12 December 2012
This story was written as part of a competition at my college where we were given the first line and had five minutes to write a story. This was the only one I was able to finish in the time limit, so I thought I'd pass it on to you.
"You villain! What dastardly deeds are you planning? What horribly maleficent plots are you hatching within your insidious mind? Tell me, damn you!" "Well...at the moment I'm making some cocoa. It's Swiss Miss, the kind with the little marshmallows in it? I do so enjoy a nice cup of chocolate before the world ends, don't you?" She stared at him in utter disbelief. He was a madman, pure and simple. His plot to destroy the world's ozone layer, laughed away by all the "experts", had somehow succeeded, and now here she was, held prisoner in his evil fortress. "How can you think of chocolate at a time like this? The rays from the sun are baking the surface of the earth, people are combusting in the streets and crops are withering in the fields! It's not human!" "My dear, I don't think you understand the sheer genius of my plan. While the rest of the world burns, you and I, yes you, my dear, will lift off in my ship and escape to the Titan, Saturn's most hospitable moon. There, we shall live a grand life, basking in the glow of space and exulting in each other's presence. You'll live as a queen, my dear, a honor you surely don't know here on Earth" It was true, life on Earth had been rough. Raised by a single mother, working a full-time job since she was 16, barely finishing college with a degree in Philosophy, of all things. Life had not been easy. But life with a lunatic? "You can't be serious? Why do you think I would go with you?" "It's elementary, my dear. You can choose, of course, but I feel confident you'll be coming with me. You see, those who stay will be nothing but blackened husks in three days time. Even I couldn't stop it now. If you choose to stay, you'll join the rest of humanity as a charred corpse. However, if you choose to come with me...well, you know the rest." There it was, the choice, literally, of a lifetime. To live, but with with the man who destroyed all of creation; or to die, but die a noble death with the world. The choice was given to her. "I...I don't think...I mean I want to..." "I'm afraid you don't have a lot of time to think it over. The cocoa is getting cold and I do so hate soggy marshmallows. Let's give you, say, three minutes. Make you choice in that time or I make it for you." The clock ticking, her mind racing, she considered all the possibilities. Life. Death. Flames. Space. Hot chocolate. Hot chocolate. That was the answer. "I'll go, but only on one condition." "Pray tell?" "Give me your hot cocoa".
Hot Chocolate • Opuss № I