Chapter Text
I slithered into a house. Some idiots left the door open. God, humans are so stupid sometimes. I laughed to myself and slid on, making sure I was hidden in case someone walked in. I saw an open door and some feet, so I headed over to it.
Inside the room was a woman, a man, and a baby girl in a crib. I chuckled. This will be fun, I thought to myself. I moved forward and hissed to make myself known. The man and woman, whom I assumed were the parents of the baby girl, turned to me in horror. Well, the mom did at least. The dad looked angry.
“My little girl is not getting hurt today by some… snake!” he shouted. He made a move to grab me, but I easily maneuvered away. The mother screeched in terror as I moved closer to the crib. I lifted my head and soon followed the upper half of my body. This only caused the mother to scream more. This was too much fun.
I turned away from the mother and began to move towards the sleeping baby girl. She had red hair and looked peaceful. I wasn’t actually going to kill her; I was just going to make the parents think so. I crawled into her crib as the father was shouting for me to get out.
Suddenly, a man burst into the room. I… Oh my God. It was Luke, my father. I slid down the crib so I was hiding behind it, but I could still watch the scene unfold. I felt disgusted. What was he doing here?
Luke grinned maliciously. “Finally... I have waited so long for this...“ He pulled out a gun and the mother and father gasped.
The mother took a step in front of the baby girl, who was still sleeping soundly. Luke rolled his eyes. “It’s no use, Lucy. I will get my revenge. You’ve brought this fate upon you, your husband, and your daughter.”
The father growled. “You’re not welcome here, Luke”
Luke scoffed. “That doesn’t matter, Mike. You betrayed me and I am making sure your family pays.”
He kept eye contact and aimed the gun at Lucy. Mike threw himself in front of his wife as Luke pulled the trigger. Luke shrugged as Mike fell down. Lucy stared at her husband in horror.
Lucy turned around when she heard the cries of her young child. The baby girl had woken up and was crying from the volume of the gunshot. Lucy moved to pick her up but then she remembered the eminent danger behind her. She turned back around and saw the barrel of the gun a foot from her face. Luke grinned from behind the trigger.
“Luke, please don’t hurt Lilly. She hasn’t done anything wrong! She’s just a young child, please!” Lucy pleaded.
So that was the baby’s name. Lilly...
Luke groaned. “I don’t care. She deserves it, for having such terrible parents.” Luke pulled the trigger and Lucy fell back against the crib and slid down, dead upon impact. Lilly cried harder. The sound must be agonizing for her.
Luke advanced towards Lilly, who only cried more when her mother and father would not wake up. I raised my head a bit. What was he doing?
Luke raised the gun towards Lilly, his grin growing ever more evil. Without thinking, I moved into sight and hissed furiously at him as a warning. I didn’t want to hurt him, but he didn’t listen and begin to slowly pull the trigger...
I don’t know why I did it, seeing as how I hated humans, and as such I assumed I would never risk my own life for one of theirs, but I felt like I had no choice. I struck at Luke and sank my fangs into his arm, although it was a dry bite, so it did not release any venom. He dropped the gun in surprise and let out a sound of pain.
“I’ll be back someday,” he hissed, looking at me as I stood in front of Lilly. He turned and fled from the property, gripping the bloodied arm I bit.
I turned around because I noticed Lilly was still crying. I slithered into her crib, lining the walls with my body. I wrapped my tail around Lilly loosely and squeezed a tiny amount, to give her my equivalent of a hug. She stopped crying and stared at me. Then she smiled and began to laugh. I was surprised. She wasn’t… scared of me?
I felt compelled to protect her as long as I needed to, which would have been until some sort of authority came to evaluate the murder. I wrapped more of my tail around Lilly and she giggled.
For the next few hours, I continued to play with Lilly. Then, out of the blue, I heard police sirens. My head shot up. It’s about time, I thought.
I moved my head closer to Lilly’s and flickered my tongue on her nose to let her know that it was okay. She giggled and I slipped out the crib. I slid under and curled myself into the smallest ball I could. The police men and women burst into the room, which caused Lilly to start crying again. I slid a tiny bit of my tail up behind the back of the crib to assure her it was still alright and she stopped crying. I hid my tail again as the police officers walked over to the crib, seeing Mike and Lucy’s corpses near the crib. One officer knelt down and inspected Mike’s body.
“Gunshots,” she said. Another officer nodded. There were five officers. Two for each body and one to tend to Lilly. A kind, dark-skinned woman approached the crib. I slid back so I could see without being seen and watched her carefully pick up Lilly and begin to bounce her. Lilly giggled and the officer smiled back.
“Hi there, sweet girl. My name is Janine. What’s yours?” Janine asked. She looked at Lilly’s clothes, just in case it was engraved somewhere. Sure enough, Lucy had sewn Lilly’s name into the tag on her pajamas. “Lilly, huh? What a sweet name for such a sweet girl…”
Janine glanced back at the other officers and spoke. “Anything?”
One of the men spoke up. “I found a phone on the mother. There’s no passcode, and I’m going through the contacts and she doesn’t have any family other than her mother. Do you want me to phone her?”
Janine nodded. “Yeah, do that. I’ve got their daughter calm, so let her know that something happened and have her come over.”
The officer nodded and dialed the number. As he spoke, Janine focused her attention back to Lilly. “How weren’t you killed? Or kidnapped for that matter?” she mumbled, not exactly expecting a response from the six month old. Lilly just stared up at her with her big blue eyes.
Janine sighed as the other officer, Officer Jones, hung up. “The mother is on her way,” he said.
Janine nodded. “Thanks. Now start gathering the evidence while I take Lilly-pad here to the living room to help her calm down.” She said this because little Lilly had began to fuss again.
Janine maneuvered her way across the room but stopped before she could reach the door because Lilly had begun to cry loudly. She cringed and turned around. Lilly was motioning towards me, as if trying to say ‘Come here, I want you.’ Janine looked at her.
“Is there a toy you want to take? Alright, let’s go see.” Janine proceeded across the room back to the crib, but when she looked inside it, she didn’t see any toys or stuffed animals. She sighed. “I don’t see anything Lillipop. Did it fall out?”
Janine squatted down and set Lilly on the floor. She bent down and looked under the crib only to find… me. Janine screamed and shot up.
Officer Jones came over to her. “Something wrong?”
Janine pointed under the crib while shaking. “Snake!” she shouted. Lilly just giggled and crawled under the crib. I pushed her back out. She looked confused and tried crawling under again. I pushed her out again and she grabbed my tail, pulling part of me out with her.
The officers watched in confusion and horror as Lilly tried to pull all of me out. I slid out just so she would stop. I stopped worrying about the officers and wrapped the end of my tail around Lilly’s waist so I could give her another snug (snake hug). She giggled and held the tip of my tail in her tiny, chubby hand. Janine regained her composure.
“I guess this is what Lilly Bud was looking for, huh?” She directed the question more at Lilly than the officers.
“Well, I’m going to take Lilly, and…” She looked at me, as if expecting me to tell her my name. I moved up close to her ear and whispered, “Finn.” She jumped a little in surprise but then cleared her throat. “I’m going to take Lilly and Finn, as I’ve decided to call him, to the living room. Keep investigating.”
The officers nodded and returned to work. Janine lifted Lilly up and I followed closely behind as we went to the living room.
Janine sat down and placed Lilly on her lap. I slithered up the couch and coiled up next to Janine’s thigh. Janine began to speak to Lilly.
“Hey, Little Flower. Do you know your nana? She’s coming here soon and you’re going to with her for a while. Well, forever. Your mama and papa have… gone to sleep, and won’t be waking up.”
Lilly couldn’t understand, but I was grateful for the calm voice Janine was using. It was keeping her calm. Suddenly, a woman burst through the front door and saw Janine. She rushed over.
“Officer, I received a call from my daughter’s phone, but it wasn’t her. Did something happen?” The woman, who I had learned was Lucy’s mother, asked in a panicky voice. She glanced down by Janine and saw me.
That’s when the afternoon escalated.
The woman screamed, causing the other four officers to run into the room. They sighed in relief when they saw that no one was hurt. Janine stood up and placed Lilly by me. The woman ran over and snatched up her granddaughter.
“What on earth do you think you’re doing?! Leaving my granddaughter next to some… some… monster?!” She exclaimed.
Ouch old lady. That was a hit below the belt.
Janine sighed. “No need to worry, Miss…?”
“Janice. Janice Small. You can call me Jan.”
“No need to worry, Jan. This is a domesticated Burmese python. He is a part of the police force. He can track incredibly, so we use him instead of a dog. Nothing to fear,” Janine explained. Although, it was a slight fib. Okay, a big fib, but as long as Jan trusted me.
Jan nodded and set Lilly down beside me, obviously still skeptical. She remembered why she had come. “My daughter, Lucy, did something-”
She was cut off by Janine. “Yes, something happened.” She turned to her fellow officers. “Jones, Smith, come with me. Sanchez, Biggs, you stay with Finn and Lilly.:”
The officers that I presumed were Sanchez and Biggs moved to the couch. Sanchez was a tall lean man with blue spiky hair and Biggs was a heavier set dark skinned woman with fluffy black hair. Biggs picked up Lilly and placed her on her knee while Sanchez sat on the other side of me.
Biggs began to speak to Lilly as Janine led Jones, Smith, and Jan to the bedroom. “Hey there, sweet flower. My name is Carla. And Jesus Christ is our savior. “
Sanchez groaned. “Jesus, Carla. You don’t need to talk about him all the damn time. Not everyone believes in a god, or even follows a religion.”
Carla rolled her eyes. “Whatever, sugar. This child will learn of His miracles and will believe.” She giggled and tickled Lilly.
Sanchez scoffed. “I wouldn’t believe in a god if he came down to Earth and slapped me with his dick.”
Carla gasped. “NOT IN Front of the baby, Rick!”
Rick chuckled and I moved to Carla’s lap so I could be with Lilly. From the other room, I heard Jan’s cries. She knew now. There was no going back.
LIlly looked down at me. “N-nana?” she squeaked out.
My heart was starting to break. This poor girl. I wrapped my neck and head around her to give her another snug. She laid her tiny, chubby baby hand on my head and I knew right then my purpose: to protect her at all costs.
I felt as if Lilly was my… not child, but someone I needed to protect. Jan came out of the room with tears streaming down her face. She ran over to Lilly and I slid off her so Jan could pick her up. She hugged Lilly close.
“My last bit of family…” she mumbled.
I moved back so Jan could be alone with her last living family member.
Janine walked over to me and motioned me to the corner. She sat down and gestured for me to go in her lap. I did so and she spoke. “How were you able to speak to me?” she asked quietly.
I looked her in the eyes. “I’m not actually a snake. And before you laugh at me, let me explain. I was once a teenager, but I took advantage of a woman’s love for me and she cursed me to be a snake. I will stay like this, not aging, until I can get a girl to tell me she loves me. And she has to mean it.”
Janine nodded. “I see. So, you’re technically human?”
I nodded back. “Yes,” I replied.
“That means you are not a family pet. So tell me, Finn, what were you doing here?”
I looked down and closed my eyes. “I was cursed three days ago, and when I realized what had happened to me I decided I was going to feel hatred for humans and start scaring them. The Smalls were going to be my first victims.”
“But then they fell victim to a murderer. Okay, I’ve got that cleared up but I have another question for you.”
“Yes?”
“If you had just showed up to spook the Smalls when the shooting occurred, why is Lilly so attached to you?”
I took a deep breath and looked back up at Janine: “I saw the murderer shoot Lucy and Mike, they both died on impact. Lilly was crying in agony, most likely due to the severely loud noises. The man who killed Lilly’s parents, he was going to kill her too…”
“Why didn’t he?” Janine looked down at me and smiled as if she already knew the answer.
I did my best to give my equivalent of a smile back to her. “I changed my mind about hating humans. Very last second decision, but I bit his arm and he dropped the gun and took off.” I chuckled. “He’ll have a scar from that one. Anyways I began to comfort and play with Lilly until you guys arrived, so that might be why she’s so fond of me…”
“That was a really brave thing you did FInn, he could’ve killed you.”
“I- I don’t think he would have…”
Janine looked at me funny. “What makes you say that?”
I looked away from her. “The murderer knew who I really was.” I took another deep sigh before I confessed. “I’m his son.”
Janine stared at me. “Are you positive?”
I nodded. “Of course I’m sure. He may be an asshole but I can recognize my… father,” I say the word with disgust, “anywhere. He told me after I bit him that he would be back someday, to finish what he started…” I glanced over at Jan and Lilly.
Janine put her hand on my head. “Finn, I think you should leave the force”. She winked at me. “But seriously, let us handle finding your father. I think you have someone else to take care of.” She gestured to Lilly.
Jan looked between Janine and I as she spoke to me. Then she spoke. “Finn, do you want to come live with me and Lilly?”
I nodded. I needed to be there for her and Lilly, especially Lilly. Jan smiled at me and I tried my hardest to smile back. She laughed, which cracked a smile on Lilly.
Lilly made the grabbing motion towards me and I lifted my head and the front part of my body so I could reach her. She placed her tiny chubby hand on my head and stroked it delicately.
I gave her another snug with my head and neck and pulled away.
Jan looked at Janine. “I’ll be back later to get Lilly’s things. But she has to eat, and I have some spare clothes at my house.”
Janine nodded. “Of course. We’ll make sure no one touches her belongings.”
Jan smiled. “Thank you.” Jan gave Lilly a kiss on the forehead and then turned towards me.
“Come on, Finn. Let’s go home.”