The Scaly Horror
A hot summer day, the sun shining bright in the sky, and no cloud could be seen. Jeremy looked down on the swampy lake from the top of the hill, it looked nothing like it was when he grew up. He walked down, sat down on a rock staring at the lake. He looked around wondering how the beautiful lake that he swam in growing up had turned into a dirty swamp. He wondered how that came to be.
Staring at what the beautiful lake has turned into he recalled a conversation he had with his mother when she was still living. She always wanted him to go to church, looking at how the lake had turned out he remembered his mother's words.
“All things must come to an end.” Those are the words she said to him a week after her sister’s funeral. After her funeral he always asked himself why would God do something like that to him, an all-powerful God brought pain to him by taking an innocent girl. That was 30 years ago and nothing has changed in him about the way he feels about God, he still looked at him as the man who took his little sister.
He looked into the sky, all he could see was the vast blue sky looking down on him. Working on a farm was very good for him, it came with benefit that include him not buying meat. Today was one of those days, his bag was filled with meat from the farm but the smell of meat also attracted wild animals.
He stared at the swamp and remembered all the memories he had of this place when he used to swim here before it was like this. He smiled remembering all the trouble he got into whenever he went swimming here. His mother would always warn him that there was a large snake in the lake but every kid does the opposite of what they are told. All the memories he made here were slowly coming back to him, even things he forgot were coming back to him.
Memories of his childhood were all he was left with, most of his friends, parents, and siblings were all gone now. Holding on to his memories was all he could do now, all the good and bad memories they made on the lake growing up.
He placed his bag on the ground then took a rock and stared at it for a couple of seconds, it didn’t come as a huge surprise that things had changed so much on the lake, after all, he was also getting old. It was the first time he stopped here after what happened to her sister Emma.
“This is for you Emma,”he whispered on the stone then cast it deep into the lake, he watched it sink to the bottom of the swamp.
He reached into his pocket to take out his wallet, it was a fine leathery wallet, it was given to him by his wife as a gift. Inside the wallet was a small picture of her dear sister, In the instance, he saw her picture tears ran down his face with regret filling his heart.
He still has nightmares about the day she died, to this day he regrets waking up. The picture he was staring at was taken a week before she passed away, every time he looks at it he wonders what life would be like if she was still here. He was thirteen years old when it happened and his sister was only four years old at that time. He put the picture back into his wallet.
As he stared into the swamp, memories of that day came rushing to him, remembering every detail tot the dot.
The day began like any day but he didn’t know that before the day ends it will end with his sister gone. Everywhere he went his little sister was by his side, he didn’t leave her. It was noon when all the kids decided to go swimming in the lake despite being warned countless times that there was a big snake in the lake, they didn’t listen and went on swimming.
The moment they reached the lake every kid took off their clothes and jumped in, Emma was jumping around in excitement because her big brother was gonna teach her how to swim.
He was teaching her everything she needed to know about swimming, he was holding on to her as she tried to swim. They kept trying until she finally learned how to swim properly, it wasn’t perfect but it was a start. She kept swimming around, she was the only one left in the water, everyone else was busy playing in the trees.
His brother could hear her splashing around in the lake, he lay on the grass staring at the sky until he started feeling sleepy.
After a couple of minutes he finally noticed something, the only noise that he could hear now was the noise of the wind and the other children playing.
“Aaaaaaaaa!” a girl on the tree screamed to the top of her lungs seeing something on the other side of the lake.
He rose to check on his sister but couldn’t see her, all he could see was the girl in the tree pointing at the other side of the lake. He walked straight into the lake and finally, he was able to see it, her sister was being eaten alive by a large snake. He swam towards her as fast as she could, but it was farther than he thought. All the children were casting stones on the snake trying to get it to leave, the snake let go of her and ran. He got to her but it was too late, he carried her back to the other shore.
There were bite marks on her leg as he tried CPR over and over again. Everyone was silence as they finally understood what their parents were always warning them about. People started rushing down to the lake, one of the kids called for help, they found him sitting with his hands between his lap crying his heart out for letting his sister die.
His mother was amongst the people who came down the mountain, as soon as she saw her little girl lying on the ground lifeless, she ran as fast as she could to her. She didn’t even notice Jeremy as she took her daughter into her hands and tried waking her up, tears just came rushing down her cheeks as she realized that her daughter was really gone.They carried the body back and when his father saw him and heard what happened he stared at him with boiling anger in his eyes.
“You killed your sister!”that was the only thing his father said to him, he was heartbroken to hear him say those words.
He sat at the bank of the swamp as memories of that day kept coming back, he was heartbroken as he remembered his little sister. Suddenly there was a musky, earthy smell all around him, he tried looking around to see where the smell was coming from but couldn’t see anything. Before he could blink he felt something latching onto his leg, the pain caused him to just freeze. Something was wrapped around him leaving only one hand, he finally realized what was happening. He could feel the cold wet scale wrapping around him getting tighter and tighter.
He could feel its razor-sharp teeth on his leg, the snake was wrapped around him with no way of escaping, he closed his eyes. Something deep within him was telling him that this snake was exactly the same one that killed his sister. He tried thinking of a way he could escape but nothing came to mind, the snake was busy crushing his body. He did something that never he thought he would do in his entire life.
‘God.’ his inner voice was at play right now, he could feel the snake crushing him to death.
‘I know I’m not your favorite person, I know we don’t talk but if it’s my time then fine but not like this Lord. Please, I know I’ve blamed you for my sister and mother’s death all my life but please Lord help me.’
‘If it’s my day to die that’s fine Lord but let my family bury something.’ he never thought he would be asking God for help.
He opened his eyes and the first thing he laid eyes on was the knife on his backpack, he used his free hand to get the knife. He had the knife on his hand and the only thing he did was just stab the snake with it. After stabbing it countless times it finally released him and the only thing he could think about was to run as fast as he could, he got up and ran as fast as he could. He could feel his wound aching as he ran up the mountain.
With every step, he could still feel it cold body crushing him with it teeth latched on to him with no way of escaping.
He almost slipped at the very top, but managed to grab one of the smaller plants and threw himself up the mountain, and started running as fast as he could down the mountain. He walked until he got to the first house and just collapsed at the front door, he was thirsty and tired from all the running but he was alive. He told everyone what he came across and that God saved him from the monstrous snake that wanted to eat him.