Stalemate – Six Sentence Story

Artwork by Phil Burns

This challenge is produced by GirlieOnTheEdge with the following simple rules:
Write 6 Sentences. No more. No less.
Use the current week’s prompt word – CENTRE

Click here to hear the author read his words:

Stalemate

The gunman, trapped inside the bank, has sent out everyone apart from two women and three children, who he has kept as hostages.

Due to his preposterous demands negotiations are not going well, so his startled wife, a frightened little woman, is almost dragged from her home.

She is ushered into the mobile control centre where, as she fidgets and paces nervously, the situation is explained to her.

When she asks why they don’t just let him go so no one will get hurt, they shake their heads, trying not to laugh, and tell her that is impossible.

She takes her hand out of her coat pocket and shows them the hand-grenade, with the pin pulled, so that if she releases the trigger in this confined space eleven people will die.

Impossible, she says, are you sure?

Unknown's avatar

About ceayr

A Scot who has discovered peace in a small town he calls Medville on the Côte Vermeille, C.E. Ayr has spent a large part of his life in the West of Scotland and a large part elsewhere. His first job was selling programmes at his local football club and he has since tried 73 other career paths, the longest being in IT, with varying degrees of success. He is somewhat nomadic, fairly irresponsible and, according to his darling daughter, a bit random. So, nobody’s perfect.
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32 Responses to Stalemate – Six Sentence Story

  1. clark's avatar clark says:

    The best surprise-ending Six of the week.

    (I liked Dyanne’s for the detail leading up to the ending, I laughed in surprise at yours. That is the higher compliment.)

    Good Six, yo

  2. It was probably just a Cadbury’s cream egg. No? OK.

  3. dyannedillon's avatar dyannedillon says:

    Ooo, that was a nice surprise at the end! Though she may be small, she be but mighty!

  4. Too good, CE. You gave us a frightened little woman who turned out to be holding a grenade!
    Brilliant 😎

  5. I’ve been a fan of your spoken Sixes since the first but this one. Performance art, this one C.E.
    Well done.

    • ceayr's avatar ceayr says:

      Well, thank you, Denise.
      I’m not sure why you think this is better than the others, but I am delighted with the high praise.

  6. And then how does she escape? These situations never have any winners.

    • ceayr's avatar ceayr says:

      I could explain the rest of the plan, Mimi, but I’d overrun my Six Sentences and you know what Denise is like, she’d dunk a croissant in coffee and thrash me to within an inch of my breakfast…

  7. Frank Hubeny's avatar Frank Hubeny says:

    Nice ending. They might as well let him go. That looks like a double set of hostages.

  8. Oh my! Wonderful display of leverage in a situation in a stalemate. LOL

  9. UP's avatar UP says:

    nicely done…quite tricky you are! and quite gifted

  10. Loved this, CE. Because of recent events over here in the US, I’ve started wondering why law enforcement doesn’t just record the license plate of certain violators and let them go on their way and then meet them at their home where there might be less of a chance of a deadly confrontation. So the wife’s request made perfect sense to be. But then you tossed in that beautifully evil twist which made me forget about reality and smile at what might turn out to be the perfect crime!

  11. Chris Hall's avatar Chris Hall says:

    Nicely done, CE. Great sleight of hand!

  12. I love the twist. Never say never. It can always be done.

  13. Terveen Gill's avatar Terveen Gill says:

    Oh that’s a large twist from a tiny woman. Brilliant! 🙂

  14. jenne49's avatar jenne49 says:

    For four and a half sentences you persuade me she’s a frightened little woman.
    And then in one and a half sentences you quietly deliver the punch, which is just as convincing!
    Excellent twist.

  15. Hey I’d give her exactly what she wants. Sooner or later it will catch up with them inevitably

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