Hey all, I know I haven't posted in awhile, but I kinda missed this forum, so I thought I'd put up this short story I wrote for a class recently. Our assignment was to write a 26-sentence long story, each subsequent sentence beginning with a letter of the alphabet. I'd appreciate feedback if you guys have any.


Xeroxed

After calmly selecting his favorite candy bar, Yancey ducked behind the row of candies and goodies. Barely believing what was happening, he dropped to the linoleum floor of the 7-11 and held his breath, breaking out into a sweat.

Coward. Deep inside his mind he heard that voice taunting him again. Even now, when it mattered most, his courage failed him.

Fifty feet away some men with guns had marched into the convenience store and were pointing a gun at the poor clerk. Grimacing with fear, Yancey had ducked down before they could see him, and now here he lay, hardly daring to move or breathe for fear they would hear him. Harsh, loud barks came from the front counter as the thieves screamed orders for money to be poured into their waiting duffel bag.

Inside his head, outside his body, his life flashed before his eyes. Joshed around by kids in elementary school, his head shoved down the toilet in junior high, high school marked by the bruises a couple of jocks gave him on his walk home from school, a roommate in college who walked all over him, a girlfriend who didn’t care about him at all, a marriage that revolved around nothing but his wife, a divorce that gave her the house and the car and the kids, a cat who would bloody up his arm on a regular basis, his entire life a string of one failure after another, all highlighting his cowardice. Knuckles white as he gripped the lowest shelf, he could swear that his heart was hammering against his chest as loud as a jackhammer.

“Let’s get this straight! Money in the bag! No questions asked! Okay?”

Poor clerk.

Quivering with fear, Yancey felt like he would cry when he heard the thieves raise the volume of their voices to screams. Reese’s stared Yancey in the face as he listened to the threats on the poor clerk become increasingly violent.

“So, you’re going to play hero, huh? Then I guess it’s time to say goodbye, pal.”

Underneath the harsh glow of the fluorescent lights, Yancey’s heart gave a small jolt as he heard a gunshot, then the soft sound of metal puncturing flesh. Viciously selfish of Yancey to not have done anything. Xeroxed, this memory would be now, another reminder of his cowardice, like every single other thing that had happened to him in his long, sad life.

Yancey stood up slowly once he had hear the thieves leave, surveying the scene, burning it into his skull so that he would never forget what a cowardly thing he had done here today.

Zoey, his girlfriend, stood up next to him, asking, “Are they gone?”

*****

Did you guys like it?

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