“I think she’s crying,” Troy whispered, his brow furrowed with concern.
I knocked gently. “Aimee? It’s Rhett and Troy.” I waited, then added, “Can we make sure you’re okay?”
When no answer came, I felt a cold knot form in my stomach. “Aims? Is it okay if we use the key? Just this once?”
I leaned closer, straining to hear, and caught what sounded like a muffled “yes.” That was good enough for me. I pulled out my key ring, finding the spare Aimee had given us for emergencies—a decision she’d been reconsidering after our boundary-crossing incidents, but now I was profoundly grateful she hadn’t asked for it back yet.
The door swung open to reveal an empty living room. Aimee’s phone lay smashed on the hardwood floor, and on the kitchen island was an open cardboard box, its contents partially visible from where I stood. Was that a snake?
“Aims?” Troy said softly, taking a step in.
“Watch out for the snakes.” Aimee’s voice came from deeper in the apartment.
I moved closer to the box, my stomach churning at the contents. A snake lay still in the bottom of the box. The note was scrawled in block letters on lined paper: “REPENT OR FACE GOD’S WRATH.”
“What the fuck,” I breathed, anger flooding through me hot and sharp.
“Aimee, where are you?” Troy called out, his voice tight with concern. “The snake is dead.”
“More snakes,” Aimee’s voice cracked from somewhere deeper in the apartment. “There were more. They slithered everywhere. I’m in the bathroom. It’s the only snakeless room.”
My blood ran cold. I spun toward Troy, who’d gone completely still, his eyes darting around the living room like he expected serpents to materialize from the walls.
“How many more?” I called out, already moving toward the hallway where her bathroom was located.
“I don’t know! Two? Three? I saw them and I ran.” Her voice pitched higher, trembling. “Please get me out of here.”
Troy grabbed my arm, his fingers digging in hard enough to bruise. “Rhett, man. You know I can’t deal with snakes.”
Troy, who ran into burning buildings without hesitation, who’d once pulled a guy from a car seconds before it exploded, was absolutely terrified of snakes.
“They’re probably just garter snakes,” I said, trying to sound calm and unworried. “Nonvenomous. They’re more scared of us than we are of them.”
“Bullshit,” Troy hissed, but he didn’t let go of my arm as we edged toward the hallway together. “Snakes aren’t scared of anything. They’re cold-blooded killing machines.”
“That’s not how—” I started, but movement in my peripheral vision cut me off. A small snake, maybe a foot long and thin as my thumb, slithered across the hardwood from under the couch toward the kitchen. It looked like a common garter snake, completely harmless.
Troy made a sound I’d never heard from him before—somewhere between a whimper and a growl—and climbed up my back, his arms wrapping around my shoulders from behind.
“Jesus Christ, Troy, get off—”
“Kill it!” he yelped. “Rhett, kill it!”
“I’m not killing a snake that’s probably more traumatized than we are,” I said, struggling to walk with Troy’s full weight hanging off me. “Aimee, we’re coming to get you, okay? Just hang tight.”
“Please hurry,” she called back, and I could hear the tears in her voice now.
I shuffled forward with Troy still clinging to me like an oversized koala, scanning the floor and walls as we moved. Another snake—this one slightly larger but equally harmless-looking—was coiled on top of the bookshelf in the hallway, probably seeking height to feel safer.
“There’s one on the shelf,” I reported, keeping my voice steady. “It’s not moving. Probably just trying to hide.”
“Probably trying to DROP ON OUR HEADS,” Troy corrected, his breath hot against my ear. “That’s what they do, Rhett. They drop from above and—”
I patted Troy’s arm where it was wrapped around my chest in a death grip. “They don’t drop on heads. That’s a myth.”
“Everything about snakes is a nightmare,” Troy muttered, but he loosened his hold slightly as we approached the bathroom door. “Aimee, we’re right outside!”
“The door’s unlocked,” she called back, her voice thick with tears.
