A stranger short story: Reptile Break-in. The welcomed end of a family

For the most part it had been a quiet night as usual in James’s house in Indiana located on the side of a low traffic woodsy road. Other houses were situated on it as well, but it would take a couple minutes of driving to come across another one, leaving James’s house to feel lonely. He was never the sociable type and spent his nights staring up at the ceiling of his bedroom, other times crying in his closet to surround himself with darkness. For him, even just having to look at things made him depressed seeing as he was stuck in this miserable life.

For the past couple hours a man in his mid 50s had been on and off banging on the few different doors located about the house; the front, side, and back. While James did possess a certain level of fear from this it didn’t necessarily make him feel any anxiety. A few times throughout the disturbance James had moved from the walls that he sat against curled up in a ball to another one due to the stranger banging on the door which was nearest to them. Eventually, he hid in his bedroom closet, which didn’t necessarily feel much different to how he spent most of his other nights.

His mother had spent the entire time past out in her bedroom from drinking. Occasionally she would react to the banging by shouting some type of garble telling James to keep the noise down even though his quiet personality never really made much noise aside from soft whimpers, all of which goes to show how much alcohol impaired her judgement preventing her from being able to tell what was really going on that night.

It was reactions like this from his mother that made him feel like his life had been falling into deeper levels of danger, not having anything near to him to provide security for his already bad enough depression and in this new case, physical safety.

The night had become an unconventional experience for a supposed break-in due to James not completely minding the stranger, and if anything he was growing to appreciate his presence since it certainly made this night much less mundane compared to usual. As time went on he wondered about what his intentions actually were. He probably could’ve broken in by now if he wanted to that bad. There were plenty of large tree branches on the ground anywhere outside that he could’ve smashed the windows in with.

The stranger then at one point banged on the back door rapidly. By the sound of it, it was clear he was doing it as fast as he could. Almost a minute later and he shouted out, “Come on! Let me in!” It suddenly hit James that was the first time he uttered a word instead of only banging. He had said it with more of an enthusiastic tone rather than with aggression. Like how one energetic kid on the playground would call for the other to throw the football to him.

James had now become used to the man and with the thought of knowing that he might still kill him to end his suffrage of depression, gave him enough will to answer the back door. He opened it up and in barged the man pushing a cart with a large cage on it. He wheeled it into the living room, left it in a position where there was enough space, looked around and then finally noticed James standing by the door.

“Oh there you’re!” he said excitedly. “I’m so happy you agreed to play. Another few minutes and I would’ve just left to allow you to enjoy the rest of your night. But don’t worry, tonight will certainly be lots more fun. Now the way it works is that if you’re the only person here then you’re forced to play. If there is somebody else then I would like to meet them.”

“My mother is passed out on her bed and wouldn’t be able to walk into this room. But yeah, she is here. In that room.” he pointed to the door.

“No problem.” The stranger marched to his mother’s room, kicked the door open, grabbed her by the feet without even bothering nor caring to get a better glance of what she looked like, and dragged her off the bed. Her back hit the ground with a strong plop and she let out a gasp as her eyes rolled about in circles.

“What the hell are you doing!” Shouted James whom had been infuriated to see what happened. He charged at the man ready to throw a punch, the stranger then elbowing him, James getting knocked back against the wall, then sliding down to the floor being far too dizzy to stand back up. With wavy vision he watched as his mother was dragged into the middle of the living room placed before the cage. The man opened the gate and removed the curtain.

A few minutes went by with the man sitting on the sofa, bent over with his elbows on top his legs and his hands holding up his face as he waited in anticipation for whatever was to come out to do its bidding. This part seemed like the meat and potatoes for him. The feeling of excitement and intent piling up in him as he waited for the finale. All of this explained why he rushed every other step beforehand once he was let inside the house—just to get to this part as soon as possible. Yet him not ever actually forcing his way into the house was his way of looking at it as being consensual, at least enough.

James was finally able regain his senses. He stood up intent on helping his mother, took a few stumbles forward as his eyes spun about the room a last couple times, and saw what was a 15 foot long python slither out of the cage. He stopped dead in his tracks. Frozen in fear and confusion he watched it wrap around his mother. The thought of this situation even happening hit him with another dose of hopelessness causing him to fall to his knees and watch the event unfold. He gave into what he felt would not only be submission for his mother but also for him next.

She looked at James with googly eyes, but less googly than before. This event seeming to ease her in soberness. “James.” she gasped, the snake then squeezing her harder. “Please, help me.” The snake squeezed tighter with every word and breath she tried to utter. “Please. Why won’t you help…” The snake was now reaching its maximum constricting strength. “Your mother.” The snake continued on and her eyes completely rolled to the back of her head, signaling that her heart almost certainly stopped beating.

The snake proceeded to engulf her entire body into its expanded mouth. The stranger walked over to James and hysterically laughed in his face. His facial muscles were tensed to the brim and his color went from almost red to purple from his own uncontrollable laughing that was nearly suffocating himself. He rolled the full-bellied python into the cage and proceeded to head near the back door.

James got up, “Wait! You can’t leave. I want to die too.”

“Well what do you want me to do for you? Its not like there is enough room for you left in the python.”

“I’m not just going to let you leave like this! You owe me a death!” He marched toward the stranger and was about to grab his shoulder when he then elbowed him again this time knocking him unconscious. The man exited the door leaving James’s fate uncertain. He lost both his mother and an easy chance to die. How much more depressing was his life going to become after this.