Miranda's New Life Part 7

Miranda woke up suddenly.  Taking a deep breath Miranda noticed that once again the angle of the beams of reddish-orange hue of the sun was a telltale sign on the coming night would upon her soon.  Stretching out her four arms and yawning Miranda had become use to having an extra set of arms and breasts to along with an actual snake tail.  "It still is kind of strange if I think about it," thought Miranda and she unwound herself from her sleeping coil position.  

Sticking her head out of the crawl hole she had entered Miranda looked around.  Turning to the west a sun beam caught her directly in the eye.  Miranda immediately turned away in alarm and covered her eyes with her upper left arm as she hissed.  A moment later her eye sight fully returned to her.  Blinking several times Miranda regained her bearings and slithered out of her makeshift hiding place and into the forest.  

In the setting sun Miranda felt like she was weak, not weak enough to be able to be aware of the things around her but she felt weak nevertheless.  Miranda noticed, while slithering the forest that her skin was taking on a more of a marble white gleam instead of the more normal human white that she was used to.  

"I wonder what I look like in a mirror," asked Miranda as she crossed the threshold of the forest and the northern part of the town.  Miranda's confidence from the night before has grown substantially.  She no longer feared what people had to say about her.  She felt she needed to stay in the shadows because they, society, just plan would not understand what she was; that the government would take her away and experiment on her to no end, all in the name of public safety.  

Yet, what Miranda didn't realize was that she was becoming somewhat of a local legend.  For most of the day time the local news has been reporting about the local 'gothic four armed snake woman' who have been seen in the past several nights doing good for the townsfolk.  

Miranda slithered into the main part of town without another questioning thought about herself.  In fact, she was curious about how her home town was doing.  For the first time in a very long time she really wanted to interact with the people around her.  But she knew now that she couldn't in the form she was currently in.  A sense of longing started to creep into her mind; it has been so long since anyone had taken her seriously.  

The sun set, dipping below the horizon and the last rays of the sun were shining through the various corn fields, trees, and the small number of buildings that were at the outskirts of town.  Miranda decided to slither through the corn fields, so she wouldn't be noticed by people.  She made it a point to lower her human half down to near the ground as she slithered, so that she was certain that she would not poke up above the corn stalks.  

Soon she entered the main part of town.  The last rays of the sun had been extinguished and the night time stars were nearly in full bloom.  The moon itself was a waxing gibbous and was well on its way to the zenith of its journey through the night sky.  Shadows in the alleyways and back roads were abundant; just the way Miranda like it.  

After about an hour of slithering her way around through town, feeling a little famished, Miranda found her way into the more wealthy part of town.  The roadways were littered with bright lights shining down upon the walkway and road.  The houses sat on several acres, some houses sat on up to 6 acres, of land.  On that land the grass was green and well-trimmed.  Many yards had a mixture of old oak and maple trees to go along with younger, more obviously not of the region trees, and more fertile trees that were citrus and fruit bearing trees.  The houses themselves weren't the extravagant mansions that one saw in Hollywood but were still big houses that were easily around 3000 to 4000 square foot houses that were oddly enough the oldest houses in town.  It gave the surrounding area a sense of living in the past.  

Miranda took a chance by slithering her way onto the road.  She decided to slither her way through the road for a while.  The ability to slither gave Miranda a distinct advantage, she was able to see things more widely as she slithered.  She slithered from side to side, allowing her eye sight to absorb more of her surroundings.  When Miranda was nearly 300 meters down the street she noticed that there was a car coming towards her.  The car itself was a BMW and was seemingly driving too fast.  Ready to slither out of the way, Miranda noticed that a young girl was playing with a ball in the middle of the street.  The young girl looked like she was a toddler and was oblivious to the happenings around her.

Without thinking Miranda slithered as quickly as she could toward the child.  A moment later she scooped up the child, who screamed in surprised.  Miranda pushed herself as fast as she could to the side of the road, her tail almost being run over by the BMW as it passed by oblivious to whom they had almost hit.  

Rolling a few feet onto a grassy section of someone's lawn, Miranda looked down at the child in her arms.  A look of surprise and confusion crossed the child's face.  

As they came to a stop on the grass, Miranda asked, "Are you ok sweetie"?

From confusion and shock of what just happened the girl buried her face into one of Miranda's breast and starts to cry.  

"Hey," said a male voice from across the street.

Startled, Miranda sat up on her tail and looked behind her.  A man about half between then and his property was running towards them with a worried look on his face.  

Hissing, Miranda set the child down gently and slithered off quickly in the other direction.  

"No! Wait, I won't harm you," yelled out the man behind her.  

But before she heard the man Miranda had passed behind the closest house and disappeared out of sight.   

Slightly panicked she continued towards the closest wooded area.  Several moments later Miranda was actually in a patch of maple trees that was about an acre or two thick that was the border of several properties of the most wealthy in town.  She was seen, there was no turning back.  Some father of the child she had just saved just saw her.  Now Miranda thought that she would viewed as a freak of nature who was trying to harm people instead of trying to help them.  A whimper was voiced by Miranda in sorrow.  

She truly began to question herself and whether or not she should have saved the child.  Miranda thought that if she didn't then she would still have been nothing more than a freak that hid in the shadows.  

Miranda slithered out of the patch of maple trees and into the next property.  She took no hesitance that she could have been seen by the property owners, she was still self-absorbed in being seen by someone to notice where she was.  

A scream suddenly caught Miranda's ears.  It was coming from a nearby house.  Miranda didn't realize where she was so she didn't know how long she was in deep thought about what had just transpired.  

Another scream came out of the house.  Without thought, Miranda darted towards the house and then into the house within several seconds.  Listening, Miranda heard commotion coming from the upstairs.  Within a second she found the stairs that lead her upstairs.  As she got to the top of the stairs a woman came running out of what seemed to be a bedroom.  The woman suddenly stopped in her tracks, looking at Miranda, slightly afraid.  A man followed the woman out of the bedroom and stops just as quickly, wide eyed and frightened of Miranda's form.  

After a moment of silence Miranda asked, "What is going on?  Is everyone ok"?

Miranda realized that the woman seemed that her facial features had several bruises across her left eye and right cheek and a swollen lower lip.  Concerned, Miranda took a second look at the woman.  It was obvious the man had just been beating her.

"Did you do this to her you son of a bitch!?  How dare you harm her like this," stated an angry Miranda, her eyes blazed with an emotional hurt in them.  

"That is none of your business little girl," mocked the man, obviously drunk.


"It is my business if there is violence involve," said a seething Miranda, letting her tail slowly move around the drunken man's feet.  

Without hesitation, Miranda coiled her tail around the man, squeezing tightly around the man's chest.  Anger grew in Miranda like a wild fire on the open plains.  She continued to stare into the man's eyes, which have become frightened and small.

"Please stop.  I can't breathe.  I'm sorry I didn't mean to hurt her. I love her," the man said through his gasps.  

"Yes you did mean to hurt her or you would have controlled yourself," said Miranda through her clenched teeth.

Miranda eyes suddenly became wide-eyed and full of recognition.  She realized that she was letting her anger take control of her own actions.  She was starting to act like this very man that she held in her grasp.  Gasping Miranda let the man go who fell to the ground, coughing and with shallow breathes; barely conscious.

"I can become that.  I cannot become my father," thought Miranda as she started to back off from the couple.

Someone must have seen the scene because Miranda heard blaring sirens of cop cars coming down the road.  Looking over her shoulder Miranda saw the cop cars come into view.  

"What have I done?" asked Miranda as she looked down at the man and then to the dumbfounded woman.  With that Miranda slithered off as quickly as she got there.  The cops stopped in front of the couple the moment Miranda disappeared onto the next block.