“Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?” inquired Abraham.
“I do bite my thumb, sir” replied Sampson.
“Do you bite you bite your thumb at us, sir?” asked Abraham again.
It was a cold, windy, Wednesday afternoon; Michelle sat on her gorgy, dark, damp living room, watching the original Romeo and Juliet. The ceiling was plastered in green mould. The once cream walls were now gray and pealing. But Michelle didn’t care; this is what she called home. She loved the smell of the damp ceilings, it reminded her of spring; she didn’t know why. She didn’t have homework from college to do or any other sort of work she needed to do, so she thought to herself why doesn’t she watch her favourite Shakespeare movie? Which she brought on DVD because she loved it that much. Although she didn’t like soppy love stories, she enjoyed watching this one and she didn’t know why. Maybe it was the fact that they spoke old English, or maybe it was the fact that Romeo and Juliet killed themselves in the name of love. She always found it rather amusing when someone did something in the name of love; for instance, people who go around shooting people in the name of justice. It reminded her of her favourite anime (Japanese cartoon): Death note. Death note was about a straight A student: Light Yagami who stumbles across a Death note, he doesn’t think much of it at the time, but then he tests it out and realises that it actually does work. He experiments various methods of killing criminals and riding the world of evil. He kills everyone who’s close to finding out who this ‘Kira’ really is. However his fun doesn’t last long because ‘L’: genius detective, gets involved and tries to find out who this so-called ‘Kira’. This prodded Michelle that we were all pawns of somebody’s game. But whose? She liked a lot of detective books and programmes, it made her think of all the possibilities and outcomes of a situation. Everyone wanted to find out the truth about something, even if they didn’t know it yet.
Just like every Wednesday after Michelle finished watching Romeo and Juliet, she would watch an episode of Sherlock, after that she would make beans on toast, brush her teeth, read Red Dragon and then let unconsciousness consume her.
The moon let the sun come up; the light streaming though Michelle’s window, she awoke with a discomfort in her stomach. Michelle wasn’t meant to be on her period yet. She tried to get out of bed but when she moved there was a sharp pain in her stomach. ‘Looks like there’s no college for me’ Michelle thought to herself. Maybe she was in her period after all. The telephone was in the living room, Michelle couldn’t get up.
“I’ll just call when I can get up.” whispered Michelle to herself in agony. It even pained her to talk; she didn’t know what was wrong with her. She decided that sleep was the answer. Sleep could make all the pain go away, and with that she fell asleep.
A few hours or so passed and Michelle was still asleep. The hour on the grandfather clock read 3:45 pm.
Michelle awoke, she looked around her dull blue room, and she wondered how many days had passed, since she napped. It was Wednesday again. ‘Wow,’ thought Michelle, ‘I slept for a whole week. ‘Even I didn’t know I could do that.’ Since it was Wednesday she would do what she did every Wednesday. Watch Romeo and Juliet, an episode of Sherlock, make beans on toast, brush her teeth and read Red Dragon, then let unconsciousness consume her.
However this Wednesday wasn’t like any other Wednesday. There was a certain kind of lingering in the air; she couldn’t quite put her finger on it. So Michelle ignored it and continued to follow her Wednesday routine. It was a cold and windy Wednesday just like any other. Michelle was about to watch Romeo and Juliet when a black crow started crowing in the nearby oak tree. Michelle walked to the window and tried to open it but it was stuck, she tried to open the door, but the knob was stuck as well. ‘That’s strange,’ thought Michelle ‘how on earth did I manage to go to college these past few days’. Something weird was happening to Michelle, nothing was making sense. She went back to watching Romeo and Juliet. Half an hour past, the letter box rattled. Michelle went to pick it up it some sort of a letter, it read: A year today Michelle Williams died of stomach cancer at 3:45 pm. She will forever be remembered in our hearts.
“What?” Michelle asked puzzled. “I’m not dead!” She tried to open the door but of course it was stuck. She peered out of the window, no one was there. Michelle was very puzzled as to why someone thought she was dead. She looked at the time and in fact it did read 3:45 pm. Confused, she paced up and down in the living room with one word on her mind: dead. With what seemed like hours she decided to go down to the basement, she hadn’t been there since, well forever. There was something about the basement that was drawing her toward it; she willingly followed the eerie voice in her head. When she got to the basement she saw that the door was ajar, gingerly she pushed it open. The room was dark and damp, mould everywhere. There was a light switch to her left; blindly she fumbled for the switch. The light was dim; she could just about see the outline of a bed. She looked to her right; there was an outline of a girl.
“Excuse me.” said Michelle quietly. Her voice was hoarse. The girl didn’t turn around. Michelle slowly walked towards her. “Hello.” She said a bit more loudly, the girl still didn’t turn around. ‘Maybe she’s deaf’ thought Michelle. She was now an arm out of reach of the girl. Gently she tapped the girl’s shoulder. Slowly the girl turned around. Michelle gasped and edged back rapidly.
“No! How could this be?” Asked Michelle. “Bu-but I’m not dead, I’m sure of it.” The girl facing Michelle, was in fact Michelle.
