Lilith

Chapter 2

The Legend

In Bed

It feels like a movie. It's as if these memories don't belong to me and I'm a spectator who paid for a ticket to attend the premiere in a movie theatre.

These images surface and go away without my apparent will, at least they seem to have a consecutive logic. Now, however, I am more certain than ever that in order to solve this mystery I must get to the bottom of the story.

More time has passed and nothing has changed... well, not really nothing: the night has fallen; maybe if I could fall asleep for a few hours, when I woke up everything would be normal again.

Yes, but why isn't everything normal? That Roberto is the first victim of a tremendous deadly virus and I am the second and tragic episode? I would say that American apocalyptic films should be halved at the cinema.

Just a moment! Here's something new: my neck is no longer motionless, now I can move my head! And that's progress.

Who knows, maybe if I tried harder, I'd be able to move the rest of my body and maybe even stand up....

Inhuman effort.

What the hell!

I look around. Despite the darkness I can make out a few objects in the room.

Doubtful: has the window always been open?

The white crenelated curtain, urged on by the wind, flutters free. It almost seems to be animated by a will of its own, with a tendency to take on distinct shapes with every puff it receives.

First it was a large bird, perhaps an eagle.

Now the meaning of the figure is lost and reinvented: it is a woman with long, loose hair.

It lasts a short time. A gust arrives and disrupts everything. The curtain becomes tangled as if handled by a skilful conjurer who cleverly makes it take the shape of...

Home

"Meow..."

"A cat?"

What the hell is a cat doing in front of my front door?

"Meow." It rubs ruffling at my pants. He looks hungry.

He has a small golden collar that stands out against the clear grey fur. I pet him smoothly and he lets me pick him up.

"Where did you run off to? Your owner is sure to be worried."

He wears a really nice collar. He's too clean and sociable to be for a stray.

"Meow." He appreciates my attention and purrs at me.

A tag pops out of his collar that I hadn't noticed before. There is opaque writing on it. I try to read it.

"Lil... what's next? It doesn't read well, maybe your name is Lilli? Are you a sissy then? Let's see if I can find you master."

I walk out the door and go to the intercom. I start ringing one by one to all the tenants. Except for three who don't seem to be home, they all answer me that they are not the owners.

"Now what am I going to do with you? I don't feel like putting you out on the street. I'll tell you what: I'll host you and I'll commit myself to finding your owner, but only for a few days at the most, but then..." With my hands I make a gesture more than eloquent even for the understanding of a feline.

"Meow." He seems to agree. Pact sealed.

I open the door with the keys and as soon as the door opens, he frees himself from my grasp with an agile move and quickly enters the house.

"Yes, good, go ahead and make yourself at home, don't worry."

Elegantly he points straight at the sofa as if he already knew the environment and with a decisive leap he takes possession of it. Sitting in a composed manner, she moves her paw. It seems absurd, but I could swear that she is pointing to the kitchen. If she's hungry, then that means there are two of us.

"Fine: I'll cook tonight, but we're agreed that you'll do the dishes afterwards!"

Of course I must have gone crazy if I'm talking to a cat and making a deal with it. What female, human or not, in history has ever respected a pact?

The cat seems to have fallen asleep, but I don't really want to sleep and the TV doesn't show any program worthy of attention. I get up listlessly from the couch, letting the bluish light of the television give some colour to the room, and I look out the window. The thought of Roberto's fate is now a permanent concern, but I put it aside for a moment to admire the beautiful moon that illuminates the almost deserted street this evening. It's that almost that upsets me.

That bike again! I'm not wrong and it can't be just a coincidence. But where is the owner? I try to read the license plate: too far away. Okay, you won't get away from me this time.

I grab a piece of paper and a pen from the shelf, put on a jacket and hurry out to check for myself.

Gone. Damn it, it's gone! Yet I was a missile and didn't give her time to disappear. Unless I dreamed her, but I don't think I've gone that stupid.

I returned to the apartment and noticed that the front door was open. But didn't I close it? My eye falls on the couch: where did the cat go? I look for him, but he seems to have disappeared too.

What is this, the evening dedicated to Houdini?

Office

Is it possible that in this period my office is always flooded with papers? Okay, let's take a coffee break and call Roberto's sister.

"Hi, it's me: Davide. Any news of your brother?"

"Hi. The doctors say he's stable. I managed to see him, albeit only for a few minutes, but what happened? Blessed God, I almost didn't recognize him!" Her voice trembles.

"To tell you the truth, I was hoping you would know more, but listen to me: now you don't have to worry, he's being kept under control and you'll see that when he recovers everything will be back to normal and he'll explain everything to us."

"I don't know... I'm scared, I've never seen him like this!"

Can I blame her?

"Because you've never been there during one of our beer nights!" Bluff, maybe she believes it.

"Beer? But what beer! They didn't find a drop of alcohol in his blood, let alone traces of drugs!"

He didn't believe it. Let's try to change tactics.

"Did they mention the congenital disease hypothesis to you?"

"Yes! And I'm super sure it can't be, we've always been healthy in our family. Then there's the matter of all that missing blood, and you want to know another weird one? Apparently the only place it could be leaking from is a bruise on her neck, and there isn't even a tiny hole to give it any logic!"

"Ah!" Blown away. I try to baste something else.

"You'll see... but yes, you'll see that before long the doctors will figure out what's wrong with her and everything will seem simple. Don't make things more complicated than they are, after all, neither you nor I have a medical degree. Let those who are more competent than us draw the right conclusions."

"I'm trying, Davide, I'm really trying, but right now it's not easy to be optimistic. But you really have no idea what he might have been doing these days, or what company he was keeping? Maybe if we go back a few days before it happened, we could figure it out more."

"I know something about a girl he was seeing..."

Best to avoid specifics.

"...but I haven't had a chance to go into it properly, I don't even know her name, or where she lives."

"I understand... but if anything comes to mind, please tell me right away!"

"Count on it, don't worry."

Could I tell her that the girl is probably a nymphomaniac maniac picked up in the bathroom of a pub frequented mostly by exalted lunatics?

Come to think of it, though, Sara might not have it completely wrong. What if you investigated this phantom lady x a little more? With any luck it might be relatable to the woman on the bike.

It would take some sort of starting point that would reconnect the facts...um...maybe friends on the net. Yeah, if I could track them down, they could point me to the club he was at that night and maybe with a little luck I could meet her. From what I understand, the chick is guaranteed not to go unnoticed anyway.

What was the name of the site where she was chatting? Damn my memory!

I have to remember...

I have to remember...

Hospital

"Hi Sara. Do you think they'll let me in to visit today?"

She looks at me as if trying to get rid of a thought that had kidnapped her and taken her elsewhere. Probably, if I hadn't spoken to her, she wouldn't have noticed me. I get up from the bench and, occupying her entire field of vision, I help her to compose my figure. It works.

"Oh, David! Excuse me, have you been here long?"

"No, just now..." About three quarters of an hour.

"Roberto? How is he today?" I investigate, but his face doesn't hint at anything good.

"He's recovering, except for the amnesia." She is incredulous.

"Amnesia?"

Holy shit, is this getting worse instead of better?

"Yes, the doctors say it's due to severe psychological trauma and that it's probably temporary. Davide, it honestly doesn't sound like amnesia to me. When I tried to talk to him he would stare at me with his eyes wide open as if he didn't understand." This might be within the range of normal.

"Sorry, but at this point I'd like to check it out for myself. I don't know what my chances are of being recognized, but if it's okay with you, I'd like to try anyway."

"That's fine, but let's try not to tire him out too much."

I walk through the door of the room and contemplate in amazement the figure of the man who was once a great friend of mine. I struggle to frame him. Above the bed, with his back against the pillows, his gaze is immersed in the emptiness of the beige wall. His hair is completely white. Deep wrinkles run down the sides of his mouth and forehead. My God, he must have lost twenty pounds. A grimace of pain appears on his sister's face, I ignore it and gently make my way to the bedside.

"Hi Roberto, how are you, do you recognize me? I'm Davide."

I slowly enunciate the words.

I manage to shake him out of his state. He turns his head, looks at me for a second and then, as if to say and who cares, goes back to silently staring at the wall that is probably more interesting than my words. I throw a half smile at Sara trying to reassure her. I have to find something that really gets her attention, even if it means destroying the damn wall with a spade!

"You need to hurry up and get yourself together, otherwise the gorgeous girl you met will pick someone else to have fun with. What did you say her name was? Giulia?"

It would be a miracle if I got her name right immediately. In fact, she doesn't respond. I turn the wheel and try again.

"... no, no. Now I seem to remember: Francesca?"

The most common female names throughout the peninsula. Nothing, this doesn't work either. It is useless to continue on this path. I try to touch his arm to shake him, but with a cold look he makes me understand that it is not even the case to touch it. I am more than a little embarrassed. I don't know what to do and I understand his sister's state of anxiety. Heck, now I'm seriously worried too.

"Sniff! Sniff!" What is she doing, sniffing me?

My God, this has reached the end of the line.

"You! You've met her!"

Okay, I managed to get him talking, or rambling....

"Met who? Maybe, Roberto, you're referring to that girl you were telling me about?"

"You've been with her! You, you touched her, you touched her, you touched her..." He continues obsessively, in a frenzy. What is he saying? I have to calm him down.

"No, trust me, I swear...I've never seen her."

Oh my God! He's shaking. Sara looks at me hallucinating. If she keeps this up, ten to one she'll burst into tears....

"Enough David...now leave the room..., please!" That's it, exactly: a flood of tears.

My heart clenches at that plea.

"Yes, of course. I'll be right out."

I get out of bed and look resignedly at my friend.

"Get well soon..."

A barely whispered phrase, who knows if he heard me.

With my hand I make a sign to Sara.

"I'll wait for you outside, I need to talk to you." Nodding, she gently strokes her brother to calm him down.

Minutes pass and I try to reorganize my few confused ideas.

Sara walks out of the room and wipes her eyes, now contoured by a black halo of loose makeup. I get up and walk towards her. She looks soothed again.

"I'm sorry if I was a little abrupt earlier, it's just..."

"Don't worry, it's okay."

In her shoes, I might have even been less diplomatic.

"I wanted to ask you something." I take time to phrase the request in a way that doesn't give her false hope.

"Here, I was wondering if you could give me the keys to his apartment...you know, I have some ideas to try to figure out what happened." I nip her question in the bud.

"It's nothing concrete, I'd just like to take a look on her computer, maybe I'll find something interesting."

Her facial muscles relax. I convince her.

"Yes, that's fine. But please, whatever you find out, you'll have to let me know right away." Depends.

"Of course, of course!" Categorical as a maybe.

Six more floors to walk: freaking elevator!

I pick up the set of keys Sara gave me. I weigh it: it's going to be a pound! With all these key chains attached, it looks more like a defensive weapon.

Sixth attempt: I finally guessed the right key. I open the door and enter. Pitch darkness.

I turn on the light and...god what a mess! The last time I went in, I hadn't noticed that Roberto was so messy. Wait a minute, the laundry is fine, but the shards on the floor of the lamp really seem excessive. After all, the way he looked, he may have been so sick he couldn't make it to clean up. I can smell a nauseating odour, maybe it would be better to open the windows and let it air out.

I have to remember to tell Sara to come and clean up: this house is really pitiful!

Here's the computer, I turn it on. Luckily no password, blessed ingenuity.

Let's see if there's something interesting in the documents folder.

Nothing. Okay, go with Internet Explorer, I doubt he has Firefox or Chrome installed or familiar with it anyway.

Let's check the history: anthology of witchcraft, necromancy, demonology... but what the heck kind of sites does he visit? He's completely nuts. I wonder if I can find anything useful.

Got it! Here's what I've been looking for, at least I hope so: Chat the spirits.

With a little luck I might find someone and chat with them.

It's as deserted as a cemetery, just to stay on topic. I'd say wait until later, maybe someone will connect. In the meantime, it wouldn't hurt to do a thorough scan of your computer's hard drive. I realize it's like violating a person's privacy, but it's necessary if I want to find a minimum of information.

The grinder takes its time. I focus my attention on a folder with a strange name: Black Moon, could it be a collection of daring photos? Let's check the contents.

It contains dozens of written documents, it looks like material downloaded from those strange sites.

Beep! Each image suddenly disappears from the monitor.

"Beep? What do you mean, beep? The power had to go out right now?"

All right, don't panic. I take advantage of the pause and take a tour of the house. The bedroom. Let's see if there are any diaries with phone numbers in the bedside table.

It's full of strange knick-knacks: a white candle and a black one: both used, an embroidered ribbon, bells, a mirror and this strange dust, what is it? Sniff! It smells like incense.

But yes! That's what the smell was when I walked in: incense!

I wish someone would explain to me if it's normal to have such items in the nightstand! Thinking back, though, I seem to remember something I read a while back about it... something that had to do with these materials for some pagan ritual.

Let's venture a hypothesis: the nutcase, that is Roberto, out of the blue and for an arcane and unknown reason, begins to be interested in esotericism, he knows some crazy people in a chat room that induce him to perform strange rituals and take mysterious hallucinogenic substances that reduce him to a rag.

This might be the best theory to unravel the whole thing, or almost. The strange note lies in the fact that doctors did not find any particular substances in his blood. Could it be that he used drugs so sophisticated that they couldn't be detected so easily, because they were expelled through bleeding? It would take a chemist, and I, unfortunately, am a simple insurance man.

I'm starting to get hungry, a nice pizza would be nice while waiting for midnight, if the power comes back on.

Beep! The computer turns back on along with the lights in the room.

Fantastic! Apparently in this house you just have to want things.

Six more goddamn floors on foot! If I had thought of it sooner, I would have fasted. At least I digested the pizza.

I catapult myself onto the couch. The day has been destructive and the good thing is that it's not over yet.

Let's get back on the internet. Let's see what exactly this black moon thing is.

It seems that this is another nickname used for the figure of Lilith and that this was even the first woman of Adam created by God, for him and like him, from the mud.

Legend says that she escaped from Adam because, judging herself equal with him, she did not want to submit, especially during sexual relations... ah!

Lilith, moreover, pronounced angrily the name of God, took flight and left the garden of Paradise taking refuge on the shores of the Red Sea. Leaving the Paradise on her own initiative, before the fall of man and not touching the Tree of Knowledge, she was not condemned to mortality. Fled into the desert and met the Djinns, with whom she mated. It was generated so a line of demons called Lilim. This rebellion did not go unnoticed by God who sent three angels, Senoy, Sansenoy and Semangelof, to convince Lilith to return with Adam. A terrible punishment was the answer to her categorical refusal: almost all her children were exterminated. Since then, her hatred towards men was nourished over the centuries, as well as the mortal danger for all those who wanted to hinder her revenge.

A story with a happy ending, no doubt about it. While it's undoubtedly a tale of terror, a warning to mind your own business is there, and I'm a guy who generally respects such things.

Below are also the rituals for conjuring it, with a marked note that absolutely discourages men from performing them. Wait, you want to bet that this list contains the same items I found in the drawer?

I'll check: I won a goldfish.

Now, more than ever, I'm sure that Roberto has already recoiled before he got sick.

Let's enter the famous chat room and see if I can catch some more goldfish in the net...

He wants a nickname, a nickname: Apollo sounds good, he's the God of the sun, he's what we need to keep our distance.

There are five people in the chat room, let's hope to catch the right ones. I'll enter.

<Apollo> Hello folks!

<Flap> Welcome Apollo.

<Carmilla> A new snack!

<Horus> Good Carmilla, this is a colleague.

<Zombi> Are you new around here, Apollo?

<Apollo> Minted a few million years ago.

<Kali> A humorist! But were you warned that this is a devilish chat?

<Apollo> A friend recommended it to me.

<Zombi> What did you do to him that was so terrifying?

<Horus> Guys, a little hospitality!

<Carmilla> Really, you want me to run out of dinner?

<Apollo> Careful, Carmilla, you might get burned....

<Flap> Who's your friend? We all know each other here.

<Kali> We're a small community of burnouts.

<Apollo> I don't remember what nick you use, but his name is Roberto and he's a tall, thin guy with curly hair.

<Flap> Lilim! No way, you're friends with the nutcase?

Got it! It can only be him!

<Carmilla> Hey! Easy with the insults! Lilim is my friend!

<Here we go again! Now Carmilla will ask to put in a good word....

<Kali> To tell you the truth, he's been missing for a while.

<Zombi> Yes, Angel, Phobia and Genie are also missing.

<Carmilla> Honey was supposed to call me on Sunday after Saturday's outing.

Yes! Got one of the mystery group.

<Horus> Did you fail the charm test? :-)

<Carmilla> Don't be alarmed, I have my ways of winning a man over!

Alright, but let's not get off topic: I want the name of the club.

<Apollo> He told me about the evening. He told me he had a great time.

<Flap> Yes, but behind Carmilla's back :-)

<Zombi> For me he is continuing to have fun, but with the beautiful Angel!

<Kali> I doubt Lilim is the ideal type of Angel....

Angel? And the girl would be...

<Apollo> I don't know who this Angel is, but Roberto... Lilim, he's not a bad guy.

<Flap> Dude, get served, she's too high of a target for many, and Lilim, with all due respect, at best can only polish his Harley!

The Harley Davidson! The same bike I saw that woman on. Coincidence?

<Zombi> Put it any way you want, but there was a lot of chemistry between the two of them lately....

<Carmilla> Theirs was just a friendship over the same fixation!

I'm not aware of Roberto having any special interest.

<Horus> Guys let's stop with the gossip! Our guest might think it's Novella 2000¹ chat!

<Carmilla> I agree with Horus! Apollo, you who heard it, do you know what happened to him?

He's in the hospital reduced to a vegetative state.

<Apollo> He caught a bad flu, he told me to say hello.

<Kali> He's really sick if he doesn't turn on his computer.

His pc is on, he is the one who is off.

<Apollo> He mentioned the club you went to on Saturday. What is it called?

<Carmilla> The Spider's Web.

It's about time! I'll take notes.

<Horus> Excuse us Apollo, but right now we should talk about the next convention....

<Apollo> Sorry you, especially since I got a phone call and I really have to run.

<Carmilla> So early? Wouldn't you be interested in joining us, maybe you can come with Lilim?

<Apollo> The idea sounds interesting, I'll talk to him about it, but right now I have an engagement that I can't put off. I'll talk to you soon.

<Zombi> Greetings from the deep.

<Apollo> Hello everyone.

I'm going to stay and listen a little longer, maybe if they think I'm gone, they'll let something interesting slip?

<Horus> So, as I had mentioned, the next "International Conference on Rituals and Beliefs of the Ancient World", will take place in 15 days in the National Roman Museum, in Palazzo Massimo, where they will tell about new discoveries and...

What a drag... I've been listening to the chatter about this damn conference for over an hour without getting any useful information.

<Carmilla> Absentees will need to be notified. I can call Angel and see if he can make himself available for that day.

<Zombi> Good girl! I'm sure Lilim will be with her, and if you hear strange moans, don't be too alarmed...

<Kalì> Don't worry Carmilla, you'll see that at most they'll be softening up with boring stories about Lilith!

Found it! And with that, mysterious Angel, you've won the role of possible inquisitor!

Unplugged.

I've marked everything, as a start it's not bad, at least this way I have more information than before, even if honestly I haven't yet understood what I'm looking for.

Maybe the bed, since I'm collapsing and tomorrow I have to go to the office. Better to go home.