Henry

 

This is my short story base on the character “Lawrence” in Shakespeare’s play “Romeo and Juliet.

 

Styx

 

For five years, waiting in the church of Verona, seeking chances to execute my plan. To take down the castle of Verona from the inside and save the Verona peoples from this paradoxical rule between the Royal and the two chaotic families. I, Lawrence, will become the Moses of Verona, who will lead the people into goriness, under the control of the Holy Romans. Now, the time has come for me to accomplish my duty. When the moon rises and the Capulets’ gather under torch light in rows of tables, and I’ll bait my prey into the trap. With interest, the Montague boys will also join the Capulet in the feast, to ignite a conflict that will end Montagues and Capulets.

 

Young and beloved child of the two families, Romeo and Juliet. foolish youngsters always fall into the trap of love. As heartbroken Romeo was, he will join the Capulets and find his new love in the masked dace. Under the candle light, they shall meet. Juliet will be Romeo’s Friday. During the dawn of the new lovers, the surface of Venus will glitter with Pluto’s light. They are holding Pandora’s box. My plan’s succession now only depends if the lovers open the box of destruction and hope. By how long will they realize, and close it, that they have stepped too far onto Charon’s boat.

 

So, pure, naïve and innocent, Romeo and Juliet. Love for them seems like walking inside the labyrinth, but me holding Daedalus’ hammer. I will forge the path so that every step they take, will be one step closer to the endgame. A love across two enemy families, their love shall not connect, but tear up the families even more. After the swords has been pulled and blood has bled. the war between the two families will turn the Adige river into the New Styx, and the undesired warmongers, the two families that distorted Verona’s balanced Libra will be all sent down the stream into the underworld. At last, peace and prosperity will be brought back to Verona. Though more will be needed than the two descendants and their love. The plan needs some spice.

 

From now on, as the lovers drown deeper into Aphrodite’s river, I will manipulate them. Their heart, their mind, their actions. Like a puppet. They wouldn’t notice, they are so immersed in their love.

 

I promised to marry them, during the marriage, I could see from Juliet’s eye, she is pleased, looked at me with smiles, as if I possess no harm. The foolish girl trusted me, but I shall use this trust further more. Later in the week, after Romeo is banished, she asked me for help. I gave her my medicine. Just by a single promise to escape Verona with Romeo, she, no doubt, accepted my potion that will wake her up half way down the Styx. Blessed by Aesculapius, it worked as expected. On the next day’s sunset, the death of the Capulets’ daughter spread quickly. With excitement, I went down to the hill which sits the tomb of Juliet to see what I hoped for.

 

In front of the cavern, a figure stood there. The cloudy night made it hard to see. I poked my head out of the bushes, The orange light inside the tomb flickered through the wooden gate; Balthasar was guarding the entrance. Romeo had to be inside, or else, why will his loyal servant be here also?

 

“Who is there!” With knowing clearly, I shouted, “Who is it that guards the tomb of the Capulets in high moon?!”

 

“It’s me, dear godfather. You know very well who I am.”

 

I walked out from the dark, seeing Balthasar standing there, tired.

 

“Balthasar? Why are you here, is Romeo here? Let me see Romeo, let me enter the cavern!”

 

“I will not open the gate, as my master has commanded me to be on his watch. If he does not exit, or any threat comes, I will not leave my position.”

 

“Who cares, if you do not open the gate, I will do it myself!” Busted the gate, I walked in. The sudden scene that I saw, put smiles on my face.

 

The trails of blood stains traveled deeper into the cavern. The torches flickered, it’s the souls that Pluto has taken, traveling out from the tomb. I could smell death and catastrophes. I hurried my paste, laughed with excitement. Turned into the main cavern and… Oh, bless God. What a day! Not only, Juliet and Romeo, Paris was also here! Romeo, dead with an empty bottle of poison and Paris, slain by Romeo’s sword. The smell, not blood, and corps, but the smell of success! This scene, how such a war will it ignite!

To understand the story, you need to know that:
In the Japanese culture, you call an elder or an unfamiliar person ‘san’, Only call your classmates or people with close relationship ‘chan’. This is also a way to show a close relationship

Lovelive! Sunshine!!  Season 2, EP4

Seeing how the other six underclass group members calling Dia’s two classmates, Mari and Kannan, ‘chan’ Dia also want to be called ‘chan’, to show closer relationships

Major Thematic question: Will Dia be called ‘chan”? (Why does ‘chan’ and ‘san’ matters to Dia?)

The goal is abstract. She wants to be called differently, name and words are abstract

The problem is external conflict and Internal conflict, The problem Dia have is her underclassmen calling her ‘san’, this is an external conflict. However, she is also auguring with herself, she doesn’t want to express her feelings about how to be called, she tried multiple time to say it out, but she holds back the words. In the club, Dia acts like a big sister, a teacher, having a wish like this, she thought, will be embarrassing. In the end, she chooses to change the situation by using her own action. Adding an element of internal conflict to the story

Through Dia’s actions, the problem has somehow become worse, she is doing things that she doesn’t use to do, acting like someone else. Seeing Dia struggling, her two best friends (Mari and Kannan), stood out and asked Dia, but as usual, she didn’t react. Though, as friends for 10 years, Kannan and Mari knew what’s going on. They told the others about Dia’s troubles:
“Dia is a very reliable person and a good student, everyone looks up to her, but this also makes her different. This different makes her lonely, and she is afraid of lonely.”
Hearing what they said, Chika (Idol leader), with everyone else, called Dia, chan, and the problem is solved.

In the end, we can see that Dia very cares about being called ‘chan’, because she doesn’t want to be different to everyone else, ‘san’ makes her feel separated and lonely.

 

“Please continue to be our Dia ‘san’, Dia Chan!”

In my reinterpretation of Edgar Poe’s story, I adventured into the view of the police officers. First part of my story, I wrote about the time gap between the scream and the officers showed up. I filled this gap with my own interpretation of what the nightshift officers do and how the neighbor reported to them and who the neighbor is. With make-up character names. My ending talked about this passage in the story, but changed into a limited 3rd person view through one of the officers, Roberts. I added speech between the two character, the ‘mad man’ and the officer to show the difference in perspective. He (Edgar Poe) wrote

“A shriek had been aroused; information had been lodged at the police office, and they had been deputed to reach the premises…

from the man’s view, its the man telling reader what the officers are here for, instead, I did:”

“We have been reported that a horrible yell was sound from this house sir,” Robert started, “we are here to find out what happened,” holding up his badge to show the man, he looked around the interior, “where is the old man?”

This is real time dialog from the officer, turning whats directly told into a dialog between the characters to show the different perspective.

 

Original passage

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Night Shift

A reinterpretation of “The Tell-Tale Heart”

“Aye! Roald, how’s the time doing”

“Enjoy, Mr. Charles, one in the morning, plenty of time left.”

“Aw. Thought the time was faster than that.”

“Boring nightshift aye? Nothing much to do.” Roald rested his leg on the table.

“No reports, no surveying.”

“Just two man sitting in the office doing nothing.” Robert sighed,  leaning against the wall, he lowers his police cap over his eye for a nap.

“Three,” Roald corrected, “three man including the rookie over there.” He pointed to the young boy on the other side of the room, already asleep.

“Oh, is he? Kicked out of his house, much for a man.”

The two officers laughed lightly, then the room fell into silence. Soon Roald also fell asleep. For the next hour or two, all there could be herd in the room, is the clicking of the clock and the burning flame of the oil lamp, keeping the sleeping officers from frezzing and light up the room.

 

There was a sudden knock on the door.

“anybody there?”

“Hello?”

Knocked again.

“Officers?”

The young Jack was the first to wake up from the call of a man and a woman. He stood up and stretched his legs and arms, slowly walking toward the door with his messed-up uniform.

“Hello?” the woman yelled again.

“Coming!” Jack replied, rubbing his eye. He opened the door and stood there, a mistress and a gentleman, dressed in wealthy looking coats. The cold wind of night London sent a chill to Jack’s spine.

“How may I help you sir,” asked in a polite way, “What send you here at this clock? Something wrong?”

“My wife here heard a horrible yell from my neighbor next door,” The Gentleman said

“It’s Old Antony, the old man with a blind eye!” The Mistress added

“Yes Jane, and we are worried that something might went wrong for poor old Antony,”

“No Jacob, I was worried,” Jane interrupted, “You didn’t care!”

“Hey honey, just shut up for a while, will you? please?”

Jack watched them as they argued, the temperature is making him shiver

“Sorry for my impolite wife, officer, the point is…” Jacob decided his words, “we want you to check how is Antony going, just to be safe.”

“Well noticed, thank you Mister…”

“Wilson, Jacob Wilson.”

“Thank you Miss and Mister Wilson, we will be there soon to check it out.”

“Thank you officer.”

“Walk safe.” Jack watched the rich couple walked away into the dark, he quickly closed the door. Night cold of London have surely wakened him up. He turned back, only to see the two officers stretching from a long… sleep, if you prefer.

“So, finally something to do in this long night, Hun?” Robert picked up his badge.

“Could have used some tea.” Roland yawned “Hot British red tea.”

“Forget it,” Robert opened the door, “Lets go.”

Robert was the first, followed by Roald, then little jack was responsible for locking the door. The three officers went for Old Antony’s house.

It didn’t take long for the officers to arrive at Old Antony’s house. The building was nice and polished, hard to belief it’s an old man’s house. The room was dark, not a thin of light can be seen.

Jack was told to knock on the door, they waited for a few second until ringing the bell and knocked again. Then, the door was opened and stood there, a thin man that looked like he hasn’t been sleeping for weeks.

“How may I help you, gentlemen?” the man asked, leaving the door half opened.

“We have been reported that a horrible yell was sound from this house sir,” Robert started, “we are here to find out what happened.” holding up his badge to show the man, he looked around the interior, “where is the old man?”

“Out in the country with his mates I suppose,” the man answered with a calm but uncomforting tone “won’t be back for a week.”

“Then who are you?”

“A family friend of Antony, he asked me to keep the house safe.”

“Do you know what was the scream?”

“Oh it was me from my own nightmare.”

“Very well then,” Robert is still unsure about this man, he, in some way, looks suspicious. “Perhaps you will like to show us around?”

“Sure! Why not, here, look where ever you want, come, come, I will prepare some red tea for you gentlemen.” And the man hurried away into the open designed kitchen.

“It’s like dream come true!” Roald whispered to Robert, “Free English tea, what a good bloke. The three officers laughed, and walked inside the old man’s house.