TW: ophidiophobia[In the domino effect of chaos that befalls Repose, a few stories crop up. The first is that something happened at the lake. The surface of it is a near belly-white from the bobbing corpses of fish, snakes, and other small animals that made the body of water home. Some look as if nothing's touched them. Others are in pieces, with apparent bite marks where their bodies are shredded.
The second story is of a snake, captured among the cattails by a group of rangers sent to inspect the water for contaminants. It's noteworthy only due to its size and aggressiveness. At 15 feet long, once rumor gets out, some residents wonder among themselves if this the so-called lake monster—or one of its descendants. Didn't people say the Loch Ness Monster was just a catfish? The snake is held at the ranger station in a makeshift enclosure until handlers can arrive from the Capital.
In a matter of hours, however, the snake is missing. The dazed rangers present at the station claim not to remember seeing a gargantuan snake slipping away.]