That awkward moment when you've just come out of the shower, completely naked, and the girl you picked up at the bar last night and brought back to your room for a night of wild sex... is holding you at gunpoint. Worse, the point belongs to your own gun. Which had been safely hidden away in your locked briefcase.

Now you're faced with all those questions: who is she working for? What does she want? Money? Or is she there to kill you? Is she going to fire? Will you manage to disarm her, perhaps taking a couple of bullets in the process? Should you play for time or try to distract her? Is she alone, or does she have accomplices somewhere nearby?

So there she is, gun in hand, its muzzle trained at you – and you’re standing in front of her, stark naked, with nothing but a towel held over your head. And you don't move a muscle. Best not to provoke her. Your only option, it seems, is to try to get her talking. Although this is most definitely not the scene you’d have chosen ordinarily to get to know each other a little better.

"Hephaestus"

by Anton Eine