Eaten Alive

Worst Nightmare

I'm an Amazon rain forest tour guide and I really hate my job. Although I make good money, I hate that there are tons of bugs and creepy creatures that I don't even know the name of.  Sounds strange right? A tour guide that scared of the things she sees every day. The tourists always insist on going deeper into the rain forest, to my dread. Often times, I have to ask myself how did I land this job. Well, I did want to travel, note to self: be careful what you wish for. On the positive side, lucky for me I'm not the only guide. My partner, Zane, takes over the tour right before I get the tourists to the Amazon River. He is a life saver. Yesterday was terrible, I stumbled in the tour several times and even forgot some of the main tourist spots and attractions. I got booed and received bad reviews. Because of that, my manager wants Zane and I to practice our routes. I'm lucky he didn't just fire me on the spot. At 1 this afternoon, I am meeting him at the river. I wish I could just go home because in all honesty I don't want to see the river, many of the tourists speak of seeing anacondas there; and I am terrified of snakes. I feel so alone walking along my route, I wish that Zane and I went through the routes together. He is always so calm and reassuring, not to mention handsome. Zane is tall with dark brown curly hair and tan skin. His light brown eyes are piercing and mesmerizing. We had been getting pretty close since we've been working. I'm hopeful that we might have something more than just a work relationship. But, I need to focus, I don't want to be late. 

Now, it's 12:45, I do not see Zane, I hope that he didn't forget. Just as I thought about going back, I heard a distant scream. My heart was pounding. That could only be Zane, I called out to him only to hear more screaming. I want to go help him but I'm afraid, what if the thing that got him gets me and we both die forgotten. I pace around pondering over what I should do. I don't want to waste time, but I don't want to be stupid. Finally, I decided to go find Zane because I know that he would have done the same for me.

I ran through the rain forest, trying to analyze the direction from where his screams had come from. When I got to the river, the water was an opaque shade of blue green. It was disgusting, I could feel my stomach doing somersaults. I could barely see the fish swimming. I was all alone. Suddenly, I heard something rustling on the rain forest floor, I disregarded the noise because it was probably just a monkey or something. It was too light to be the footsteps of a man. When I heard the noise again, followed by soft hissing, instinct took over and I ran as fast as I could, finding myself deep into Zane's route. Now, I had no idea where I was, having never been this far before. I wanted to stop and catch my breath, but my heart dropped when I heard a loud hiss come from the trees behind me. I spun around hoping to pinpoint the approaching creature, but there was nothing. I began to back up slowly as the hissing got louder than the beating of my speed racing heart. Suddenly, I felt myself trip over a mangrove root, and I fell backwards. My head hit the trunk of a tree, time slowed and my vision blurred. I continued tumbling and splashed into the river. Quickly, I spit out the filthy water from my mouth. Floating, I was slightly disoriented and swam cautiously towards the land, my clothes were dirty and drenched. 

Crawling out of the river, I rung out my dark hair and laid my head against the trunk of a tree taking a deep breathe. I felt hopeless and defeated. My head ached from the fall and my ears were ringing, I just need to rest. I closed my hazel eyes for a moment, before feeling an agonizing pain in my foot. My eyes flashed open, at that moment, I only knew fear as my heart dared to stop as I recognized the source of my pain, an anaconda. Afraid, I could not move although the searing pain told me otherwise. Finding some strength, I used my other foot to kick the snake off but to no avail. I feel like a fool for trying to kick pounds of muscle from off of me. But what else is there to do?I felt its teeth, quickly pulling my leg in it's wet, slimy mouth like a conveyor belt. I could see and feel the blood running from my leg, I began to cry. I recalled reading about how anacondas teeth pierce their victim's skin making escape impossible, while its jaws unhinge so it can consume its kill. It was eating me alive, I snapped out of my state of shock and started to scream at the top of my lungs. I thought about Zane, did he share my same fate? My worst nightmare?

Hours later, no one had come for me, meanwhile half of my body was consumed by the snake. The feeling of being half immersed into a warm, slimy stomach was too much. I was slowly dying. I wished that I could have a heart attack from fear, instead of bear this pain. With death minutes away, I wished for it to come and take me now. The leg I used to kick the snake was completely broken from the anaconda crushing it. Though broken, the anaconda was not deterred from eating it. I heard another hissing sound then saw another anaconda slithering backwards into the clearing. Panic filled my body, would this snake take my head? The snake was darker and eating a man's body but could not get past the broad shoulders. It looked full and I could see the shape of his body in it's stomach. As the snake shifted, I feebly cried out as the man's head turned, I saw that the snake was eating Zane. Seeing someone so loving, so caring as Zane, in it's mouth almost gave me the will to fight back, but the last of my mind's conscious reminded me, that there was nothing I could do for him. That anaconda continued to slide away taking dead Zane with it. I wanted to cry, but I couldn't, the snake continued to walk it's sharp teeth over my immobile body and had me up to my chest. The massive anaconda weighed at least a ton. I felt its weight crushing my insides. Breathing is nearly impossible. I am gasping for every breath not knowing which one would be my last. Moments later, as I expected, the snake was able to eat past my petite shoulders. We are now face to face, predator and prey, perpetrator and victim. With my last few breaths, I looked the snake straight into the eyes, those round yellow, beady eyes with endless pits which seemed to scream victory. It moved up slowly to my throat where my last, gentle breath lay and pierced it quickly, robbing me of that one last breath I had tucked away. My last string of life swiped from me. The love, the bliss, the pain the fear, it's all gone, never to be touched again. The world went dark, then nothing at all.