Julie was in India – taking a break, she called it, although there was some slight work she had to do for the company. This was an important series of meetings, but with a person she knew well already, via e-mail. The flight to India was pointless and a waste of money, as she could have done all the work from her computer back in the office, but company policy was that all transactions over eighty thousand were to be done face-to-face – something about seeing the whites of their eyes and all that. Still, this gave Julie a few days away from home, and some – nicely paid – time off.
Raj – his choice of nickname, not hers – was even going to take her out to dinner with his wife and her brother. All had communicated extensively with Julie via e-mail as well, so it was just a case of putting names and personalities to living faces. They’d completed the deal in under half-an-hour, and it had been totally amicable on both sides, but neither would tell their respective bosses that. Of course, it would take days of hard negotiating before a hard-won deal had been thrashed out. Gosh, it was a hard life!
Julie and Raj sat in the back garden, talking shop. A bottle of Kingfisher beer was handed to each of them, but was now ignored. The stars were particularly crisp, so Julie thought, and there was no moon to disturb her view. Raj was explaining how India had changed in the last couple of decades – especially Bombay – and the amazing site of all those satellite dishes in some of the suburbs. Before them had just been a collection of randomly-pointing aerials, or so it seemed, but technology had hit India hard in some ways, and dragged it screaming into the latter part of the century. They wouldn’t go back now, though, there were too many benefits. Raj was very proud of his country and its achievements, this was obvious. Julie was lying back in her chair, half asleep, when her dangling hand felt something sharp – very sharp. She exclaimed loudly, and Raj ran over to see what was the matter with his friend. He just saw the tail of some sort of snake vanishing into the undergrowth behind her, which unfortunately was thick and impassable. He went back to Julie, who was sitting up and rubbing her hand, where two small pin-prick holes were in her hand, just below the base of her thumb. As they looked, the tiny oozing of blood stopped, and the pain became a dull numb sensation.
“That was unusual,” Raj said. “You very rarely get snakes in these parts. It looked odd, though. I didn’t recognise it at all.”
“Should we go to the hospital?”
“No. I’ve got some antidote for the most common snake bites in the kitchen cupboard. Had it for a couple of years. Got it after some series on snakes on the TV made me think. Glad I did, now.” With this he went into the house to get it, returned and gave Julie an injection. “If that had been really poisonous you would have reacted by now, so I’m almost certain there’s nothing to worry about.”
Julie yawned. “I think I’ll go back to my hotel and turn in, anyway. Thanks for a wonderful evening. The food was great, and so was the company.”
“I’ll call a cab for you.”
“Thanks.”
Julie woke up at, according to her bedside clock, just after five. She was sweating and feeling strange. She went to the bathroom for a drink of cold water. It was then she noticed that something was wrong, and dropped her plastic glass in shock. The mirror showed that she had two rows of nipples going down, in two straight lines about a foot apart, from her breasts to her hips. She touched them, and they were very tender. They didn’t look like insect bites, and anyway the night wasn’t hot enough for insects. Knowing there was nothing that could be done until the morning, she just accepted them, strangely calm now the shock of seeing them had passed, and went back to bed.
At seven-thirty Julie’s alarm quacked (don’t ask) and she woke, then immediately rushed into the bathroom to see if it had all been a dream. By the time she’d got to the mirror she didn’t need to look, she could tell by the extra weight. She had two lines of little breasts running down from her main breasts to her hips, each with a little nipple. They were small, about two-thirds the size of her ‘main’ breasts, but perfectly formed. There was no sign of grafting, or cuts. They had just grown naturally during the night. Baffled at her reasonableness about all this, Julie inspected them. Yes, they were connected to her nervous system, not just stuck on. This was all very odd, but nothing to be panicking about, she told herself, and believed every word without question. This strange acceptance of these ‘growths?’ was niggling at her mind, but she paid it little credence. All she did was go back to her bed, sit down on it, and ring Raj. She trusted him. Forty minutes later he arrived, and was dispassionately inspecting her. He’d studied to become a doctor, she knew, but had broken off that avenue before qualifying when his interest in engineering and commerce had taken over.
“Hmmm,” he hmmm’ed. “Never seen, or heard of, this kind of thing before. And your state of mind… very odd.”
“One other thing,” she said. “My legs feel sort of stiff. They work all right, but it’s a bit of an effort. My hips ache as well.”
“Possibly over use. You did walk about five or six miles last night, what with our walk to the local temple and back.”
Julie smiled. “Yes. It was a lovely evening.”
Raj hmmm’ed again. She was too calm. She should have been worried sick.
“I’m tired,” she said. “Would you mind letting me sleep?”
Not normal, Raj thought. “Tell you what,” he said. “I’ll come back later and see how you’re doing, say about lunchtime? If they’re still there I’ll have to call in more qualified medical staff.”
“Fine. See you later.” She lay back on the bed and was almost instantly asleep. Raj looked at his friend, and then went off to a) phone his workplace and say he wouldn’t be in this morning, and b) do some research via books and contacts, and c) tell the hotel staff not to disturb room 42f, as the occupant was sleeping off a hangover.
When Raj returned at lunchtime Julie was nearly back to normal, in some ways. The extra breasts had shrunk back to miniature nipples, but unfortunately so had her proper breasts. This seemed to be in preparation for something. Her skin also had faint symmetrical markings on it, all over her body. He woke her.
“Hello Julie. How are you feeling?”
“Stiff.” A rub of the eyes, and deliberately not looking down. “Have they gone?”
“Erm, yes. I suggest you look.”
Julie looked, and surprised Raj by just saying “Oh good.”
This was not what Raj expected, and by now he was getting very worried. His researches had not come across anything like this, especially from snake bites. A few phone calls had drawn a blank, although he was still waiting on a couple. They had his mobile number, and would call only if anything came up. Hang on, rewind a bit. “Julie, open your mouth please.”
She complied, and yes, there were two slightly prominent, and pointed, teeth in the upper jaw. Fangs, almost. He’d noticed them while she was talking. Her upper jaw, in fact her whole face, was also slightly pushed forward. It was a subtle effect, and he’d almost missed it. He touched her face, and it felt slightly hard, not soft like skin should be. Her tongue looked odd, sort of thinner. It also looked as if it had two tips. Then his mobile rang, and Julie reacted to it. She tensed and moved towards the sound very quickly, and then lay back. He answered it.
“Hello?”
“Raj, bring your friend over here. Now. This is very serious. There isn’t much time.”
Knowing the voice, and the person, Raj immediately cajoled Julie into standing up, getting fully dressed, and then he helped her to the door. She seemed to have difficulty walking, but made it and soon they got to his car. Laying her on the back seat, he drove to the old quarter of Bombay where his caller was waiting for them.
“Well Raj,” said Prof Singh. “I’ve heard of this, but never seen it in real life.”
Julie was lying on a table in a back room, out of the way. The professor hadn’t wanted too many people to see her. She didn’t seem to be fully aware, and was responding to communication with reluctance.
“So Prof, what is it?”
“Here. Read for yourself.” Raj was handed a large tome with a marker. The book was in old Hindu. Many centuries old. Raj read, looked at Julie, and read some more. The symptoms fitted exactly. He was about to say something when Julie hissed strangely. He looked at her. Before his eyes her face was now darkening and pushing forwards, becoming a snout. A, no her forked tongue flicked out briefly of the now diminished lips, and she looked at him. It was the first time he’d seen emotion on her face – in her eyes – for some time and there was confusion and pain there. She talked to him, but with the narrowed tongue and strangely shaped mouth it came out slurred.
“What is happening to me? I feel all stiff, and Ahhhhh!”
Julie’s legs suddenly went straight, then started to merge into one. This leg started to lengthen, and then it flexed like a tail. There were regular markings all along it, and it grew and grew. Julie’s arms remained as they were, but the faint markings came into relief, and she tugged at her clothing with unusual strength. Soon it was all off, and the two men could see that she had the same markings all the way up her body, and the nipples had gone hard and light pink with a darker surround around them. Looking back to her face they were just in time to notice her nose melt into her snout and her whole face become composed not of skin, but of scales. This spread down her whole body in a wave, taking about a minute to reach the tip of her tail. That was it. She looked at them, tongue flicking in and out, and opened her mouth to speak. Barely understandable were the words “I feel much better now.”
Then she grabbed Raj and kissed him. Her mouth open and biting his jaw sideways, she French kissed him. She must have been emitting pheromones because he felt compelled to French kiss her back, feeling her only two teeth – fangs – with his tongue. She had incredible power in her extended jaws, and he sensed that if she wanted to she could hurt him badly. Then she made a grab for his groin and, with a swift motion, was inside and stimulating him. He was now totally under the spell of this snake-woman, and soon all his clothes were on the floor and they were rolling around beside them. Prof Singh had read all the document, but didn’t believe how quickly this would happen. The document also mentioned that impregnation should not take place under any circumstances. Why, the text didn’t say, but the Prof could guess.
There was also only one cure for this, and the Prof reached for his fire axe. Julie’s tail came round and knocked it out of his hand across the room before he could use it. He went for the fallen axe, and she had her tail around his legs in a vice-like grip. He struggled and the tip of the tail came around and smacked him across the forehead, knocking him unconscious.
Now the final act took place. Rubbing and stimulating the vastly stimulated Raj, Julie manoeuvred them so she could have him enter her, and they copulated, her tail, now lose of the Prof, was swishing about excitedly as they came.
The Prof woke up. Raj and Julie had gone. The Prof shook his head, and sadly reached the phone to call up Raj’s wife. Wretchedly, he told her that she would never see her husband again, then explained why.
“They are linked together for ever now. They will have no thought for anyone else but themselves. They will be consumed with passion, desire and lust until she lays her eggs. Then she will have only one use for him, and she will bite him with a nerve poison so he will be unconscious, but alive. When her eggs hatch he will be in a state for her to feed him to her children. They will grow quickly and leave their mother, spreading into the countryside. There they will bite victims and the cycle will start all over again. The ancient text says that it took decades to eradicate this plague from the land, so we’d better start now. As the Christians say: ‘May God have mercy upon us all’.”
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