For Sale

  Melissa opened the lockbox that was around the door knob of a suburban home. She pulled the key out of the box, unlocked the door and opened it. Her heels clicked on the hard floors of the entryway as she entered the house. She walked back into the empty kitchen and set her briefcase on the counter. She opened the back door and looked over the overgrown backyard. This home had been empty for quite some time. She decided to just leave the door open to hopefully help the house cool down a bit as she went to look around the rest of the house.

Melissa worked as a realtor and was going to meet her client at this house. Today, she was wearing a navy blue pants suit, black high-heeled pumps, and nude colored hose peeked out beneath her trousers. She had shoulder length straight blonde hair. She was in her mid-thirties and was quite self-conscious about what she felt was her fading good-looks. 

Her phone rang. It was her client, Jordan.

“Hello,” Melissa answered the phone. 

“Hi, Melissa,” Jordan said, “sorry, but I’m running late. I got held up at work”

“It’s alright,” Melissa said, “take your time.” 

“Thanks,” Jordan said, “I’ll be there as soon as I can.” 

They said their goodbyes and Melissa hung up the phone. She finished looking around the upstairs of the house and went back downstairs. She went back into the kitchen. She sat up on the counter and grabbed her laptop out of her briefcase. She crossed her legs and started working on something on her laptop. Her feet couldn’t reach the floor and her habit was to let her heels dangle from her toes. 

She was focused on her laptop and failed to notice a scaly tail that had dropped down from above. A massive snake slithered into the house with the backdoor open and climbed to the top of the kitchen cabinet. It slowly moved towards the oblivious blonde. In a quick motion it had coiled a length around her stomach securing the arms of the startled woman. She tensed, kicking out her legs, which sent her shoes and laptop flying.  

She prepared to scream, but the snake tightened its first coil and she suddenly felt like the wind had been knocked out of her. Her scream came out as little more than a breathy whimper. She tried to fight, but the snake managed to get another coil around her while all she managed was to flail her legs. The massive snake lifted her so she was longer sitting on the table and instead was dangling on its coils. 

It squeezed tighter every time she breathed out. Her breathing was becoming shallow as the serpent began wrapping a third coil around her breasts. It tightened around the writhing blonde and cut off her air supply. She grunted as she struggled to get free, but her arms were trapped by the snake so it proved useless. 

Her face turned red and her lungs began to burn. She was desperately trying to draw a breath. A forth coil had wrapped around her shoulders squeezing her even tighter. Her desperate leg kicking began to slow down as her face started turning from red to purple. There was a tremendous pain in her chest. Her world was going black and only involuntary twitches of her legs could be seen. Her body relaxed in the snake’s coils.

It secured its head over Melissa’s head and loosened its coils and began the process of swallowing her body. Her shoulders and chest were pulled into the serpent. Slowly, her waist and knees disappeared into its mouth. Her nylon-clad feet stuck out of the beast’s mouth. Her red painted toe nails stood out against the reinforced toe of pantyhose just before they went into the snake’s mouth. The snake laid on the counter as it began digesting its meal. 

A few minutes later, the front door opened and Jordan walked in. She was a young woman who had just graduated from college. She had gotten a good job shortly after graduating and had married a fairly well-off older man. She was in charge of the search for a house for the two of them as he was out of the country for a few months on work. Jordan had long curly brown hair. She was wearing a knee length black skirt, white button-up top, black pantyhose and black high-heeled pumps. 

“Melissa,” she called out, “sorry about being late.” 

Her heels clicked on the entryway as she walked deeper into the house. She wondered why her realtor hadn’t answered. She called out her name again just before walking into the kitchen. She screamed at the sight of the massive snake with a big lump in its body. She panicked and started hitting the snake in the head with her purse. 

It was more annoyed than hurt by her striking its head. It lunged at her bit. Its massive fangs easily stabbed through her abdomen. She grasped her wounds and she started coughing up blood. She started staggering towards the back door. She stumbled into the backyard before collapsing on the ground. Briefly afterwards, the snake slowly slithered out of the house and back towards the wood. 

Michael went to his window when he heard a woman’s scream from next door. He saw a pretty young woman in nylons stagger from the abandoned home. She was bleeding from wounds and her white blouse was badly stained. She collapsed to the ground on her stomach and her wide eyes stared out blankly. A few minutes later, he saw the massive snake he’d seen before lethargically slithering out of the house. 

He stared at the dead woman in the yard for a few minutes. He thought a neighbor would come running to the body or hear sirens coming, but they didn’t. He came to the realization that he had been the only person that saw anything. He was feeling a bit brave, so he went into his back yard and quickly went over to the dead body in his yard next door. He took off her right shoe and gently rubbed her nylon-clad foot for just a moment. Then he quickly made his way back into his house and stashed that shoe with the other three in his collection. 

Michael went back to his window and made sure that the snake had disappeared into the woods. It had, so he called the police. In a few minutes the cops had arrived and secured the scene. They asked him some questions. He didn’t tell them about the snake and even lied saying he saw a man running away from the house before he saw Jordan collapse. They took his story and moved back to the scene. 

In the kitchen laid two high-heels, a broken laptop and Jordan’s purse. Detectives were again baffled by what had happened there. It was a fifth disappearance in the immediate area and a body in the yard. They were desperate for some sort of answer from the coroner now that they did have a body.