Say Hello to Nothing

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They were invisible to everyone but her. Everyone else was denying the existence of the snakes she was staring at. Just my imagination, she thought as panic began setting in as her eyes darted around the bench she was on. They gave her the erie feeling that she was being followed, them apparently only existing in her mind didn’t help the feeling. “When is the bus coming?” she asked, a hitch in her voice as her eyes flashed, trying to keep up with the withering mass of snakes that were slithering closer to her. This wasn’t the first time she’d mentioned seeing the snakes.

                The girl on her left didn’t look up from the copy of Wuthering Heights she was reading, only fiddled with the silver hoop in her nose that matched her hair. “Soon.”

                “How soon?” she probed anxiously.

                “Soon Kimmy,” the girl replied, still not looking up. “Now stop staring at the pavement as if you’re terrified. We’ve already discussed the imaginary snakes. So many times. You see them all the time. What did Dr. Brown say about this again?”

                Stammering Kimmy answered, “Sierra says I should cut down on my caffeine limit and see if that stops, as she calls them, ‘the delusions.’” I’ve just had too much coffee, Kimmy thought as the fear set in. That’s all it is. She looked down at her feet, bottom lip caught between her teeth. I’m going to shut my eyes and they’ll all be gone. She squeezed her eyes shut for a few seconds before taking a shaky breath and having to coax herself to reopen her eyes. “Why couldn’t we take Jude’s car instead of the bus?” she demanded, as her eyes flittered open. “That would have been quicker,” she hiccupped, a quick succession of them following the first as she began softly hyperventilating. Her feet were drumming nervously; the snakes were not disappearing like she wanted. They were slinking closer in fact, forked tongues occasionally slipping out to taste the air every so often. 

                A sigh escaped the girl and she looked up from her book, giving Kimmy an annoyed look. “He’s your boyfriend Kimberly. Why don’t you turn and ask him since you can’t remember due to your misbeliefs of seeing beds of snakes?”

                “Don’t be rude Hanna,” the unruly dark haired boy on the opposite side of Kimmy voiced. “She’s drank way too much caffeine, she’s got the jitters.”

                “Not true,” Hanna muttered under her breath.

                “Hey don’t take your crabby mood out on her, she’s your best friend.” Clearing his throat he winked, rapping his knuckles lightly on Kimmy’s head. “My car is in the shop boo, broke down two days ago. Piece of shit is always breaking.”

                They were hiding something. “Where are we going again?” she questioned nervously.

“Somewhere,” Jude answered vaguely, leaning over and kissing her temple.

“There are snakes,” she insisted, knowing they didn’t believe her. Nobody ever had since it had begun. She took a shaky breath, pulling her feet shakily up onto the bench and choking back a sob.  Reaching into her jacket pocket she pulled out her pack of smokes, flipping the top open before dropping the entire box and letting some ear shocking screams loose. Snakes were creeping out of the box and growing ever longer as they escaped.

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                “You can’t do this!” she screamed, tears streaked down her face. “They’re real and I don’t know why you can’t see them but I swear they’re real,” she blubbered, snot bubbling under her nose.

                She was struggling against being dragged away from this seemingly goodbye group- her boyfriend, best friend, her parents who seemed to have planned this trip, and her perfect blonde sister- by two broad shouldered men. They were trying to lead her away gently but she wasn’t letting them. “I’m not insane!” she screamed louder, fighting against the men until they looked at each other over her head, nodding. They wrapped an arm around her waist lifting her up and carried her down the hall, around a corner before one grabbed a handle and shoved the door open with his shoulder. All three of them shoveled into the room with white pads softening the walls that silently dared the inmate to attempt trying to hurt themselves on them.

                They set her down softly on the mattress that seemed like a giant pillow and she sank into it, sobbing about her sanity. They left the room quickly, eager to avoid having to block any escape tries.

                “I’m sane,” she whispered softly, repeating it a couple of times to herself. She hiccupped and another sob escaped her, quickly turning into a struggle for breath when she saw the vivid green of the Green Mamba she had looked up the day before crawling out of the wall. Her breath still hitching her eyes darted around the room, watching as the bright colors of a Garter snake appeared alongside the stripes of a Coral snake.  Every snake she’d been able to find any information on and more was appearing from the seemingly impenetrable walls that encased her. Skinny ones, long ones, thick heavy snakes; they were all sliding out of the cushioned walls and doing their shiver inducing, legless crawl towards her.

                Fighting to get her breath back under control she whimpered, voice shaking as she felt the paralyzing fear come over her as she gazed at the slithering snakes. They were fencing her in a cage of fear so strong she couldn’t move at all, immobile to do anything that would possibly lessen the strength of her fear like tearing her eyes off of the knot of oncoming snakes. Her breathing was quickening, coming in short gasps as the back of her throat tightened up and petrified tears began to spill down her face retracing previous dried marks.

                “This isn’t possible, this isn’t possible,” she whispered tightly, a trembling voice. Every breath was stopping in her throat as she tried to scoot herself back further across the pillow mattress she’d been set upon. Losing her balance she fell over backwards, the hazel of her eyes momentarily squeezing shut when her back colliding with the fluff of the mattress. The air whooshed out of it similar to a pillow flattening and she had pieces of her dark, sweat soaked hair covering her eyes. When she opened them she saw the bright green of one of the reptiles through the pieces; opening her mouth to scream in terror she let out an ear piercing shriek of fear. In response the door to her room burst open a few seconds later to see nothing. Nothing exactly; no girl, certainly no snakes, even more curious no possible escapes. She was gone.