Chapter Four

Meeting a Serpent Pt 1

The next few weeks were a blur. Lea had her hand looked at by a doctor who agreed that it looked like razor marks much to her dismay. The car ride back from that was quiet, with her mother trying to calm her down. When they arrived home she went straight to her room and locked the door behind her. Most nights afterwards were like that with her parents trying to talk to her about what happened. But they didn't believe her about what she saw, her voice was getting hoarse from trying to tell them so many times that she gave up. Now the home environment was tense with her sisters staying out most of the time and her mother was getting frustrated with her.

She had to get out of the house. Every second in it she felt like she was going insane. Using her money from babysitting the neighbors cat, she went shopping at the nearest mall. She had managed to convince her mother to let her out, stating that if they wanted her to feel better it would help to get some fresh air. Before she left to take a cab her mother had hugged her for what felt like an eternity. It hurt to see her mother in so much pain but she couldn't explain everything without seeming erratic. The possible hallucinations, the moving skin, the language all of it was more like a messed up bedtime story than real life.

It was time to just bury everything that happened and try to move if only momentarily. Dressed in a simple and short romper, she walked around the large marketplace connected to the mall. Her body felt lighter with every step she made that led her further away from her house. Shopping wasn't something she did very often as she was more of a bookstore type of girl but it actually felt nice to survey the variety of things to buy. There were plenty of dresses and shoes imported from all over the world for her to choose from. Honestly she was shocked for such a small town to get a huge upgrade in clothing choices. After she had been dropped off she found herself excited to buy something on her own as meager as a new tee shirt.

By now, she had about six bags in her arms full of different types of items that peaked her interest. The stores had recently invested into eco friendly packaging so the bags were all reusable and fashionable enough to serve as purses. A few cashiers had offered her free samples from the local lithuanian cafe that delivered to each store in the shopping center for free. Lea felt relaxed for what felt like the first time in years with plenty of money left to spend and her parents were allowing her out for the rest of the day. She quickly moved her train of thought away from them, knowing if she thought about them for too long her guilt would come back.

Initially when they had shown that they didn't believe her, she had been angry. She had refused to talk to them out of spite of the situation and barely ate anything with them. Then it turned into pain as she realized that her parents didn't believe her. They believed someone over her despite the fact she had never harmed herself before. The silence went from just one week to the next four as she felt her heart grow weaker and weaker. Just the thought of what was happening to her relationship with her parents made her want to cry. She thought that they would believe her, but she sounded insane from what little she had told in defense of herself.

' Why can't they trust me.' Lea found herself incapable of finding the answer to the question that had burned itself into her mind.

Shaking herself free from such troublesome thoughts, Lea came across a bookstore. It was large with a metallic outer design like every other store in the market. But it's windows and entrance had been painted to appear like they were made from real wood, taking a deep reddish brown color. A sign sat on its front door stating that all of its items would be on sale ranging from twenty percent off to seventy five. Her interest peaked immediately at such a generous discount being offered on a large chunk of their novels. Looking down at the bags in her hands, she noted that she had already had a lot with her. However, a book sale was a once in a lifetime experience for a book woman like herself. The thought of missing out on possibly rare comic books and visual novels waiting to be stored in her bedroom made her body tingle with excitement.

' A book always cheers me up.' She thought happily, deciding that she could need a new book or two to add to her collection.

Lea opened the door to the shop and was welcomed with the smell of old books. A banner above her stated 'discount novels for five dollars' written in sharpie that still had a strong smell to it. To her left a bunch of students sat at a table texting on their phone with books in their laps Mountains made out of old magazines and comic books sat on rectangular coffee tables with sale stickers on their covers. Some of the comics were already being picked through by eager shoppers, their free hand holding onto a cart full of other discount items. Next to them were stands half empty with the remaining books being various genres ranging from young adult to biographies. She was amazed by the sheer size of the store, it looked to be an endless maze of books and shoppers surrounding her.

Certain shelves were completely barren of anything, with dust being the only thing left from their existence. Well known series didn't even have any signs of being left for sale with their shelves wiped clean and holding unrelated novels in their place. The various lines for checkouts proved this even further with teens and older adults paying for basket worths of books for a third of the price. And for anyone who wasn't buying books they went to purchase items from the store's built in cafe. They sat with eco friendly paper bags in one hand with a magazine or basket in the other. It wasn't hard for her to find what aisle had which genre of novels with a similar banner to the one by the entrance depicting directions for the store.

After what felt like an eternity of searching, Lea found an item that caught her eye. Propped up by a simple plastic stand, the graphic novel called to her practically as she went over to the grab it before it was gone. The bright red label on it's cover stating that it was eighty percent off made it even more tempting to the avid bookworm. Reaching out with one of her empty, she tried to grab it only to touch someone else's hand that had tried to do the same. She flushed having realized her mistake and immediately turned to apologize to whomever she had grabbed.

A girl with dark hair in a bun stood with her one face rather red from the predicament. She looked young, maybe a middle schooler from the looks of it or a tad bit older from her height. Her face was covered by the brim of the dark colored faux fur hat she was wearing despite the immense heat outside. In her arms she had a few other graphic and light novels that from what she could see were of the same genre.

"I'm so sorry! I didn't even see you!" The girl cried out her voice high pitched and soft, she sounded as if she expected Lea to attack her.

The older teen laughed in an attempt to lighten the mood. While it was awkward for them to have held hands if only for a mere second by chance, she wasn't upset at the girl for it. She was more embarrassed than anything else for running over to grab the book before anyone else could.

"Hey, it's fine. I wasn't paying attention either and I'm really sorry I grabbed your hand. I just really wanted to get that part of the series I have every other book but that one." She confessed feeling relieved once she saw the other girl relax.

"Me too. I heard that a sale was happening so I basically skipped my breakfast to get here early. I never go to read this part of the series either besides some chapters from the author's website." The girl said sounding awestruck at the idea of getting her hands on such a rare book.

Lea blinked in shock. This wasn't just some graphic novel, it was a rare series in a sea of cookie cutter books. The author had written a total of thirty books for the series along with making artwork and character guides to go with certain editions. This one was ultra rare with it coming with not only original art barely seen before, but had the author's lovely signature on the front page. It took her years to even find out that the author made special editions like this and nobody else that she knew of, not even her friends from school had ever heard of the series due to it being self published.

To meet someone with such a similar love for a sacred series as the one this novel came from, it had to be a sign that everything would work out. That her family would all take her side and she could find a new therapist that didn't know of what had happened. She held onto this hope for as long as she possibly could.

"Did you hear that they're making a movie adaption soon?" The girl continued with wonder dripping from each word she uttered. "The author might allow some fans to voice act for it."

"Not only that but I heard we might be able to get a sneak peek soon," Lea added, finding herself taking a liking to this mysterious girl. "I'm on the fan forums all night looking for spoilers."

"Wow, okay can I have your socials so we can talk about this more in detail because you're the first American I've met who've even heard of this book." The girl said taking out her own phone to show her social media accounts.

Most of them were basic fan accounts for the series and it's characters. Lea was impressed with the dedication the younger girl had to spreading the news about a more or less unknown series. She pondered about her last few words however. The first two novels were more popular in the middle east and certain parts of southern asia then the united states. The author's first language was even mandarin due to having spent most of their childhood going back and forth from China to the United Kingdom. Could her new friend be from one of those countries?

Lea sent her a friend request on any accounts she had that weren't for her family only to see and follow her from. Curiously, she decided to ask her about what she said before they parted ways. "Are you from Asia? I heard the series is like an underrated classic there."

The girl nodded her head eagerly, her eyes alight from the question itself. "I'm from Thailand! My old school had the author there as a guest speaker one day and I almost fainted."

She had never met anyone from the country before. "You moved from a place like Thailand to the middle of nowhere?" She couldn't imagine why anyone would want to live in a town where everyone knew each other and half the population was related to one another.

"Nah," Waving her hand, the younger smiled at her, all of the previous anxiety from earlier having completely vanished. "I'm only here for a couple of months to get to know my cousins better. My older cousins are..."

"...messy, sort of sassy and overall like the cooler version of you that everyone forgets you're related to?" Lea guessed with a raised eyebrow.

A groan left the other's mouth as she nodded her head. "Exactly. It's like everyone suspects I was adopted because I'm not as outspoken as them, I prefer to be nice instead of a jerk all the time."

"Okay we are going to get along great. What's your name by the way, since we are going to be texting about this for the rest of the night?" The older of the two asked, finding herself more comfortable than she had felt in weeks.

The girl smiled a gummy grin that made her look even smaller in the other's eyes. "My name's Kaeo, it's pronounced like key and the letter oh." Kaeo said slowly, sounding out her name for further help. .

" It's nice to meet you Kaeo, I'm Lea by the way." The two greeted one another and continued speaking about their shared love for the book series.

***

The two teenagers had agreed to let Kaeo buy the book for the time being. When they would hang out again she then would trade it off to Lea for the rest of the month. Both had a fun time chatting about their favorite scenes in the series, what they thought about recent music groups and which colleges they planned to go to. Lea noted that Kaeo while a quiet and reserved person in many aspects had a vibrant personality when it came to fiction. They said goodbye once Kaeo's relative came to pick her up and soon Lea herself had arrived home with treasures to enjoy for the next year.

She came into her house to see her younger brothers dancing in front of the television. On it a group of girls around their age danced and sang with what looked to be a large cat. The cat had to be a man in a costume, a cheap costume as she could see the person's eyes underneath. They had subtitles on the screen as the song was in spanish from what she could hear. Her brothers turned around seeing her coming in and ran over to her with their hands covered in what she hoped was paint.

"Le Le!" Her youngest brother, Daniel shouted at her smearing the paint onto her legs as he wrapped himself around them.

"Lea you're home!" Her other brother Caleb cried out in his soft baby voice pulling on the bottom of her romper with his tiny hands.

“Woah woah woah you guys saw me here just a few hours ago,” She laughed holding her hands up in the air as they became glued to her body in their excitement. Reaching down to detach them from her body, she looked around for anyone else in the house. “What’s on your hands and why aren’t you guys being watched by anyone? Where’s mom?”

The two boys bounced around on the balls off their feet eagerly pulling her over to the couch where they had some of her stuffed animals in what appeared to be a tea party with some action figures.

“Mommy went to get food!” Caleb cheered, handing her a somewhat dirty stuffed bear that had multicolored eyes that were kind of wonky.

“Chicken nuggies!” Daniel added sounding offended that his twin had failed to mention the most important part of the meal.

Lea was having trouble buying what they were saying, but she had no other answer for why the home would be empty. Still she was finding herself getting more upset with the fact the twins who were toddlers had been left home alone. Her mother could be careless sometimes but never this careless, her father sure but not their mother.

"Mommy was sad because the meanie called her about Lea." She managed to make out from her brother's chewing noises, quickly she took the bear out of his mouth before he got sick.

"Who called her about me Caleb? A doctor? Dad?" The teenager asked picking them both up to sit in her lap with her arms wrapped around their waist in order to keep them steady.

Daniel wiggled around playing with one of her strands of hair, falling free from the buns she had them in. "Don't know."

"Yeah, we don't know!" Caleb added happily clapping along to the newest musical number on their tv.

Lea stared down at the two, knowing deep down that what they meant would be bad when her mother got home. She has asked constantly before she became silent about the center finding Momo and talking to her. Her mother had said that the older woman's relatives didn't want to cause the girl anymore trauma from the incident. This made her annoyed as Momo had been the one causing the trauma, but when she tried to say that her mother had gotten upset. Apparently, both families had gotten heavily involved in the situation. She stated that from what she had been told by Miss Jade, that the woman had a tough time with the confrontation and refused to go back to therapy if she was there.

If they had called to argue with her mother, she wouldn't take it lightly. Yes she was still scared of Momo herself and the things that the woman may do to her if they were alone again, she liked getting therapy. She liked her therapist and the people that communicated with her in group therapy. She had made a few friends from the group and she didn't think it was fair that she had to give it all up because of what had happened.

"Toys!" Daniel screeched in her ear, jumping up and down in her lap at the sight of her shopping bags. "Look, toys!"

Caleb startled from his show and began to pay her chest eagerly wanting to see what his brother was pointing at. "Toys?"

Lea sighed and tried to put on a genuine smile onto her face to keep the twins entertained until their parents came back. She figured, playing with them and letting them see some of the stuffed toys she had bought for them would pass the time rather quickly.