Eternal Sleep

It had been twenty-four years since she’d last seen it, but the place looked exactly the same. Looking up to the heavy rain pattering against the broken shingles of the house, Lilith was flushed with nostalgia. The faded white fence divided the yard from the sidewalk and street behind her. She walked tentatively along the bricks as she gazed up to the old house she had so longingly wished to return to. The dormers were old and weathered with pieces of the window cracked and broken from children who threw rocks from the sidewalk.  Leaves skipped the across the yard, smacking against her legs with gusts of wind continuing to blow stronger as the clouds darkened and raindrops grew.  

               Wiping the rainwater from her brow, she climbed up the wooden steps leading up the porch. Reaching out to grip the iron doorknob of the oak door her father had handcrafted, she was startled by a loud cry and hiss. To her left sat a mangy black cat perched in the middle of the old love seat that hung by rusted chains. Its rough fur was mud stained and matted. Its tail was frayed and it only had one piercing yellow eye. Lilith pivoted towards the cat but watched as the feline pinned back its ears and growled softly. She ignored the warning and took another step forward. The cat arched its back and hissed again showing its pointed white fangs.

               Realizing it better to leave the cat alone, she turned back to the door and grabbed the knob. Without a key, she tested her luck that no one had locked it. She tightened her grip and gave it a slow turn. To her surprise and delight, the door popped open, swinging inward into the old house. She stepped in and closed the door behind her. The chill of the house hung heavy sending shivers through her back and down her arms. The musty smell lingered around her nose the further inside she went. She wrapped her arms around herself in hope to warm her soaked body.  With little warmth from the house, her water soaked clothes clung to her body and dripped onto the dirty floor. Cobwebs lazily hung from the fixtures and the outdated wallpaper was peeling in the corners of each room. Brushing her arms vigorously to create warmth, she walked into and through each room. 

               She studied the rooms as memories flooded her mind of family gatherings and parties.  She looked at the old couch where she had kissed her first boyfriend and the dinner table where her and her sisters laughed and traded stories. She remembered it all as if it happened earlier that day.  Entering into the kitchen though, the happy thoughts and warmth of her memories faded. She remembered all the times she fought with her mom and dad here. The times they would scream at each other while her little sisters listened in horror from the bannister. Unfortunately, her worst memory surfaced in that moment. Screams. A smashed drinking glass on the floor. Bruising slowly became visible on her arms while red finger marks filled her cheeks. It was too much as she ran out of the kitchen wailing.  She stormed up the stairs past her sisters crying and into her room slamming the door behind her jarring the family pictures off the walls.

               The memory stopped and without realizing how she got there, Lilith now stood in the room where she wept more often than she cared to admit. Although her house was filled with happy memories, the unhappy ones seemed to plague her more. Staring at that corner of her opened closet, she saw where she would crouch down and sob uncontrollably in times of despair. It was then that she realized just how unhappy this house made her. Looking up, she noticed the tie she wore on her first date with her first boyfriend Brandon. It was a fond memory but she found it odd that the tie hung not from a coat hanger, but from the wardrobe bar. It was wrapped around it tightly and knotted at the end.  Thinking nothing of it, she turned her attention back to her room. 

               As Lilith gazed slowly around, she slowly came to the realization that it wasn’t the house that made her happy, it was her sisters. Jordan and Kelsey were the two reasons that she put up with it all. The reasons she smiled and looked forward to each coming day. Thinking of the two girls, tears collected at the corners of her eyes. With her hands now dried, she reached up to wipe the tears from her face only to feel a drop of moisture stream slowly down her cheek. Wiping again, she caught a familiar taste of salty sweetness from the corner of her mouth.

               Sprinting to the window, she raised her hand using what little light the outside gave her. Petrified, her hand was covered in blood. “Where did this come from?” She panicked. Lilith began frantically looking all over her body for any cuts or gashes. She pulled off her soaking wet sweater and lifted her shirt but found nothing. Lightning lit the sky and thunder shook the walls. The rains ferocity sounded like a standing ovation as it continued to pound the roof as rain drops doubled again in size. Lilith, panting, left the room and headed for her sisters. Entering the room, her eyes darted around but it had been just how she remembered. Two beds on each side of the wall were covered with their favorite dolls with a single nightstand in-between. A cute hand carved vanity for the two sat across the foot of the beds with small amounts of used lipstick and blush from when they used to play dress-up. There didn’t seem to be anything odd there.

               Down the hallway she ran crashing into her parent’s door and flung it open. She stumbled backwards into the closet door in horror as she looked onto her parent’s bed. Two pillows drenched in scarlet where their heads once laid. The sheets were stained with red and crumpled near the foot of the bed like someone kicked their legs as they struggled for their life. The walls and ceiling were painted with streaks and splatters of anger and a single crimson palm print covered the backside of the telephone that sat next to their bed. Screaming, Lilith ran from the room and down the stairs gripping the bannister. She spun at the base of the stairs, whirling herself into the kitchen ahead. She hunched over grabbing the edge of the countertops as she sobbed uncontrollably as the visions of her parents room flashed in her mind.

               She began wheezing as her throat tightened up. She pulled at the neck of her shirt feeling like it was slowly tightening her collar around her neck. Lilith tried to control her breathing but the pressure grew tighter. Her lip quivered as she turned and leaned against the counter gasping for air. What was happening?   Why can’t I breathe? She crashed to the ground gasping for the tiniest amount of air to breathe into her lungs. Then it slowly faded to black. Laying there unconscious, it all flooded back into her memory. The fight.  Her parents. The blood. Her slipping into an eternal darkness. It finally came back to her. She never left her home. She died shortly after her twenty- fourth birthday. Her memory refuses to let her acknowledge that she died and thus, every twenty-four years she comes back to relive that horrible day before slipping back to sleep. But she leaves happy knowing that her sisters wouldn’t have to endure the same pain she did. They left when they were young with their whole lives ahead of them. Lilith freed them from that pain. And that was all that mattered.