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A pair of Serpent’s Eyes

Yasmin Hemmat

    I struggled in vain to fathom the mystery of her profound eyes. They were like the contemplation of the passing of a meteorite or the collapse of the tower of Babel. She was a riddle to solve; She was the mystery of creation. I didn’t know where she came from. Someday I woke up and saw her beside me in my bed. I didn’t ask her who she was. I was just mesmerized by the beauty of her eyes. We were together for 9 months. And most of the time she read to me some stories about ancient times; about mythological gods and goddesses and how they turned into the
animals, or
she read me about serpent women who turned everyone who looked at them into stones. These were the only things she talked about and I didn’t know why I couldn’t ask her any questions... even her name; as
if she didn’t have any name. We just read stories in the morning and made love at night.
    Gradually I came to realize that I could feel her everywhere even in the places that she didn’t appear... One day I went to the vault to bring some wine. The vault was very dank and I could sense the smell of blood in the air. Suddenly I saw her slithering behind the rows of wine’s bottles. But when I went to her, I didn’t see anybody except the stain of blood on the floor. The blood was fresh and it was as red as the wine. I just ignored it and went upstairs. She was waiting for me behind the table with a placid face. I poured some wine into two goblets. We drank it together. It tasted like blood and to my surprise, I loved the taste. Some drops of wine glittering on her lips. I bent over toward her
and kissed her cold wet lips. Suddenly my eyes tangled with her eyes. I felt I was looking into the serpent’s eyes. Her eyes were red exactly like the
color
of the wine. On that night I couldn’t think about anything except those eyes. I was thinking, if I found
the mystery of
those big round objects, I would discover the mystery of creation.
    In the morning I came to realize that her body became thinner but her eyes grew larger. Meanwhile, I noticed my reflection in the mirror. I became thinner as well and my eyes... Something was about my eyes. They grew larger and they were red. I thought it was due to lack of sleep. Yes... It had to be since I couldn’t sleep last night but couldn’t she sleep last night as well?! I was puzzled, I couldn’t find any answers to the things which were happening there.
    After eight months our food supplies had finished since we never left the house. So we just drank wine. The wine which tasted like the fresh blood.
When
nine months had passed, I felt that I wasn’t able to look at her. Her whole feature was annoying. Her beautiful eyes made me disgust. Sometimes at night, I dreamed that worms came out of her
eyes, and
she became disintegrated. I even couldn’t tolerate her soft voice when she read me stories since her voice buzzing in my ears. Therefore, one night I hid a knife under my pillow and when we were making love I put the knife in her heart and her cold wet blood splashed into my face. But still, those eyes were gazing at me. I tried to shut her eyes but I couldn’t. Although the weather was rainy and windy, I pulled her body down to the stairs and took her under the Weeping Willow tree and made a big hole with a shovel in the ground. The thunderbolt made everywhere bright and even made her eyes brighter. I put her down into the grave and covered her with dust.
    In the morning, I went near the tree but I didn’t see any trace of piled dust down there. So I tried to dig the ground again to see if she was there but I didn’t find anything. I went back to the house, I passed the mirror and I saw my reflection in it. there were blood stains on my face and those eyes... I could see those eyes on my pale thin face... Those mysterious eyes which were like a pair of serpent’s eyes.

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