shreds. Lilith's parents had the other slaves take her out back and bury her body in an unmarked grave. Late that night, Lilith looked out her window to see the other slaves gathered over that plot and praying. Their chanted prayers rang loudly over the fields so that not a soul within a mile could be deaf to them. She scowled at the sight. The chanting made her uneasy. Lilith was certain that there was no god no matter what the church said, but it looked like even the slaves believed in some higher power. The idea sickened her so she crawled into bed, ignoring the noise.
When Lilith was twelve, her brother was found in the creek behind their house. Lilith and her little brother had gone swimming, trying to cool down in the scorching heat. They had a manservant with them, but he had stepped away to go to the restroom. He ran back when he heard Lilith screaming. Her screams alerted slaves from their property that were working nearby. They came running.
"He killed him! I couldn't do anything to stop him!" Lilith screamed, pointing at the manservant. "He held him down! He made him drown!"
Everyone took Lilith's word over the poor man's. He was hung, but not before Lilith came to see him alone. She was no longer crying and didn't seem to mourn for her brother one bit. The sight of the little girl without grief shocked him. "I did it. I killed him. He fought me, trying to push me off, but I made sure he stayed under the water."
"Miss Lilith!" the manservant exclaimed.
"Goodbye," she whispered as she turned and walked from the room that he was being kept in. Forcing tears to fall from her face once more, she looked at the slaves guarding the man's room. "Thank you," she whispered tearfully to them. "Thank you for letting me tell him what an evil man he is for killing my brother."
"We are sorry for your loss, Miss," one of the guards said with genuine sympathy in his eyes.
It wasn't until Lilith had turned away from the men that she allowed the smile to creep onto her face. Her brother had been a pest. He had deserved to die.
When Lilith was fifteen-years-old, her mother set her down to talk to her about sex. It wasn't a comfortable talk. Lilith was told that only married woman had sex and that she would marry some wealthy plantation owner. That was all.
Lilith was curious though. She ran into her father in his study the next night and decided to see what this "sex" thing was about. She dropped her robe the moment she walked into the room, making her father look up.
"Lilith! What are you doing up?" her father asked, confused.
"I couldn't sleep, Father. Can I… Can I stay with you?" Lilith put on her best innocent face and her father nodded. "Thank you." She went to his desk and stood in front of it. "Mother talked to me yesterday."
"About what?"
"Sex. She says only married woman do it."
"She's right. Respectable women do not have sex until they get married." Her father didn't even look up from his paperwork.
Carefully, without getting her father's attention, Lilith pulled off her thin nightgown. She was naked underneath. Her body was that of a healthy female's. "Father?"
He looked up at the sound of her voice. His eyes glanced over her body. "What are you doing?"
"Teach me," she whispered, "So I can please my husband. Teach me what sex is."
Her father shook his head. "It's improper."
"Father! Please. I have to be a good wife!"
"Your husband will teach you."
"No! I want you too!"
She ran behind the desk and threw her arms around him, her mouth searching for his but only getting his cheek. Her chests rubbed against his arm, and he grew tense underneath his daughter's touch. "Please, father! Teach me!"
After a few minutes of frustrated refusal, her father did. Many nights, Lilith would go to his study and lock the door. It was their special time. Each time they were done, her father would tell her it would never happen again, his voice and body racked with guilt over the deed, but she would always come back. And it always happened.
Four months later, her monthly cycle stopped and her mother got worried. Her father had gone away on a trip and it was only the two girls in the house. Knowing that her husband would never allow his precious daughter to be questioned when he was around, her mother waited until he left to take Lilith aside. "Lilith? Have you… Have you been with a man?"
Lilith shook her head. "Proper ladies would never!'
"Lilith… We should get the doctor then. I'll call him and have him stop by. You've been without a cycle for three months now, it's not normal!"
But the doctor never came.
Lilith couldn't risk someone finding out what had gone on. She went into the kitchen that night and asked the cooks if she could help serve dinner. No one questioned the little mistress, though they found it odd. After she helped cook the dishes, she claimed she had a stomach ache and took to her bed, leaving her mother to eat the food alone.
Her mother fell deathly ill the next day. The servants had no idea what had happened, and tried to call the doctor, but Lilith's mother was getting worse quickly. She fell asleep and wouldn't wake up. "Mother!" Lilith cried, throwing herself on her mother's unconscious body. "Leave me alone with her!"
The servants exchanged looks of confusion, but a moment later all of them left. Alone with her mother, Lilith sat up, smiling at the woman. "Mother, I suppose the white oleander I found outside wasn't good for a spice. I was just trying to make the food taste better for you!"
Before her father came home from his trip, her mother died. They had a proper burial ceremony for her and left Lilith to cry in her room. She cried day and night, screaming for her father. He arrived two days later and immediately went to his daughter's room. It was nighttime and Lilith was already in bed with the lights dim.
"Come in," she answered his knock softly.
Her father entered her room, looking at his daughter sadly. "Lilith…"
Before he could say anything else, Lilith threw the covers aside and beckoned him. "Come join me, Father. Please."
He shook his head, but she urged him. After a few minutes, he sighed and crawled into bed with his daughter. She took off her nightgown and rubbed her naked body against his clothed ones. He truly tried to resist, but it wasn't long before they were doing what they had always down in his study. Lilith found that the bed was a lot more comfortable than the chair, floor, or desk they had used in the past.
While she slept, Lilith's father brushed the hair from her face and murmured, "I'm sorry. Something is wrong with you. I can't let this go on." Without another word and waking his daughter, he slit her throat.
Lilith woke up in hell.
The pain was almost unbearable to the girl who had never really felt pain. She relished in the torture and not a single scream escaped her lips as the torment ravished her body. Closing her eyes and breathing deeply, the pain seemed to lessen the longer she was there. As the screams and yells of pain and help surrounded her, she seemed to be in her element. The grey smoke that floated around her mentioned it to her many times. "You don't seem to be in pain," one spoke one day, stopping fully.
"This is nothing," she muttered softly, unblinking.
The grey smoke drifted away again. Barely anytime had passed before she was free to wander herself, she loved the freedom. The cries of pain seemed to thrill her and many grey smoke beings avoided her completely; others seemed to be drawn to her. They practically worshiped her unfeeling, pain-loving personality. She wondered how long it would be until she had their full loyalty. She could do so much.
If this was hell, it was nothing. It was laughable that so many people on earth seemed to be afraid of this place. Growing bored, she asked what she could do.
"What can you do?" one of those who loved her asked confused. "You have to go down to the next level to actually do anything. Isn't this… life okay?"
"No. It's boring," she responded without pausing.
She traveled lower, ending up in a level of hell that she never knew before. It was darker, colder, and the screams from those who just arrived in hell – or refused to succumb to their new existence – still could be heard. They weren't as loud, but Lilith reveled in still being able to hear them. They were a reminder that not everyone was equal in hell.
She met with another grey being who seemed to be like her. He didn't care either about the pain and suffering of those above and was not happy with just a boring existence of wandering hell. He told her to meet with a man name Lucifer. "Lucifer is on the lowest level. It's a bit farther now. He'll give you a job, and if you're lucky, he'll show you a way to go to earth." Lilith could practically see this faceless being grin at the thought of leaving the boring hell behind.
She didn't bother to show appreciate as she traveled lower. Lucifer was easy to locate once you went low enough into the depths of hell that many never knew existed. Unlike the others, he wasn't a grey poof of smoke, he was a man. He sat on a thrown made of ice as the smoke beings catered to his every whim. In the ice room, the cries of pain could be heard like they were still on the first level of hell. The screams seemed to echo off the slick walls and rattle the person's very bones.
"Lilith," he said before she introduced herself. "I was wondering when you would arrived."
"Lucifer, I presume?" she shot back, not faltering under the immense power he radiated.
Lucifer smiled. "Yes. Now, what can I do for you?"
"A job. I want a job. Just wandering is boring."
Lucifer continued to smile. It was a nasty smile; Lilith wondered if she could really trust this man. He wasn't like the other beings in hell. He had a sinister and otherworldly air about him. "Alright. It just so happens some human killed the demon who holds the contracts."
"Killed a demon? And what contracts?"
"Yes. Demons can be killed. Rarely does it happen, though. Few humans now it's even possible. Most just think banishing them to hell again would get rid of them." Lucifer laughed manically and shook his head. "How stupid of them!"
"What contracts?"
"Demons go to earth time to time and made deals for souls. Those demons are lowly. More lowly than these poor miscreants who serve me," he explained gesturing toward the demons around him. The grey smoke beings all seemed happy that Lucifer said they weren't the lowest demons around; their work grew faster with pride. Lilith couldn't help but wonder if his words were just a way to manipulate his workers to do his bidding with more life and vigor than before. But then Lucifer spoke again she pushed the thought aside and listened. "However, they are so low that they can be trusted. They are merely… sales people. I need someone to hold those contracts. To send the dogs on the dealmakers and gather souls. It's an easy job, I suppose, but it won't ever be boring. I promise you, Lilith, you will never be bored again."
Lilith nodded. "I'll do it."
With a wave of his hand, Lilith felt herself change. She didn't know what had happened, but suddenly she felt powerful and those servants around Lucifer turned to her. She could feel their admiration and smiled.
"Can I send one of those… salespeople to a person on purpose?"
"You can do whatever you want. Now leave. I have work to do."
Lilith shrugged, not bothering to thank him, and left. The new power seemed to make the grey smoke avoid her more. Yet one grey smoke stopped near her. "Lilith!"
"What?"
"What would you like me to do?"
"Oh. You're one of the salespeople."
"Yes." The voice was full of untainted worship.
"Find my father. Give him a few months only. I want him to rot here in hell. I want to hear his screams. He deserves hell for what he did to me."
The grey smoke left her and she looked upward, toward earth. "Come to hell with me, Father, and then you'll never be alone again."
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Date: 2008-07-25 01:59 pm (UTC)This is completely amazing, every single story =|
Thankyou SO much for writing them.
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Date: 2008-08-18 01:40 am (UTC)This is a completely original, and exceptional take on the girls. ALL the girls. Especially Lilith (and people wonder why I don't like children. ;))
I echo the sentiments of ^^ thank you for writing them, and aww *glomps* for being so sweet. YOU are made of genius. ♥
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Date: 2008-08-18 01:55 am (UTC)You made me blush!