Page 17 of Secrets in Salem: Part One

She isn't the only one in the picture, however. On the left of the photo is a man, naked but for a single leaf covering his groin. He looks ordinary, handsome with honey-colored hair and green eyes. On the right side of the photo is an image of what is quite obviously the devil. His horns twist around his head, black and lethally sharp. With skin the color of red wine, empty eyes so dark they look like a never-ending void, and blackened claws protruding from his fingers, he looks like a nightmare. It's such a stark contrast to the other half of the photo that it's difficult not to compare the two sides.

Once again, I find myself questioning why someone would stick these things to my door. Why would anyone break into my room while I slept just to leave me disturbing photos like these? Though they have me intrigued for reasons I don't quite understand, it's still fucked up. One does not simply break into a bedroom to plant weird pictures of Satan.

I turn the photo in my hand, scanning the back for anything that would tell me about the picture. There's only one line written on the very bottom of the paper.

Lilith and Her Demise.

I tilt my head. Is this Lilith? The one from the Bible? Atheist as I may be, you don’t live in Salem for as long as I have without hearing everything there is inside the Bible. Salem is home to a whole lot of religious folk, among other things. There is a small group of little old ladies that meet every Monday to talk about witchcraft. Now, that caused one hell of a commotion here in Salem, the place where they hanged or drowned innocents believed to be witches back in the sixteen hundreds.

Turning to my laptop, I place the photograph on top of my notebook, pulling up a browser to search ‘Lilith and the Devil.’ Some links show up for popular TV shows or movies where a Lilith character has been portrayed. There are a few books, perhaps paranormal romance books, if I were to launch a guess, out there. Seems like this Lilith is a popular woman.

I keep scrolling through the links until I come to one that seems promising. My eyes scan the article, taking in the information greedily. I have no idea why I'm so interested in this photo or the story behind it, but I find myself simply needing to know.

The website is full of stories. There are various tellings of a being named Lilith and how she was the first succubus placed in the world, or how she still walks among the humans in all her beauty, deceiving and luring men into her bed. It's all bizarre.

But there is one story that stands out to me. The next link I click on begins much like a novel would, perhaps something from Lemony Snicket, and I'm drawn to it immediately. It's as though the writer is a conspiracist and has sussed out what they perceive to be the story of Adam and Eve. I find myself completely enthralled as I read.

The story of Adam and Eve is not as we know it. This is a tale about the first wife of Adam. That's right. The first man created by God himself was blessed with a wifebeforethe famous Eve. But their story isn't one for the soft-hearted. It's a story of a woman who fought for equality and failed.

Her name is Lilith.

A long time ago, God created two beings from the same dust. Lilith, with her long locks of golden waves and eyes the color of the sky at its brightest. Porcelain skin and soft curves made up her beauty, a sight any man would kneel over. And Adam, with hair the color of honey and eyes as green as the grass after a rainstorm, was designed to match Lilith's beauty with firm muscles and a face made handsomely. Adam and Lilith became the first two humans made by Him, the first two beings to live in His Garden of Eden. They were created as partners, to become one as a couple.

Time passed, the two living in harmony for some time, until Lilith began to feel things were made unfairly for her and what was expected of her. She was the wife of man, and she was expected to cater to him at all times, to feed and care for him. Lilith received very little in return, feeling like no more than a maid to see to the needs of her husband.

One night, during an intimate moment between a man and wife, Lilith brought a question to Adam. Before intercourse, Lilith proposed that she take control and take position on top instead of laying beneath her husband, accepting his affections.

Outraged, Adam declined, admitting he wished to keep control, to remain on top while they joined in intimacy. He didn't like the idea of offering his wife the power he craved. But it wasn't only control Lilith was in search of. It was equality.

Lilith posed the question numerous times, refusing to give in to the unfair treatment and avoidance of her wishes. Every night, she would ask Adam to offer her that small amount of control, even if only for just a night, but every night, she was refused and mocked for her desires.

Feeling anger in her heart and disappointment in the man she’d grown to love and resent, despising the unjust way her request was denied, Lilith offered Adam a choice. Grant Lilith equality in their pairing, or Lilith would leave and never return to him or the Garden.

A choice was made.

Adam denied Lilith once more, and so Lilith abandoned her husband and the Garden of Eden in search of equality and a life that would not suppress her rights and demands as a woman. Without looking back, Lilith left Adam alone in the Garden, keeping her word and never returning.

Days passed without Lilith's return, and Adam began to realize his wife meant what she said. Outraged once more, Adam turned to God to inform Him of the scandal. He told Him of Lilith's betrayal, turning her back on him and the life they had built together. He didn’t admit to Lilith's demands, keeping them a secret in hopes that He would see him as the victimized party and would take it in His hands to return his wife to his side.

God did exactly that.

Sending three angels after Lilith, God demanded they find her and relay a message. The angels searched for an incredibly long time, looking for the blonde-headed woman who dared defy her husband and her creator.

Lilith was found some time later, huddled in a cave on the Red Sea with a creature of darkness. A demon of the Underworld. Together, they’d created hundreds of offspring, birthing beings of both human and demon.

The angels, keeping their distance, relayed the message God intended to give her: If she did not return to the Garden and to Adam's side, abandoning the creature who had clearly intended to corrupt a creation of His, then one hundred of her children would perish every day until her return.

Disgusted, Lilith refused, stating she had found a man who treated her like an equal and not a pawn only used as a slave or for sex.

The angels rebuked Lilith's words, for the creature was not a man but an abomination. They offered her a choice once more, pleading that she choose the side of light and leave behind the disgrace she had created.

Once more, Lilith refused, standing her ground and sending the angels on their way. They returned to God and told him of Lilith's decision to remain with her monster and creature offspring. True to his word, one hundred of Lilith's children perished, breaking the heart of the first woman ever created.

Bitterness and hatred clouded Lilith's heart and mind with every child's passing, a deep loathing for her creator and husband burrowing deep inside her. No longer was she a tame damsel, no longer did she contain compassion and understanding. Resentment festered and hostility grew until Lilith made a decision that would change her forever.

When the last of her children were murdered by the creator she’d once worshipped, she turned to her monster lover and asked to become like him. To change her mortal body into one of a demon. Her wish was granted, and so the first woman of God's creation became the first creation of the Devil.

Once changed, she vowed to take revenge on Him. Hearing He granted Adam a new wife, a docile little thing with a body and mind made for submission, Lilith set out to destroy any child created by Adam, for he’d damned her and so she would damn him in return.

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