The Girl Who Liked To Play With Snakes

Chapter 1

Arabella had always dreamed of her family going back to the old country. The thought of meeting her British relatives made her heart race. She had heard so much about them, with them being aristocrats of England and all and now was her chance to go back, but she wasn't happy. Arabella was to be betrothed to another noble in the near future.

As she packed, Arabella thought of what her husband to be would be like. She wasn't told much other than he was 25 and had lots of money. Most noble men marry women younger than themselves, so luckly he is only 8 years older than herself.

Oh who was she kidding. This marriage was ridiculous and just a ploy for her family to get more money. She was just being used as always. As she thought more about it, the more she had the urge to run away. She knew better than to do that though. Last time she tried her father found her within a day and beat her till she couldn't move.

So instead, just to spite her parents, she had worn her favourite dress that was mid thigh height in the front and long in the back. It helped to show off her womanly curves, pushing up her already large breasts. The blood red of it pulled it all together. Arabella's personal maid had helped her create the dress a few years ago when she was 15. It had been revealing and she had definitely grown since then making the dress even more whore-ish.

Walking out of her room, she walked up to her many servants that were waiting by the door for when her parents called them. They looked sad for her to be leaving. While her parents were rude and harsh towards them, she had always helped them out when they needed it. 

Her personal maid, Elsie, and the house butler, Axel, were the closest with Arabella and seemed to be tearing up as she walked closer to them.

"You have grown to be such a beautiful young woman." Elsie said starting to cry. 

"I will miss our conversations the most, Arabella." Axel said in his german accent. 

She looked between the two of them shaking her head. 

"Oh my goodness, you are going to make me cry and smudge my makeup." She said waving at her face to dry the tears about to fall. "I'll be back. Nothing can keep me away." Walking up to them, she gave them both a big hug.

"Arabella, what have I told you?" Her mother said grabbing Arabella's shoulder. "You are not to speak to or touch people like them." Her mother had always been like this to the servants. Arabella became sad at the thought of what was to become of them when she left. Nothing good to be sure. Her mother suddenly looked at her in disgust. "Why are you wearing that dress? Those hideous spots are on display for everyone to see. He will never agree to this with you looking like that."

"We need to hurry up or we are going to miss the boat!" Her father yelled while walking down the stairs with his luggage.

"She needs to chan-" Before she could finish her father walked out the door with his personal butler, Lucious, quickly in toe with the rest of the luggage.

"We will speak later about this." Her mother spat out while following outside.

With one final look at the servants she waved goodbye walking to the carriage.

The carriage ride was quiet. Both of Arabella's parents would barely look at her and when they did it was with looks of disapproval. The reason for this was not the dress, no, her mother used to dress like that herself. A bit more modest of course. It was because of her skin. Ever since she was 4 she has had abnormal white spots all over her otherwise tan skin. The doctors said that she had Vitiligo. Health wise, there is not really any danger to this disease, but her mom saw it as a curse. Always trying to cover up the marks on her body with big dresses and the marks on her face and neck with makeup. Arabella had always thought that it held some sort of beauty though. The different skin tones that she possessed made her look exotic and the working class boys around her town thought the same. Sadly she could never marry someone who wasn't a noble.

Arabella, trying to think of something else, listened to the noise outside of the carriage. She had always had a weird sense of hearing, hearing music where there was none and one other thing. She never told her parents of this gift because they would most definitely think she was insane, but she could speak with animals. They had different ways of talking from humans and tended to have more interesting conversations. Of course, when she was younger her mother just thought that she was making friends with the animals since she was an only child. That was not the case. Along with the nonexistent music, Arabella could hear the animals speaking to one another. The birds would mock people talking outside, making her giggle. They seemed to have the most fun. Dogs and cats talked kind of the same as one another, but would always fight. Arabella's favourite to speak to though were the snakes. They were always so intelligent and seemed the most like people. Thinking back to the story of Adam and Eve it kind of made sense. Snakes are based around sin and humans sin, a lot. She always held a place close to her heart for them. 

Putting a hand to her chest, she could feel the little garter snake, Rocco, moving around to the beat of her heart. He could sense her unease and spoke small whispers of comfort and tried to sit still. She could not leave without her best friend so here he was, inside her dress in between her breasts. Snakes do not understand human anatomy so he had no issue being there. It was warm and a new feeling he had never felt before. Arabella, if he asked, would of said it was close to a mother's touch. Rocco whispered one last time before falling asleep. Arabella doing the same.