Tap. Tap. Tap-tap-tap.
Alex winced slightly. Beth's tapping was getting on her nerves and she had been doing it for the past half hour. They were sitting in the waiting room of the office belonging to their father's lawyer and Alex had closed her eyes in meditation. The constant typing of a computer from the lawyer's secretary was barely tolerable. Beth's nervousness, on the other hand, was driving her to distraction.
'Will you stop that? It's driving me nuts!'
Beth clenched her fist in a forced effort to stop her own nerves and flashed her sister a small grin.
'Cover your ears then' she teased but Alex wasn't amused.
'Oh, very funny.'
Alex's response surprised her and Beth just shook her head in bewilderment. Surely, she could see the funny side of the comment. At that moment, their father's lawyer made an appearance, collecting some paperwork from his secretary before focusing his attention on the sisters. He looked a little worst for wear and Beth surmised he had probably had a fairly stressful day.
'Sorry I'm late,' he apologised, as he shook hands with the pair. 'I was help up in court. This way please.'
The office he led them into was small and cluttered. If Beth thought his appearance was due to the stresses of the day's work, the appearance of the office completely overturn her pervious impression of him. The in-out tray on the small wooden desk was flowing with papers and the pile of books that was resting on the edge of the table looked like it was about to topple over any moment.
Both Alex and Beth invited themselves to sit on two plastic chairs opposite the desk as the lawyer rummaged through the chaos on his desk.
'Now, it appears your father wrote a will before he passed on,' he informed the sisters, sifting through the multitude of papers piled up in the in-out tray.
Alex could hear the lawyer panting slightly as he desperately tried to maintain a state of outer calm in the height of increasing pressure.
'Just bear with me,' he blushed, as a manila folder filled with fell off the table into a nearby bin despite his best attempts to catch it. 'It's here somewhere.'
Beth and Alex exchanged bemused smiles but neither made any attempt to clear up after the lawyer. After what felt like an eternity, he pulled out an envelope from the bottom of the tray.
'Ah! Here it is!' he announced triumphantly, before clearing his throat and tearing open the envelope to produce the legal document. He gave an embarrassed smile and proceeded to read the contents of the will. 'It says here … "I, Matthew Joseph Hasting, hereby leave my collection of 13th Century coins to my eldest daughter, Bethany Joanne Hasting. To my youngest daughter, Alexandra Charlotte Hasting, I leave the house and the amount currently residing in my combined bank accounts to the sum of $750,000."'
Beth's jaw just dropped in disbelief.
'Whoa! Wait a second,' she interrupted in protest. 'I just get a brunch of lousy coins and Alex gets the house and all the money?'
'Look, don't worry about it,' Alex spoke up, failing to see what all the fuss was about. 'We'll share it amongst ourselves.'
Beth had had enough. What was she going to do with a collection of rare coins? The only use they had for it was in a museum and didn't help her in the slightest. In no mood to argue, she just stalked out, leaving the lawyer staring after her in shock. Alex cleared her throat, clearly embarrassed by her sister's behaviour.
'Sorry about that,' she apologised to the lawyer and went out after Beth.
Alex and Beth were both sitting at the dining table having their meal later that evening. Alex had a strange feeling about what she was consuming. In fact, if she was honest with herself, the tomato juice tasted a little out of the ordinary.
'There's something about this juice,' she mused, taking another sip of it.
Beth just looked up at her curiously.
'What about it?'
'It tastes … I dunno … different. Did you buy a different brand or something?'
Beth just shrugged and took a sip of hers. She knew what Alex was trying to imply but wasn't going to let anything incriminate her.
'Tastes alright to me,' she replied, hoping to sound as natural as she possibly could and that Alex wouldn't pick up on it. 'Maybe it's just your tastebuds.'
'Yeah, maybe …' Alex sighed and continued her meal.
They ate in silence for a moment until Alex looked up at her sister and found her toying with her food in disinterest.
'What's wrong?
'Uh?' Beth blinked, then sighed. 'Oh, nothing. The will reading just rattled me, that's all. What was Dad thinking? What the hell am I going to do with a bunch of 13th century coins?'
'They're probably worth a mint though.'
'Yeah, but who in their right mind would pay for it? It's beyond ridiculous! I might has well just donate them to a museum.'
Alex was about to reply when her mobile phone beeped, indicating a new text message. Sheepish, she retrieved it from the depths of her pocket and activated it. Her mouth dropped in shock when she read the contents.
'I can't believe he even would do that!'
'Can't believe who did what?' Beth blinked but she had a fair idea who her sister was referring to.
'He called it off. Through a bloody text message,' Alex turned to face Beth, hoping for some reassurance from her older sister.
'Did he say why?' was all she asked.
'Only that he was "thinking about it"!' Alex snorted. 'Bet there's someone else and he's too gutless to tell me. The bastard!'
Annoyed, she pocketed the phone again and attempt to resume eating. Unfortunately, the most recent turn of events had cause her to loose her appetite. She just stared absent-mindedly at the bowl in front of her. Beth looked at her in sympathy.
'You okay?'
'Yeah, sorry. That text just threw me. I just can't believe he actually called it off!'
'I don't blame you,' Beth responded. 'Most people do it face-to-face.'
'Thanks for being so understanding anyway,' Alex smiled, sipping the juice to wash the spaghetti down.
She still thought there might have been something odd about the taste of the juice but she couldn't be sure. However, she also speculated there was a high chance that her emotions may be playing a part in the delusion as well and so she didn't think there was any point mentioning it further.
'Not a problem,' Beth smiled. 'I probably would've reacted the some way. Look, I know you're probably not up to it anymore but try and finish the spaghetti. I'd hate for the smell to permeate the room.'
'You can talk!' Alex snorted then paused slightly before sighing. 'I'm okay. I'm just pissed off with him, that's all.
There was another stretch of silence between the sisters as Beth watched Alex eat. Surely, it would've have started working by now yet Alex didn't seem to be suffering any after-effects from it. Perhaps she hadn't added enough. All her training taught her that it took anywhere between five minutes to fifteen minutes for any symptoms to start showing.
Any moment now, she thought with baited breath. You're not going to know what hit you.
Beth was starting to get nervous. So much so that she nearly gave herself away and Alex noticed her immediately.
Tap. Tap. Tap-tap-tap.
'You nervous about something?' Alex asked with a frown.
'No, why do you ask?' Beth blinked in surprise.
She'd been so tense in anticipation, she forgotten where she actually was.
'You always do that when you're nervous,' was the shrugging reply as if the reason for Beth's anxiety was of no real concern to her.
'Sorry. Bad habit,' Beth clenched her fist in a deliberately attempt to stop her nervous twitch.
'You should do some meditation or something,' Alex suggested casually, causing Beth to smile sarcastically back at her.
Luckily, Alex failed to notice and she proceeded to polish off her meal. Beth watched her, anxiously waiting for the effects to take hold. Ten minutes had past. The effects should have started by now. Beth watched her expectantly, holding her breath. If this didn't have any effect on her now, it would've been all for nothing and she'd have to come up with another plan.
Just hurry and take affect, will ya! I better not have gone through all this trouble for you not to work! Beth half-pleaded to the foxglove extract in Alex's juice.
Alex sat there for a moment and wondered what had just happened. She was feeling fine a minute ago. Now, her head was swimming slightly. Maybe it had something to do with the stress she was experiencing from Murray dumping her in such a cowardly fashion. The kitchen around her started spinning slightly and she blinked, trying to clear her increasingly blurred vision.
'What's wrong?' Beth wanted to know but did nothing to assist her.
By now, Alex felt like she was breathing in a vacuum. While she could breathe out, she was having trouble breathing in and, coupled with her extreme vertigo, it was getting very distressing. She began to panic.
'I … I dunno…' she whizzed, struggling to explain what she was experiencing but failed miserably. " I ... feel weird ..."
Worst yet, the world was spinning around her at a dizzying speed and giving her something of an exploding headache. Beth seemed to take it as a sudden reaction to nerves.
'And you're talking about me being nervous,' she snorted teasing.
Come on! Die already!
Alex wasn't really listening anymore. By now, she could barely think straight and her thoughts were moving faster than she could vocalise them. For some reason, the muscles of her mouth were refusing to co-operate with her mind. Then, with one last breath, she suddenly slumped into her chair and promptly collapsed onto the ground, twitching slightly.
What's happening to me? I can't move. Beth? You still there? Why aren't you helping me? she called out silently, despite the fact that she knew Beth couldn't actually hear her. I … can't … breathe … Help!
As her heart gradually slowed down, her body began to twitch.
Can't … think … n-need- Alex's muddled thoughts tried to make sense of what was happening to her. Can't … think … Cold … very … cold …
Watching her closely, Beth could now see that Alex's breathing was starting to become compromised. In fact, it was becoming more and more irregular and forced. Beth's training told her that Alex was going into cardiac arrest and the breathing was merely a sign of the body being starved of oxygen. Agonal breathing was the term they used in the professional circles. It was a situation that warranted immediate medical attention – something that Beth was deliberately failing to give her.
Beth sat there for a moment and gave a small smile. It had finally worked. She took a quick glance at her sister lying on the floor to make sure she was well and truly out then wished she hadn't. Instead of seeing a perfect result from her mission, she saw a vulnerable and highly fragile younger sister whom she had adored throughout her life.
Now, she was feeling guilty for what she had actually done. Beth took a deep breath and tried in vain to convince herself she had done it for the greater good but a nagging voice inside her head taunted her mercilessly.
Now, you've done it, the sneering voice said. Alex is going to die and it'll be on your head! All because you didn't have the guts to tell it to her face. You had to go and poison her, didn't you?
'Shut up!' Beth retorted. 'You have no idea what you're talking about!'
Are you kidding? I'm you, remember! You better hurry up and do something fast. You've wasted enough time arguing with me already!
She wriggled uncomfortably in her seat.
Well? What are you waiting for? Go on!
Tap. Tap. Tap-tap-tap.
'Alex? You okay?' she called out, hoping to get some sort of reaction from her sister but failed.
She couldn't stand the sight of her unconscious sister any longer. In a panic, she got up from her chair and rushed towards her. All of sudden she was now hoping that Alex was just unconscious. Her original plans had now flown straight out the window. Unfortunately, upon assessment, Beth's worst fears were realised when she discovered Alex wasn't actually breathing. In fact, her lips had started to turn a greyish-blue.
'Oh god, no!' she cried in desperation, gently shaking Alex's shoulders in an attempt to rouse her again. 'Come on. Wake up. You can do it. ..'