Sunday October 5th

Saturday came and went in a flash. After breakfast with our friends, L and I were driven to the zoo. The entrance was a series of small silver gates with a wide sign above saying "Welcome To The Zoo" in bold blue letters. Giving the worker our tickets, L first lead me to a food cart where he bought cotton candy.

For the next four hours we roamed around the place, lingering in the reptile rooms and zooming through the aquarium. For lunch we shared ice cream and I had a hot dog.

It was a fun excursion away from everyone, we enjoyed it. I called Wammy when we were done so he could pick us up. Now it was Sunday; a day for relaxing and enjoying the peace and quiet.

"Get that thing away from me!" Hollow was holding a small black snake up to Cinder. Recoiling, she fell off her chair. Hollow and B had gone exploring in the woods and brought a snake to the food hall.

"Aw, come on," Hollow teased with his accent. "The little thing won't bite." Cinder began crab walking to the wall.

"I said get it away!" she yelled. Laughing like lunatics, B and Hollow retreated outside to return the snake. I laughed as Cinder got back up. "What are you laughing about?" she scowled at me.

"It was so tiny! How could you be afraid?" Stabbing her chicken, she ripped a piece off with her mouth.

"It's gross and- oh, just drop it!" Mumbling with anger, she shunned me and continued eating.

"Cinder's right, Winter," commented A. He was cowering at the end of the table. "They seem small and helpless at first, but then they grow. Larger and meaner, too! Just you wait, one day you'll understand."

I nodded mockingly at his paranoia and giggled. Baby snakes never really frightened me. It was those anacondas and pythons that scared me. Mostly any snake that's huge and could swallow a teenager whole.

But… large snakes won't ever come to Wammy's…


It was between 1 and 2 in the afternoon. I was leaning against the fountain, savoring the beautiful weather and calmness in the air. For a moment, it seemed too peaceful. The birds were chirping, but it was soft and soothing. The trees rustled in the wind.

I tugged at my tan cardigan. My hand was sketching across the notebook laid on my lap, my eyes moving up and down to observe and draw Wammy's House at the same time.

As the wind blew, a jerky feeling flew up my spine. I froze. Something was at my feet. My head gradually fell to the ground and my eyes widened. A small black snake was curled around my foot and beginning to climb up my ankle.

"AHH!" I screamed bloody murder. Kicking the snake away I abandoned my notepad and ran inside. Then I screamed again. A million little snakes were scattered across the food hall.

Kids were screaming and yelling and trying to jump onto the tables and away from the snakes, but they just slithered up the legs. Basically, everywhere in Wammy's House is chaotic; a horror scene come to life.

Wammy and Roger were trying to calm down the kids while avoiding the creatures themselves. L was locked in his snake-less room and refused to come out. A sprinted past me and ran to the tree house which was hopefully snake-less.

B and Hollow ran up to me. Wammy and Roger were with them. I glared at B and Hollow. "What did you two do?" I practically shouted at them.

B winced. "Uh, well, we sort of collected snakes and kept them in boxes in our rooms."

"Then," Hollow added, "they escaped and now, well, this happened." He gestured towards the chaotic scene around us.

I suddenly kicked away a snake that was hissing at Roger. "That's it," I said, eyeing the snakes all around us. "We need to get out of here now."

Wammy and Roger rapidly escorted everyone outside. Less snakes were out there so it kept the kids calm. "Wait," I said when everyone was gathered outside. "Where's L?"

Oh crap…

"I'll go get him," I muttered swiftly. Cautiously, I stepped over the snakes and made my way inside. Every corner was crawling with those scaly reptiles. In the hallway I noticed the snakes were a bit larger.

Finally I reached my hallway. L's room was at the end, right by mine. The hallway seemed quiet and the floor was bare. I sighed with relief.

"L," I called, knocking on his door. "Come on out. Everyone's outside."

His timid voice came from inside. "No, I'm fine right where I am."

He wasn't coming out so I had to go in. I tried opening the door but it was locked. I was about to bang it open when I heard a soft hissss.

Freezing in my tracks, I saw the thing out of the corner of my eye. OH. MY. CRAP. Holycrapholycrapholycrap. I. Hate. Snakes.

A large Grass snake was slithering around the corner. It. Was. HUGE. Or at least my mind made it seem gigantic. When it eyed me, it hissed even louder.

"L," I said in a shaky breath. "Please opened the door."

He scoffed. "You think I am going to fall for that?"

"L," I said louder and firmer. "Please," I pleaded softly. I was deathly afraid of large snakes. When he didn't answer, I was about to run down the hall in the other direction when I saw another snake blocking my way.

Heck no. HECK NO.

Adder. It was an Adder snake. Twenty inches long, light reddish brown. I didn't study many snakes, only the poisonous ones; and this one was poisonous. And it was slithering straight towards me. How the HECK did B and Hollow get that thing? It must've been inhabiting the nearby woods, discovered this place, and snuck in during all the commotion.

"L!" I screamed this time, urgency filling up my voice. "PLEASE!"

The door opened and L quickly pulled me in and shut the door before the Grass or Adder snake could follow. I landed hard on the floor, shaken from the snakes and taken back by the fall. L knelt down to me.

"You were being serious, weren't you?" he asked, embarrassed that he'd left me in the hallway with the intimidating creatures.

Growling as my reply, I pushed off the floor. "We need to go outside. Everyone's waiting for us." Remembering the floors of Wammy's, I shivered.

L began biting his thumbnail thoughtfully. "I suppose we'll have to go through the house again."

I shook my head vigorously and turned away. "I'm not going through there again."

"We have no choice," he replied calmly.

"But L, I-"

"Have no choice," he replied, firmer this time. With a shaky sigh, I faced him. "Together," he said, holding out his hand. It took me a lot of willpower not to slap his hand away and jump out the window-better than going back out there- but I didn't. Instead, I took it.

Leading me to the door, L gave me a reassuring nod before opening the door. Both large snakes were still out there even closer this time. We hurtled far over them. Hand in hand, L and I ran through the halls hopping over snakes left and right scattered on the floors. Big ones, little ones. Green ones, black ones. All kinds. I knew there wasn't too many (B and Hollow couldn't possible keep too much in their rooms without anyone noticing) but it just seemed like it.

On the bottom floor the snakes were smaller, but in more quantities. Darn you B and Hollow. They were definitely going to get punished, if not by Roger (which is highly unlikely) then by me.

Bursting into the food hall we jumped chair to chair, dodging the snakes on the floor. How is it possible that they caught that many snakes? They must've been collecting for awhile now and had sizable boxes. I doubt anyone actually checked their rooms thinking "I wonder if they'll be any snakes in here today!" In retrospect, I doubt anyone investigated their rooms at all. They mostly gave us that warning to scare us.

Finally we ran through the front doors and returned to everyone who were still jittery and nervous. When Wammy saw us, he let out a small sigh of relief. Roger was at the front of the kids scolding B and Hollow for their irresponsible act.

"The gang's all here," I announced. Roger, Wammy, B, A, Hollow, L, and I formed a circle.

"I reported our situation to the local exterminators," Wammy explained. "But they won't be able to arrive for another four hours." Everyone gave a collective sigh of anxiety.

"I think B and Hollow should retrieve those vile creatures," proposed Roger. B and Hollow grew wide eyes and shook their heads.

"Look everyone," I said. "We can't wait four hours outside. The sun will be going down in half of that and no one wants to camp out here with animals that could massacre us. We only have one liable option."

In their heads, they knew what was coming next, dreading the very words. "We'll have to use supplies and catch the snakes ourselves." With nervous and worried faces, they glanced to the door.

"Alright," said L, finally. "We shall gather gloves, shovels, boxes and buckets from the shed. Let's go." Apparently he, and everyone else, was too chicken to touch the snakes with a bare hand so we had to use shovels.

For the next four hours, we did the thing that scared me the most: touched snakes. With two pairs of gloves on each hand, I helped pick up snakes and put them in boxes. Some kids, the brave ones, used their bare hands, but others, like me, had on gloves. Some were too wimpy to even touch them anything but a shovel.

B and Hollow did a lot of the work since it was their whole fault this was happening while Roger and Wammy carried out the boxes. They'd stack them up outside, with the lids closed obviously, until the exterminator came to take them away.

Later, the exterminator came and went, leaving us with a snake free orphanage. B and Hollow were grounded for the rest of the day and the whole next, with no supper tonight.

The sun had set over the horizon leaving a streak of pink in the sky followed by darkness. The moon was crescent and the stars were bright. I watched throughout my window for a while, gazing at them with wonder.

A knock came from my door so I scrambled to open it. Cinder and L were standing outside my room. "Wanna come with us to go get B and visit with them in Hollow's room?" asked Cinder.

I nodded and, without any words, followed them to B's room. He came reluctantly and soon we ended up in Hollow's neat room.

I sat on the bed with Hollow while Cinder laid against in. B and L were crouched against the opposite wall. "So…" B started. "Where's A?"

"Oh," said Cinder. "He didn't want to come. Busy studying or whatever."

A familiar silence filled the room. No one dared to speak for a while, lost in thought. Finally, I spoke up. "What should we do next?"

Hollow scrunched his nose with confusion. "What do mean by that?"

"I mean, like, what is our next big adventure." I looked into the eyes of confused kids. "Seriously? Doesn't anyone want some fun around here?"

Hollow smirked. "Well…" he trailed off. "It is coming close to Halloween."

B perked up at this. "Yeah, so what?"

"We're going trick or treating this year," chimed in Cinder. "Is that what you mean?"

Hollow shook his head. "Where I use to live, we'd always do creepy things for that holiday. Twas our favorite of them all."

"What are you saying?" I asked.

His smirk drifted around the room. "I say we go camping."