Chapter 3

Alya Cobb POV:

My eyes snapped open. A primal scream lodged in my throat. I fumbled for the lamp switch on the nightstand, my fingers trembling so badly it took three tries.

The light flooded the room, and the scream tore from my lungs, raw and ragged.

They were everywhere.

Snakes. Dozens of them. Slithering over the silk sheets, coiled on the plush carpet, draped over the armchair in the corner. Their scales glittered in the lamplight, their forked tongues flicking in and out, tasting the air. My air.

Panic, cold and absolute, seized me. I scrambled off the bed, stumbling backward until my back hit the wall. I tried the door handle. Locked. Of course, it was locked.

"Genesis!" I shrieked, pounding on the heavy wood with my fists. "Genesis, you psycho, let me out! Let me out of here!"

My desperate cries were met with silence. I pounded again, my knuckles screaming in protest. "Let me out! Please, somebody help me!"

A soft, calm voice came from the other side of the door. "Alya, you're disturbing the peace of the house. Jason is meditating."

It was her. Genesis.

"You did this!" I screamed, my voice cracking with hysteria. "You sick monster, get them out of here!"

"I did this for you, Alya," she said, her tone infuriatingly gentle. "Fear is a blockage of energy. You must confront it to release it. Embrace the snakes. Feel their connection to the earth. They are here to heal you."

My mind fractured. I couldn't form words anymore, only desperate, animal sounds of terror. "Jason! Jason, help me! Please, Jason!"

I heard his footsteps approaching in the hall. A sliver of hope, sharp and painful, pierced through my panic. He would stop this. He had to. He wouldn't let this happen.

"What's going on?" His voice was heavy with sleep and irritation.

"Jason, thank God!" I sobbed, pressing my face against the door. "It's Genesis! She filled my room with snakes! Please, make her let me out!"

I heard Genesis's soft murmur. "Darling, I was only trying to help. Her aura is so clouded by grief and anger. I thought a natural immersion therapy would help purge the negativity."

"She's trying to kill me!" I shrieked. "I'm terrified of snakes, you know that!"

There was a long pause. I could hear my own ragged breathing, the soft, sinister whisper of scales on carpet. I held my breath, waiting for Jason to order the door open. Waiting for him to save me.

His voice, when it came, was cold and distant, filtered through the thick wood of the door.

"Genesis knows what's best, Alya."

The world stopped. The air left my lungs in a rush.

"What?" I whispered, my voice barely audible.

"She's a healer," he said, his voice gaining conviction. "If she says this will help you, then it will. You just need to get used to it."

Get used to it.

The words echoed in the terrifying silence of the room. Get used to it.

I heard him put his arm around Genesis. I heard their footsteps retreating down the hall.

He was leaving me. He was leaving me in here.

A despair so profound it felt like drowning pulled me under. I slid down the door, my legs giving out, and curled into a tight ball on the floor. I was sobbing, but no sound came out. My body was wracked with silent, agonizing convulsions of terror.

One of the snakes, a large, dark python, slithered slowly towards me. It coiled itself around my leg, its body thick and muscular. I squeezed my eyes shut, my entire body rigid with fear.

Then I felt a sharp, piercing pain in my calf.

I looked down. The snake had bitten me. Two small puncture wounds were welling up with blood.

The world tilted, the edges of my vision turning grey and fuzzy. My last coherent thought was of Jason. Of the man who had pulled me from a burning car, who had sworn to protect me.

Who had just sentenced me to death in a pit of snakes.

I woke up in the infirmary in the west wing of the house. My head was pounding, and my calf was bandaged and throbbing.

Jason was sitting in a chair by the bed, scrolling through his phone. He looked up when I stirred.

"You're awake," he said, his tone neutral. "The doctor said it was a non-venomous bite. You just fainted from the shock."

I stared at him, my throat raw. "You left me in there to die."

He sighed, a flash of annoyance crossing his face. "Don't be dramatic, Alya. I knew they weren't venomous. Genesis would never put you in real danger."

He stood up and walked to the window, his back to me. "I need you to understand something. Genesis is going to be a permanent part of my life. Of our lives. I need you to accept that. I need you to stop making things so difficult."

I just stared at his back, a cold, hard knot of something new forming in my chest. It wasn't love. It wasn't even hate. It was a chilling, absolute certainty.

I had to get out. But first, I had to survive.