Keep off the Grass
by Melanie A. Billings
Walking along the sidewalk,
a gleam of silver to his right caught Greg’s attention. He paused. With a glance to his left and a glance to his right, Greg realized that he was alone. KEEP OFF THE GRASS read the sign to his right in angry red letters. Another glance up and down the walk revealed nothing and no one. Greg smiled and began the short stroll that would bring him within reach of the gleaming object. It was a silver necklace with a viper pendant. He reached to pick it up.
The pendant gave off an eerie chill that penetrated through the skin and into the bones of his hand. Gasping in pain, Greg let the pendant fall to the ground and looked at his hand. Two tiny marks announced themselves in bright red upon the palm. Two thin wisps of noxious vapor rose from the marks and disappeared with a gust of wind.
The sky turned black. The sun became a ghostly moonshadow floating high above the earth.
Something sharp forced itself into Greg’s shoe, skewering his foot. Pain shot through and up his leg. Greg screamed and looked down. The grass had become jagged spikes, rotating in mechanical fashion, rising and lowering in rapid succession. The viper pendant had grown to more than five hundred times its original size and Greg found himself face to face with a viper of gigantic proportions.
The earth heaved violently, like the birth contractions of an expectant mother. A rush of wind surrounded Greg and he found himself thrown from his feet. Down, down he rushed and then the earth closed about him. His eyes foretold the anguish of the spiked grasses rushing up to pierce his body. A maddening scream of mingled horror and pain rose with the softly blowing wind and then Greg was no more.
Abruptly, the sun appeared and the sky became an instant sapphire blue. All was as it had been before: the green grass, the sidewalk steadily winding past the sign that read KEEP OFF THE GRASS.
A lone figure appeared on the walk; a gleam of silver caught his attention. The figure paused. The viper smiled in grotesque satisfaction.
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After four years at Roberts Wesleyan College, Melanie graduated in 1997 with a bachelor’s degree in her double major of English and Communication. Marriage and becoming a mother put her dream of being a full-time writer on hold. In order to keep up with all things written, Melanie has dabbled joyfully in freelance editing and proofreading work over the years. This dabbling has given her new excitement over the prospect of seeing her own writings published. She has the love and encouragement of her husband and two boys, and hopes to extend that love and encouragement to everyone around her. Melanie has a compilation of poetry, Climbing the Mountain: Inspirational Christian Poetry, available from Whiskey Creek Press (www.whiskeycreekpress.com) in both electronic and paperback format.
