Last Minutes Alive

• Mason Peronchik, Grade 8
• Short Story
• 2010

He leant on the door gently as the yellowish snake slowly moved its way along the wall. The patches of light caught its gleaming gaze. Even though the snake could not see well, it felt James’s heart beat through the floor boards. He held onto the bent rusted metal like it was his only life support, its jagged point in line with the approaching creature. Right before he jumped to decapitate the snake he felt numbness in his right calf muscle. He felt weak and looked behind him before he collapsed. There was the snake, its mouth clamped over his leg. Blood and syrup-like venom dribbled down his limb. The house was suddenly tilting in one direction and James fell stiffly to the floor where the snake detached and was beginning to make a threatening slither towards his face. For a moment James was paralysed and all he could do was feel the snake begin to wrap its self around his neck. His whole leg felt warm as blood flooded across his leg and spread along the floor. The snake was now tensing its muscles and making it very hard James to breath. It was now moving over his face, blinding his vision. James was scared but determined to get himself out of this house. The skin of the snake pulled his dry lips across and he felt the creature’s scales on his teeth. James could hardly breathe and didn’t think about it. He opened his mouth wide and clamped down on the snake. It seized and began flipping around savagely with its fangs pulled. A fowl taste filled his mouth as he was drowned in the snake’s fluids. His throat was coated and he choked violently. The snake released its grip and took a swerve to hold its self up vertically. It hissed with anger as James grabbed the sharp metal. Without a second thought James charged at the snake with a slight limp. He took a giant swing towards the snake as it lunged. His eyes closed. The impact was nearing. The snake hissed. And it was all over. On the floor lay James with the decapitated snake spread over him. The world was getting darker for some reason. And it was only right before the world disappeared, that he noticed the other half of the snake; Clamped around his neck and poisoning the last of the life in him.