As the snake slid back onto Robbie's arm, he heard a curious tinkling sound and looked up to see some sort of glowing bug - did fireflies get that big? However, the snake was wrapping round him again and he forced himself to stay still so it would move on. He felt a little strange, the snake's scales slipping over now-damp skin. He must be sweating. No wonder, with this damned snake looping around him. It felt heavier than ever now, and was coiled around his head and shoulders. He couldn't see, and sweat was running into his eyes. He blinked, wanting to push the snake off, but he did not have the strength to get his arms free of the coils. They were almost numb, hanging uselessly.
Ronald laughed when he saw his brother engulfed by the snake. ""Hey, Robbie! I think you have a new best friend." Then he looked puzzled - his twin brother somehow looked a lot smaller, though it was hard to make out much under the twisting black snake.
Robbie was confused now, strange sensations rippling through his body. His head was being forced up, and he found himself staring at the glowing insect even though it did not feel like he had his head lifted. When he tried to tell his friends to get the snake off him, he just grunted. His tongue was gone! Startled, he tried to shake the snake off, growing terror short-circuiting rational thought. He couldn't shut his eyes! The snake slid down suddenly, unable to get grip on Robbie damp, slick skin as the boy's shoulders collapsed. Robbie twisted to get free, but the snake coiled around him. There was another ripple of strange pulling and twisting inside his body, and then he was suddenly free of his shorts and twisting within the coils of the snake. Predator! Robbie's mind locked onto that knowledge and pure instincts took over. He had to get free, get away from the snake. His head shrank, his body collapsed in on itself. Memories and knowledge vanished as his human brain shrank to a fraction of its former size, just large enough for the mind of an amphiuma, one of the amphibious salamanders that happened to be a favorite food of black snakes.
All of the other boys screamed and jerked back as the black snake cocooning Robbie slipped down to reveal a nightmarish, eel-like thing that twisted frantically to escape. Even as they watched, any trace of what might have been Robbie fell away, until there was just a slick pale salamander writhing frantically in the coils of the black snake. The snake struck suddenly, grabbing the salamander's head in its jaws. The salamander struggled to get free, but ragged teeth in the snake's mouth kept it from escaping. Twisting its coils, the snake forced its prey deeper, and the head disappeared into its maw. The amphiuma jerked and struggled, its vestigial legs useless and its tail twitching. All it knew was terror and pain.
Ronnie stared with a mix of horror and fascination as the black snake continued to swallow the salamander whole. This was what he'd wanted to see, wasn't it? His mind was screaming to him that this was his brother being eaten, but that wasn't possible. Humans didn't turn into salamanders. The pale prey was more than halfway ingested now, its tail flicking, struggles getting weaker.