blacktrance

Alexander Graham Bell picked up the instrument. It had to work this time. He'd worked it all out, but it was worth double-checking. Yes, all the wires were firmly seated, now it was just a matter of picking up the earpiece. He wiped his sweating hands on the sides of his pants, then reached down to the table and held up the cylinder to his ear, and the speaker to his mouth.

"Come here, Watson-"

"All of our representatives are currently assisting other callers."

DULLSVILLE - Dullsville Elementary School students thought it was going to be a normal day of show-and-tell, until third-grader Bobby Stevenson introduced his guest: his dog Buddy. "It's his birthday!", Stevenson explained.

"Buddy said 'bark, bark, bark, bark', and that really goes against our community's inclusive values.", said fellow student Joseph James, "It's hate speech."

The embattled dog refused calls to resign, telling reporters "Bark bark bark".

premise: An elderly retired assassin lives in an assisted living facility. One day, a guy he knows moves in. The second guy is a rival assassin who killed many of the first guy's friends. Does the first guy take revenge? Or does he connect with the one person he knows who still remembers that life, who understands what it all means?

featuring possible endings like

• No one is actually an assassin, the first guy is just delusional in his old age.

• The two guys drink tea together, and the first guy gives decides to give up on revenge; then he falls over dead. He's gone soft in his old age.

• They drink tea together and have a nice conversation. Then the second guy dies. Something about perseverance, undying vengeance, and no such thing as a former assassin.

• The good ending where they…