Elix sat coiled waiting in her nest. She had been watching the human boy for days. The idea of what to do with him kept rattling in her mind, lying beneath the surface of her subconscious. It wouldn’t be hard to kill him, and he wouldn’t be her first either. He was just so much more intriguing and familiar to her. She wondered what his blood would taste like caressing the tip of her forked tongue. It had been long since she fed and the debate in her mind was delaying it further. Part of her seemed to be growing old awaiting the decision, day by day she grew thinner making her skin feel lose on her expansive muscle. Her mind already seemed made up.
With that Elix slithered out of her nest and went on until she could feel the emissions of added heat from the black asphalt road. Then donning her human façade, she walked along the road until the petite silhouette of the town came to surface, the windows and solar panels reflecting the desert sun’s bright rays back into her eyes as she made her way into the town. Elix then set her course to the local eatery. She stopped in front of an empty store front and examined her reflection. She took her hand and smoothed her long silky white-blonde hair and fixed the brows that rested proportionately over her bale blue eyes. She lastly fixed her fluffy green dress, outdated for certain, but it seemed that some of the styles came back every once and a while as “timeless.” She remembers being once told by one of her victims that she was the perfect image of the American Beauty, a compliment meant to flatter for certain and to aid in the winning of her romantic heart. Instead it went to aid the pumping of her real one.
She finally continued onto her destination. She would smile politely to all she saw on the street, giving a little nod to those who chose to wave. It was a quaint town she had entered into, nestled in the red rock mountains that tourists often came to hike and take pictures of to bring home to their friends and family, but other than that the town seemed utterly untouched any outsiders.
Before realizing it Elix arrived at the eatery or diner as it was more commonly referred to as. She took a seat in a booth, one of those red ones someone might see in a realist painting of a diner the artist frequented. She observed the other guests to refresh her memory on what to do at such an establishment. She determined to read the plastic encased paper with lists of food and pictures to encourage somebody to order that particular item.
Elix was in the mist of reading the overused menu when the server came over to her table. “Hi, my name is Cole. How may I help you today?” Elix acted startled and gave him a sweet smile for his perfectly scripted greeting. Cole seemed to examine her as she gazed wide eyed at him. He continued now unscripted by his employer, “You know I don’t think I’ve seen you here before…” He let his voice trail off as he crossed his arms over his broad chest all the while examining his customer.
Elix laughed melodically before responding, “Yeah, I was passing through and decided to stop and find a place to eat.” She paused as if thinking. “But the town just seems so quaint, and the more I see the more curious I become. I was thinking that maybe I should just stay awhile.” She gave him a look conveying that a response, would indeed, be pleasant.
Cole smiled at her taking in her apparent beauty that many before him had commented upon. “You definitely should.” He responded enthusiastically. He tilted his head to the side in thought, “You know my shift gets over real soon… why don’t I get you your food then after that I’ll be happy to show you around.”
Elix could see the hope in his eyes as she pretended to consider her predetermined response. She bit the corner of her lip as if she was nervous. “You know, I’d like that … So…” Elix paused to give the conversation a chance to turn around to its original path, “What’s good here?” askedd reading his excited body language as a result of the pervious discussion.
Cole seemed to get only more excited and anxious, awaiting the end of his shift with increasing anticipation. “Well we have a great burger and milkshake, but one thing I’m a little partial to is the chicken pot pie.” He then lowered his arms from his chest and fished a pan and pad from the bottom of his apron’s pocket. He readied himself finally for the coming order.
Elix chuckled to herself again watching the effects anything she did had on Cole. “I think I’ll take that chicken pot pie which seems to come oh so highly recommended,” she said flirtatiously hoping to lead the boy on further, resulting in blood pooling to his cheeks.
After a meal of chicken pot pie and a glass of milk brought out to Elix by Cole, neither of which Elix took much of a liking to as she pretended. Cole put the meal “on the house.” After that the two set off to spend what remained of the day together.
They strolled down the streets lined with pale colored storefronts with houses and apartments positioned on top where tenants and landlords lived a life as quaint as their town. As the day went on Cole began to lean in closer and closer, eventually gathering enough courage to hold the hand that swayed lightly near his own. At this action Elix feigned a blush and leaned into him as a response conveying feelings of nervousness, embarrassment, and pleasure in that one action. The pair wound in and out of the few art galleries the town had to offer the tourists to give a sense of culture, snuggled next to tours that sold cheesy mementos that one could bring back home as proof that they had traveled on Route 66. The two talked and laughed. To anyone looking in on the newly made couple, a new romance seemed to be in bloom.

“So, Elix…” Cole asked his new subject of interest and pursuit tentatively. Elix gazed back captivated. The boy continued, “How long do you plan on sticking around?”
Elix could see the boy’s fear of rejection and at this she began to think of life of possibilities, never conceivable before this moment. She considered who, what she was and what she had intended. She thought of her father, the meal that hadn’t been devoured by her mother only to die in a car accident shortly after Elix’s birth. Her mother only was keeping enough strength to live long enough to raise her child, but none the less willowing away in the pink of human flesh. Elix remembered the look of immortal pain in the elder’s eyes when stories would arise on how the pair had met to one day produce the listener. How her mother had been hungry and was seeking a meal, but upon meeting her pursuit decided against it and made a meal of smaller, furrier mammals, living like that until the day she died.
Elix just stared back at him and shrugged her shoulders, for once barely knowing the response.
Cole bit his lip pensively. “Why don’t we go see once last place, before you give me a better answer?” Cole began to tug her hand towards the direction Elix had come from, but she thought nothing of it. They walked hand in hand until they reached a cliff with a view of the vast red desert beyond. The boy sat down and indicated for her to the same. She obeyed and was soon rewarded by his arm winding around her waist. Cole leaned in close until his lips were hovering directly over her ear. Elix’s eyes flicked to his green ones, distracted by his proximately. She was curious on what he would say. It felt like seasons before his spoke, whispering in her ear softly almost like one would to a lover, “You killed my brother, but now it’s you turn.”
Elix froze suddenly remembering the familiarity of the boy. Her long scaly form gliding, slinking over somebody similar to Cole’s body, drinking the blood of whom apparently was the bother of the boy near her. She should have known it was Cole’s figure she saw in the doorway before she slithered off wondering what the figure had seen. Now she knew.
Elix opened her mouth to respond, to apologize to Cole but before she could even utter a sound the shimmering black of an obsidian knife pierced her heart. She could speak no more.
Cole sat there after his job had finally been finished, Elix’s crimson blood flowing onto him, soaking his clothes. After years of research and pursuit he had finally killed the serpiente seductora who had taken his brother’s life to feed her own. Yet he felt nothing.