“Get away. I don’t want to hurt you” I yell.
But it doesn’t matter because my snakes don’t listen to me, and they attack. Killing everyone and turning the rest into stone.
“It’s medu-ugh” a random man screams while a snake bites his throat shooting blood everywhere. Why did the soldiers destroy my home? Why did I have to move? Why couldn’t I just learn to stay where I was? Why was I born like this? I’m a kid, I shouldn’t have to worry about accidentally killing something or carrying the deaths of so many people, right? And why did they kill my best friend? I just wanted to find somewhere else to live where I couldn’t hurt anyone, but of course a group of soldiers just had to find me wandering in the woods and attack me, and the ones who ran led me to the village. I knew I couldn’t do anything so I curled up in a ball surrounded by my hair of snakes that were wrapped around me in a ball to protect me and started crying.
After an hour of crying, the screams stopped, and my snakes set me down next to a wall. I kept crying until there were no more tears left, then spent the next thirty minutes just sitting still terrified by what I’ve done. Then I heard something, it sounded like crying. Well at least everyone didn’t die, they could escape and live out the rest of their lives.
Danger danger… destroy danger, protect medusa. Protect us.
“No stop it. I’m not in any danger just leave them alone” I thought to them
But of course they didn’t listen to me, so they wrapped me up in their bodies, and I could feel them moving towards the source of the yelling. But the closer I got to the screaming the more distinct the yelling became, it was a baby it sounded maybe 4 years old and my snakes were going to kill it unless I told them to stop, so I put as much force as I could to try and control my hair.
“Stop it, it’s just a kid it won’t hurt me”
No Danger. It’s danger.
They were hesitating, I was making progress.
“No, it’s not dangerous it’s a kid just like me”
But. Could sneak up. And. kill us. Or make you sad. If you look at it.
We started to slow down, but the screaming sounded like it was right in front of us
“No it won’t. Put me down now, if you want to protect me and keep me happy then don’t kill anymore innocent people.”
They didn’t respond, then moonlight started to seep in through the gaps of the snakes untangling themselves around me. I looked down to see where we were. We were in a house, I looked around to see we’d just entered and moonlight was pouring in through the windows and the door frame at our back. I wanted to scream in joy. I’d finally commanded the snakes to do what I wanted them to do, but I decided against it since it’d be an inappropriate time.
“Get out of here, I don’t want to hurt you,” I said aloud.
The crying continued
“Please I don’t want to turn you into stone. I know you’re scared but if you don’t leave now I don’t know what I’ll do to you.”
It’s trying to lure us into a trap, KILL IT.
And my snakes pulled me to the room the crying was coming from
“STOP IT! STOP IT NOW! DON’T HURT THE KID” I cried aloud to my snakes.
And to my surprise they listened to me, but they pulled me into the room and stopped me in front of the cradle the kid was in, I saw my snakes inches away from the kid, it stared up at me for a second before I turned away and shut my eyes. Feeling the all too familiar ping of guilt for killing an innocent child, I prepared myself for the silence that was bound to follow. I sat there for 30 seconds waiting for the inevitable choked out sob followed by silence, but the crying continued, I opened my eyes in confusion. How was this kid not a statue yet? It looked into my eyes, I saw it’s grey eyes and brown tuft of hair on its head. I turned back to the cradle, slowly took a step closer to it, stood on my tiptoes and looked down at the kid, nothing happened to it, I was able to get a closer look at it, it was a little chubby, looked around 1 or 2 years old, had a squishy nose, and the tiniest hands I’d ever seen.
What, how
“Don’t hurt the kid,” I said aloud to remind my snakes again.
I reached my hand out over the kids face and waved it in front of him, he didn’t react. I touched his nose and the kid’s hand moved like lightning and grabbed my finger. Me and my snakes both tensed but stood still, then relaxed, some of my snakes started moving towards the kid curiously, one poked his belly button with his snout and it was the kids turn to tense for a second. After relaxing it moved it’s hand around to where the snake had poked him, it waved it’s hand around like it had no idea where the snake was, and when it bumped into the snake, he backed up slightly then moved back towards the kid and the boy slowly and gently grabbed the snakes neck, it looked like my snake could slide rid out of his grasp. While all that was happening the kid kept staring up at me, not crying when he saw a girl with snakes for hair, and not looking around but just staring in a straight line right at me. It’s like it’s eyes weren’t even working.
Why do you smile
I didn’t even realize it, but I was smiling as soon as the kid didn’t turn to stone when I looked at him
“This kid. . . His eyes don’t work, he can’t be turned to stone, and I can look at him”
Tears of joy started to fill my eyes. This kid could look at me, and I could look at him, and nothing would happen to him, just like a normal person. That was an alien word to me. Normal. my normal was turning people into stone, and my only companions were cobra and the rest of my snakes. I looked around to see if maybe the kids parents were alive, and saw out of the corner of my eye around the doorway a bloody hand. I turned around to look down at the baby. I couldn’t leave this kid here. He’d die without someone to take care of him, but my snakes had killed everyone that could take care of him, so knowing what I had to do I pulled the cradle towards me and picked the baby up.
What are you doing?
“I’m gonna take care of this baby, and none of you will hurt him, you will protect this kid the same way you protect me got it?” I gently said aloud while the kid started touching my face.
Yes
I walked out of the house admiring the kid, some of my snakes lowered themselves above the kid and when he touched their body slithering around him he held on until the snake gently pulled itself out of his grasp, then when we were almost out of town the kid started making giggling noises when my snakes tickled his ears with their tongues.
The Kid is funny and makes you happy. It will be protected.
“Hey kid my name is medusa, and I’m gonna be taking care of you from now on,” I said, still looking down at him while exiting the town. Then I realized that I needed a name for the kid, and immediately knew what to call him. He’d be named after the one person who was family to me, who could look at me, the person who raised me from birth, who always knew how to cheer me up when I was down, someone who was brave, who could control the rest of my snakes, and always protected me. Except this time I’d be all those things for him.
“Now let’s go look for a new home Cobra.”
A Writing Blog 