Storycubes Week 3

Four out of five again, a little looser on the interpretations, as I did not actually end up in the swamp, but I did talk about one, and the characters intentions were to get there, but sometimes the best laid plans of yada yada. I don't know how long I will keep following the Donovan, Chris, and everyone else, nor do I really know what the dice will have in store for them next, but as long as the ideas come, it will be fun to randomly generate the tale. 

And for those that missed the picture post on my kinja site!

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I hate snakes. I even told them that when they asked me to bring them one. Luckily they told me about it before I left New Mexico. I still had the fragments from the fossils tucked away in my hotel room, and it had been two days since I had had the run in with Donovan and Jordan. I had spent the better part of a that time doing research, trying to figure out where to find a cottonmouth snake in the over hundred degree heat of the surrounding areas, and had come up with a swamp about an hour drive away.  The trick to that was that I probably would not find it out during the day, unless the temperature cooled quite a bit.

I gazed at my phone, checking the extended forecast for the week and shook my head. I was really tired of night jobs, but, according to the weather service, I was in store for at least 105 for the next four days, and I was not ready to spend that much time here.

I turned off the weather app and dialed James, the pilot who had flown me down from New York.

“I was wondering when I’d hear from you again.”

“Are you still down here?”

“I was planning on leaving today, why, what’s up?”

“Can you push it ’til tomorrow?”

“Yeah, sure. I’ll file the paperwork.”

“How do you feel about snakes?” I mumbled.

“Did you just say snakes?”

“Uh, yeah, but it’s just one really.”

“Of course it is. You owe me, big time.”

“You know I’ll make it worth your while.”

“What do you need a snake for anyway?”

“Not sure, but they’re price was right, so whatever.”

I heard James chuckle, “Ok, nine good for you tomorrow?”

“Sure. Oh, and James? Have you heard from Donovan?”

“I thought you…”

“I thought so too, but he turned up the other day.”

“What?”

I knew his mouth was hanging open, his face all screwed up, I had seen the look before. “Yeah, I’m not sure what to make of it. Anyways, if you hear from him, just be careful.”

“Will do, see you tomorrow.”

“Yep.” I hung up and set my alarm,  and after checking the do not disturb sign, I lay down for a nap. I was in for a long night.

Fast forward about three hours and the bleating of the alarm woke me. Bleary eyed, I knew something was wrong right away, but I pulled the pillow over my head, making a show of trying to go back to sleep, but I had another idea in mind. Head and hands hidden from view, I reached beneath the mattress for my gun.

“I wouldn’t do that if I was you.”

I rolled over and threw the pillow towards where his voice had come from but it was no use, Donovan didn’t flinch, just kept the gun trained on me. He had washed the blood off his forehead, but the hole was still glaringly obvious. A ball cap witch a picture of a rooster on it sat on the little table in front of him.

“Nice to see you again, Donnie,” I smiled, scooting into a more comfortable sitting position.

“I heard you needed a snake.” He said and nodded toward the foot of my bed.

I will admit I jumped a little. The thing looked to be nearly seven feet long, as thick around as my forearm, coiled there on the bedspread. It raised its head long enough to look at me before lowering it again. “Yeah, you know. I had to find a replacement for you,” I said, trying to regain some edge in the exchange.

“Oh, very funny! I missed your wit like I need another hole in my head. Oh wait, check it out.” He poked his little finger into the bullet hole, and twisted it around like he was cleaning out his ear.

“What do you want, Donovan?”

“The fossils. You can keep the snake though.”

“How about no.”

He waved his own gun at me, “You’re not in a position to argue.”

I opened my mouth to argue, but before I could, the door to my room was kicked in and I dove off the bed, grabbing my gun, and the bag of fossils from in between the mattress and the boxspring.

I rose, gun trained on where I had last seen Donovan and squeezed the trigger, but he was gone, the only evidence of him being there was the rooster hat. I looked to the door in time to see James return, with Donnie’s jacket in his hand.

“Glad I got here in time,” he said, “too bad I wasn’t able to catch him.”

“That’s fine, but what are you doing here?”

“He called about half an hour ago, looking for you. He said he just wanted to talk, and had something for you. I decided to see how it played out and told him where you were and then got here as fast as I could. Shit!” he said as he noticed the snake for the first time. “We need to go, now.”

I nodded and glanced at the snake again. “How are we gonna handle that?”

James quickly stripped the sheet from the bed and threw it onto the floor, grabbed the snake, and jumping back as the serpent lunged at him, he threw the creature onto the sheet and quickly gathered the sheets corners, creating a makeshift bag. “This’ll do until we can do something better.”

While he was busy with the snake, I threw my few belongings into my duffel and we left the hotel. We got to the lobby right as a pair of police officers showed up, no doubt responding to a shots fired call. We ducked into the bar and ordered ourselves a pair of drinks, dropping a twenty onto the bar and leaving without touching them as soon as the cops were in the elevator.

“I haven’t said thanks yet, so uh, thanks.”

“Yeah, sure, save it for when we land in New York.”

“Will do,” I said as I gazed at the night sky, wondering what the hell I had gotten myself into.