”There!” Kamau shouted, already sprinting toward it.

”Kamau, what are you—?” Nyah called after him, but her voice dissolved into the chaos.

Bette turned at the edge of the water tower, her breath hitching as she followed his path with her eyes. He was already half-way down on his way toward the dark coil lying half in shadow, half in light next to the old hessian sack Chang had dropped in his retreat.

It looked like a length of heavy rope, just what they needed to anchor and guide the fall of the tower. It could buy them control. It could save the house and what was left of the compound.

He skidded almost to a halt, extending his hand to grab the rope and return to the tower in one swift motion.

Then the “rope” moved.

Not from the fire. Not from wind.

It twitched, suddenly, sharply, as if startled awake. A violent, reflexive jerk ran through its length, like a live wire recoiling from a jolt.

A slow, deliberate arc that stiffened in the air as if sniffing the tension, as if tasting the fear.

Bette’s stomach dropped.

It wasn’t rope.

“Kamau, stop!” she screamed, bolting forward.

But it was too late.

The thing lifted its head from the dust, mouth widening in a silent, terrible yawn that revealed twin curved fangs. Its body was thick, tapering slightly at the tail, black with a silvery sheen under the firelight, almost metallic. Its scales shifted like overlapping blades of obsidian, coiled tension incarnate.

Kamau’s hand was still around its body, his fingers locked in a reflexive grip, eyes frozen wide as realization dawned and just as the black mamba struck.

The first bite sank deep into the soft flesh of his inner arm, fangs disappearing into skin like needles through silk. He gasped, but before he could even recoil, it struck again, this time lashing upward, hitting him at the side of his neck just beneath his ear.

He stumbled, the snake now partly draped across his shoulders, moving with uncanny speed.

A third strike, on his face this time.

The fangs caught just below his cheekbone, piercing clean through before the snake coiled backward dropping to the ground where it lay there for a few seconds before slithering away slowly, its work done.