ENGLISH 1510

That's the class that I'm focusing my homework time on right now. It's a creative fiction writing workshop and I've got a 10-page paper due a week from Friday. I've got a good plot going and have avoided too much dialogue. But I've built everything up so much that even I'm anticipating what going to happen next. So I'm letting my readers decide the ending. Let me bring you up to speed.

The story starts out in an office, over 100 stories up, well after hours. The president of the company, Benton Rucer is sitting in his chair winding down. He's not a good or ethical man. His business tactics, while financially brilliant are questionable and often leave other people and his employees worse off. He's going over his life and how he wasn't a son to his late father, but someone that could be maneuvered and left the company. He was controlled and taught to always seal the deal no matter the cost. Emotion and caring was for the weak. And the weak didn't make it in the business world. It mentions that he sired a daughter after a gala one night after having too much to drink. The father paid people off and arranged to have the child sent off so as if not to tarnish the poster boy for RucerCorp. Blah blah blah. So he's thinking back when he's eventually knocked out, taken hostage and locked in an elevator (by an angry former employee, who's hacked into the video and audio systems and is watching and talking to them) when he comes to, he's in the elevator with a girl (who he finds out is his daughter that was tracked down and kidnapped by the crazed man). Here's the predicament. The elevator is rigged with explosives. In the elevator is one gun with one bullet. One must kill the other or the man blows the elevator and they both die. If nothing happens before the timer on the bomb expires (1 hour) they both die. If they tamper with any of the cameras in the elevator, they both die.

And here's where you come in. Throughout the story, Benton is torn between what his father taught him about emotions being weakness and a slight yearning to see his daughter. Although he's still much more the former at this point. So you can help me decide how to end it. I can kill the ruthless father, the innocent daughter, both or none. Although it will take some really creative writing to get them both out in two pages.