English Short Stories For Intermediate Learners: 8 Unconventional Short Stories to Grow Your Vocabulary and Learn English the Fun Way!

Multiple-choice questions
Select one answer for each question
6. Why is the night darker than usual?
a. Because it is so late
b. Because of all the trees
c. Because the sky is cloudy
d. Because she is wearing sunglasses
7. Why can’t Amber stop the driver from coming into the church?
a. He comes through the window
b. He breaks down the door
c. She forgot to lock the door
d. The door doesn’t have a lock
8. What does the second man remind Amber of?
a. A football player
b. A bus driver
c. A car salesman
d. A preacher
9. What is the second man complaining?
a. He is hungry

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b. He is tired
c. He wants a drink
d. He wants more light
10. What does the bus driver do with Amber’s phone?
a. He leaves it on the bus
b. He throws it outside
c. He gives it to her
d. He gives it to his friend

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Answers to Chapter 2
6. c
7. d
8. d
9. a
10. b

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Chapter 3
Amber pleaded with the two men. “You don’t have to do this,” she said.
“You can stop now. You can let me go!”
The fake preacher looked at his partner, Fred the bus driver. “You are very
persuasive, young lady,” he said. He smelled like a dirty toilet. He reached his
hand into his pocket. Amber watched, wondering what he was going to do. He
took out half of a cheese sandwich from his pocket and started eating it. “You
think we should let you go?”
“Yes!”
“And you won’t tell anybody?”
“No, I swear!” she said.
“You won’t tell anyone what we tried to do?”
“If you let me go, I won’t tell,” Amber said. “But--have you two done this to
other people? Have you done this before?”
Fred laughed and coughed. “Sometimes. A man needs a hobby, doesn’t he?”
He wiped sweat from his beard and took a step closer. “Listen honey, you aren’t
going to talk your way out of this. We won’t let you go. So relax.”
“Wait,” the preacher said. “Let her finish talking. There is no rush. I like the
sound of her voice.”
“I like the sound of her screams,” Fred said. “I don’t care about the sound of
her talking though.”
Amber raised her hands. She was still holding her purse. “Guys, I want to
give you every chance I can. I want you to realize that you have a choice. You
can stop this at any time.”
The preacher sat down on a bench. He crossed his legs and stared at her. He
seemed very interested. “You want to give us ‘every chance.’ What do you
mean? You have no power here. You are our prisoner.”
“She just likes to talk,” Fred said. “Tell her to be quiet. Let’s get on with
this!”

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Amber ignored Fred. She sat down on the bench next to the preacher. “I’m
saying, you two are adults. You have free choice. You can be criminals or you
can act normal. You don’t have to hurt people. You’re right, I’m your prisoner.
You’re right, I have no power here. But, you do have power…the power to
release me. Right now! And, you don’t ever have to do this again.”
“We like doing it,” Fred said, crossing his arms. “And, if you don’t shut up,
I’m going to--”
“What? Kill me?” Amber asked. “I already know you’re going to kill me.
So, I have nothing to lose. Do I?”
“Oh, you have something to lose,” Fred said. “And, you are going to lose it
very soon.”
“Then let me buy my way out,” she said, opening her purse. “I have a
thousand dollars in here. I’ll give it to you if you let me go.”
The preacher shook his head. “The money is already ours. Everything you
have is ours.”
“Darren, would you please stop talking to her?” Fred said.
“Oh, you didn’t want me to call you Fred,” the preacher said, standing up,
“but now, you’re saying my name!”
“Because you were right!” Fred said, taking a big breath. “What difference
does it make, Darren? Who is she going to tell?”
“You’re both right,” Amber said. “I won’t tell anyone and you won’t either.”
She took her small gun out of her purse and shot Darren, the fake preacher
once. Calmly, she stood up from the bench. She pointed the gun at Fred who
raised his hands in the air. Amber kept her eyes on him, then she pointed the gun
back at Darren and shot him two more times. She wanted to make sure he was
dead.
“Whoa! Don’t kill me!” Fred said. “We were just messing around. We
weren’t really going to hurt you!”
“You said you’ve done this before?”
“No, I… I was lying. It wasn’t true. I only said that to scare you.”
“I gave you every chance to let me go, didn’t I? Over and over, I kept saying

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you can stop,” she said, pointing the gun at his stomach. “Things did not have to
end like this. This didn’t have to happen.”
“I swear,” Fred said, sweating again. He was trying to walk backward, but
he hit a bench. “We weren’t going to do anything to you. Our plan was to let you
go.”
“No it wasn’t.”
“It was! We weren’t going to hurt you!”
“But I’m going to hurt you,” she said, shooting him two times. Amber was
an expert with guns. She knew exactly where to shoot someone if she wanted to
kill them. She also knew where to shoot them, so they would not die.
Fred fell on the ground yelling and screaming. He was in pain, but he would
not die, at least not for a few hours. Amber sat down and rested her injured foot.
“There is a little game I like to play with my sister,” she explained. “We’ve
been doing it for almost a year. We stay out late. We stay out until someone tries
something stupid. Someone like you and the ‘preacher’ over there.”
Her foot began to feel better, so she stood up. She picked up one of the
burning candles.
“We let the stupid person or persons try to take us. Then, when they don’t
expect it, we kill them.” She poured melted candle wax on Fred’s beard. He
yelled again.
“You tricked us!” he said.
“You tricked me first,” she said. “I gave you the opportunity to stop. Do you
want to give me the same chance? You want to give me a chance to stop?” She
pointed the gun at his head. “I have one bullet left.”
“Yes, yes! You can stop! You don’t have to shoot me again!”
“Okay,” she said, putting her gun back into her purse. “See? You convinced
me. I won’t shoot you again.”
Amber held the candle to the man’s pants. Fred’s pants caught on fire. Then,
she quickly ran out of the old church. She picked up her broken phone on the
way out. Amber had another working phone in her bag, of course.
Aisha, Amber’s twin sister, pulled her car up into the parking lot.

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Right on time!
“Hi Sis,” Aisha said, as Amber got into the car. “Looks like you won
tonight.”
The identical twin sisters sat in the car as the church caught fire.
“Thanks for playing ‘Twin’s Revenge,’” Amber said to the dead men in the
church, smiling as her sister drove away.

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Annex to Chapter 3
Summary
The preacher and the bus driver have Amber trapped in the church. She tries
to talk them out of hurting her. She learns they have done this to others. They are
not going to let her go… so she takes out a gun. She shots the preacher, then
Fred. Fred realizes Amber had tricked them. Amber leaves the church; her sister
picks her up in her car.