How Did It Come to This?

[Gavin]

Okay, here's another one I've done for my school 3rd year folio. Just wanted to post it here for you guys. Since I can't be bothered with a massive speech, enjoy!
How Did it Come to This?

The rain drilled down on my head. It was Saturday, and despite the bad weather, people ran up and down the streets, shoving their way into the shops and supermarkets crammed into the small high street, setting their greedy little eyes on the pointless objects that so many businessmen used to rake in money from the brain-dead citizens of modern society.
I looked back down the dark alley I stood in. Still, nothing. I wondered how long I’d been waiting for the payment. I had agreed to do the deed if half the money was given to me beforehand. Naturally, I could kill the deliverer as soon as they came. The familiar shape in my coat pocket held a reminder to that.
A man dressed in rags shuffled past.
“Money for the homeless?” he grumbled.
I shoved my hand deep into my pocket once more, my hand scuffling around the darkness until it finally found rest on a five pound note. I drew it from my pocket and offered the cash. The homeless old man thanked me and stumbled on, a small smile now adorning his worn and troubled face. Of course, I knew where he would be headed next. The local alcohol shop was nearby. Perhaps with the money I gave him he could drink away his sorrows. The beverage’s bitter taste would only last as short nourishment to the pain of depression. I knew that by experience.
I turned my head back to the entrance to the alley. Except now, it had been filled. A familiar figure penetrated the view into the backstreet- a stocky man wearing a long jacket and a bowler hat stood there, clutching a briefcase in his hand like a falcon digging it’s talons into a voracious little rat. I stared at him sternly; his intimidating eyes bore back into my own.
“Green, I presume?” The man’s deep voice echoed around the small alleyway. I nodded, my eyes fixed on the threatening shape in his coat pocket. “Mr. Naive sends his greatest regards. Everything you need is here”
I remained silent with fear, my eyes still fixed sceptically on the hulk before me. The man slipped the briefcase into my possession.
“You will find everything you need in there. Mr. Naive would appreciate the return of his possessions.”
“I shall do my absolute best.” I replied slyly.
“Good day, Master Green.” The man strode back down the narrow street and back into the open.
I quickly opened the briefcase. Fitted neatly in the case was a sleek, black metal object. My eyes darted to the skyscraper towering above the city. I knew what I had to do.
I set off toward the skyscraper, the buildings around me becoming slowly taller and taller as I travelled into the more upper-class parts of the city. About five minutes later I arrived at my destination.
The building looked much more overpowering close-up. The sickly clean windows reflected the city around the massive building, making the smaller constructions look puny and weak.
The cold, bitter wind of late Autumn sliced into my skin as I reached the top of a nearby building. I looked once more to the sleek building ahead of me. From what I had been told, the victim should be coming out of the building fifteen minutes from now. I had plenty of time, but that came as no cure to the unfortunate position I was in. I readied my weapon and gazed into my scope at the door to the massive skyscraper, the cold, biting steel of the trigger bringing back the reminders of why I had to carry out this terrible task.
How did it come to this?
It was July- summer had justbegan, and the sun beat down into the cemetery. I was eighteen.
“We are gathered here today to remember the passing of Arthur Laydon…” The priest drawled on, his voice drowned out by the nearby sobbing. I looked at the coffin as it was lowered into the enclosed dirt hole, my face torn with concern. With Mum and Dad both dead, how was I supposed to make any kind of income?
I stumbled back through the cemetery, tears streaming down my face. My father had not been a good one ,that was for sure. The childhood any other boy would have been promised had evidently been removed from my own, replaced by beatings and cruel words. Mum had committed suicide early in my life due to Dad, and that seemed to turn him even more insane. Yet, as I walked towards the ornate black gates to the cemetery, a man stood out to me in my sorrow. He was huge, towering above all those that had attended the funeral. He wore a long jacket, and a dark black bowler hat. As I approached him, he called to me
“Cole Laydon?” his voice boomed from his small mouth.
“Why do you know my name?” I retorted suspiciously.
“I have been sent to offer you a business opportunity.”
“A business opportunity? By who?”
“A generous man by the name of Mr. Naive. He understands your sorrow.”
I looked at him even more warily. He glared back, his expression threatening anyone who would attempt to challenge him.
“What kind of business?”
“I am unable to tell you of what kind as of now. Although, Mr. Naive has kindly prepared this letter for you. It will tell you everything you need to know.” The man handed me the letter. I took it warily, looking down at the blank envelope. I looked up again to ask another question, but the massive man was gone. I read through the letter over and over again, thinking about every word, all that this mysterious Mr. Naive has sent me.
To Master Cole Laydon,
I have sent you this letter to offer you an opportunity. I can understand your sadness, and with both of your parents dead, it will become a struggle for you to earn enough for you to survive. And therefore, I offer you this opportunity.
My noble business and it’s employees are among your kind- alone, with no way of making a life for themselves. I assume you are wary of the sort of business we would be doing. Unfortunately, I cannot tell you this until our first meeting. If you wish to accept my offer, then leave this message at your doorstep. If you choose to accept, meet me at the abandoned warehouse near your family home.
I will be waiting for you there.
Sincerely,
Mr. Naive.
I looked down at the letter, hardly believing my eyes. It was suspicious, ofcourse, that on the day of my father’s funeral and what I thought to be the beginning of many years of begging, that such an offer should come my way. But it was far too tempting to put aside. That very night, I set out for the warehouse. The last thing I remember when arriving there was being knocked over the head with a gun, and then waking up with a square shape protruding from my skin and the words “Failure leads to death” etched into the skin on my chest. Shining through the thin layer of skin still there was what appeared to be the numbers on some kind of stopclock- 00:01.
Two years from then. I was sitting on the corner of a street. Luckily, Mr.Naive had not since contacted me. But the fear of receiving another letter, or seeing the hulking man, had driven me into an even deeper state of sadness. All that I had now was drink, the rags I had worn since the night in the warehouse, and the cup that I now held in my mud-ridden hands. I mumbled words to the self-centred businesspeople striding up and down the street. They paid no attention and moved on, their noses held high to filth like myself. An ambulance darted past, making me cringe, reminding me of the deep scars made by some diabolical surgeon two years ago. And then I saw him again. The man with the bowler hat, he was just across the street. My eyes lit up with fear, and I jumped to my feet, life suddenly springing into my starved body. The man saw me, but did not move. I carried on down the backstreets, terror gripping me. And as I ran, a voice that came from nowhere echoed through my mind.
“You cannot escape, Green. There is no way out.”
I screamed in fear. The voice kept on repeating itself. My head swam, and I began to hit it as I ran.
“GET OUT OF MY HEAD!” I yelled. But the voice became more and more crazed and insane.
I turned another corner, and at the end of it, was an identical man to the one I was running away from. I looked down the opposite alley. Another butler-like man. I looked to turn back. But standing there was the original butler. They all smiled deviously at the same time, and their eyes lit up with evil. And exactly at the same time, they began marching down the alleyways, the beat of their footsteps on the worn concrete drumming into my head. I prayed it was all a dream, and then a single sentence, like the insane message given before, boomed again-
“You have one chance left, Green. Mr. Naive will release the signal if you fail to give in.” And then, opening my eyes warily, I saw they had disappeared as they once had before.

The huge skyscraper cast a shadow over me. The sun had started setting now, making the autumn leaves cast an orange glow about the city.
The skyscraper’s doors slid open, and a man in a black suit walked out, looking around warily. There was no mistaking that the man was my target. I quickly checked around- it appeared nobody had yet seen me. I held the rifle scope up to my eye and readied the shot.
It was a few months from the last sighting of Mr. Naive’s henchmen. The sudden intrusion into my pitiful life brought back a sense of survival in me- I had since then deprived even deeper into the criminal lifestyle. Stealing wallets from the citizens who paraded the busy streets had given me just enough money to resume a life like the one I had before. That would at least be correct if my face wasn’t plastered to every grotty shop window with the words “Wanted for Theft” printed underneath the picture.
“Green.” A voice boomed from behind me. My blood froze, but I managed to retain my last nerve of sanity and reply.
“A message from Mr.Naive?” My voice sounded like a small child’s compared to the henchman.
“Yes. Here is the man you need to dispose of.” The man unfurled a crumpled piece of paper with a smudged picture on it. The features on the man’s face were hardly identifiable. “He will arrive at this destination in an hour. Your equipment is in the briefcase. Good luck.”
I took the briefcase, and the picture of the man. An address had been written beneath the man’s head. I quickly consulted a map I kept nearby, and then set off towards my target.
As I wandered swiftly through the bustling streets, I read the information over and over again, until the words became printed in my mind. The man I had to kill was to be found in an old department store. I recognised the name- the Barlowe building. It had been in the process of being renovated, but the project had been cast aside due to costs and the builders had moved on to a couple of skyscrapers, independently bought by the very company that needed to use them. The department store was now occupied only by cobwebs and dust, and the police never bothered to check inside the building, so it made for the perfect hideout for a criminal gang. Unfortunately, the address and picture of the victim was the only information given. I held no regret in what I was about to do at that moment- it was me or him, and the way I saw it, it might as well be him. Generally, I guessed, people who were in business with Mr.Naive were probably bad people, and it would do the world a favour if their heads splayed across some forgotten wall.
I looked up at my target’s location. Rusting scaffolds engulfed the magnificent stonework in a sea of advertisement. It was a shame to see the ancient building covered up- although that was probably what the building needed, as the mess that was about to be made in there would probably be best hidden.
I walked across the street and around the back of the old stone building, where I dropped the briefcase onto the cold tarmac. The briefcase clicked open, and my gaze fell on a sleek, black handgun, a silencer attached to the front. I noticed a small note was included.
“It’s yours if you succeed”
And with those words, I walked around the corner to the back door. Two bodyguards stood by the door. They turned round and raised their guns- almost instinctively; I raised my own in a flash and pulled the trigger twice. The two bodyguards slumped to the ground, blood spreading across their smart black suits. The door behind them was already open for me to walk in easily. Another bodyguard- and one more shot- he fell to the floor. I strode up the stairs hastily, not knowing how long it would be until my target realised that he had not had contact from his men.
I came to the top of the landing. Long corridors stretched to the left and right of me, leading onto empty store rooms. I would have to search them all. My footsteps echoed through the walls as I looked through the rooms.
It was half an hour before I had searched through all the rooms. Just one left. I loaded my gun. It was time. But before I could so much as move around the corner, a voice spoke.
“I knew he’d send someone to kill me. Mr.Naive would never let me get away with it.”
I moved around the corner, gun raised. But my target appeared to be unarmed.
“Before you kill me, there is something you should know.”
I looked at the man, deciding whether to believe him or not.
“Mr.Naive was never a generous person. He’ll use people for his purpose, and then, once they’ve carried out his will, he’ll leave them to die. Once you’ve outlived your usefulness, he’ll hunt you down and kill you. And if you fail to do his bidding, then you’ll die anyway, or go insane. That is what awaits you. And now, with that knowledge etched into your pathetic little mind, kill me. I will have my vengeance either way.”
My target’s blood splattered over the wooden floor. The deep voice boomed through my head-
“Good work, Green. Mr.Naive will be pleased.”
The man in the black suit walked on from the huge skyscrapers he had came from, winding his way around the autumn trees. I wished that it would not be I who had to kill him, that I could be living a normal life, that the events that pieced together my terrible past had never existed. But they did. And there was no running away from it.
There was no question about it- the events of the past had moulded me to that person. I was a cold-blooded killing machine. A weapon to be used for killing, until the happenings in my existence came rushing backed to me and ended my life as I had ended so many others.
Live or die. I would always choose live. And with that thought, I pulled the trigger.

[Gavin]

Oh, yeah. That's a hefty 2500 words there. Just thought I'd put that out there.

[AA_BATTERY]

wow, nice story. great job!

[Ninjaferret22]

It's a very cool story, I like the darkness to it though I found two spots that require spaces, which I underlined for your covnience.

Okay, here's another one I've done for my school 3rd year folio. Just wanted to post it here for you guys. Since I can't be bothered with a massive speech, enjoy!
How Did it Come to This?

The rain drilled down on my head. It was Saturday, and despite the bad weather, people ran up and down the streets, shoving their way into the shops and supermarkets crammed into the small high street, setting their greedy little eyes on the pointless objects that so many businessmen used to rake in money from the brain-dead citizens of modern society.
I looked back down the dark alley I stood in. Still, nothing. I wondered how long I’d been waiting for the payment. I had agreed to do the deed if half the money was given to me beforehand. Naturally, I could kill the deliverer as soon as they came. The familiar shape in my coat pocket held a reminder to that.
A man dressed in rags shuffled past.
“Money for the homeless?” he grumbled.
I shoved my hand deep into my pocket once more, my hand scuffling around the darkness until it finally found rest on a five pound note. I drew it from my pocket and offered the cash. The homeless old man thanked me and stumbled on, a small smile now adorning his worn and troubled face. Of course, I knew where he would be headed next. The local alcohol shop was nearby. Perhaps with the money I gave him he could drink away his sorrows. The beverage’s bitter taste would only last as short nourishment to the pain of depression. I knew that by experience.
I turned my head back to the entrance to the alley. Except now, it had been filled. A familiar figure penetrated the view into the backstreet- a stocky man wearing a long jacket and a bowler hat stood there, clutching a briefcase in his hand like a falcon digging it’s talons into a voracious little rat. I stared at him sternly; his intimidating eyes bore back into my own.
“Green, I presume?” The man’s deep voice echoed around the small alleyway. I nodded, my eyes fixed on the threatening shape in his coat pocket. “Mr. Naive sends his greatest regards. Everything you need is here”
I remained silent with fear, my eyes still fixed sceptically on the hulk before me. The man slipped the briefcase into my possession.
“You will find everything you need in there. Mr. Naive would appreciate the return of his possessions.”
“I shall do my absolute best.” I replied slyly.
“Good day, Master Green.” The man strode back down the narrow street and back into the open.
I quickly opened the briefcase. Fitted neatly in the case was a sleek, black metal object. My eyes darted to the skyscraper towering above the city. I knew what I had to do.
I set off toward the skyscraper, the buildings around me becoming slowly taller and taller as I travelled into the more upper-class parts of the city. About five minutes later I arrived at my destination.
The building looked much more overpowering close-up. The sickly clean windows reflected the city around the massive building, making the smaller constructions look puny and weak.
The cold, bitter wind of late Autumn sliced into my skin as I reached the top of a nearby building. I looked once more to the sleek building ahead of me. From what I had been told, the victim should be coming out of the building fifteen minutes from now. I had plenty of time, but that came as no cure to the unfortunate position I was in. I readied my weapon and gazed into my scope at the door to the massive skyscraper, the cold, biting steel of the trigger bringing back the reminders of why I had to carry out this terrible task.
How did it come to this?
It was July- summer had justbegan, and the sun beat down into the cemetery. I was eighteen.
“We are gathered here today to remember the passing of Arthur Laydon…” The priest drawled on, his voice drowned out by the nearby sobbing. I looked at the coffin as it was lowered into the enclosed dirt hole, my face torn with concern. With Mum and Dad both dead, how was I supposed to make any kind of income?
I stumbled back through the cemetery, tears streaming down my face. My father had not been a good one ,that was for sure. The childhood any other boy would have been promised had evidently been removed from my own, replaced by beatings and cruel words. Mum had committed suicide early in my life due to Dad, and that seemed to turn him even more insane. Yet, as I walked towards the ornate black gates to the cemetery, a man stood out to me in my sorrow. He was huge, towering above all those that had attended the funeral. He wore a long jacket, and a dark black bowler hat. As I approached him, he called to me
“Cole Laydon?” his voice boomed from his small mouth.
“Why do you know my name?” I retorted suspiciously.
“I have been sent to offer you a business opportunity.”
“A business opportunity? By who?”
“A generous man by the name of Mr. Naive. He understands your sorrow.”
I looked at him even more warily. He glared back, his expression threatening anyone who would attempt to challenge him.
“What kind of business?”
“I am unable to tell you of what kind as of now. Although, Mr. Naive has kindly prepared this letter for you. It will tell you everything you need to know.” The man handed me the letter. I took it warily, looking down at the blank envelope. I looked up again to ask another question, but the massive man was gone. I read through the letter over and over again, thinking about every word, all that this mysterious Mr. Naive has sent me.
To Master Cole Laydon,
I have sent you this letter to offer you an opportunity. I can understand your sadness, and with both of your parents dead, it will become a struggle for you to earn enough for you to survive. And therefore, I offer you this opportunity.
My noble business and it’s employees are among your kind- alone, with no way of making a life for themselves. I assume you are wary of the sort of business we would be doing. Unfortunately, I cannot tell you this until our first meeting. If you wish to accept my offer, then leave this message at your doorstep. If you choose to accept, meet me at the abandoned warehouse near your family home.
I will be waiting for you there.
Sincerely,
Mr. Naive.
I looked down at the letter, hardly believing my eyes. It was suspicious, ofcourse, that on the day of my father’s funeral and what I thought to be the beginning of many years of begging, that such an offer should come my way. But it was far too tempting to put aside. That very night, I set out for the warehouse. The last thing I remember when arriving there was being knocked over the head with a gun, and then waking up with a square shape protruding from my skin and the words “Failure leads to death” etched into the skin on my chest. Shining through the thin layer of skin still there was what appeared to be the numbers on some kind of stopclock- 00:01.
Two years from then. I was sitting on the corner of a street. Luckily, Mr.Naive had not since contacted me. But the fear of receiving another letter, or seeing the hulking man, had driven me into an even deeper state of sadness. All that I had now was drink, the rags I had worn since the night in the warehouse, and the cup that I now held in my mud-ridden hands. I mumbled words to the self-centred businesspeople striding up and down the street. They paid no attention and moved on, their noses held high to filth like myself. An ambulance darted past, making me cringe, reminding me of the deep scars made by some diabolical surgeon two years ago. And then I saw him again. The man with the bowler hat, he was just across the street. My eyes lit up with fear, and I jumped to my feet, life suddenly springing into my starved body. The man saw me, but did not move. I carried on down the backstreets, terror gripping me. And as I ran, a voice that came from nowhere echoed through my mind.
“You cannot escape, Green. There is no way out.”
I screamed in fear. The voice kept on repeating itself. My head swam, and I began to hit it as I ran.
“GET OUT OF MY HEAD!” I yelled. But the voice became more and more crazed and insane.
I turned another corner, and at the end of it, was an identical man to the one I was running away from. I looked down the opposite alley. Another butler-like man. I looked to turn back. But standing there was the original butler. They all smiled deviously at the same time, and their eyes lit up with evil. And exactly at the same time, they began marching down the alleyways, the beat of their footsteps on the worn concrete drumming into my head. I prayed it was all a dream, and then a single sentence, like the insane message given before, boomed again-
“You have one chance left, Green. Mr. Naive will release the signal if you fail to give in.” And then, opening my eyes warily, I saw they had disappeared as they once had before.

The huge skyscraper cast a shadow over me. The sun had started setting now, making the autumn leaves cast an orange glow about the city.
The skyscraper’s doors slid open, and a man in a black suit walked out, looking around warily. There was no mistaking that the man was my target. I quickly checked around- it appeared nobody had yet seen me. I held the rifle scope up to my eye and readied the shot.
It was a few months from the last sighting of Mr. Naive’s henchmen. The sudden intrusion into my pitiful life brought back a sense of survival in me- I had since then deprived even deeper into the criminal lifestyle. Stealing wallets from the citizens who paraded the busy streets had given me just enough money to resume a life like the one I had before. That would at least be correct if my face wasn’t plastered to every grotty shop window with the words “Wanted for Theft” printed underneath the picture.
“Green.” A voice boomed from behind me. My blood froze, but I managed to retain my last nerve of sanity and reply.
“A message from Mr.Naive?” My voice sounded like a small child’s compared to the henchman.
“Yes. Here is the man you need to dispose of.” The man unfurled a crumpled piece of paper with a smudged picture on it. The features on the man’s face were hardly identifiable. “He will arrive at this destination in an hour. Your equipment is in the briefcase. Good luck.”
I took the briefcase, and the picture of the man. An address had been written beneath the man’s head. I quickly consulted a map I kept nearby, and then set off towards my target.
As I wandered swiftly through the bustling streets, I read the information over and over again, until the words became printed in my mind. The man I had to kill was to be found in an old department store. I recognised the name- the Barlowe building. It had been in the process of being renovated, but the project had been cast aside due to costs and the builders had moved on to a couple of skyscrapers, independently bought by the very company that needed to use them. The department store was now occupied only by cobwebs and dust, and the police never bothered to check inside the building, so it made for the perfect hideout for a criminal gang. Unfortunately, the address and picture of the victim was the only information given. I held no regret in what I was about to do at that moment- it was me or him, and the way I saw it, it might as well be him. Generally, I guessed, people who were in business with Mr.Naive were probably bad people, and it would do the world a favour if their heads splayed across some forgotten wall.
I looked up at my target’s location. Rusting scaffolds engulfed the magnificent stonework in a sea of advertisement. It was a shame to see the ancient building covered up- although that was probably what the building needed, as the mess that was about to be made in there would probably be best hidden.
I walked across the street and around the back of the old stone building, where I dropped the briefcase onto the cold tarmac. The briefcase clicked open, and my gaze fell on a sleek, black handgun, a silencer attached to the front. I noticed a small note was included.
“It’s yours if you succeed”
And with those words, I walked around the corner to the back door. Two bodyguards stood by the door. They turned round and raised their guns- almost instinctively; I raised my own in a flash and pulled the trigger twice. The two bodyguards slumped to the ground, blood spreading across their smart black suits. The door behind them was already open for me to walk in easily. Another bodyguard- and one more shot- he fell to the floor. I strode up the stairs hastily, not knowing how long it would be until my target realised that he had not had contact from his men.
I came to the top of the landing. Long corridors stretched to the left and right of me, leading onto empty store rooms. I would have to search them all. My footsteps echoed through the walls as I looked through the rooms.
It was half an hour before I had searched through all the rooms. Just one left. I loaded my gun. It was time. But before I could so much as move around the corner, a voice spoke.
“I knew he’d send someone to kill me. Mr.Naive would never let me get away with it.”
I moved around the corner, gun raised. But my target appeared to be unarmed.
“Before you kill me, there is something you should know.”
I looked at the man, deciding whether to believe him or not.
“Mr.Naive was never a generous person. He’ll use people for his purpose, and then, once they’ve carried out his will, he’ll leave them to die. Once you’ve outlived your usefulness, he’ll hunt you down and kill you. And if you fail to do his bidding, then you’ll die anyway, or go insane. That is what awaits you. And now, with that knowledge etched into your pathetic little mind, kill me. I will have my vengeance either way.”
My target’s blood splattered over the wooden floor. The deep voice boomed through my head-
“Good work, Green. Mr.Naive will be pleased.”
The man in the black suit walked on from the huge skyscrapers he had came from, winding his way around the autumn trees. I wished that it would not be I who had to kill him, that I could be living a normal life, that the events that pieced together my terrible past had never existed. But they did. And there was no running away from it.
There was no question about it- the events of the past had moulded me to that person. I was a cold-blooded killing machine. A weapon to be used for killing, until the happenings in my existence came rushing backed to me and ended my life as I had ended so many others.
Live or die. I would always choose live. And with that thought, I pulled the trigger.

[X-FROGBOY-X]

Wow, a long and interesting read! Seriously, if that was a book I'd totally buy it!