Sea Dragon Apocalypse

3 || The Darkening

Moist from a fevered sweat, Keiliki awakened, her bare back protesting against the chilled stone flooring underneath. Startled, she gasped for breath but found her chest frozen, nearly motionless and rebellious to her aching desire to inhale. She forced her eyes wide open but saw nothing - an empty void snubbed her vision. Panic. In laborious yearning, her lungs quarreled for life sustaining air and her heart softly pounded in a painful echo. Her instinct to get up and run was useless. She couldn't move. In a unified front, her muscles rebelled and left her lying statuesque like some morbid exhibit. At first, Keiliki thought the immobility a nightmare - one of those moments that comes just before you fully awaken, when you struggle to get up but your body stubbornly resists your call. But after a few moments, she reconciled herself to the fact that she wouldn't be able to move even if she exerted every reserve of willpower to do so. She was imprisoned within her own body.

But her resignation to physical immobility didn't arrest her mental resolve. Keiliki pierced through the smog of consciousness that enveloped her soul, searching for some understanding of her situation – but she soon regretted that decision. As sensibility surfaced, Keiliki recognized the subtle, yet distinct sound of long slithering bodies gliding across the stone floor towards her legs. A long ignored primeval fear of serpents welled up from deep within her psyche, jump started her heart, and vigorously aroused her mind. For what seemed like boundless epochs of time she awaited the onslaught of snakes - but as suffering tames time, only a very few moments in reality passed.

Soon, Keiliki felt a serpentine head bumping against the bottom of her right foot, flicking its tongue and slowly pushing its long body along her leg. One viper would have been terrifying to the young woman but there wasn't just one. There were many more than a few to number. There were hundreds. Another viper followed a similar cascading path over her leg and then another and another until she felt them meandering all over her body, zigzagging in random patterns until she nearly prayed they would end their movements and rest upon her warm skin – a refreshing oasis for reptilian bodies released into a chilled room. But they didn't stop their incessant winding.

She could feel it now. Her abdomen had been oiled. Her legs and arms had been oiled. Her entire torso had been oiled so that she could intimately feel each serpent dejectedly slipping off of her body, falling onto the ground, and then thrusting themselves back upon her unwelcoming, sweaty flesh. Keiliki perceived every slip, responded to every reptilian failing as an intrusion upon her personal space, a persistent and unforgivable violation of her person. Revulsion coursed through her veins as she continually failed at renewed efforts to move her motionless body. Soon enough, there was something else to rivet her attention. She remembered the briefing. This was only the first stage of Evay'zhlen, an elaborate ritual cursing. Her body had been thoroughly rubbed down with oil perfumed by the scent of female vipers. The male snakes now draping her body like tangled dreadlocks would initially seek nothing more than the warmth of her feverish skin. However, as they warmed and rejuvenated, they would become more prominently aware of the enticing scent hovering around her body and they would actively seek out the female viper until a frenzy of competitive fighting would ensue. Eventually, one would miss its target and bite Keiliki by accident. Then, the smell of human blood would incite further biting into her vulnerable flesh. Her heart pounded, racing in fear but her body remained dormant, eternally frozen to the stone flooring like a slab of raw meat waiting to be cooked. Now she remembered why: she had been drugged. The effects were slowly wearing off but enough remained in her system to maintain her tacit compliance until it would be too late for her to prevent the next stage of the ritual.

A snake delicately draped across Keiliki's shoulders began vying for a more southern position where her body was warmer. Its tail tapped her ear as it forced itself through the sickening forest of scales decorating her body. Oily, its serpentine body felt slimy as it slithered over her skin – as did all of the others. If there was a more revolting sensation to be experienced in this life, she could hardly imagine what it might be. Had the young woman's body been outside of the influence of any drugs, she would have expected to involuntarily heave out of disgust and horror. With little traction, snakes were continually falling off of her body and pushing themselves back into a position close to where they had been. But this latest effort was different. One hiss and then two sliced through the relative silence. One strike ensued and another followed. Another tail swatted Keiliki across her cheek, leaving a feint sting. But this was the least of her worries.