Those That Slither | ON HOLD

Two

The change of sunlight to moonlight was more apparent as she stated out her doorway. Her back porch light was off and all she could make out was the distant light of a neighbor's lantern on their fence. Beyond that, the amber had quickly deepened and the trees remain still in the shadows of oncoming night. Too still for her after her... nightmare. Leah turned her light on and shut the door with a slam, locking it with a swift motion.

She turned and sighed, "Guess it's time to give this dinner another shot."

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"And I don't know what it is about men, but they just think they are the best thing that happened to us! I mean, last I checked, Adam was all alone until Eve came along and bam, history was made. They didn't happen to us, we happened to them. The nerve!"

Alice took a hefty gulp of her wine and bit into a biscuit. She could talk as much as she could eat sometimes. This night was a night where the topic of her encounter with annoying men helped her through a few cups of wine and hours of biscuit based chatter. Leah didn't mind, she sat folded up at the edge of the couch, slowly making her way through another glass of wine.

She focused in on Alice as best as she could. Her friend had her long black hair draped down onto her shoulders and was apparently back into red lipstick. She wore one of her many handmade sweaters of pink, unbuttoned revealing a humble view of her cleavage. Leah smirked as she watched her flip her hair and lean back on the couch. Her friend's mouth was moving again but she couldn't hear a word.

She pulled her eyes to the glass in her lap. It was hard to concentrate. Ever since the snake, the powder, and the nightmare; she didn't feel completely herself. And that man from the library, she had never seen him before but something inside of her gut told her not to forget his face. She just wished she had gotten a name.

"Earth to Leah!"

She snapped up, finding Alice amused by her zoning out. Her eyes blinked rapidly trying to pull herself back to reality. "I'm so sorry, I completely spaced out."

"I see that. You seem like something is bothering you. I know I've been ranting, is everything okay?"

"Yeah, I just had a really weird day." If weird was even the word for it. If she could she would explain it word for word. But things like powder that made her sleep and snakes that left symbols weren't her cup of tea. Alice wasn't the type to just sweep it up and make dinner.

"Well spit it out."

"It's a boring story."

"I doubt it."

"You don't want to hear it."

"I'll be the judge of that."

Leah sighed and tried to find a way to sum it all up. Her hands gripped the glass, "In a nutshell, I ran into a man at the library, he'd found my card. When I left I noticed this stinky purple powder on it. I came home to cook and a purple snake was here, same powder on it." She took a drink of wine, "Then I had a nightmare about purple snakes and shadows. I woke up and well, now I'm here."

There, she thought.

Alice sat still, staring at her friend with glossy eyes. She picked her shoulders up and cuddled into the couch cushion. "That's something alright."

It sure was.

Leah felt uneasy staring at the remainders of her wine and leaned forwards to set it on the coffee table. She crossed her arms and sighed, "Tell me what you really think."

Alice's bottom lip trembled for a second before she hurried to finish her glass and held it tightly, "I think you're spending too much time in those ancient books."