I turned when the preacher reached the bottom of the steps and saw him carrying a copperhead in his arms. It looked just like the one he’d killed a few nights before. Its head was aimed at me, and there was nothing but a deep void in its eyes. Randy Jessup sang a few more notes of the old Appalachian traditional and said, “It’s nice of you to join me for Sister Andrea’s mourning, friend. Jesus gives us comfort in the book of Matthew where He said, ‘Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.’ It’s an unfortunate thing having to send her to her Heavenly Father in this manner, but you understand I could not remain in the company of a woman whose heart is snares and nets. It’s as Ecclesiastes says, ‘whoso pleaseth God shall escape from her; but the sinner shall be taken by her.’ It’s why she lays in that tub before you. She’s better off in the hands of God Almighty than remaining in her sinful ways. You, on the other hand, will not be seeing Him this day. You’ll find yourself swimming in the lake of fire here shortly, friend.”

Randy Jessup slung the snake at me before I could grab the gun. The copperhead hit me in the chest, and I fell back into the baptismal tub. Snakes tumbled onto the floor. I rolled out of the way, but the copperhead followed. Its mouth opened into a great maw and struck at me. Randy Jessup collected snakes from the floor and tossed them at me.

I rolled to the other side of the tub, and Randy Jessup lost sight of me and stopped throwing snakes. I pinned the copperhead to the floor by the back of the head and smashed it with an ugly crunch. I didn’t let up until the snake stopped moving and Randy Jessup had a pistol trained on me.

Snakes twisted around his shoes. He stepped closer to me, kicking snakes as he went. “Here these words from the book of Ezekiel, friend. ‘Now is the end come upon thee, and I will send mine anger upon thee according to thy ways, and will recompense upon thee all thine abominations.’”

Randy Jessup put the gun against the back of my head, and I ignored him as one of his snakes slithered into my hand. I twisted around, and a bullet ricocheted off the floor, and I stabbed the snake into the meat of his thigh headfirst. The preacher hollered like the Holy Ghost possessed him and dropped the gun. Randy pummeled me with wild blows. I jacked my elbow into his chin so hard angels appeared to him.