Big Bad Snake

  Erica walked along the edge of the woods that ran alongside her neighborhood. The leaves crunched beneath her high-heeled black oxfords, but she could only faintly hear it due to her iPod’s earbuds. It was the afternoon of Halloween and the 18-year old girl was dressed up; her costume was Little Red Riding Hood. She was wearing a red dress with a subtle black pattern on it. Her dress fell to about just above her knees and had a low cut neckline. She wore a red hooded cape that dragged along the ground behind her. To complete her look, she wore thigh high red and black striped socks. She wore black tights beneath the socks for warmth. Her slightly curly blond hair hung loosely beneath her hood. 

She turned to walk into the woods between two houses. The leaves became thicker beneath her feet and the autumn sun became obstructed by the leaves that were still on the trees. The woods weren’t that big, but she walked until she could barely see the yards behind her. Another part of her costume was the basket she was carrying. She went to sit it on the ground. The thump that it made when she dropped it for the last few inches revealed its weight. 

She shoved the leaves out of an area next to the basket. With some effort, she lifted what had made her basket so heavy and sat it in that spot. It was an iron caldron that sat on three legs. Also inside the basket, she had some ingredients to make a potion. 

Erica really wanted to do something that was occult for Halloween this year. She was of course too old to go Trick-or-Treating and didn’t really want to go to a cheesy party. Instead, she and a few friends did some research and found a forbidden potion to brew. Erica knew it wasn’t really anything special, but its legend was that it gave witches enhanced powers during the harvest. She had found out that all it really did was get a person high and cause hallucinations. 

She started mixing the ingredients. She would mix it all up now and then they would just have to light a fire once it became dark. She would just hang out with her friend until then as she had told her parents that she was going to a Halloween sleepover at her friend’s house. Instead, she was going to spend the night getting high. They hadn’t decided exactly what else they were going to do, but she was partial to them staying up all night and going to spooky places. 

She knelt by the caldron adding different ingredients. Once she had emptied her basket, she stood up. She tried to knock the dirt off of her socks before she picked up the basket to go collect sticks for their fire that night. Then she heard the crunching of leaves through her headphones, but it was too late. Before the girl could react she was grabbed and a chloroform soaked rag covered her mouth and nose. 

She started fighting immediately. She tried to twist away from her attacker's grasp. She tried to claw at his hand and face with her red-painted fingernails. She had little success though and she soon felt the effects of the fumes. Her struggles began to slow and she felt her eyelids becoming heavier. She tried to give one final fight, but she couldn’t get her body to cooperate. Finally, her eyes closed, her hands fell and she went limp in his arms. She was dragged away leaving her caldron and basket in the woods. 

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Michael had come to feel a certain kinship and gratitude to the massive snake. Especially since it had taken care of his manipulative niece for him. It had been a while since he had seen the beast or heard any stories of disappearing people. He knew the snake didn’t necessarily have to gain sustenance from eating people; there were other animals around that it could eat. However, that didn’t stop him from worrying about it. He especially came to worry about the coming winter. He didn’t think the cold-blooded creature could survive the northern winter, but he wasn’t going to just let it die out there. He started hatching a plan. 

He started almost instantly. He cleaned all the old junk out of his large basement, so there was plenty of floor space. He then hired a contractor to do some work down there in order to soundproof and cover the windows. He told them he was going to turn it into a recording studio and paid them generously so they wouldn’t ask any more questions. He then got to work making some other renovations to the basement himself. He installed a large heat lamp in one corner of the basement and tried to make another dark and cooler. He also made himself a small room in another corner, in which he installed a window, so he could see out into the rest of the basement. The rest of the basement would be kept at room temperature and well lit. 

He also did some research on how to attract a snake. It was hard to find, but he was able to obtain some supposed ‘sex pheromones’ for snakes. He also looked into how to create vibrations that it could sense. His final step would be to make his house as hot as he could stand it the night he planned to try and rescue the snake. 

He decided that he would put all this into action on Halloween night. The sinister nature of what he was attempting wasn’t lost on him, even if he felt he was rescuing an animal, so he thought that night would be particularly apt. His final purchase was for the prey he would be bringing in. He purchased chloroform. He felt confident that he was ready to go forward with things and was just waiting for that night.

Michael woke up on October 31st ready to put his plan into the action. He felt the trickiest part would be getting the prey. He figured that some people would stray from Halloween parties alone or maybe an overage female Trick-or-Treater might stop by. He still kept his eye out throughout the day for in case another easy target came by and to his surprise someone did. 

He could see that she was wearing a red cape and with each step he could see the lower part of her legs in her red and black socks. He couldn’t see much else though, because she made a turn and walked into the woods. He acted quickly. He grabbed a clean white handkerchief, poured some of his newly purchased chloroform onto and went after the girl. 

Her bright red cape made it easier to keep sight on her. If she had been wearing a more neutral color she may have faded in with the trees, but he could still see her red cape when he got to the tree line and followed it. He stopped about twenty feet from the girl and watched her. She seemed to be transferring things from her picnic basket. She had her back to him, but when she would turn to get another ingredient he could see the part of her face that wasn’t covered by the hood in a profile. She was a pretty girl and he guessed she was probably still in high school. 

He also noticed the white wires that seemed to be hanging from her ears. He hoped those would keep the crunching of the leaves from reaching her ears until it was too late. He watched her for a while before she finally stood up, wiped the dust off of her socks and then picked up her basket again. He walked towards her quickly and covered the twenty feet in just a few seconds.  

He grabbed her and put the damp cloth to her face. Her basket went flying and the girl struggled hard against him. Her screams were muffled by the rag and her attempts to fight him off were uncoordinated and panicked. Before long, he could feel the girl weakening against him. She finally went limp. He started dragging the girl back to his house. The leaves rustled beneath the girl’s feet as she was pulled closer to his back door. 

Michael had come to his conclusion that his neighbors usually weren’t home or just totally oblivious during the day, so he wasn’t worried about being seen when he brought the unconscious girl out of the trees. He pulled her to his back door and then inside of his house. He took his time as he pulled her down the steps into the basement. Once they were just past the base of the stairs, he let the girl fall into a heap on the ground. He was very winded from the excretion of dragging the girl that far. He sat in the chair he had brought down there and tried to catch his breath. 

A few minutes later, Erica had begun to stir, so he slowly got up and walked over to her. He knelt down and pressed the still damp cloth over her nose and mouth. She never opened her eyes, but weakly tried to pull away his hand. It wasn’t long before she had lost consciousness again. He moved so that he was kneeling at her feet. He slowly unlaced her right shoe and pulled it off. It would be another in his collection. Then he reached under the young woman’s dress until her found the top of her sock. He was pleased to find that she was wearing tights beneath her socks. He rolled her sock down exposing more and more of her tights-clad leg until he finally had pulled it off of her foot. 

He let his hand linger on her foot and gently rubbed it through the material of her tights before moving up to her lower leg. He could see through the opaque material of her tights that her toenails were painted the same bright red that her fingernails were. He pried himself away from her sexy legs and rolled her over on to her stomach. He used the sock he had removed to bind her wrists behind her back after shoving her cape aside. 

He planned on waiting until dusk to begin trying to attract the snake. He spent the meantime keeping her incapacitated. He would run his hands on her exposed leg and foot or just admire the girl while she was asleep. Although a few times he got a bit more bold. He would let her scream and plead before knocking her out again most of the time. He repeated the process until it had gotten late enough for him to begin the next part of his plan. 

He had to gather up some things. He started by spreading the supposed pheromones near his back door and down the basement steps. Next he let loose a dozen lab rats, which he had found a lot of snakes could sense the vibrations in the ground of fleeing prey. He left his back door open and walked back into his house. It was very warm and contrasted nicely with the cold October night. 

He walked back down to the basement and waited. Erica was allowed to stay conscious and she pleaded and screamed for help. 

It was several hours later. Erica’s voice had grown hoarse and she came to focus most of her attention on getting free. She was surprised that her sock had been so effective at binding her. However, Michael was eagerly anticipating the arrival of his friend. 

He saw its head coming down the steps. It slithered down the wooden steps, its tongue flicking around. It wasn’t until the beast was on the basement floor that Erica saw it. Her screams renewed as it approached her.  The snake was so large that its tail hadn’t even passed onto the steps yet as it moved to its prey. She pushed with her heels trying to slide away from the massive creature as fast as she could. She tried to stand up, but couldn’t get her balance and just managed to fall face first towards it. 

She screamed as the snake opened its massive jaws and lunged at her. Her screams quickly became muffled as her head went into the snake’s mouth. She thrashed her bound arms and her free legs. She pulled desperately at the sock that bound her wrists. The hungry snake pulled her further into itself. It quickly had her chest into its mouth. Her elbows beneath her cape soon disappeared as well. 

She twisted and kicked with her legs causing her dress to ride up. Soon it was over her waist, revealing that the gusset had been ripped out of her tights. She felt the cool air on her vagina before it too was drawn into the snake. Michael watched, fascinated by Erica’s kicking legs; one in simple black tights missing a shoe the other covered by a striped sock with her high-heeled black oxford. 

Her heels scraped against the concrete floor until her knees were pulled to the snake’s mouth. Then she could only wiggle her ankles. Soon just the girl’s feet poked out from the beast’s mouth. She was wiggling them frantically as her toes disappeared.  

In the quiet of the basement, Michael could hear the faint whimpers and screams coming from inside the snake. With his proximity, he could also see wiggles that the lump in the snake’s body made. He watched and listened as the snake slowly slithered its way over to rest beneath the heat lamp. Michael grabbed what had been Erica’s right shoe and made his way out of the basement. He would enjoy his new pet.