He slithered into my room again tonight. Luckily, this time I had a strategy.

Click.

"Huh?!"

He was confused. I watched purple scales multiply in thin air and take the form of a lizardlike, eight-legged reptile; his head was whipping one direction then the next.

"Hello, Randall."

"WHA?"

He turned a weird shade of yellow and collapsed backwards into my bed, his green eyes flying open in fright. I had a flashlight aimed directly at his pale lavender chest, leaning against the door.

"Out for some more late-night scaring, I see?" I asked, reaching out of the locked door and pressing the eject button before closing and locking it again.

"How in hell do you know anything?"

"I watch." I turned the flashlight off and the overhead light on.

"But I've been scaring you out of your wits! You fill a can every time!"

"I can fake screams pretty well. You scared me a few years ago, but I am a teenager now and I don't get scared by oversized, mutant lizards. By the way, I've seen inside MI a few times. Nice numbers."

"I—" He raised one purple finger and trailed off, his eyes inspecting my body with a screwed-up facial expression. "Hmmm…"

What he saw was this: A lanky teenage girl with short, platinum-blonde-dyed hair, brown eyes, wearing a loose Budweiser tee and volleyball shorts. She was standing barefoot in a grey-painted room, one covered in drawings of anime, dragons, and one monster; a violet reptile with eight limbs and a bouncing crest.

"You, uh… Draw me…?" he asked, walking slowly into the center of the room and looking around slowly.

"I do. Is that bad?"

"Uh, well… No. Actually, it's…Really good…" He walked up to the wall and pulled one of my drawings of him off it, slowly tracing its outline with a finger. "It's really hard to draw with three fingers on each hand." He chuckled and stuck the picture back onto the wall.

"I would imagine." I walked up next to him and laid a hand on his shoulder, receiving a small flinch as he directed his gaze towards me.

"Oh, by the way—" I walked to my desk, on which a glass tank, computer, and printer sat. I slowly reached into the glass tank, feeling around for the smooth, lithe body of my pet. I finally came into contact with the telltale, smooth, black scales as my snake slithered through my fingers. Every time I touched his scales, I felt my whole body quiver. I slowly lifted him out of the tank, stroking his suave back and carrying him to Randall.

His green eyes lit up. "Whoa…" He took the snake into his hands and smiled toothily. He smirked down at me. "You're not half bad, kid."

"I have a name."

"Which is?"

"Roxanne."