"The Gig"

New week, new (old) story. This one was written as a final for a class sophomore year. Being as this was a final, this one is an actual narrative with a beginning, middle, and end. Again, feel free to give any input in the comments section.


So let me tell you a story about something that happened to me one night last summer, you probably won’t believe me. I will admit that it is a pretty unbelievable story. But if you go with the flow, I bet you’ll find out that it is a pretty interesting yarn. A yarn that spins a tail of murder and intrigue. I shall begin the story in my very living room. There I was, watching TV when I heard a knock at the door. I really didn’t want to get up. I mean I had been working all day and the only thing I wanted to do was lounge about. However, whoever it was wasn’t going to stop knocking. Besides, it must have been pretty important if someone was knocking this late. I got up and of course, being the paranoid individual that I am, first looked out the window to see who it was. The man was someone I had never seen before. He was dressed up in a trench coat a fedora. Usually I would hide and act like I’m not home, but he didn’t seem threatening. Besides, how often do you see someone that still dresses like that in this day and age? I decided to give him a shot and I opened the door. “Hi. I’m Barnabus Woolworth from Mountmore industries. Can I have a moment of your time?” He asked as I stood there looking at him. Usually this would be the point where I would thank them for there time and ask them to leave, but something told me not too. I had never heard of this company and had no idea what they were selling. Could this guy be scamming me? I wanted to know all these questions, so I let him. He stepped up into the doorway and walked over to my coffee table, where he sat down the briefcase that he had been holding. “Ok, know that I have your attention, listen carefully”, he told me. This was an unexpected development to say the least. I mean how many sales people do you know that are that upfront and forceful. All right, probably quite a bit, I mean they are sales people, they are supposed to convince you to buy their stuff. Anyways back to the story. The stranger opened up his briefcase and told me to look inside. I had never seen that much money before. I mean there had to have been at least over ten thousands dollars in there. “That can be all yours if you do what I say”, the man explained, “all you need to do is accept what I am about to offer.” I can’t say that I wasn’t immediately intrigued. I mean first the guy comes to the doors saying he’s a salesman, and the next minute he is offering a stranger money to do a job? Whatever, I could always use the money, and I was too intrigued to immediately say no. “What do I do?” I asked. “Go to the docks downtown at 12:00AM. You will meet a man. He will give you further instructions”, He told me. “Do I get the money for meeting the guy?” I inquired. “No, you will get it if you complete all objectives”. Oh well, I guess it didn’t hurt to ask. Now usually I wouldn’t be up for meeting mysterious people late at night, but part of me wanted to do it out of boredom. Plus, I made it this far, why stop now. I shook the man’s hand and agreed to do it. “Ok, you will see me when you are done.
I arrived at the dock at the specified time. There was no one around that I could see. Could I have been early? Maybe I was late. Anyways, I waited. Around five minutes later I was approached. “You must be who he sent. Don’t mess up”. The man gave me these directions and handed me a note. I had barely opened the note when I noticed that he was gone. I scanned over the note to see what my mission was. “In the chest to your right is a silenced pistol. Use it to kill the man coming out of The Prairie Dog Nightclub at 2:30 AM sharp.” Hmm I had never killed a man. Would I be up to the challenge? Furthermore, why would I even want to kill somebody? Maybe I could reason with the guy I was supposed to kill. You know, convince him to fake his death and skip town. There would be no losers in that situation. I went over to the before mentioned chest and opened it to find the gun. I stuck it in my pants, hoping that no one would see it. Luckily, I was able to get a taxi and head to the club. I arrived an hour before the target was supposed to leave. During my waiting period, I thought about all the details of what had happened so far. I mean how does the letter know exactly when this guy is going to be leaving the club. Not only that, but how do I know exactly who I am supposed to be looking for? I mean I could end up shooting the wrong guy. “How did this priest end up dead?” people would ask. Why a priest would be in a nightclub at 2:30 in the morning is beyond me, but you get my point.
An hour went by before it was time. Like clockwork, a man exited the club. He was wearing a leather jacket and had slicked back 50’s greaser hair. I decided that he was the one and approached him. “You must be here to kill me”, he instantly assumed. “See that’s the thing. I don’t want to kill you. I was thinking and isn’t there a way that you can just skip town and never come back. You know, make everyone think you are dead,” I sheepishly asked. “No” he replied in the most deadpan voice I have ever heard. Before I knew what hit me, he had grabbed it. He had grabbed the gun right from my hand and shot himself right in the gut. “What the Hell!” I shouted as I kneeled down. “Here, drop this off in the same chest you got that gun. Feel free to read the note if you want to know why you went through all this”. I already knew why I went through all this, I volunteered. Anyways, I knew that what he really meant is why he killed himself. I couldn’t let anybody find him. I was the only one nearby, so I would be suspect number one. I hid the body in the nearest alley way and left the gun with his body. Hopefully, no one would suspect anything but a suicide. I then called the nearest taxi and headed back to the docks. In the car, I read the note. “We appreciate your work tonight random stranger and you should know that you will be rewarded. You will not be implicated in anyway for the actions that have happened. The man you killed wanted to die. At the time of his death, he had the calculations for a prototype that had the potential to hurt many people stored in his brain. Fortunately he hadn’t written these plans down, so there is no chance that they will ever be discovered. The reason why you had to be brought in to this was that we couldn’t make it look like a suicide, but instead like a random case of violence. That way no one would suspect that anything was being hidden. Rest assured that you will never hear from us again”. The taxi pulled up to the dock and let me off. I went to the chest I had been before and opened the chest. Inside was a briefcase filled with money. I left the note in the chest and took the case. Morning was almost here and I needed to sleep.

June 6/5/2005 - Document titled Week 9

Story #1
Jack had no where else to turn. The police were close behind him and he was a the edge of the building. Could he jump? No, it was 50 feet down. He would break his back even if he fell in a pile of garbage. Jack looked down the edge, then looked behind himself, seeing the cops get closer. He thought about jumping, leaving fate to save him. He never really believed in fate, but miracles sometimes happen. Plus, even if he were to survive, the injuries constituting a five month stay in the hospital would beat being in prison. “We have you surrounded, give up now!”, the officer screamed. Jack knew that going with them was not an option. He decided that this was going to end now. He backed towards the edge when he was pummeled by shots from nearly every officer’s pistol. Filled with holes, he fell off the edge of the building. Minutes later, Jack woke up, woozy but not hurt. He had survived the whole thing.

Story #2
OH MY GOD! So, I was standing on the street corner the other day and this guy came up to me. He was broken as all get out. So he asks me if I had any change. What the hell? I use a debit card for everything. Anyways, I told him that I didn't have any change on me. I started to get hungry and needed food now. Taco's sounded good, especially ones from Taco Time. I started to walk south towards the closest one. I got there and let me tell you, that Chicken Soft Taco really hit the spot.



These two stories were what inspired me to start posting again. Based on that date, I think this was written sometime during my Sophomore year at BCC (now Bellevue College). I have no clue what my frame of mind was when I thought these up, though the fact that at the first one ends in unprovoked police brutality probably is a clue.

A portal back in time

Hey everyone!

Time to pull the old blog out of the cobwebs for a very special series. In cleaning out the folders on my computer, I came across a bunch of short stories that I had written throughout my college career. Honestly I forgot these existed and I plan on posting them as is, though If I get enough feedback saying whether people liked or hated a particular one i'll probably go back and edit it. If I get enough positive feed back I might go and clean some of them up as part of a portfolio or writing sample for employers. Anyways enjoy this first one and leave me any feedback you think of. Most of these don't have titles so i'll let you come up with that.