Love is Like a Raven [ON (POSSIBLY PERMANENT) HIATUS]

Fate-Favored Fortunato and Montresor

4 months earlier...

"Today, we are going to read and annotate the story 'The Tell-Tale Heart' by Edgar Allan Poe."

The majority of Mrs. Prospero's Comm Arts I class groaned, but Annabel looked up from her drawing and smiled. Edgar Allan Poe was her favorite author or poet or whatever people called him. The majority of the time, Mrs. Prospero would simply choose a story that was a borderline children's tale, but today, it seemed, someone knocked some sense into her.

"Now class open your Literature books to page 212!" Mrs. Prospero cheered.

The only disadvantage of reading a Poe story in Comm Arts was that they had to lift up their huge Literature books so they could follow along. Annabel had forgotten how heavy the book was and, in her excitement, fell onto the floor once she had lifted it. The class mocked her for her foolishness, when someone knocked at the door, causing a deadly silence to fall in the room. After the door was opened, three boys came in. Two looked foreign, but the other was familiar.

"Mrs. Prospero," the familiar one said, "These are two new students. They are now in your class."

"Wonderful!" Mrs. Prospero cheered as the familiar boy left the room. "And what are your names?"

One of them grinned "I'm Fortunato!" he cheered. He had an accent of some sort. He radiated with cheer and many other positive emotions. Annabel decided those emotions shouldn't last him long.

The other one just said with a blank expression, "Montresor." He also had an accent, but everything else about him was the opposite of Fortunato. Annabel was interested in this one. He seemed different... Off... Much like herself.

"Wonderful, wonderful! And where did you come from?"

Montresor remained silent. Fortunato raised his arms high in the air and sang, "Italia!"

The class chuckled a bit at Fortunato's ridiculous amount of joy. They knew that if his family were more sensible, they would have stayed in Italy and not come within 50 miles of Church Hill, or the U.S. in general.

"Fortunato, I'd like you to sit over there by Margaret. Montresor, by Annabel."

As Montresor walked down the row to his seat next to Annabel, he was pulled down and spoken to by many people, all of which had grim expressions on their face. Annabel scoffed. She didn't think she was that bad!

Once he sat down, Mrs. Prospero began the lesson again.

"'The Tell-Tale Heart' is--Oh, Montresor, Fortunato, share a book with your neighbors for now."

As she started reading, Montresor scooted closer to Annabel. "Is it okay if I share with you?" he asked gently.

Annabel blushed a bit. "Yes..." she responded.

Montresor looked at the book for a moment, then sighed. "What's wrong?" Annabel asked.

"I have this tale memorized. Poe is my favorite writer."

"R-really? Me too. I mean, I don't have the story memorized, but I love Poe."

Montresor smirked. "Our parents did too, apparently."

"What?"

He laughed. "Tell me, is your last name Lee?" Annabel nodded. "'That a maiden there lived whom you may know by the name of-'"

"'Annabel Lee'..." Montresor smiled.

"So you do understand."

"Yes...and you and your brother-!"

"Are named after the men in 'The Cask of Amontillado'."

"But they were enemies."

"You see how different he is from me. It makes sense. It also makes sense that I am the elder brother, does it not?"

Annabel laughed. "Yes."

"Annabel, Montresor, are you paying attention?"

The duo looked up to see Mrs. Prospero staring at them.

"Montresor, I'll let you off with a warning, since you're new, but Annabel, go to the office."

Annabel slowly stood up, but froze once Montresor had spoken.

"Madame, I will go to the office to receive the same punishment as Annabel."

"No, Montresor. You see, Annabel is a repeat offender, and-"

"I don't want to be treated different because I'm new. Plus, I was a repeat offender at my old school. I shall receive the same punishment as Annabel." Montresor had a dark tone in his voice.

"Al-alright..."

Montresor followed Annabel outside of the classroom. "Why did you do that?" Annabel asked him.

"So we could ditch," he answered with a smirk. He took Annabel's hand and walked out of the school.

"But shouldn't we go to the office like we were told?"

"I feel like I should get to know Church Hill better before I go anywhere near that office."

Annabel smiled. "I suppose if I'm gonna show you around, we should get started. Church Hill isn't big, but it's got a lot of hidden treasures."