Regret

He was standing in the cereal aisle of a grocery store. He took a box from the upper shelf and was about to put it in his cart when his eyes suddenly caught a glimpse of a familiar face. A tall figure with pale glowing skin, amber eyes, and chestnut hair. The figure was wearing a black hoodie and jeans. As the man looked at him, the figure gave him an ironic smile. Bewildered by what he might have seen, the man rubbed his eyes, but when he opened them again, the figure was gone. The man sighed in relief and said to himself, “fewh…It was just an illusion.” Though he was convinced he had not seen anyone, his heart kept beating violently, making it harder for him to think and breathe. He swiftly walked to a vending machine, leaving his cart at the cereal aisle. He impatiently thrust in a dollar. A bottle of water came out. He opened it aggressively and gulped the water in, trying to ease his heart.

A few days later while doing some cardio, a low voice whispered in his ear, “ Hey Michael.” The voice made him stop. He looked back but no one was there. His heart began to beat faster and faster. He hastily looked around, but the figure was not there. He was breathing heavily. He then punched himself hard on the chest and took a sip of water from his bottle. He said to himself aloud, “ He’s not here anymore, so stop driving me mad, heart. I did what was right." And he began running again. As he ran he asked himself, “ But was it right?”

Days went by, and he began to think he was free from his guilt. Then one day, while watching TV the screen suddenly glitched, or he thought it did. And a video of a man being shot from all sides suddenly took over. As the first bullet hit the man's body, he gave out a horrendous scream. The scream pierced through his ears like the sound from scratching a blackboard. He instinctively turned off the TV and threw the remote far from him. Michael gripped his head tightly and began to put pressure on it in an attempt to soothe his headache from the scream. But this proved ineffective for the wailing sound echoed in his head over and over again.

He stood up and went to the kitchen. He aggressively opened the drawers, pushing everything aside with his hands. He continued this impatient search through the drawers and as he continued the pitch and volume of the shriek only increased in his head.

He found what he had been looking for (sleeping pills). He popped the lid off launching it several feet away. He rashly poured eight or nine pills in his hand and in a desperate action to stop the scream from destroying his mind. He gulped them all in. He began to feel dizzy as the sleeping pills took effect. Then suddenly he fell, entangled in a deep sleep. But this sleep was the most unbearable one he had ever felt. He could not seem to wake up no matter how hard he tried.

A few scenes kept repeating in his mind over and over again and having to live through them again and again made things especially painful.

Scene One

Michael and the figure sat face to face.

“ Michael. Chill. It’s no big deal,” the figure said.

 “ No! It is a ‘big deal’. You stole that money!” Michael exclaimed furiously.

 “ Shh… Try to speak a little lower man. You don’t want everyone here to get suspicious,” the figure replied coolly.

“ You need to stop this Chris. You’re going too far," Michael said.

“ Oh… Like you know anything about what I’m going through. Reality check! I wasn’t born perfect like you,” the figure answered.

“ You’re right. I don’t know what you’re going through. So please tell me!” Michael said to the figure, and the scene vanishes.

Scene Two

Michael and Chris were sitting in a dimly lit room. Michael reached into his pocket and pulled out a sealed envelope. He put the envelope on the table and slid it towards Chris. As he did so he gave Chris a sincere smile. Chris received the envelope with a grateful air.

Michael said, “ I’m so glad you’ve decided to turn over a new leaf.”

Chris replied, “ Me too.”

Scene Three

Michael was sitting in his reading room reading the daily paper when his eyes went by the heading 'Breaking News'. As he read the paper his eyes opened to an extent that they would pop out of his head and each sentence caused him to frown and bite his lips. Once he read the entire article he threw the paper on the floor and began to knock his head on the wall.

Scene Four

Michael was yelling furiously at Chris, “ When I gave you the money I thought you were gonna open a shop or something. Not murder a whole family.”

 Chris replied, “Look I had some debts to give. I used the money to…”

Michael cut in, “ Then why did you murder that family.”

Chris answered, “ I needed the money. Okay.”

Michael answered, “ Then you could have taken it from me.”

Chris replied, “ I didn’t wanna burden you.”

Michael replied furiously, “ Oh don’t lie. Because if that were true, you would have never taken that 100K from me then. You… You monster!”

Scene Five

Michael was on the phone, “ Hello. Is this the police department?”

The voice on the phone answered, “ Yes. How may I help you, sir?”

Michael replied, “ I’m Mr. Michael Smith. I have some information on the Yakamata family murder.”

Scene Six

Michael was sitting on the couch watching TV when suddenly his phone rang. He answered it.

“ Hello. Is this Mr. Michael Smith?” the voice on the phone inquired.

“ Yes. That’s me. Who is this?” Michael answered.

“ I’m officer Max. I just wanted to thank you for helping us catch the criminal,” The voice answered.

“ Umm… It was nothing. Don’t mention it. So how long is the sentence?” Michael asked.

“ Sentence? Oh no sentence, Sir. The penalty for deliberate murder is death. The judge gave the decision this morning in court,” The voice answered.

Michael exclaimed, “ What!”

This kept repeating in his head again and again, till finally, he heard a sound from the outside. It was a man, “ Never thought my best friend would have me murdered.” It was Chris’s voice. Michael woke up abruptly, as if from a bad dream. As he sat straight, he shouted, “ I’m sorry.”

But he was surprised to see where he was. He was not in his house. The hospital perhaps, for he was in a white bed wearing some extremely revealing clothes. Suddenly the door opened and a woman in white entered shouting, “ Mr. Smith’s awake!” The woman came towards him and gently laid him on the bed. “ Why am I here?” Michael inquired. The woman replied softly, “ You’ve been in a coma for over a week Mr.Smith.” Michael replied, “ Just Michael please.” And as he stood up again he saw the figure of Chris waving at him from the window.