In the garden of desolation.

I have shed my skin. Mother has given me new skin. She has given me fangs and scales and a tail. She has given me a new life.

I like it in the Garden now. I spent so much time there, it feels like home. But I still have to leave. I'm going back through my mirror and back to my old life. I'm going to visit an old professor. I'm going to see an former friend's boyfriend. I'm even going to see my dad.

After all, a girl needs to eat. It doesn't taste so bad after all.

Not with my new fangs. Not with my new life.

I am a survivor.

 -- Euryale

Losing herself as the days go by

I slowly walked into the lake and breathed a sigh of relief.

"I can see you are enjoying that." I turned and saw her. The sun glinted off of her skin. Part of her was submerged in the water, but I could see the rest of her. And I could see the part that became the snake. She was the snake.

"The Mother of Snakes," I said.

"At least we meet," she said. "I think that's what I'm supposed to say. I'm glad you could make it. I was worried there for a moment. I was having my doubts you could kill him."

"What? You wanted me to kill Boyd?"

"That was the test," she said. "To see how far you will willing to go. To see what you would do, my child."

"I'm not your child," I spat.

"I beg to differ," she said. "I am the Mother of All Snakes."

The water evaporated in front of me, vanishing away completely. Even the water on my skin dried up and I was left gasping.

"Do you wish to survive?" she said. "Do you wish to truly live?"

I said yes.

 -- April Chase

She searches for her salvation

A lake. I found a lake. It's large and clear and blue. And it's a fucking lake. I can bathe and I can swim and I can drink.

There's just one problem: that giant fucking snake leads directly to it. It...it goes right into it. That must be where it gets its water, too.

If the head is right there, if I disturb it, it will kill me. I doesn't matter if I have a sharpened stick or rock, I will be fucking dead.

But it's a lake.

It's water.

I have to go.

 -- April Chase

Amidst the cracked earth and empty sky

What is happening? I read that last post. That...that happened to me. It happened just before I woke up here. Months ago. Last night.

Last night? How long have I been here? The dates all say February 8th, but that must have been a while ago. The date must be wrong. It can't be the same day.

The giant snake is moving. It's slithering. I can see the dunes, all the dunes that I walked past and over and around, they are slithering, they are moving. They are all part of the snake.

I'm going to follow it. I'm going to follow it back to the source.

Whoever this Mother of Snakes is, I'm going to find her.

And she's going to let me out of this place. Or else.

 -- April Chase

Interlude

April Chase was always a smart girl. A very smart girl.


One night, after work, she was assaulted. The muggers couldn't have been older than seventeen, but they had knives and she didn't. They took what they wanted from her and more. If she had been the April Chase that had killed her father, the April Chase that had killed her friend's boyfriend, the April Chase that had killed her lecherous professor, she would have fought back, she would have killed them all.


But she wasn't. She didn't kill her father or her friend's boyfriend or her professor. And she didn't kill those muggers. Instead, a part of her died.


And after she had told the police, after she had filled out a report, she went back home and looked at herself in front of the mirror.


And she gave herself over to me.


She swore to herself that something like that would never happen again. She didn't care about anyone else. She would only care for herself.


And I am putting that to the test.


Hello, April Chase.


I am your true mother.


I am the Mother of Snakes.

From the garden of desolation.

It doesn't taste that bad. Not that bad.

I mean, I threw up a little bit, but not as much as when I first tried snake. I have to eat.

I have to get out of here.

The bastards who put me and Boyd here, they are the ones that are getting some sick twisted pleasure out watching us. Probably have cameras in the sand dunes.

I bet if I dig through that dune right there, I'd find a camera. I bet I'd find a whole mess of cameras. That's what I'm going to do. I'm going to find and break their shit.

oh

oh god

it wasn't a dune. it wasn't a dune at all.

it was a snake

a giant fucking snake

its moving

And takes what she needs to survive

He was thinking about it. I know he was. He was looking at me like one of those cartoons where the Coyote sees the Roadrunner as a cooked chicken. He was thinking about eating me.

So I stabbed him. I had to. He would have killed me in my sleep. I didn't give him the chance. Bastard.

I didn't kill him because I wanted to eat him. That would be gross and disgusting. That would be wrong. I killed him because he was going to kill me.

But it would be wrong to just leave his body here, when I can use it to survive.

When I can solve my food problem.

I'm not...I'm not going to take much. Just what I need. Just what I need.

 -- April Chase