Humidity in the congested concrete jungle had a<i>taste</i>, and a scent. It was a thick, musty odor that caught in Lilith’s throat every time they entered the city and she would hide her nose in the fabric of Salace’s shirt until her sense of smell acclimated. Sure, wasn’t like they were spared the heat that engulfed your face like a wet towel straight out of the broken dryer back home, except it didn’t burn her nasal cavity. Back in Yga it was sharp smells of cut hay and grass tickling her nose, swamp water and piss soaked soil, Paul Mall’s and Busch Light, dollar store body spray and Aqua Net and potent homebrew.<i>There </i>was comfort and<i>here </i>was unfamiliarity no matter how many times she’d ventured. Here was exhaust, garbage bins overflowing, stagnant muddy pavement puddles, whatever part leaked motor oil from an undercarriage leaving a black rainbow atop of the water. It was spray tans and hand sanitizer, charbroiled fumes from restaurant vents, and a saccharine sweet combination of a thousand different perfumes, colognes, and body odor. At street level, underneath the array of hovering lamps and LED banners, the city looked grey-brown with the hidden moon for a blue hued backdrop. Forbidding, heaving with cars, yellow cabs and foreigners of every description. To Lilith, despite that she had been coming with Salace every great once in a while when he let or needed her, a girl who would forever be used to the quiet ‘village’ - hardly big enough for the label of town, the energy of the city always felt alien to her but also...electrifyingly thrilling. It made her nerve endings sizzle with anticipation that kept an angels grin on her pouty mouth and a ruffian’s gleam in her big blue eyes. Lilith<i>loved </i>the city but not for reasons most young ladies of her background would; she did not love it for the change in scenery, for a whimsical wish to live in the hustle and bustle, or for the change in pace either no Lilith loved it here because there were just<b> so.many.people.</b>of perpetual fucking ignorance to fool like a magician and lull like a siren and they almost always….always...blindly followed her home. They were curious creatures, these burban babes, and couldn’t help themselves whenever the alluring shadows of who their folks an grandfolks had dubbed<i> 'those backwoods abominations'</i>came gallivanting through their doors.<br/><br/>Come now, they<b><i>were </i></b>somethin’ fascinating though, weren’t they? She, a pixie sized thing who resembled the replica of some porcelain doll but with sunkissed flesh among the company of two willowy giants with handsome monster maws.<br/><br/>Like the bubbly, honey eyed girl with<i>raven </i>hair in the establishment not big enough to be a club, though neither small enough to be a pub, that had been watching Lilith, and the boys intermittently, for what had to be the better part of two hours now when they had only been there a little over three. When they had entered the place, still teeming with misfits not so unlike themselves at the time, she’d been all a’smitten with Lily’s brother for the first sixty-some minutes. But who could blame her? He was so large, and not just in the way of his physique no it was merely his fucking presence; Sal was a soaring skyscraper casting an endless shadow. His stride was long and sure. Each fall of his boots was a claim of ownership on each crack in the asphalt and every scuff on the floor. A walking thunderstorm commanding you watch for the sky to crack and rain all Hell down on your skull.<br/>Then there was Alchem, not much difference in the way of predatory prowler yet it was obvious he wasn’t ‘leading’. The guy with the side-shaved head with dark blond slicked back on top of it wasn’t so much menacing as he was disconcerting, a friend most days but not so much as a ‘friend’ on others as simply someone her brother trusted...<i>sometimes</i>...with some things…? Could never tell with Salace who was friend who was foe, it all depended on how keen he was on being keen at all.<br/><br/>It hadn’t been until<i>young and dumb</i>caught a glance of the ink on the back of Lilith’s neck and playing peek-a-boo on her shoulder blade that the girl became fixated on her.<i>They always did</i>, and it’s why she flashed it ever so inconspicuously. This time Lily had gathered up all of her long, heavy tendrils - a wavy current of fresh platinum roots rather than the onyx that’d been sneaking out earlier before she shoved the bottle of color into her brothers hand inside the trailers bathroom he hardly fit in to get the sections she couldn’t reach, into a pile atop of her crown. Letting her neck cool, and keeping it up there as she took a break from dancing and dealing to breathe and drink while the boys did...whatever the boys do. When she was sure Miss Ravenhair, so similar to that of their<i><b>dearly </b></i>departed mother Devana, got a good look at the immortal lines etched into her skin that Lazarus had put there while she laid belly down on his table, pilfering through a trash tabloid lifted from the fill-up station two years ago, Lilith could see it written all over the girls face as she chanced a peek over her shoulder to recognize recognition. Her peach lips twitched to suppress a taunting smirk before she withdrew her fingers and let all her hair cascade back down the length of her spine, ends tickling the exposed skin above the waistline of her tattered denim skirt.<br/>She’d sure been trying long enough, this girl. Hard enough, squinting her eyes and craning her neck then voila! Crystal clear was the black and gray star inside of the full moon on her nape. It was hard to make out at a glance or from far away but with proper study, it was very apparent. Blending into two crescents on either side, then trailing down into the sun-bleached black Skynyrd T she cropped herself and cut the neck out of at an angle so that it fell off on shoulder. Naked branches curled out from behind the red strap of her bra, and when her back was fully exposed, there displayed an elaborate tree.<br/><br/><i>Hook, line and sink-her. </i><br/><br/>While the girl was palpably curious and squirmed to ask questions, she remained politely seated at the table reserved for what looked like sorority row sisterhoods, but Lilith knew it was only a matter of time before she inquired about it and until then? Well, she’d had just about enough of this hipster jive, not to mention she did her best hustling when she stole the proverbial show thus Lilith swayed her way over to the crying shame of a jukebox;<i>digital</i>? Her nose pinched in a bitter wrinkle;<i>the fucking audacity of some places</i>. What fun was swiping a finger across a screen of censors? What good was a fancy machine when you didn’t get to flip through the vinyl's, and hear that crackling static before the instruments?<i>Fucking yuppies,</i>she sighed, perching her featherweight against the machine after slipping it a five with a cocked head. Swiping right, brows furling then begrudgingly swiping right again before tapping the search option so a keyboard popped up in front of her. Yes it was irritating to have to play on a goddamned oversized computer; sentimental girl liked old shit.<i>Fred had the old shit</i>... Nevertheless she found her song and just as soon as the back-in-time beat began to ebb through the impeccable sound system, that wrinkle in her nose smoothed out but kicked up on others faces, lips curved up at the corner and turned down on others faces, eyes glittered and only her middle and hips swayed while<i>others </i>slanted in a narrow and their bodies slowed down now that whatever pop culture trash had been blaring was hereby replaced. Them hips and that midriff though...They moved away from each other, back and forth, like a well choreographed slither for a game of<i>snake </i>and mouse.<br/><br/>Every head turned and every eye followed as they wondered who the fuck put on the ‘white trash anthem’ that began crooning about rain crying and the devil singing. But Lilith, the girl had a wayward way about her most didn’t, though they were intrigued by it, and soon enough they became deaf to the song they initially had disdain for and were seemingly hypnotized by the<i>fae </i>and the fluidity of her well rounded, heart-shaped hips, and by how the rest of her slim supple body fell into a solo groove, and the fact that her feet were bare. She stayed on tiptoes, calf muscles flexing and smoothing as she rose then fell in rhythm on one heel then the next with the electric guitar, drums, all of it. It wasn’t conceitedness that made her “act" the life of a party, she just...was. Nobody else dared dance alone in the middle of the modest sized, but very crowded, space however she needed no partner because she did not want<i>one</i>. She wanted them<i><b>all</b></i>.<br/><br/>The grungy misfits who sought them out for her made-from-scratch gully washers or dissolvents that go under the tongue or in the cheek had all but gone as soon as they exchanged hands and money without a missing a beat in passing. Now?<b>Now </b>she needed to bring in more.<br/>The fella’s who wore bright and spotless polo shirts. The gal’s who swiped daddy’s Amex at Sephora for their concealer instead of inspecting the tube as if to ensure it was cruelty free before,<i>woopsydaisy</i>; dropping it down into the Big Gulp cup of Pepsi.<br/><br/>She was their salacious ballerina, drawing them in with every slow rolling twirl  and outstretched arms that moved as rhythmically leisure as her legs. And hips. And everywhere else… Had they even noticed when she plucked a thorn from her front pocket? Pricked her finger, felt the pindrop of blood well into a bead. Felt the sudden rush of heat so engulfing, so<i>enthralling</i>, it felt like a chenille blanket fresh out of a working dryer after coming in from a December shower. The venom sung through her veins. It felt like a livewire was inside of her body and in slow motion it whipped, curled, snapped and bounced off of every pleasure censor in her central nervous system uncaring if it found a place to ground.<br/>Lilith’s tolerance was much too great for the saturated in every single grain piece of hardened, dead stem with the needle point to have the full effect, but it was just enough to give her a taste. For them to get their<b>fill</b>… and she decided when her head fell back, colliding with a firm wall covered by a fitted Henley,<i>he </i>would get the first bite. This man with the bun and the beard, a complete contradiction in her opinion but who was she to judge? When his hands closed around her middle, on the skin beneath the cropped Ts jagged cut hem, making her sensitive skin flare oh no she could not judge nor deny him.<br/><br/>Twirling on her toes Lilith turned in his arms, allowing him to think<i>he </i>had command here, and wrapped her left arm around his neck but brought her right hand to his face. Hardly hitting four inches over five foot, he had to bend to her like everyone else, wanting her lips and she arched her mouth for his - but her thumb with the two rings on it stopped them from making a landing. Her index and middle fingers curled round to his mouth too, the tips dragging his lower lip down until the thin, glistening flesh was shining under the light when it strobed over them.<br/>Just like Lilith felt her skin pierce beneath the sharpened point? So too did she feel the skin of his lip break. She stretched her fingers back out, not recoiling or startling at all when he jerked and hissed; stupified and perplexed about what had just happened yet the feeling left as quick as it arrived. His bristled posture relaxed again, lashes making a hood over his eyes again, then he was reaching for her again but clever clogs was pirouetting a breath away from his fingertips.<br/><br/>This game went on to anther, then another, and another after that until she had almost half of the dancing populace, boys and girls alike, riding on a cloud they would have to come asking about eventually - vying for another snakebite moan.<br/>Girl was positively giddy, as much was obvious by the giggle in her throat when she heaved a rushing breath from pursed lips at the bar and wouldn’t you know it? Miss Ravenhair was waiting on her cosmo.<i><b> Dear Fate, Piss off.</b></i>Lilith made that happenstance happen by paying attention. To everyone and everything.<br/><br/>Man bun Manny behind the bar knew the cheap tequila she preferred and poured a shot in front of her all while sliding the black tress beauty her pink drink.<i>Smooth</i>. Lilith thanked him with a grin and a wink, pretending to blush so well her cheeks actually pinkened, and threw back the shot right as she was pulling all that hair over one shoulder and her prey of the night faced her. Just-like-she-knew-she-would.<br/>“Can I see your tattoo?” Buzzed and bubbly asked loud and laughing - like it was a amusing thing to ask. No, more like cause she couldn’t think of a more eloquent way to ask, but liquid courage led her to not caring much about the etiquette of pleasantries between strangers.<i>Good</i>.<br/>“Sure!” Lilith lilted with an equally big smile and amount of enthusiasm, only hers was fake...<i>sorta</i>...yet it was not obvious. But she turned at the waist, giving the girl her back, and reaching behind her to tug the top down.<br/>Britney,<i>ofcourseshewasabritney</i>, went as far as running her finger lightly across the bold, intricate ink. Lily could feel her cool breath on her heated skin, and during this fascinated assessment she slipped the thorn back into her pocket. Britney Baby needed to have her head outta the clouds for this.<br/>“Isn’t that like… the sign of Satan, or...somethin?” Brit asked bashfully, and so it went from there and ended like this an hour and a half later;<br/><br/>“No, see, that’s part of the brainwashing, Brit,” why yes they were on a first name basis already; and an endearing variation one at that! “you can’t think straight if you’re weak all the time.”<br/>Britney was aghast, “I’m not weak!” dually noted she didn’t dismiss brainwashed first, or ever…<br/>“We just lead a healthy life in God’s love.”<i>Oh, you poor, sweet girl bless your heart</i>, said the softened, sad smiling features morphing over Lily’s facade when she reached out and gently squeezed the girls hand resting on her knee. They were both perched on barstools now. Lilith had one leg crossed over the other, the denim bunched high around her thighs but no peel-a-boo panties as she sat so proper, “Yes, in the church they surrounded each other with love and support, promises of eternal life in heaven. But if you deviate and don’t repent, they say you’ll go to Hell. Your own friends make you feel like a fucking...outsider….even for questionin' God’s word, don’t they?” She paused long enough to watch shame pass through Britney’s eyes, and her lowering face, and Lily's dimple twitched to keep from beaming as she so<i>sincerely </i>went on, "You want approval. So you give in and they love you again. It’s psychological fascism.” Brit was thoughtful, “But… Jesus teaches love, and forgiveness. That’s not fascism.” so why dont you sound so sure, babygirl? “But why can’t we have love and forgiveness without the threat of Hell? Can people only be good outta fear, not out of common decency? What kinda God would create mankind then condemn most of us to an eternity of torture? The Goddess also gives compassion and love, without threats.” Lilith ebbed out like a sweet lullaby, her southern drawl thick, but intelligible, without a slur, “Look, maybe your Bible’s true. Or, maybe its the story of Hebrew patriarchs trying to replace goddess worship with their own jealous, war-like God. That goddess wasn’t evil; she was a threat to their power. The Great Mother was the first deity and she was worshipped for hundreds of thousands of years before your God was invented. Maybe that is the truth?” She spoke boldly, with conviction, however maintained a gentle, even cadence, “I don’t want you to doubt your faith,” she lied like it’s what she was born to do, “I’m only tryin to explain to ya how your faith is based on a reversal of nature. Of course the first deity was female; everyone has a mother and men can’t give birth. Gods are projections of the ultimate divine mother or father. I thought you’d know that.”<br/><br/>Having said quite a mouthful, and seeing right in front of her every word sowing all kinds of little seedling in Britneys peabrain, Lilith leaned back against the small rest of the stool and finally picked up her third, paced shot of tequila. Her veins still hummed with the nectar, too much drink too fast and… she’d be no good to anybody least of all herself or Salace.<br/>“Can...can I ask ya somethin?” Brown eyed girl asked sheepishly, twisting her thumbs and wringing her hands. Lilith never glanced down at them, only nodded, “Course ya can, Sweetheart.” It took her a few moments to gather her courage, having laid off the cosmo’s once she became rapt in the conversation that made her question everything she ever knew, “Think maybe I could...I dunno… like, come out there? Sometime? I mean there’s just all these stories, ya know?” She chuckled and Lilith did too, keeping the peculiar<i>oh, really? </i>out of both her expression and the rattle in her throat, “But you’ve made everything anyone's ever said so...so baseless! And knowing now that star in a circle has fuck-all to do with Satan, all these things you’ve said--” Lily held up her hand, pressing it in the center of Britney’s chest and tilting her head at the girl, “I get it. And of course you can!”<br/><br/>Ten minutes later she was sighing with theatrics and leaning her shoulder blades back into Sal’s sternum, settling between his legs with her elbows propped on his thighs, “Don’t mind I have a playdate, hm?” Proud and prissy asks, neck twisted and face tilted up, “Her hair’s just<i>so </i>pretty. Isn’t it.” Nah, wasn’t much of a question at all, but rather pointing out the disgusting obvious as she watched with a curled lip from the shadows Britney and her pals walking out of the front door. But then that curl let loose of a snarl and spread into a wider grin, “She’ll be singin real pretty,” Lilith sang under her breath, hummed a little too, “juuuust like Snow White. And she’ll<i>lu-lu-lull</i>,” her fingers pecked a crawl in sync with her lu-lu-lulling, down to his knee, “all the big bad stags.”