Aislin Asleep- A Sleeping Beauty Retelling

Six

Six

Devon Harris was a young piano prodigy. At age 5, he could play Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata from memory. At age 15, he decided that he was tired of piano. Now, at age 32, he regretted it with all of his heart. Every day, he had to deal with Aris’s shouting, ranting, the occasional throwing things, and excessive ranting. On the bright side, he had gotten pretty agile dodging the things that had been thrown at him when he tried to bring Aris prunes, her favorite “thinking” food. Luckily, today she was in a good mood. As Devon muttered when he was upset with his boss (which was most of the time), Aris “needs to take her anger managment issues out on someone.” Aris made many contraptions and inventions over the years, but mostly she tested them on special robots she created that were like animals. In the beginning, Aris had used real animals, but they disappeared all the time because of Devon’s quick hands from years of piano. As a result, Devon had five mice, three hamsters, two guinea pigs, and a cat. Devon didn’t mind. He made sure he got plenty of pay from Aris. After all, she was a doctor, not to mention an accomplished chemist.

 

Devon yawned. He had been sitting at the computer for over two hours. At that moment, he decided that the second Aris finished the evil plot she was planning, he would go up there, demand his last paycheck, and quit. He resolved that he was done being Aris’s pawn. He was going to take up piano again. Devon sighed. He knew he couldn’t pull it off. Aris would just tell him to sit back down at the computer or to run the store to get who knows what. Devon sank lower in his chair and sighed again. Suddenly there was a loud ding. Devon flew up five feet. He had a moment of confusion when he realized it was Aris walk- talking  him. “Has it been forty-five minutes yet?” Aris hissed. Devon sat up and clicked the online timer he had set after Aris had told him too. “Forty-four minutes and fifty seconds.” Devon confirmed sadly.

“Great! Set up the camera. I want to make sure it works.” Devon sighed. Aris had payed some hacker to hack into the apartment’s security cameras. He opened the video feed next to the countdown, and watched. She was reading, carefully turning the pages with the tips of her fingers. He watched as the timer clicked to zero, and the girl collapsed on her bed. Devon sat down on the floor and put his head in his hands. Devon didn’t want to spend the rest of his life like this. Devon wanted to play piano again. Devon stood up and took off his walkie-talkie headphones. He clicked the room camera on the computer. The girl lay on her bed, sprawled. On her shin was a little red dot, barely visible. With a start, Devon realized that Aris had killed the girl. When Aris had explained it to him, Devon dismissed it, thinking she would never actually get around to it. When she told him to sit down on the computer and start the countdown, he hadn’t been thinking enough to tie the two together. But now, it was actually happening. It had happened. Aris Gray had committed a murder, and Devon Harris had assisted her. Devon sat down on the floor, and the for the first time in 17 years, began to cry.