The thickest snake, which was probably the king snake, was so shiny that he looked borderline slimy. He gave a good stare to Asia before pouncing at her, maybe to assess the force required to crush her soul. Asia, on the other hand, was petrified. She was drowning in the ice bucket of shock. She couldn't move. She couldn't think. She was, all in all, ready to be king snake's dinner.
King jumped at her gracefully but unfortunately, Asia was not as graceful so she fell down to the ground with a thud. The snake was probably 100kgs. The heavy snake made sure that she couldn't breathe. As her head was smacked to the ground a ghastly shriek her mouth left her.
She screamed and screamed till her throat bled. Meanwhile, the king continued crushing her slowly but surely. He started gripping her from the hip bones and proceed both ways, much to her horror he had two faces. Something that Asia hadn't even noticed first. First, she could only feel the heaviness and uncomfortable harsh grip but now that uncomfortable gripping had turned into the murderous throat constricting bone-breaking strength. She heard her hip crack before she felt the pain.
That pain was the most painful thing she had ever felt. Even worse than that one time when she got hit by a car at the age of 6.
One fine evening as she was running across the road, from her house to the park in front of her house, to play with Maria and Sara. It was a red Toyota Corolla that had hit her. It had hit her in her shoulder girdle and she fell to the ground resultantly her scapula fractured at the spot. Fortunately, being young helped her healing the bone as strong as new. But it was her second most painful experience. The cracking of her hips along with her ribs undoubtedly stood first.
She was screaming but not to call anybody, instead to maintain a connection with her humanity. She was trapped in another dimension, she was among the dead and in between, where all her human senses had lost their credibility and strength. She wasn't moving not only because that was out of the question considering the strength of the snake, but also because she was paralyzed. Her soul was alive but her body was a dead rock that was screeching as it was being crushed.
Finally, after both her floating ribs were crushed and the blood from her throat had made her screams sound like gargles and wet coughs, Mama and Ali decided to show up. Ali was wearing a royal blue dress shirt and tie with his night trousers whereas was Mama was still in her pj's.
"You slipped?" said Ali.
"Can you get up," Mama tried to help Asia sit up,"Here, take my hand."
"What happened? How did you fall?
"You can't get up? look at me."
Mama looked around the dry bathroom floor.
Asia couldn't speak or move.
The snakes were still there just invisible to Mama and Ali
Mama was trying to lift Asia but she couldn't move her. The snake didn't leave Asia even after seeing Mama and Ali they were shameless and unafraid of the human existence.
Ali and Mama, both tried to lift Asia who was, by the way, was still screaming which was coming out as gargles.
"Let me call Rani. The three of us can pick her up. She feels inhumanely heavy." Mama left a troubled sigh
"Try a bit, Asia. Put a little effort," said Ali.
"She is not giving any expression," said Mama as she tried to lift Asia one last time before going to fetch Rani.
"I guess there is no other way except getting another helping hand."
When Rani came into the washroom she screamed ferociously and fell to the ground with her hand on her mouth and her eyes open wide. "What happened?," Said mama, "Did you slip too? What is everybody slipping? The floor is dry as the Sahara in here but everybody seems to slipping down like a log in here."
"SSss...snakes...snakes.."
"Snakes? Where?" said mama scarily looking around herself.
"Don't touch Asia. Stay away. There are snakes of Tabasha on her. These are the fierce two-headed snakes. They are not visible to those they don't want to attack. Only I can see them because I can see the in-between. Stay away"
"What are you talking about? She probably slipped and fell .
"No. There are snakes. I have the amulet. Stay away."
She untied the black amulet off her and put it on Asia's torso. The snakes hissed like they were torched and slithered back to the commode where they live and come from.
Asia felt broken but alive now that she was back in the human world physically and mentally. However, she still couldn't get up because the pain of her broken bones became more tangible and human.
Ali called the ambulance and the rescue team managed to get her on the stretcher and then took her to the hospital. They told the doctors that she fell on the bathroom floor because they didn't believe snake of Tabasha were even a real thing. And also doctors belive in science and logic. Snakes that live in the toilet and attack when they want to doesn't seem very logical so to say. The doctors were stunned that she had just fallen on the bathroom floor because the multiple fracture and heavy internal bleeding was something seen in road accidents, specifically the ones in which the car runs over the patient.
"I miss Dad. I wish we could contact him. But he is in a no-signal zone, which in our time and age is simply unheard of. Why build a housing society where there are not even simple network signals. Who would want to live there?" Ali sighed.
"He is going to get some networking companies on board. These networking and other lack of basic facilities are what have rendered the land dirt cheap. We wouldn't have been able to afford it otherwise." Mama whisper yelled.