Sarin - Backstory

“Excuse me sir, do -“

“Get lost.”

“Already am,” I mumble under my breath. I have my story, if anyone will stop long enough to listen to it. I’ve boiled it down to bullet points, I can get it out in less than a minute now.

But this is not that version.

---

“Are you coming or what?” The old man called to me.

I shrugged, the too big coat I wore almost falling from my shoulders with the motion, the duct taped together strap on my weathered backpack preventing it from sliding too far.

“Well, you better make up your mind fast kiddo, this train’s leaving, with or without you.”

I gave one last longing glance backwards, told myself that if dad was there, I’d go back with him.

“Suit yourself,” the old man said and stood.

“No wait,” I called to him, running and hurling my backpack into the moving freight car.

“Here,” I’d later learn his name was Tobias Shade, or ‘Lampman,’ held out his hand, which I grasped and held on tight as he pulled me into the boxcar.

As I knelt there on the hay strewn floor of the railcar, Lampman slid the door shut behind me, but not before a far off shout reached my ears, or was I imagining my father calling my name. I tried to look back, but the door had already slammed shut.

The old man held out his hand and introduced himself.

“Nice to meet you sir,” I shook his offered hand, feeling the calluses, “I’m Caesar Ingram.” I said with a smile.

“That won’t work, will it Hayseed?”

I looked around for the first time, light peeking its way into the car through the spaces in between the slats, illuminating nearly a dozen other people huddled in the darkness of the railway car as it chugged along.

“Don’t think so,” a man with a wispy beard the color of hay stepped forward, lighting a lantern that sat on an upturned crate. “Caesar Ingram you say?”

“Uh, yes sir.” I squirmed beneath his careful scrutiny, causing him to laugh.

“Whadoyoutinkof Sarin?” His breath reminded me of my father’s, after a beer or two, when he would get in my face to yell at me. I shrunk from the man known as Hayseed and glanced at the door again. 

“Give the lad some room.” Lampman pushed the blonde back into the corner he had come from.

“Ignore him, he’s harmless, but he has a way with names, don’t he.”

“Uh, yeah, I guess.”

“Then it’s settled, Sarin, let me introduce you to the rest of my family.”

“Your family sir?” I regarded him again, his ebony skin, his nearly bald pate.

“Bah, they’re who I spend my nights with, and they help me out when I need it, that’s what family is, right?”

“I uh, guess, sir.”

“If you ain’t going to call me Lampman, at least call me Tobias.”

“Why Lampman sir?”

“Cuz I didn’t like Lampshade,” he said with a chuckle that brought a laugh that turned into a hacking cough out of the dark corner Hayseed had disappeared into.

Storycubes Week 5

It started with a knock on the door. Any other day and I would have ignored it, probably another salesman trying to get me to upgrade my satellite package or offer me a free estimate on a new roof. You know what, that is not where it really started, let me take a step back.

It really started with a loud thud as my whole house shook.

“Honey,” My wife, Sonya, called out, “what was that?”

“I don’t know dear, let me step outside, could you get Abbey?” I called over my screaming two year old.

“What?” Sonya yelled, but I was halfway out the front door.

“Hey Tom,” Jason, my next door neighbor, called out to me. “You heard it too?”

“Yep-“ I started to add a smart ass comment, but Jason’s wife called out from behind the fence to their backyard.

“Hey Tom, whatever you’re grilling smells great!”

I sniffed the air, she was right, something did smell good, but it was not from my back yard and I told her so.

“Then you better get back there, because there’s a lot of smoke.”

I broke into a run, calling for Dezi, the toy poodle my wife insisted we had to have. Luckily, or unluckily I thought to myself, she greeted me at the fence’s wrought iron gate, her stubby tale vibrating with excitement. “Your mom’s gonna have to bathe you,” I said as I nudged her out of the way with my leg, rounding the corner of the house, the smell getting stronger, smokier.

“Everything okay?” Jason called from the fence line. I appreciated his respecting my boundaries, but, unsure of what I was about to uncover, I called him back, figuring an extra set of hands could not hurt. 

I was still trying to wrap my head around the scene when he too rounded the corner.

“What is that?” He pointing at the crater that occupied most of my backyard. “You been digging a pool?”

I shook my head, not sure what to say as I edged closer to the edge of the hole.

“You sure about that?” Tom grabbed my arm, holding me back.

“I, I don’t know,” I admitted, but I took another step forward, pulling my arm from his loose grasp. Black, acrid, smoke poured from the gaping hole, blocking my view of how deep it was, and more importantly, what had caused it.

“What is it?” Jason asked again, his voice barely more than a whisper.

“Honey?” It was Sonya, sliding door open, Abbey on her hip.

“Not sure yet hon, go back inside, just to be safe.”

I heard the door slide shut and I peered over the edge again, trying to make something, anything, out in the smoke.

I jumped, almost falling in to the hole as my cell phone rang, the device vibrating in my pocket. I slid it out and answered it, knowing who it would be without looking at the caller ID. “Yeah, Frank, I heard it - No, I don’t know what it was, at least not yet - Yeah, I said yet - Whatever it is, it landed in my backyard - Nope, you don’t need to come over - Fine, see you soon.” I turned to Jason, who just nodded at my exasperated look. 

“So, what do you think it is?” He asked, taking a step closer to the smoking crater, the ground giving way beneath him.

I managed to grab his arm before he slid too far down.

“Pleasepleaseplease,” Jason whimpered as I pulled him out of the hole.

He hugged me tight, mumbling “thank you,” over and over again as Frank came running into my yard.

“Dude!” He exclaimed before taking a sip of his beer. 

“I’m glad you got dressed before you came over.” I said, looking at the ripped sweatpants he wore, the armpit stains in his t-shirt turning my stomach.

He started to reply, but a roar blasted us from our feet.

“Was that from?” Jason asked, point toward the smoke.

I nodded and watched as a crow swooped down and began pecking at an exposed worm, dangling still from the craters wall. My mouth dropped open as a pair of jaws reached out of the smoke and clamped down upon the bird, pulling it back into the depths.

“Oh shit!” Frank exclaimed, dropping his beer as he scrambled for my back door. Jason and I were close behind him, slamming the sliding glass door shut and dropping the security bar into place. “What was that?” he was wide eyed, his hands shaking, one of which he brought to his mouth before remembering that his drink lay out on my lawn.

It was then that the knock on the door occurred and the men in black suits showed up. The one in charge called himself Agent Kay, but I was not sure I believed him, he did not look like a Smith. He was older, his grey hairline receding, but he knew how to give orders, and not one of his men questioned his decisions.

“The good news is that you have no out houses or hen houses,” he said with a smirk.

“Who are you guys?” Frank asked, getting a little to close to the Agent

“Have you been drinking? What about you,” he pointed his finger at Jason, and then at me, “and you?”

Frank was the only one that answered in the affirmative and that did not sit very well with Agent Kay, I could tell by the way he shook his head.

“Hey boss,” a pug said from my back doorway, you were right, it’s a dinosaur all right.”

“Did that-“ Frank began but I cut him off.

“I thought meteors killed the dinosaurs. That’s what this is, right? A meteor?”

Agent Kay put his sunglasses back on, “You see son, that is what you were taught but that is not really the case,” He began as he reached into his pocket. “Now if you’ll look right here, I’ll explain to you what really happened to the dinosaurs is that they stopped coming to Earth.”

I blinked away the bright flash, trying to make sense of who the strange man in my house was, and if my daughter was still asleep in her crib.

Hollow World Book 4 Epilogue

Clink.  Clink.  Clink.

The line of souls stretched out before Charon.  They would step up, hand him their obol, which he dropped back into his bag.  Clink.  They then stepped onto the ferry and the next one strode forward.  Rinse.  Repeat.  His skiff would soon be full again and he would depart the outer shore of the river Acheron and deposit them within the underworld for Hades to do with as he wanted.  

His pole struck the bottom of the river again and he propelled his newly emptied ferry forward.  Finally the bottom skidded along the sand and he got out, the water soaking through his boots.  He dragged the boat further onto the sand and took up his position before its bow, dropping his bag beside him again.  More souls shuffled forward.  More obols fell into his sack.  More souls crossed the river.  

Charon could see down the line, could see that trouble was approaching.  Four more souls passed and the trouble maker was in front of him.  “Dear uncle.  I should have known it would be you.”

Tartarus stood before Charon, fuming  “What took you so long?”

Charon held out his hand.

“You know I do not have one!”

“Why not?  I gave you one.”

Tartarus glared at him.

“I will see you in one hundred years.”

“No, you cannot do this to me!  Do you know who I am?”

“You were Tartarus.  And now you are just another wanderer upon the shores of the River Acheron.  You lost.”

“No!”  But Charon had already moved on to the next soul.

Clink.  Clink.  Clink.

Hollow World Book 4 Part 24

Zach took the fedora from atop his head and, pulling a handkerchief from his pocket, wiped the sweat from his brow.  He refolded the kerchief and replaced his hat upon his head before pushing the bike further up the hill.  Someone had begun to fill in some of the smaller holes in the roadway with dirt and gravel, but he still had to negotiate his way around the larger ones.  He paused when he came to the top of the hill, his destination in sight.  He dropped the bike’s kickstand and unslinging his pack.  He pulled the canteen from its side and took a long pull, the water still as cold as the stream he had taken it from.  He pulled a piece of rabbit jerky from the pack and ate it, looking over the group of buildings below.  Smoke came from the main houses chimney, although the pile of firewood on the side of the building looked low.   He hopped on the bicycle again, the pedals turning a few times beneath his feet.   Once he was on the downward slope, he let gravity do the work for him, only pedaling again when the bike had almost rolled to a stop.  

He stopped beside the houses mailbox, and leaned his bike against it, as he had done when he was a kid, riding up and down the very same driveway.  He walked the rest of the way to the house and knocked on the door.

A large african american man answered, his smile bright white in contrast to his dark, weathered skin.  “You’re late.”  The man said before Zach could even open his mouth.

“Um, I’m sorry?”  Zach offered.

“You were supposed to help me with the harvest.”

“Sorry dad,”  Zach said and took the man’s extended hand.

Jud pulled his son to him, clasping Zach in a tight bear hug.  “Aubrey, guess who’s home?”

He heard the shuffle of his mother’s feet and smiled when she rounded the corner and squealed.  Jud released him and he wrapped his arms around his mother.

“He’s right you know,” She said.

“Tell you what, I’ll help you with the winter chores.  Looked like you could use some firewood.”

“That we could, but that can wait.  Tell us what you’ve seen, where you’ve been,”  His mom said, leading him by the hand into the kitchen.  “Did you guys ever find that Graham guy?”

“Yeah mom, we did…”

Amy lay asleep in the hospital bed, despite the lack of comfort she had spent the last hour complaining about.  Peter held his sleeping daughter, Elizabeth Marie, as he rocked back and forth in the hospital chair, watching her tiny chest rise and fall.  He bent his head down and kissed her forehead, shifting so he could stand up and hopefully put the girl into the small basinet the hospital had provided.

He managed to successfully navigate the labyrinth of machines and instruments that still occupied their room and set Elizabeth down in her bed.  He watched her again, sleeping, trying to remember a time when he had been so happy.  He finally managed to pull himself from the small life that he was partly responsible for and was startled when he saw that Amy was awake, sitting and watching him.  “She’s beautiful,”  he told her.  

Amy smiled and put a finger to her lips.

Peter nodded and went to her side, taking her hand in his own.  “So, what’s next for us?”

“The wedding is in less than two months.”

“Excuse me, Mayor?”  One of the nurses walked into the room, looking at Peter.

Peter exhaled and looked at Amy.  “Hold that thought.”

Peter stepped out into the hallway with the nurse, “How can I help you Anne?”

“We just delivered another baby down the hallway.  I just thought you might want to know.  It’s a boy.  Benedict.”

Peter smiled and nodded.  “Thank you.  And everyone is doing fine?

“Roger fainted, but yeah.”

“Anything else?”  Peter asked her.

“Nope, that’s it.”

“Good job today Anne,”  Peter said with another smile.  One thousand, three hundred and twenty two people, assuming no one else had wandered into the town while he had been in the hospital.

He stepped back into their room and found Amy still awake, taking a sip from an almost empty glass of water.

“Let me get you some more of that.  Would you like ice?”

Amy nodded around the straw, finally releasing it as it began to suck air. “Anything important?”

“When you’re mayor, everything’s important,”  Peter said, laughing.  “She just wanted to let me know that the Tecy’s had their boy.  Everyone is doing fine.  No, I forgot to get details.”  He added, cutting Amy’s question off.  “They named him Benedict.”

Amy smiled.  “I like that,” she said, finally handing the empty cup to Peter.

He had to go down the hallway to get ice, and poked his head into the Tecy’s hospital room on his way back.

“Congratulations, Roger,”  Peter said, shaking the new father’s hand.

“Same to you,” Roger said.

Peter held up the cup full of ice as an excuse to leave and Roger nodded. “I know, I’ve filled Sharon’s three times already.  Good night.”

“Night,” Peter said as he slipped out of the room, closing the door soundlessly behind him.  He walked back into his own room, filling the glass with water from the sink.  He handed her the cup and walked back to where his daughter lay.  She was awake and staring at the ceiling, flexing her minuscule fingers.  Peter leaned down and picked her back up, bringing her back to the rocking chair where he sat and stared at her mother.  “Now about this wedding…”

Nyx sat in a store room below the Venetian, a bottle of wine in between her and the man across the table.  “I’m so glad you managed to talk some sense into me, Ananke,”  She said.

“Yes, I’m sure you are,” Ananke said.  “I am always on the side of the winners, know that.  But I fear that our time up here needs to come to an end.”

Nyx upended the bottle into her mouth and chugged the rest of the wine.  She smiled, using her long sleeved shirt to wipe her mouth.  “That’s fine, I seem to be all out of wine.”

Storycubes Week 4

“What the fuck are you doing?”

I looked at Steve, his pointed tail darting dangerously close to my rum and cola. “Hey Steve,” I said with a sigh, I had not seen the Demon of Inspiration in what felt like forever, and man had it been good a good forever.

He just glared at me, his whiplike tail coming even closer to my drink.

I snatched it up and took a sip before rolling the dice in my hands. “They’re Storycubes. See, you roll them, and each one has a different image, that you somehow fit into a story.”

“Are you trying to replace me?” He asked, and I barely managed to pull my drink out from under the tip of his tail, slashing a little bit of it on myself.

“No! But, uh,” I thought fast, and then remembered he could read my mind.

“Yeah, I’ve been away for so long. And what’s this bullshit. You missed me? Ahh, that’s so cute.”

“Missed might be a strong word,” I told him as I remembered all of the crap he had pulled, “at least you came in wearing pants.”

“That reminds me,” he said, and I averted my eyes as he stripped out of the blue jeans he had been wearing. “So, let’s see what we’ve got.” He made his way over to the table and looked on. “Well go ahead, roll them.”

I stared at him for a minute and then, realizing he was not going to leave me alone, I rolled all five dice that were in my hand.

“Ooh, is that an axe? I got an idea-“

I closed my eyes and held up my hand as the scene of a brutal murder, a woman, possibly my wife, on the floor beside me, an axe in my hand. I threw my drink, glass and all at the demon.

He smiled back, “Hmm, what could we do with that key?”

“I’ve got an idea,” I said, and I held in my mind an image of him wrapped in heavy chains being thrown over the side of a ship into a storm tossed sea.

“That was great, you even managed to use the wave one too! Do you get bonus points? Are you winning?”

“Fuck you.”

“Do I get to be topsies?” He said, feeding me an image of both of us in bondage gear, leather masks covering both of our faces, his horns sticking through a pair of tears in the forehead.

I shuddered, as he added “Tied, two all.”

We both looked at the last die and both of us shook our heads. 

“Are they wrestling?” he asked.

“Yeah, I think so.”

“Aren’t you already working on a story about wrestling?”

“Yep.”

“Does it involve any of those other things?”

“Not yet.”

“Hmm. Roll them again.”

“Should I pick others?”

“You have more?”

I pulled the plush Crown Royal bag out from my bag, and watched his eyes light up, at lest until I pulled the drawstrings open and dumped the nearly thirty other dice onto the table.

“I got all excited.”

“I can see that. Please can you put some fucking pants on!” I grabbed five more dice quickly, looking for anything that would distract me from Steve and his now throbbing- I shuddered and almost fell from my chair.

I rolled the dice and set them down in front of me, staring in disbelief. An abacas, an elephant, the sun, a gear, and finally, a crown. “Steve, did you do something to my roll, or the dice?”

“Nope,” he said as he grabbed my winter coat and wrapped it around himself, using it to hide his nakedness.

I made a mental note to dry clean the coat later, but stared at the dice before pulling up a calculator, trying to remember my probability classes from nearly half my life ago before giving up, not even sure where to start. 

“Dude, that looks like the Elephant piece you were working on, you know, about your son? I gave you that idea you know.”

“Yeah,” I nodded before adding, “and I’ve already rolled this exact same outcome before.”

“When?”

“While you were gone, where were you by the way?”

“You know Janice down the street?”

“The old widow?”

“Yep, that’s the one! We took a cruise and I did some inspiring for her.”

“She’s, like 85!”

“So what, I like a little cougar now and then.”

I left the room, and Steve, still in my coat, behind as I went in search of another glass, and another drink, realizing there was not enough alcohol on the world to help scrub any of what I had though, no matter how momentarily, from my brain. 

Hollow World Book 4 Part 23

Nearly nine months later…

Rocky chased a squirrel across the front yard, Kyle close behind, laughing raucously.

“Kyle, time for homework,”  Julie called from the porch.

“In a minute!”  Kyle said, chasing Rocky until he finally caught the mutt.  “Ok, come on boy.”  As he passed his mother, he asked “What’s for dinner.”

Darrel heard from within, and came with a glass of lemonade in hand.  “I was thinking hamburgers.”

“Can we have mac and cheese too?”  Kyle asked as he grabbed his backpack and dug through it for his notebook.

“If you finish your homework, sure.”  His father said.  He turned and bumped into the doorframe.

“Ouch,” Julie said and grabbed for Darrel’s arm, which he pulled away.

“Is it bothering you again today?”

“Yeah, there’s a storm coming in I think, it’s been bugging me all day.”  He rotated his arm, trying to stretch the months old injury out.  

“I heard Amy had her baby earlier today,” Julie said, a smile upon her face.

“Yeah, it’s a girl, we can go see her after supper if you want?”

“We will see, she may not be up for visitors yet.  Did you hear what they named her?  How big was she?”

Darrel smiled and shrugged.  “I’m sorry, I’m sure the told me but I was so anxious to get home to you that I must have forgotten.”

“Your full of it, you know that?”

“Yeah, but I’m awfully cute, right?”

“That you are.”  Julie said, wrapping her arms around her husbands neck and kissing him.

“Can you guys cut it out?”  Kyle asked, finally finding a pencil within his bag.

Darrel and Julie both laughed.  

“Come on, we’ll get those burgers going.”  Julie said, pulling Darrel into the kitchen by his sleeve. 

Kyle finished his homework and helped Julie make the macaroni and cheese while Darrel looked it over, pausing occasionally to flip the burgers.  

Breaking off a piece of his hamburger, Kyle snuck it to Rocky, unaware that both of his parents had seen him…

---

Brian sat in his garage, a guitar resting on his knee, the rest of the band playing along with him.

“That can’t be right,” the other Brian said, who was now being called Slice, an attempt at humor and an homage to his favorite musician, silencing his own guitar with his hand.  

“What do you mean, we’ve been working on this song forever.”  Jamie said, reaching out and stopping his cymbals.

“I don’t know.  I just think the lyrics are wrong.”

“We’ve been over this about a hundred times,”  Brian said, setting his guitar down and picking up a sheet of paper.  “They’re right here.”

Slice yanked the sheet from Brian's hands, mouth moving as he read the words. “Birthday party cheesecake jellybean boom?  That makes no sense,” He finally said.

“Do you want to listen to it again?  Our first concert is in three days and I want to open with this.”  Brian said, walking over to where his CD’s sat on a shelf.  He flipped through them, pulling out the one labeled ‘Document.’

“No, we’re fine,” Timothy said, finally setting his bass down.  “Besides Slice, you’re not singing so what’s it matter to you anyways?”

“Fine,” Slice huffed.  “Let’s take it from the top.”

Jamie counted them off, “One, Two, Three, Four.”

“That’s great it starts with…”

---

Sarah sat by the empty fireplace, ashamed that she still could not bring herself to have a fire in it.  She had a stack of books that she had read on the floor to her left and a stack to her right of books that were still untouched.  She had a glass of red wine resting on the coffee table, which she took a sip from.  It was still fresh, only having been in the bottle a few days.  She knew it would taste better with age, but the bottle had been calling to her.  There was a knock at the front door of her apartment and she rose to answer it.  She peered out the peep hole and had to wipe a tear from her eyes before she opened it.  “One minute,” she called out.

Composed, she finally opened the door.  Sam stood there, a bunch of roses in one hand, and a bundle of books in the other.  He stood there awkwardly for a moment before Sarah remembered her manners.  “Do come in, sorry.”  

Sam stepped into the living room and set the books down with some of the others.

“Oh, I will take those,”  Sarah said, taking the books and setting them upon her kitchen table.  “Now where did you get these?”  She asked, returning to Sam and taking the roses from him.

“You know me, just about everyone owes me something.”  He said as he smiled, moving in closer and wrapping his arms around her.   “You’re cold.  How about you let me make you a fire.”  He caught the look of fear that flashed across her face.  “I’ll tell you what.  I’ll stay right here all night if you let me build that fire.”

Sarah sighed, staring at the logs already piled within the fireplace, the crumpled paper underneath. 

“What about Evelyn?”  

“She’s spending the night at a friends,”  Sam replied.  

“Alright,” she acquiesced.

Sam reached into his pocket and withdrew a lighter which he used to start the paper, watching Sarah’s apprehensive face the entire time.  Once the flames had finally taken to the wood, Sam stepped away and sat in the corner of the green sofa that occupied the wall closest to the fire.  

“Do you always carry a lighter with you now?”  Sarah asked as she sat in her recliner and tok a sip of wine.

“Only when I come over here, I knew one of these days I’d get you to give in.  Is there more of that?”

“Oh, I’m sorry, again.  Yes.  Let me get you a glass.”  She left the room and he heard the soft clink of glass against the stone countertop and shortly, she returned, holding out a cup of the red liquid.

Sam took it, and as Sarah returned to her seat he called her name, patting the sofa beside him.

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!

---

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.