Flash fiction
First published in Have Has Had | August 2024
“This is so badass,” thought the snake. The skull was smooth and warm, and the socket a tight fit, but it felt good against her scales. She wished she could see herself from above, slithering in and out of the skull, as if she was a bird hunting herself below. “Fuck you, birds!” she thought. “Can’t get me in here, can you?”
She had no outer ears, but her inner ears worked just fine, and she could detect vibrations through bone conduction, too, which was pretty metal when you thought about it. If she could, she’d start a band. Think of the album covers! Her muscular body looming out of the skull, her face close to the camera. Think of the dorm room posters! She had no hands, though, and wasn’t even the kind of snake with a rattle.
Other snakes might say that she was being disrespectful. “That skull was a human being,” they’d say. “Your new home is where it kept its thoughts and feelings. Everything that made it unique from all the others.” But while some of those humans kept safe distance, others happily decapitated snakes with spades. Besides, ever heard of memento mori? Death is inevitable. Skulls help humans remember that – even more so when there’s a motherfucking snake crawling through the eye socket.