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"Just say yes."

Ashley looked at Richard with a subtle smile on her face, a welcome contrast to the terror he was attempting to mask on his. 

"I don't know, Rick.." She tortured him, knowing that she had already decided 90 seconds beforehand.

Ashley glanced around the restaurant. Through the tension, her eyes were met by those of every other in the room as they waited impatiently for her response. 

She looked back down at Rick. 

*"Yes."*

Richard sprang back up to his feet, sweeping Ashley off of hers on the way up. With her arms around his neck, they shared a kiss more passionate than any they had ever shared before.  The two were so engrossed by the other's lips, and by fantasies of a life as man and wife, that neither of them could hear the cheering, clapping or the reintroduction of the violins-- but they both heard the shot.

One second later, Richard knew his life was over. Thirty seconds later, he realised the bullet had hit him too. He didn't care though. Not anymore. As he embraced his fiance's corpse tightly, it became clear to him that there was but one thing in this world he now cared about-- *revenge.*

Richard placed Ashley's body down gently and rose to his feet purposefully. He scanned the room to find that his fiance had not been the only casualty. Again, he didn't care. He searched for a gunman, and instead found two. One could be seen on the far end of the restaurant binding a customer's hands behind their back with rope. The other was in the midst of fortifying the entrance.

Grabbing a steak knife from the table, Richard ducked down below the tablecloth and began to formulate an attack. He knew that if he could just make it to behind the piano, he would be close enough to the first man to launch a stealth attack. Then, after appropriating his weapon, he could use it to take out the second coward. Richard's rage denied him the time to consider whether there was any better approach.

Gripping the knife in his hand tightly, he sneaked his way behind the piano and took sight of the first assailant from behind. Without a moment's hesitation, the heartbroken man lunged at his fiance's killer with the knife heading straight for his throat.

"Behind you!" A voice called.

The warning proved to be too late. Richard's knife found its way into the neck of the first attacker-- just as the third attacker's knife found its way into Rick's.

The third attacker, whom Rick had overlooked in his rage, knelt down the floor and let out an agonizing wail. 

"No.. no... no.. no," he cried, whilst clutching the corpse of his only brother. The weeping turned to grunting, and then to shouting.

"Fuck you!" he barked, whilst looking down upon Rick's lifeless body. In a fit of anger, he pulled the steak knife from his little brother's throat and began to thrust the blade repeatedly into Rick's corpse. 

As a fountain of blood painted the angry man's face, the remaining survivors in the restaurant looked on in shock and in pity. His psychotic break was tempered by the sound of the restaurant landline ringing.

Slowly, the man rose to his feet and wiped the blood from his brow with his sleeve. In an eerily calm fashion, considering what had transpired a moment beforehand, the man made his way towards the telephone and picked it up, placing it to his ear.

*"This is the hostage negotiation team. My name is Henry. Who am I speaking to?"*

The man declined to respond.

*"Is any one hurt?"* 

Still, he did not respond.

*"I just want to see that you and everyone else make it out of here safely. Can you tell us what you want and we will see if we can make it happen for you?"*

The armed assailant finally offered a response.

"I just wanna tell you how I'm feeling, gotta make you understand. Never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down, never gonna run around and desert you. 

Never gonna make you cry, never gonna say goodbye, never gonna tell a lie...  and hurt you. We've known each other for so long, your heart's been aching, but..  you're too shy to say it. Inside, we both know what's been going on, we know the game and we're gonna play it. 

And if you ask me how I'm feeling.. Don't tell me you're too blind to see. Never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down, never gonna run around and desert you. Never gonna make you cry, never gonna say goodbye, never gonna tell a lie...  and hurt you. 

Never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down, never gonna run around and desert you. Never gonna make you cry, never gonna say goodbye, never gonna tell a lie and hurt you."
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