Nokosi: I love your sister. You’re sick for wanting what she has.
Willow: You’re right. I’m sick. I have a tumor in my brain. I’m dying. Try to see this from my side. All I wanted was one night. What’s wrong with that?
Nokosi: I’m not texting anymore. I’m done with you, Willow. Leave me alone.
Willow: You’re losing the best thing that has ever happened to you. I’m everything you need. I can make you happy. Just give me a chance.
Now I know how loyal he is… I want him until I physically can’t have him anymore. He’s one in a million. He’s loyal, fun, sweet, kind, gently, loving, sexy, yet stable… he’s all the qualities in a man that I never knew I wanted. And now that I’ve found him, I can’t let him go.
Lilith
“What’s troubling you?” Willow asks.
“I had a fight with Mom this morning,” I answer, throwing the bouncy ball at the wall and catching it when it comes back. Willow lies next me, our heads on my pillow. I throw and she catches. I’ve been playing with a lot of balls recently.
“I heard some of it, sounded gnarly.”
I nod. “It was.”
“Want to talk about it?”
I shake my head, no.
“Please? Let me unload your burden.”
“She thinks I’m being selfish,” I whisper, thinking back to the past few months of my life where I have sacrificed everything to be with my family. How am I selfish? “She called me selfish because… well… it doesn’t matter why.”
I’m not telling her yet that I’m moving out. She’s not ready to hear it. I’m not ready to say it. Especially not after the mom thing. I don’t know why she can’t stay and take care of Willow. I’ll still be here all the time. I’ll just be living with Nok. It’s what I want. I’ve never wanted anything more.
“You’re not selfish,” Willow breathes, sounding confounded. “You’re anything but. You deserve the world. Mom is a cunt.”
“Agreed.” I sit up and slip my feet into my shoes. “I have to go and meet Nokosi.”
That and I have to get away from her until I can talk about everything. I feel terrible sitting so close to her and lying to her face.
She pulls a face, it’s a curious one that I can’t read. It looked like anguish, or something similar… I don’t know.
“Say hi to him for me,” she breathes as I leave her room.
“Sure,” I mutter back, frowning with confusion. Suddenly she’s acknowledging he exists? Last I checked she despised him. Although come to think of it, she hasn’t really mentioned him at all recently, not even in ire.
She usually blames him and thinks he’s stealing me away. Maybe she’s finally calming down and seeing reason.
I wake, covered in sweat, the lingering images of my nightmare still flashing in my eyes.
It’s pitch-black and I don’t like that. I feel like the nightmare creatures are still lurking, staring down at me with their blank gazes. Dead… Dead because of…
“Nokosi?” I whisper, reaching beside me in bed. “Why’s it so dark?”
I feel a cold hand. It doesn’t belong to him.
It doesn’t belong to him.
My heartbeat rises as I realize I haven’t yet left the land of nightmares. I daren’t look. Whoever it is is dead, I can tell. Their skin is waxy and holds no warmth and there’s a funny smell emanating from them. Not yet putrid but something bad with an overflow of a scent that is almost sweet.
I sit up, holding the bedsheet tight to my chest. Light finally glows from the moon through the windows. I’m not in Nokosi’s room… nor am I in mine. I don’t know where I am.
The coldness of the body beside me seeps into my bones and soul. I feel a chill. I feel nauseous.
Turning my head, I look, my breathing staggered and harsh. I’ve never felt so much dread and terror.
I don’t want to look at the face.
“Nokosi,” I whimper, begging for him to come to me. “I need you. Where are you?”
I gather the courage, too scared to move in case the body reanimates and grabs me, but still I manage it. I look up and up and up, dragging my eyes the smallest fraction at a time until her face comes into focus.
“No,” I breathe, sobbing now. My chest twists with agony, my heart burns a hole in my chest. “No… please… no. Not yet. My sister. Noooo.” I pull her limp, lifeless body into my arms, holding her to my chest. “I’m not ready to let you go. I need you. Please. Don’t die.”
Her head flops, her body a deadweight against mine.
“Not yet,” I beg, trembling and crying. Feeling a grief so overwhelming I can’t breathe.
“You did this,” a voice whispers in my ear. A croaky, whispered voice that echoes from somewhere not in this room. “You did this to me.”
“No,” I sob, holding her away from me so that I can tell her that she’s wrong. “I didn’t. I love you. You know I do.”
She sits upright suddenly, bones clicking and cracking, her jaw hanging open, maggots feasting on her tongue, eyes rotting, hair falling from her scalp. A scream gets stuck in my throat when her hands wrap around my neck and squeeze.
I kick, thrash, and claw at her face, fighting for a breath so I can scream.
“You did this!” she shrieks, showing black teeth only an inch from my face.
I dig my nails into the flesh of her cheek and her skin melts over my nails. She laughs in my face, a demonic sound that hurts my ears.
“WAKE UP!” she yells, different to before. “WAKE THE FUCK UP, LILITH!”
A new light reaches my eyes and my sister’s demon fades from existence, bringing Nokosi into view. But not just Nokosi, his father and Nash too.
Nokosi’s handsome cheek has nail-deep gouges in it, blood trickles from his jaw.
“Did I do that?” I whisper, feeling tears spring to my eyes.
“It’s okay, you didn’t know what you were doing,” he says gently. “Are you okay? You were screaming.”
I look at Dasan and Nash. I shouldn’t even be here. Nokosi snuck me in. Dasan is going to be so angry.
“Is it just me or is the room spinning?” I ask, trying to climb from the bed. “I need a water or something.” As soon as my foot hits the floor and I try to put weight on it my body buckles. I hit the deck, smacking my head on the side of the floor.
My body seizes with pain, every muscle cramps and freezes.
“She’s having a seizure!” Nash yells.
It’s the last thing I hear before that dreaded darkness takes me again.
Lilith
I’ve never felt so groggy in my entire life. My head is pounding so hard I daren’t open my eyes. My mouth is so dry, and oxygen is being pumped into my nose.
“Nok?” I whisper, feeling the sunlight on my eyes. I’m not in the darkness anymore. Thank God.
“I’m here,” he replies, squeezing my hand.
Opening my eyes, I finally see him, his front a shadow, the sunlight casting a warming glow on his back giving him such an angelic aura.