Chapter 13 #2
Thomas used a key to unlock the window of the gay couple’s tank. It swung open, and the two bound snakes flopped out, spilling onto the floor. Their black tongues flicked out as they headed for Thomas at an alarming speed as he stood there, dangling a fat black rat in their faces.
“Thomas,” Scott said in warning as the snakes’ bodies shifted back and their heads reared, ready to strike.
Thomas grinned, waiting for it.
“I was scared before,” Scott mumbled to himself. “Now I’m terrified.”
“Now you know how I felt, watching you thrash around on the bed earlier.”
The snake launched, snatching the rat from Thomas’s hand.
“One time,” Thomas began. “I tripped on the chair leg, knocked myself out.”
“Well, you did paint the whole room and everything in it the same colour. It’s not the smartest idea.”
Thomas ignored the comment. “I was feeding John at the time.”
Scott looked at John’s tank; its occupant was waiting on his branch. “The huge anaconda?”
Thomas hummed, holding a rat out for the snake that had yet to eat.
“I thought I might wake up inside John’s stomach.” Thomas laughed as if it wasn’t the most terrifying thought in the world. “But he’d just wrapped himself around me, waiting until I regained consciousness.”
“That’s…creepily sweet.”
“Oh, it’s not.” Thomas snorted “The only reason he didn’t eat me was because I’d given him a big breakfast that morning. A roadkill deer. Otherwise…” Gordon or Virgil – because Scott couldn’t tell them apart – snatched the rat from Thomas’s hand. “That would’ve been me gone.”
“I thought you wanted me to like them?”
“It makes no difference to me whether you like them or not,” Thomas replied with a shrug. “I think they’re beautiful.”
He tossed a couple more rats in the snakes’ enclosure, encouraging the two entwined snakes back inside.
Scott stood paralysed against the wall as Thomas fed each of his snakes.
He saved Lucy, the deadliest one, until last, and gestured for Scott to come closer.
Scott inched further into the room, just enough that he could see her through the glass.
She was a clay brown with light-brown diamond shapes on her body. Her eyes were too big for her pointed head, beige with a slim vertical pupil down the middle.
“It’s thought that her type kills the most humans a year.”
“What the hell has she got against us?”
Thomas snorted. “Maybe she’s wise, knows us human are responsible for a lot of the world’s problems. Lucy’s kill count stands at eight.”
“What?”
“Years ago, a man contacted me needing Lucy’s venom to make antivenom. I used to collect it from her, then send it off. I had no idea he was using it as a means to kill people.” Thomas glanced Scott’s way. “I was unwillingly working with an assassin.”
“You’re shitting me.”
Thomas chuckled. “I’m not. They called him The Viper.”
“You’ve…you’ve got antivenom, right?”
Thomas didn’t answer.
“Right?” Scott repeated.
“Right.”
“And she was there the whole time? You know…when I first moved in.”
Thomas made a noncommittal noise.
“Thomas…”
Thomas laughed, glancing in Scott’s direction. “She was there the whole time.”
Scott wasn’t sure he believed him, especially when he saw Thomas wink at Lucy in the reflection of her tank.
Lucy, being much smaller than the other snakes, didn’t need rats or chickens. She sank her fangs into a mouse, coiling around it in her excitement. It left Scott feeling nauseous, and he clutched his rumbling belly.
Thomas closed Lucy’s tank.
“It’s nice, you know…” Scott whispered.
“What is?” Thomas asked.
“Adopting animals that have nowhere else to go.”
Thomas snorted. “Apparently I adopt humans too, although you didn’t look human earlier, with how you were spider-crawling on the bed –”
“Okay, okay.” Scott smiled. “Janice told me you wanted to be a vet once.”
Thomas stiffened. “Janice should keep her mouth shut.” He slumped. “Yes, a long time ago, but life turned out differently. I doubt you dreamed of blowing men down back alleys for twenty pounds a time.”
“No,” Scott admitted. “Fifty, more like.”
Thomas screwed up his face.
“I didn’t put much thought into what I wanted to be if I’m honest.” Scott lowered his gaze. “This kind of just happened.”
“How can it just ‘happen’?” Thomas sneered.
“A guy offered me money to perform oral on him –”
“And you said yes to some stranger?”
Scott swallowed. “It wasn’t a stranger. It was my teacher.”
Thomas recoiled, and stared unblinking at Scott.
“Look, he knew my family were struggling financially, and he offered to help us out –”
“He wasn’t helping you out. The sick bastard was helping himself.”
Scott closed his eyes. “Either way, it doesn’t matter now. He’s dead, and I sleep with men as my profession. Although I’ve taken a slight detour…”
Thomas hummed. “I’ll spend tomorrow fixing that video up to post.”
“And what will I do?”
“I’ve got a job for you…”
“What kind of job?”
Thomas looked him up and down. “How good are your lungs?”
“What kind of question is that?
“I thought a simple one, but obviously I was wrong.”
Scott raised an eyebrow. “My lungs are fine, thanks; they’re working right now.”
“Well, you’ll need them tomorrow.”
“I need them every day, Thomas, if not, I’d be dead.”
Thomas turned to Lucy. “He’s a smart arse, isn’t he? Makes me want to spank him silly.”
“Thomas?” Scott sighed.
“It’s another request.” Thomas’s smirk could be seen in the reflection. “And it sounds like a fun one.”
Scott frowned. “If you think it’s fun, then that’s a worry.”
“Balloons,” Thomas said bluntly. “One of your subscribers will pay you ￡2000 if you burst a hundred balloons by sitting on them…”
“Wow.”
Thomas nodded. “You in?”
“I’m in.”