Heat Snakes

My apartment has a really old heating system comprised mostly of old time-y radiators. The one in my room is seriously broken. In fact, just last night one of my roommates warned me to get it fixed, "It's going to spray you with hot steam!". I would try get rid of the problem, but I don't like my landlord and I don't want him in my room snooping around my things for as long as it would take to fix it.

Really though, The fear of hot steam burns isn't what's keeping me up at night. My radiator hisses as it leaks, and it sounds like a nest of snakes which terrifies me tremendously. When I'm at my most susceptible, and awake in the middle of the night to the sounds of (what I think are) slithers, I tend to leave my room and wait for the snakes to calm. Lat night I woke up and, for reasons I can not tell, went over to the radiator and moved all dirty clothes away (so they wouldn't be set ablaze) and I swear I felt something bite me. I could have been just a dream (most of the clothes I thought I moved were still there in the morning) but I'm not taking anymore chances.