Writing Hero - An English short story assignment [PG]

[DDG]

[FONT=Tahoma][COLOR=DarkSlateBlue]A few months ago in English class, my teacher asked everyone in the class to write a short story, 3-5 pages long. I've been wanting to post my story here for quite awhile now, but it had to be put into my writing folder and last Friday we were finally allowed to take the folders home.

So here it is. My short story that I wrote for English class. I wanted to be a bit more graphic, but I needed to keep it school appropriate so that was out of the question.[/font][/color]

Hero [PG] by DDG "We can't screw this up, you know this Danny," a tall, bald headed man with piercing blue eyes said to a shorter Italian man with black hair and dark brown eyes. Danny glared up at the bald headed man, the leader of their little four man group. "You think I forgot? I'm the one who came up with the idea! Me, all me!" A blond headed man smacked the side of Danny's head. "That's a bunch of bull, Danny. A bunch of it. We all came up with this plan together, you know that." Crossing his arms in annoyance, Danny stated defiantly, "Well, I've done most of the work." "Shut your face Danny," a brunette said in frustration. She threw a pencil down onto the table between the four of them and the lead snapped off the end. Small, black marks now covered a small area of the floor plans to a state bank located on 31st Street. The woman stomped away towards a beat up, dirty couch situated parallel to a brand new flat screen TV placed upon the wall. A brand new, stolen, flat screen TV that is. Danny's eyes flashed with rage. "Was that an insult? You mocking my heritage? My family, eh Christie?" he questioned, turning towards where Christie had sat herself on the couch. Christie twisted her head around and said, "No, Danny. I'm not mocking your Mafioso family or heritage. It's just an expression, stupid." She turned back to the TV and hit the power button on the remote. The TV flashed on and a show began playing. Danny made to sprint over to Christie and strangle her, but the blond haired man, Adam, grabbed his shoulders and held him back. "Calm down, Danny. We need her, this is a four man operation. You can kill her after it's all over, all right?" Danny merely snarled at Adam and wrenched his shoulders from out of Adam's grasp. Sullenly, he sat down in the nearest chair, crossing his arms and staring indignantly up at Bruce who was now looking down at the plans on the table. Bruce sighed and shook his head. "Guys, gal, this is going to be the toughest job yet. Now," he turned to Adam and the tone of his voice changed completely. It had gone from worry to discontent. "Adam, I hear you've been doing some other work outside our operation here." Adam was puzzled. "I thought it was agreed that we could have other jobs? That it was encouraged that we set up legitimate fronts?" Danny was laughing but managed to say, "Yeah, but this wasn't the kind of front we were talking about." He placed a book on the table with gold lettering and a red cover. "Adam, you truly are a great writer, but I'm afraid your book is troublesome to us, your friends," said Bruce, a cold look in his eyes. "Thought the characters in your story may have different names, they still completely portray all for of us in an accurate representation. And the title, Breaking the Bank, says a lot. If any cop were to wise up and put two and two together, as you've so wonderfully written about a few of the banks that the four of us have robbed in the past, we would be in deep trouble. "And furthermore, Adam, you did not even bother to use a pen name," Bruce leaned over the table and began speaking to the blond in a more hushed voice. "You will become a liability to us if you continue writing these books the way you have been. And you know what I do when people become liabilities." Adam gulped and did not respond. Figuring he got the picture, Bruce smiled to himself and swiftly left the room. Danny grinned as Adam sat down in a chair, distraught. From the couch, Christie asked, "Adma, are you really ready to risk it all for this job? We know you've got a family and everything, something to lose if it all goes to hell." "Yeah," Danny added, "are you really a committed member of our group? This book can be saying a lot of things depending on how you look at it." "I swear, I'm with you all the way. I pledge my allegiance, my full committment to you. I've already 'made my bones', you know I'm serious," Adam said, ending the conversation. "Is everything set?" Bruce questioned the group as they huddled behind a few bushes in front of the bank. "Yeah, you and Christie will head to the safe while Adam and I watch the hostages." Bruce smiled. "Good, good. Alright, let's do this!" He commanded. Immediately, the four stood and rushed into the bank, weapons drawn. Adam cocked his shotgun and pulled the trigger twice. The security guards fell and lay motionless on the smooth, marble floor. As screams began erupting throughout the room, Christie and Bruce slipped off into the back where they began work on cracking the safe. Quickly, Adam and Danny rounded up all of the hostages and forced them to sit in the middle of the large room. Nervously, Adam checked his watch: five minutes had passed. What was taking those two so long? An alarm suddenly sounded: a hostage had slipped away undetected and hit the alarm button. Adam could already hear the squad cars in the distance. Outraged, Danny shot the hostage who had hit the alarm. Four bullets pierced the man's chest, came out his back and lodged themselves in the wall behind. Now panicking, Adam called out an order. "Danny! Start grabbing anything that might contain something valuable or be of value! If we have to bail, we might as well get something out of the deal!" Danny nodded that he understood and began threatening the hostages to hand over their cash and valuables. Adam approached a middle-aged woman and placed his gun to her head. "Give me your purse, now!" he demanded forcefully. The womann refused and closed her eyes, waiting for the deafening shot that would end her life. It quickly came, Adam's shotgun sending six bullets into the woman, straight through her where they collided with another fleshy object: her son. Both fell to the floor, dead, almost instantly. Adam leaned down and grabbed the woman's purse. Just then, Christie and Bruce emerged from the back with sacks full of money. Glancing back at the two bodies lying in front of him, Adam spotted a backpack that the boy had been carrying. Thinking maybe there could be a CD player of something else of the sort, he swiped it and quickly caught up with his three partners who were making a hasty back door exit. A few minutes later and the four were safely back at their hideout, inspecting the goods they'd swiped and counting the money. Three of the four of them were happy with the days haul at least. Adam was not, however. He was troubled by what had happened. He'd killed innocent people before, but never had he killed anyone who had idolized him. For in the backpack that he had taken from the poor boy he had murdered, was an essay entitled, "Breaking the Bank." The essay was about Adam. In his slight state of panic at the bank he had not recognized the boy and woman for who they were: his nephew, Colton Machowsky and his one and only sister. He had killed the one and only person who had written an essay that called Adam the one thing he was not: a hero.