The Monkey's Paw

Chapter 3: The Second Wish

Wednesday, the mysteriously rainy day…

"Alfred, I really don't like how it's raining…it's all so sudden." Matthew adjusted his umbrella aver his head as he walked with his brother to school. The rain was pouring down like bullets from the sky and was bouncing off their umbrellas making a loud pattering sound.

"Oh, just relax Mattie! You worry about nothing! I mean come on! If something bad was going to happen, it would have already done so. I used that one wish, remember, and the only thing that happened was the rain. It hasn't hurt anyone." Alfred's voice was full of certainty as he walked next to his brother.

"Sure Al…whatever you say." Insecurity was evident in his voice.

The two continued their walk to school in silence as the rain showed no sign of stopping.

They made it to school just in time, a few minutes before the first of two bells. They separated, Matthew going off to math, while Alfred went to his foreign language class. It was the start of a tremendously average day.

Other than the torrent of rain falling upon the school and the surrounding area, the day had been fairly normal, well the first three classes were. Alfred's day went mostly the same in every class, something to the tune of: come in late, go to his desk, attempt to pay attention to what the teacher was saying, quit half way through paying attention, fall asleep, be woken by the teacher only to fall back asleep, and thus stay that way until the bell rang. This was how almost every class went, however, the period he was currently in was the class right before lunch. This meant that Alfred would change the way he did things. Instead of the normal sleep through class routine, he would stare at the clock, not pay attention to anything, eject out of his seat once the bell rang and then continue to run to his group's hang out spot for a nice enjoyable break from the hideousness that was high school.

The bell suddenly rang and Alfred shot from his seat like a space rocket. He ran down the halls to the indoor cafeteria and claimed his spot at the usual lunch table. Slowly, one by one, his friends would come and the little group at the table slowly grew to its normal size. Soon enough, everyone was there, well almost everyone…

"Hey, where's Kiku?" Alfred asked no one in particular.

"Oh…in third period, he told me to tell you that he didn't want to be in close proximity of you when you have that…that thing. What was it called again?" The Spanish kid replied to the question being asked.

"The Monkey's Paw." Alfred said with a straight face and a serious tone.

"Yeah that thing. He said that it was evil. He also said that once you get rid of it, he'll come back to the group but for now he and that Greek kid are sitting somewhere else." The Spaniard then turned to face his friend, one of the Italian twins and tried to hug him, which only ended up in a slap to the face.

"Oh…I guess that's fine. Kiku can just leave the group. Why would he call it evil though?"

Alfred was curious to know why Kiku was so afraid of a dead hand. It wasn't as it had tried to kill him or anyone else. Why would Kiku have to be afraid? The rest of the lunch time was spent in an unnatural silent Alfred as the large group of friends conversed with each other.

Most of the school day went by relatively fast, well for Matthew at least it did. For Alfred the day was too slow and he found himself waiting for the last thirty minutes of school to end. He glared at the clock, watching it's every move, one second at a time. He was so into it, he didn't hear what his U.S. History teacher was saying to the students.

"Alright class! We'll be doing a very important project for the next two days. I expect you to go home and get all the information you need and bring it back by tomorrow. I mean everything too. Now I'm going to call out your name and give you your topic. First person is Arianna! You'll be doing…"

Alfred still wasn't paying attention, his face turned completely at the clock.

"Alfred!" The teacher walked over and slammed his hand down onto the desk. Alfred jumped up surprised and tore his face away from the precious time giver.

"What!? What's going on!?" He yelled out, awoken from his stupor. The classroom broke out in a loud laughter.

"Your topic, Alfred, for the two day project" The teacher glared down at him, "will be the Battle of Gettysburg and how it affected the outcome of the Civil War."

Alfred groaned loudly. As much as he loved U.S. history, he really didn't feel like having to start another project. It was spring! Didn't teachers know that spring was meant for fun and not working on "useless" things like projects!? Suddenly, the dismissal bell rang, releasing the students from the hell they call school. Alfred ran out of the classroom to where Matthew was gathering his stuff from his locker.

"Hey Mattie!" Alfred screamed as he snuck up behind his brother.

"AHHHH!" Matthew jumped up and dropped his books. "Alfred! How many times do I have to tell you!? Don't sneak up on me like that!" Matthew gave his brother the harshest glare he could muster, but it didn't turn out the way he entirely wanted. Instead, he looked kind of pouty, his lower lip sticking out just a little.

"Awww jeeze Mattie! I just love to see you so flustered. It's so funny." Alfred bent down to help his brother pick up the books on the floor.

Once they were done with gathering the fallen goods, the two started on their journey home in the still pouring rain.

"Hey Mattie! I know what I'm going to use a wish for!" He grabbed his backpack, opened the front pocket and pulled out the familiar golden tube. "I have to do a project in history so," he pulled out the paw, "I'm gonna wish for all the materials! That way I won't have to look for it once we get home. It's great! I won't have to do any work and it'll all be there once we arrive home!"

The index finger of the paw snapped so that the top half of the finger was pointing at a downward angle. Unfortunately for the boys, the rain had muffled the cracking sound and they were too busy talking to each other to notice the broken finger…

"Al…I really think tha-"

"I know, I know! You really want me to stop making wishes." Alfred slipped the paw back into the tube and proceeded to place the tube into his backpack. "But why Matthew? We had this discussion going to school and I really don't understand your reasoning! Nothing bad has happened so far! You just need to take a chill pill and get off my back!"

"Bu-but Al! I-I d-don't want you to get h-hurt!"

"As if I would get hurt from some dead hand Matthew." Alfred suddenly stopped walking and faced Matthew. His face showed that he was angry, his brow was creased and he spoke in a serious, threatening tone. "It can't move. It's not even alive. How would it hurt me or anyone of that matter?"

"I-I don't know…" Matthew whispered quietly.

"I'm sorry, what was that? You're going to have to speak louder."

"I-I said that I d-didn't know." A bit of frustration evident in Matthew's voice.

"Precisely. You don't know how the hand would hurt me. You have no evidence or any facts that would prove that the paw is dangerous GET OFF MY BACK."

Matthew stopped walking and looked down at the ground. After a while, he lifted his head up and watched as his brother kept walking, leaving him alone in the middle of the sidewalk forcing him to walk home by himself in the rain.

"Why is he like that? Annoying, stupid Matthew! I hate him!" Alfred thought bitterly as he furiously walked home, trying to get as far away from Matthew as fast as he could. He just couldn't stand his brother's worry over nothing. "Jeeze, if the thing was going to kill me, it probably would have already done it by now." He mumbled as he ascended the stairs of his front porch.

When he opened the door, the first thing that Alfred noticed, other than his parents not being home, was the large pile of books and papers sitting on the dining room table. He excitedly ran over to them and examined each item quickly.

"Yes!" He cheered, fist pumping into the air. "This is what I needed for the project! Now I won't have to do anything!"

He quickly gathered up the materials and ran up the stairs to his room, slamming the door loudly once he was inside. He dumped his backpack onto the floor and started spread the books, essays and papers all over his bed. Once he was done, he jumped onto his swivel chair by the desk and proceeded to go online and talk with friends.

When Matthew got home, still hurting from what his brother had said to him, he climbed the stairs up to the bedrooms. All he wanted to do was get to his room and brood over his brother's harsh words. When he passed by Alfred's door, he stopped and stared at it, a mixture of anger, frustration, and sadness welling up in his chest.

"You want to know why I worry Alfred?" He said quietly to himself. "It's because I care about you and I believe that you're get yourself trapped in a hole that you'll be unable to escape from."

Matthew sadly looked away from his brother's door and silently made his way to his room. Without a sound, he closed the door and hoped for a better tomorrow.

Hello everybody! I'm really sorry if this chapter was disappointing. I didn't have the "feel" when I was writing this chapter like when I normally write. The only thing I felt was anger at how this chapter feels boring (and it probably is). Ehhh....the story should begin to pick up in the next chapter with what I planned. I was inspired of this awesome idea of what will happen later on when I was just sitting around. It'll be cool, at least I hope so. Hopefully it will be written the way I see it being played out in my brain. OK, it's like 12:00 am right now where I live, so I'm sorry if the grammar didn't make any sense in this note or in the story...Oh yeah! Before I forget, does anyone know how to spell "Jeeze" right? I don't think my way of spelling it is correct...Ehhhh I'm going to bed now see ya soon!

PS Read and review!