The Cage (Book 2)

Palm Tree

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Palm Tree

Lately, I had begun to constantly question what my purpose in life was. Was it to be a lawyer? Since I was now disbarred, it clearly wasn't. Well, not anymore. Then, was it to play the part of a wrongly-accused convict? I refused to believe that was all I was cut out to be, all that was meant for me in this life.

But I knew I wasn't meant to be a viper's prey. Not today, not ever.

"Get away from me, you piece of shit." I plucked another coconut -the last one- from the tree and tossed it at the offending snake. I missed yet again.

Dammit!

I was always a bad tosser, but this was ridiculous. It was right there, just under the palm tree I'd desperately climbed up in an effort to get away from it. I hadn't even made it into the forest before I was ambushed by the world's angriest serpent and had to scramble into a tree for dear life.

"What the fuck do you wa- Ah!" My hold around the palm's smooth trunk began to slip and I quickly threw both hands around it lest I fell right on top of the snake.

This was ridiculous. My life had suddenly taken a turn for the comical, it seemed.

Night fell and the temperature dropped while I waited for the devil's snake to slither away from whence it came, but clearly I'd greatly offended it by stepping into its territory or something, because it refused to budge from its place. It wanted a bite out of me, no matter what.

Amber slits glared at me. When our eyes met, it hissed. I hissed back to show it I wasn't afraid... or something.

In truth, I was very, very afraid, although not just from the snake.

Hours crawled by, and my hold on the slippery smooth tree weakened. It was only a matter of time before my shaking arms gave out and my grip unraveled. Due to my state of near complete undress, it didn't take long for me to feel my ass freezing in the cold night weather. Shivers raked me every time an icy gust of sea wind whipped me, tossing my hair into my face.

In the back of my mind, I was acutely aware of the time I'd lost because of this unfortunate and unforeseen situation. Time that I'd meant to spend finding a good hiding spot to keep low in, gather my thoughts and calculate my limited available options.

I really should have tried swimming to that shore. In the cover of the night, I couldn't even make out its outline, but I knew it was there like an unreachable promise. Taunting me. Beckoning me.

Dispirited, I squinted at the horizon, trying to spot it.

"You did all of that just to get stuck in a tree?"

I gasped and my head whipped to where the voice had come from.

I blanched.

He was here.

"You really didn't think this through, did you?"

At first, I couldn't make him out from the darkness of the thick foliage. His voice was coming from the forest trees on my left, but it was too dark for me to tell where he was standing exactly.

Then he stepped away from the darkness, revealing himself to me.

If I hadn't regretted my impulsive act already, the look on his face made me regret it tenfold.

I'd seen him furious before. At least, I thought I did. Oh, how mistaken I was. Because whatever I'd seen didn't hold a candle to the raging fury I saw reflected on his face right now. Now this was Schneider angry.

There was this fearsome ... aura about him that made the danger of the snake considerably less threatening in comparison.

His hand was fisted around my clothes, the ones I'd discarded on the other side of the beach before going for a swim.

Was it just my imagination running wild with fear or were his eyes actually glowing in the dark? Rather than pewter gray, they were now a bright gray, making them look nearly white in the darkness of the beach.

He'd come for me. He'd come to pay me back for offending him.

He set you up.

He'd set me up and now he'd come for me. To finish what he started.

"W-What do you want from me?"

"I want you to get down from that tree."

"N-No! Why are you looking for me alone? Shouldn't there be guards with you?" In my state of mental distress, I'd forgotten that the guards were my worst enemy. Well, that remained to me proven. Was Schneider vying for first place?

"Julian." The way Schneider said my name made a rash of goosebumps erupt across my skin -and this time, it wasn't in a good way. Chills shook my spine, and suddenly it wasn't the weather that was making me cold. A cold sweat broke all over me. "I have been more than patient with you. I am warning you for the first and last time. Get down from the tree."

I nearly shit bricks. I was so petrified that even if I wanted to come down from the tree (which I didn't), I was unable to move a muscle, frozen to the tree like a paralyzed monkey.

"S-Stay away from me," I whispered, and then when he started coming toward the tree, I yelled, "Stay away from me! Don't come any closer!"

In my frenzied state, I forgot to mind my grip on the tree trunk. My arms -weakened by the prolonged stress- finally gave out and I plummeted.

If this was a fairytale, then Schneider would have reached me just in time to grab me before I hit the ground. But my shitty life wasn't a fairytale. Far from it.

I fell directly onto the hissing snake.

After the initial, body-wide pain of dropping on hard, solid ground, I felt another type of acute, explosive pain on my right thigh, as if the flesh in the spot was being seared with a blowtorch. I gasped and tried to suck in a breath, tears welling in my eyes.

The snake bit me.

*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*

 Have you checked out my erotica short story Black & Red yet?

If you ever wondered what the colors of obsession are, they're Black & Red. Red is being hunted by the man who owns the world. Zephyr de Corbin, the World Imperator and King of Humanity, has decided that he must have Red as well. Long ago, Red crossed swords with Zephyr and he'd left the duel a scarred and humiliated man. But instead of losing interest in Red once he'd defeated him like Zephyr was rumored to do, the World Imperator developed an all-consuming interest in the fiery sword master, for Red was the first challenger to make his blood boil and his loins stir. Very quickly, interest turned to an unholy obsession until Red was left with only two choices: either flee or become the tyrant imperator's possession. Proud and headstrong, Red would rather freeze in the icy pits of Vetiruza itself before he lay in Zephyr's bed. He chooses to flee, abandoning his inheritance to save his honor, virtue and himself from the Imperator's corrupting hands. Zephyr pursues, for Red plagues his thoughts and dreams, coming to him in the form of a sultry seductor, taunting and daring. As World Imperator, he hasn't lost a conquest yet, and Red would be no different. But first, he has to get his hands on his elusive prey.

A Patreon-Exclusive Erotica.