The Snake Queen

Chapter 1

*9 YEARS LATER*

"Mag! Get up!" my mom called from the kitchen.

My eyes flew open. I got up, and crossed the room to my desk. I looked in the mirror at my now sixteen-year-old self. I didn't look any different then I had the day before. My eyes were still the same emerald green, and my hair was still long and black.

"Mag!"

"Coming!" I got up, and went downstairs. "What?"

"Happy birthday, Magpie," my dad kissed my forehead.

"Thanks, Daddy," I sat down at the kitchen counter.

"Are you excited to be sixteen?" my mom asked.

"I don't see why I should be. My hair's still lack, my eyes are still green and I still have that same pain in my arm right that I get every year," they looked at me.

"You still have that pain?" Mom asked.

"I thought that went away," Dad said.

"Nope. I get t every year on the same date."

Mom and Dad looked at each other. I knew there was something they weren't telling me. I've had pain in the same place every year for nine years, and no one knows why.

"What are you not telling me?"

"We don't now what you mean," Dad told me.

"I know you're hiding something."

"We're not hiding anything, Mag. Are you feeling okay?" Mom said.

"Other than the pain I've had in the same place every year for the past nine years, I'm fine."

"Alright then. Go get dressed, so you can help us with the snakes," Mom ordered.

"Yippee. Sixteen years old, and I get to help milk snakes," I went back upstairs.

When I was old enough to understand what the snake farm was really for, my parents told me I couldn't help until I turned sixteen. Now that I'm sixteen, I really don't wanna help. I'd rather be out with my friends.

When I got ustairs, I pulled off my black tank top and shorts. I found my blue skinny jeans, a white tank top and a purple t-shirt. I ran my fingers through my hair, and put it up.

"Why do I have to learn to milk snakes? Why can't I just go out with my friends like a normal teenager does on her birthday?"

"Mag, does this snake look familiar to you?" Mom held up a picture of a light brown King Cobra.

"It's a King Cobra. They have the biggest bite."

"Look at the spot on your arm where the pain is," my dad told me.

"It's red."

"Mag, is there anything you remember from when you were seven?" Mom asked.

"Does it have to do with that snake?"

"Yeah."

"I remember seeing one in the backyard one day while you and Dad were feeding and milking the snakes. It looks at me. I felt lke I was having a staring contest with it. The last thing I remember was a sharp pain in my arm. Everything after that's a blur. But I remember seeing the same snake every year."

"Interesting. Do you feel any different?" Dad looked at my arm.

"Nope."

"Good. Come on. Let's go milk the snakes then you can go out," Mom told me.

"I just wanna get it over with," Igot up, and went outside.

Every year, on my birthday, I see a light brown King Cobra in my backyard. It's always the same one though. I can tell it's the same one because it always looks at me and follows me around. No matter where I go, there it is. I feel like I have a stalker that's in snake form.

I wish I could talk to it so I can tell it to leave me alone. Seeing the same snake every year is getting a little too creepy. The strange thing is my parents never see it. I asked them why it keeps stalking me, but they say they don't know what I'm talking about.

"Magggggg," I heard something hiss at me. "Magggggg."

"Okay. Weird voices in my head," I walked toward the snake tanks. "Good morning, snakes."

Each species of snakes in a different tank with other snakes of that kind. We have over ten species of snakes that are and aren't poisonous. Each species is seperated based on how they hunt, like, injecting venom into the blood stream, strangulation and other forms of hunting. We had to tag each snake in case they ever got out. Usually, it's the non-poisonous snakes that get out.

One morning, I went outside to feed the pythons before school, and when I counted them, there was only two ball pythons when we actually have eight. I wrote down that six of the snakes were missing, like I'm suppose to, so my parents aren't surprised if they find snakes in the house. I went to take a shower that morning, and I found two in the bathroom. I picked them outside to their tank, and I had to write down where I found them, and how many I found in the one spot. I found one in my room, two in the fridge, and in the kitchen cabinet.

"All y'all better be in your tanks. I hate coming out here to feed y'all, and find out most of you are missing. It's a pain in the ass to look for y'all, and it's a little disturbing to find y'all in the places I find y'all in. Especially the poisonous ones."

Because the snakes are so picky about what they eat, we have to have different kinds of rodents for them, and we have to lable which snake gets which rodent. This snake farm is a lot of work. I don't know how my parents could handle this farm for eighteen years. They think they'll pass it down to me when they're ready to give it up. This farm was orginally my dad's parents' farm, so he inherited it when he turned eighteen, and married my mom.

"Y'all are a lot of work."