Primrose & Brimstone

by Mueller, Jason

  “It will be good to see him don’t you think?” He mumbled absent-mindedly as he wrote notes on a clipboard that hung from the king cobra’s enclosure.

  “Sure, it will be great. I’ll have to make this big elaborate dinner and then listen to you two talk about snakes and college all night long, with all the veiled references to how Sarah and I ruined your life.” she grumped. She liked Bobby, but he had this way of making her feel guilty for marrying Jimmy and she didn’t like it. So, what if Jimmy didn’t have the life they had dreamed about, he had a beautiful daughter he adored and she adored him and he had her. Marcy loved him with all her heart, why else would she have agreed to living a life in South Florida with all the alligators, heat, flies and mosquitos and hurricanes let’s not forget hurricanes.

  She always felt that maybe it wouldn’t be so hurtful if Jimmy stood up for them, and their life together instead of letting Bobby run his mouth about things that didn’t concern him.

  “It isn’t that bad babe,” Jimmy dismissed her feelings once again, instead of arguing she decided it best to head to the office and catch up on the bills. She did this on top of her day job to help Jimmy out here at the lab since he was already overwhelmed and she lived with the constant worry he would be bitten and no one there to help him. “Why couldn’t I marry a plumber?” She muttered as she left without a word, fighting would do nothing but get Jimmy bitten and she couldn’t play with his life and safety like that.

  Jimmy engrossed in his work went about milking the snakes and storing the venom so it could be shipped to the anti-venom manufacturer the next day.

  A week later Jimmy sat at the kitchen table with Bobby having a beer and reminiscing about old times. Marcy had made a simple dinner of spaghetti, salad, and garlic bread then she and Sarah had opted to go spend the evening in the master bedroom for a girl’s night together. They would avoid the boring conversation and watch movies together. Marcy was still a little upset by Jimmy’s attitude the week before when he had dismissed her feelings so easily again but mostly she had a sense of foreboding about Bobby’s visit she couldn’t put her finger on. It was irrational in her mind but she could not shake the sense of doom that had settled in.

  As the two friends sat around the table eating and reminiscing and sharing snake stories about their perspective work. Bobby had more stories to tell and after a while, Jimmy disliked Bobby’s attitude.

  After a long pregnant pause, Bobby broke the silence. “Marcy mad at me?”

  “No, why would you think that?” Jimmy questioned.

  “Because she didn’t say ten words and went to your room and didn’t even eat with us.” Bobby reasoned.

  “Well, mad isn’t the word I guess.”

  Bobby snorted sarcastically.

  “She thinks you feel like she and Sarah have ruined my life or something.” Jimmy was uncomfortable as he had never been one for confrontation.

  Another pregnant pause as Bobby chose his words his carefully. “I don’t think they've ruined your life, I kind of envy you having a solid foundation, of being happy and having people who care so much about you.”

  “Marcy has been upset in the past by some of the comments you made.” Jimmy took another sip of beer.

  “Yea, I guess I’ve been an insensitive prick.” A frown creased Bobby’s face as he looked back over all the stupid things he’s said in the past and he could recall saying some shitty things on their visits and a twinge of jealousy toward Jimmy because as much as Bobby loved his life it was lonely.

  “Maybe a little insensitive…” Jimmy ducked behind his beer again.

  “Let me ask you this, are you happy?” Bobby’s question caught Jimmy off guard a little.

  “Yes, I’m happy, I couldn’t imagine my life without Marcy and Sarah, some days do I still dream of traipsing around the globe with you and seeing the world? I do! Those thoughts are fleeting and I believe everyone has those kinds of thoughts. I wouldn’t change my life for anything and you know what else?” He set his beer down on the table leaning forward just a little. “I may never get to discover another reptile species like you, but my venom saves lives, and that has to count for something!”

  “It does, it does and I would take nothing away from what you do!” Bobby acknowledged. “People like you do an invaluable service to the world. It’s staggering to think about the lives that might have been saved because of your work. To tell you the truth, though I’m a little jealous. Yes, I travel to all these exotic places and do what I love to do and I realize that is a gift, but I’m alone. I have no home just a half empty apartment where all my stuff is still sitting in boxes while you my friend have a beautiful family, someone to come home and who cares you exist. I got nothing.” Bobby stared down at the kitchen table depressed.

  “How about we both have it good on some level?” Jimmy offered, “I have the home life and the stability and you have the excitement?”

  “Yea true.” Bobby grumped. “So, everyone's happy right?”

  “That’s right my friend, life with the help of the cosmic forces in the universe has put us exactly where we are supposed to be.”

  “Speaking of cosmic forces and all I got something I want to give you, I picked it up over in Africa, we were trekking through the jungle in Botswana I think it was and came across this temple or shrine. I’m not sure what they would call it. At any rate, it was all overgrown and hadn’t been visited in decades. So, we checked it out and discovered that it was a temple to some kind of snake goddess so naturally, that caught our attention.”

  As we explored the temple area about the size of two city blocks with several buildings and winding corridors and passages between the buildings all overgrown mind you and teeming with snakes, venomous were snakes everywhere. Cobras, Gaboon Vipers, Puff Adders you name it for that region they were there. Everywhere we stepped was like being in a mind field with constant danger. Before we knew it we were trapped in there, our flashlights and lanterns were dead even though the batteries were fresh so we couldn’t use them.

  In the fading light, we cleaned out a small building of snakes and spiders and made it as secure as we could to keep any snakes coming to crawl into our sleeping bags to stay warm. So night came and the three of us are in this small mud brick building huddling around a small fire.

  I tell you Jimmy, it was the scariest night of my life, there were screams, voices, snake hisses and the sounds of footsteps it was just insane. But the worst was when our fire just went out. No wind, no rain, no nothing except this god-awful screaming from within the temple area and poof the fire went out and we could never get it lit again and before you ask no it wasn’t a monkey making that sound. There weren’t any there.” Bobby took another sip of beer and a moment to get himself composed before he continued.

  “So we spent the night in the dark and when the sun came up a calm came over the area. We took off, and we never went back there and I never want to go back. What’s weird is we left there as soon as we could and later on that day when we finally stopped there was a small figurine in my pack I never put there and I don’t believe the other men I was with did either.”

  At this point Jimmy was looking at his longtime friend as if he had lost his mind.

  “Are you kidding me Bobby? You are a scientist for fuck sakes! Did you take pictures at least?”

  “Yes Jimmy we took pictures when we went to download the pictures they weren’t there.”

  “So where is this mystical idol, or shall I say haunted or maybe demon possessed?” Jimmy asked his longtime friend who was getting more than a little pissed off at being dismissed so easily and at Jimmy’s condescending attitude. Bobby stormed out of the kitchen to the spare bedroom coming back with his backpack, he pulled out a small figurine made of stone. The chipped idol portrayed a portly woman with large breast signifying fertility in most cultures, with two arms each hand holding snakes along with a snake's head instead of a human head. It was ugly as hell Jimmy thought but it was cool, he would keep it out
in the lab as a conversation piece.

  “She is one ugly bitch isn’t she?” Jimmy put the thought into words as he continued studying the artifact. “Did you ever figure out who she was or is?”

  “No and I don’t want to know anything about her, in fact, I feel bad giving her to you,” Bobby said apologetically.

  “Why would you feel bad for giving it? It’s a magnificent piece of history!” Jimmy scoffed at his friend’s anxiety.

  “Dude you don’t get it, she told me to give it to you. She wants you to have it that’s why I’m here. She comes every night in my dreams, she seduces me and I’m addicted to her to an extent but I’ll be so glad to be free of her.” Bobby was weeping.

  “Bobby what the hell is wrong with you?” Jimmy was confused, Bobby was one of the toughest and rational people he knew. Now Bobby was telling him that some temple in the jungles of Africa is haunted and now some demonic snake faced bitch was seducing him in the night? It was outrageous and Jimmy wondered if he was getting played for a fool.

  He decided against that as Bobby’s reactions were real.

  “OK Bobby you got it to me, now what?” Jimmy asked hoping for some kind of explanation.

  “I don’t know but I have to go.” Bobby picked up his backpack and headed for the door.

  “Bobby!” Jimmy shouted after him, but Bobby couldn’t or wouldn’t hear him and slammed the door behind him.

  Jimmy sat staring at the idol sitting on the table, taking in her unblinking eyes and full breast. Bobby must have lost his mind Jimmy thought; how could a man of science believe a century-old stone idol could visit him and seduce him as he slept?

  The whole thing was odd to him and he was worried about Bobby and wondered if he should go after him or maybe call the police but he didn’t feel right about doing that. He would just let it go, Bobby was feeling a little embarrassed about his reptile-erotic story and would just drive to town and get a room and then be off on another adventure. Jimmy was sure that Bobby just needed a vacation life in the field for a herpetologist was extremely hard.

  Jimmy gave one last look to the stone idol once more before heading to bed. “Nice tits.” He thought as he shut the kitchen light off. He felt a little drunker than he thought he should be for the few beers he had had as he stumbled down the hall sliding his shoulder along the wall for balance nearly knocking several pictures off the wall. Jimmy noisily made his way into the bedroom where Marcy lay in the soft light of the master bath that offered light to the room through the crack from the partially closed door.

  Marcy had carried Sarah to her own bed hours before and had given up waiting for Jimmy figuring that he and Bobby would be up all night talking, swapping stories and reliving their college days. She lay on top of the covers in a thin white tank top and boy short panties. Her nipples jutted up visibly through the tight material, she was beautiful in his eyes. He felt a sudden sadness he didn’t tell her how much he loved her as much as he should. He was constantly distracted and time was fleeting with the venom lab and the zoo; without her job they would never make it thankfully she had gone to school for something that paid.

  Jimmy felt lusty urges overtake him as he stripped out of his clothes and slid between her legs kissing her thighs as he moved upward. Marcy moaned and spread her legs, rubbing the top of his head as he continued to kiss, lick and bite her thighs.

  Jimmy pulled her panties down and off and buried his face into her flesh causing her to buck in pleasure. Jimmy attacked her with an animalistic lust he had never shown before and in a way she needed him to desperately.

  When she had reached a breathless climax Jimmy entered her, punishing her insides with each hammer stroke. She clawed at his back as he rutted her to another climax, he pulled her hair and squeezed her breast hard, it hurt like hell and Marcy loved every second.

  When they had sated their lust, they lay in each other’s arms letting sleep and the afterglow take them. As they lay there each in their own dream world Jimmy found himself alone in his bed, a dark figure standing in the corner, he struggled to see who or what it was. As he lay there, he realized he was paralyzed, not being able to move caused him to panic as he watched the darkness advance toward the bed.

  The woman from the snake idol approached out of the darkness slowly coming into focus towards him. He still could not move but had forgotten about it as she emerged from the blackness. She was beautiful, in his mind, he knew he had just fucked Marcy but yet he could feel himself thicken at the sight of the woman.

  She was tall and thick, large breast swaying as she slowly swayed as she advanced her ebony skin shining in the dim light. Jimmy stared at her curves and beautiful face trying to take her all in. She oozed sexuality and Jimmy realized he was still naked as his rigid member stood at attention. He was embarrassed as she climbed onto the bed.

  She kissed him at the top of his foot working her way up, she took him in her mouth working him until he exploded in her mouth but she wasn’t done. She worked her way up his belly kissing as she went, kissing and sucking his nipples and then her lips met his.

  He could feel her hand on his cock as she stroked him hard once again, when satisfied she straddled him, riding him slowly. He still could not move, she leaned down kissing him as she rode him. As they joined images of hell like scenes flooded Jimmy’s mind. He could see thousands of people paying homage to the snake goddess as she seduced them with her beauty.

  As the images flashed through his head, the two things that were constant were the snake goddess and death. Snakes seem to be everywhere biting or constricting their victims in obedience to their goddesses’ wishes, bodies littered the ground everywhere he looked. When the scene shifted to the lab and Marcy being bitten by the cobra who could inject its venom over and over whereas in the natural realm its supply was limited he wept uncontrollably with grief and helplessness. To add to his misery here were images of Sarah being swallowed whole by the anaconda from their zoo.

  Why would she seduce him and then torture him so? As the sun came up Jimmy woke up, he was exhausted and spent. He looked at the sheets and could see where he and Marcy had been together but there was also evidence of his seduction by the snake goddess on sat on small bedside table on his side of the bed. Hadn’t he left it in the kitchen?

  Was it a wet dream or had she really come to him? He rebelled at the idea as his scientific mind struggled to make sense of it. The realization that everything Bobby had said was happening to him made his head spin.

  Marcy and Sarah! He rushed to Sarah’s room to find her still sleeping in her bed cuddled with her stuffed bear. Smitty the python lay in his cage on his heat rock contentedly. Everything was fine. Next, he went to the kitchen to see if Marcy was there, as the bed had been empty when he woke up. Marcy always was up early and needed little sleep to function.

  He found her cleaning up the mess from dinner the night before that Jimmy had left on the table when he staggered to bed. As she placed the dishes in the sink, he wrapped his arms around her. She leaned back into his embrace enjoying the safety of his arms.

  “That was incredible last night. She sighed. I can’t believe you, does talking to Bobby and getting half-drunk always do that to you? If it does, we need to always have beer and Bobby on speed dial!” She joked.

  “Bobby left last night.” He let go of her to get a glass of orange juice out of the refrigerator.

  “What do you mean he left? Did he get called out? Did you guys get into a fight?” She asked almost accusingly.

  “It was weird we talked about you and Sarah and how you feel he views you…”

  “Oh, Jimmy you didn’t!” She shot him a mortified look.

  “It came up, and no he doesn’t think about you guys that way, in fact, he said he’s jealous of me and spoke of how lonely he is.”

  “Really?” She had stopped loading the dishwasher in her surprise.

  “Yea it was weird, but it got weirder.” He paused taking a sip of his juice before he continued. “He sai
d he had something he needed to give me. It turned out to be this small stone sculpture of this snake goddess he found in a temple somewhere over in Africa in the jungle somewhere. He claimed he needed to give it to me and that this goddess had been seducing him at night and with that went running out the door.”

  “That is so weird! Did you try to call him, to check on him?” She asked making him wonder how the mind of a woman could go from just about hating someone one day to worrying about them the next.

  “Least I think I did. There’s more weirdness though.” He wished he had said nothing else. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to talk about the rest of the night now.

  “Really there is more?” She had stopped once again in the middle of loading the dishwasher; the baking dish in hand as she waited for him to continue.

  “Well, first, think about it as scientist and a good scientist at that told me that a stone statue he found in the African jungle seduced him every night, that’s kind of weird right?”

  She shook her head yes as she contemplated the weirdness of that. Bobby wasn’t one to go into wild tales or believe in monsters or goblins she knew this.

  “Also dear, we didn’t drink enough beer last night to be drunk, or at least as drunk as I seemed to be. We only each had three beers that’s hardly a rip-roaring good time. I felt so drunk it was unreal and last night in bed was…”

  “Amazing!” She said with a blush. They had never had rough sex like that before and she was a little ashamed at how much she had enjoyed it and her behavior during. She had said and done things she would never have thought she would have. As she replayed the sexy scene in her head, she could feel her pussy getting hot again, which was a shock to her because of how sore she was.