literature

The Alarm Clock

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Literature Text

It was Thursday, about eight in the morning.  The alarm had been going for at least a half hour.  The person asleep in the bed did not stir—not at all.  His roommate, though, was wide-awake, lying in bed waiting for the body in the bed below him to wake up and turn off that blasted alarm.

How can he still be sleeping? the roommate thought as he lay in bed.  That alarm's loud enough to wake the whole dorm, not to mention the dead.  He sat up in bed and the covers slid down to reveal his naked chest.  "Hey, Lewis.  Wake up!"

No response.

He leaned over the side of the top bunk to look down at Lewis.  The covers were thrown over his head; he didn't move.
"Lewis, you alive?"

No answer.

There was no avoiding it; he'd have to get up.  He pulled the blankets aside, he wore just his boxers.  With strong arms he gripped the railing of his bed and swung himself over landing silently on the floor below.

"Come on Lewis, wake up.  You'll be late for class."

Still no response.

He grabbed the blankets covering the sleeper and yanked.  They came away to reveal pillows that had been left to look like Lewis was asleep in his bed.

"What the hell?"  He let go of the blankets and walked over to where the alarm clock was still blaring on Lewis' desk.  A press of a button and the noise finally ended.  Blissful silence.

There came a tapping at the door.  He turned and with two large steps he was looking through the peephole to see who was there.  A turn of the knob, followed by the creak of the door.

"Hi Barry.  What you need?"

"Man, Will.  You woke me up, lettin' that alarm go off for so long.  What's the deal?"

"Sorry, man.  It's Lewis' alarm.  But Lewis wasn't here to turn it off, just his pillows.  You wouldn't happen to know where he is, would you?"

"Sorry, Will.  Can't say I do.  Haven’t seen Lewis since dinner yesterday."

"All right.  Thanks man.  Talk to you later."

Barry left and Will shut the door.

Where had his roommate disappeared to now?  Wait!  Why do I care?  Lewis can take care of himself.  He doesn't need me worrying about him.  That's his mom's job.  Will grabbed some clothes that were fairly clean then got ready for his first class.

It wasn't until later that evening that Will ran into his roommate
.
"Lewis!"  Will yelled when he saw his roommate just outside the dorm.

"Oh, hi Will." Lewis greeted back.

"Hey, Lewis.  Where'd you sleep last night?  You never came back to the room.  Meet a girl did ya?"  Will smiled knowingly.

"No.  I slept in the laundry room."

"The laundry room.  Why'd you sleep there?  Did ya forget your key?  You could have knocked, you know."

"No.  I just thought it'd be safer to sleep downstairs."

"Safer?"

"Yay.  There's these assassins after me.  If I'd slept in my own bed, they would've killed me last night."

At this, Will could not contain himself.  He burst out laughing.  Assassins!  Who would of thunk his roommate thought assassins were after him.

"What's so funny?" Lewis asked.

"Assassins?!  That's ridiculous, Lewis.  There aren't any assassins after you."  Will laughed some more.

Lewis just frowned at him.

Will saw this and paused in his fits of laughter to say, "What?  Don't give me that look.  Why would assassins be after you?"

His roommate shrugged, "I don't know."

"Come on Lewis, there aren't any assassins after you.  Besides, even if there were assassins out to get you, and I'm not saying there are, how would they sneak into the room to do it?  First, you have to have a card to get into the dorm, and someone wouldn't let in someone as suspicious looking as an assassin would be.  Second, we keep the door locked at night.  To break in would wake not only you, but me as well.  An assassin's not going to risk that.  And thirdly, even if someone was able to scale the wall to our third floor window, how the hell are they going to get in the window without waking someone up.  You're perfectly safe."

"You really think so?" Lewis asked.

"Yeah, I've got your back, Lewis.  No assassin's going to kill you in your sleep.  Not while I'm around.  The whole idea's ridiculous anyway."

"Yay, I guess you're right."

"So you'll sleep in the room tonight?"

"Yeah, sure.  I'll do that.  The laundry room's kind of uncomfortable, anyway."

Will laughed at this, and Lewis, joined in, at first nervously, but then more confident.  No, assassins couldn't get him, not with Will around.

-------

It was morning again.  Will groaned in complaint.  That alarm was damned loud.  He was seriously thinking of getting rid of the thing and buying Lewis a new alarm.  Something subtler, that didn't jolt you awake.

It kept going, and going.  Why wasn't Lewis turning it off?  Surely he wasn't sleeping through it.  Who could sleep through that?  Will was sure that their neighbors were already woken up and planning how exactly they would kill him and Lewis.
"Lewis!"  Will groggily yelled.  "Turn off that damned alarm clock!"  He had his head in his pillow trying to block the sound.
From underneath, no response.

Will lifted his head and started turning over.  "Lewis, you better not be sleeping still."  He started to lean over to look down at his roommate.  "That thing's loud enough to wake the--” He stopped.  Will stared for a bit at his roommate, then, slowly, laid back down.  "I guess not."

On the bunk below lay Lewis.  The sheets were soaked with blood and Lewis laid amongst it, unmoving, eyes closed as if he were blissfully dreaming.

The alarm continued to blare, trying hard to wake the dead.
Inspired by my very annoying alarm clock and edited by the wonderful .
© 2006 - 2024 GarnetKimzey
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Rawxden's avatar
that was so sad... and very good, poor lewis...