At the cobra's mere mention of Todd the anole gulped and went dark green as her emotions shifted.
"L-Look... I... I don't know what they did with him. The cops took him, and..."
"You know." The cobra stared down at the tiny anole woman and her eyes took on a cold reptilian stare. "It wassssn't very nice of you to get him into trouble like that, wasss it? Thissss whole messsss was your fault, wassssn't it?"
"No!" Sandra cried, staggering back and nearly falling off the edge of the table. Saw saw the cobra woman's suddenly menacing stare and realized that she held her literal fate in her hands. She stared at the remote. She stared back at the snake.
"Please." The anole fell to her knees. "Please. Don't. I'm already a freak..."
"Oh?" The snake leaned in. "Doessss that make me a freak too, little Sssssandra?"
"Yes!" She blurted, barely thinking, and gasped. "No! No, I mean no! I'm a freak! You're not!"
The anole screamed in her high pitched voice and tried to leap off the table as the cobra's giant hand snapped out to grab her. It was a futile attempt. The snake's reflexes were serpentine fast and in a lightning movement the cobra had the tiny anole woman by the ankle, holding her upside down as she cried out and squirmed desperately.
"Now, now." The cobra raised the upside down anole into the air and held her up for examination. The oversized t-shirt fell to the floor to reveal her vulnerable nude body. The cobra turned her and took hold of her other leg in her other hand. "You've already hurt ussss by getting Todd arresssssted before you even really undersssstood what wassss going on."
The anole screamed as the snake grabbed her flailing arms together and pinned her kicking legs in her other hand. She held up the squirming lizard and pulled, tugging her body tight and making her scream again.
"I could sssssnap you in half." The cobra said with a sinister grin. "How awful of a human being you were, ssssstarving ussss, letting ussss live in our own filth. For sssssomebody attracted to lizardsssss, it makesssss it even more horrible, don't you think, my tiny helplessssss friend?"
"YES!" Sandra screamed as loud as she could, struggling as she felt the cobra's hands tugging on her fragile body, knowing that with the proper amount of force the giant snake could easily pull her tiny body apart.
"I'm sssssorry?" The cobra intoned, leaning in. "Do you have sssssomething to ssssay, little Ssssandra?"
"YES!" The anole screamed again, and began sobbing as the snake gave her another tug. She felt like her stomach muscles might split apart. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! Please, don't! Please don't kill me! Please!"
The snake felt a pang of guilt. She was indeed not a monster. She carefully set the shaking anole woman down on the table in front of her and watched as she raised to her hands and knees crying hysterically.
"There, there, now." The cobra stroked her scaled back and sighed. "That'ssss enough."
The smaller lizard fell to her rump in emotional exhaustion and stared up at the giant cobra woman in defeat. "What are you going to do to me?"
At that exact moment the cellphone from the administrator's pants pocket began to ring. Startled, Boss turned from the anole, who took several scoots back in the cafe tabletop, and quickly fished out the phone. Although unfamiliar with it, it didn't take a genius to know to hit the little green phone button.
It was Gustav's voice on the other end of the line. "Listen, chief. Maybe you can live with murdering a bunch of animals, but... but these aren't animals anymore. They're people! I'm ordering the rest of the keepers to put their fucking guns away and go home while we figure this out. I'm not going to do it."
The cobra smiled on the other end of the phone and nodded at her own sound judgement of the human's intentions. "I'm pleassssed to hear that." She said softly.
The other end of the phone went very quiet for a second and the chief game warden suddenly spoke again, his voice very subdued. "Is he dead?"
"No." Boss shrugged. She wasn't lying. "But you won't be seeing or hearing that man again." Also not a lie.
"We can talk about all of this, can't we?" Gustav asked. "You... you seem reasonable. Right? Uh... ma'am?"
The cobra's grin grew wider. "I am happy to talk. You might run into sssssome of my kin. They are hiding throughout the groundssss. If you do, pleasssse don't hurt them. Tell them we've sssspoken. I expect you to be unarmed asss well. Issss that fair?"
"A-All right." Gustav said in a sort of relief. She heard him sigh. "All right, fine. That's fine. Where do you want to meet?"
"I am here at the big..." She searched for the word and spied a sign over one of the kitchens. "Kaf?"
"Cafe." Gustav corrected. He suddenly corrected himself. "B-But fine! Sure! I'll be there in a few minutes."
Boss hung up the phone, pleased with her faith in that particular human being, and turned back to see the anole trembling on the table, naked and afraid and helpless and small.
"Now, then..." The cobra turned back to Sandra and smirked. "Jusssst what ssssshould we do with you, hmmm?"