The Last Resort

(5)

(5)

Over the next few weeks, time passed rather quickly for Hannah. She had become quite close to most of her coworkers and even went out with them on their days off. However, the butler Barry still maintained his distance from her, and never failed to glare at her whenever no one else was looking. At first she was quite confused and terrified, but after a while the confusion and terror morphed into annoyance and she decided to confront Barry once and for all.

“Look, why are you being hostile and everything? I mean, I don’t expect everyone to like me, but I’ve never done anything to you! So stop it with the glaring, can you?” she said, poking a finger at his chest. Barry stared at the finger, not knowing whether to laugh or scream. Never done anything to him? Ha! With one move, she killed his father and changed his entire life. “What I do doesn’t concern you, princess, so I suggest you remove your finger from my chest and let me get back to my work before I remove it for you,” he replied curtly, turning away from her and dismissing her with that swift motion.

“Hey, come back, I’m not DONE with you! You can’t just glare at people you dislike all the time and think it’s alright. I want a reason for the hostility. Jeez, what’s your problem?” she called to his retreating back. Who did he think he was, dismissing her like that? Barry turned to her abrubtly and the look on his face was so terrifying that she took a step back unconsciously. “What’s my problem? You dare to ask me WHAT’S MY PROBLEM?” he snarled, not taking his eyes off her. “My PROBLEM is you killed my dad. Yes, you heard right,” he continued, taking in her stunned expression, “You were the one that led him to his death, just because you were a spoilt brat! Aw poor little princess who didn’t like her peanuts grounded conveniently dumped them in her butler’s food, eh? Such a selfish brat, you didn’t know he had a peanut allergy, ‘cause you were in your own little princessy world where everything was all about you. He died because he didn’t manage to go to the hospital on time, did you know that? Well NOW you know, and that’s the reason why I dislike, no, why I HATE you.” And with that speech he stormed out of the room, leaving Hannah standing there staring at his back.

“Jeez,” she said to herself, feeling really bad after the confrontation. He HAD the right to hate her, who wouldn’t hate a murderer? And thinking along that thread made her feel more ill, she was a MURDERER. Shouldn’t she be locked up in jail? She looked around the empty room, suddenly remembering random memories of Jenkins, the kind butler who was always patient with her, helping her with her school work and occasionally sneaking her a lollipop or two. He was more like a father to her than her real father, who was always busy with work and had no time to waste with a little girl, and with one selfish act she had killed him? God, don’t even talk about Barry hating her, she hated herself, wanted to just escape all this.

Barry wondered if Hannah was okay. Granted, he was the one who had shouted at her yesterday, but a part of him knew that she was innocent in all this and never expected something serious like this to happen. He felt bad about yesterday and wanted to apologise for taking his anger out on her today, but she had suddenly taken a leave of absence, not saying anything to anyone except that she had “private matters to attend to”, and then she had vanished without a trace. Thank God no one witnessed their encounter yesterday. He glanced at his watch for again. 8pm. Good, he had nothing else to do now, maybe he should go to his father and tell him what had happened.

Was that… Was that Hannah at his father’s grave? Barry inched closer and could barely suppress his gasp, girly as that sounded. It WAS Hannah, and she looked like she was talking to his father. He inched closer again, trying to hear what she was saying. “… and I’m really sorry for always talking back to you, and messing up your bed when I was angry with you, and telling Daddy every time you made me mad, and…” Gosh, how long had she been here and had she been talking all this while? Suddenly she knelt down and his mouth snapped open. Hannah was begging? He always thought seeing her so contrite would make him gleeful, but surprisingly all he felt was… Guilt.

“I’m really sorry for killing you! I really didn’t mean to, I mean, you were like a father to me! More like Daddy was anyway… I’m so so so sorry, and I know you won’t ever forgive me, God knows that Barry hasn’t and probably never will, but I hope you are listening to me right now,” Hannah paused in the middle of her rant and felt water on her cheeks. Was she crying? No wait, it was suddenly raining quite heavily and she mentally smacked herself for not bringing an umbrella. Glancing at her watch, she saw that it was already almost 9.30PM. “Well, I have to go now before I’m drenched. I’m gonna take the rain as a sign that you heard what I said today, and wherever you are, I hope you are resting carefully. Bye, see you again next time I come alright?”

As she was walking off she heard a rustle of leaves and stopped. Who was that? “Hello, is anyone there?” she raised her voice and looked around trying to see if anyone was around. “Okay, this is creepy, I’m just gonna leave now. Pleasepleaseplease whoever you are, spirit or human, just… Don’t come near me,” she muttered to herself, quickening her pace. When she was a few feet away from the cemetery, she heaved a sigh of relief. Suddenly, a hand clasped her shoulder.

Author's Note: My apologies for the long paragraphs again, I have no idea how to break them up :( anyway... it's longer now so, hope you like it! Vote/comment hehe thanks :D