The library lights flickered once.
Then again.
Then went out.
Lilith stood in the dark with the strange book clutched against her chest, heart pounding so loudly it drowned out everything else. She couldn't see the aisles, the walls not even her hands.
Just the black.
Just the silence.
And the sound of soft, barefoot steps behind her.
One… two… stop.
One… two… stop.
Whoever whatever it was, it moved like it knew her fear. Like it fed on it.
Lilith backed into a shelf, eyes searching for even a flicker of light. Her pendant throbbed like a warning against her chest. She had the book. She had the voice in her head. But she had no answers. Not yet.
And then...
A sudden snap, like breaking bone, echoed through the room.
Then a whisper:
"She's still here… beneath."
Lilith turned, instinct pulling her to a trapdoor she hadn't noticed before, hidden beneath a rug near the librarian's desk. She knelt and pulled at the edge, the wood underneath creaking with a sound that felt wrong too much like a breath.
When she lifted the door, the scent hit her.
Mildew. Dust. And something else.
Old flowers and rot.
A single wooden ladder led down into a dim tunnel lit by flickering bulbs strung along the ceiling. She hesitated only a second before descending. Staying up there alone wasn't safer anymore.
The passage went on longer than it should have. She should have been under the street by now, maybe, or in some kind of storm drain but this wasn't that.
This was carved. Built.
The walls were stone, smooth as bone. Symbols etched into the sides ok circles, lines, and that same sigil from the rock by the lake.
Then she heard it:
A girl crying.
Lilith froze.
The sound echoed through the tunnel like it was layered not just one cry, but a thousand overlapping. All the same voice. All her voice.
She followed it to the end of the tunnel, where a door stood slightly ajar.
Inside:
A room.
Lit by candlelight.
And in the middle of it , a girl sitting on the floor.
She looked up when Lilith stepped in.
Same face. Same eyes.
But this one was covered in scratches and dried blood. She was wearing Lilith's childhood dress , the pink one with the lace sleeves.
And she smiled like she'd been waiting forever.
"You finally came back."
Lilith's mouth went dry. "Who are you?"
The girl stood slowly, feet bare and stained with ash. Her voice was small, hoarse like it hadn't been used in years.
"I'm the part they left behind."
Before Lilith could respond, the candles blew out.
And the door slammed shut behind her.