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I turn around, and Emily has one of the yellow oars raised in her hand, her eyes are enormous, and she’s watching the shoreline a few feet away.
My eyes dart to where she’s looking, “Is that…”
“I think it’s an Eastern Diamondback, maybe.”
I reach slowly for her and pull her away, the snake moving over mangrove roots and watching us. Its tail is rattling, and its forked tongue is visible from how close we are.
“Get in the boat, Em,” I whisper, because I don’t know if you’re supposed to be quiet around snakes or make noise, like bears, but quiet seems appropriate.
Emily moves to the side of the kayak, and I put myself between her and the snake, its beady little eyes never leaving us. Emily tries to lift herself in the kayak, but it just wobbles and thrashes from her efforts.
“Stop, stop, stop,” I put a hand on her. Every time the kayak rocks, the snake gets agitated and bobs its head around, tracking the movement, inching closer to us.
“You get in and pull me up,” she breathes, the nerves and fear in her voice audible. She’s still wielding the oar like she’s going to bash the snake to death.
“I’m not leaving you in the fucking water.”
Ever so slowly, I move the kayak, so it’s between the snake and me. That only seems to piss it off even more. Maybe these damn things are like bulls, and the bright color is enraging it, fuck if I know. But, at least now, I have a barrier between Emily and the serpent I knew was lying in wait for her since she dove from the goddamn kayak earlier.
“Okay, I’m going to get in and pull you up,” because, as usual, Emily’s advice was the smart choice.
Moving as slowly as I can, I lift my torso onto the kayak. As soon as I start swinging my legs over, the water displacement from the kayak sinking a few inches rushes at the snake. It falls into the water and heads right toward us, its head and tail above water, his body propelling him forward.
Moving faster than I ever have, I throw my legs over the kayak and grab at Emily to haul her up. But she’s screaming and smacking the water with the giant yellow oar like Jaws is after our boat.
Despite her wild attacks, I’m able to wrap my arms around her shoulders and haul her over me, lying flat in the kayak, so we don’t flip the damn thing again.
“Are you in?” I yell in a panic, trying to make sure her legs are on board and aren’t going to get chewed off by this devil creature.
“I’m in, I’m in,” she pants. “Can it still get us?”
Hell if I know, I’m not Steve fucking Irwin. But that snake is going to be a pair of boots long before it reaches Emily.
“Stay still,” I take the oar from her and sit up. Finally, my eyes find the bastard on the other side of the river, making its way back up onto more mangrove roots.
“He’s gone,” I tell her.
She sits up and starts rubbing her thighs, which are red and scuffed up from me dragging her over the side of the kayak in a panic. “Damn it, Em, you could have been hurt attacking it with the oar. What the hell?” I inspect her legs. She’s going to have huge bruises.
“It was coming at us!”
I shake my head and run my palms over the red marks on her legs. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. I didn’t hurt it, did I?”
This girl… death of me, I swear to christ.
I take her face in my hands and give her the kiss she deserves, the sweet one, the one that tells her how amazing she is, how special she is, how good she is.
“I’m supposed to rescue you, you know.”
Those gorgeous brown eyes meet mine, the ones that haunt my dreams and make things in my chest tighten and constrict unnaturally. “You did,” she breathes around my mouth. “You do, every day.”
Four
“When the stars were right, They could plunge from world to world through the sky; but when the stars were wrong, They could not live.” - H.P. Lovecraft - The Call of Cthulhu
Emily
