Details on the competition here: http://thestar.com.my/dublin/
The Sunday morning dawned drab and grey, rather anticlimactic, really. Moody grey clouds chased each other across an equally grey sky. Leaning against a red brick wall, Adam took a deep breath. The air smelled of pollutants and the smells of a city waking up for the day. In the sky, the sun struggled to get its orange rays to penetrate the wall of cloud. Adam considered lighting up a cigarette to lighten his mood but decided against it for once. All was still. All was calm. All was boring. No one was about yet. He rested his head against the wall and brooded. For once, he thought, I’d like to have something interesting happen to me. Something that will get me noticed. Something exciting and awesome.
Adam’s thoughts were interrupted by the sound of car tyres squealing from down the road. A blue station wagon was careering towards him. Adam casually but purposefully took a step to the side, all the time keeping his eyes on the car. The car swerved and jinked down the road, finally pulling up to a stop right next to a convenience store. A heavily bearded man got out slowly and ducked into the store. Adam watched with an eyebrow raised in curiosity. Once more, all was quiet. Suddenly, three loud reports shattered the silence and a glass window. Adam felt his heart rate rise, was this going to be it? Was this the exciting event that would change his life forever? He heard another loud report, this time mixed with the sound of a cry of pain.
Five minutes earlier,
Crowley was a cashier in a convenience store. The job did not pay much, but then again it was not a very taxing job. Right now, Crowley was reading a magazine from the rack right next to him. His horn-rimmed glasses were on the tip of his nose and his brow was wrinkled in concentration. Sub-consciously, he raised a hand to sweep a lock of curly ginger hair away from his eyes while imagining himself sitting in a luxury sports car burning rubber down a highway with the top down. He paid no attention to the burly man who staggered into the shop. Although it was a little early for the hung over people to come in for their daily fix, strange people had strange habits. He bopped his head to non-existent music, hoping the man wouldn’t disturb him.
All of a sudden, the magazine was ripped away and Crowley found himself staring into the barrel of a pistol. He swallowed nervously and blinked slowly. The man shouted, “Give me all the money!” and fired three shots in random directions just to get his point across. The sound of the shots still ringing in his ears, Crowley stumbled over to the cash register, pulled out the cash drawer, and dumped the contents on the table in front of the man, who promptly started scooping it into a small sack. Sensing his chance, Crowley reached over and tried to smash the man’s face into the counter but he was too slow, his reflexes dulled by too many hours of mindless work. The man took two smart steps back and pulled his trigger in surprise as Crowley grabbed the nearest item available, a stand of lollipops, and hurled it at him. The bullet slammed into Crowley’s chest, sending him slumping to the floor while he moaned in pain. As all grew dark, his last thought was, How will I clean up this mess now?
A minute later,
Jack was feeling the blood pump through his veins strongly. For the first time in a long time, he felt alive. His fingers tingled with the memory of the gun that was clenched tightly in them a minute ago. His nose was dripping blood, broken from the impact with the plastic stand that the cashier had thrown at him. His sack jingled with empty beer bottles and the rich sound of coins. The gun was not with him anymore, it was currently residing at the bottom of a trash can, covered by anything and everything that he could grab from the front counter of the store. As he slid into the front seat of the stolen car, Jack felt a sudden surge of exhilaration. It actually worked, he thought to himself. Why didn’t I think of doing this earlier? As he sat in the car, he was suddenly aware of a green sedan turning down the road, coming towards him. Panic took hold of him and refused to let go. He realized that if they saw him, the people in the sedan would put two and two together.
Slamming the door shut, he tried to stick the keys in the ignition but in his current inebriated state, it was all he could do to keep the keys from slipping to the floor. Meanwhile, the green sedan was coming ever closer. As it drew level with his car, Jack instinctively crouched to obscure his face. Thankfully, the sedan passed by without missing a beat, barely slowing down as it passed the station wagon. Jack breathed a sigh of relief. He stuck the key in the ignition and turned it. As the car coughed into life, he noticed a man standing against a wall on the opposite side of the road. The man’s face was ashen, his eyes telling. There was no doubt that he had seen everything. The panic, which had been dissipating just a few moments ago, flooded back into Jack as the colour drained from his face. Shifting the car from park to drive, he floored the accelerator just as the man started to cross the street. The only thought coursing through his mind was, Please let me get out of here in one piece!
Adam watched the station wagon bearing down on him as he crossed the street with mild interest. With the station wagon mere feet away from him and the driver seemingly unable to stop, Adam‘s mind flashed back to what he had just seen, his brain replaying the entire scene for him, albeit oddly enough in the third person. As the car slammed into him like a stampeding rhinoceros, Adam felt, rather than heard the bones in his right leg shattering under the impact as he adopted a pose less suited towards a man who is going to make a police report but more suited towards a man who will shortly become a chalk line drawing. As the rest of his body was dragged underneath the car to end his life, he thought to himself, Well, this was exciting!
