The Tell-Tale Heart

It's absolutely true. I really did kill someone. But it was not my fault! I just felt really anxious. No, I wasn't mad. I was just suffering from an unknown condition that gradually sharpened by senses. And that made me sense everything, especially in Heaven and Hades.

This is how it all started. I sensed that someone needed help recovering from the flu. Her name was Adagio Dazzle. And I, being someone who has had experience in nursing sick people, obliged to help her. And over the next couple of weeks, I learned to appreciate her kindness and cooperation, since she has been infected by the flu.

"Hi, Adi," I greeted her, as I walked into the living room to check up on her.

"Hey, Sunset," Adi responded, feeling depressed about what happened during the Battle of the Bands.

"How are you feeling?" I asked her.

"Hm, a little better," responded the orange haired girl. "I just have a bit of a headache, sore throat, and I keep getting lightheaded every time I try to get up."

"Yeah, I know how you feel. I'll go get you an ice pack for your headache and some Ibuprofen for your sore throat. And you said you are lightheaded?"

"Yes," Adagio replied. "But I don't know why."

Just then, Adagio's stomach growled.

"I think I know why," I said. "Lucky for you, it's lunchtime. What would you like, Adi?"

"How about chicken soup?" Adagio suggested.

"Nice choice, Adi," I responded. "I heard that chicken soup acts as a kind of remedy for a minor condition, like the cold or the flu. I'll go make you a nice, hot bowl of chicken soup right away."

"Oh, Sunset," Adagio replied, modestly. "You really don't have to do that."

"Uh, yes I do," I told my new dazzling friend. "That's what friends are for."

So, I left the living room and went into the kitchen to prepare Adagio's chicken soup.

While Adi's soup was cooking, I got out a Ziploc bag from one of the kitchen drawers, grabbed several ice cubes, and put them inside the bag. And next, I looked in the medicine cabinet in the same room for a bottle of Ibuprofen. Unfortunately, I didn't have any. So, instead I brewed some tea. I actually thought it was a reasonable backup. And besides, Adi would be needing something to drink anyway.

So when all the stuff was ready, I brought them to Adagio. I had the soup and tea on a tray, and I had the ice pack in my nurse bag. When I went into the living room, I saw Adagio sitting on the couch, watching "My Little Pony" cartoons. I had no idea why.

"Here you go, Adi," I said, as I laid the stuff down in front of her. "Fresh chicken soup."

Adagio took a great, big whiff of the soup in front of her, and then sighed.

"Ahhhh," sighed Adi.

"Now I don't have any Ibuprofen," I told Adi. "So, I brewed some tea, instead."

"That's okay, Sunset," Adagio replied. "I always like tea, anyway. It's practically my favorite beverage."

"Oh, good," I said, relieved.

And then I lifted my nurse bag, zipped it open, and pulled out Adagio's ice pack.

"Here's your ice pack," I said, as I carefully set the bag down on Adagio's tray.

"Thank you, Sunset," Adagio humbly told me. "For everything. I wouldn't have been able to treat this condition without your help."

"It's my pleasure, Adagio," I humbly replied.

And just then, I noticed that something else was wrong with Adagio. It wasn't her voice, her hair, or her body frame. What was it? It was her eye. Her left eye was getting a little bit cloudy. And that made me quite anxious.

Adagio noticed me staring at her.

"What's wrong, Sunset?" she asked. "Was it something I said?"

"No, no! Not at all," I replied back.

I then immediately changed the subject.

"So I see you're watching 'My Little Pony', Adagio," I said.

"Yeah," Adagio replied. "If I am going to be friends with Twilight and the others, I ought to start learning about friendship. And what better way to do it than to watch a show that teaches valuable lessons about friendship?"

"Oh, well, good for you, Adi," I said. "Well, if you need anything else, just give me a holler."

"Okay, Sunset," Adagio said, as she took her first spoonfuls of her soup. "I'll just be here on the couch."

"All right," I said, as I went upstairs into my bedroom.

That was pretty much how we spent our time together. She was always kind and cooperative, and I have always been nourishing, caring, and kind, as well. In fact, I was never kinder to Adagio than during the whole week before I killed her, on account of my reaction towards her increasingly pale eye.

Every night, probably about 12:00 in the morning, I went up to Adagio's room, turned the doorknob, and opened the door so very carefully. And in my hands, I held an oil lantern. For the moment, it was closed. And then I slowly stuck my head in the dark, dark room. Oh, you would have laughed to see how cunningly I stuck it in. Then, when I had made an opening wide enough for my whole body to enter the room, I took out my lantern and opened it ever so very slowly. But I had to make sure that I don't wake Adagio up and/or startle her. So I slowly opened my lantern so much that a single, thin ray fell upon Adi's evil eye. But unfortunately, it was closed. So my work couldn't be done. This carried on for a whole week. Now you may have thought that Adagio herself made me very anxious, but you're wrong. It was her eye.

Upon the eighth night, I was much more cautious in opening the door. A clock's second hand moved much faster than mine did. I kept my pace at an extremely low level. And at this pace, it took me a whole minute to open the door. Then suddenly, Adagio turned on the bed! Now you would think that I backed away, but no. Adagio's room was pitch black, so she couldn't see her open door. She couldn't even see me.

So, I went ahead and grabbed the latch on the lantern. But unexpectedly, my finger slipped upon the tin fastening, and Adagio sprang up in the bed!

"Who's there?" Adagio said, frightened.

I stood as still as a statue and did not say anything. For about two hours, I did not move a single slight muscle. And in the meantime, I did not hear Adi lie back down. She was still sitting up in bed, wide awake.

Then, my courage came back to me, and I decided to open the lantern very, very, very slowly. I opened the lantern so much that a single, dim ray like the thread of a spider shot from out the crevice and fell upon the evil eye! It was open! Wide, wide open!! And I grew furious as I gazed upon it! All a slimy green with a cloudy veil over it that chilled the very marrow of my bones! But I could not see anything else of Adagio's face or body. I had pointed the lantern's light directly at her eye, as if by instinct.

Just then...thump, thump! Thump, thump! Thump, thump! Thump, thump! I heard something that I never thought I'd hear before. It was Adagio's heartbeat. That sound gradually increased my tension and anxiety, but I still refrained from moving, and I tried to keep the lantern still. But the heartbeat increased in pace and volume. It grew quicker and quicker, and louder and louder every second! Adagio's terror must have been EXTREME! It grew louder and louder! Do you mark we well?!

And then suddenly, another thought came into my mind! The terrible sound of the heartbeat would reverberate through the whole neighborhood and awaken even a next door neighbor!

Adagio's hour had come! With a loud shout, I threw the lantern open and ran into the room! She screamed! Once! Only once! In an instant, I dragged Adagio to the floor and pulled the heavy bed over her! I smiled, to find the deed so far done. But for a long time, Adagio's nasty heart beat on with a muffled sound. This did not infuriate me, though.

And then, after half an hour, the heartbeat stopped. Adagio was dead. But, just to be sure, I removed the bed and checked the body for any signs of life. There were none. I put my hand on her heart to see if it was still beating. It wasn't. And besides, if there was a heartbeat, I would have heard it.

"Job well done," I said to myself, almost completely out of breath.

I then decided to hide the Dazzler's body, so no one saw what exactly happened. And what I did was very clever—much cleverer than normal. I walked downstairs into the living room, tore the carpet up, and took up three planks from the wooden floorboards. I had to make a gap large enough to fit Adi's whole body. Once the required boards were taken off from the floor, I dropped Adagio down in the basement. I then reattached the planks on the floor. And I'll admit, it was very hard reattaching them, because I had to attach each individual board in the exact same place where they were first laid down.

After that, I got out a pack of gum from my jacket pocket, opened it up, and starting chewing the gum itself. Now you may have wondered why I was chewing gum. Was it because it was victory gum? Was it because I had bad breath and forgot to brush my teeth? Or was it just for the heck of it? Well, it was none of those questions. The real reason was that the gum acted like glue once it has been chewed for a brief amount of time. After about a minute and a half of chewing, I picked the gum out of my mouth, stretched it out until it formed two gum masses, and stuck them on the place where the torn carpet was. I then took the carpet and laid it down on the floor, with the gum sticking the carpet to the floor.

"I hope nobody would suspect that this floor has a couple lumps in it," I said to myself.

The cuckoo clock in the kitchen sounded the hour with four cuckoos. And that meant that it was 4:00 in the morning.

I was just about to go to bed, but then I heard a knock on the door. I was tired, but, of course, I had to answer it. So, I opened the door, and Twilight and her dog, Spike, were standing in the doorway.

"Oh! Hey, Twilight and Spike," I greeted.

"Hey, Sunset," Twilight said.

"What are you doing here so late at night?" I asked my purple BFF.

"Well, I heard a scream earlier," explained Twilight. "And I just thought I'd find out what's going on...if you don't mind."

I smiled, because I had nothing to be afraid of.

"Oh, of course. Of course," I said. "Come on in."

"Thank you, Sunset," Twilight remarked. "It was getting cold anyway."

"Well, I can fix you up a cup of hot chocolate," I offered.

"That would be nice," Twilight replied.

I led them into the house and let them sit down on the sofa in the living room. I then went into the kitchen and prepared two cups of hot chocolate--one for Twilight and one for Spike. When the hot chocolates were ready, I brought them in the living room and gave them to Twilight and Spike. And then I set a chair down on the very spot where Adagio's body was lying down below in the basement.

"Now, about the scream," I began explaining. "I just had a very bad nightmare."

"Really?" Twilight asked, surprised. "What was it about?"

"Uh...I'd rather not say. It's too scary."

"Oh, okay."

"So, what's new with you and Spike?" I asked, starting a conversation.

"Well, I recently taught Spike a few doggy tricks," Twilight replied, looking down at her doggy.

"Aw, that's cute," I remarked. "And what sort of tricks did you teach Spike?"

"I'll show you," Twilight answered, as she took one more sip of her hot chocolate.

Twilight took out a dog biscuit from her backpack, set it down on Spike's muzzle, and began one of the tricks she taught Spike.

"One...two...three...GO!"

Right after Twilight said "go", Spike tossed the treat upward and then caught it in his mouth.

"Good boy," Twilight said, as she scratched Spike on his neck.

"Wow," I retorted. "That's pretty impressive."

"Thank you," Twilight said.

I was having a pleasant time with Twilight and Spike. She was sharing her hot chocolate with me, and I was able to try some tricks on Spike.

But the good feeling was lost when I suddenly heard something familiar. It was some kind of thumping sound. Thump, thump! Thump, thump! Thump, thump! Thump, thump! I looked down, and figured out that it came from the basement. I tried not to believe it, but it was true. The sound was Adagio's heartbeat!

I was terribly frightened by the noise, but it seemed that Twilight and Spike didn't hear it. I tried doing my best to block out the noise. I moved away the chair and sat on the floor, but that didn't work. I grabbed a couple pillows and put it on top of the place where I was sitting, but that didn't work, either. I even spoke a little louder, but even that didn't work! The things I did only made the sound even louder!

I anxiously paced the floor, and started getting pale. Twilight noticed that I was feeling a bit uptight.

"Uh, Sunset..." Twilight said. "Are you all right?"

"Oh! Uh...it's nothing," I answered in a slight rush. "I just get tense when I haven't slept."

"Oh, okay," replied Twilight. "Well, we'd better be going anyway."

"No! No need to leave," I insisted. "Please, sit back down on the couch and finish your hot chocolate. You don't want it to go to waste, do you?"

"Well, no...I suppose not," answered Twilight.

So she sat back down and started finishing up her hot chocolate. Unfortunately, she only had a few gulps left.

But the horrible noise grew louder and louder! It grew in intensity! Why won't it cease? I continued pacing back and forth, but with larger strides. But there was nothing I can do!

And then suddenly, I found out the truth.

"You're just faking it, aren't you, Twilight?" I asked her, now really uptight.

"Faking?" Twilight asked, confused. "Faking what?"

"Don't play dumb with me, missy," I said. "You act like you don't know, but in fact you do know. You've known all along!"

"Known what?" Twilight asked.

"Why aren't you making sense?!" I asked my purple friend, shouting.

"You're the one not making sense," Twilight replied.

"Sense?! How do you know I sense stuff?!" I shouted, about to scream.

"I didn't," Twilight answered.

"Well, I can sense that...that..."

I frantically looked around the living room.

"I don't understand this, Spike," Twilight told her dog.

Spike was frightened, as well. He jumped into Twilight's arms, needing comfort.

"Ruff! Ruff!" barked Spike, scared.

"I don't know what's gotten into her," Twilight answered her purple puppy, frightened, as well. "Do you think we should ask?"

"NO! You don't have to ask!" I shouted.

"W-why not?" Twilight asked, now very frightened because I yelled in her face.

"You already know!" I answered back, still yelling.

"KNOW WHAT?!" Twilight started yelling.

I tried to stifle a scream, but it was no use. I had to let it out!

"ALL RIGHT!!!" I screamed. "I DID IT!!! TEAR UP THE CARPET!!! YANK OFF THE BOARDS!!! RIGHT HERE!!! IT IS THE BEATING OF THE DAZZLING'S HEART!!!"

I fell to the ground, weeping.

THE END