Page 52 of Snake

Serpents.Savages. Snake. What would she say if I told her where those names came from? Would she still think they were the monsters everyone else made them out to be?

Eliza Jackson is as big a monster as they are. She’s the original bully. What if she hadn’t blamed Knox for his girlfriend’s disappearance? Would the Serpents still be walking these halls? Or would they just be three normal guys?

Ha, who am I kidding? Knox, Silas, Mason...they’re not normal. They couldn’t be if they tried. They might not have chosen this way of life, but if the shoe fits...

“I don’t enjoy being challenged, peasant.” At the sound of Eliza’s vile voice, my hand immediately snaps closed.

Maybe she is the original snake, because she moves so much faster than I do. Like a striking viper, she snatches the beautiful carving off my palm, and I close my fingers over empty air.

Nothing can explain the surge of panic when I lose that small carving, nor the fact that I’m compelled to climb over the back of the couch to retrieve it from Eliza.

“No! Give it back!” I yell like a fucking three-year-old.

She steps back, and the two girls who’d been standing at her side surge forward to catch me at the elbows, holding me back effortlessly.

“Hey!” Romi cries out, scrambling off the couch and going around to confront Eliza. “Give that back to her, you cunt!”

I can hear nail polish drying in the hush that follows.

Eliza holds the carving between thumb and forefinger, examining it like a jeweler just handed a cheap rhinestone someone was claiming was a diamond. “I thought I made myself clear when I said you weren’t going to the dance.”

She snatches the piece of coal into a fist, and her knuckles go white as she tenses. My heart drops to my fluffyfucking slippers when I realize she’s crushing it. I know it’s just a stupid piece of coal, but fuck it if that wasn’t crucial evidence. How else am I supposed to remember this path I’m walking might lead to someplace other than hell?

The other girls in the common area are standing. Someone pauses the movie. A thick, anticipatory hush falls over the room.

Eliza opens her hand, sniffing derisively when she sees the carving hasn’t been damaged beyond one of the snake heads snapping off. Then she shoulders past Romi, swiping away the hand that tries to latch onto the sleeve of her Snoopy sleeping shirt, and tosses the carving into the fire.

Collective gasps rattle through the room. My eyes are fixed on the carving, tossed just deep enough into the flames to make taking it out impossible, but not so far in that I lose sight of it.

Cold, calculating bitch. She wants me to watch it burn.

“You know what?” Eliza comes up to me and slowly cleans her sooty fingers on the front of my dressing gown. “I’ve changed my mind. I’d love to see you at the dance, Nim. In fact…” She leans close, her muddy brown eyes soaked with venom. “I can hardly wait.”

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