"Lilith, that's a pretty name."
Her obsidian eyes looked deeply into his. "Interesting, I have never heard anyone say that before."
"Lilith, I appreciate everything you have done for me but I must be getting back to my home and job." He squirmed a bit and then heard her soft, melodic laugh. Did he amuse her? He realized then, that she was still watching him.
As John looked back at her, again he felt as if he was being pulled and spun about. Her pupils seemed to grow larger, rotating, pulling at him. Everything around him grew blurry, he felt trapped in a vortex of spinning, black water. The whirlpool seized him, sucking the breath from his lungs. Down he fell in to the dark cylinder. He flung his arms trying to claw his way out. Nausea swept over him and he closed his eyes tight to stop the spinning. In the background, he heard her pleasant-sounding laugh, at first so soothing but then it changed and grew deeper. Opening his eyes, her face appeared within the blackish vortex, smooth and sweet. Her long blond hair was waving about her face while her lips were slightly parted. As her laugh took on the gruffness and deepness of a man, so did her face change. Small lines appeared and quickly became deep wrinkles. The soft contour of her jawline seemed to stretch and become more pronounced and the hair that blew around her was now white. Only the eyes remained their deep, black pools. Her laugh became deafening and the spinning blackness increased speed. Squeezing his eyes tight and clamping his hands tightly to his ears he felt that his head was about to explode.
Then everything went black.
When he awoke a few hours later, he once again lay on the bed of pelts. "What the hell was that?" He thought. He sat up and looked around the room. Lilith was in the small kitchen chopping something with a knife.
When she saw him sitting up, she quickly put the knife down and rushed to his side. "John, Oh my, you had me worried. One minute, we were chatting and then you suddenly looked very sick."
She reached out a hand to touch his arm but he flinched and swiftly pulled it away. He could not look at her face directly but had noticed her skin was smooth and lovely. Rubbing his head with both hands, he tried to clear his head. "What happened?"
"Oh, John, you fainted! You were chattering on about something, but you seemed to be growing green in the face the more you talked. Then you pressed your hands to your ears, let out a horrible scream and fainted dead away. I was so frightened! Are you feeling better now?" Her hand still hovered close to him but she did not try to touch him again.
This time when he looked up at her face, he saw only true concern written all over it. "It was so odd. I mean, it was like I was having a nightmare but I was awake."
"I am making a rabbit stew; maybe you just need a good meal." This time when she placed her hand on his arm, he did not flinch. "Let me go finish putting the stew together, so I can cook it." She stood up and rubbed her hands together.
John watched her head back to the kitchen. He could not understand why at times she made him so tense and off-balance but at other times, she was like a mother hen, comforting and safe. His strange dream, or whatever it was, had felt so real, so horrifying, but now thinking back it had to have all been a dream.
She came back with a medium sized pot filled with her stew. Removing the pot with the tea from the stand, she placed the stew pot on it and began humming, quietly to herself as she stirred the stew slowly.
Curiously, he watched her. "How long have you lived here?"
Lilith stopped stirring and thought for a few moments. "I'm not sure how long it has been. It seems like an eternity!" With this, she gave a lilting laugh and went back to stirring.
"Where is my backpack? I haven't done any writing since the snow started and would like to work on it a bit if you don't mind?" John stood up and looked around.
Lilith pointed towards the bed. "I tucked it underneath the bed. Go ahead the stew will take a bit. What are you writing about?"
John began to tell her the work he was creating. She laughed as he became more and more animated with each twist and turn of the story. She was the only person he had shared his idea with and found it exciting to get them finally out of his head.
Stay Tuned for Part Five
(Copyright 2012 E. L. Gross)
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