The Moon's Fangs | 1
8 | serpent + soul

He left the lab and disappeared down a hall behind me. I didn’t know how much slack his strange rope had, but he couldn’t have gone far. I knew it was a stupid idea. But I did it anyways. Before he returned, I quickly slid one of his tools into my pocket. I couldn’t reach, nor attempt to risk going for my personal items, lest he notice.

Fear skittered across my skin as he came back into view. I wouldn’t use it now. No. There was still a chance he’d let me go after looking into the matter on his own time. I’d hold on to it for now and bide my time.

Wait until his guard went down.

“Play nice, girl.” The smoky wisps of his voice curled around me as his hand lifted my chin up to look up at him, staring down at me from behind the chair. The heat of his palm grazed up the column of my neck as the restraints eased away from my body. He held my wavering stare as the smooth, elastic-like rope slid off my limbs.

My cheeks blazed red before his hand dropped. When I stood, there was no sign of the dropped rope, as if it had just blinked out of existence. I gave him a sidelong look, intuition telling me he had obstructed my view of seeing how that happened on purpose.

He gestured towards the hall he disappeared down earlier. “Walk. Unless,” the corner of his mouth lifted suggestively, “you prefer I—”

“Save it.” I cut him off, moving past my jailor with my hands crossed tightly against my chest. My heart beat wildly against my chest. Not just because I was afraid of him noticing his precious ovo tool of doom had gone missing, but because this man was a walking temptation. My body reacted to his hand on my throat like it craved his kind of sin. And my body needed to get with the program and realize this man was not what we initially signed up for. The snake obviously left out the detail of this man being Hades reincarnate.

I heard a quiet snicker from behind as he followed. “All the way down to the open room.”

I walked down the long hall, towards the only room open. Several other doors littered the hall, but I assumed he likely locked them before letting me go. With his eyes on me, I wouldn’t dare try anything. Not yet. Not until the perfect opportunity presented itself.

When I stepped into the room, I turned to ask him how long I would have to wait. But before I turned completely around, his back was already to me, and the door slid shut faster than I could react.

For a moment I just stood there, before turning to stare blankly at the single bed occupying the room.

The bed’s frame coincided with the circular, dove-grey walls as if it had been built into the wall itself. Nothing else inhabited the room - no bathroom, no window, no outlets, nothing. If prison had a VIP cell, it might look like this. At least it wasn’t bars and shackles.

I went over and sat quietly on the bed, letting the silence settle over. Everything either ached, throbbed, or stung. Not just physically, but mentally too.

It hurt to think of Blaire.

At this point, there was no way I'd make it in time to save her. She either survived or she didn’t. Either Nolan helped her get away, or he didn’t. At least half a day had gone by, if not more, and if I somehow managed to get out of this mess, I’d have to face whichever truth awaited me at home.

Dread weighed down on my heart. And a big part of me felt too scared to replace out.

I clenched the edge of the bed, gathering the sheets in my fists, and closed my eyes, keeping focus on just breathing for a few moments until another relentless thought surfaced. Demanding attention.

Reks.

Reks was one hundred percent, without a doubt in my mind, an alien. An alien… with superpowers.

The last time I checked, Earth didn’t have multiple moons and people didn’t just miraculously heal like it was no big deal. Also, something was definitely moving around under his skin. And he might have a magic rope. I didn’t know, but it was creepy as all hell.

I shuttered from the recollection of that visual of blue light spiderwebbing up my forearm.

I looked down at my hands, closely examining the one he had interacted with. They were cut up already, so how was I to know what he did exactly?

A ran my fingers over the area where our wrists had connected. My skin felt tender from the previously inflicted scrapes and bruises.

“Guideless…”

What did he mean by that?

Dried blood tarnished the cloth wrapped around my palms. If all my opened wounds didn’t get cleaned soon, they might get infected. Especially now they’re being exposed to freaky alien air and stuff.

On that note, I braced myself and lifted my shirt to get a peek at what hurt the most. My breath froze from the gruesome sight of my ribs. Nearly the entire right side was covered by a yellowish-purple and black bruise.

I bit down on my lip. That stupid, terrifying monster could have crushed all my ribs with that blow - how was this all that happened? Unease wriggled its way under my skin.

What if I had internal bleeding… right now? Something looked off about the alignment of my ribs, and fear kept me from touching them.

If I had my phone, and if it had cell service, I’d look up the signs of internal bleeding. But no. I was locked in a room being held prisoner by a freaking alien.

Hell, I may die before he comes back to check on me.

Not liking the sound of that, I stalked back over to the door. There wasn’t a doorknob, so I tried pressing against it. No budge. I pressed an ear to the door, listening. I held my breath, focusing on any sound I could grasp on the other side. Nothing.

I guess it wouldn’t be too bizarre to believe it to be soundproof.

“Hello… can you hear me?” I tried anyway. “Um, I feel like you’re the scientist type, and I was wondering if you could check and see if I’m about to die from internal bleeding? If that’s not your specialized area, that’s okay… but I’d really appreciate it if I could get it checked out before I check out if you know what I mean.”

I waited a few moments, politely knocked, waited, banged on the door, then waited some more.

That ungrateful… I crossed my arms. After everything I did to help him out, this vengeful man repaid my kindness with psychotic brutality, then had the audacity to lock me up in a room without access to a bathroom? The nerve!

“Well if I die, you’ll have to replace someone else to blame for whatever it is you’re so angry about!” I glared accusingly at the door, about to add a complaint about not having access to a bathroom when a low hiss stopped me from saying anything at all.

Hsss...

My hair whipped my cheek, eyes darting around the room, but fell short of the source.

Even still, my illusionary spidey senses were tingling. Goosebumps rose across my arms at the instantaneous thought of that iridescent cobra. I helped the guy it wanted me to replace. So what were the odds of it resurfacing now that I did its little deed?

Crap. I never considered it.

I faintly touched the side of my neck as a strange instinctual fear settled over.

On silent feet, I tiptoed around the bed. Finding nothing there, I crouched down to look under it too. But the following hiss pulled my eyes elsewhere.

The blood drained from my face from what I witnessed next.

The curved wall contorted, pushing out as if it was made of elasticity. I grabbed onto the bed frame, staring wide-eyed until a snake’s head broke the surface. Ripples surged across the wall as a result, like water if it could retain its shape as a small snake parted from it.

Unlike the cobra from my nightmare, this snake was smaller in comparison. Its synthetic-like scales shimmered a shade of violet across its cyan-blue body. It couldn’t have been longer than my forearm, but even still, I scrambled to the top of the bed for safety.

A snake came out of the wall. A snake came out of the wall.

It slithered forward a few inches, slitted eyes trained on me.

“No!” I yelled at it, snagging a pillow to use as protection. “Stop right there! If you’re going to say something, you can say it right there!”

It flicked its forked tongue, lifting its head from the ground with the same amount of interest a tiger may have when spotting its dinner through the tall grass. If there wasn’t anyone holding it back, then nothing would be stopping it from checking out its discovery.

It slithered closer, reaching the foot of the bed. My heart leaped and I chunked the pillow down on top of it with the immediate afterthought: I really hope that didn’t just piss it off.

“Reks!” I screamed, cutting off as pain stabbed my side. I grasped my ribs, grabbing another pillow.

I stood on top of the bed, squeezing the pillow in my hands. I peered over the foot of the bed, seeing only the cushion on the ground. Either the snake was under it, or… I peeked around both sides of the bed. Or the snake was now under the bed.

Long seconds passed by. I held my breath, listening for the sound of hissing or slithering, or anything snakey.

Goosebumps crawled up my legs when the consideration of the serpent possibly inverting back into the wall popped into my head. It did it once. It could do it again.

What kind of monster room did he put me in anyway? Why did the walls spit out a snake? God. Why couldn’t he hear me?

The pillow suddenly seemed like a poor defense option. Mind scrambling for a better plan, I dropped the pillow and pulled the blanket off the bed. I bunched two corners in my hands while searching for the culprit. If and when it attacked, I’d capture it inside the blanket, then tie it up inside with Flash-like speed. Then I’d set the trapped thing in a corner and stare at it until Reks came back.

With my limited available resources, that would be the best I could do.

A hushed thrum emitted from what I was sure to be the section of the wall just above the bed frame. I steeled myself, raising the blanket up past my nose, staring wide-eyed and unblinking at the wall.

My insides screamed in anticipation while waiting for this stupid snake to spring out.

Silence reigned for a few long, agonizing moments. Then I caught the slightest movement in my peripherals. The ceiling directly above my head rippled from a disruption as the snake’s head popped into view.

Its slitted eyes dilated in hunger and I gasped out. I lifted the blanket above my head, screaming - but my heel caught the footboard. The blanket blinded me, and there was nothing for me to grasp onto to save myself from the fall.

Pain lashed through my ribs the moment I hit the floor. It was so intense, my vision went black and white at the same time. I couldn’t replace oxygen, couldn’t bring it into my lungs. Something audibly popped in my side. I tried to cradle my stomach, but even my fingers went numb.

I gasped and gasped, desperate for air. But each turned shorter than the last. Bright bursts of pain shorted out every other one of my senses.

Something slick and glossy slithered over my legs, but I couldn’t move - couldn’t think - couldn’t breathe.

“R- Re-” I gasped between frail breaths. I reached towards the door, barely able to make anything out through the black splotches. Blood painted my fingers. Dripped from them.

Something slithered up my shirt. Cold scales grazed across the worst of the pain. God, it burned! Everything burned hot and cold, uncontrollable agony.

I’m going to die. I’m dying.

As a cold numbness spread over me, I thought I saw combat boots rushing toward me. But everything went a deathly black.