Kids & Snakes

When I'm not fingering strings for strumming toddlers, I'm writing horror movie scenes with teenagers. Yesterday's writing prompt was suggested by a student, which was to write a short scene for "Snakes on a ... (soemthing other than plane). So we had "Snakes on Cocaine," "Snakes in A Synagogue," etc. My own version (I try to write in class as much as possible) is below and it's set- where else?- in the school dining hall.


Snakes on a Plate

The people preceding me in the lunch line shuffle along slowly. Taylor reaches over to the antibacterial soap dispenser, squirts some into her pale pink palm and rubs it vigorously between her hands. We enter the serving area, and are greeted with the aroma of pasta sauce while a gentle warming steam envelops us. However, when I grab a plate off the countertop, to my horror, I see that it is not spaghetti doused in the maroon marinara sauce, but a squiggly, squirming plate of snakes writhing in a tangled pile. One of them slides off the plate and lands with a splat on the floor. Immediately, it slithers along the tile towards Taylor’s toes, which are unprotected against this ophidian invasion. Stunned, I watch helplessly as the serpent slyly slides up and across the back of her flip-flop, then her heel, along her ankle and winds in between each one of the toes of her left foot. The slimy feeling of the snake on her foot finally registers and when she looks down, Taylor lets out a bloodcurdling scream. Her piercing shriek causes the glass countertop to explode into a thousand shards of glass, which spill across the floor. Taylor gasps and faints dead away, her body hurtling backwards into me. The next thing I know, I’m splayed on my back on the floor with jagged chunks of broken glass stabbing into my spine, puncturing my skin, and the rest of the snakes on the plate begin crawling all over my torso. Some slither inside my shirt, one sticks its spiky tongue in my ear, and when I try to let out a cry, another fills my open mouth, its slimy rubbery body coiling into a pile, then wedging itself in my throat. The last sensation I feel is another serpent lashing out its tongue and stinging my right eyeball. Then…only…darkness…