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 Lilim, 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 lilim will die. The Lilim 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. The Half-Lilin Chapters 2-4 by Shin Eris

 
Chapter 2
 

I was walking alone in the darkness. Darkness? I wasn't very sure. Maybe it was actually brightness, it was hard to tell really. Around me, thick mist swirled and flowed. I couldn't even see my toes. Just kept walking forward, not knowing why I continued to do so.

As soon as she said that, my feet felt light and every step raised me upwards as well as forward. It must've looked like I was climbing an invisible staircase. Then the mist evaporated and I was violently wrenched backwards

I woke up with a sweat. Man, that was rather intense. That last part was definitely something that I did not appreciate. My heart still felt like it would rip itself out through my spine.

As I showered, I reflected on my dreams. It was definitely a much better one than my everyday dreams. I made a slight smile. I missed seeing Mother in my dreams. I haven’t seen her since the night she attempted to kill me in my dream and since I took my prescription.

Oh heck! I forgot to take my pills last night. I didn't have any nightmares though, so did this meant that I no longer needed the pills?

Mother Gaia, as I understood to be her name, used to appear in my dreams starting shortly after my mom's death. At first I thought that it was my mom in disguise, sent back to help her poor, left-behind family cope with her departure. I immediately knew it to be wrong. Mother Gaia was very different from my mom. Mother Gaia had a more subtle mix of caring and love. Oh, you can feel it there, but you'll always know that it was just maternal instincts and that she had more important things to do or talk about rather than holding you and rubbing you kindly.

But Mother Gaia helped me in a lot of ways. When I was sad from my mom's death, she was there and although she did nothing, she stood there listening to me whining about the unfairness of it all. Sometimes I would ask her questions, and she would reply with images that form descriptions of which I had to translate myself.

My shrink told me it was just me desiring a mother figure after losing my mom. He told me that it was all simply my subconscious splitting a part of myself to converse with the main personality. It all sounded rather weird to me, but I followed his suggestion of recording each minor details of the dreams in a little book I called 'dream diary'. Some of the dreams were forgotten as soon as I opened my eyes, though some lingered a while longer. So the 'diary' wasn't very complete.

If Mother Gaia was just another part of me though, I must be some kind of a closet Socrates deep inside because the answers she gave were very deep and philosophical.

-----

A message popped up as I entered my cubicle, “patty, you free this evening?”

Must be Sue, I thought. That IP looked like hers. I placed my coffee next to the keyboard, “I don't have any plans for today if that's what you're asking”.

“would you like to come to my place for dinner?”

I grinned; I've been to her place a few times before. It was a cool house with a swimming pool and such, inherited from her favorite uncle. I know, at my age, I shouldn't be so giddy about swimming pools, but I couldn't help it. I love swimming pools.

“My, my, girl. You're asking me for a dinner date? What would your bf say?”

I thought she suddenly felt guilty and won't be replying me. As I took a fourth sip of my coffee, her reply came,”we just broke up”.

I soaked the LCD flatscreen with a mouthful of coffee. Immediately getting a handful of tissues, I wiped it all clean. It wouldn't do to have the boss walk by and saw me vandalizing company property.

“I'm sorry, I didn't know. Want to talk about it?”

“just tell me yes or no. i'm not sure what i want right now.”

I decided that I need to be a good friend to her, so I sent, “Sure, I'd love to. May I bring my swimming trunks? ^_^”.

“you're such a kid. sure, maybe we can have a swim after dinner”. I didn't know how, but I could sense her mood had improved with that reply.

“OK, I'll see you at 8?”

“sure, bring some booze though. i'm thinking of getting plastered.”

Laughing inwardly, I recalled that Sue had a very low alcoholic tolerance and it wouldn't take much at all to get her plastered.

“Will do.”

I sent another message quickly after, “This is Sue, right?”

“of course this is sue. who else calls you patty and sits in accounting?” Well, I can name a few.

Avoiding argument, “Right, but I wish you would stop calling me Patty. It sounds really girly”.

“patty patty patty”. I could sense her smirk as she typed those.

Oh well, at least she was participating in the joy of making fun of me.

-----

“Hey dude, need I remind you that it's Saturday? Which means half day?” Guhh, that damn son of a something really annoy me.

“Too much work to finish.” Please, just piss off.

He hovered outside my cubicle for a while, probably thinking of an insult of sort.

“I heard you'll be having dinner with Sue Preston tonight.”

How could such insignificant news be a subject of gossip? I turned around facing him, “And how, pray tell is it any of your business who I'm having dinner with? I don't remember signing up as public property, and I sure as hell don't remember signing up as your personal property. Why is it that you always want to take what I have?”

His gaze turned hard and I half expected that he'll break my bones. It conjured a memory of the incident that happened four years ago, a month before prom. Despite him being significantly larger than myself, I wasn't afraid at all.

I could sense a slight tremor in his voice, “I'm just looking out for you, dude”.

I stood up, angry. “Oh, for my own good, no doubt? Just like the day you broke my leg with a hockey stick soon after you found out I will be going to the prom with Cathy Thomas?”

He looked apologetic, if I hadn't known him since we were kids; I probably would've believed him. “I told you, it was...”

“An accident? Yes, you've spouted that crap since forever. Saying 'Hey look, I bought a new hockey stick. Pow! Oh sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you. Are you OK?' doesn't make it an accident. Please, just get lost”. Or there will probably be a case of vandalism concerning a CPU casing and someone's fractured head.

Thankfully, he stormed off to his cubicle, grabbed his briefcase and left. I wasn't really sure if I would be strong enough to pick up the heavy CPU, raise it over his head and slam it down.

Looking around, I realized that we've raised quite a crowd. I shot a murderous glare in the general direction, "Just what in all hell do you all think you're looking at? Want me to do a strip show as well?"

As they scurried away to do whatever they were doing before, I turned around to look at the lucky CPU that would live another day. Scowling, I sat down on my chair and played House of the Dead 2.

-----

I arrived home at 5PM. Apparently my skills with the mouse had became rusty and I needed three hours with multiple tries to finally be able to kill the Emperor. Imagine how totally screwed I would be if someone invited me to join a CS tourney now.

Normally after coming home from work on Saturdays, I would start making dinner for myself. Nothing elaborate, just something with meat, chips, salad and mashed potatoes. Since I lived alone, I was never under any obligation to use the dining table. Most of the time, I sat on the floor, put my meal on the coffee table and watched TV while having dinner. Needless to say, I have absolutely no table manner when I'm alone.

Today though, I kept myself hungry since I would be having dinner at Sue's in 3 hours. Sue was a believer in eating well and exercising often, so I half expected that she'd be cooking more than I could handle.

I went up to my room to wash the grime and sweat away from my body. I was never one who liked sweat, so I normally avoided sweat producing activities, except for the occasional morning jogs. Normally I'd do it if I had an hour or two to spare before going to the office. That way I'd have enough time to shower and get rid of all the sweat. Plus, the park nearby was just so beautiful, it simply screamed, “Go jogging!”

It's funny, sometimes I actually heard someone saying that. I wonder if I've developed schizophrenia too.

After showering, I opted for casual attire, round-neck T with slacks. Well, she never said it would be a candle-light dinner. I didn't think someone who just broke up would be in the mood for a candlelight dinner so soon anyway.

Grabbing my keys and the wine that's been sitting in my fridge for weeks, I left my apartment for the car park under the building.

Oh darn, I almost forgot my swimming trunks.

Half an hour later, I arrived at Sue's place. It was located in the wealthier part of the city. I've been here a few times, but never managed to get over my awe for the entire neighborhood. Her uncle was one cool dude. If I didn't know any better, I would've thought that her uncle was a Columbian drug lord.

It wasn't that my family lived in a trailer park or something that made me so in awe of her uncle. For one, my family while not wealthy was rather well off. Heck, how else could my father afford a yatch if we lived in a trailer park? This though, just defined awesome. Anything more awesome would be a palace, or a castle on the highlands.

I stopped the car in front of the main gate. Pulling out my cell phone, I called Sue telling her of my arrival. Sure, I could probably ring the bell, yes, but why would I want to walk several feet away to the intercom when I could just talk to her without raising my legs at all?

Soon enough, the gate opened and I cruised into her driveway.

She opened the front door as I came to the top of the stairs. “Hey, I thought you weren't coming”.

I raised an eyebrow, “I think I'm only late by less than 5 minutes”.

Giggling, she ushered me in. I handed her the wine and asked if there was anything she wanted my help with. She told me she had already finished everything and asked me to sit on the sofa and relax before dinner.

A few minutes later, she called me to the dining room. Entering the dining room, I thought, yep, a very large meal as expected. Commenting on how delicious it looked and smelled, I sat down in front of her and dug in. It was very good, and I told her so. She looked visibly happy and told me to eat more, there was plenty more where it came from.

I must've made a funny face because she laughed when she looked at me.

After dinner, I volunteered to wash the dishes and then we sat in the living room watching TV, talking about everything and nothing while drinking wine. Her speech pattern started to sound slurred after the third glass.

She started talking about her most recent ex and why she broke up with him. She asked me if what she did was wrong, if she was the one at fault in the first place. Being her friend, I told her the most cliché but possibly the best words for this situation, that it wasn't her fault and things just happened.

Frankly, I myself had no idea why any guy would want to have an affair with another woman when he already have someone blonde, bright and beautiful like Sue Preston. The only thing she's missing is 'b for bosom'.

I left a little after 11, after carrying her up to her bedroom since her collapse on the sofa. I tried to talk her out of having more wine, but she seemed determined to finish the entire bottle. I tested my steps, smelled my breath and satisfied that I was not drunk and so could drive home. I only had three glasses after all but you never know.

As I prepared to go to sleep, I looked at the anti-psychotic pills on the cupboard next to my bed. I decided to forgo taking it to see how it would go tonight.

Aw heck, I forgot to use her swimming pool.

Chapter 3

The two figures on the bed rolled around. The man with the handsome face and toned muscles groaned as the woman with large wings and pointy tail rested her body on his while squeezing his testicles with her fingers. No words were exchanged between them, but they both knew what each other wanted and both wished to gain the most from each other.

Then her eyes turned feral and she kissed his lips, sucking into her every drop of saliva, every single breath and everything else that kept him alive. He realized too late as his body weakened and her wings pulled back behind her.

-----

My Sunday breakfast normally consisted of baked beans, sausage and scrambled eggs. The difference with today was that I replaced sausage with hash browns. Then I would normally spend the entire morning cleaning the house before showering in the afternoon.

Today however, I was feeling extremely energetic and wanted to do something different for a change. So I showered earlier, sent my clothes to the laundry and sped off to the shopping mall. The car parks were especially crowded this morning, so I had to make several turns and rounds until I finally caught a car moving out of the lot. Once I entered the shopping complex, I went straight to my most favorite place in the entire county, the arcade. House cleaning can be done later.

It had been a rather long time since I last entered an arcade. I used to go to the arcade every week when I was in college. I decided that I was going to start doing that again.

As I entered the arcade, I looked for my favorite games. I like guns the best, so typically my favorite games would be one of those shooting games. I toured around the arcade; watching people playing and making a mental note of which machine had a badly tuned gun. I found my favorite game, the Police 911 which I knew from experience would turn anyone's legs into jelly if one played for too long. Unfortunately, both machines were occupied.

I weighted my options. There were other shooting games such as House of the Dead (all three!), a ninja something game (not really interested), Virtua Cop (rather old), Time Crisis (all occupied) and Biohazard (badly tuned gun). I settled on the vacant Dance Dance Revolution instead. I got a lot of energy to burn.

A few hours later, I was desperately searching for a place to sit. After half an hour of the Police 911 game, I found that I could neither walk, stand nor avoid the shots anymore. My legs felt like collapsing on me. My muscles must've been badly overstretched and weakened. I couldn't even walk out of the arcade if I didn't hold on to something. For the next few minutes, the wall was my best friend.

Finding a bench, I sat down to ease the jelly-ness of my knees. Leaning back, I watched people going about their activities; some I noticed were here with a purpose, while others were simply here to socialize and window shop. Some others apparently had a somewhat huge purpose judging from the number of purchases hanging from each hand.

It was then that I realized for my whole life, I had never bothered to stop and look at my surroundings. I've lived my entire life focusing on 'what's important' that I never really understood the pleasures of life itself. Even when I went to the arcades in my college years, I always went alone. Correction, I always went alone and played alone. Of course sometimes there would be some guys asking me if I would mind if they took the linking slot. My grunts constituted the only answer and the guy would put the tokens into the slot and shoot away, only to die a few minutes later. Amateurs.

My eyes fell on a family of four. The two little girls were pulling their parents into a clothing store for kids. I wondered when I would be able to have a family of my own, and how long would it be before I could have kids that I could love and cherish. Chuckling, I decided that I didn't envy the father of the little girls though. The store looked awfully pink.

It was three hours later that I returned to my car. It took me two hours to convince myself that I was able to walk unsupported and one hours of walking in the supermarket section to convince me that I could drive. I arrived home half an hour later than I should be. I was driving very slowly.

-----

At four, I decided to stop my cleaning and start dinner. It was then that the phone rang. I left the potatoes in the pot and went to pick it up.

“Hello?” I asked while wiping the plates.

“Hey, Pat.” Oh great, Chris. I could never forget that voice.

“What do you want now, Chris? Going to tell me that you're coming over to show me a new hockey stick?”

His tone changed, “Man, you're never going to let me forget, aren't you? I said I was sorry. It was a long time ago”.

I wiped the plates a little harder and rougher this time, despite the fact that doing it gently worked just as well.

“The fact remains that you destroyed my high school prom experience. What did you hope to accomplish anyway? It's not like Cathy Thomas will go and find you just because you broke my leg.” In fact, I heard she hated him since then. No one had ever stopped her going to a party by breaking her date's leg with a hockey stick.

“Look, I'm not calling to talk about what happened four years ago...”

“Oh? Going to stop using hockey sticks and start to use steel pipes now? You big bully, who I went out with is none of your concern.” I shot back, still wiping the already shining-clean plates.

Before he could manage a reply, I added, “You are neither my brother, father, uncle nor even my cousin”.

“Now, hold on a minute...”

“Seriously, I don't understand what you did when you did, to tell the truth. I think you're just jealous because I got all the cool girls.”

I could tell that I've succeeded in getting a rise off him. I think by this time he would've been clenching his fist and looking for things to smash.

“I'M NOT CALLING TO ARGUE. BEER AT WESTON'S TONIGHT WITH THE GUYS. YES OR NO?”

“NO!” Well, he did yell first. I didn't appreciate being yelled at.

“FINE!”

I put down the phone as soon as I heard it disconnect. I shrugged, no loss to me.

Chapter 4

The woman with bat-like wings soared high over the city. Her blood-red hair flowing in the winds as she glides through the air. Her nose actively seeking the scent of her favorite food, ignoring the less nutritional kinds and searching for the most delicious and filling of them all.