╚»★  𝕰𝖛𝖊 ★«╝

Before we go, I let Lilith clean me up. I'm not sure how I'm still alive after what Adam does to me, but I'm glad I am. I'm also not sure what the whole point of this is. Where would we all go after heaven would be brought down? I had no home. I doubted either of them did.

I look around the city and see tall buildings closely packed with each other, people zooming across on hover boards and...technology within their grasp. I've never seen anything so hauntingly beautiful and ugly at the same time.

"Ugly," I whisper, watching the greying, faded buildings and the colourful lives of people. "Don't you think...they look simultaneously dead and...happy?"

Zeki nods, agreeing with me. "Yeah. Looks like that. Maybe they're faking it."

"Who cares guys?" Lilith watches her modern compass that's speaking to her.

"The fact that even after a million years from now, people are still...unhappy, reckless and wild," Zeki notes. "It's just weird is all. I don't get why we came along with you."

"You shouldn't have," she snaps, hitting the compass and glaring at us.

"Well...either way is fine. Either we get hurt there or here, if we die," Zeki shrugs.

"Yeah," I voice slowly.

Lilith pierces me with her flaming eyes. "You don't even have an opinion. So what are you going on and on about?"

"I just..." I frown. If she's just like Adam...I was wrong to think she was different. "No one ever asked me about what I wanted. Neither have you."

I see something fall from the skies, like little spools of threads, and within seconds I realize I'm drenched. "What is this?"

"Rain," Lilith answers and watches the sky in amazement.

"Looks like little silver threads," I shake my head and laugh. Lilith doesn't answer and I see her closing her eyes and opening her palms, outstretched. Her skin gleams with the water and her clothes are soaked in. She's enjoying this. She's so lost in it and probably...she loves it.

I imitate her and stretch my hands out, watching her as Zeki takes shelter somewhere. I suppose ze like to be dry and don't enjoy it. As I blink, I feel the rain wrap around my body like a protective shield and I get closer to her.

I can see the shape of her body so well now, the curves and the planes and I feel a maddening sense of thrill until I feel suspended in the air and Zeki watches me in horror.

"Lilith! Lilith, I don't know what's happening!" I scream. She opens her eyes and her eyes widen and she looks around for Zeki.

I realize my hands have clutched a rain strand and it has pulled me into the air with it. But I'm the only one being affected. It wraps around my body and ankle and pulls me further and further away and Lilith rushes forward and starts to swing her sword everywhere, trying to break the rain ropes.

"I can't do it!" she screams back. I let go of the ropes in my palms and she sees it suspended for a short while. Jumping she slashes through the air, and the rope breaks but I feel myself propelled higher with a greater speed.

"Zeki, do something! I don't care if people see us!" Lilith shouts at zem.

Zeki shakes zir head and says something and then I see zem swooping above, flying as ze clutch the sword. I close my eyes when the sand and rain blur my vision.

I feel myself falling at an alarming rate but I do not scream the way she's screaming and when she does, I hold her hand, in hopes she might get calmer but I feel myself tense when I feel my heart hammer in my chest at the mere contact of our skin. Opening my eyes, I see Lilith hold me and take deep breaths until she calms down.

"What were you doing?" she scowls at me and then shakes her head. "What if you went back up into heaven and got hurt again?"

I smile a lazy smile and touch her cheeks. "Well, I suppose you could teach me to slash people's faces."

***

We are back at the heavens and I see Lilith sharpening her sword at a stone and Zeki pacing back and forth with nervousness.

"Hey," I get up and wince a little as my head hurts from getting up suddenly.

Lilith looks over at me. "Good to see you're awake. Cif will be here any moment."

"Who?" I ask, and look at Zeki, who's muttering things to zemself. 

"Lucifer?" she throws up her hands. "You know. The snake who tempts you."

She laughs maniacally and I frown. "Oh."

"Not good I know," she coughs up in bouts of laughter. "But he's good. You'll see."

I roll my eyes. "Right. I know he's not."

Lilith shrugs and makes her way to me. "No one is good here."

She pauses and then gives me a once over. "Except maybe you and Zeki. You're just innocent."

I don't respond. "So why are you sharpening the sword if it's just to cut miracles away?"

"I don't know. It couldn't cut the silver rain ropes. So, yeah," she frowns at it, sighing. "Zeki. Do you know how to do miracles?"

"Kinda," he says sheepishly.

"I'm stuck with a bunch of misfits," she swears. "Why do the heavens have to punish me this much?"

Zeki interrupts her rant. "So...I'm just gonna sit in my space for a while."

Lilith shrugs. "Don't expect me to save you. I feel like a god but no, too much responsibility."

I giggle. "Don't think that that's actually going to make us believe that you don't care about us."

Lilith glares at me. "I don't. I need people to overthrow this and that's all."

My smile vanishes and I look away so she doesn't see my eyes water. "I...guess I'm going to get some air."

"What air? We are in the middle of a garden with all the fresh air you could possibly want."

"No...I just...need to be alone," I whisper and then walk away hurriedly until Lilith pulls my hand.

"Hey. I'm sorry," she stares at the ground, still clutching my hand. I look back and wipe my tears. "I just...I just want what's mine...and I can't have it."

I pull her close. "I guess we all want that. Me, you, and Zeki. We can't have it properly."

Lilith wraps her arms around me. "What do you want, Eve?"

"Just someone who understands me. And for this madness to end. I don't even know...Lilith. I feel like they're hiding something," I continue. "I saw something vague similar to the storm when I ate the apples."

Lilith hums and pulls back, staring intensely at my face that makes me blush. "Yeah."

"Yeah, and I guess heaven isn't perfect because we'll find out what's really going on and no one seems to be really there, and I don't get why god wants us to do all this stuff when really it seems useless."

"Mm hmm," she traces her fingers across my cheeks and I stop blabbering.

"Yes. Once we do that..."

"Eve, shut up," Lilith laughs. "You're beautiful. I wish Adam could see what you really are."

I look away and pull her hands away. "He does. And then after he's done I'm not beautiful anymore, I'm just a slave...I guess."

Lilith frowns and reaches for me as I flinch from her touch and she retrieves her hand. "You don't trust me?"

"You look like you can slice someone in half, without blinking," I whisper.

"Yeah, but I have not hurt you," she looks at me helplessly.

"Yet."

"Eve," she looks everywhere but at me. "I...I don't have a heart. You can see pieces of me being traded for metal to get this done. I traded my heart for a knife. The medicines of heaven help...but I honestly don't know how I'm still alive..."

She trails off and I don't get why she's telling me all this. If all she wants is my trust, and then to break my body like I know she can, I do not want any part in her grand plans.

"Okay," I say simply. "I still need to think about this."