by Ashley Grant

Simple and carefree, all the hopes, wishes, dreams, and desires she had sought to grasp hold of in thirty years; they had now dwindled down to only three.

She wanted a stress free and peaceful existence, first and second. They were the easiest to wrap ones’ head around. The third, however, was a desire she kept only to herself. It stayed buried, locked away in the deepest part of her heart.

Victoria sighed; almost mournful of the fact she had been born a human. She scratched the head of her beloved, some might say, unusual pet. She watched while the python’s muscles clenched. Its long body wrapping itself around her arm. She smiled gently at her companion; the cool smooth feel of the scales may not have seemed so for others, but, for her, they offered comfort.

It continued. The snake twisted its frame in a slow dance on its owner. It was said reptiles didn’t ‘feel’ the way other animals did, that they weren’t ‘built’ that way. Still, as the creature moved up Victoria’s limbs, she felt the anger begin to stifle its way out from the walls of her house.

The reptile pressed itself against Victoria’s cheek.

Victoria was exhausted; her limbs, her head, every part of her body ached. Shifting the large creature to her shoulders, Victoria carried her pet back to its cage. The python curled once more, shoving its body against the glass like water to a dam. She scratched its head in her attempt to soothe it, then, closed the lid.

Tears slithered down Victoria’s cheeks. She placed one of her palms against the glass of the tank. The ball python shifted, holding her stare with its invigorating amber eyes. She laughed while she watched the snake curl itself toward the top of its confinement, its eyes still looking at her.

“Your life is perfect. Can I have it?” The distraught owner continued to watch the serpent through the clear wall.

Everything done for it. Everything peaceful. There was no expectation – a snake couldn’t disappoint a person.

The python’s pupils followed the slightest of its master’s movements. From the veins pulsing in her neck to the sweat Victoria wiped off from her forehead, every part of its owner showed distress that was easy to spot.

Victoria shook her head and laughed to herself again. She was entertaining a ridiculous fantasy, that’s what the logical part of her brain shouted – the allure of being able to live without a care in the world and hide whenever she wanted.

“I need more sleep, I’ve lost it.” Victoria muttered to herself.

Thuds could be heard from the second story – they were the source of her irritation and heartache. With one last glance, she turned to head up the stairs and to her room. She stopped for a moment. The python was moving around the cage with its head in the air. For some reason, she couldn’t explain, she found herself drawn to it. The dance compelled her to stay a moment longer.

Everything seemed to fall away. She watched the ball python move and coil around tank, feeling mesmerized by the spectacle of it all. The python’s bright scales gleamed beneath the light of its heat lamp. In this moment, she felt bliss. She hadn’t a care in the world, not of anything, certainly not of the petty issues life threw her way. She felt calm, watching the snake’s entertaining little show.

A bright-white layer glossed over the snake’s eyes and soon, her own eyes stung and became irritated. They became so dry Victoria desperately tried to raise her hand to rub the vexing sensation away. The weariness of all her limbs won out against her best efforts.

At last, her eyes no longer vexed her. Suddenly, a soothing warm environment encased Victoria as her vision cleared once more. She shook her head, and her neck moved at angles once foreign to her. Angles that were foreign to a human body. Flicking out the snake’s thin tongue. Her tongue, she smelled the cage.

Her new form energized by the evening. She slithered in her new body; the reptilian instincts overcame her. The human part still laid in the back of her mind, however, now it was but a passenger to her new life.

Victoria climbed onto the artificial vine in the back corner of her cage and shoved all her muscle against the corner of the lid. It slid by a couple inches and soon, the metal gave way for the new python enough for her to slip out of her enclosure. She slithered out from her confinement, maneuvering until she reached the floor. Meanwhile, Victoria’s former body sprawled unconsciously on the hard wood of the living room. Victoria slithered nearer to the still mortal; the scent of the larger being was familiar to her.

“Friend,” Victoria’s mind thought – her reptile mind and her distant human mind thought in unison.

Victoria brushed against the body, nuzzling her head briefly under the body’s chin. She flicked her tongue out again to survey her surroundings, she could sense something else in the house. On the second floor, there were other creatures. This was her life now, it seemed.

She was hungry and a part of her brain demanded she eat before sunrise. It was the part that mattered. The part that’d soon be all that was left.