Elsinore, Denmark; Thursday afternoon
Queen GertrudeQueen Gertrude stood up, watching the scuffle with some minor concern. Laertes had been using an unbated rapier? Hamlet looked furious, and she couldn't fault him for that. "Ham ..."
Her throat tightened suddenly, and the room began to shimmer around the edges. Gertrude reached a hand for the armrest of her chair, but never found it.
Her Majesty swooned and landed in a heap on the floor.
Horatio"Look to the Queen," Horatio called quickly, finally stepping forward as his worries about the match were realised. He looked from Laertes to Hamlet, taking another step towards his friend. "You're both bloody. What's going on here?"
HamletHamlet was starting to hurt all over, and only now it was sinking in. It was only one cut; why did everything hurt so much?
"How is my Mother?" he asked Horatio, a note of panic creeping in to his voice.
King ClaudiusClaudius interrupted Horatio's move to check on Gertrude. "She's faint at the sight of the blood." He snapped his fingers at a servant. "She'll be fine."
Queen Gertrude"Hamlet," she tried again, voice barely above a whisper. She held out a hand for him, her dearest darling son, he tried to warn her, he'd been right all along, her mind whirled ...
Her fingers clasped around his and she drew him close. "Poison," she managed. "So ... sorry."
One hand reached up to touch his cheek, her beautiful sweet Hamlet, but it was so heavy and she was so very tired.
Queen Gertrude closed her eyes.
HamletHis Mother was dead.
His Mother was dead. His Mother was dead and his Father was dead and -- oh lord -- he was dying too. Was that was dying was, this painful creeping numbness, as parts of his body started shutting down?
He gently laid Queen Gertrude's hand down on the ground, as his face started going white with shock and pain. He turned himself around (and it was getting harder to so now) to face the people gathered there.
"Oh, villainy! Shut all the doors! There's a murderer in here!" He yelled, and his voice was starting to crack with repressed sadness.
Laertes"It's me," said Laertes softly, swallowing with some dread as he realized that his torso was already beginning to stiffen. "And by the blade in your hands, you're one, too. There's poison on its tip. We've killed one another, Hamlet."
"Your mother, I would imagine, was poisoned as well. I didn't know. I ..." His eyes narrowed as he looked towards the throne. "I needn't tell you whose idea this was. I daresay you already know your stepfather to be the villain he is."
HamletHamlet stared dumbfoundedly at the blade in his hands. "Poison even on the blade too..." he muttered through the shock.
By accident, he had now killed an entire family of people. Polonius, Laertes, Sweet Ophelia... all of their blood was on his hands.
And it was so near the end that one more murder -- one he should have done long ago -- wouldn't matter much more to the total of his sins.
"Then let the venom do its worst."Anger filled every fiber of his being, as he summoned all of his remaining strength and launched himself towards his uncle's throne, blade out.
King ClaudiusBeyond angry and beginning to be terrified at the collapse of his plans around him, Claudius shrunk back away from the murderous rage of his quickly approaching stepson.
"Guards! Friends, defend me! The boy is mad, and it is treason!"
HamletThe blade passed right through Claudius' heart to pin him to the chair on which he sat.
"You vile, murdering, incestuous, scumbag of a Dane," yelled Hamlet, finally letting out all of his anger and grief from the last two years. "You like poison? Here, have some of the wine. Follow my Mother." He forced the cup up to his uncle's mouth, and poured the remainder of the cup down.
Would his Father finally be proud of him now? Had he finally been the good son after all these years?
LaertesLaertes watched this unfold from the floor where he had fallen; somehow, he lacked the strength to move. It was done. Claudius was killed.
"Hamlet," he said, sitting up only a little - dear heaven, he couldn't feel his legs at all, the poison worked quickly. "My father. My sister. And myself. Our deaths were not your fault. I forgive you. And I'm sorry."
The words were weak and hollow to his ears, but they needed to be said.
HamletHamlet pulled himself away from the throne and over towards Laertes with his good arm. His joints were starting to stiffen, and moving was hard.
"And by the Heavens, I forgive you for mine." He smiled wanly. "I'll follow you right up."
LaertesLaertes laughed faintly, lying back onto the floor as the room spun itself black around him. "Good, noble Hamlet. You should have been my brother. Perhaps we are all brothers, there."
He drew another breath, and then no more.
HamletAt seeing Laertes die in front of him too, Hamlet lost his last bit of self control and let the hot tears flow down his face. He motioned Horatio over with his good but stiffening hand.
"I'm dying, Horatio," he said matter of factly, his voice cracking as he spoke. It was starting to get hard to think. "If only I had more time... Oh, but it comes on fast..."
He swallowed. What did he want to say? Oh, yes. "Horatio, I'm dying. But... But tell people, if they ask, what happened. And tell all of it, from the beginning."
He tried to smile at his friend, but it didn't come out right.
HoratioHamlet's words weren't a shock to Horatio but hearing him say them so matter-of-factly, he gasped and felt his own tears begin to fall as he knelt down beside Hamlet, pulling him up half into his lap and wrapping his arms around him.
"I won't," Horatio said, unable to process what he was being asked to do. "I'll follow just after you like the stories of old," he reached blindly for the poisoned cup. "There's some wine left here, let me come." He was almost pleading at the last, not willing to let Hamlet go forth alone without him.
Hamlet"No!" Hamlet said, the phrase coming out strong than he'd intended. He tried smiling again.
"No. There has been too much death already today; someone needs to survive this mess. If you ever were my friend, throw that away. And... and let them know what happened to me at..."
HoratioHe took a breath, fingers tightening on the cup for an instant then throwing it into the throne so that it shattered for Hamlet to hear.
"As you will, my friend," Horatio promised, shifting so that Hamlet could see him. "I'll tell them all."
HamletHamlet let out a sigh of relief as he heard the cup clatter and Horatio promise not to commit suicide. Good good.
It was starting to get hard to see, but he could still hear a huge ruckus from outside the dueling hall. "What's that?" he asked Horatio.
HoratioHoratio blinked away the tears that were blurring his eyes to look up to the door and the messenger there.
"It's Fortinbras, Hamlet," he said with an edge of bitterness. "Returned victorious from Poland."
Hamlet"Oh. Him." Hamlet's cousin, the crown prince of Norway. The one who had wanted to invade Denmark because of a feud between their Fathers. Fortinbras was far more sensible that he'd ever been, but kept a grudge too long.
And yet, here he was, finally the King of Denmark as he'd always wished to be, dying on the floor in the arms of a friend. He couldn't leave things like this.
"Tell him ... tell him that I give him my blessing to rule until ... the parliament decides otherwise." It was hard to keep his eye open now. "And tell him everything that happened here too. The rest, is silence."
Hamlet drew in one last shaky breath, and then was gone.
HoratioHoratio was silent for a long, long time, fingers stroking over Hamlet's hair as he tried to make himself believe that his friend had accomplished his goal and then died in the same stretch of minutes.
He bowed his head to Hamlet's, breath catching at his throat and raised a hand to stroke his cheek. "Good night, sweet prince," he breathed, barely loud enough to be heard. He brushed the tears out of his eyes to look at Hamlet for a long moment. "And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest."
As pounding feet approached the room, he spun, furious at the disturbance. "Why does the army march here?"
***
FortinbrasFortinbras strode into the throne room, looking around at the bodies and carnage on the floor with a look of dismay and utter shock.
"What is this? What happened here?"
HoratioHoratio looked up from where he was still kneeling by Hamlet, clutching his slowly stiffening hand. "What do you think it is?" he snarled up at the richly dressed Prince. "If you're looking for death and destruction, you came to the right place."
Fortinbras"What happened here," Fortinbras asked more softly. "You obviously saw the whole thing, your heart is sore at the happenings. What could possibly destroy so many Princes in one blow?"
HoratioHoratio raised his hand to stoke his Prince's cheek, then looked back up at Fortinbras. "Give him an honourable burial. Since you've come at such a moment, raise them high to the world." He glanced back to Hamlet again, folding his hands over his chest, then stood and approached Fortinbras. "Do that, Prince of Norway, and I'll tell you the tale of what happened here. Tell you of the accidental deaths and judgements and murders that happened here."
Fortinbras"I shall," Fortinbras promised quietly, reached out to clap Horatio on the shoulder.
He looked around at the men who'd followed him in and the shocked lords of the Court of Denmark. "And by my blood that also runs through this land, I lay claim to Denmark." He gestured to his soldiers to take up the bodies. "Carry my cousin Hamlet like a soldier. He shall have all the honours in his passing that he will not have in life. He had much promise, I heard, and should have been a good and noble King."
[OOC: Major spoilers for Act V: scene ii of Hamlet. Not for broadcast due to distance, but OOC comments are always welcome. Boxes of kittens and pie to the_merriest and once_a_king for all their help with the preplay and the coding; seriously, I couldn't have done it without you guys.]