I am awake. I don’t know for how long, or why, but I am awake. I can smell the air around me. It is sweet of something, I can’t remember, or forget, I don’t know. I open my eyes.
I see her.
She sits next to me, there is something I like about her. I can’t tell why.
“Hello” she says and smiles at me.
“Who are you?” I ask.
“I am Lillith. What is your name?” I notice her body is different from mine, the curves and the narrows.
“My name is… I don’t know” I realize in that moment that I do not know what my name is, neither why I knew that I needed one, in a way that made my heart hurt.
“Well let us go ask and receive your name”
“You can ask?”
“Of course!” She says, “You cannot hear them? The animals?”
“I do not know, I have not met an animal yet.”
Out of nowhere I see it, my heart jumps and I feel the urge to run. Its grotesque eyes staring out at me, and its tongue sliding in and out. It makes a noise I had never heard before, but I instantly dislike. But I then realize her eyes staring up at me, posing a question.
“It is harmless, it will not hurt you. Nothing here will.”
I immediately feel my body soften as I see it curl up next to her. She leans down and whispers to it, and takes a long time to listen to what noises it replies.
“She says your name is Adam”
Adam. Somehow it feels right, like I have been called that before, perhaps in another time.
“Then I shall be Adam, and you shall be Lillith.” Something inside me fills with light, I am happy.
Upon seeing me smile, she smiles back. Something about her glowed. Her skin glowed like the sun, it was somehow a different color than my own.
“Do you want to walk with me?" She says as she outstretches her hand towards mine and grabs it gently. I realize that this creature is much smaller than me, I could break her easily, with just my own hands. But with her smaller hand wrapped in mine, and her smile up at me, I would never want to do anything to hurt her. Our hands fit together so perfectly, I want to protect her instead.
“Where are we walking to?” I ask.
“To look, there are so many beautiful things to see.”
Before I can say anything, she pulls on my hand and pulls me quickly through the grass. The grass is so much taller than both of us, but she guides me through it, she seems to know where to go. We arrive at a place where water is met with earth.
“This is called a pond, look! Isn’t it so beautiful to look at?”
I look towards the pond. It is reflecting the sunlight in brilliant shades of orange.
But what I want to look at is her. As she runs to the water and jumps in, I watch her closely. Her long dark hair almost looked blue. Her skin glowed like the sun, but most of all, she reminded me of something, something that I knew deeply, but had not lived to see yet. Some part of me felt that as she ran through the water naked I should look away, almost as if it was wrong to watch, but she stops and cocks her head at me. It's too late, she has seen me watching her.
“Come here! It's fun!” she says as she waves her arm for me to come closer.
I run to her and jump into the water with her. As the water morphed her body, I grab her hand in the way she grabbed mine before.
“Why do I feel like I’ve known you for ages?”
“Because I like you, and I don’t want anything from you.”
She liked me. Somehow knowing that made me happier than ever before, if there even was a before. It felt right.
“Do you know me?” I ask.
“I asked for you.” She replies.
“You asked for me?” How is that?”
“I was here first. I was lonely. That’s why they made you.”
“Who is they?” I am taken back
“Them. I don’t know. They are everywhere, they are always watching you. I know someone is always listening. So I decided to ask for you. To test to see if they were listening well enough. And then I got you.”
“Are they watching us now?”
“Of course. They are always watching you.”
I look down at her. Her eyes were a color I had only seen in the earth of the ground, but the purest form of it. It soaked and reflected the light around it. I could get lost in them.
“Is it wrong to want you?”
She looks up at me and I see the light shining through her eyes.
“No, because I trust you.”
She folds herself into me and I grab around her.
“I trust you too.” I put my head down into her hair and breathe out.
As I breathe in I find that she smells of flowers. She feels like freedom.