Page 104 of Serpent In White

He laughs. “Oh yea, you did alright.” He grins, and I notice the bloodstains on his shirt, right at his stomach. “Great job, by the way. I didn’t think you had it in you.”

“Yea, well… you underestimated me, you fuckin pig.” I stand up, ready to attack his perverted ass.

But I pause and look around when I notice that the forest suddenly looks different.

Swallowing hard, I cringe as my jaw sets. I’m in a bathroom… A familiar one.

Shivers rack my body when I look down, my mother’s body lying on the floor by my feet.

“Fuck…” I whimper, covering my eyes with my hands, trying to rub this shit away, but it just won’t go.

“Don’t be a pussy, shrimp.” Dan’s fucking prick voice slithers into my ear, and I turn to glare at him. “You killed me. You’re not a bitch like I used to think you were.”

“Yea, you wanna get stabbed again, asshole?” I growl at him, getting up in his face. “Keep talking.”

“I was wrong about you,” the fucker chuckles. “I admit it. You’ve got loyalty to that boy.”

He’s talking about Darian, and I’m seconds from strangling his dead ass with my bare hands.

“You don’t talk about him,” I hiss in his face. “I killed you once for touching him, I won’t hesitate to fuck your ass up for speaking about him.”

“Language, baby boy.” A female voice rasps, and I jump, glancing down at Mom, who’s now awake, speaking to me.

Her face is still blue, eyes circled in black. She looks dead as fuck, yet she’s talking…

To me.

“What the fuck is going on…?” I breathe, stumbling away.

“Drake, you needed to see this today,” she says. My brow furrows. “You’re not afraid of anything, my love…”

“Except one thing.” Dan grins, evil.

“Oh yea? And what’s that?” I rumble while my head spins.

“Losing him,” my mother sighs from the floor. “But what you need to understand, baby, is that he’s not yours to lose. He belongs to them now. You can protect him and love him as your brother. But he can never be yours, Drake. Do you understand?”

More pressure builds behind my eyes as I remember the sight of him with someone else…

“I love him…” I cry, to my mom, the woman I only knew for the first portion of my life. She’s nothing but a vague concept, a distant memory to me now.

“I know, darling. But you have to stop.”

“Go, shrimp,” Dan says, and I seethe in his direction. But he simply nods toward the bathroom door.

And as much as I want to ignore him, I open it, and step through.

On the other side, I’m in muddy water, surrounded by ledges of land on each side. I think it’s a ravine, or a gully of some kind. It looks familiar as part of the mountain, farther down than where I am, or where Iwas.

I’m not sure why I’m here… Or how I even got here from all the way up where I was just a moment ago.

Confusion is holding me captive, my movements slow and murky as I look around. It’s the pale daylight of early morning, no longer the dimming of sunset. The cool air of spring no longer surrounds me, but the humid heat of late summer.

How has everything changed in the blink of an eye? How did I get here, and where did I come from?

What’s happening?

A sudden sound catches my ear. My face pivots all over, searching for whoever is making that noise, though I see no one.