Just read Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka and I found the char-lady's last line a bit odd ("You don't have to worry about the thing next door. It's already been taken care of.") and I initially thought it was because he had turned back into a human and was alive so didn't need clearing up. This is the alternate ending where this happens. It begins as the Samsa's are preparing for their daytrip at the end of the story. I don't own anything.
However, moments before they were due to leave, the bedroom door burst open and Gregor stood, leaning heavily in the doorway. Whole. Human.
"Gregor!" His mother shrieked, all three stepping back
Gregor looked terrible. His hair was greasy and out of place, bits of food and dust sticking out of it, his eyes were blotched and bloodshot from lack of sleep, his limbs strained and bruised and his figure showing most of his bones from his hunger strike as the insect. His clothes hung of him like a scarecrow, as dishevelled as the rest of him.
"You're alive!" His father laughed, snapping out of his apprehension, stepping forward. Gregor blinked slowly for a second, then spoke
"You..." He rasped, his voice scratching like nails down a chalkboard "You keep away from me..."
"Whatever is the matter Gregor?" His father exclaimed "You're alive. It's a miracle! Your back!"
Gregor turned to his parents, his expression thunderous
"You two left me for dead. Deserted me. Neglected me!" He started to yell, his hitherto unused voice becoming clearer every second "You didn't care about me! You leached off me! Every year, every DAY, taking me money and taking it for granted, until I could no longer work in my insect form. You threw me away like rubbish, like a scraggy animal that turned up on your back doorstep. You didnt even TRY to help me! You hid me away and forgot about me. Like the family invalid."
"But-" His mother began, but Gregor continued
"I heard you talking, every minute I was transformed. Did you think I couldn't? I know what you are now. You're more insects than I ever was!"
"But you were-" His mother tried again
"An insect, yes! A cockroach, a dungbeatle, a woodlouse. All those names and more. And let me tell you that for all that time that I was that creature were the clearest moments of my life. I finally saw who you were, what I was to you and how you're planning on using Grete as a replacement breadwinner. Well I'm not letting you get your hands on her. Come on Grete." He said, turning away. Grete followed
"What are you doing!?" His father called after him. Gregor turned in the doorway
"Doing what you did to me. Disowning you as family. Sort out your own debt."
He slammed the door.
