Mr. Slithers

  Carter cursed as his keys fell out of his hand and smacked the tile. His hands were full, he was exhausted, and in desperate need of a shower. A planned two-week vacation to Thailand had somehow morphed into five weeks of zipping around South Asia in a rickety jeep with an enchanting woman named Buppha. He never would’ve left, but someone had stolen his identity back in his home area in upstate New York and run up crazy charges on his credit cards. He planned to get that all sorted, sell his belongings, and then rejoin Buppha in Ho Chi Minh City so they could resume their wild adventures. 

  Careful not to drop anything, he knelt and collected his keys, then stood and unlocked the door. As he swung it open, a wave of foulness washed over him. Carter recoiled, his nose crinkling as he gagged on the smell. Something had gone rotten. Steeling himself, he stepped into the apartment and flicked the light switch. 

  Nothing happened. 

  Frowning, he turned the switch off and on again, but that fixed nothing. Frustration overcoming him, Carter let all of the items he was carrying fall, no longer caring about making a mess. He pulled his cell phone out and turned on the flashlight. His eyes went wide as it illuminated the apartment. 

  “What the…” 

  Stepping in further and raising the light, Carter’s mouth dropped open. His apartment had been ransacked. The floor was covered in trash and broken glass, the fridge was on its side, and it appeared that anything that could be broken had been broken. 

  “You’ve got to be kidding me,” Carter muttered as he made his way further into the apartment. 

  All the cabinets were open, many of the doors ripped off, and the stuff that had once been in them was strewn throughout the place. His eyes fell on the terrarium on the counter that used to hold his pet snake, Mr. Slithers. A pang of guilt passed through him as he realized he hadn’t left any food for the snake. The terrarium was busted open, and Carter hoped Mr. Slithers had gotten out and found something to eat instead of starving to death somewhere in the apartment. 

  “Forget ssssssssomething?” 
  
  Carter jumped into the air, shocked as a strange voice spoke from across the room. When his feet touched down, he started to back away, running straight into a wall. His phone fell from his hand and clattered to the floor. His brain cried out at him to run, but he couldn’t make his body obey. Instead, he clamped his eyes shut and started to whimper. 

  “Open your eyessssssssss.” 

  It was clear that the voice wasn’t asking, it was demanding. Body trembling, Carter forced himself to open his eyes. He stared across the darkened living room. In the far corner, he saw a shape too cloaked in shadows to identify. But there was no missing the eyes staring at him. Big, yellow orbs, streaked and ringed with red. 

  “Take anything you want. Just please don’t hurt me,” Carter whimpered.

  “You left me to ssssssssstarve.” 

  Carter’s mind raced to try to make sense of what the voice was saying. He leaned forward and squinted, trying to make out more details of who or what was in his apartment. The way the shape was coiled made him think of a snake, but the size of it was too large, and the eyes were too human. Still, he couldn’t shake the feeling of dreadful realization spreading through his mind like a virus. Carter knelt and scooped his cell phone off the floor, then stood and shined the light across the room. He screamed and backed into the wall once more, pressing himself against it. 

  “Mr. Slithers?” 

  His pet snake was not as he remembered it. It was five times larger now, even coiled, it was five feet in height. But the most shocking transformation was its head. It looked more human than serpent. 

  “You alwayssssssss told me, adapt or die,” Mr. Slithers said. 

  Carter shook his head. 

  “No, this isn’t possible. It’s not…” 

  His voice trailed off, and his head snapped over to stare at the refrigerator. The samples from the lab. He brought them home just before his trip. 

  “You ate them,” Carter muttered.

  His mind immediately began bursting with possibilities of what might happen if any creature ingested those samples. They were highly unstable, the science behind them on the bleeding edge of genetic science. That’s why he’d hidden them at home instead of risking someone finding them at the lab. 

  “I ate everything,” Mr. Slithers said. 

  The snake-man started to uncoil and slither across the room. Carter’s lip quivered as he watched it. It had grown so much larger than what should’ve been possible.  

  “Even sssssssssstill, I almosssssst died,” Mr. Slithers said. “Until I found your laptop.” 

  The terrifying creature slithered up and over the couch, its haunting eyes locked on Carter as it approached. Its massive, forked tongue shot forth threateningly. 

  “Your textssssss, emailssssss, bank accountssssssss. I have accesssssssss to it all, now,” Mr. Slithers said. 

  More realization struck Carter. The person whom he’d thought had stolen his identity had racked up hundreds of charges for deliveries of food. 

  Watching as the snake-man slithered ever closer, Carter knew one thing. He had to leave. Now. He turned and sprinted for the door. Trying to ignore the hissing behind him, he ran as fast as he could. But something coiled around his feet, tripping him. He hit the floor hard, momentarily stunning himself. He felt something heavy on top of him as Mr. Slithers slid onto his back. As more and more of the massive snake came to rest on him, Carter was pinned to the floor. Mr. Slithers’ face wriggled into view. 

  “You have a choice now, Carter. Are you my new pet, or my next meal?” Mr. Slithers asked. 

  A sinister smile spread across the snake's face. 

  “Choicesssss, choicesssss. Adapt? Or die?”