RETURN TO SNAKELAND - Twenty-Seventh Fragment

* This is a fictionalized account of some shit that actually happened. All the names, locations, etc. have been changed to protect the innocent as well as the guilty. – JG *

Something else I noted when I visited the Janks’ former residence on Mansfield Avenue: less than a block away Mansfield runs into Industry Row, and looming over the intersection was Snakeland. If Jeremy looked out his bedroom window on a clear day he could probably see the “AWL-GRAIN” silos, blotting out the sunset.

Now, I’m not suggesting that, like some of the news media, that Janks was part of some “teenage satanic cult” that met on the weekends at Snakeland. This holds about as much water as the theory that Janks was so into the Dungeons and Dragons RPG that he killed his family on his “Dungeon Master’s orders”. All these activities require friends, satanic or not, of which Janks had very few. I think that Janks’ own explanation bears itself out: he was desperate to get away to college and his parents (mostly Marge) refused to pay for it. Not a particularly deep or satisfying answer, but an answer nonetheless.

However: Snakeland. Again, looming physically over the Janks murders in much the same way as it contained the murder of Katie Hoehner, Snakeland physically insinuates itself into the scene. Did Snakeland cause the dreams or did we dream Snakeland into life? Did Snakeland cause the murders and the suicides or did all that blood drain into Snakeland and soak into it, like a sponge? Which came first, the horror or the blood? Why did Jeremy Janks cross the street?

Why, to get to the Other Side, of course.