Night Visitors

Lucas’s eyes flew open. He wasn’t sure what had awakened him from a fitful sleep.

Insects still picked and licked at his open wounds. The whipping had left his back with long open scars. His blood had immediately attracted all manners of hungry insects. So many, that several tree frogs had roosted on his chest, taking their fill of them. They seemed to be the only friendly creatures in this godforsaken jungle.

He could hear innumerable bat wings above him, their erratic flights circling around and into the dark clearing. There were vampire bats here. Could they smell his blood, too? When would they come to take their share?

Throbbing pain emanated from his body in hot, rippling waves.

He shifted against his bonds, slightly rocking his hammock.

From above he heard a soft brushing sound against the corrugated roof. He squinted into the deep velvet darkness past his feet to the post where his hammock was secured.

A long sinuous shadow silently coiled down a roof support post.

He focused on it and froze when recognition kicked in. The frogs knew the danger and fled

His breaths became rapid and shallow. “Oh, shit…mother of God….” He whispered through clenched teeth.

“Lucas? What is happening?” asked Avalina from her hammock at the far end of the stable. Her hammock ropes creaked as she was about to get out. Some nights the guards tethered her in the hammock but most nights she was free to get out. There was nowhere to go anyhow. Escaping into the pitch-black jungle would be suicidal.

“No! Stay there!” he whispered through the side of his mouth. He felt it move onto his leg, chilling him to the bone. “A s-s-snake is…is…on me.”

Avalina hissed. “Do not move, Lucas!”

His primal instinct demanded he fight or flee; kick and leap out of the hammock. Dread gripped his body in the hammock as the creature undulated slowly along his bare leg.

The jungle was hot and humid, and he’d sweated night and day. But this was a different sweat—it held the stench of fear, and it reeked.

“Please be strong Lucas!”

The snake’s length burned like a live wire against his bare skin.

Was it a boa or a venomous viper?

If it deemed Lucas a threat it would certainly attack. Oh, God, the venom would course through his blood creating agonizing pain and systematically, slowly kill him. He’d be buried in an unmarked grave with tropical worms gnawing holes through his flesh, never to be found.

Who else but his aunt would miss him from this earth? Did the guards put him here purposely, to wash their hands of his death?

Could the serpent smell him? Feel his breath? Sense his abject terror? His heart hammered in his chest threatening to explode.

Avalina spoke to him in a quiet, soothing tone—trying to distract him. “Think about the festival, Lucas, the music. The dinner at your hotel." Her breathing sounded anguished and rapid. “You will go back to school and get your degree. The wonderful kisses we shared? Oh yes, the dancing like you never had before. Think about us, Lucas.”

Lucas tried to focus on her words as the serpent crawled up his torso to his shoulder. Its body kept coming. How long was it? He closed his eyes seeing his life pass behind his eyes. He barely realized it had quickly dropped to the ground.

Lucas burst into sobs of relief, his breaths catching in short, jagged gasps.

“Are you okay, Lucas? Please talk to me.”

It took several minutes before his panic abated enough to find some words to respond to her insistent calls. He finally composed himself enough to speak in a shaky whisper. “Did you…what type of snake could it be, Ava?” he whispered.

She had no idea; she was a city girl from Cartagena. To her, a snake was a snake, many of them in Colombia, many of them dangerous. From Lucas’ biology studies and watching untold hours of nature programs, he had some knowledge of what lived in tropical rainforests; far more than her. She studied agriculture and to her, the jungle of Colombia was a place of lush flora, swimming holes, hikes, kaleidoscopes of butterflies, and monkeys romping in the trees.

To Lucas, the tropical rainforest was an explosion of life countered by merciless death. He never really considered the death part. Over and above the visible creatures and plants dangerous to humans, there was a host of mosquito-borne diseases. The only saving grace now was most standing pools of water had dried up due to the dry season. The hazards in jungles were all documented in books and on TV, but witnessing this, feeling it…

He concentrated on his surroundings, filtering out incessant insect sounds only to hear invisible bat wings.

What did I ever do to deserve this hell?

I’m a student, I have no money for ransom. Who are these people, these sadists?

When will they let us go? Please God let us go.

As his thoughts slowed from horror scenarios he let out a long breath. For a moment he thought the little frogs had returned, but with all the bugs landing on him and making their way around and through the hammock weave to his slashed back, it was difficult to tell. His wounds still dripped blood and fluids from the whipping. Maybe it was some small lizards he’d seen during the day.

But the little frogs moved slowly, a one-two-foot movement as they changed positions.

This new thing moved faster.

A determined pace. It was on his knee before the terror had a chance to freak him out.

Lucas wondered how he’d ever survive the night.

~The End~