Kronborg, the capital town stood still as a necropolis. A sharp breeze whispered an elegiac note on the dark snowy streets. The monotonous sound of grave digging shivered the wind for a moment. Then it was silent again.
A funeral procession was going through the high street, without any glamour. A few people were carrying a coffin. But it was the funeral of a significant person. The procession entered the cemetery. Sextons lifted the coffin and lowered near the grave. The boughs of the cemetery twisted as contorted bones, writhing in a silent scream. Beneath them laid the stones, each marking a dwelling place.
The mourners stood near the coffin. Large candles lilted on the wooden pillars. The priest performed the rituals. Everyone chanted the Bible with the priest. After chanting the Bible, the priest told, "I need one relative for finishing the funeral service of Lord Hamlet."
The mourners stood still. They were looking at each other. Then a young mourner came ahead. His pale figure was shacking. He went near the priest, "I am Horatio, a close friend of Hamlet. Can I do the funeral service?"
The priest nodded, "Do you want to say something in his memory, Sir?"
Standing with bowed head, Horatio was looking still at the corpse of his friend. He took a deep painful sigh, "Hamlet was not only my dearest friend but the part of parcel of my life. We were classmates and now I am doing his funeral service for the irony of fate. He was our blazing fire, which blew out in an unexpected storm. Hamlet was everything that a kingdom needs as their king. It was a great loss; it will never fulfil."
Horatio could say no more and his throat choked with tears. He burst in grief near the coffin of his dearest friend. An emptiness occupied him. The tears blurred his vision and hearing. He could not hear the sympathetic words of the mourners, "Horatio, please control yourself. His soul cannot get peace to see you wailing."
Waterdrops fell on his coat and the boot from the sky. Horatio looked upward; it was raining. Sextons lifted the coffin to put it in the nearby church. The mourners left the cemetery until the rain stopped.
Horatio and the priest entered the main hall of the church. They kept the coffin near the holy cross of Jesus. The priest suggested Horatio, "You should finish the funeral service here. We will bury him beside his family afterwards."
Horatio went near the coffin with a flower bouquet. He lowered his head, tears rolling down from his cheeks. The colours wiped out from his face. There was no corruption in the robust structure. His skin was still pinkish, not turned blue for the poison. Horatio stroked the messy hair of his friend. It looked like a young man who was only sleeping and could awake at any moment.
Horatio looked outside. Nature was also mourning for his premature death. Hamlet, the crown Prince of Denmark, died as the target of a foul conspiracy. People liked him for his unconditional care as his father. He spent every breath of his life helping the needy. This caused the wrath of his uncle, Claudius. He destroyed the royal family including himself.
Taking a deep sigh, Horatio looked at the coffin. But he watched something, which speedup his heartbeat. The flower bouquet fell from his trembling hands. He sat down near the coffin.
The priest asked him with worry, "What happen, my child?"
Horatio pointed at the corpse, "He is alive. He is breathing."
The priest laid a hand on the corpse. He became startled too. Horatio was correct. The heart was still full of life. The lamp of hope was still blazing. He solitude, "The Almighty saves him."
They could not move for a moment. The conscious and unconscious thoughts mixed up together. The priest drank brandy from his bottle and offered to Horatio. After a while, they brought back their mental calmness. Heavy breaths covered their hearts.
"Please do not say anybody about that. When the mourners will come, tell them we finished burying. Denmark is now full of enemies. Staying too long is not safe for us. I will take him to my home for now," Horatio and the priest carried the coffin to exit.