Twenty-nine
When the shadow had called out to The Serpent’s consorts, his hiss had travelled to every part of the earth and all the consorts heard the call.
In physical appearance, the consorts had many things in common. They all had shifty eyes that constantly darted about, never once focussing on any one thing in particular. They were all siblings, in fact, they were interchangeable siblings because ever so easily, they could become each other and take on different characteristics, and become that much more sinister. All of them were highly addictive and much loved. Once you tasted them, it was difficult to let them go.
‘We like to be one big family!’ they would say, ‘get into your blood stream like genetics and become your DNA. Once in, we simply hang around and incubate. Such fun!’
There were the twins, for instance, who always worked together. They were quite unalike in appearance, though not in behaviour. One was bald with a puffed up face and laboured breathing and had a strange habit of twirling pudgy fingers around the ample hair on his chest. At the drop of a hat, he insisted on shaking hands with everybody. It was easy to remember him because anyone he shook hands with, ended up trying to wipe the sweat away. Somehow, the sensation lingered and neither wiping nor washing helped. Everything about him was slimy.
He had a great talent, however. He always got people to do things that they would never have dreamt of doing. Quite matter-of-fact, his tone was, when he spoke. But he got people to do things that could get them into trouble. Really serious trouble. And yet many listened and did as they were told. And lived long and happy in big houses.
The other twin was disproportionately built. Tall and thin, with very short legs, his weasel face looked odd, for he smiled continuously, flashing yellow teeth while his tongue slithered over his cracked and scaly lips with serpentine ease. From his hair would drip sickly sweet-smelling oil. He would constantly adjust his hair with his carefully manicured hands. His voice was silky smooth, and his mannerisms disgustingly sleazy. He looked and behaved like a walking lubricant.
But he had his uses. He was obsequious to a fault and it was addictive. People got so used to him that they couldn’t live without him. He was so indispensable that a time came when nobody would do anything without him. From that day onwards, he demanded his reward. It began with a bit of this and a bit of that, till finally, he controlled it all.
‘True power,’ the twins would say, ‘is the ability to get people to do what they wish they had never done, but would do nevertheless, while wishing that they could do otherwise!’
The twins were only two of The Serpent’s many consorts. They fed on human greed and want, on cruelty and selfishness, on anger and betrayal.
Human beings have always been strange. There are those who have everything and yet, are never satisfied. Envy and jealousy are then easy to roll into one. Lips can then be made to curl constantly upwards in a sneer, while rage is not far behind.
Each of these was linked by the common cause of The Serpent who, through his consorts, was always around, always searching, always scheming.
The consorts were masters of the dark arts. They stood for everything evil and sinister and vicious. They corrupted and debased with their touch. They were the betrayers of the soul and the purveyors of bad things to come. They were the polluted and the unclean. And, they never stopped to rest.
They all had a bit of the snake in them. Put together, they made up The Serpent. But they lacked his sinister brilliance.
‘The whole, my children,’ The Serpent would often say, ‘is never the sum of its parts. It is always something more.’
The consorts would always clap at his wise statement, for they worshipped him. He could never be wrong.
And The Serpent loved them all, for he had created them out of his imagination and had taught them well. They had been quick to learn and quick to deliver.
As a result, today The Serpent had his followers all over the world.
When the summons were received, it was an unwritten code that the consorts would drop everything and return to the castle.
‘It must be important,’ one of them said, ‘it has been a while since he last summoned all of us together. Let us hope it is that silly girl. Finish her off, is what I say. Then we can all lead our lives.’
And as they flew through the skies, they sang,
We’ve never cared to mope around,
Or complain that life’s been unfair,
Looking around, we’ve happily found,
How blessed we are in The Serpent’s care!
Amazed at how wonderful life could be,
If we abandoned our souls for a simple fee,
We knelt before the sacred beads,
And swore to uphold The Serpent’s needs!
Standing by the window of his castle, the hooded figure wondered how difficult the battle would be. ‘The girl has spunk,’ he said to himself, ‘but is spunk enough? And yet, yet...it is the innocence of a child that could prove to be the game changer.’