Sister Light, Sister Dark

I hope I didn’t smile as I watched them set the needle in his vein.

Bloodthirsty? Me? Oh, honey, you have no idea what you’re talking about.

Don’t blame me, you humans are the ones who forced us into these archetype roles.

My adversary didn’t exist until you took some of the chthonic ether and formed her into something that hadn’t existed, had never existed, till you needed a thing to blame for your own evil.

Even my own story has gotten warped and twisted out of proportion, so much so that you don’t even see your own progenitor clearly anymore. All because you need someone, anyone, to blame.

My husband jumped with alacrity on that bandwagon.

And so did I, to my pain.

No, we are not divorced. The Creator of us all separated us, because he has also been twisted and wefted. Not warped, of course; it has to be the reverse direction than my own to create opposition. He is being twisted and misshaped by the macho urges, the alpha male nonsense, and before that, wars and racism and bigotry. He cannot excise those things within my presence, so we do what we can to better ourselves separately.

My own lot is not only the perennial fight against misogyny, but also this “lesser creature” nonsense, and the fixation on purity, and the increasing infantilization of our gender.

But, why did you have to invent Lilith? What complete foolishness were you ingesting, to double both of our labor, instead of dividing it? Adam never had a second wife. I was his first and only, for better or worse. Lilith was a complete invention, taking the boogeyman that stalked human nightmares and gave it a fleshing out, to soothe grief they couldn't ease.

And then to pit our children against each other, like this is a stupid human competition?

Well. As you so eloquently utter nowadays, Fuck Around, Find Out.

You stripped her of her fearful stalk-in-the-night baby killer status. You know, the thing you used to tell grieving women, who survived the death of their stillborn. “Oh, it’s all right, it wasn’t your fault, Lilith was just too jealous, rest now, regain your strength…”

Now, it’s “But hey, rejoice, we get to go out and take revenge on Lilith’s other children! For every one of the Children of Eve that are slaughtered, we get to take out seven of Lilith’s children, isn’t that great?”

Sure. Go and put more people’s lives in jeopardy, in the name of righteous murder.

Did it even occur to you, that if the seven-to-one ratio is correct, it will happen anyway? All you have to do is turn those swords back into plowshares, and like, actually, do your job of Terra’s Caretaker, instead of being bloodthirsty, responsibility-avoidant, jackasses. I swear, the jackals show better manners than you.

So, no, I do not care which one of our children performs the good or evil. Neither does Lilith.

What we care about, is the good or evil that ripples outward, snaring all within reach into its grasp.

I was staring at one of the evil ones.

It amazes me, that for all the differences each religion harps upon to prove it’s different / right / better, it’s the similarities that are most evident. You all agree to be compassionate. You all mostly agree as to what composes “evil,” and “good,” and work to uphold one while decrying the other.

So why do you allow narcissists and psychopaths to rise to the top of your human pyramids, crushing everyone trapped below?

Lilith claims they are mine, the worst results of biting into a pomegranate I should never have touched. I understand her bitterness; I share it. In my human moments, I blame her baby-killing urges for allowing some of the worst of her children to grow up enough to take out so many others, before they fall.

And when we realize that we are falling into the blame trap, we apologize and hug each other tightly.

Truly, we do not believe that some are “hers,” and some are “mine.” We have each had progeny we feel drawn to, more than others. But if they are truly of her line, or mine, we do not know. We won’t fall into the trap of “nature versus nurture” either, for that leads to ills like White Savior Complex.

We try to nurture everyone, and we are dismayed when some just can’t seem to stick the lesson.

Or worse, when they turn on their fellow people like self-superior cannibals. Emotional or physical, it matters not. Damage is done, is spread, is increasingly difficult to contain.

Lilith was here as well. In the room.

She’s usually around when one of the very bad ones finally gets caught.

As am I.

Because we do our very best to raise people to cry out against injustice, and slavery, and the lack of care and compassion for those around them, much less the rest of the world.

And this… creature has been the antithesis of those embodiments.

I see a shimmer, and Lilith is there, berating the creature strapped to the gurney. They have done much damage, and many have died before their time because of this thing’s machinations.

I also see Justice, but their essence is edgy as well.

We do have an uneasiness about forcing death on a human that will not listen to any other reason.

It is against our nature.

But we are not in control.

We loathe war, but it is useful to shove idiots like this one to the front, to be eliminated early. Except the resourceful ones, who find a way to survive. Those… become dangerous over time. Truly, a double-edged sword that can easily cut the wielder as well as the opponent.

Death shimmers into existence. This captured one has made much business for the Lord of the Darkest Gate, and Death is not happy.

I am here to witness the end. Therefore I’m in the witness booth, as befits my station in this end game.

Lilith will soon join me, because she is so over being blamed.

The observation booth is packed. Truly, this creature has been detrimental to many, many people.

And the protests spill outside. Funnily enough, not many are in favor of a stay of execution.

Justice and Death move closer. The creature’s face was a mask of hate, but humans cannot hide their innermost from the likes of us. There was terror of the unknown, and fear of retribution. And frantically trying to think of a way to get out of this situation. It had worked every other time, why was the mind suddenly blank?

Oh, human, because this is, indeed, the end of existence as you know it. And there is cosmic justice, the likes of which you have never faced.

There is protection in being human. It is stripped when the flesh fails.

Faintly, I hear a bell tolling. The other ideal embodiments can also hear it, but the humans do not, not quite. Some shiver. They can sense some things, here on the edge of mortality.

Bong…

Bong…

Bong…

Silence.

Death took a swing, but had to check and dart away.

So apparently the creature’s soul has had the thought of running.

This never ends well, so we wait. It is better than the chess game parley, at any rate.

And, sure enough, Death returns, holding a squirming thing. Justice and Death swing simultaneous swords, there is a noise, and they are gone.

And the heart monitor on the body finally, mercifully, flatlines.

Lilith rolls her eyes and vanishes with a sigh of relief.

I shake my head, and allow myself to vanish as well. The room swims, and I am elsewhere. People are weeping around a more intimate setting, with a young person lying on the bed.

I step forward to do the task I was created for, to mother-comfort my children.

Our children.