The protagonist called "Peter" is held captive in an automobile by three antagonists one of which is holding a gun on him. Peter works his way out of the situation.
1. “What was her name ?” Peter asked calmly. Peter didn’t like the situation that was unfolding. He’d just been accused of killing the friend of the young lady sitting beside him. His mind raced with possibilities. He knew he had to remain calm and collected in order to sort this mess out.
2. “You asshole, you damn well know what her name was.” His new lady “friend” yelled at him. She was quite upset and distraught with grief is what Peter noted. He had to try and calm her down, so she could think sensibly. Right now she was completely irrational. But at some point she had managed to decide on a cold, calculated course of action. It wasn’t by accident that Peter ended up in the sedan. It had been a planned meeting on her part. Two men, her hired henchmen, had met Peter in the school hallway and asked to talk to him outside. It was the first indication of something amiss to Peter.
3. Peter responded: “I honestly don’t know what you’re talking about.” He hoped his response wouldn’t anger her more. Peter wanted to be honest and sincere; his life might depend on it. Peter figured if he could keep her talking she might calm down after a few minutes. Maybe he could work his way out of this.
4. “You do so know what I’m talking about and you’re going to pay.” the young lady stated with a cold anger.
5. “So what are you going to do to me ?” Peter asked. He didn’t like what was going on.
6. “I’m going to kill you and dump your body where no-one will ever find it.” She answered coldly. And with that comment she pulled an old revolver out of her purse and pointed at Peter.
7. Peter started to sweat a little bit. “You’d be killing an innocent person if you did.” Peter commented. He had to find a way to stretch things out. “At least give me a chance to confess honestly. Since I’m going to die anyways I’ll be honest. But I need more detail on what happened. I could be confused about who died. How do you know that was the only person I killed ?” Peter was trying a tactic of confusion on her, to try and break her train of thought. She was obsessed that he’d killed her friend. He really needed to break that obsession, with any other thought.
8. The tactic did work a little bit, she was momentarily confused by Peter’s question. “Allright piss-head, it was at the dance two weeks ago in Orillia, you stabbed her to death. Asshole. Does that help ?”.
9. Now Peter wasn’t sure what to do. He’d never been Orillia, and he wasn’t at the dance. He’d heard about another young girl who’d been stabbed to death at a dance, but that was months ago, not two weeks ago. “What day was that exactly ?” Peter asked.
10. “Thursday, two weeks ago Thursday.” She replied.
11. Now Peter had some hope, he could pose a strong argument for his case. “Two weeks ago Thursday, I was at choir practice. Fifty witnesses would say so. “ Maybe he could convince his captor to look into things more thoroughly before acting.
12. “I don’t buy it, you killed her I know it.” she stated. She told her henchmen to start driving. But now she was contemplating her planned actions.
13. Peter could tell what he told her affected her a little bit. She seemed to be calming down slightly, It was something he could work with to try and save his ass. He responded with another question: “So how do you know that I killed your friend ?”
14. “My friend told me.” She stated.
15. “So based just on what your friend told you, and no other evidence, you’re going to kill me ?” Peter almost couldn’t believe it. He’d learned to look for hard evidence as a kid, whenever something important was at stake. He knew you couldn’t always rely on what people said. This chick was a little immature, Peter thought. She needed to grow up.
16. “Yes, my friend would never lie to me.” she replied.
17. “And friends that never lie.” Peter thought to himself. “And your friend would never be mistaken ?” Peter retorted.
18. “No. And I’m sure of it, I heard you were a real asshole, and definitely the guy.” was her response. “We’re almost there.” They had travelled far out into the countryside. Miles from anywhere.
19. Now Peter was worried, she seemed committed to her actions. If she didn’t carry out the murder herself, she might get one of her henchmen to do it. Peter had a last ditch plan, something to try if all else failed. Based on a story he’d heard from a friend.
20. “We’re here, stop the car.” She commanded. Her hand, holding the gun on Peter, started to shake. Peter knew what she was trying to do.
21. Peter said: “You’ll be killing an innocent person you know. That’d be a real murder. How will you undo what you’ve done afterwards ?” Peter was pleading.
22. She seemed to think about it for a moment, then cocked the trigger.
23. Peter was sweating. He had to try something. The gun could go off at any moment. How was he going to get out of this one ? A friend had suggested to him that in situations like this, take things into your own hands. Kill yourself before the one holding a gun on you can. That way at least you get to choose how you die. Or maybe live. If you control it, you control the odds of living, his friend had said.
24. “I…I… “ She was stuttering and her hand was shaking. Peter guessed she was a killer, she’d have the gumption to kill somebody. But she’d never killed anybody before. It was harder to do than she thought, but she seemed committed.
25. As fast as he could, Peter grabbed her gun hand, and swung the gun up to the side of his head, there was a loud retort. And as the gun went off Peter could hear her scream “No…. Wait….”.
26. ****************************************************
27. Peter woke up at the bottom of a well. It’s amazing he didn’t drown he thought, but the well was small and he’d landed with his head above water. It was amazing he wasn’t dead. It seems his plan worked. The bullet ricocheted off the side of his head. It had only knocked him out and given him a bad concussion. Hopefully his captors assumed he was dead. It seemed so, as they had dumped him down a well. By the time Peter climbed out of the well, and jogged back into town, it was almost daybreak. He’d been carted off school grounds the afternoon before.
28. Peter showed up at school with a small bandage on the side of his head. Mutant healing factor comes in handy sometimes.