SCREAMS!!!

Serpent is all warm and snug in his drafty house with a warm pet blanket while snuggled in a pillowcase.

To stop from talking about myself in the third person (I've heard that this creates a web of egotism, which I have enough of) I will talk in the first.

I am quite sleepy. I had a good time with my bestest of buds, drank a bit, then fell asleep for five hours, woke up at 1:33 in the morning, and thought "I'm going to stay up!". The problem is that I am growing tired. I'm not a great person, but if I'm going to judge, I'll do the damned thing with a clear head. So, while I wish I could tell you that King Kong has snatched up my life partner and climbed up the Empire Statebuilding, and threatened to eat her, that would be a bold face lie.

"Then set the prompts out, Serpent!" I hear you saying, but I also still have a bit of that egotism, so let's break-even with a fact.

Not that you ever asked, but my pseudonym came to be Sleepy Serpent because I had worked long, long hours, at one point in time. And that my mother had a petrified fear of snakes.

Why snakes? Well, from my understanding, she had bathed in a pond once, and a snake skeeted (is that the correct verb?) along the waters towards her. This thing kept getting closer and closer to her. She kept backing away, splashing water at the godforsaken thing, but it still persisted.

It got so close that she can't remember what happened next. She would mumble things about her dad, but something was certain (In an uncertain story). The situation was traumatic.

She feared snakes. She feared them so much that uttering the word "Snake" would make her quiver. The ads for John Carpenter's Escape from New York must have been an unintentional nightmare for her.

I remember once, a couple decades ago, walking with her to my grandparents', and there, right on the cement walkway, was an adorable little Garter snake. Little guy was no bigger than my fist--probably smaller--green with his little tongue flickered like he was the boss! Well, I couldn't quite realize this until later because my mother had shivered, and dug her long nails into my arm.

The damned world stopper slithered off and we got to our destination just fine in a few minutes.

She kept her fear of snakes up to her death, that's why I used the name serpent. Despite both snake and serpent meaning...pretty much the same (Biblically speaking, serpent probably carries more weight), one bothered her, the other? Not really. So I used the less offensive term for our non-legged friends.

I will be back to judge in some hours, probably before the day is out. But until then your prompt for tomorrow is Free Day.

Do as you please! ...So long as it's within the 1,500 word limit. And any entries posted after this, I ask that you state which prompt you've posted for. I think that me and S. will find it easier to distinguish which entry is for which contest.

I've just yammered your ear off, so I hope you can forgive me.