Devil Down Under, part 10

Garry said, “Donnie, thank god you’re here. You should just listen to what Mr. Butterfly has been saying about our plans!”

“What has he been saying?”

“He doesn’t want to come on our death adder hunt! Can you believe it?”

“But it was all agreed so long ago back in Bethesda; he has to come! What is your excuse Mr. Butterfly?”

“I am afraid that you guys will let me get bitten. It is as simple as that. I am afraid of snake bites.”, replied Mr. Butterfly, eying Garry as if to say nice save.

Garry tried to comfort him by saying “But we will all be there to protect you, doesn’t that make you feel better?”

“Not really.”

“Look, you don’t have to be anywhere near the snakes at all. Its not like we even expect you to catch any yourself.”, said Alex.

“I know, but I’ll be in the truck with them and they will only be in cloth bags. They could easily bite me right through those.”

“They never bite through those!”, replied Alex. “You will be perfectly safe.”

The view from the Upper Deck

“Let’s continue our discussion over dinner.”, said Garry. So the four young men went out to dinner at a new place called the Upper Deck that looks out over the water. The view was very nice and they all ordered oysters on the half shell and the seafood platter.

The food was excellent. For desert they could not resist the home baked chocolate cake, a restaurant specialty. During dinner, Alex and Garry personally promised to protect Mr. Butterfly from snake bites and that seemed to satisfy him and he agreed to come along on the snake hunt. Donnie continued to be miffed, because he had “suffered” through the excruciatingly boring Eltham Copper Butterfly part of the trip quietly and professionally and felt that Mr. Butterfly owed doing his part of the trip without complaint or any special promises from the Reptile Park staff.

But now, it was time to go back to the hotel with Donnie and Mr. Butterfly was downright scared. Of course Donnie would have no way of knowing that Mr. Butterfly was onto him, but still. You know how it is when you know something that no one else does but then you think everyone else does. Why is that? But that was what Mr. Butterfly was feeling. How could Donnie not know he was onto him? He just shook his head clear of those thoughts and tired to think of how he would usually act in the evening and act just the same way tonight to keep up the ruse that everything was the same and he did not know that Donnie was poisoning him with snake venom in his toothpaste. This all took place during the short drive back to the Wombat Bed & Breakfast.

So, when they got back to the room, Mr. Butterfly took off his street clothes and put on his jogging shorts and tee shirt and headed for the bathroom to do his ablutions and wash his face and brush his teeth. Thank goodness he usually closed the door for this part, because he was going to skip brushing his teeth. So, unless Donnie did an oral check up, he would not know that Mr. Butterfly had skipped that part. When he came out, Donnie was ready to use the bathroom next. He turned on the television, but nothing was on. So he read his book. Donnie came out and got into bed. Eventually, Mr. Butterfly fell asleep and dreamed.

He was naked on his back in a sling with his hands and feet chained to it. Escape was impossible. Donnie came in and was naked too and carrying a huge python snake. He walked to where the young explorer was and placed the snake on him.

The snake slithered around, and the young explorer could feel its scales on his abdomen. The snake was flicking its forked tongue out lightening quick, tasting the air. It slithered up and tasted the young explorer’s face, then turned and headed for his groin. Inexplicably, the young explored had a raging hard on. The snake flicked the helmet with its tongue and the head of the young explorer’s penis quivered. Then the snake unhinged its jaws and began to swallow the young explorer’s erection. When the snake got down the young explorer’s testicles, it swallowed them too, one at a time as if they were eggs. It felt so strange to be engorged by a snake; it was really tight and strangling, but not so much in a good way as the young explorer wondered if his genitals were being digested. Then Donnie came in with another snake and placed it too on the young explorer.

This one headed for his asshole and plunged its head into it. This felt totally strange and the young explorer wondered how the snake would breathe. It squirmed and writhed inside of him and made him feel as if he had a large parasite. Donnie brought yet another snake and placed this one on the young explorer and this snake began to circle the young explorer’s neck.

“Why do you have it in for me Donnie?”, cried the young explorer?” He was not exactly sure if he should allow himself to feel ecstasy, disgust or just be in terror for his life.

“Don’t you get it? I’m jealous of you. All of your success and glory, I want it for me!”, replied Donnie. The snake around his neck tightened to throttle the life out of him when he inhaled and the young explorer began to be really afraid that he would soon be history. He was having difficulty taking in any air and was gasping.

Suddenly, Garry was there fully naked. He punched Donnie on the chin, knocking him out cold. Then he took a machete and cut the head off of the snake around the young explorer’s throat, killing it and it fell off of him. Next he killed the snake that was diving up the young explorer’s asshole, and finally the one eating his dick. Then he released the young explorer from the sling. The young explorer was a bloody mess from the dead snakes, but he had never been rescued in one of these dreams and never by a gorgeous man like Garry.

They hugged tightly and the young explorer said “You are my hero!”

Garry said “He will never hurt you again; I will see to it.”

Then they kissed deeply.

And Mr. Butterfly woke up. There was no sweat and his sheets were dry and warm. He rolled over and went back to sleep.

Not much later, we was awakened by red and blue flashing lights outside the windows. His sleepy brain thought there must be a fire. But that’s not what Donnie thought. Donnie knew just what was going on.

“Who called the fucking police? Did you? You asshole! I’m going to kill you!”, yelled Donnie as he lunged from his bed in one leap onto Mr. Butterfly’s and attacked him. He was half naked, in just his shorts.

“HELP!”, screamed Mr. Butterfly. It was all he had a chance to say before Donnie had a strangle hold on his throat. Hopefully the police heard him and would break down the door. The fight rolled around the room. Both men tried to strangle each other, and then Mr. Butterfly, knowing that he had no chance in a test of strength against the more muscular Donnie, tried to gouge out Donnie’s eyes. That got Donnie to let go of his throat and Mr. Butterfly was able to get away for a moment just as the police burst into the room and yelled “FREEZE, POLICE!” They had their service weapons drawn.

Donnie was promptly arrested and Mr. Butterfly was told not to leave New South Wales for a while. The hotel room was declared a crime scene and roped off with yellow crime scene tape. Crime scene detectives arrived shortly thereafter and were collecting evidence and Mr. Butterfly exhorted them to collect his toothpaste. But quickly he was led outside by an officer who told him that they would be looking to collect his statement later that day if he could drop by the station some time. He went outside and Garry was there waiting for him and looking worried. He looked relieved when he saw him.

“It is so great to see you!”, said Mr. Butterfly as he went to hug him.

“Like wise!”, said Garry as he hugged him back. “I see Donnie didn’t hurt you too bad in the scuffle.”

“Not too bad.” Then Mr. Butterfly smiled. He realized that he was only wearing jogging shorts and a tee shirt, but the police would not let him back into his room for more clothes. “Um, I need more clothes.”

“Come back to my place, I’m sure I can set you up for today.”

On the way there, Garry filled him in on what had happened over night. “St. Vincent’s called me about an hour ago and told me that you have the proteins from spitting cobra and two other rare species of snake in your blood and that they had reported the poisoning to the police down there already. I called the local Gosford force to offer our suggestion of who the poisoner was and work with the local gendarmes on the arrest. I was so worried that Donnie would attack you when he heard the police drive up, so I told them not to use sirens, I didn’t think of the lights! I am so glad you are okay.”

By that time they had arrived at Garry’s beach house. Mr. Butterfly wanted to have a look around, but Garry showed Mr. Butterfly the shower right away and gave him some clean towels and laid out a pair of slacks and a sweater in his size. “I have a surprise for you!”, said Garry. And with that he presented Mr. Butterfly with a brand new tooth brush! Mr. Butterfly could not wait to put that to use; he hated to have grungy feeling teeth. Then he helped himself to some of the mouthwash that Garry had. His mouth was all minty fresh and his gums seemed to be healing already when he looked at them in the mirror.

While Mr. Butterfly was showering, he thought of all the calls he had to make. He had to call the institute and tell them that Donnie had been arrested and why, and the progress of their work thus far in Australia and what his next steps should be. Garry and he had to notify Alex and modify the death adder hunt plans too. Then he had to find the Gosford Police Station and deal with their questions. Then there would be the trial. Would he have to be in Australia during it, he wondered? It all seemed so complicated now. He was all wrapped up in worrying about that, when he heard a soft knock and Garry coming into the bathroom.

“I was wondering if you could use any help in there?”, said Garry. Mr. Butterfly peeked out and saw that Garry was only wearing a light aqua colored terrycloth robe. He took a deep breath and considered how a relationship would complicate matters even more. They were so complex to begin with; it just didn’t seem fair to drag anyone else into his problems right now. He looked at all the implications from all the possible angles before rendering his reply.