Writing Resources from Fifteen Minutes of Fiction

Jack Carnas

As he walked into the voting booth, he felt a chill go down his spine. Jack Carnas was paranoid and slightly obsessive-compulsive, but the small, enclosed space couldn't possibly hurt him... right? He checked off all the boxes on his ballet as quickly as he could, but slow enough not to fear stabbing himself with the pen, of course.

When he had filled out the small form, he turned carefully and quickly around, shoving the curtain around. He walked briskly to a machine, where he slipped the sheet in and pressed a few buttons. Done. Finally he could get out of here. He hurried out to his car, and locked the doors as he got in. He checked his list to see that he only had one thing left to do, before he could go home to his extremely safe house.

When Jack got to the bank, he saw flashing red and blue lights. He pulled up as close as he could to the bank, and stopped. An officer walked up and had Jack roll down a window.

"Sorry sir, the bank's closed for the day. There's a hostage situation going on. We've determined that it's someone in trouble with a loan shark, and we have the situation under control. You can go along now."

"But sir, you see, I have a list... and... I have to-"

"Sorry, move along sir."

Jack parked in the nearby Starbucks parking lot, and waited. He tried convincing himself to go home, but his list was not yet complete. He got out of his car, and walked across the street to the bank. A different policeman approached.

"Sir, I'm going to have to ask you to leave." the man said politely.

"But I can help!" Jack blurted out. He knew he'd be more of a hindrance than an asset, but he had to get in there and deposit his money! He stood, unmoving as the officer sized him up.

"I'm sorry, mister, but nobody's allowed past this point."

The man was then approached by a superior officer, "Lieutenant, we've made contact with the man inside and he wants us to send somebody in.. an innocent bystander," he said, then whispered, "I need a volunteer."

"I'll go!" Jack shouted, a little too loud.

Somehow, within fifteen minutes, Jack wore a wire and a bulletproof vest hidden under his jacket. He walked calmly (for as much paranoia as he had.), into the bank. Allowing a masked man to quickly open and shut the door. He walked instinctively to the teller's desk and waited. He heard somebody say something loudly, but who would be talking to him at the bank? And where was that teller??

He suddenly remembered the situation. He turned around and started quoting what the police had told him to say.

"What are your demands?" He said.

The masked man was quaking, hardly able to hold his gun upright. He wasn't a very experienced robber. Jack could tell.

...To Be Continued

I'll finish it in a seperate post, and most likely not use the rest of the grab bag words.

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