Short Story
                     Demonic Snake
                                             By Craig Wilson


Graham had rushed into his house, from a recent wild animal attack.

Earlier on: He was in his local park, late at night and something had attacked
him…a wild snake to be precise.  However, this was no ordinary snake; it had
black skin, it had felt like acid to touch, and its eyes were redder than blood
itself.  The snake had bit him on his right hand, and the bite marks were
incredibly large.  He couldn’t fully recall how – or why – but the snake had let
go; he had blacked out most of the attack and the next thing he had
remembered, he was running back home.

Graham was washing his hand under cold water in his bathroom.  He was
smothering said hand with antiseptic cream and anything else he could find
that may treat the wound.  He stared at his reflection a few times, looking at
his own green eyes and his now whitened hair (changed due to the attack).  
He checked the bags under his eyes and even did the vision test; and with
luck, he could still see just fine.  After confirming he was feeling better, he
smiled and then headed for his living room.

Graham down sat on his couch to watch some TV.  His hand itched, but he
assumed it was due to the healing; so he ignored it.  Then, it became too
excruciating to ignore, so he gave in and began scratching it (but only a little
bit).  The itching became more intense so he started scratching like mad and
to his despair, his skin started peeling off.    

“What the?” He whispered in confused horror.

More of the skin on his hand came off, revealing the red flesh underneath.

He forced himself from scratching his hand and returned focus towards the
TV – he wanted to now ignore what was happening to his hand.

‘I should really phone for a doctor.’ He thought to himself.

He tried using his right hand to grab the house phone, but something had felt
odd.  Although, he could extend his hand to try grasp the object but his hand
wasn’t behaving; in fact, his hand started feeling numb.  He looked at his
hand and was startled when he had seen his fingers shrivel into a claw-like
position.

He attempted to pull his fingers apart, while looking positively frightened, but
he could feel his bones tightening up (and even heard them cracking).

Suddenly, the hand itself started changing colour; instead of his normal
peach-like tone, it was turning black.  It was becoming black like the colour of
charcoal; black like the night…black like that snake!

“What the hell has that thing done to me?” He loudly asked with anger and
dread.

The entire hand became black and scaly.  Graham rushed to the kitchen and
frantically searched his cutlery drawer.  His hunt was over: he had found a
meat cleaver, and he took no hesitation.

Whack!  

“Arrgh!” He screamed in deafening volume.  Graham had sliced his hand with
the cleaver.  He hesitated this time, before he struck again.

Whack! Whack! Whack! Whack!

He was looking away as he did it, and he tried his hardest to keep in the
muffled screams.  Finally, the deed was done…the hand was off.  He looked
at the blood pouring from the severed hand and this made him want to vomit.  
Tears welled up in his eyes.

“I could just get a prosthetic hand.” He told himself.  “Th-the doctors could do
that for me!”  He sounded like a crazy man that was ranting manically.  “It
wasn’t a mistake!  It was an infection, I just saved myself!”

Graham slowly sat down on the floor of the kitchen.  He let out a deep sigh.

In a freakish manner, the fingers on his hand started moving (Graham was
unaware of this phenomenon).  The nails on the fingers and thumb, grew as
sharpened claws; the fingers as a whole reshaped – emitting the sound of
bones cracking – and they somehow formed what looked like a mouth shape.  
The fingers then somehow transformed into the shape of teeth – sharpened
teeth – and the hand itself let out a hissing sound.

Graham noticed the strange noise.  He struggled to get up to see what the
noise was.  His eyes widened with fear.

His hand had slowly turned into a snake’s head.  He backed away in panic –
and this newly born snake-like creature was developing the eyes.  The
severed part of the hand started growing a long crimson black tail.

“How the…what the?” Graham babbled fearfully.

The snake opened its mouth, revealing its newly developed fangs and its
long menacing tongue.  It hissed angrily at Graham and began slowly
slithering down from the kitchen counter top and down onto the floor.  The
snake slithered slowly towards its prey.

Graham backed away in caution and he clumsily bumped into objects.  He ran
into the living room but he kept hearing the taunting hisses of the snake.  
When he hid behind his couch, an idea struck his head: he could fight back
against the snake, with his left hand.  Unfortunately, there was one little
snag…the meat cleaver was in the kitchen still.

“Shit.” He whispered to himself.  “Fuck!  Now how am I supposed to defend
myself?” He questioned apprehensively.  He then looked at the lamp on his
table.  Carefully, he extended his hand to try and grab it.

Without warning, the snake appeared there.

“Arrgh!” Graham shouted and fell backwards.  He slowly crawled away on the
floor – the snake was still advancing towards him.

The snake then bit Graham’s left ankle.

Graham let out a howl of pain.  He tried to get up but it just wasn’t happening.

The snake then started to coil around his leg – Graham tried beating the
snake off of him – but the snake didn’t feel any pain from the blows.  The
black snake slithered its way up to Graham’s waist, then around his stomach,
and finally…it sunk its teeth into Grahams neck!

“Arrgh!” Graham screamed.  He tried swatting at the snake, but it was no use.

The snake was devouring Graham’s throat, blood was spurting from his neck,
and he backed into everything in pure panic.  The serpent was taking out
huge chunks of Graham’s throat.  He tried shouting, but the inside of his
throat was filled with blood and the snake even devoured his vocal chords.

Finally, Graham lost too much blood; he collapsed on the floor and slowly
died with his eyes widened.

The snake, satisfied after eating its meal, went on to search for even more
prey.
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About Craig Wilson