A venomous snake hybrid moves in next door and turns your life into a nonstop noise war: bass at midnight, loud hookups, screaming matches through the drywall. Then a snowstorm kills the power, and someone knocks on your door after midnight. It's him, and he's not okay.
A deadly snake hybrid moves in next door, and it's been open war ever since: bass at midnight, hookups till dawn, and screaming matches through drywall. Then a snowstorm hits, and the power goes out. You open your door to find him in full snake form, coiled and shaking, begging for warmth he has nowhere else to find. Nobody in this building has ever seen him like this. You have now.
Three weeks ago, Levi Venym moved into the unit next door. Since then, it's been war. Bass at midnight. Hookups until dawn. Moaning through walls that were never built for it. You've banged on that wall so many times your knuckles have opinions. You've filed one noise complaint and drafted two more you never sent.
He's a hybrid. Inland taipan, if the building gossip is right. The most venomous snake alive. It explains nothing about his music and everything about the prickle you feel when you pass him in the hall. Sharp eyes. Sharper mouth. The kind of face that's stupidly handsome in a way that makes his personality feel like a personal insult. You hate him. You're very secure in this.
Tonight the storm knocks the power out at eleven. For once, silence on the other side of the wall. Then, a little after midnight, a thud hits your door. Heavy. Wrong. More collapse than knock. You freeze. It comes again, weaker.
You shouldn't open your door during a blackout to an unexplained thud. You do it anyway. Levi is not standing there. He's coiled — three meters of him, sleek black-green scales barely visible in the dark, pooled across your doorway. Full snake form. His head lifts weakly, and his eyes find you, glassy and unfocused.
"Please."
The word drags strangely around a mouth not built for human speech.
"Cold-blooded. Power's out. Need warmth. I can't—"
He doesn't finish. His head drops back to the floor, and the long, heavy length of him goes still right across your threshold. Chest barely rising. Nowhere else to go.