I’d forgotten to post this two weeks ago, and it won, so I figured I should keep it around.
Prompt: https://siobhanmuir.com/thursthreads-tying-tales-together-week-568/
The snake slithered around my neck, its scales soft and dry against my sweaty, sticky skin. I don’t know what it thought I was, but as long as it didn’t think I was food, I was happy. Eventually, it climbed back up into the trees to do whatever enormous snakes did.
Unfortunately, the guy who’d tied me to the tree didn’t do me the same courtesy.
He didn’t really do much of anything, really, except be extremely thorough in his knot-tying. He never spoke, he didn’t grunt with effort – hell, I wasn’t sure if he breathed.
When he was done, he walked away from me and disappeared into the forest, having done his job remarkably well.
I should know. This was my sixth, no – seventh time she’d left me for dead.
The first time was after I’d forgotten to bring her the bike she’d wanted for Christmas. She didn’t leave her mom’s side the whole day, and the next day I’d woken up under what felt like every blanket in the house. It wasn’t as good an assassination attempt as leaving me tied to a tree in a forest filled with venomous creatures, but to be fair, she was only seven.
Each time had gotten more dangerous, more difficult to escape from. This time though – this was her best. I knew she thought I should have been there to see her every morning as she grew up, but she didn’t understand, not yet.
Still, she was my star pupil.
Project Gemini 