by William Bebb
*****
Jeremiah heard an odd sound in the living room and went back in holding all the emergency medical supplies he could find. His improvised supplies consisted of half a roll of toilet paper, a bottle of hydrogen peroxide, and a small tin of aspirin.
Opting to leave the propane lantern on the kitchen table, he hurried back into the shadowy living room saying, “All I found was-” The rest of the words died on his lips as he stared in shock and utter bewilderment. The faceless one eyed man he'd left in the recliner was gone.
In his place there was a big coil of very thick gray brown hoses with darker gray irregular designs on them.
Jeremiah was completely at a loss until he saw the head of the snake move. In the gloomy dark living room, when the snake moved, he finally spotted the man's nearly skinless face with an eyeball staring back at him.
“Jesus!” Jeremiah screamed as he jumped back and ran toward the kitchen. A second after he ran into the kitchen an answering scream came from somewhere nearby outside the trailer.
Thanks a lot, asshole, Charlie thought, watching the preacher boy run away.
Skynyrd opened his mouth and hissed in his face.
I chose door number two! This shit ain’t fair! Damn you, CARL, Charlie thought furiously, as he heard more cracking sounds when the snake constricted his chest tighter. His eye looked around frantically as he gurgled pitifully.
Cha-ka had been sitting on her perch near the front door since Charlie had been carried inside and was more than a little confused. The monkey had never before seen such a flummoxing night as that one. First, two crazy men came and destroyed the garden. After a while the lights came on and her beloved master was hurt and almost killed. She chewed on a marijuana bud and considered matters.
One man was still close by outside and he smelled dangerous. Her master was inside with another strange man and then she heard a scream from inside followed by another scream from the one who smelled dangerous. She spit the remains of the marijuana out of her mouth and watched the man outside prowling around the trailer, sniffing the air and grunting.
When he went around the side of the trailer, she quickly jumped to the ground and picked up a piece of Charlie's facial skin that had been chewed on and then spat out. Softly hooting, Cha-ka carried the piece of skin to the small pet door that both she and the snake used to go in and out of the trailer. Not trusting the dangerous man outside anymore than the snake (that on several occasions had tried to eat her) Cha-ka kept looking behind as she went to the door.
Skynyrd's two foot long head moved closer to Charlie's face with his long tongue wiggling against the meaty red flesh where his nose used to be. The snake's tongue was tickling and maddening at the same time as Charlie gurgled quieter because he no longer could catch his breath.
Skynyrd's long fangs curved inward, looking impossibly long and wickedly sharp, as the mammoth snake exhaled a foul breath of rotted meat in Charlie's face.
Damn thing could swallow a beach ball, Charlie realized with horror, as he again wished he had an eyelid to close.
All pythons are capable of unhinging their jaws and Skynyrd was no exception.
Charlie saw the snake's head rising out of his field of vision and within seconds felt the top of his head being engulfed.
Carl you lying sack of shit! I chose door number two, you faggoty piece of shit ghost! I want to live! Charlie thought furiously as his remaining eye looked upward.
In the kitchen, Jeremiah went straight to the drawer he had seen the long steak knives in a few minutes earlier. He knocked aside a filthy turkey baster and grabbed the longest sharpest knife. It was a butcher knife about eighteen inches in length, not counting the handle. Looking at the knife held in his trembling hand he hurried back to the living room and brought the propane lantern with him this time.
Never imagining when he'd attended Bible School he'd be confronted with this type of situation, Jeremiah was without the faintest idea how to proceed. Setting down the lantern on a nearby table covered in magazines he walked closer clutching the knife.
The one eyed man's breathing was becoming erratic and strained.
Jeremiah realized there was no time for finesse. He sliced where he hoped the enormous snake’s neck began.
The scales were tough, but he managed to slice through as the snake’s mouth was just covering the top third of the man's head.
The blade was halfway through the neck when the long thick coils trembled, loosened, and suddenly fell into a heap around the man's waist. He kept cutting until the snake's head was completely severed from its long body and set the knife nearby in case the snake had relatives somewhere nearby.
Grunting in exertion, he lifted and unwound the long coils. The blood of the snake flowing over his hands made it difficult to find a firm grip as he worked. Finally, he dragged the last of its long body into a corner of the living room and caught his breath.
The original foul stench of the trailer now was mixed with blood and a fresh aroma of shit.
Jeremiah whispered, “Give me strength, Lord,” as he tried to work up the courage to look at the man in the recliner. Ragged breathing assured him that the man was still alive. How and why he was Jeremiah couldn't begin to understand, yet still the man still lived.