Medusa

Brody took a deep breath and braced himself as the door opened. Thumping base notes and raucous laughter exploded out into the cold March air, carried on the scent of stale beer and sweaty sneakers. Perfect. Just a regular Friday partying with the boys of Theta Chi.

He wasn’t sure when exactly he’d stopped enjoying these things. It had snuck up on him gradually. Not that he’d wanted to pledge to the fraternity in the first place – his father had insisted on that. A proud member himself, he’d raised Brody on stories of legendary pranks and good-natured camaraderie. He’d made it sound wholesome. Not like this.

Before Brody could step inside, Josh Fenton staggered over, dressed in a white sheet and Laurel wreath. He thrust a Budweiser into Brody’s hand.

“Brody! Where were you, dude? Where’s your toga? It’s like, super late!”

Brody swigging from the ice-cold bottle, willing his face not to grimace. “Oh, that was tonight? Sorry, I guess I forgot. I had an essay to research. Figured I’d get a head start on it.”

Josh opened his mouth to say something, but got distracted as a couple of leggy blondes in sexy goddess costumes walked by.

“Dang, these Delta Phi girls got it going on! Go grab yourself one, bruh. Plenty to go around.”

He slapped Brody on the shoulder and inserted himself between the ladies, leading them towards the game room.

Brody found a space on one of the giant leather couches in the den, wedging himself between a pile of jackets and a couple making out. Nice, not awkward at all. Swiftly finishing the beer, he felt a wave of nostalgia for the quiet Friday nights back home. His mom watching re-runs of Friends and dyeing Jessica’s hair neon green, while Dad baked choc chip cookies for movie night. Funny how much he had resented staying home back then, desperate for the excitement of college and girls.

“May I sit here?” A soft voice, with a trace of an accent, European maybe?

He looked up and found himself staring into the greenest eyes he had ever seen.

“No – I mean, go ahead. Let me move this stuff for you…” He unceremoniously shoved the coats onto the floor.

“Thank you. What is your name?”

“I’m Brody, Brody Johannsen. And you must be… Medusa?” He gestured to the golden snake bangles that coiled up her arms.

“Sure, you may use this name. Medussssa.”

The word rolled off the tip of her tongue in a sibilant hiss. She smiled and Brody wondered if he was dreaming. Surely this beautiful woman wasn’t actually talking to him? Her hair was a golden caramel, piled loosely on top of her head in tiny braids, before cascading down her bare back in waves. She wasn’t dressed in the typical Spirit Halloween costume all the other girls were wearing. Her gown seemed more suited to an evening at the MET. The bodice poured over her body like a second skin, held impossibly at the shoulders by two gold hoops. Somehow even though the chiffon skirts floated around her ankles, she seemed more sensual than anyone else in the room.

“You’re not from Delta Phi, are you?” He asked, trying not to blush as he felt the warm pressure of her thigh against his own. “I haven’t seen you around, at the Frat house, I mean.”

“Delta Phi? What is this?”

“You know, the sorority? Their building’s just across the street, most of the girls at these parties come from there.”

“Ahhh. No, I am not…. one of them. But we are sisters, all the same.”

“Oh, I guess you must be an exchange student, then. You’d better steer clear of Josh, he has a thing for foreign girls.” Brody frowned, remembering that awful night a few weeks earlier, when he’d walked in on that poor Spanish girl, crying in one of the attic dorms. How she’d sobbed till the snot bubbled from her nostrils, clutching her torn dress to her chest. Her shoulders shaking as she begged for help in broken English.

He didn’t want to think about that! Not now, with this amazing woman beside him, her fingers gently resting on his wrist… God, she was hypnotizing.

“Go on, Brody. This girl… what happened next?” Had he been talking out loud? Christ, what was in that beer? Josh would be furious if he found out.

The way she had pummeled him as he tried to help her, angry red bruises on her wrists and cheek. How he had grabbed her some toilet paper and wiped her face for her, mascara smeared in black streaks. How small and childlike she looked in his baggy sweatshirt. His fingers fumbling as he helped fasten the straps of her shoes around her ankles. The way she could barely stand, as he half carried her downstairs.

“You helped her, this girl. Yes?”

Brody couldn’t look at her. He wanted to explain, how he couldn’t take her to the hospital by himself, there’d have been questions, they might have blamed him! One infraction and his scholarship would be revoked, he was barely clinging onto it as it was. How could he admit that he’d ordered an Uber, and sent her off to the hospital alone. Alone and afraid, even though she clung to him and begged him not to leave her?

“Is ok, Brody. I understand.” She leaned closer, kissing him lightly on his burning cheek.

“Hey Bruh, nice bit of skirt you’ve got there! Gonna share her with us?”

It was Josh and his wrestling buddies, carrying a ridiculous drinking horn full of beer. Suddenly Brody knew he wanted out. No more fraternity, no more jocks and their binge drinking, no more hanging out with guys like these. Enough.

Medusa took a lighter from some hidden pocket in her gown. She slowly lit the end of a large blunt, breathing it in and swirling it around her mouth before puffing it out in a perfect circle. Josh grinned.

“I hope you brought enough to go round, snake girl.”

She smiled back, but the smile didn’t reach her eyes. Brody wondered how old she was, too old to be a college girl, surely. Maybe a research assistant? He realized he knew nothing about her at all.

“Not snake girl. Call me Medusa. And yes, I have one here, if you wish it.”

She held out another joint, and Brody wanted to knock it from her fingers. It felt wrong, everything felt wrong. Josh snatched it, bending down so close his face was almost buried in her breasts. He held the joint between his lips, lighting it against hers.

“Hahaha, getting stoned with Medusa, huh guys?”

They sprawled across the floor of the den, passing it around in a circle. The smoke made Brody feel sick, he wanted to leave. But he couldn’t abandon her here, not knowing them like he did. What they might do to her.

“Here Brody, your turn, It’s good stuff man, the best.” Josh offered it to him, but Medusa shook her head.

“No, no. Brody will share with me, I think.”

She inhaled, holding the swirling smoke within her, before pulling Brody in close. Her lips pressed hard against his own, her tongue forking into his mouth, forcing the smoke into his lungs. It burned, he could feel the cough rising within him, but he was paralyzed, unwilling to break the kiss.

At last she released him, and he fell back against the couch, the ceiling swirling overhead. He closed his eyes, and hours passed, or maybe just seconds, he couldn’t be sure.

He felt like he was floating above the room, detached from himself, yet more aware than he had ever been before. The party was over, the girls all gone. All except her. Even the music seemed to fade into the background.

Medusa was dancing, dancing alone in the center of the room. Her skirts swished around her, the fabric making a soft susurration as it brushed over her skin.

She seemed taller, impossibly tall. He thought he saw her bangles move, coiling endlessly around her outstretched arms. No, not bangles, vipers! How had he not seen it before? Their scales like burnished copper against her golden skin.

Now she was standing over Josh. Brody wanted to shout to him, warn him to run away, but he had no voice, no body. Just a silent witness, floating above it all.

Josh’s eyes widened. Had he seen the snakes too?

Medusa was spinning in a circle, spinning and laughing. With a flick of her wrist the vipers flashed forward, venom dripping from their wickedly sharp fangs. And now the whole room was filled with snakes, writhing and roiling over their petrified victims. Their eyes rolled back in their heads, mouths open in silent screams…

The last thing Brody saw before he passed out was a pair of emerald green eyes reflected in the rearview mirror of the taxi cab.

“Sleep now, Brody. My sisters are safe.”