Song doesn’t really know why she took this class. She didn’t hate horror, but she didn’t love it. Not like the rest of her class.

She uses that term loosely since there’s literally only three other students.

They’re…ok. Brielle seems normal at least. Anette is a bit intense for her. Has a bit too much enthusiasm for the blood and guts in her opinion. Ellis is the complete opposite. He is indifferent to the horror stuff.

With the rules spoken of 10 minutes and use of realism, Song begins to brainstorm some ideas.

She wants something scary but not gory. Suspenseful but not slow. A protagonist that is resourceful but not so knowledgeable that she’s not relateable.

Previously, she wrote a story about a home invasion. Maybe she could add on to that.

OoOoO

_The door opens. A man wearing baggy black clothing steps into the room cautiously. Penny can’t tell anything about him other than his height which is average seemingly. _

_From her position behind the now opened door, she shifts a bit out. He is turned, his back towards her, looking for something. With ring mandrel in hand, she swings, aiming for the head. _

_The man crumples to the ground. All she wanted was a lazy Sunday, and now she killed him. He didn’t even scream. Penny doesn’t have any time to comtemplate her murder. Unfortunately, not all noises were eliminated since the loud crunch of the metal jewelry tool caving in the back of his skull is very audible. And then there is also the thump of his body landing on her carpet. _

_Immediately she hears a whisper, “What happened? What was that?”_

_It sounds like it is coming from her bedroom. Another male voice. _

_Creaks on the floorboards indicate to Penny they are nearing the room and will see the man who is most certainly dead. _

_She has no choice but to take her position back behind where the door would swing._

_Through the small crack, another man appears in the doorway. This man, Two, is similar dressed in dark clothing but is shorter than the imposing height of One. Penny’s hand trembles as she covers her mouth. _

_The man gasps at the dead body and kneels down to the deceased burglar, One. Gently, the man shifts his accomplice to the side and closes the man’s eyes. It is surprisingly tender considering they are criminal buddies. _

_When he stands back up, he immediately holds up a baseball bat, ready for an attack. “Dude, someone’s here. They killed him.”_

_Penny resists making a noise at the reference to another person. She didn’t even think about a third person, assuming it was just two._

_“Then we grab the money and go,” someone else responds, another male, less sympathetically than Two. She can’t wonder about the money that they are obviously searching for. There’s no time._

_Three is farther, maybe the kitchen. _

_Like how One was, Two looks around. Hoping to have an encore, Penny creeps behind him. _

_Just as she is about to hit him, he startles her and whips around. He makes a hurried swing and knocks her ring mandrel out of her hands. _

_He shouts for Three but Penny slams the door closed and locks it. Two takes a swing at her but makes a dent in the door when she ducks. In her crouched position, she pounces at his legs, causing him to fall. The bat falls from his grip from the impact with the floor. In their struggle, the weapon gets kicked around until neither can focus on getting it._

_There is pounding at the door of Three, though Penny can’t focus on it right now. Instead, Two has her on her back with her hands around her neck. _

_In her panic and pain, she can barely think. Her brain turns off as her hands just flail around for anything. Her hand makes contact with something hard, and without any real consideration, she grasps it and hits Two over the head with it as hard as she can. _

_While this gets him to loosen his hold on her, it doesn’t knock him out. She gulps in air and scrambles away as he gets his bearings. _

_In her hand is her portable charger with her charging cord attached still. _

_Standing up, she twirls the charging brick by the cord. She will do whatever it takes to survive this home invasion. _

_Even if it means defending herself to her very last breath. Or their last breaths. Whichever one comes first._

OoOoO

Professor Tark scares her when he says how their ten minutes are up. Song almost breaks her pencil tip with how much she jumps.

She feels fine with what she hands in. She would have liked more time to edit and proofread, but maybe that’s the whole point of the exercise.

As the paper leaves her hands, she is thankful that her story is fiction. Even though it is a realistic scenario, she made it up. She would be terrified if she were in her character’s position. She couldn’t be that brave.

———

(So in Deadly Assignment, I didn’t know I was going to write each of the stories the students wrote about. I already wrote a story similar to what Song said she wrote about, _Move In_. Instead of me editing/changing what she wrote about, I just had Song write a continuation.

Also, I didn’t proofread, so I hope you overlook any grammar or spelling mistakes.)