“The world is going to end on a Monday.”

  Samuel turned to Rose, who was seated at the other end of the room, and rolled his eyes. She simply shook her head and smiled at him knowingly.

  ‘You know how she is,’ her expression seemed to say.

  She was right. He did know how she was. After all, he had spent the first seventeen years of his life with his grandmother. As had Rose.

  “You shouldn’t believe everything you see on social media, grandma. I’ve told you this before.”

  His grandmother, who had gone back to scrolling on her phone after declaring the day of the apocalypse, raised her head and turned to face him. She simply stared at him for a few moments with pointed silence.

  Though she went back to looking at her phone after that, Samuel did not dare to try his hand at arguing. He knew she was just a single opposition away from launching into a long speech about why he was too young to lecture her.

  “Monday isn’t that bad,” Rose quipped. “Better it happens at work than on a weekend.”

  Samuel turned to his sister with betrayal in his eyes. Knowing their grandmother, she would take that statement as proof of Rose’s support.

  “Even your sister understands, Samuel. Perhaps you should try listening to your elders more.” Though his grandma reprimanded, he could hear the levity in her tone.

  She was messing with him. He hoped so, at least.

  “Alright, the driver is here,” he called out.

  Shortly after that, his sister and his grandmother stood up, going inside to confirm that everything was set before they went outside.

  On the other hand, he took his grandma’s luggage, taking it to the car like his good grandson. Within the next few minutes, all the remaining preparation was complete, and they all settled inside the car.

  Then they were off.

  One hour and a surprisingly small amount of traffic later, they finally arrived at their destination. Samuel looked at the white building in the distance with melancholy.

  Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos.

  They came down from the vehicle, and he escorted them to the front of the building, after which his grandmother started fussing over him.

  “I’ll be fine, grandma,” he said fondly. “I’ve managed by myself for the past four years, haven’t I? There’s only a few months left, so worry not. Your favourite grandson will graduate and be back with you very soon.”

  She worried about him a bit too much sometimes, but he supposed it was her prerogative as a grandparent.

  The warmth of a grandparents' care was one most often appreciated in its absence. That was something he'd learnt the hard way.

  After he finally finished reassuring her that he would both eat three times a day and graduate at the top of his class, he managed to turn his attention to his sister, who was simply watching their interaction with a smile.

  “Time really does fly, you know,” he said.

  “It does, yeah.”

  Though she was one year ahead of him, they had stayed in the same house their whole lives, even as they went to university. Now she had graduated, and he would have to, for the first time in his life, really adapt to living alone. It would be a permanent change, and it was one he was not sure if he was prepared to handle.

  Perhaps it was something he was long overdue for. That didn't make it any more pleasant.

  “I just hope you don’t replace me completely with another partner in crime.”

  Rose smiled at his words, and the memories of all their shenanigans over the past four years flashed through his mind. He could only imagine what his grandma would say if she knew about even half of them.

  “You’d better continue our legacy here if you don’t want me to,” his sister declared, her head raised high with faux arrogance. so you don’t get rusty when you come and visit.”

  He nodded sagely at that.

  “Of course. I’ll try my best. Though I’m blaming you if I fail.”

  “If you fail it’ll just be a skill issue on your part.”

  Grandma cleared her throat a few minutes later and pointed at the time,bringing their goodbye to an end.

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  “Oh well, take care of yourselves, the both of you. Especially you, grandma, since I won’t be there to stop you from working too much ”

  They both smiled at that, though there was a hint of guilt in his grandmother's expression.

  Good.

  “You too then, take care of yourself and have fun,” Rose hugged him.

  “Don’t forget to read your books. First class honours is what we agreed on.”

  “I will, grandma,” he gave her a parting hug as well.

  They went to board the plane after that, ready for the journey back to the capital.

  Samuel sat at the airport for the next hour, waiting till the plane carrying his only remaining family taxied off the runway.

  After that, he ordered a taxi to take him back. Soon, he was back to the familiar apartment he had called home for the past few years.

  Except now, it felt empty.

  * * *

  It was a Friday morning, and he had no classes for the day, so he spent most of his morning doing what little cleaning up was needed and then scrolling through social media.

  After a few hours spent mostly doom-scrolling, he decided to check out something he had been ignoring for some time.

  His eyes flew past the rows of textbooks calling to him on the table before landing on the device resting on the other end. Its call was far more tempting than his books could hope for, and he found himself unwilling to resist.

  Guilt wormed its way up to the front of his mind, only to be ignored as he stared at the video game console with loving eyes.

  The feeling of watching the loading screen for the first time in weeks filled him with a sense of satisfaction he didn’t realise he missed.

  It only took a few minutes for him to get engrossed in one of his games, the hours flying quickly with each victory he won.

  By the time he finally got up to eat something, the sky had turned red, and the sun was already on its way out of the sky. He checked the time on his phone.

  Almost six o’clock.

  So he had spent over five hours playing video games..

  Once more, the image of his disapproving grandmother came to the front of his mind, and he felt guilty as he looked at textbooks he had been avoiding.

  “It's addictive,” he said aloud.

  There was no response, of course, but the woman in his mental image did not stop frowning.

  While he felt a little bad about it, there was little point wasting time trying to rationalise his actions to himself, so he went to the kitchen to prepare something to eat.

  The kitchen was mostly empty, unsurprising given how long he had procrastinated grocery shopping. He was about to grudgingly go to a store nearby when something finally caught his eyes.

  Instant noodles.

  The saviour of students and lazy chefs everywhere.

  A mere five minutes later, his food was sitting in a plate and ready to be devoured. Before he could eat it, however, he noticed something in the corner of the kitchen.

  It was a walking stick. His grandma’s own, no doubt.

  She didn’t use it often, so he was not too surprised that they forgot to take it. At least she had a few more back home. Not like it mattered much, seeing as it was mostly ceremonial anyway.

  He went to pick it up, about to keep it in his room, when he saw something that made his blood run cold.

  Moving leisurely on the living room floor was a black snake that was nearly as long as he was tall.

  His first instinct was to run outside. He could go and call someone to help him kill it.

  He was about to quietly walk outside when the snake turned in his direction and locked eyes with him.

  Too panicked to care about anything else, he ran for it, walking stick in hand, only to be stopped by the door. A door he did not remember locking.

  His attempts to open it turned frantic as even using the key failed to make it budge. By the time he managed to calm down enough to think a bit more reasonably, it was already too late.

  Samuel turned to see the snake right before him, its head raised in warning.

  Snake and human stared at each other, one armed with potent venom and the other with nothing but a walking stick.

  Fear gripped Samuel’s heart, threatening to overcome him and make him do something profoundly stupid. Yet he forced himself to control it. He had no plans to die because he couldn’t control his panic.

  He swung his stick just before the snake lunged at him, and silently thanked his grandma for all the times she had taken him to the golf club despite his protests.

  Stick met flesh, and the snake went crashing down. It was quick to recover, though, and Samuel had to jump back, trying to put some distance between them.

  He swung again, scoring another hit as the end of his stick smashed against the snake’s head. This time, there was a noticeable difference in how long it took to recover.

  Now a little more confident about his chances, he went on the offensive once more, hoping to hit his opponent while it was down. Unfortunately for him, he underestimated the snake’s reflexes, and it managed to dodge before he could hit it. Before he could recover his position, it struck, and he felt a sharp pain in his leg.

  Panic overthrew reason, and he instinctively shook his leg hard, barely managing to dislodge its fangs before immediately striking it once more with all his strength. This time, he scored a hit once more.

  The snake struggled to recover after that, its attempts noticeably more subdued.

  Samuel did not let it rest, instead pounding his stick on the head over and over till it was reduced to mush. Only when he was certain it was dead did he finally relent.

  He gave silent thanks that the walking stick was not too light before focusing his attention on the very concerning, angry bite mark on his leg. Attempting to open the door still did not work, much to both his confusion and annoyance.

  Still, he tried to calm his rising panic and went to get this phone, trying to see if he could make a phone call. By the time he got to the living room table where he kept the phone, he was already feeling dizzy, so he pushed himself to hurry.

  His attempts were interrupted when the ground started shaking. He thought it might be an earthquake, though he was not sure. Earthquakes were not something he had ever experienced.

  Just as he was trying to figure out what was happening, a line of text fizzled into reality before him.

  You have slain [Venomous Snake - Level 3].