Just as the microphone began to vibrate, the recorder blurred and became a seething pile of snakes. Some of them began to dissemble across the platform, but a few were rising sinuously into the air. There was a palpable pressure in the atmosphere for a moment, and the mic silently exploded. You could see the flash and sense the percussion, but it seemed to have absorbed all sound during the event. You couldn’t see the audience. But deep down, you knew — just beyond the precipice at the edge of the platform — somewhere in the darkness, they were there. Alive. Impossible. Observing.