Fangs of snakes and small girls

The fields around the village were full of venomous snakes. Every farmer’s field, every wild meadow, every tuft of tall grass held the danger of a bite from a scaled monster. For every snake killed, two more appeared the next day.

The villagers were well aware of this, and after several hundred years of living here, it didn’t bother them anymore. Their village was cursed, yes, but they were blessed in turn with good crops and safety, so they simply made their boots thicker and went about their day, year after year.

Everyone, even the smallest children, knew you didn’t go barefoot outside. It was a lesson drilled into them from the time they could walk.

And yet, a pair of tiny boots lay discarded in a patch of grass as their owner stretched her feet into the air, feeling the warmth on her soles in a way that she’d never felt it before.

“Tianna, be careful,” her sister warned, scanning the grass around them nervously. She herself had her boots on, even though she was in much less danger if she were to be bitten.

“Maaaaaaaaare,” Tianna whined. “There are no snakes anywhere around here. You’d hear them if there was.”

Meredith shifted uncomfortably and kept looking. “Snake hearts are hard to hear. Dad’s going to be really mad if he finds us out here- can you just put your boots on already?”

“I’m not going to tell Dad.” Tianna lazily waved her feet in the air, shading her eyes as she stared up at the sky. “Are you?”

“Well, no-”

“Then don’t worry about it. Dad’s not going to find out, and everything’s going to be fine,” Tianna declared with all the confidence of a six-year-old who’s never had anything bad happen to her in her life. “If a snake comes along, I’ll just run away from it. I’m really fast, want to see?”

“Only if you put your boots on first.”

Tianna rolled her eyes and sat up. “You’re so boring.”

“And you’re going to be so dead if you don’t-”

Tianna cut her off by getting to her feet and taking off running. “Can’t catch me, Mare!”

“Tianna!” Meredith shouted. She paused only to pick up her sister’s shoes, then took off after her, catching up almost instantly. She could smell the traces of blood left on the grass by her sister’s soft feet, cut by the harsh plants as she recklessly raced across them. “Tianna, stop! You’re getting hurt!” She grabbed her sister’s arm and brought them both to a halt.

“You’re hurting me!” Tianna protested, pushing Meredith away. “You grab too tightly!” She folded her arms and glared up at her sister. “Why won’t you let me have any fun?”

“I’m just trying to keep you safe,” Meredith replied, forcing herself to sound calm. If Tianna threw a temper tantrum out here and raced back home to tell their parents that Meredith had hurt her, Meredith was looking at another few days locked in her room. “Please, Tianna-”

“No!” Tianna took a step backwards. “Why do you have to be so mean about stuff like this?”

“Tianna-”

“Go away!”

Meredith suppressed a sigh at Tianna’s attitude. There was no reasoning with her when she was like this. “Fine. Go die to a snake, then.” She tossed Tianna’s boots down at her feet. Tianna grinned victoriously and took off running again, her golden hair streaming out behind her as she danced across the dry meadow. Meredith hesitated, then picked up the shoes again and followed her, more slowly. If she abandoned Tianna out here, their parents wouldn’t be pleased.

The sun was much too hot, even with clouds drifting across the burning golden orb in the sky. Her human half liked it, but her - much stronger - vampiric side withered and shrieked at the light burning her pale skin and sensitive eyes. She shaded her eyes with one hand, wishing she’d remembered to grab her hat before Tianna had dragged her out here during the middle of the day.

She glanced to the side for a moment, scanning the horizon and hoping for a tree she could rest under for a moment, and that’s when Tianna screamed.

Meredith whipped back to watch her little sister topple over and disappear into a patch of tall grass, but her screams didn’t stop once she was out of sight.

“Tianna!” Meredith shrieked, and she took off running toward the place where she’d disappeared. As she threw herself to her knees beside Tianna, who was writhing and screaming in the grass, she saw it; the grey-ish coil of scales, black mouth open and hissing as it prepared to bite Tianna’s exposed ankle again.

Without hesitation, she reached out, her impossibly fast reflexes letting her catch the snake’s head right as it lunged at her sister. She crushed it in one hand and tossed the body aside, then returned her attention to Tianna.

“It hu-u-urts!” Tianna wailed. “Meredith, make it stop hurting!” Meredith caught her flailing legs and held her down.

“Stop moving!” she snapped. “It’ll make the venom spread faster.” Her mind was racing, trying to classify the type of snake it had been and how long she’d have before Tianna was dead.

She was so small. Much too small. She heard her parents worrying about it all the time, how small Tianna was, and she knew that Tianna would be much more susceptible to the venom, and oh gods, her little sister was dying right in front of her and she didn’t know what to do.

She yanked Tianna’s pant leg up to try and see the progression of the venom. If she was right - this was a black mamba bite - her veins should be blackening as it crept closer to her heart.

Tianna’s legs were criss-crossed with a web of black lines halfway up her calf.

“Meredith!” Tianna screamed again, her breath coming in short gasps as tears streamed down her face. “Meredith, help me!”

“I don’t know what to do!” Meredith cried- which was a mistake, as Tianna just started screaming louder and trying to pull away from Meredith’s firm grip on her legs.

Oh gods, the venom was spreading so fast, too fast.

She had to get it out. That was the only thing she could think of.

“Do you trust me?” she asked Tianna, who nodded vigorously, hysterical sobs racking her tiny body.

Without another moment of hesitation or any more thought, Meredith leaned forward and sank her fangs into Tianna’s leg. For a moment, all she tasted was the salty-sweetness of Tianna’s blood, then the burn of venom hit her tongue, and she almost gagged and recoiled from the taste.

Tianna. Do it for Tianna.

Her sister’s screams became quieter as the snake venom in her blood was replaced by Meredith’s own, numbing and paralyzing until Tianna stopped squirming in pain and simply lay there sobbing- although even that was getting weak.

Once she could no longer taste venom, Meredith carefully unhooked her fangs and examined her sister’s now-pale skin, free of black lines, then pulled her into her lap to study her face.

Please, don’t let me have been too late.

The little girl was breathing, barely, and her pulse was weak and erratic, but it was there, and Meredith exhaled slowly.

“Meredith!”

She whipped around to meet her father’s horrified face, and she suddenly realized that she was in a field in the middle of nowhere with blood dripping from her mouth and her unconscious sister in her lap.

“Dad,” she pleaded, “I can- I can explain!”

“What have you done?!” he shouted, storming through the tall grass toward her. Behind him, a few other men from the village followed, eyes cold and angry as they took in the scene.

“There was a snake!” she cried. “There was a snake and it bit Tianna and I had to get the venom out! I was saving her!”

“Likely story,” her father spat. He snatched Tianna up, holding her protectively away from Meredith. “Demon.”

“No! I was trying to help, I’d never- not her- I wouldn’t, not her!”

“I told you this would happen,” one of the other men muttered to her father. “You let a monster like this into your home; sooner or later this was bound to happen.”

“I’m not a monster!” Meredith protested. Terrified tears were streaking down her cheeks now as her gaze flicked around the angry men. "Look, I can prove it! I can prove there was a snake!"

She got to her feet in one quick, smooth movement, and started forward, intending simply to pick up the dead snake by her father's feet. With shouts of fear and anger, the gathered men stepped back, stumbling away from her, all of them trying to hide the fear in their eyes that sparked as they watched the little girl with blood dripping from her mouth try to protest what she was.

Meredith stopped moving, trying to reassure everyone that she wasn't going to hurt them. "Dad," she begged. "Daddy, you have to believe me. There's a snake, right there by your feet- it bit Tianna and I killed it."

"There's nothing there, you little liar," her father growled. He glanced over her shoulder at one of the other men and gestured to her with his chin. "Tie it up. Careful of the teeth."

"Daddy!" she screamed as he walked away. "Daddy, I didn't do it! I was helping! I'm not a monster! Dad-"

She was cut off by a sweaty bandana shoved into her mouth, choking her with disgusting fabric. She shook her head, trying to get free, but she was quickly surrounded and held still by her father's friends. One of the men produced a rope from somewhere and she was promptly tied up and dragged off after her father.

It wasn't until after dark that she heard her parents arguing about her. Even through the reinforced door of her room where she’d been unceremoniously tossed - it was the only ‘safe’ place to put her; it was practically a prison already - and left to cry, she could hear her father’s raised voice and her mother’s softer, tired one. She could picture the scene in her mind; her father pacing the kitchen, one end to the next, waving his hands for emphasis as her mother sat and watched him, exhaustion in her too-bright blue eyes.

“This is your fault,” her father seethed. “If your good-for-nothing sister hadn’t gotten herself knocked up by a demon and left her spawn on our doorstep, Tianna wouldn’t be on the brink of death right now.”

“Quirian, please,” her mother soothed. “Rhyas didn’t have anywhere else to go, and she needed someone to take care of her child. Meredith’s never done anything like this before, and I don’t think she’s going to do it again.”

“Oh, yes, I’ve heard her story. She was ‘only trying to help’. I don’t believe a word of it.”

“She’s not the monster you think she is.”

“Then why did I find her crouched over our daughter, blood dripping from her fangs and bite marks in Tianna’s leg? Who knows how long she’s been planning this?”

“She’s not the monster you think she is,” her mother repeated, more forcefully. “She needs the blood, yes, but she’s perfectly content with the small animals she hunts down herself. She’s always been so gentle with Tianna- I can’t believe she’d plan something like this out.”

“Her vampiric side is too strong,” her father continued, almost as if he hadn’t heard her. “I told you when we first took her in that it was a bad idea, that we’d find ourselves drained in our sleep one night, but you insisted that her human side would keep her from anything… disgusting. Even when she refused food and went after rats and rabbits, you insisted her human side was strong enough to keep her from doing anything. And now look where that’s got us.”

“She’s a good girl, deep down.”

“She’s a demon, Sharyn, and she’s going to have to go. I won’t have that thing in my house any longer, not if it puts Tianna at risk.”

“Quirian.”

“Come morning, she’s going to have to go,” her father repeated coldly.

Going to have to go.

Meredith’s breath hitched in her throat.

Go. He made it sound like she would just have to leave. Go somewhere else, where she wouldn’t see them again.

Maybe she could. Maybe she could get out. If she could get herself untied, she could break out. She could run far away and never hurt anyone again.

She began struggling against the rope binding her wrists, the pathetic fibers unable to hold up against her unnatural strength. Once it lay in tatters on the floor, she dug the gag out of her mouth and crossed the room to inspect the door.

“... Mom…?”

Meredith froze as her sister’s weak voice drifted through the door.

“Tianna!” her mother exclaimed. “You shouldn’t be up, sweetheart, you’ve lost a lot of blood-”

“Where’s Meredith?”

“She’s somewhere she won’t hurt you again,” her father soothed her. “Don’t worry.”

“... hurt me… no, no!” Tianna’s voice sounded shaky, and Meredith wanted to cry. She’d done that to her sister. “She saved me, dad!”

“She did?” her mother prompted.

“Y-yeah,” Tianna mumbled, and Meredith pressed her ear to the door to hear more. “I was out in the field, and I wanted to take my shoes off for a moment- I wanted to see what it would feel like.”

“You know you’re not supposed to do that,” her mother scolded anxiously. “Tianna, I’ve told you over and over again-”

“I know, but I wanted to see. And so I did. And Meredith tried to tell me not to, but I didn’t listen, and I ran off and disturbed a snake and it bit me and Meredith got the venom out. She saved me.”

There was a long moment of silence.

“Go get Meredith,” her mother ordered finally. Another moment of silence, then her father’s footsteps approached the door. Meredith shrank back, realizing how bad it would look that she’d untied herself.

The lock clicked and the door swung open, letting a sliver of light into the room. Her father took in the broken rope and the bloody gag lying on the floor, then Meredith trying to hide in the corner, and he sighed softly.

“Come here, Meredith.”

Slowly, non-threateningly, she crept forward. Her father gestured for her to follow him into the kitchen where her mother and her sister waited.

“I told you, I’m not a monster,” Meredith whispered, her throat tight with nerves. “I helped.”

“You aren’t a monster, sweetheart,” her mother assured her. Tianna, perched on her lap and leaning against her chest, nodded agreement.

Meredith turned to look at her father, who nodded agreement.

“Maybe I was a little hasty in my judgement,” he muttered.

“You still think I’m a demon, though,” Meredith said, her voice rising a little. Now that she was mostly out of danger, she was angry. “Just because of who my actual dad is.” Her mother winced at the way she said ‘actual’. “You don’t want me around. I bet you were waiting for something like this to happen so you’d have an excuse to get rid of me!”

“Don’t talk to your father like that,” her mother cut in sharply.

“Maybe if he hadn’t been planning to kill me a few minutes ago for something I didn’t do, I wouldn’t!” Meredith shouted. She turned on her father, and something vicious deep in her chest felt a surge of pleasure at the look of fear that crossed his face. “Why do you hate me so much? I’ve never done anything to make you hate me!”

“I don’t hate you,” he tried to protest.

She bared her fangs at him and snarled, and the vicious thing in her chest smiled. “Maybe I should go be the monster you think I am.” Unbidden, tears pricked at her eyes again, and she wiped them away with her sleeve.

“Don’t talk like that,” her mother cut in sharply again. She shifted a wide-eyed Tianna off her lap and onto another kitchen chair before getting up and moving to take Meredith’s hands. “Sweetheart, I think you need some time to think-”

“I had plenty of time to think while I was tied up and gagged in my room!” Meredith shouted. She sniffed, yanking her hands away from her mother’s to wipe her tears away again. “You hate me! You all hate me!”

“If you’re going to be like this, maybe you should leave,” her father suddenly snarled.

“Quirian!”

“Get out,” he ordered, pointing to the door. “You’re right. I don’t want you here.”

Her mother glared at him. “Meredith, don’t-”

“Fine!” Meredith cried. “Fine, I’m going!” Before her mother could stop her, she stormed out the door, slamming it so hard behind her that cracks appeared in the doorframe around it.

Full-blown sobs building in her chest, she ran off into the night.