May 16th, 2014 6:00 pm

Hamlet arrived home to an empty house. He waited patiently for his beloved fiancee to return home. He started cooking her favorite meal, blueberry pancakes and french fries. He was going to surprise her when she got home.

He finished cooking the food and covered it up so it stayed warm while he waited for his lover to return home. Ophelia often got held up late at the clinic she worked at. She would come home stressed out but shortly after spending a little time with Hamlet, she was back to her happy self.

May 16th, 2014 8:00

Hamlet had been waiting for a while and decided to call Ophelia and see when she would be home. He dialed her number and called. The phone rang and rang. No answer. Maybe her phone died, Hamlet thought.

He decided to call the clinic's landline.

"St. Joseph Pet Clinic, how can I help you?"

"Uh, hi, this is Hamlet, Ophelia's fiance, is she there?"

"Oh hey, Hamlet, this is Julia, how ar-"

"-Is Ophelia there?" Hamlet didn't like Julia, Ophelia's friend, she was always really annoying whenever Hamlet talked to her.

"Uh... no, she left a couple hours ago, around five. Why?"

"She still isn't home yet, but thanks.

"No problem Hamlet, you know we should all get togeth-"

He hung up on Julia.

He called Ophelia fifteen more times. Still no answer.

He decided to wait a little while longer, sometimes there was awful traffic in the city, and maybe she had some errands to run, like getting her nails painted or something. She might still be on her way home.

May 16th 2014 11:30 pm

Still no Ophelia. Hamlet was really worried. He decided to call the police, what if something bad happened to her?

He called the police and told them about Ophelia and how she had left work five and a half hours ago and wasn't home yet.

They told Hamlet to remain calm and to call them if she showed up, they were doing their best to find her.

Hamlet hung up and was incredibly worried. He sat in the living room and waited there for her.

May 17th 2014 2:00 am

Though he didn't want to, Hamlet drifted off to sleep with tears running down his cheeks as he did so.

May 30th 2014 1:00 pm

Ophelia hadn't come home yet. The police had officially declared this as a missing persons case and said they were still looking for her but the odds were that she was dead by now. Not many people had been missing this long and still come back alive. Hamlet tried to remain hopeful. She would come home anytime soon. Right?

He had stopped going to work at the primary school he taught at. He barely left the house to go anywhere that wasn't the forest. His best friend and college, Marcellus  brought him food everyday. He kept Hamlet up to date on what was happening at the school. Apparently all the students missed Hamlet, who was their favorite gym teacher ever. But Marcellus told Hamlet to take his time and to only come back if he wanted to.

Everyday Hamlet would wander around the forest, thinking to himself. He cried a lot when he was alone. He missed Ophelia so much. He couldn't bare it.

July 21st 2014 2:00 pm

He missed Ophelia so much that one day he had had enough and he was crying in the forest, he took out his pocket knife and with shaking hands, he held out the knife in front of him. He clutched the weapon and was about to plunge the blade into his chest and end his misery when he remembered Ophelia's smile. He remembered her laugh. He remembered the blueberry pancakes and french fries he had made for Ophelia way back on May 16th. He remembered how he kept them in his freezer, he was going to keep them there until Ophelia came back and they would eat a new batch of pancakes and fries together.

"Keep it together!" He yelled at himself, "Keep it together for Ophelia!"

He stabbed the knife into the ground as he yelled at himself. He got up and ran home, leaving the knife sticking up out of the ground.

July 31st 2014 6:00 pm

"What have you been doing out here?"

Hamlet looked up towards the voice, a guy who looked about Hamlet's age looked down on him. The boy had black hair darker than night. He wore black skinny jeans and a red and black plaid shirt. He sat in a tree, high up in the branches.

"Who are you?" Hamlet asked.

"Name's Horatio," the stranger said as he hopped down the over ten foot drop.

"Who're you?" He said, extending his hand in greeting.

"Hamlet," Hamlet replied, not shaking Horatio's hand back.

"Why're you out here everyday?" Horatio asked as he looked around.

"How do you know I'm out here everyday?" Hamlet questioned suspiciously. 

"Cause I've seen you here everyday for over the past month."

"Stalking me then?" Hamlet asked, uninterested.

"Not particularly, I've just been out here too and I've seen you here everyday, screaming at the ground."

Hamlet didn't respond.

"It's not that I think you're crazy or anything, but-"

"Who said I'm not crazy?"

"No one. But if I were you, I'd be yelling at the ground too, I bet you have good reasons."

Hamlet didn't answer, he got up and started walking.

"Hey where're you going?" Horatio called.

Hamlet shrugged.

"Can I follow you?"

Hamlet shrugged.

Horatio followed.

August 2014

Everyday, Hamlet and Horatio would walk through the forest. Horatio would make comments every now and then but he was mostly silent. Hamlet was always silent, answering with nods and shrugs.

September 1st 2014 1:00

That September afternoon, Hamlet broke down in front of Horatio. He ended up relating each detail to Horatio about Ophelia's disappearance. Horatio comforted Hamlet with his presence, he didn't know what to say, there was nothing he could say.

September 2nd - October 3rd 2014

The two didn't talk about Ophelia much after that. They talked about other things. Though Hamlet was constantly depressed, Horatio brought some light back into his life, sometimes Hamlet would crack a smile or two.

October 4th - October 26th 2014

The two grew closer. They would hang out in the forest every day. Hamlet still missed Ophelia greatly but the pain grew number with each day. Horatio encouraged Hamlet to go back to his school for a week and try teaching again.

October 27th - October 31st 2014

Hamlet went back to the school and he taught again. He realized he missed teaching gym to kids so he decided to keep teaching at his school.

October 31st evening 2014

The two friends handed out candy to the trick or treaters all night. Hamlet dressed up as a zombie and Horatio dressed up as a vampire. When they were done handing out candy they watched a marathon of scary movies. While they were watching the scariest movie, Hamlet got scared so he grabbed onto Horatio's arm and didn't let go until the end of the movie.

November 1st 2014 - March 19th 2015

As the months drew on and the year changed, the two became best friends, they would still hang out in the forest after Hamlet was done work and sometimes Horatio would visit Hamlet during his lunch breaks. Horatio worked night shifts, he was a security guard at a bank. That's why he never was awake until some time after noon- he was sleeping.

Hamlet missed Ophelia deeply and he thought of her everyday but he knew that she would want Hamlet to be happy and to stop grieving for her.

March 20th 7:00 pm

"The ice cream is in the bottom drawer of the freezer," Hamlet called.

Horatio opened Hamlet's freezer and looked in the bottom drawer, he couldn't find the ice cream, he rummaged around and then  he saw a container with pancakes and french fries in it.

"Hamlet! Why's there a tupperware with pancakes and french fries in it?"

Hamlet didn't say anything but he ran into the kitchen and snatched the box out of Horatio's hands.

"Woah!" Horatio said, "No need to be so violent about it, why do you even have that?"

"No reason..." Hamlet whispered.

"Hamlet, what's up?"

"It's nothing..." Hamlet looked down at the ground.

Horatio bent down so that he made eye contact with his best friend, "Come on... you can tell me... what is it?"

Hamlet sighed, "Well..." He told Horatio the story about how he had made these for Ophelia when she got home and he was waiting until she came home to get rid of them.

"Hamlet..." Horatio started, "You know she's not coming back, right?"

Hamlet didn't say anything before he started crying, "Yeah... I know..."

Horatio pulled Hamlet into a hug, "Oh Hamlet...."

After Hamlet calmed down, Horatio said, "Hamlet, she's gone. You have to realize that. She's going to be gone forever."

Hamlet looked down at the plastic container, "Should I get rid of it?"

"That's not up to me..."

Hamlet sniffled as he made his way over to the garbage and threw out the container with the pancakes and fries in it.

"Can you take out my trash to make sure I don't try and get it back?"

Horatio squeezed Hamlet's hand, "Of course."

Horatio took out the trash and then him and Hamlet laid next to each other on the couch, Horatio wrapped his arm around Hamlet, bringing him in close. They sat there in silence until they both fell asleep when Hamlet's soft snores filled the room.

March 21st - May 15th 2015

Things went on normally. Since Hamlet had thrown out the pancakes and fries he felt like a huge weight had been lifted off his shoulders and he was happier and more lighthearted than ever.

May 16th 2015 12:00 pm

It was a Saturday. It had been a year since Ophelia died. Hamlet and Horatio were walking in the forest as usual. Horatio was leading Hamlet to a place he had found while out on his own. It was farther away then they usually ventured so Hamlet had never been there before.

When they got close, Horatio made Hamlet close his eyes, he led him by the hand through the brush.

When they were there, he told Hamlet to open his eyes. Hamlet did that and he looked around. It was a beautiful clearing, the grass was a bright green and it was filled with flowers, it was surrounded by tall trees and in the middle was a large willow tree. Since it was noon, the sun shone directly down on the clearing.

Horatio followed Hamlet as he looked around. They went and sat under the willow in the middle of the clearing. They talked for a bit and while Horatio was telling a story, Hamlet was staring at him, transfixed by his eyes.

Horatio laughed a little, "What are you staring at?"

"Your eyes, I've never noticed them before, they're such an interesting blue."

Horatio scratched the back of his head, "Oh yeah, that's a thing I guess..."

"Your eyes are cute," Hamlet giggled.

Horatio blushed as he looked at the ground.

"Hey," Hamlet said, Horatio looked up and before he knew what was happening, Hamlet kissed him. Horatio was startled but not for too long before he started to kiss Hamlet back. But then Hamlet pulled back, "Oh, God, uh I'm sorry, I... wait, did you kiss me back?"

Horatio blushed as he looked back down, "Yeah... I guess I did..." he whispered. But then he looked back up and he kissed Hamlet. Hamlet kissed him back and Horatio wrapped his arm around Hamlet's neck, pulling them closer together.

They kissed for a while, Hamlet pulled away and placed his forehead against Horatio's. He held his hands.

"I really like you," Hamlet said.

"I really like you more," Horatio countered.