Short story / Literary suspense
The Stash
A grieving nineteen-year-old in Dubai agrees to hold a stranger's stash, and the paranoia starts.
- Status
- Outlined. Writing it here, scene by scene.
- Length
- Nothing drafted yet
- This draft
- First draft, October 2026
Shinji is nineteen and in Dubai, trying to outrun the grief of his fiancée's recent death. A wealthy stranger known only as the Prince walks into his hotel room uninvited and leaves a stash of drugs behind. Shinji, numb, agrees to hold it.
That small yes sets everything off: hotel rooms, hallways, the little restaurant where he works, a cop in the lobby and silent figures who keep turning up. Is he being followed, or coming apart?
- Started as a dream on October 8, 2014.
- Paranoia in tight spaces: one city, one hotel, one man, one bad decision.
- The ending stays open on purpose.
- Touchstones: Murakami, Paul Auster and The Talented Mr. Ripley.
Nothing drafted yet. This is where they'll show up as I write them, so check back.
Revision notes8 open
- structureThe ending is open on purpose, but the last scene isn't decided
The open ending is a deliberate choice and should stay. What's still undecided is the shape of the final scene: whether Shinji confronts the Odd Types or slips past them, and what he actually does with the stash, which the plan leaves as return, destroy or leverage.
- bibleOn vacation, or working in Dubai
The plot and character notes say Shinji is on vacation, traveling abroad to escape his grief. The same notes and the bible also say he works in a small restaurant in Dubai. Decide whether he's a visitor, has taken a job there, or something in between.
- bibleFiancé or fiancée
The planning docs and bible write "fiancé" for Shinji's late partner while referring to her as she. The public post uses "fiancée". Use fiancée if she is a woman.
- bibleThe fiancée has no name
She appears in flashback and drives Shinji's grief, but the plans never name her or say how she died.
- bibleWho Shinji is and why Dubai
The plans give Shinji only a first name and an age. His surname, where he's from and why he chose Dubai are all open.
- structurePrologue and Chapter 1 cover the same event
The bible's prologue has the Prince enter and leave the stash, and Chapter 1, The Intrusion, is also the Prince's arrival and Shinji's choice to keep the drugs. Decide what separates the two, or fold them together.
- bibleWho Shinji confronts at the climax
The plot outline says Shinji is forced to confront the Prince or the people pursuing him; the chapter outline says the Odd Types confront him. Decide whether the Prince comes back.
- structureShort story or five-chapter piece
The project is filed as a short story, while the bible lays it out as a prologue and five chapters in four acts. Settle the target length.
Version history1 draft
Current · October 2026
First draft
The first draft, written in the open. Scenes appear here as they're finished.