The sounds of the forest began melting away, making way for a deafening, impossible silence as Lilah looked down at Amanda, her breath still heavy and her unmoving, frantic smile plastered in place where it always was. “You…are so stupid,” despite the clear admonishment her voice was still soft and sing songy. “Like a baby deer. So cute but what does that get you? I tried to help you, I really did but if you don’t want to help yourself that’s fine you won’t drag me down with you. I mean, can you even explain to me what you did this all for?”
“Well, Jackson-”
Lilah groaned, “Yes, I obviously know this is about Jackson. I was hoping you weren’t actually that shallow. Seriously, Amanda, what did you do this for? You got your man, now what? That attention, that rush of getting picked, it is short lived and it is worthless, absolutely worthless in the face of real power.”
“I-I-I don’t understand, really, what you mean. I mean, ‘real power,’ what are you talking about?”
Lilah’s patience was thinning and with it, her cheery mannerisms were melting away. “You thought it was all a metaphor, huh?”
“Look, I don’t know! I haven’t really been able to process how I feel about any of this after what you did-”
“What I did? Oh no, Amanda, you were there, you sucked the benefits dry just as much as anyone else.”
Amanda’s guilt stricken voice began to raise, “It wasn’t my idea. People fucking died!”
“Everything has a cost, Amanda,” Lilah crooned. “And anyway, you didn’t seem too worried about the blood when you wasted your turn on getting laid.”
“Right but how was I supposed to know you were like, a witch or something?”
Lilah’s posture straightened and an amused smile spread across her face. Her large eyes were no longer sitting wide open but now were set low in a cool, condescending manner that seemed entirely comfortable to her. “A witch? Goodness, no. This is all so much more complicated than that.”
“So you meant it then? This is what you were talking about when you said that thing about gods? That there wasn’t god anymore but there was power just like it still left over?”
Lilah smiled, “That is a really good question, Amanda. You should have asked it weeks ago, maybe when I said it. I mean, seriously, who just lets a sentence like that just fly right past them?”
“I just wanted to fit in!”
“God, that is so weak of you. You are so close to your last words, shouldn’t you start picking them better?” Suddenly, the sounds of the dark woods returned; a symphony of the wind, of dry leaves and crickets and a deep, ancient rumble with no apparent source, no beginning and no end.
“You’re not going to kill me.”
“I am, yeah. That’s how this works. You should know. That last one was all you.”
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