Random Short Stories/Written Ideas

Cowardice Gets You Nowhere

"Stanley?"

His head tipped back, a clear sign that the office worker was listening. Brows furrowed at the odd note in the Narrator's tone.

"..."

The silence had him on edge. What did the Narrator want? Papers shuffled, then a soft sigh sounded.

"Never mind me. Let's continue with the story, shall we?"

What? That was it? Now Stanley was curious. What was the omnipotent, all-knowing being that was the Narrator, going to ask him?

The Narrator did not answer.

"When Stanley came to a set of two open doors, he entered the door on his left."

Retreating into the script to avoid answering Stanley's questions? To avoid soothing the office worker's curiosities? How cowardly, Stanley thought.

There was a scoff. "Hardly. Come now, Stanley," he urged. "We're wasting time with all this pointless chatter."

You were the one to initiate this 'pointless chatter,' Stanley pointed out.

A moment of silence followed that stretched on for a moment too long, causing Stanley's mouth to twitch up into the ghost of a smug smirk.

"...So it seems. But I will finish it. Let's continue. We have quite a bit to get through, and I am so very excited to show you a few small details I've added to the script-"

Stanley sighed, tuning out the rest of the disembodied being's rambles. Turns out he won't be getting the answers he sought. It sucks when they were both equally as stubborn as the other, although Stanley wasn't feeling too stubborn right now.

So, seeing as the Narrator did not feel kind enough to offer up any more conversation aside from the words from his script, or the excited bumbling about any new ideas he would be testing on poor, innocent Stanley, he stepped through the door on his left. If only he had been listening. He might have caught the hint of guilt that was hidden snuggly beneath the Narrator's tone, which was hushed with quiet excitement.

But it wasn't Stanley's duty to pick these little details out. He was not obligated to read into every little emotion, feeling, or word available to him.

If the Narrator had accepted that from the beginning, perhaps things would have ended differently. If he hadn't backed out like--yes, like a coward--then perhaps he would have been able to prevent their boat from colliding into the massive rocks jutting out from the restless sea around them.

(Oh, how the Narrator loved metaphors!)

Ah, but alas...