99 Ways to Die (Part 2)

I could feel the poison made his way deeper into my veins, like a pack of needles stomping the very soul of me. I wanted to scream and shout but I was unable to. Even the slightest move I made caused me a stunning, unbearable pain.

I could see the shadow at the corner of my eyes. There he was, at less than 3 meters from me, digging slowly into the sand. He was molting, rubbing his nose on a sharp rock. I thought to myself that it was the perfect time to attack him. If I was to lose my life in such a demeaning way, at least I would take him down with me.

That would be the end of me, not trying to cling on to life, but rushing toward death just to overpower a snake. A fucking common snake, all by himself in the desert.

 “Yes coyote is a creature of treachery, I told myself. Honor goes down the drain when revenge is on the line, true. But coyote is also clever.”

…And that’s kind of when I stopped fighting. Watching the perfectly clear blue sky over the desert. My muscles went numb. So I held my breath, a smile on my face, and I passed out.

I woke up several hours later to a decreasing moon. The summer was almost gone but the wind was still warm. As I rose up from this black dreamless sleep,I tried to see if the snake was still there. But the only thing I saw was a shred of dead skin being blown gently by the summer breeze.

And that’s all that remained of him.