PAST THE ORIGIN “So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female He created them” Genesis 1:27 When God created the First Man, He named him Adam. Being the sole owner of all God’s bountiful creations, Adam quickly got overwhelmed with feelings of isolation. God said, “It is not good for man to be alone.” To banish Adam’s loneliness, He also created a woman, from the earth, as He had created Adam himself, and called her Lilith. Adam was very happy. To him, Lilith was the most beautiful creation of God he has ever laid eyes upon. God allowed the man and woman to relish the beautiful Garden of Eden and to fill it with their beautiful children created from their sacred union. But He had warned them never to take His name in vain. His name was the Ineffable Name, for it was too holy for mortals like Adam and Lilith to ever pronounce or say out loud. This rule never seemed to have bothered Adam. He was very happy to have a woman with him. He particularly took joy in relishing in her flesh, which gave him pleasure he knew could only be divine. But his feelings of happiness were short-lived. Adam and Lilith immediately began to fight. In one of their unions, Adam was on top of Lilith as was their customary position. But Lilith was outraged. She said, “I will not lie below. I want to lie beside you. It is where I belong.” But Adam refused. “I will not lie beside you, only on top. For you are fit only to be in the bottom position, while I am to be the superior one.” Lilith responded, “We are equal to each other inasmuch as we were both created from the earth.” But they would not listen to each other. When Lilith saw that this would not be resolved, she pronounced the Ineffable Name and flew away into the air. Adam stood in prayer before his Creator: “Sovereign of the universe!' he said, “the woman you gave me has run away.” *** “Are you reciting verses from the Holy Scripture? The creation story?” Gualtiero interrupted the woman from her narration. “Why does it seem slightly different? God gave Eve to Adam. There was no Lilith.” He knew he was not making a mistake. He had an impeccable memory. He couldn’t be possibly forgetting this story he had read so many times. “Of course, there is a Lilith,” the woman said with a knowing smile. “Eve was created from Adam’s rib, shortly after. Pay attention, my darling, this is the real origin story. Mankind had rewritten it since but this is the authentic story.” Gualtiero obliged. *** To appease Adam’s feelings, God sent forth three angels to capture Lilith. He punished her greatly for abandoning her husband, but she preferred the punishment than to ever live with Adam again. She became the demon of lust and death. She created her children by stealing babies from their mothers, sucking them dry of blood, and giving her own blood for them to become a vampire, just like she was. They became her very own creatures of the night: special, powerful, ruthless. This has always where she belonged, in her own realm, not at the bottom of a weak man. *** “You are Lilith,” Gualtiero spoke with a dizzying realization. “You are quite right, love,” Lilith responded with pride written all over her face. “After turning children into vampires, I got bored of them quickly enough, so I turned men like you.” Gualtiero tried not to panic taking this information in, even though strong waves of hopelessness were already creeping in within him. How was he supposed to overpower a vampire that was as old as time? “What happens to the memory of the human once he becomes a vampire?” he asked. “He shall not remember any memory from his human life. At all,” Lilith answered. “You lied to me. You said we had love back when I was a human,” Gualtiero said in a clearly agitated voice. “Lying is one of the things I do very well, but I did not lie to you. I heard your heart’s desire the first time we met. You wanted to conquer your illness. I gave you the gift of immortality.” “What happened to Adam?” Gualtiero blurted out. He didn’t want to hear any more of her lies so he decided to change the course of the conversation. “He grew old, perished, rotted and returned to earth where he belonged,” Lilith said joyously. “I never grew old and I am still the queen of my realm. I will never be defeated, Gualtiero. Those hunters would meet their end exactly like how arrogant Adam suffered, and mankind would continue to suffer, but I will be here on earth eternally.” Gualtiero had never felt hatred like he was feeling at that moment. Hatred for this demon who made him her creation, who planned to control him for eternity. At sundown, he gave in to the urges and welcomed the bloodlust. Poor humans, weak animals, he sucked their blood dry. There was no more hope for him. He was already a monster like this demon woman. He could feel Lilith watching him with amusement, while he was finishing the last bloodied limb he was indulging in for the night, but he said nothing. “I’m glad you finally arrived,” he heard Lilith say. Curiosity got the best of him. He knew she was not speaking to him. He saw a plain-looking woman standing right next to Lilith. He knew right away she was human. He could hear her heart beating but instead of the usual fear emanating from humans, this was a different feeling he couldn’t quite read. “Gualtiero, meet Althaia, your familiar,” Lilith smiled. “My what?” Gualtiero asked. Althaia dared to come closer to where he stood. Gualtiero got confused with what he was seeing. What was Lilith doing with this woman? Why hadn’t she suck the blood out of her yet? Knowing Lilith’s flair for the dramatics, he was almost certain she was just giving this poor human a false sense of security before taking her life brutally. Macabre was something Lilith had always enjoyed. Althaia wiped his bloody mouth with a white cloth. “You look troubled, Gualtiero. There is no need to be. I am here to serve you and your kind – but you in particular.” “What is wrong with you, human? Do you have a death wish?” Gualtiero asked angrily. “Do not expect her to see reason, darling. She is not the only one. She and other humans have a very important task. One would be killing to have the honor of being assigned to carry out this task,” Lilith explained, putting emphasis on the ‘killing’ word for her own amusement. “They will dedicate their mundane lives serving vampires. Althaia, my darling, is your familiar. She will put your life before her own.” “How could a human put a vampire’s life before their own? That is not possible,” Gualtiero argued. “But it is, darling. Haven’t you realized by now that you also have the power of compulsion?” Lilith smiled at him sweetly. Gualtiero did not return the smile. Nothing was impressive about the ability in compelling weak humans. Nothing about being a vampire was impressive to him at all...