THE SERPENT

The bite of an apple costed me, my son…

It was only a quick errand. My wife was having her usual cravings and as well as some gas pains, so she sent me off to pick her up some medicine, and some dainty chocolates. The air was foggier than yesterday, that’s how Georgia weather be; bipolar, always in a constant change.

My wife was having more frequent stomach pains, nothing to unbearable, but still made me cautious. So, when I parked, I high tailed it in the store. Found all I was looking for and checked out. I wasted no time with idle chit-chat. I was out of the store just as quick as I entered.

Upon my submersion back into the white fog, a silhouette of black weaved himself through the thickness of it. Right up until he stopped his tracks in my path. The fog that coated him began to corrode and melt away into black steam. It was a man dressed in an all-black suit; the suit looked as though it was white prior but now been stained all black. He had a main of hair, that of a lion, it was yellow gold, curved back like a crooked wave. Out from behind his back, he pulled a briefcase. Weren’t both his hands empty?

He clicked it open to unveil a case of red apples, some slots were missing their respected apple. Presumably handed out. I stared in awe at the mysterious man and the apples. He pointed at the apples with his entire hand. I could see this man cared not for the tenderness of his nails, seeing as they were all pointy and chipped like he used them to escape prison.

He spoke, but it sounded more like a distorted yelling whisper, “Go on, take one to your choosing.” His red eyes hypnotized me to grab one.

I reached out and jolted my hand back. I couldn’t take a random apple from a stranger.

“Sorry man, I just can’t take an apple from a random person. Excuse me.” I stepped out of his path to head for the car.

After a few steps forward, I peered over my shoulder and saw him no longer standing there. I sighed. I thought he would be following me with his eyes. I faced back around, and there he was. Slivered into place, holding his brief case open. I jumped back and twisted my eyebrow. How did he get in front of me so fast?

Again, this time he said firmly, “Take one of your choosing.”

“No thank you.”

“I insist,” he said, smiling.

My gut growled at me, not out of hunger but intuition.

“Come on, just take one,” he edged me on.
To get him out of my face, I rashly grabbed out one of the apples, “Here, I’ll take this one,” I said giving a half-wit smile to send him on his way.

He closed the brief case and disappeared it behind his back, “Now, take a bite.” His eyes felt fake.

To satisfy this weirdo, I crunched down on the red apple. It was a cold crisp, not refreshing. I felt like I was eating a prop apple.

“Now, for in return--.”

My phone was going feral in my pocket, it was my wife was calling. I didn’t skip a beat answering, “Yes honey?”

On the other side of the phone, I could hear nothing but wails, until she yelled, “Where are you? I need you home now, I’m going into labor!”

My eyes widened, “Oh my god! I’ll be right there.” I kept her on the phone as I pushed passed the man and to my car.

“The coming of a new life,” the man said staring at me, turning around to watch me leave.

I ignored his comment.

Before jumping in my car, I chucked the fake fruit into the fog, submerging it out of sight. I rushed home, thankfully it was right down the road. I didn’t bother parking straight, I just parked. I jumped out with the bag of goodies in one hand and keys in the other. As I made it to the door, something off to the right caught my eye. It was an all-black snake slivering its way thought my blades of grass, directed straight at me.

I paid it no mind and rushed in the door. There I heard my wife screaming from the upstairs bathroom. I bolted. Turned the corner, I saw her lying in the bathtub.

She screamed, “Jeramiah! I need you to help deliver this baby.”

“What? Can’t you make it to the hospital?”

“No!” Followed by more screaming, “I won’t make it, I’m giving birth here.”

I took a deep breath in and knew what had to be done.

Three hours later of blood and agony there he was, our precious baby boy. In the arms of the strong woman whom I married. Her face was so bright, so full of color. What I’d give to see her like that once more. She peered at me and faintly said, “Adam, his name will be Adam.”

I gave her a smile back.

“What a lovely name.” I heard.

I glanced at the open door steaming black fog. In stepped the man, the one from the store, the one whom I took the apple from. In the bright luminescence I could see the man for all he was. The legs of a goat, skin of a serpent, face of a lion, and stabbed in his back were torn off wings. This man was the devil.

“My father named his first creation that. The first of your kind. How ironic.”

Neither me or my wife could speak. Our voices were shunned.

“As I tried to claim earlier, my half to our exchange.” His hooves stomped closer, closer until he hovered above us. Lingered in our face with his red beaty eyes. “I’ll take you,” he said before chomping the head off my son in the arms of his mother.

“A bite for a bite,” He spoke before disappearing into the dark.

The only thing my wife could do was cry out like a deer being shot.

Zavier L. Deegan is a writer from Atlanta Georgia, who is actively enrolled at Full Sail University to enhance his writing abilities while working to further his career of being an author. His passion for writing is to resonate with everyday people struggling with battles that are far greater than others could ever know.