Serpent Sarcophagus

On the day of my birth, my parents were digging our ancestral grave in our old village to move it somewhere else. When the sarcophagus was open, they found a black serpent lying inside. It was about the width of a bowl, wearing a black cover on its head and a pale skin indicating it almost finished shedding.

Given its black color and pale skin, the geomancy master told my father that the serpent was going to turn into a flood dragon.

But then my father grabbed the serpent, hoping to take it home and make medical liquor out of it. Unfortunately, that beast bit my father though it was weak after shedding. Bursting with anger, he killed it immediately.

When my mother heard of the news, she hurried to find him some medication in the mountains. On the way over a hill, she stumbled over a snake the size of a belt, which triggered a premature delivery.

When I was born, all snakes circled around the house with their heads erected halfway and they were hissing towards my mother. The noise was like an angry snarl, or according to someone, they were paying their respect.

Witnessing this abnormal scene, the geomancy master who was helping us move our ancestral grave fled away immediately, not even charging us a thing. He even moved out of our town because he didn’t want to be involved in troubles.

A tempest hit us that night. A flash of lightning stuck the new spot where we had chosen for burying our ancestors, and the body of the serpent killed by my father disappeared as well.

What followed was my father’s coma for over three days, and he was talking gibberish. My grandma had to seek the favor of a famous Channeler who lived nearby.

After the Channeler channeled the Spirit (an activity when the psychic channeled the dead spirit from the eternal realm so that the living could communicate with their deceased ancestors), she ruled out my father as the center of the problem. She said it was because of something from me. Then, she gave my grandma a snake-headed jade and had her give me it after I came of age. Then they sucked the poison out of my father’s body with sticky rice.

My father woke up that night. But that Channeler was not so lucky. On her way back home, she was bitten by snakes to death. The cause of her death was not snake poison, but the extreme pain from the bites.

There were rumors in the village that my father had been revenged after he killed that serpent which was about to turn into a flood dragon.

They also said that it was a bad omen when I was marked by snakes since my birth.

My father never cared about any of these stories. However, we had to move to the town because my mother was plagued by health problems due to the premature delivery. My father still dealt with the snake liquor business.

A serpent had been haunting my dreams for as long as I could remember. It was a giant snake with black scales covered all over its body. That serpent was always in my dreams no matter what I had dreamed of.

It just stared at me with that silent look, whether it was hanging, its head held high, or just coiling up.

What was even more bizarre was that every next morning after my dream, there would always be snakes coiling up in front of our door. Sometimes there were just a few and sometimes there were awful lots of snakes. But they would all end up being my father’s material to make liquor.

For so many times had I told my parents about my dreams, and so many times had they displayed impatience while yelling at me, “Aurora, dreaming of snake is a good thing for a girl. It either means you will make a fortune recently, or you will deliver a boy in the future. Either way, it is nothing bad. Don’t make a fuss about it.”

However, images of that serpent in my dream were getting clearer as I grew. Sometimes when I woke up in the middle of the night, I could almost feel its presence.

When I moved my fingers in bed, I could almost touch the cold, rough scales.

Maybe because I had dreamed of it so many times that I had grown accustomed to it so I was not scared by it. Sometimes in my sleep, I would drop a few words with that serpent. Words like, what do you want? What are you doing? Why do you keep showing up in my dream?

spared no answer for

longer stared at me from a distance.

an inch in my sleep. And that serpent found itself near

and sweating as I was trying to

black serpent crawled to my feet and gradually assumed the shape of a man

as the stars in the sky, his

the

beside me as if his body was soft and boneless, with his eyes staring at me, “Ask John Dragon (my father) to move all his snake liquor out tomorrow! The serpent is coming!

and fast. The way that he spoke seemed to suggest some of his concerns. He looked around and said, “You Mustn’t leave a single one

sadness flashing across his

I suddenly woke up

awfully quiet. I stared at the ceiling, not daring to turn my head around. I moved my fingers towards the direction where I had spotted the serpent in my dream. I felt

in the next room. I went downstairs to fetch some water with sweat all

by my parents. The first floor was used as the shop, the second floor saved for us to live in. And the

water dispenser was placed at the corner of the stairs. I was still thinking about what had

black serpent changed into a human form and told me that I must ask my father to throw all the snake liquor tomorrow. It seemed that something was coming, and he was so

started to drink, without even turning the

was growling with water. There seemed

sounded like someone was tapping on the glass, to

of water, and was thinking about what the black serpent had said in

in my hand, and I didn’t know what was pusing me, but

in the shop. In them were bottles of liquor made

back to life with the

with their

same moment, all snakes turned their body around and

slowly opened and glared at me through the glasses while their tails were beating it in a rather

of those snakes. I felt my head spinning due to

gathered together, and they all turned to a different voice of the hiss, as if they were

eyes stared at me when I turned around, as if I was surrounded by

so swirling.

black robe with wide sleeves stretched out, covering my

sprinkle of light sprang into

still stood beside me. His body was shaky, his face wan, and his thin lips, though looked nice, went

me in a solemn tone, “You have to send all the snakes away by tomorrow! Remember that you mustn’t keep any of them in this house. I can only come out once, and

his shape gradually faded before he disappeared