The Eternally Damned

The Demoness

When Amelia entered the cottage the first thing she smelled she could only describe as something rotting.

It was a stench oddly familiar but also like no other.

The cottage had creaky wooden floors, tattered old red sofas and was cluttered with antique vases and old ornaments of all sorts.

How is all of this in the middle of Hell? No. Why is all of this in Hell? Amelia asked herself.

The old lady, still comfortable in her rocking chair, gestured towards the sofa on her right. Amelia narrowed her eyes and very slowly approached it, hesitant to sit down.

"You get five questions." The old lady announced still looking at Amelia who was analyzing the sofa in front of her like it would swallow her whole. "It's not going to bite you, dear," the woman crackled.

Amelia finally sat down, "Who. Are. You."

"I am Lilith."

"That name, it sounds awfully familiar," Amelia thoughtfully pointed out.

"There are stories about me, or about what I used to be at least," The old lady leaned back stretching, as if the human skin was giving her hives underneath.

"Why did you want me to follow you here, is this some sort of trick- wait how do I know you're even telling me the truth! I mean why would you just invite a random person in and tell them your whole life story! Oh no!! I'm going to die aren't I? This is how I go?! Falling for this stupid trick! You won't get me without a fight,you hear?!!" Amelia rambled as the gravity of the situation finally settled in and the fearlessness passed away.

She grabbed an old vase for defense but quickly dropped it as a creature slithered out from inside of it.

"Earthlings are really a nuisance. Maybe it is all this worrying that shortens your life spans to mere decades." The old woman ignored Amelia altogether.

"If you are telling the truth then tell me how to get out of this forest!" Amelia exclaimed.

"I zoned you out a while ago but even I can tell that you have used up all your questions." Lilith answered in a dull tone. "To answer your first question, I wanted you to follow me in here because I think we have a common interest...to kill Lucifer."

That caught Amelia's attention.

"You really expect me to believe something living in his kingdom wants to kill him? Or is even capable of it?" She scoffed.

"Don't be fooled by the form I show you, you do not know what I am capable of." Lilith hissed.

"Why are there...those buttons on your eyes?" Amelia couldn't help but ask.

"Don't you earthlings say that phrase, what was it? Oh 'curiosity killed the cat' ?"

"Well its a good thing I'm not a cat. Answer me."

"Demons can fool people by their appearances but it is the eyes that you can never hide- at least not from the people that know how to look. So I buttoned them up." Lilith explained "if you look into my eyes or see my true form you will see monsters and you will fall into madness."

"Is that not what you want?" Amelia accused.

"For most people. But not you-" Lilith was cut off at the sound of an embarrassed Amelia's hungry stomach growling. "When you saw the apple trees you didn't try to take a bite of any of the apples even though you were clearly hungry, Why?" Lilith asked.

"Because I'm not an idiot." Amelia quickly answered like it was obvious before she looked around the lion's cage she had just voluntarily walked into and reconsidered the idiot part.

"That may be but for everyone else it is not much of a choice."
The old lady smiled wickedly, "The apple trees you see right now are the same ones that produced the apple Eve took a bite off. After Adam and Eve were banished to Earth, did you ever wonder about what happened to the trees in heaven? They were sent here.

If you had taken a bite of any of those apples you would have seen an the alternate version of this place, one with long, thick hungry snakes falling off the trees, the ground covered in beetles trying to crawl over you- oh and this sweet little cottage- you don't want to know what happens to this place. It is almost poetic, the damned souls reliving the same fate as her, although I'd have to argue being sent to Earth was a much more pleasant punishment."

"Sounds rather painful," Amelia carefully spoke.

"But you didn't fall for it, I have been here for a million and one centuries and it is the first time. How can I not invite you into my house?" Lilith tilted her head slightly.

"You mentioned killing Lucifer," Amelia brought up, "what did you mean?" She wanted to ask Lilith about the sword but Amelia was carful to not let Lilith know what Amelia herself knew.

"We have a history," Lilith's lips curled into a cruel smile.

"Do not stop there." Amelia urged her on, desperate to know.

"I tried to kill him. I failed and now I am here. What else is there to know?"

"You took ages elaborating about those stupid overgrown weeds for trees but you give me three sentences about this?" Amelia was growing impatient.

"I'd watch how you speak to me, girl." Lilith spoke, her voice now poisonous. "I am a Demoness, made out of the soil of Hell, I burned in its fires and I carry all of its ashes. I was made to rule Hell but when Lucifer and his brothers fell they were too powerful for me and my demons to control and soon enough Lucifer with Satan by his side embraced the torture and turned into something truly wicked. And soon they were ruling Hell not running from it.

It was something I was unable to accept, they were growing more and more powerful. I was a Queen and I am nobody's servant but their abilities were beyond me.

So I faked my loyalty to Lucifer and I warmed his bed. But without his knowledge I made a portal to Earth where I had some of the most powerful witches to ever walk, create a sword for me and then When Lucifer left his back open, I stabbed him with it."