tongue of the serpent ➵ a.b.

Chapter 3: Embodiment

I wake up next to a drooling Cadell and the smell of toast burning in the kitchen. Typical boys.

"No, Kane!" Frey scream-whispers, "That's not how you cook it!"

I turn my head to face the two dimwits and see that they're trying to cook breakfast. I stretch and accidentally hit Cadell in the face with my hand, causing him to moan. I sit up and feel my hair: bed head. Astaroth is sleeping soundly in his bed. I then turn to face Frey and Kane.

"What the fuck are you doing? What time is it?" I ask, feeling really irritated.

Kane yelps as he pulls out the black toast from the toaster. "Ten o'clock."

I sigh loudly and get up from bed. I walk to the kitchen and open the fridge to grab some soda. I just love that shit.

"Oh, Leth, there's no more soda," Kane says, smiling innocently.

I sigh. "What did you do?"

"Nothing!" he says, waving his hands like he's kidding and accidentally holding the burnt toast too long and burning himself. "Ouch!"

I internally sigh at him and look around the kitchen. "Anybody got loose change?"

"Why?"

"I wanna go buy me a coke in the vending machine," I say aggravated. Who uses up six cokes before ten in the morning? Apparently the duo of Frane. Haha, so that's what the fangirls are gonna ship. I'd ship it myself!

Frey eventually digs a couple quarters and dimes from his pocket and I am on my way down the corridor.

You know that sensation you get when you're in a hotel corridor and you just feel like running? Well, I couldn't help it. I started to run down the hall and began to skip and twirl like a ballerina. Passing up a housekeeper, I made my way to the vending machine. "Let's see here..." I say aloud, talking to myself. They had Cokes, Sprites, 7-Ups, Mr. Pibb-Mr. Pibb? Those were my favorites when I was a kid. Mmm...Sounds great!

I let the machine munch on my $1.25 and I press A8 on the keypad and wait for the robotic arm to go up and get my Pibb. I stayed there for about ten seconds. It didn't move. Ugh, what a rip off!

I start shaking the machine, hitting it and pressing the coin return slot. Nothing happened.

"Jammed," I whisper under my breath. Fuck, man.

I begin to walk away from the healing pile of junk when I hear the voice again. It's strong. It's in a conversation with another voice. It's lighter, but not as light as Kane's. The voice seemed to be creeping up on me. I heard it getting louder. And then I saw a flash of light and a dark figure move across the hall in front of me. C'mon, mind, quit making jokes! I shook my head and started to walk back to the room.

A sudden heat stroke came upon me and I collapsed on the floor. Goddammit. I collected myself and pushed off the carpet with a spinning in my head. The voice began to subside into the horizon. As if it were entering oblivion; into a limbo. In limbo you cannot escape, no one can escape their fate. Limbo is drawing upon me.

I shake my head and get out of my freaky limbo episode. Ever since Astaroth told me what my name meant, I haven't been feeling normal. Like this world isn't real. Only like I'm floating...And the voice is the only thing that keeps me sane...

What am I? A two-thousand-year-old Yoda? Jeez, sometimes I scare myself. I don't even know that voice, and I act like it's my soul. Like it's my life source. But I feel like it once was. Maybe someone I knew had that voice? But, then again, I left everyone behind, in my own dust. Could my past be haunting me?