Hamlet; the Noir Adaption 2023 Act 1 Subscene 6

 Act One Scene One

Sub-Scene Six

The ghost returns

Horatio saw the ghost apparition float around but never came near to the.

“Wait, look! It has come again. I’ll meet it if it’s the last thing I do. —Stay here, you hallucination!” Horatio called out. The ghost spreads its arms and looked to the sky.

“If you have a voice or can make sounds, speak to me ….  My king.” Horatio bowed to the ghost. “I will do your bidding.”

“Horatio, you are…” Marcellus cut in.

“If there’s any good deed I can do that will bring you peace and my honor, speak to me. If you have some secret knowledge of your country’s sad fate—which might be avoided if we knew about it—then, please, speak.” Horatio would not look up. “Or if you’ve got some buried treasure somewhere, which they say often makes ghosts restless, then tell us about it. Stay and speak!”

It was then the crow of the rooster resonated into the night.

“Is it dawn now?” Barnados asked. He looked at his watch, it was only an hour that passed since he met the other two. “The rooster…”

“Keep it from leaving, Marcellus.” Horatio looked at the surrounding. He has not heard of the rooster crows before in Denmark. It's madness that one even crows then.

“Should I …grab it?” Marcellus called out.

“Yes, if it decides to leave. I will find the rooster and silence it.” Horatio replied.

 “It’s gone,” Barnados called out. “It leaves.”

“It’s gone. We were wrong to threaten it with …. violence since it looks so much like a king. Besides, we can’t hurt it any more than we can hurt the air. Our attack was stupid, futile, and wicked.” Marcellus cursed at himself. "Now the King may not forgive me.”

“It was to speak when the rooster crowed.” Barnados told Horatio. “Do we even have a rooster?”

“Do even ghosts exist?” Horatio shook his head in confusion. “And then it acted startled, like a guilty person caught by the law. I’ve heard that the rooster awakens the god of the day with its trumpetlike crowing, and makes all wandering ghosts, wherever they are, hurry back to their hiding places. We’ve just seen proof of that.”

“It’s not dawn as yet. My watch says nay.” Barnados lament while extending his left arm.

“The ghost did fade on the call of the rooster,” Marcellus said.

“Yes, I’ve heard the same thing and sort of believe it. But look, morning is breaking beyond that hill in the east, turning the sky red. Let’s interrupt our watch and go tell young Hamlet what we’ve seen tonight. I’m sure this ghost that’s so silent with us will speak to him. Don’t you agree that we owe it to him to tell him about this, out of duty and love?” Horatio motioned to the treelines. The morning sun was seen to climb above the tree lines.

Barnados placed the watch over his left ear to hear its mechanism. It was still working but the sight of dawn was also real.

“The ghost is gone. Let us get into our new day now.” Horatio said. “Much ado about …nothing.”

The sounds of footsteps told them of the change of guards.