“This is such a strange island,” Selena said, following her guide up the tree. They needed a place to rest for the night before returning to the docks.

“It’s not so strange that animals can mimic words,” Yanira said. They swung from a branch to a much larger one as if they fit right in to a jungle setting. “Parrots aren’t seen as strange.”

“Parrots that mimic words are those usually surrounded by humans,” Selena said. She sidled along the tree until she could grab the branch with both hands. Yanira pulled her up.

“That just suggests that humans used to live here, long ago.”

“Or that this place is cursed,” Selena said.

“There’s nothing cursed about this island,” Yanira said. “I’ve been here plenty of times. Some animals can be dangerous, but no more dangerous than in the rest of the world.” She grinned and pulled Selena’s hand close. “We’re humans. We’ve got the intellect to face any animal.”

“An animal has to be pretty smart to mimic our words, though,” Selena said.

“Not necessarily. It’s just instinct.” Yanira leaned on the branch to rest. “Weasels that shout ‘Beat it!’ get stomped on fewer humans, those weasels survive. Cat that asks for cheeseburger gets better fed, has a better chance to survive.”

“I—” Selena stared at Yanira. “Do the cats really ask that?”

“Well, not that word specifically, I think it’s just hams, but you get my point.”

“Still sounds ridiculous, and I’ve heard them,” Selena said. “Are you sure none of them are dangerous?”

“Just don’t listen to anything an animal tells you and you’ll be fine.”

“What’s an animal gonna tell me?”

“Oh, you know. ‘Hey babe, wanna slide down my mouth to my cozy stomach?’”

Selena sputtered trying not to laugh.

“Seriously, though, we gotta get some sleep if we’re going to reach the docks tomorrow, so good night.”

“Good night.”

Selena couldn’t sleep so easily, though. She’d wanted to research this strange island, but actually being there made it feel a little too real, even while she felt anything she wrote would be dismissed as nonsense by anyone who hadn’t visited the island.

She shut her eyes to try and sleep, but she opened them when she heard a hiss.

“Deliciousss.”

Selena looked up and saw a snake slip down from the foliage above. It grinned a wide mouth to her, watching her with eyes too big for a snake as it shifted closer.

“Trussst.”

“Ah, uh, Yanira?” Serena asked.

“I already said we gotta sleep,” Yanira mumbled. “We’ll chat more in the morning, let’s just get to sleep.”

Serena inhaled. Well, Yanira said she’d be fine if she didn’t listen to the animals. What did it say, trust? She certainly wasn’t going to trust a random snake. What sort of evolutionary advantage did mimicking the word “trust” get it, anyway?

It smiled wider and seemed to nod, almost like it agreed with something Yanira said—or recognized a word, maybe?

“Sssleep,” it said.

Now Serena was interested. That was another word it spoke—what advantage might that give it? And what was the first word it had spoken?

Before she could ponder it further one of the snake’s eyes filled with a saturated blue, a dark violet in the other. Her eyes widened—what was happening to its eyes? Another dark violet and a pink pulse filled the snake’s eyes, and Serena leaned forward. This seemed even more important than its words, though its words maintained a growing importance in her head.

“Sssleep,” the snake said, “trussst look sssleep, sssleep, trussst look sssleep.”

The snake widened its eyes as the colors pulsed faster, and it leaned back, pulling Serena forward as she wanted to stare deeper. She’d never seen a snake do something like this, never heard a snake could do something like this, and she wanted to study it, her mind filling with a desire to study the snake’s eyes, stare into the snake’s eyes, deeper, deeper.

As the snake sang its mimicked words over and over it spun its head in a circle, dragging Serena’s gaze along it as she wanted to keep staring and study its eyes and not look away, not ever.

“Sssleep sssleep look trussst sssleep, sssleep look trussst sssleep.”

She wanted to look into the snake’s eyes. She needed to look into the snake’s eyes. Her whole world warped and bubbled with the enchanting colors pouring from the snake’s eyes.

Her vision was going dark, her mind was going dark. It was late, she was so sleepy, just like the snake said, so sleepy, she needed to sleep, she needed to look into its eyes and sleep. It wasn’t a dangerous predator, she could trust the snake, just like it said, trust the snake, sleep, look, sleep, look, trust . . .

A long, scaly tail curled around her hips, binding her arms as it wound up her bare midriff.

That didn’t matter, sleep. All that mattered trust following the snake’s eyes, looking, sleeping, trusting, sleeping . . .

Serena’s eyes drooped as she drifted towards sleep. Blissful sleep.

She dragged her eyes open as sudden panic shocked her. What was she doing? She was told not to listen to anything the animals tell her, which should have been obvious, but she was going to sleep like this snake said, and looking into its eyes, and trusting the oh-so-trustworthy snake, and sleep felt so good, and her eyes drooped again . . .

This snake was doing something to her. She couldn’t move her arms anymore. She felt a squeezing pressure wind around her chest.

She sleep to call look Yanira trust help.

“Sssleep,” the snake whispered, swaying its head back and forth, pulling Serena into its inevitable sway. “Trusst. Sssleep.”

If sleep didn’t look something soon trust sleep look helpless to sleep trust snake.

All she could do was yawn.

She trust so sleepy sleep, sleep sleep wanted look sleep look and look look look, trust what was she sleep, trust, look, trust, sleep, look.

Her eyes drifted shut as the snake wrapped its coils over her shoulders, but she pushed her eyes open, her last few coherent words kicking her to call for help as the snake’s scales slithered to her neck.

“Y-Ya—Yan—Ya-Y-Sl—Sleep look trust,” she mumbled. “Sleep trust look.”

Those were her last words before the snake squeezed its tail around her neck and she gulped, silencing her as her last coherent thoughts were silenced.

The snake sleep trust, now trust look move and sleep trust trust, look sleep sleep delicious trust sleep.

Her mind ceased to create her own words, and it now only mimicked the snake’s mimicked words. A wide smile spread over her face as she fell under the snake’s hypnotic spell.

The snake, of course, had no inkling of what any of the words it spoke meant.

“Look sssleep trussst deliciousss sssleep sssleep deliciousss,” it said.

All its instincts told it was that the big, warm, hairless prey would become so docile and easy to catch when it looked into its eyes and repeated those words its ancestors had heard many times.

Serena, for all her human intellect, couldn’t resist the snake’s simple commands when its hypnotic spell dampened her intellect until she too knew only the words the snake mimicked, but she understood her mimic of the snake’s mimic even less than the snake now.

All her mind understood was those words felt good, the colors felt good, the coils felt good, surrender felt good.

The snake still knew that those words spelled peril for her fate.