The picture was so old she couldn’t tell what she was looking at until she held her tablet away, and squinted, it looked like a baby holding onto a blankie, if it was also a pineapple and if it was holding a cloud. 

Jesse frowned. After an hour of searching, the only thing she could find about a herald – which wasn’t some kind of boring news site – was some grad student’s project wiki who went by Nanashi. Regional myths and occult practices: old world beliefs brought by early settlers and colonial cults. Being a grad student sounded boring.

She joined the linked chat server and left a message asking about the Herald. The stairs creaked and she heard her parents coming up. Quickly closing the tablet and putting it on her night stand, Jesse then rolled to pretend she was asleep. A sliver of light appeared on the wall as the door opened for a moment, then her parents went down the hall to their room. Jesse sighed and rolled around a few more times before her eyes would stay closed.

—

Ringing made her grab her ears, her body vibrated with the sound. It was worse than when you had a video call open in the same room on two devices, but similarly it kept building up and up and up. It stopped. She sat up and lowered her hands. Then there was pounding, coming from everywhere. Thud, thud, thud thud thud thud thudthudthudthud. Silence.

There was a chime behind her and Jesse let out a little cry as she turned. She sighed, just the tablet. Picking it up, she checked, it was a message from her brother.

“Did you hear that?”

“Yes, I felt it too.”

“One sec.”

A group chat formed.

“Mark, we heard it too.” Her brother.

“My head hurts, Nate’s nose is bleeding.” Mark replied.

“Jesse are you okay?”

She felt her nose. “My ears are still ringing but that’s it.”

“What was that????” Mark asked.

An ellipsis came up, her brother was writing, then stopped. After a moment, she replied, “what if it was what Meech was talking about?”

“Nate thinks so too.”

“Do you think it woke up mom and dad?”

“I’ll check.”

She could hear the door to the basement opening, then the creaking of the stairs as he came up. Jesse got out of the bed and peaked out the door. It was dark, but she could see Tim sneaking down the hall in briefs and a tank top. He turned around and started running towards her door.

“Jesse, let me in!”

She opened the door for him and he ran inside, pushing the door closed. His breath was so heavy she almost didn’t hear the light hissing sound, but it drew her eyes down to the bottom of the door. She jumped back and pointed down, there was a small white snake trying to get under.

“Give me a pillow!”

Jesse threw one to Tim and stayed by the bed. He shoved it in the space under the door and held it in place. On the other side there were several hissing sounds.

“Are mom and dad okay?”

“I don’t know! There were a bunch of them outside their door.”

Snakes, snakes, she saw snakes somewhere. Jesse grabbed her tablet and went to Nanashi’s wiki. She read out loud.

“Grauenschlange or dread-snakes, are ethereal creatures more akin to leeches than snakes. Other names include Angstschlange or serpent de l’angoisse, which translate also to trepidation, anguish, anxiety or even the English meaning of angst. These creatures latch onto people in these emotional states and feed off of them, the general implication among all sources is that similar–”

“What does it say to get rid of them?”

“One sec,” Jesse scanned quickly, scrolling through the page, “Grauenschlage appear only at night, if they are visible at all – wait… it is emotional states that are warm and filling like sunlight that repels them; intense positive memories of happiness, joy, love, surprise, delight, etc. have a counteracting effect.”

“That’s it?! Think happy thoughts?”

The hissing had continued on the otherside, Tim had shifted positions so his feet were holding the pillow in place as he leaned against her dresser. 

“It’s not working! I’m thinking of happily going back down to my bed.”

“It says an intense memory – are you feeling happy?”

“No!” He kicked at the door a few times groaning before putting his feet back on the pillow as it started to move. “ARGH.”

The tablet chimed, Mark was checking in. Jesse told him what was happening.

“There’s no snakes here.”

“Is your dad home?”

“No, he’s on night rotation.”

There was a new alert, Nanashi had responded. Jesse switched to the other chat app and ignored the wall of text they had sent.

“How to get rid of dread-snakes?”

“Ah, different topic, okay. Most folk stories have a ritual to expel the Grauenschlange by forcing them to appear in daylight, causing them to shrivel up and detach from their host.”

“What about during the night if they are chasing you?”

“Oh, that’s a good question. I have a few sources but I haven’t written that part up, give me a minute.”

“Jesse, who are you talking to?”

“Nanashi, I’m waiting for them to respond.”

“Who the heck is that?”

“I found their page earlier when looking up the herald.”

“Why? Ah, it doesn’t matter, what do we do?”

“Sunlight kills them.”

“Morning is hours away! I can feel them wriggling against the pillow.”

“They’re still typing!”

“Generally they keep away from happier people, but that’s not a guarantee. There are only a few accounts of people dealing with them at night, it seems that they are ethereal like ghosts, in that they cannot be touched, except they seem bound by the physical world and cannot pass through things. Most odd. Likely then one could not attack them, but could trap or seal them until daytime.”

“They said you can only trap them until daylight, they can’t be attacked.”

”That makes no sense!” He looked around, “do you have anything else we can block the door with?”

She turned on the lamp and jumped out of bed, going to her closet and pulling out a pool noodle.

“Here,” she stood by the door ready.

“Okay, I’ll pull the pillow away and you get it in place.”

She nodded, and he turned around to hold the pillow with his hands.

”On the count of three – one, two, three!” 

He pulled it away and Jesse pushed the noodle into place as quick as she could, stuffing it so it would be wedged under the door. The hissing continued on the other side, Jesse let go and the noodle did not budge. She smiled and turned around.

Tim was laying on the ground, the pillow beside him, a small snake was sticking out of it and was latched onto his arm. Jesse went over and tried to pull it off, but her hand passed right through it. The snake did let go though, turning towards her and hissing. She jumped back onto the bed, the snake slithered on the ground towards it.

Jesse learned against the bed frame. The snake disappeared under the bed. She looked around to see if it was coming up from any side. It didn’t look like it. Her eyes landed on the tablet. Could trap or seal them until daytime. How? The pillow and noodle stopped them but you grab them, but it somehow attached to Tim. She looked at him. He wasn’t moving.

“Tim?” She called out. The snake hissed below.

Jumping off the bed again, she ran to the closet. The snake slithered out of the bed after her. She turned facing out and held onto the bar, waiting for the snake. As it got to the threshold it lunged. Jesse pulled herself up and pushed off the wall. She slammed the door shut and scurried to grab the pillow. She could see the snake coming back out. Diving forward with the pillow in front, she hoped she landed it in place.

Hissing sounds continued. She opened her eyes and took a breath. In place. She couldn’t feel it trying to get through, but the gap in the closet door was much smaller. She looked over at Tim again and called out.

Tim groaned, rolling over and pushing himself up. He dragged himself over to her. 

“What happened?”

“One of them bit your arm. I trapped it in the closet.”

He looked at his arm, there were four little black marks with a dark grey ring around them that faded out around the edges. He looked over to the door.

“The noodle worked.”

“When I tried to grab it, my hand went right through it.”

He put one hand on the pillow. “Let me hold it. Do we really have to keep it here until the morning?”

She let him hold it, he repositioned again to use his feet to hold it in place and laid on his back. Jesse went back to her bed and looked at the tablet, nothing else from Nanashi. Mark had sent a few messages. She let him know Tim got bit and they had it trapped.

—

While she did not think she was going to sleep, Jesse realized after opening her eyes, the sun was coming up. Tim’s feet were still pressed against the pillow, though he had fallen alseep. Jesse got up and nudged him.

“Tim?”

“Jesse,” his eyes opened quickly and looked down at the door, then to the window. “It’s morning.”

“Yes, do you think it’s still in there?”

“Let’s find out, stand back.”

She backed up and Tim got up there didn’t seem to be any movement. He pulled the pillow again and quickly jumped back. Nothing happened. Tim looked at Jesse and shrugged. He took a step forward to open the closet door and the snake slithered out from under it. Tim made a weird noise and fell backwards. The snake moved towards him.

Tim pushed backwards and Jesse grabbed him to help. Slithering forward it went into the light coming from the window. It stopped moving then began to twitch as it slowly withered away. Shrinking into a tiny little thing before it faded away completely.

There was a knock at the door. “Jesse?”

It was their dad. Tim got up and moved the pool noodle so he could open the door.

“Morning, dad.”

“Hi, dad.”

He shook his head and blinked. “Tim? Why are you up here?”

“I had a nightmare.” Jesse said.

“Oh, okay.” He nodded. “Good lad. I’m going to make some coffee.”

He turned around, Jesse could see on the back of his neck the same marks, but the grey circle was much darker. Tim looked at Jesse.

“Did you see that?”

“Yes.”

“Make sure to bring your tablet to school, I want to know what is going on.”

Jesse nodded. After Tim left, she looked at the spot on the ground where the snake had withered up. Why didn’t their parents seem to notice these things?