THE STORY OF HAMLET (KINDA)

A fast paced fanfic based off of the play Hamlet by Shakespeare

Dedicated to my friend, J.

Prologue:

It was a fine afternoon in the glorious country of Denmark and everyone was enjoying themselves, everyone from the lowest class all the way up to the royal family. The King and Queen, Old Hamlet and Gertrude were sitting on a stone bench in the garden surrounded by red and pink roses. "You know I love you, my sweet Queen, right Gertrude?" The king asked of his wife.

"Of course, and I love you just as much, my King," she replied to him. They kissed sweetly before the King stood up with a flourish of his robe and announced, "But alas! We cannot be together for very long on such a sweet afternoon as this for the responsibility of the royal family calls me to complete my duties and run this beautiful country of ours! Farewell my fair queen. I hope I shall see thee soon for my heart cannot bear to be too far from you for so long!" With a loving smile and a small wave of his hand he left the garden to continue his work running the country.

The queen wasn't too lonely once the King left because mere minutes after his majesty exited the garden the king's brother entered it. "Hello there, fair queen. Isn't this afternoon lovely? Of course, not as lovely as thee." He pecked her on the cheek, which she received graciously. This wasn't the first time the two had spent time together, nor was it the first time lips were pressed together. The two had had a secrete relationship going for several years now; it was a wonder they hadn't been caught yet.

"Sweet Claudius, I pray you don't leave so soon," the queen begged as her lover stood to leave the garden as his brother had before him. He flashed a warm smile in her direction and answered sweetly, "Ah, my dear I wish it wasn't so myself, but I cannot afford to be absent for so long a time." Then he knelt in front of Gertrude in front of the bench and took her hand in his own, "Gertrude, I pray that you remember that whether we are together or apart you are always with me in my heart and I wish to hear that you also carry myself around with you in your own heart. Nay, I do not need to hear what I know in my own heart is true. Farewell my love!" Claudius stood quickly and disappeared leaving the queen alone in the garden once more.

"Oh, my dear Claudius, I wish I could with all certainty tell you that your words were true, but I do not know if they are. It is true that I think about you constantly and that if it were not my vows to your brother I would take thee to wed. However," she paused in her soliloquy and placed a delicate hand on her bosom. "However, I still do have feelings for Hamlet. He was my first husband and my first true romancer. He is so sweet and kind to me. It makes me feel guilty to hear his boundless confessions of love to me when I am going behind his back with none other than his own brother. He suspects nothing and trusts me completely and his trust in me burns! Oh Hamlet! Oh Claudius! Oh woe is me!" Troubled, the queen Gertrude left the garden.

Slowly, with a frown upon his lips Claudius rose from a thorny rose bush. In the name of loving curiosity, Claudius had hidden himself away in a bush to hear if the queen, his true love, would say anything about him. He wished to hear her true, unguarded feelings. Now he was truly upset, not just jealous of his brother, but sympathy for the queen's troubles.

Three days later the King Old Hamlet was found dead in the garden. He had been poisoned, but that fact had been quickly and expertly covered up from everyone but the murderer. Not too much longer after that the Queen remarried Claudius, the dead king's brother.