Henry is on his way back to the reptile house to say “good-bye” to his friend Phantom, “I hope I won’t regret what I did,” he mumbles to himself, he then shrugs, “I don’t think I will… I mean, Rick is now more intimidating than he was as a human, but he seems like a nice guy”. The 12-year-old soon finds himself back in front of Phantom’s terrarium, the king cobra still curled up, “Ph-Phantom? Are you awake?”
The serpent stirs, its head raising and immediately slithers closer to the glass when it sees Henry, “hey, Henry,” he says, raising his head to be eye level with the boy, “are you on your way home?”
Henry nods, “yeah, but I wanted to come by and at least say “good-bye” before I leave,” he says.
Phantom nods, “I’m happy you came back,” he says, “however, before you go, there isssss sssssomething I’d like to assssk”.
Henry tilts his head, “what is it, Phantom?”
“What you sssssaid earlier,” the large serpent begins, “about me being a “king”, it kind of made me feel… sssspecial. Thissss hypnossssissss power you gave me, it’ssss cool and all, but I wassss thinking”.
“About what?”
“About what you ssssaid and how ssssad you are that I am trapped in here,” Phantom says.
Henry nods, “yeah, I just find it awful, I mean… you should be enjoying your freedom”.
Phantom nods, “I’d love to “esssscape” this prisssson,” he says, “but… I don’t want to causssse panic… sssso, I came up with an idea”.
“And that would be?”
Phantom seems to grin, “if you’d give me transsssformation powerssss,” he says, “after hypnotizing a guard or zoo keeper to let me out, I could transssssform mysssself into a human! That way I could enjoy freedom for a while without caussssing panic!”
Henry’s eyes widen, “that is actually a neat idea,” he says, the boy looks down at his phone, then back up at Phantom, a grin appearing on his face, “sure, I’ll give you that power,” he says.
Phantom can’t believe what he is hearing, a huge grin spreads across his snout, “I promisssse you won’t regret it, Henry,” he says.
Henry smiles, already typing into his phone, “I trust you, Phantom,” he says, “I know you won’t be misusing the power”.
Phantom smirks to himself, ‘oh, Henry, you have no idea,’ he thinks to himself, ‘I’ll have sssso much fun playing with my new toys’. The serpent suddenly shivers as it feels a huge power seem to awaken inside of him, and he is suddenly aware that he is able to not only transform himself, but anything and anyone, he also is aware that he is immortal, the boy had made him a god! Phantom can’t help feeling excited, but he manages to control himself, the serpent smiles at the boy, “thanksssss, Henry, for everything,” he says.
Henry smiles, “well, I better get going,” he says, “I still have to buy some mice for Kain,” he says, “but I promise to come by tomorrow!”
Phantom smiles, “I’ll be here waiting,” he says.
Henry nods, the boy then turns and starts to walk away, turning around one last time to wave to the serpent.
Phantom chuckles, raising his tail to “wave” back, ‘sssssuch a cute child,’ he thinks to himself, ‘hehe… you don’t know it yet, Henry… but you and I will sssssoon be… closssser than you think!’
Henry arrives home a few hours later, carrying a plastic box as he enters his room, “Je… I mean Kain,” he says as he kneels down by the terrarium, “I brought you something to eat,” he then opens the lid of the terrarium and the plastic box, before dropping a white mouse into the terrarium, quickly closing the lid, and watches in fascination as his pet snake, his former big brother, begins to slowly stir, his tongue flicking, smelling out the rodent.