“Dante?” Michael said, looking sheepish. “You realise it’s Monday, right?”

Dante looked up from his bowl of generic store brand cereal, glancing at Michael as he chewed. They were sitting in the lounge, watching the news to see if anything strange had appeared yet. Which it hadn’t. If he didn’t have a menu or powers, he would have definitely thought it was all a nightmare.

“What’s that supposed to mean? Do I look like Garfield or something?”

Michael shook his head. “Well, you do have a tail now, but no. School is starting in thirty minutes. My mom is already texting me, asking if I’m going or not.”

Dante choked on his cereal. Attending was out of the question, but they didn’t have much else they could do if they didn’t. Learning how to use the chemistry set, practising their skills, and even gaining levels were all out of the question. They needed to increase their power as quickly as possible if they wanted to guarantee their survival, and grinding out their skills in the safety of his home was not the most efficient idea.

As for the alternative, there were no monsters to fight.

“Uh,” Dante muttered, putting his bowl of cereal down. “There’s no point in going, obviously, but how are we going to explain that to our parents?”

Michael shrugged, taking another bite of his peanut butter toast. “When do you think people will start dying? There’s no way they will expect us to go to school when millions start dropping like flies.”

“Well, the system could just drop a few meteors five minutes before the timer ends and be done with it, but I doubt it would take that route. My guess is that the deaths will slowly rise within the first month, giving people a chance to adapt, then rapidly speed up to remove the people less suited to the new world.”

“Maybe we should go until then? We can probably miss a few days a week, giving us a four day weekend.”

Dante gave him a pointed look before glancing back at his tail. It wagged behind him, slapping the cushions off the couch. He still couldn’t control the thing. It was more or less an extension of the egg, and to take control of it, he would likely have to take control of the egg itself… which he had no idea how to do.

“Right,” Michael said, sliding further down the couch to get away from the scaled appendage. “I don’t think they allow those in the dress code.”

Dante chuckled. “There’s no way they will let me attend with what they think is a fake tail, and I definitely don’t want people to know I have a real one. I can do some cool shit with my mind powers, but what the hell would I do against a swat team coming to put me down and dissect me? I don’t have a magic shield, and I can barely use the full Levitation skill for more than thirty seconds. I would lose no matter what.”

Both of them fell silent as they chewed on their breakfast. Dante had been dreading it, but he had to tell his parents and siblings about the apocalypse before it was too late. They were all overseas in different parts of the world. If the brunt of the apocalypse struck, shutting down airlines and other forms of travel, they would have no chance at getting home.

“I need to tell my family about all of this before it’s too late. If need be, we can just go to school. There’s nothing to do besides practising our skills, anyway. And as you said, we can just take a sick day or two every week. It won’t make a big difference at this stage.”

“Are you sure?” Michael said, furrowing his eyebrows. “I don’t think they will believe you. Emilio is probably the only one you have a chance of convincing. Andrea is…”

“A stubborn bitch? Yeah, I’m well aware of how hard it is to change her mind, but it doesn’t matter if they don’t believe me. I will make them believe. Come on, we have to set a few things up if we want to succeed.”

***

Ten minutes later, Dante video called his sister. She would be the hardest to convince, so he decided to try her first while all of his arguments and ideas were fresh in his head. She definitely inherited their parent’s logical rationality, but with her experience in the business world, her confidence had slowly started shifting into stubborn arrogance.

It would be hard, but he could convince her.

Andrea answered the video call after a few seconds of ringing. She was sitting on a ski lift that was taking her up the side of a mountain, a gentle downpour of snowflakes landing on her red ski jacket. She had a slight blush to her cheeks due to the cold, and misty clouds spewed from her mouth with every breath. Illuminated by the spotlights across the mountain since it was around eight at night, the place looked absolutely magical.

“Hey, Danny!” Andrea shouted, waving her free hand. “How’s school going?”

“I have no idea, to be honest. The school could have burned down weeks ago, and I would have no idea.”

Andrea laughed. “Don’t worry! If you don’t do well in school, you always have nepotism to rely on! How fun would that be? I’d love to boss you around again like I used to when you were still cute!”

Dante forced out a weak chuckle. “Yeah… fun. Anyway, I called for a reason. How long is your holiday again?”

“It’s not a holiday,” She said, winking playfully. “It’s an imperative business trip to the future of my company. And I should be done in six months, at the current rate.”

“Well, I need you to come home. As soon as possible. There’s been an emergency, and I hope you can come home for a week at the very least.”

Dante wasn’t an idiot. If he told her about the apocalypse straight away, she would probably laugh in his face. He needed to slowly work through the conversation until she was primed to hear what he wanted to tell her. He needed to appeal to her emotions while remaining vague enough to get her home.

Andrea alighted from the ski lift and slid down a small bank of snow on her snowboard. Coming to a stop, she sat on a bench out the front of a restaurant. “Come home? Do you have any idea how imperative it is that I be here? We’re expanding our operations across the entirety of Europe, and no one else in the company has enough expertise, knowledge, or experience besides me. These people would be lost without me to guide them.”

Dante winced, noticing that she ignored that there was an emergency. “Can’t you come back for a week? No, even a few days would be enough. Since you’re so experienced, it shouldn’t be a big deal, right?”

“Delay? This expansion involves three other companies and several multi-million dollar expenses. I can’t just click pause, come home to say hi, then start working again. Building permits, zoning laws, scouting locations, handling licenses, hiring personnel, organising suppliers, shipping, and a thousand other things are constantly being worked on.”

“Then, how about you organise things here so that your subordinates can handle it? If you-.”

“No, I have to be here. Whatever’s going on, it looks like someone else can handle it since you look okay to me. Can’t you ask your little friend’s parents for help?”

Dante glanced at Michael, who was just to his right, and he vigorously shook his head to say no. “You’re my sister. Something bad is going to happen, and I would like to see you at least once before it does. It might even strand you overseas, you know.”

“Nothing’s going to happen. I haven’t seen anything on the news, so just relax.” Andrea said, looking up from her phone. “My subordinates are here. We’re meeting for dinner now so I have to go. Go study, or else I’ll tell mom and dad, and you know they won’t be happy.”

Andrea began to end the call, but Dante tried to stop her.

“Wait, the world is ending! There’s a major event coming and you need to get home before the flights stop. Watch, I’ll prove it.”

Dante handed the camera off to Michael and pulled up his shirt, displaying his golden-black tail as it jutted out of his lower back. It curled around behind him, holding onto a can of tomato paste. After walking into the kitchen to look for more food to eat in the cupboard, the tail wrapped around the can and wouldn’t let it go, so now they just left it like that.

Andrea paused, looked back down at her phone with wide eyes, then let out a burst of contagious laughter. Still holding her sides, she wiped a tear from the corner of her eye and spoke. “What is that? A new tik tok filter? I didn’t know you were into that kind of thing?”

“It’s my tail! A real, physical tail attached to my body. Look, I can even interact with it if you don’t believe me.”

Dante reached around and began to wrestle it for the tomato paste, causing Andrea to laugh even harder. He must have looked like a dog chasing after his own tail because he was slowly spinning around as the tail whipped left and right, dodging his attempts to steal its prize.

“Is that a prop in your school’s new play or something? Which one is it? I don’t think I’ve ever heard of one that involves a tail.”

“It’s not a fake tail! It’s not an animatronic, it’s not a part of some cosplay, and it’s not CGI. If you don’t believe me, then watch this.”

Dante walked out the back door, Michael following close behind. He stood in the middle of their garden with nothing around him for metres. No trees, furniture, or plants. Then a moment later, a haze of iridescent mist surged out of his mind, cloaking his body in rainbow-tinted clouds.

“Is this a filter?” Dante heard her say, but his eyes were closed.

Instead of responding, the cloak tightened into a fist-thick layer clinging to his body. Dante took a deep breath and slowly levitated off the ground. The tips of his toes brushed against the grass as he rose a few centimetres, then metres into the air. By the time he opened his eyes, he was floating high enough to land on the roof of his two-story house.

Dante looked down at Michael as he held the phone, his shadow blocking out the sun. “No wires or invisible platforms. It’s all real, Andrea. Come home and I will explain.”

Drifting down so that he could see her face, Dante found her frozen in shock, her mouth hanging down. A few heads were sticking over her shoulder, some of which he recognised as the staff that worked for her.

“Hello, Dante!” Andrea’s secretary said, taking off her goggles. “Wow, I didn’t know your little brother was such an awesome magician.”

“I had no idea. That was very cool, Danny, but you need to focus on school. If you keep wasting your time playing silly games then you’ll never be successful. Stay in school and stop bothering me.”

She ended the call.

Dante blinked for a moment, unable to process what had just happened. Then he fell onto the grass, his head in his hands. “What did I do wrong? I’ve been talking to her secretary, and she said Andrea’s only been doing emails and online meetings for the last month. Everything else has been handled by her team while she manages online.”

“You didn’t do anything wrong,” Michael said, crouching down beside him. “She just wants to enjoy her holiday in peace.”

“I showed her the tail, even proving it was a physical thing. Then I flew! Above the house, mind you. How could I possibly do such a thing? Surely she could figure out that something’s not right?”

Michael sighed. “Maybe it’s too hard to believe since it’s over the phone. There are lots of fake CGI videos online, and people have been doing crazier stunts on tv for over two decades.”

“But I said I needed her,” Dante said, tears forming in the corners of his eyes. “I said there was an emergency, and she just straight up ignored me. Am I untrustworthy or something? Do people think I’m a liar?”

“You’re the most honest person I know. She must have not heard you since she was on top of a mountain. Bad reception, you know? Besides, even if she’s not working a lot, she’s probably still really stressed about her business. If the expansion fails, she’ll go into bankruptcy, right?”

Dante took a deep breath and wiped his eyes. “Yeah, maybe you’re right. She did become pretty upset when I asked her to take a break.”

“Maybe it’s all just too much to process over the phone. How about we change up our strategy. We don’t need them to believe that an apocalypse is coming. We only need them to get back, right?”

Dante raised his head. “That’s actually really smart. Get them home, then the chaos will keep them here. What did you have in mind?”

***

Dante’s computer rang for a painfully long time, causing his heart to soar into his throat. His parents were on an island off the coast of Greece, unearthing a bunch of relics from a newly discovered ruin. As such, they had spotty reception at best and busy days of digging and cleaning the artifacts, so Dante could only call them in the mornings.

He and Michael had taken hours to come up with the most foolproof plan to convince them. It was the afternoon now, but for them, it was only seven in the morning due to time zones. After ringing for an eternity, his mother and father appeared on the screen.

“Dante!” His father said, giving him a warm smile. “How is school treating you? Have you wooed your little girlfriend yet?”

He was sitting on the edge of a stretcher in their tent, obviously having just woken up by his messy hair and loose clothing. Then again, since his father was an Italian man of middling height and had curly brown hair, he often had an unkempt appearance.

“How is school treating you?” His mother echoed, crossing her arms as she leaned over her husband’s shoulder. “I’ve just checked my emails, and it says that you didn’t go today? Your grades are already slipping compared to what Emilio and Andrea were getting, so why would you do something so stupid as to miss a day?”

His mother, on the other hand, was a taller woman who looked very Nordic. With sharp features, pale skin, and piercing blue eyes, she seemed harsh compared to Dante’s father. One pale woman with blonde hair and one man with a gentle smile and sun-kissed skin.

“I just got my results back from the doctor,” He lied, taking a deep, stuttering breath. He actually had gone to the skin specialist for his yearly check-up, but nothing had come of it. He was perfectly healthy, but they didn’t know that. “The skin specialist asked me to get a check-up and… and…”

Dante choked, forcing out a fake tear.

“And what?” His father said, his eyes wide.

“Do you remember that mole on my back?” His parents nodded. “It’s a stage three melanoma. Regional. It’s spreading to my spine and lungs as we speak. They’re talking about whether they can cut it out, but it looks like I’ll be needing chemo.”