A break in was reported at the house of Melinda Lorry at around 7:30 by an anonymous caller. The person called saying a man entered her home and is now standing still, holding a blade, watching her. The call was cut off shortly after she gave her address. When the few officers arrived on scene, one went over to a window before going inside to see what the situation is and he heard someone meekly say hello. As he looked in, he saw two figures. One was holding a knife, so he assumed that was the intruder, but he also saw another figure, the other person being Melinda. If any thought crossed his mind about why no one was moving, less people would be killed but it never did. The officer motioned for his other officers to go in and so they busted down the door and ran inside.
The next morning, there were SWAT cars outside of Melinda’s home. The officers that went in never reported back. Some SWAT team officers tried to look in, but the glair of the sun made it difficult to see inside. Something the officers and even the neighbors never noticed about the house was that some of the windows were either boarded up or covered by what seemed to be heavy sheet on the inside.
While the SWAT team awaited orders to enter, some officers and detectives went around asking nearby neighbor’s of Melinda’s to see if they knew about what was going on. One neighbor said that Melinda used to be very outgoing. Always participating in community events and bringing treats to the neighborhood kids. She was the loving grandmother to everyone. She also had a fascination with reptiles but people were a bit surprised when some neighbors saw that she had some workers moving in a large terrarium while she held an emerald green snake in her arms. Another neighbor commented that it was shiny like an emerald with shiny golden spots across its body. After that, Melinda and her husband, who was hardly ever seen, became less open and stayed in more, probably to stay with her new pet.
Eventually, the SWAT team was given the go ahead to enter the home. Going in through the front door, some turned on flashlights and when the light hit the floor, a mass of snakes cleared away from the light.
“Captain, we have a snake infestation going on in this building. Should we continue?”
“Continue, we need to figure out what this intruder wants and why he is after this lady.”
After that, the team managed to get to the room where the intruder was seen and found a disturbing sight. Multiple people were standing in the room, one looked to be holding a knife. When lights were trained onto each person, the SWAT team could see that a majority of the people standing around were the officers from the previous night. The last two people were Melinda and the intruder, a middle aged man with a long, unkept beard. All the people seemed to be frozen in place, not reacting at all, and all of them seemed to be in a state of decay, despite the officers only arriving last night.
It would later be learned that the intruder was the brother of Melinda’s husband, who died after being bitten by Melinda’s new pet snake. The species of snake has a special paralyzing venom, that causes paralysis similar to rigor mortis in dead bodies, locking joints and essentially freezing them in a single position. The venom also induces cardiac arrest after an hour, killing the victim if treatment is not administered while also causing rapid decay of the flesh. How the snake reproduced rapidly was never found, however, some zoologists speculated that the snakes could reproduce asexually or in a similar fashion to some species of geckos that don’t need a mate which may have been how one snake was able to have so many offspring. Later, hunters would be dispatched into the area to hunt down more of these snakes as they are not native and could cause problems to the ecosystem.
Eventually the house was zoned off so the snakes could be exterminated while some were successfully captured to be examined. Some people were bitten and died in place during this time while trying to remove the dead bodies of the officers, Melinda and her husband, and the intruder. Using a diary Melina owned as well as recordings and texts from both Melinda and her husband, some detectives managed to figure out what happened.
Melinda happened across an interesting store, one that sold many exotic pets. She found the snake in a tank that was labeled as Medusa’s Hair. She loved the color of the snake so much but what made her love the snake even more was the fact that it could make a noise that like a soft little meow that made it sound like it said hello. She would end up purchasing the snake and would ask some workers from the store to help move the supplies needed into her home. After that, she made the house darker since the snake lived in a dark environment. After some time, Melinda would text her husband to see if he knew where the snake was as it would go missing. The husband would respond by saying he doesn’t know but eventually Melinda would text back saying she found the snake behind the couch. A week later, Melinda would text her husband’s brother to tell him that her husband died. It can only be assumed that he was drunk or already angered as he would send a flurry of hateful message to her saying she should have tried to keep him alive despite her never telling him what happened. Some months would pass, with Melinda keeping her husband in a special room to hold on to him. Then, the brother would break in and the infestation would be discovered.
No one knows why Melinda kept her husband, no one knows what shop she got the snake from, no one knows why the brother went into a frenzy, and no one knows what happened to the snake Melinda first purchased as none of the other snakes caught were shiny. No one but the man who stood across the street, who holds a shiny emerald snake, who runs a shop of exotic animals, who gave the brother a drink to drive him mad, and who hid in the house to keep the snakes well fed and Melinda’s husband well preserved.