meowy_

There are times I wished I were able to dream.

   Instead for centuries, I played memories of Pandora over and over. Lucius’ villa was halfway up Vesuvius. Those days had been so carefree. I had sung, danced, laughed and loved in her father’s villa. Volcanic eruptions destroyed Herculaneum centuries ago though and I could only escape from Pandora's box when it was excavated in 1702 by a young man called Marco.

    Beautiful. Marco thought as he traced engravings on the outside of Pandora’s box. Latin inscriptions graced the outside. Of course I knew them all by heart. As Marco’s fingers traced the gilded marble letters on the left, I mind whispered “bibo ergo sum”,“I drink, therefore I am”. He had paused and looked uncertainly around the room. As the seconds had turned to minutes though, his curiosity overcame his surprise. Bending over he had tried to read the inscription on the right. I obliged his curiosity, mind whispering “vive memor leti”, "I live remembering death". Instantly his thoughts had whirled in excitement. Eager, he strained to push the lid fully open. As he reached for his torch, keen to inspect the inside, I had sat up. I only regret a little now how brutally I had pinned him down.  With the thirst of ages, I had drank and drank filling his mind with images of the last inscription “praemonitus praemunitus, supero omnia”, "forewarned is forearmed, I surpass everything".  I had been grateful though, so before he was too weak, I did leave him, letting him slip into a graceful unconsciousness.
    Outside the ruins of the Villa Papyri were once vineyards.  As I stretched my wings there, I fondly recalled the celebration of Pandora’s fourteenth year there. As the sun had set, she had begged for something about me she could pen, as a gift to her of course. She had learnt to write over the Winter and so I had lain on the grass beside her. That day I had felt a strange impulse to tell her everything and had started at the very beginning… Before life, Eloha (God) and I were one and the same. When it was decided that I was to be created, the name I chose for myself was Lilith.  Eloha and I are eternal and unlike everything we created, including Adam, Eve and Eden. Separate, however, I would live amongst our creations.  That had been so long ago, and here I still remained.
    As the moon had risen and my story had become long, Pandora’s kind brown eyes had not judged me. Even when I had told her I had once vowed to prey eternally upon the descendants of Adam and Eve, I had known that she would immediately forgive me. As I unfolded my wings to take flight however, I knew that she had loved me still, only because she had thought I was better than I was. She had believed in the balance of life with death, and had had no knowledge of my pleasure in bringing it.