Okay, I’m late to the party, but
we will persevere…and hopefully catch up. :)
This week’s
prompt: open the box…
Slither on Over Here
Serious working title…trust me! lol
Part 1
copyright © 2015 Havan Fellows
Chapter One
August 31, 1991
Marvin Sutters pumped his arms faster, believing
that the quicker they moved the faster his legs would take him over the uneven floor
of the woods. His adrenaline blasted through his system giving him the false
security that his legs had a mind of their own. He suddenly believed they would
carry him away from the danger in the rear and to the safety of his bedroom a
few thousand yards ahead. He just needed to get to the clearing that functioned
as his backyard. Only to the clearing. They would never follow him there with
the threat of a parental unit seeing them.
He chanced a peek over his shoulder and saw the
yellow and brown sets of heads bouncing between the trees and brush. How did
they catch up so quickly? He had a seriously good head start. He spotted them
waiting at the end of the street and took off straight to the woods. They hadn’t
expected that, Marvin was somewhat known as a scaredy cat. This time he was
determined not to be hassled and have to hide the evidence from his folks yet
again.
He was born in the only house built next to the huge
forest, literally born in that house. From listening to his father you would
think Marvin was an overachiever who didn’t want to wait for his mama to get to
the hospital before he came into this world. His mom had a slightly different
version of the events, and it included his father being too freaked out to find
the car keys and get her to the hospital—no matter how many times she told him
to open the box by the front door where she threw everything. When Marvin
continuously brought up the point that they could’ve called an ambulance they
both scoffed at the idea—ambulances were meant for emergencies and birth didn’t
land on that list. Eleven years later and his folks still loved telling that
story.
But ever since his childhood he feared these woods.
If people were meant to live with the trees and bugs and nature-like things
there wouldn’t be development and buildings and lots and lots of concrete to
keep the creepy crawlers away from his feet. At least when Marvin stood on a
sidewalk he could easily see anything approaching him from the ground, here in
the woods they could ambush him at every turn.
Bad idea to think about that stuff right now. The thought
that he could be running on creepy crawlies and whatnot made him look down at
the ground. He broke his stride in doing so and tried to two step a bit to get
it back, causing him to trip over his own feet. His upper body kept propelling
forward while his feet remained deadlocked together at a standstill. The ending
result was him pinwheeling his arms like a lunatic right before face planting
in a pile of dried twigs and leaves.
He grimaced at all the places on his face and arms
that stung from his skin being torn open by the debris. Nothing serious or
scar-worthy, but darned if he wouldn’t be sore for a few days.
“Look! The mama’s boy can’t even run without
tripping over himself!”
Marvin dug the toes of his sneakers into the dirt
and tried to propel himself back up into a run. A small rock to the side of his
head knocked him off balance and he fell back to the earth, twisting in
mid-plummet to land on his butt. He glanced up at the boys and tried to crab
walk backwards away from them. He covered about three feet before his head
bounced against a tree trunk. Great, another war wound.
“Did you see that throw? I nailed his ass!”
They all laughed as they slowed to a saunter and
made their way over to him. Sam, the leader, jerked his fist back and snarled, “You
made me get my new sneaks dirty.”
Marvin cringed and slipped from his spot against
the tree to land flat on his back staring up at them all. Sam lowered his arm
to laugh at the sight Marvin was sure he made.
“Yeah. Who gave you permission to run from us?
Respect, wussy boy, it’s all about respect.” The biggest one, Tadd, cracked his
knuckles and stepped even with Sam.
“Go away! I’ll tell. I’ll tell them all it was you
this time! I won’t keep my mouth shut anymore!” Marvin shouted at them.
His eyes watered up from all the emotions he couldn’t
hold back. He was pissed at himself for falling. He was scared of these creeps
that always knocked him around every day. He was hurt on his face, and could
feel the blood trickle from his temple down the side of his face from that rock
they threw. But most of all, he was angry that he couldn’t defend himself.
“Look Sam, wussy boy is gonna cry. Are you gonna
piss your pants too? Come on, wet those jeans boy, I wanna see you piss
yourself.”
Sam leaned forward with his hands on his knees. He
was so close that Marvin could smell the garlic from their pizza school lunch
today.
“You aren’t gonna tell no one about this. Not now,
not tomorrow, not ever. Scaredy cats like you aren’t man enough to open your
stupid mouths. You have to pay for dirtying up my new shoes, you know that
right?”
A noise from Marvin’s right made everyone freeze.
“What was that?” Tadd backed up a step.
“It was nothing. Tadd you go see what’s in there.”
Sam slapped him on the chest.
“I ain’t going in there. You go, Sam.”
“Screw that! You’re the biggest, you go.”
A hiss came from close to Marvin’s ear and pure
terror froze him to the ground. Maybe if he didn’t move whatever made that
noise—and he guessed he knew exactly what made that godforsaken noise—wouldn’t
notice him sprawled out on the ground.
A yellow snake slithered out from the brush, zig
zagging through the dried leaves and twigs. It made a beeline for the standing
boys, slowly showing its bright body inch by inch. Marvin realized his error in
judging the color. This snake’s hue wasn’t a simple yellow. If possible it
looked almost golden, with deeper yellow highlights all over it. Its head was
thick and tapered to a pointy angle were its forked tongue flicked out of
repeatedly.
The snake almost looked like he had a purpose as he
slithered in front of each bully individually. Forcing them to scream and jump
back numerous feet to stay out of striking distance, if this snake was a
striker. Marvin didn’t recall ever seeing one that looked like this one.
“Holy shit! How long is that mudda?”
Marvin looked back to where it came from and
noticed its body wasn’t slimming any. At least eight feet of it was exposed
already and the body was still as thick as his arm.
In Marvin’s mind he was shooting to his feet and
running home, away from the bullies and this new terror that they brought down
on him. But his mind always worked a lot quicker than his body, which deemed it
wasn’t moving a freaking muscle until this thing slithered right on past him
for good.
It looked like that was exactly what the snake would
do, too. The bullies had all of its attention. When they were all over twenty
feet away the snake curled back in on itself and stopped.
Marvin stared at it.
It stared at him.
It was completely out in the open now and easily
measured the length of Marvin’s bedroom plus some. Marvin had a big room.
Time stood still for Marvin. He thought he should
be seeing his life flash before him now or something. He was staring a demon in
the eyes, shouldn’t that signal the end? No sound came from the woods, no wind
blew and no animals made their presence known. Nothing existed outside of
Marvin and this monster.
The monster moved forward toward him. When it
slithered over his leg he visualized himself kicking it away, but again his
body didn’t obey his mind.
It made its way up his thigh and paused at his
crotch. Marvin almost laughed when Shel Silverstein’s anaconda poem zipped
through his mind. Terror was the only thing holding his hysterics in.
The snake moved up his chest, a majority of its
thick heavy body pooling in his lap. It was so close that its forked tongue
snaked over his nose, no pun intended.
It pulled its body on top of Marvin the best it
could, but it was so huge and heavy that it couldn’t completely fit on him.
Coiling itself up it raised over Marvin easily by four or so feet and turned to
the bullies that stood and watched.
The hissing noise that came from the monster
rattled the leaves in the trees and wrenched screams from the boys’ throats.
They all turned simultaneously and ran like the devil himself licked their
heels.
Marvin felt a warm trickle run down his thigh to
wet his butt and the tears finally flowed. He was gonna die and he pissed
himself just like the boys wanted. He didn’t want his folks to find him like
this. He didn’t want to be humiliated to the whole town.
The snake jerked on him and lowered himself. Its
tongue flicked over Marvin’s crotch a few then he stared at Marvin for a couple
seconds before it quickly moved off of Marvin and back to the brush where it
came from. Its exit was faster than any movements it had done since showing
itself.
Marvin wanted to curl up in the fetal position and
bawl like the wussy boy he knew himself to be, but something stopped him.
So what if he cried? So what if he pissed his jeans
a little? Those boys ran. When faced with the monster they ran. He didn’t. He
faced the monster and he survived, he was more a man than those bullies would
ever be.
He jumped up on wobbly legs and slowly backed away
from where the snake hid. He may have been brave but he still wasn’t stupid.
And if he raced home quick enough he could get cleaned up before his folks got
home and no one would have to know just how scared he had been.
To
be cont’d…
The
fun is never over with just one turn—we are the Story Orgy™ remember *winks*—so
head over to the next blog and enjoy multiples with us…
