post 11

Chuck somehow knew that he had to follow the instructions given to him by the strange man. He had an air of authority about him that made strangely intimidated. Chuck shivered every time he pictured that sinister look that he wore around. The corners of his mouth were upturned, as if to smile, but his eyes burned with intensity.
He walked out the door and into the hall. A man in a suit with sunglasses and an uzi stood at the end of the hallway. Chuck approached cautiously but the man did not respond. Chuck followed the exit sign to the left, and the man turned sharply to face chuck back as he passed. The man trailed Chuck by 30 feet to the door, where a black limousine waited with the rear door open. It became clear to Chuck that these men had force on their side, so walked up to the car. The car was full of suits with guns and glasses, but not one of them uttered a word.
It seemed as if the ride to Castle Apartments took an eternity but finally the made it there. Chuck immediately went to his room to call the police.
"Hello? Is this the emergency operator?" he asked
"We hacked all the phone lines, only one of you will leave the Apartments. If all goes well that will be you." It sounded like a suit picked up the phone.
"Shit!" Chuck swore aloud. He felt his airways constrict as his powerlessness took affect. His jaw began to tremple with anger as he grabbed a knife from the kitchen. Then he walked down the hall.
"789? 784? which one was it," He thought. Then he saw that the door to appartment 783 was torn from its hinges. Cautiously he walked the the door. He froze when he saw the body. It sat in a puddle of blood with multiple stab wounds in the chest. Chuck recognized the owner as his crazy schizophrenic neighbor Sile. "Someone beat me to it I guess. I wonder why the men in suits wanted her dead." He thought.
A shot rang out as Chuck walked outside. Chuck fell backwards clutching his stomach in agony. A suit walked up and put his foot on Chuck's chest. "I thought we were very clear. Kill the occupant of 787 and we will spare you. I see you have made your choice."
"What? 787? It thought it was 78--" The suit buried a bullet into chuck's brain. The end.

post 10

Chuck awoke with a sharp stabbing cramp in his leg. He screamed in agony. He opened his hands to grab a fistful of covers, but instead felt only cement, and he heard the raspy screech of metal links being dragged across the concrete. Then he sat up to feel the cuffs around his wrists. The room was completely black but Chuck could just make out the sound of footsteps. It seemed to be a small man; the sound of each step faded as suddenly as it began without reverberating against the cold walls. The footsteps stopped and chuck heard the jingle of keys as a door swing open, blinding chuck in a flash of light.
It was the man that Chuck had met at the church. " You did not open the envelope I take it," the man said. Chuck was relieved to find it in his back pocket.
"Open it," he continued. Inside the envelope was a small piece of paper with the words "Kill the occupant of suite number 187" and the key to the handcuffs. Chuck looked back towards the door but the man had disappeared.

Post 9

Chuck decided that what he needed was a vacation. He had never been on a vacation before.
His Mom never had money for a vacation. No one had ever invited him on one, so he just never thought about it. But chuck had never thought about photographs of birds or crazy overeducated beggars either. "Vacation." He liked the sound of the word when he said it aloud. It sounded like he would just leave all the messiness of everyday life behind him. But where would he go? Paris? Rome? Chuck had always thought that the beach looked like fun. Hot girls and beach volleyball didn't seem have bad. But all that relaxation just didnt sound like chuck's cup of tea.
Chuck recalled the story that Lucy Collins told him of her vacation. Her father took her too a lake. He couldn't remember the details but he knew that he had had a good time there. So that was it. He would go to the lake.
Chuck felt relaxed just thinking about it.

Post 8

The recent turn of events were stressful. Stress-- that was something that Chuck wasn't used to. The fighting, the drinking-- it had all lost impact with chuck. Normally he struggled with boredom. He kept himself sane by engaging in high risk activities. The adrenaline rush got him through the day. Now he wasn't so sure.
It felt as if a tremendous weight had been placed on his shoulders. Chuck mulled over this for a while. It seemed as though he was forever stuck to the earth's surface. There was a picture of a bird on Chuck's wall. Suddenly chuck felt great compassion for that bird stuck in its frame. Chuck felt that that bird was his brother. He took the picture off the wall.
"Bird," Chuck stood and looked at the picture. He smashed the frame, allowing the paper to settle gently to the floor. "You're a free bird now." He put the picture in his pocket. Yet somehow he still felt bad. He only knew one person in the town who could help him out of a funk like this one: Pink.
Chuck found Pink in his apartment in absolute mania. Pink was playing his guitar with the amp turned all the way up.
"Hey Pink," Chuck yelled. There was no response. "PINK.... PINK!" finally he turned around.
"Oh Chuck! Glad to see you. Come let me pour you a drink. They sat down and Chuck told Pink everything that had happened."
"I don't know what to tell you about the letters or the mysterious old man, but I may be able to help. Let me see that photograph in your pocket." Chuck handed it over. Pink then threw it out the window without looking at it. "Free birds fly," was all he said. Chuck watched the photo as it was picked up by the wind. Before long the picture was out of sight.

post 7

Looking back on the burglary, Chuck was reminded of his father. John Ladle was a man of few words, but he was very loyal. When Chuck was six years old, John lost his job at the local farmers market. Unable to bear the pain of seeing his family struggle, he robbed a liqueur store. The money was enough to pay the rent and bills, but Chuck's mother wouldn't stand for It.
"It's just not right" she would say.
A month later John was caught for trying to rob a liqueur store for the second time. It was another 15 years Chuck saw him again. Then Chuck remembered that it was his Father's incarceration that got Chuck into fighting in the first place. He wondered where he would be without fighting? If it weren't for his father robbing that liqueur store, Chuck would be nothing. For that, he was thankful.

6

It was getting dark outside and the basketball game was coming two a close. Scooby kept punting the ball over the fence, which made the game much less entertaining. He went to go get some water.
"Scooby, If you kick that ball one more time, I will make your face look like ground beef."
Chuck passed the ball to Scooby hard enough to make him wince with pain. It didn't seem like Scooby was thrilled about playing with Chuck. Horse was more of his game.
"Come on butter-fingers, grow a pair," Chuck retorted. In anger, Scooby picked up the ball and punted it as high as he could in the air. Nobody even said a word. It was understood that the game was over. They just stood their staring dumbly at the ball.
The next thing Chuck saw was a mouthful of dirt. The force knocked him to the ground before he could even say "Ouch." Chuck looked up just in time to see the man running around the corner. He was rather unremarkable except that he wore a top hat. That was all that Chuck knew.