Snakes in the Walls

by caitlyn
(Olympia, Wa)

I'm an ordinary teenage girl, with ordinary friends, with an ordinary boyfriend, everything in my life set out right in front of me already set up in a neat straight line.... Until now, the day when one of my "friends" scrambled it up.

That day when everything went wrong and now nothing seems to matter anymore happened when I found a dead garden snake in the corner of my room...

It had teeth marks around its body. I screamed first thinking it was still alive, then saw it had red teeth marks. I knew it wasn't a vampire cause there were no fang marks, and I wasn't going to be ridiculous.

The teeth marks were totally human, if you could even call it that. What human would bite a live garden snake and leave it sitting in a pile in my room?

I forgot about it the next week and walked over to my boyfriend Zach's house. We sat together on the couch playing our fave game, "Modern Warfare". Of course, he beats me, he has the advantage of being a guy. Which I suppose is a little sexist but most guys are better at first person shooting games than girls.

When we're done we walk over to the park, hand in hand, and the first thing we see is a little boy crying on the swing set. Me and Zach look at each other and we have one of those moments where we could read each other's expression perfectly. It's kinda like mental telepathy if you ask me.

"You talk to him first Zach" I think, "you're better with little kids". Immediately, he starts walking toward the little boy and comforting him.

I see Zach flinch so hard, that he almost back hands the little boy in the face!

"Zach! What's going on?" He turns to look at me with a pained expression, and he's holding his wrist tightly, trying to yelp, running towards me. Then the little boy takes off running, yelling "I hate my life, there's no use I can't fix it!"

I run towards Zach seeing the blood drip from his wrist oozing through his fingertips. My lower lip was trembling when he says the three words that made no sense at the moment: "He bit me".

Instinctively, I rip his hand from his wrist and look at the tiny teeth marks made by the little boy. They were bleeding a lot, and I took off a sleeve of my sweater and wrap the sleeve around the wound. I take off the rest of my sweater, it would look weird with only one sleeve.

I give him an extra-long hug because he got bit by a little boy. "Everything alright? You're not turning into a zombie are you?"

He just smiles and says "No, but can I have another hug?"

"When we get you home and treat that wound, yes".

He snickers, muttering something about teeth and "lousy" hugs.

Skip to another week later, the little boy rings on my doorbell, and I'm home alone. I have no idea what to do, cause Zach was at his cousin's house across the country. What if he bites me too? I saw what he did to Zach, his teeth marks are still trying to heal. But not answering the door was a mistake, because soon, he just threw a rock at the window and broke in.

What the little boy does is so surprising, even I have to knit my eyebrows together and cock my head to the side. He just says "go away, by the time you come back, all of this will look like it never happened, no more snakes in your walls, and I won't come back ever again, I promise".

I believed him, so I just took a walk to the park, acting like nothing happened. What did he mean by snakes in my walls?

I run back as fast as I could back to my house, but just as he promised, it looked like nothing had happened. But in the corner of the living room, there is a note, written in messy first grader hand writing. It says: I'm sorry for all the trouble I've caused you and your friend. I was trying to find the blood that would reverse the spell that I've had for over a thousand years, it turned out to be snake blood. It helped me be at peace, and move on. You just had a problem with a snake infested house, so I used you. I'm sorry. Sincerely, your friend from the park.

And that's when Zach burst through the open door of my house hug tackled me to the ground in the corner of the living room where no body could see you if you sit there. I almost screamed when he clamped a hand over my mouth. I nodded my head letting him know I know to be quiet.

I scoot even closer to Zach, because I hear heavy footsteps and breathing in my house, then a chain saw through the walls..... Saw dust everywhere, and a deep frustrated yell and then it was all gone.

We were both too scared to move, and I think we stayed sitting in the corner for quite a while, maybe an hour? I don't know, but this time, it was both of us that needed a hug.

"Well, I don't know about you, but I'm hungry" Zach says. I laugh and get up, and he gets up along with me. Then he kisses me, it was a perfect kiss, the ones that are soft and not too short or too long, the kind that you don't want to end, but it has to because you need to surface for air. That was perfect timing because right about then, my parents walked through the door...