Patrick was a normal everyday white-collar worker. He had a normal life, normal job, normal car and normal house. The only thing that was not normal about him was the fact that he was claimed by a demoness soon after he was born. For years he was unaware of that fact until one night the demoness came to him in his dreams and asserted her ownership over him. What would you do if you found out that you had to serve a demoness for the rest of your life? For Patrick, he fought it all the way. The Half-Lilin Prologue - Chapter 1 by Shin Eris

 
Lilin or lilim, are creatures of Jewish lore that was said to plague the dreams of men and kidnap children on their spare time. For countless ages, people feared the Lilin, as their powers of seduction and corruption was so undeniable that even the wisest men would fall at their feets. It was said that Lilith herself gave birth to these demonic creatures after her flight from Eden. She made a deal with God, that in exchange for her freedom, one hundred of her demonic children will die daily. And so it was said that everytime the sun rises, one hundred lilin will die. The Lilin learnt to hate the sun and spent their entire lives enjoying the night until the day it was their turn to be sacrificed for Lilith's freedom.

Patrick was a normal everyday white-collar worker. He had a normal life, normal job, normal car and normal house. The only thing that was not normal about him was the fact that he was claimed by a demoness soon after he was born. For years he was unaware of that fact until one night the demoness came to him in his dreams and asserted her ownership over him.

What would you do if you found out that you had to serve a demoness for the rest of your life? For Patrick, he fought it all the way.

The scriptures were all wrong. Eve was not the first woman. Adam was not the first human. Lilith was both the first woman and the first human. When God dictated that all shall bow to Adam, and Lilith shall lie under Adam, she rose in protest. In her mind, she was the highest creature of all, as she was created with the world itself and that she was the one who sculpted Adam from the clay that Uriel took from her home of countless eons. God refused to acknowledge her protest and she left heaven in anger without even saying goodbye to her beloved Adam. And so the second sin was born, Pride.

Adam was frantic when he found out that Lilith was gone. He immediately went to God telling him of her disappearance. God, the All-knowing, already knew of her departure and had already sent three angels to chase after her. The three angels were Senoy, Sansenoy and Semangelof. He empowered these three angels as he knew that not even the three of them combined would be able to subdue or even catch up to Lilith. When the three angels caught up to Lilith, a fierce battle which raged for centuries ensued; tossing mountains high and about, freezing oceans, cracking continents and marring landscapes as both sides summoned rocks of heaven to maim their opponents. Ironically, neither side meant to kill, as Lilith thought of angels as God's children and she refused to anger God any further, while the angels had a respect of her as a wind deity who created herself on the 6th day of creation. A statement of which she took to heart and never failed to remind everyone she met in heaven about it, that was when the first sin, Arrogance was born.

When both sides realized how pointless the fight was, they told Lilith, "Return to Heaven or we shall drown you in the sea". This was said as they rested uneasily over the sea that would one day consume the pharaoh's army.

"Leave me be!" said Lilith. "I was created only to cause sickness to infants. If the infant is male, I have dominion over him for eight days after his birth, and if female, for twenty days".

Hearing this, the three angels insisted that she return to Heaven, but Lilith adamantly refused. To persuade the angels to leave her alone, she vowed that she will not bring harm to infants who wore amulets with their names inscribed on it. In a desperate attempt, the angels conveyed God's words that dictated one hundred of her children will die each day unless she return to Heaven. She agreed to it and it was said that every time the sun rises, one hundred Lilim will die each day as the cost for Lilith's freedom.

When it was obvious that Lilith will not return, God took one of Adam's ribs. From bone, it became covered in flesh and eventually, a copy of Adam was made, albeit with a different gender. He made it so that Eve will never act the same way as Lilith in such a way that both Adam and Eve will function like a puzzle box that will live as separate persons, but will never feel complete without the other. Senoy, Sansenoy and Semangelof told Lilith of this news in the hope that she would return to Heaven. Lilith wasn't amused. It was this day that the third sin was born, Jealousy.

Lilith was angered by the turn of events and she did return to Heaven, and the Garden of Eden, in the form of a snake. She tempted Eve to take a fruit from the tree of knowledge. Not knowing what each fruit represent, she asked Eve to take one at random and told her that each one will give her knowledge that would make her and Adam more beautiful, intelligent and closer to God. It was at this time that Lilith, whom Eve had never met before, introduced Vanity to Eve.

Eve was ecstatic about being closer to God that she returned home and cut up the fruit in two. When Adam returned, he asked about the strange fruit that she offered him. Eve told him that the fruit was from the Tree of Knowledge. Adam was angry at her and refused to eat the fruit as God had specifically forbid them from eating any of the fruits from that tree. Eve was desperate to be closer to God that she persuaded Adam to eat it by various means, some of which was taught by Lilith. Adam finally relented and both ate the fruit at the same time. Soon after, an overwhelming feeling washed over them and they tried to hide their naked bodies of which they were not aware of before, seeing as there was no need for protective clothing in the Garden of Eden. This overwhelming feeling was called Shame.

God spoke to them, "You are no longer fit to live in Heaven. You shall go to Earth and live a mortal life there". Both Adam and Eve, who were now covered in leaves sown together, left Heaven in tears. Lilith was laughing with glee.

Soon after they were casted down to Earth, Lilith again grew jealous and bitter as Adam and Eve had each other for comfort while she, who sculpted Adam was alone. One day she abducted Eve after both were asleep and sent her far to the southern end of the world. Both seeing that they were alone spent decades searching for each other, until the angels took pity on them and Gabriel came down to lead Eve to Adam. Lilith grew more and more angry at Gabriel's intervention that she swore she will separate Adam and Eve forever. God, seeing how helpless Adam and Eve were, sent the first of the angels known as the Grigoris down to help them build shelter and gather food. As the number of Adam and Eve's descendants grew, so did the number of Grigoris sent to watch over them and their children. One day, the Grigoris, saddened by mankind's suffering, rebelled against the Almighty God. God sent Gabriel, and he smite each one of the Grigoris until not a single Grigori was left and spent centuries combing the Earth, sowing seeds of disharmony among the Nephilim, the unholy union between the Grigoris and human females. It was one of these unholy offspring that would one day challenge David.

Lilith was tired of being alone. So she constantly seeked Adam's children to be her companion. She stroked a lucky break when Adam, horrified by Cain's murder of his brother Abel, left his family to live alone. It was this time that Lilith came to Adam as Eve and slept with him. She beget him a son though they did not continue to live together as Adam found out soon after that she was Lilith and not Eve as he was led to believe.

Aware that Adam would be more alert since that incident, she sought another companion. She found this in Cain, Adam's son who murdered his own brother out of Greed and Jealousy. She gave birth to girls that would be the firsts of the Lilim. She beget more Lilim afterward before she left Cain.

She met Samael, the Poison of God and she gave birth to many more Lilim, each looking less and less human than the previous ones. After a violent outburst when God snuffed the life of all her children except one, which she managed to save in time, God made her infertile, so she would never be able to give birth to more Lilim.

She then remembered the children she gave birth to when she was with Cain. Many of those were not Lilim by birth. A quick search through the world's populace yielded positive results by the thousands. She awakened their Lilin self and took them in. These people were called Half-Lilin, and they were everywhere.

Maybe your own sister is a Half-Lilin, you'll never know until they got a visit from Lilith herself.

 
Chapter 1
 
I looked down at the bed, watching the man gurgle and drown in his own blood. His throat slashed open and there was a pool of blood at the place where his heart should've been.

Shocked and in fear, I recoiled and retreated away from the bed. As my hands touched the wall, I felt a certain stickiness, with the texture of a thick maple syrup covering my hands. I raised my hands and was horrified at the sight of my blood-covered palms and scissor-sharp nails.

Collapsing to the floor, my mind was confused, not comprehending what was happening. As I listened to his dying sounds, I realized that I wouldn't want to be here when the cops arrive. I will need to flee. Fast.

Slowly, I got up from the floor, stepped past the dying man and into the bathroom. I decided that if I wished to leave, I would need to get rid of the telltale signs of my connection to... whatever happened here. I needed to clean myself.

I closed the door, walking with trepidation to the mirror, wondering how much and how long will I need to take to make myself look halfway normal. As I looked into the mirror, I saw the scariest thing I've ever laid my eyes on.

-----

I awoke with a gasp, or rather, several gasps. It took me awhile to regain awareness.

That damned dream again, I cursed. It's been plaguing my dreams for days now. Always the same dream. Always the same man, same bed, same bathroom, and same face in the mirror.

Try as I might though, I could not recall the face. I recall that it was frightening, but as for details, it was all a blur, except for the eyes. Yes, the eyes. It was yellow and the pupils were slits, similar to the ones on a cat. I supposed it was rather mesmerizing, if one didn't mind the splashes of blood that covered the face. Inside the pupils though, it was filled with fire and cruelty.

That was as much detail as I could recall. Maybe it was time to change prescriptions. This particular one seemed to trade one kind of nightmare for another. Maybe another visit to my shrink will do me good. He did help get rid of my previous nightmares.

But for now, I got to go shower. Mental check: get rid of the alarm clock and buy one with real bells, instead of the one that sounded 'tittit, tittit'.

-------------

"Hey Pat. Mr Punctual's almost late again today. What's up?"

I turned around at the annoyingly mocking face of my high school nemesis. That wasn't really accurate though, we must have been enemies since grade school. To say that I hated him was an understatement, I loathed him with the passion of a big bad dog chasing Garfield.

"Rick, my name is Rick. Besides Chris, what do you care if I'm late?" I countered not bothering to hide my desire to strangle him and skin his face.

He acted hurt, which would've convinced me, if I hadn't known him since elementary school, "I only wanted to know how my best friend's been doing. We are childhood friends after all".

Yeah, right. Childhood friends. Childhood friends don't steal their friend's girlfriends, nor do they break their friend's leg just because their friend happens to be going to the prom with one of the most popular girl in school.

"Besides, your mom asked me to take care of you."

I groaned. My mom passed away 3 months ago, brain tumor they said. Only lived long enough to see me graduate and get a job. My little sister cried a river during her funeral, and mourned for weeks. My mom, she wasn't perfect, but she tried her best to take care of us and listened to us, when no one else would. So when she left, we felt as if we had no one else to turn to. My dad handled it the worst. He buggered off for a long, unscheduled and unanticipated voyage across the world in his yatch solo a week after she died. We haven't heard from him since.

I walked straight to my cubicle, not bothering to reply Chris. Besides, he probably just wanted attention, and I was not going to be the one to give it to him.

Getting the hint, he moved to the cubicle in front of mine and sat on his chair. Go figure, I've been trying to avoid him for my entire school life and here he got the same job, in the same company, in the same office and given the seat right in front of mine after we graduate. A funny irony? Not to me.

I called my shrink and tried to get an appointment for this Saturday. Funny how you could never get an appointment when you asked for it. I got an appointment on Monday instead. Guess I'll have to take a day off. One thing that my boss particularly liked about me was that I never consciously arrive late and I never used office time to do other things.

A message popped up on my screen. "hey, the girls want to go to the bar across the street after work. want to join? sue".

Sue was the girl in accounting whom I met and instantly liked during the company's Christmas party. She claimed that she was only a year older, but you can't really trust women and their claims when it comes to age.

I opened the program and typed a message. "Only the girls? Sue, you know how awkward it is to be the only guy in an all girls group". I wasn't joking, it was awkward. I would talk about global warming and the fuel hike and they'll talk about bras, negligees and cute guys, as well as discount sales. Definitely not my point of interest.

Another message popped up almost instantly, "chick~en. cluck cluck cluck. don't tell me you're afraid of cute little lambs?"

Cute little lambs? Sue always had a way of making me laugh.

"If they're lambs, then Gandhi's a tiger. They're more than capable of ripping the throat of yours truly". Uh oh, wrong choice of words, now I was reminded of my nightmare this morning. I suddenly felt sick, but sent the message anyway.

It took awhile before the next message arrived, "come on, patty, it'll be fun. i promise we won't talk about bras again. please?"

Again with that name. Why is it that everyone insisted on calling me Pat? I hated it. It sounded like short for Patricia. Patty's even worse.

"OK, i'll go. But no bras". Sent.

I received a, "oh you naughty boy".

Naughty boy? Huh?

-----

We did go to the bar that night. I ended up acting as their personal waiter fetching drinks from the bar to our table, again. One of the girls, Liz, left with a cute guy (according to the girls). The rest of us stayed there for another hour.

They delivered their promise of not talking about bras. The entire conversation consisted of make ups and cute guys (according to them). I was pretty sure I groaned a lot.

I think they actually did it to see me squirm.

I got home rather late. After ordering chinese, I sat on the sofa and watched Oprah. My dad always said that I was a dreamer because I watched too much Oprah. I normally just shut up and avoid replying since he was known for his temper and his 'I'm right, you're wrong' attitude. Personally, I liked watching Oprah. It restored my belief in the human race.

After having dinner in front of the TV (a habit my late mom used to try to stomp out of me, without much success), I washed up and went to bed, not without worry. I was pretty sure that I would be having that nightmare again.