Lilith sat at her counter top, finishing a sketch of her flower Vase. She always put her phone on silence when she worked, it helped her focus. When she finished she checked her phone to see hundreds of messages. They said things like ‘Lilith did you know?’ And ‘Lilith turn on your tv!’ Confused Lilith switched her TV on to the news channel. A man in a black suit appeared on screen and began talking. “Citizens of Irene, I come to you with news of some sort of disease or virus, that has been killing people, healthy people like flies.” Pictures of people flowed through the screen. Not just adults but children too. Lilith gasped as she watched the pictures appear. All of them, every picture she knew. Lilith had treated of these people with her magic. She had healed them. A picture of a little girl in curl pig tails flashed across the screen. Her name was Sera, and she had cancer. Her parents had come to Lilith asking for her help, and she gave it to them. Lilith healed there daughter but now…

Another picture flashed across. It was of a tall man with shaved lip but the longest beard. Him and his wife would argue about it constantly but in a loving way. His name was Phil. He was a father of four kids. Phil had been deaf and all he wanted to do was hear his children’s voices. Lilith had healed him too. Every picture Lilith had healed, they were healthy. How could they all be…

Lilith ran into her library and started grabbing books by the dozen. She landed on her oldest one. Lilith flipped through the pages. Lilith froze on a page. She read the same line over and over making sure it was real. ‘The lasting effects of magic can be deadly if not continuously administered.’ Lilith dropped the book, clawing at her head. No, no it can’t be. How could she had missed that! Lilith had been young sure we she found her magic but. No, no it was t her fault it just couldn’t have been. But as that line sank in Lilith knew what the truth was.

Lilith fell to the ground gasping and her chest. She clawed at it. Lilith had never been stabbed in the heart but this is what she imagined it felt like. A sob broke from Lilith’s lips. A heart wrenching sound. Tears flowed down her face like a flooding river. It was her fault she did this. Sera, Phil and so many others. It was her fault. It was all because she had been a lazy teenager who thought that the book wasn’t important. Now hundreds were dead because of her. All their poor families. After hours of sobbing and clawing at her heart, Lilith rose and walked out of the library. She lifted a shaky hand, pulling down the blinds and locking her door. She sat down on her couch, her hands in her lap.

And Lilith had stayed like that till her walls crumbled and her hair greyed. This story is now used as a message to the young children of Irene. People say that Lilith’s ghost still sits their waiting for the pain to leave…