Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction 4 - 7 2018 | Page 138

I walked around tentatively for the first few steps, careful not to trip over the long finger-like projections.
There was nothing but an endless gloom and just… trees. There was no chirping from birds, no chittering
from insects… I became more agitated with each passing second. I was distraught. No skittering from mice,
nor squirrels, nor raccoons, nor ANYTHING, for that matter. My heart began to beat harder and faster.
‘Pull yourself together’, I told myself. My heart rate slowed as I took slower and deeper breaths, and
eventually regained composure. No signs of life. Okay. Maybe-
I could hear a hissing sound. My head snapped towards the direction it came from. I inched back slowly,
one step at a time, until I was back to back with one of the trees. The hissing continues and my heart began
pounding against my ribcage. I had been to a zoo before. I had handled a snake. Snakes didn’t get this loud,
and they definitely stopped to take breaths instead of hissing incessantly, like this one was. At first I couldn’t
see anything. Slowly, ever so slowly, the trunk of a snake appeared from the darkness. I’d thought that it was
a tree at first, but realised it was wrong as it slithered closer and closer. It was mud brown, standing well over
10 feet, and sunlight glinted off its leathery scales. Its eyes were unreadable. Dark. Hateful.
“JAKE.” It boomed. It was a guttural sound. Unnatural and utterly demonic. “I AM DECEIT. I HAVE
FOOLED YOU MANY TIMES. YOU THOUGHT YOU HAD FRIENDS, BUT THEY WERE
NEVER YOUR FRIENDS. YOU THOUGHT PEOPLE LIKED YOU. THEY SMILED WHEN
THEY WERE TALKING ABOUT YOU, BUT THAT WAS JUST DERISION.”
I hadn’t a clue as to what it was raving about, but the icy tingle of fear was creeping up my spine all the
same. I walked back a few steps and prepared to run, but lost my balance as my feet got caught on one of
those damned appendages. My legs gave out and I collapsed onto the ground.
It hissed angrily and began charging at me, faster than any vehicle ever made, and its weight crushing twigs
beneath it. I shut my eyes, begging death to arrive swiftly and painlessly. Ten seconds later, I still hadn’t felt
any pain, apart from the one in my ankles and my bum from falling over. I dared to open an eye. The snake
was still there, and had only advanced a metre from before. I was bemused, until I saw that the twigs it was
slithering over were not actually bei