Some answers, More Questions

Linda and Sean left without a sign that anything was amiss, though Linda complained that she had a faint headache and seemed to space out now and then during her gossip with your mother. When it came time to say goodbye, both mother and son looked at you for a fraction of a second too long, though that might have just been in your head.

You suspected that Linda wasn’t consciously aware of what had happened, though your interaction had left some kind of effect on her waking mind. Worry chewed at you, and you decided that you would have to monitor the woman in future.

The most pressing concern was the ring, which remained affixed to your finger. You hadn’t exactly tried to take the thing off, but the idea of doing that filled you with revulsion. Clearly it had taken root into your mind, and if you were going to keep to sanity you needed to investigate. For the next few hours you devoted yourself to searching the web for any scrap of information.

Results for ‘magic rings’ mostly turned up High Fantasy novels, but you **** yourself to think back on the day of your grandfather’s funeral. What had that old man called it? The name wouldn’t come, so you sat back in your chair, spacing out. Your eyes scanned around your bedroom, taking note of the movie posters that littered the walls and then eventually finding a spot on the ceiling to stare at.

Then it came to you.

The Heart of Lilith.

Your typed away rapidly, before the piece of info slipped back into the fog of your mind. The search yielded more promising results as you were met with links to ancient Sumerian mythology and books on more modern folklore. But what really captured your attention was a painting that had been done in the 19th Century. You weren’t exactly a student of art, but vaguely it reminded you of a William Blake painting.

A naked man stood in a darkened cave as dozens of different hands reached out to grasp and caress him. Behind the man, only faintly visible was the shadowy outline of a woman, her vague features inhuman.

You drank in the image, eyes scanning over every inch of it. The hands were both petite and large, feminine and masculine and of various skin tones. It was a strangely erotic sight. But then you noticed something that almost stopped your heart.

On the man’s right hand, was a ring. Identical to the one you wore.

Horror gripped you as you stared down at the ruby adorning your finger. What the hell was this thing?

Another half hour of furious searching brought you to a site on demonology and ancient myths throughout recorded history. There was a video link with the thumbnail of an scholarly looking old man and you didn’t even hesitate to click it.

After a moment of buffering you were greeted with the sight of the man, a Professor Fielding, sitting at his desk with an intense look on his face.

“History is a confounding thing,” he began, “often full of contradictions and vagueness, we are left to decipher the closest approximation of the truth. When it comes to the study of the occult, this becomes even more difficult due to the bias nature of the religious texts that serve as a point of reference.”

He spread his arms. “For instance, when Christianity spread across Europe it was a common practice to incorporate and acknowledge many pagan deities, only to contextualise them within canon lore as demons and misleading enemies of the one true God. This has made it exceedingly difficult to find the root source of certain pieces of information.”

“With regards to the being Lilith we can trace it’s origin back to some Aramaic, Judo-Christian texts where it is identified as the original bride for Adam. The original tale goes that Lilith was a sinful and corrupt being, unsuitable for her role as the mother of mankind, and cast into darkness by God. Most tales regard her as a demon of lust, a succubus.”

Fielding bared his palms and sighed. “Though of course as civilisation has progressed and views have grown more…progressive…the figure of Lilith has been reconsidered. Some have viewed the original text as a boorish misogynistic fable about the evils of female sexuality, with certain feminist groups looking to embrace the figure as symbol of a free thinking, assertive woman in a time when the human race was cruder.”

“Of course,” the professor cleared his throat uncomfortably, “there have been more unsettling things to come from this reappraisal of Lilith. Satanic cults are nothing new, and indeed satanism itself is often overly stigmatised, but over the last two hundred years there have been reports of a movement embracing Lilith as more than just a figure of sexual liberty, but a being worthy of worship and human sacrifice. Often involv-”

A sudden knock at your door cut through the trance you had found yourself in, and startled you upright in your seat. The knock came again, gentle but urgent.

“Sweetie, can I come in?”

You let out a sigh of relief. It was just your mom.

Closing the laptop, you replied, “Sure, Mom.”

She had a curious expression on her face as she entered, her phone clutched tightly in her hands. Her eyes were red and her bottom lip trembled slightly as she looked at you.

“Have you heard the news?”

“What news?”

Your Mom sighed and turned on the little tv in the corner of your room, flicked through a few channels until she found what she was looking for. A reporter was standing in front of the local library, a collection of police cars behind her as uniformed officers swarmed about.

“Though details are still coming in, we can confirm that a body was discovered and is believed to be that of missing school teacher Hanna Berkeley.”

The picture that flashed on screen was that of your home room teacher. You felt your blood run cold as you remembered the woman being marched off into the woods, bound and gagged. A very ominous thought occurred to you. It was very likely that outside of her killers, you were the last one to see her alive.

The ring grew warm in your hand, and the distant sound of laughter echoed through your mind..