Throughout every single chapter I wrote in this story, I planned on killing most (if not all) of the characters by the end. That was one of the reasons I killed Bob at the beginning…I wanted to make an attempt at letting people know I would not hesitate to just kill everyone off. But then I watched a certain recent movie where almost everyone ended up dying. It was not a satisfying ending at all, basically ruined the movie for me and I didn't want that to happen to this (just yet). That was the first time I had second thoughts about my ending.

I literally had everything written, edited, and ready to post before I finally made the decision to change it around. The following is how the chapter would have started off:

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Delirious and in a total daze, trying to recall and understand the crazy turn of events that had just taken place, Zack opened his right eye. He tried to open his left, but it wouldn't budge; almost like it was nailed shut. He then absorbed a sharp pain, which echoed inside of the boy's head as he tried to pry the obviously damaged left eye open.

Zack observed thick, dark, black smoke that somberly rose slowly to the ceiling in this very confined area surrounded by objects such as floorboards, large pieces of medal, and garbage through his one eye. Attempting to lift his throbbing head up steadily, he spotted a luggage cart with the Tipton logo lying on its side, parallel to his left leg. Still confused, the twin got to his knees and viewed the disastrous mess that previously served as a lobby for one of the finest and most luxurious hotels in the world. Zack's felt as if his head was twirling around and around in a full 360º angle as he stared around the room. Suddenly, he noticed something on the ground. It was a black shoe with a dark blue Nike logo embedded on its inside. A bold memory from just a few minutes ago arrived abruptly in his brain. "MOM!!!!!!!!! CODY!!!!!!!!!" he screamed weakly, although as loud as he possibly could. Stumbling to his feet with all his might and dueling with another horrid pain that made his arm feel like it was going to fall off, he saw a pair of legs sticking from under a large piece of wood just a few feet away from him. Zack approached the piece of wood, lifted it up swiftly, and stared at his deceased mother. She was not a pretty sight, clearly roughed up by what had just happened in this hotel. Carey's face was terribly discombobulated, blood everywhere. Stunned and almost broken down by this sight, he took a few steps back in disbelief before tripping over something on the ground. The 14 year old boy fell violently. He slowly rose up halfway, curious to see what he had tripped over. Through the gallons of hot tears that flooded his eyes and what was left of this Tipton lobby, Zack vaguely observed a blond head of hair that lied on the ground near his own original resting place. He approached the figure, desperately hoping it was not who it first appeared to be. The closer he got to the now apparent person on the ground, the more evident the identity of the blond on the ground became. Zack took one big dive towards Cody when he realized his twin was lying injured on the ground. He put his middle and pointer fingers on Cody's forearm, just above the hand. Nothing. He put his hand on his brother's chest, checking and hoping more than ever for a beat. Nothing. A pathetic attempt at CPR didn't help anything either. Zack's brother was dead. And so was his mother. After all this, after this day, this nightmare, this is how all it ends. He stared blankly at Cody's cold face, which was not nearly as bloodied and destructed as his mother's. He did not know what to do. Breathing heavily and feeling totally lifeless, his world began to spin again. He dropped his head once again on his brother, sobbing more than he ever had in his entire life, not knowing what would happen next.

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In case you haven't noticed, I like to drop bombshells early and not have the reader know what's going on immediately. That was one of the aspects of the final chapter I lost by changing the ending.

From there, it continued on as normal…until the last scene where a few things at the end had to be altered:

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"Up there, walk up there." Kurt ordered as they made their final steps to the hotel. Inside the hotel, in the lobby, they heard a gunshot tainted by a gun silencer and people screaming. Shortly after the firing, Kurt walked through the door with Tom and Jasper, and Zack and Cody at his side.

Cody spotted the manager standing his tallest behind the front desk. "Mr. Moseby! Help!" he yelled.

Moseby looked up at Kurt and just shook his head. "Don't worry everyone," Mr. Moseby gulped unconfidently. "We'll be alright."

"Well, thanks for keeping everything on this end under control the second time around." Kurt said to Maddie, ignoring Moseby's proclamation as he motioned everyone he had come in with down to the main floor in the lobby.

"So do you have my ticket?" Maddie smiled.

"Well, not exactly…" Just then, they all heard a megaphone voice ordering the people responsible for this to come out with their hands up. He expected the police, but he did not expect them to come this soon. He grabbed his hostage that he decided he would hold at gunpoint: Zack.

The officers surrounded the entrances but moved into sight very, very slowly; Kurt was ready for them. Jasper looked to his left, where Tom was standing about thirty seconds ago. He had vanished. He spun around in a half circle, still not spotting him, but instead observing the cries and shrieks of the hostages for the first time.

From outside the door, Officer Linus yelled: "Put the boy down, lower your gun, and we can work this out."

Kurt laughed. "Fine, we can cut a deal. But I'm not putting either things down until you give me what I want."

"No, we cannot bring you anything or anyone. Just put the boy down and we can work this out. I have the power to cut a deal with you."

"Bring the mother! Carey! Bring her in here and this will all be over!" he demanded.

Officer Linus conversed with his partner until Carey intervened. "Carey! No! Dammit! I told you people to keep her down there!"

"Did you say boy! You said boy! Let me see them!" Carey screamed. She still was not close enough to see what was going on inside the lobby.

"MOM!!!" Cody yelled. "Help!!!"

"Shut him up! Jasper! Shut him up!" Kurt shouted.

"CODY?!" she shrieked with joy.

"You cannot be here Carey! Take her away!" Officer Linus ordered.

"No! Let him take me! I don't care what he does with me! Just make sure my boys are safe!" Instead of listening or waiting for them to make a decision, she pushed her way through. No one could stop her from getting to her boys.

Through all the chaos, as Carey ran into the lobby, a weak Zack tried to make a move on his father, who was gripping his healthy arm with a gun to his head. The attempt to punch him in the gut was unsuccessful. Kurt dodged him and just grabbed him by the head as he tried to make a run for it, accidentally inserting his thumb into the boy's left eye. Zack shrieked with even more pain, as his eye had started to bleed.

"Zack!" Carey exclaimed, who was now just a matter of feet away from him and Kurt.

"Stay right there," Kurt ordered. He appeared to still have everything under control.

"Why are you doing this? Why are you doing this to me? Why are you doing this to our boys?" Carey cried as she popped the questions.

"OUR BOYS?"

Carey looked at him in disbelief. He couldn't have found out…

"They're not even mine! You've been lying to me for 14 years! You cheated on me! And you act like the whole relationship breakup was my fault! Why wouldn't you just tell me?"

Everyone in the room, a bloody Zack and a nervous Cody included, and also the officers outside were incredibly shocked.

"Do you remember when I came back two weeks ago? Do you have any idea WHY I came back?" Carey buried her head in her palms. "I was thinking about what happened to us. I mean the breakup. I thought and thought about it over and over again, but I just couldn't get past the burning question: How LONG had you been cheating on me? That was something in which you never gave me a definitive answer. So I came back, and we went to the doctors! We did all the tests! And let me tell you something––for some reason, I was not even surprised at the results."

Zack and Cody looked up at Carey. Kurt saw their reaction. "So I assume you haven't told them anything? None of this? You didn't tell them that you cheated on me? You didn't tell them that I'm not their father? Let me ask you something! Something I've been kept up at night with thinking about for the past two weeks! WHO IS THE FATHER?"

"ALRIGHT!" a voice from the crowd yelled. He stepped out, gun drawn at Kurt. "I'm sick of this!"

"Tom?!" a baffled Kurt and a stunned Carey asked at the same time. Four police officers took this opportunity to move through the door. Three of their weapons pointed at Kurt, Officer Linus' pointed at the new gunman.

"No, no, no! Put the guns down! I'll kill all of them!" he informed the officers. They obeyed.

"What the bloody hell are you doing, Tom? Kurt asked. "Put the gun down. Don't risk your life with me…I will stop you if I really have to."

"Oh shut up Kurt. I'm sick of you and your orders! You made me go to jail for TWO years! And then you have the audacity to ask me to help you out with something yet again? Did you think I would continue to be your little servant? You ruined my life! Now I'm getting my revenge!"

"What is he talking about?" Carey asked.

A stunning thought came to Kurt's mind. "Tom…Tom…are YOU the father?"

"Really? Does that matter anymore? She dropped me like a dog too!"

Kurt felt betrayed by both of his former friends. "You know what?" he announced. "I suggest ALL you put your guns down!" He angrily reached into his pocket, transferring Zack to his armed arm and putting him in a headlock. Carey cringed, tears pouring down her face.

He pulled out some kind of device with a big red button flat in the center. "Does anyone know what this is?" Mr. Moseby immediately identified the item and connected it with what he had seen earlier. "THIS is a remote activator that will trigger the 25 pounds of C4 that have been spread all though this building! The bombs will go off when I press this button and let it go! DO ANY OF YOU KNOW WHAT HAPPENS THEN?" he paused. "BOOM!!!!"

The cries came to a halt. Everyone inside just gasped. Chaos set in after they had a moment to realize each and every single one of their lives was in grave danger. They all started screaming until Kurt yelled: "ALL OF YOU! SHUT UP!" The crowd settled down a bit, although still aware their lives could end with just the push and release of a button. "I wouldn't want to have to use this gun in here..."

Hearing all the dialogue that had taken place in the lobby, he remaining officers outside immediately got on their radios and called for the bomb squad.

"You're bluffing," Carey protested disgustedly.

"Are you sure about that?" he pressed down the button. "Remember…all I have to do is let it go now…"

"You wouldn't kill yourself like this. I know you at least THAT much. You would never kill innocent people."

"Oh please Carey. Don't be ignorant. This is a suicide mission and I knew it when I got up this morning. I don't care about anyone else in here! Tom, I ruined your life? Do you have any idea how much damage you inflicted on MY life???" He paused. "After all you've done to me…" he turned to Tom, "and what my supposed old friend did to me 14 years ago…I want you BOTH dead, and I will go to extremes to get it done!"

"Mr. Martin, please stop this madness. I told you that we can cut a deal! Just give us that remote trigger of yours and we can work something out." Officer Linus tried to reason. Kurt had heard enough of him. He moved the gun away from Zack's head and shot the officer in the head. More gasps came from the freighted spectators.

Moments went by without a speaker until Tom decided to take matters into his own hands.

"And I want you dead…" He pulled the trigger and let a bullet fly right, square in the side of the neck of Kurt.

Hell broke loose when the transmitter started to beep. Everyone shuffled towards the door, few made it out. It was too late for most, including the Martin family. As the beeps got faster and faster, Cody sprinted towards his mother and brother while Carey jumped on top of them in an effort to save their lives.

A moment of silence––then––BOOM!!!

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Then, a replay of the beginning…

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Delirious and in a total daze, trying to recall and understand the crazy turn of events that had just taken place, Zack opened his right eye. He tried to open his left, but it wouldn't budge; almost like it was nailed shut. He then absorbed a sharp pain, which echoed inside of the boy's head as he tried to pry the obviously damaged left eye open.

Zack observed thick, dark, black smoke that somberly rose slowly to the ceiling in this very confined area surrounded by objects such as floorboards, large pieces of medal, and garbage through his one eye. Attempting to lift his throbbing head up steadily, he spotted a luggage cart with the Tipton logo lying on its side, parallel to his left leg. Still confused, the twin got to his knees and viewed the disastrous mess that previously served as a lobby for one of the finest and most luxurious hotels in the world. Zack's felt as if his head was twirling around and around in a full 360º angle as he stared around the room. Suddenly, he noticed something on the ground. It was a black shoe with a dark blue Nike logo embedded on its inside. A bold memory from just a few minutes ago arrived abruptly in his brain. "MOM!!!!!!!!! CODY!!!!!!!!!" he screamed weakly, although as loud as he possibly could. Stumbling to his feet with all his might and dueling with another horrid pain that made his arm feel like it was going to fall off, he saw a pair of legs sticking from under a large piece of wood just a few feet away from him. Zack approached the piece of wood, lifted it up swiftly, and stared at his deceased mother. She was not a pretty sight, clearly roughed up by what had just happened in this hotel. Carey's face was terribly discombobulated, blood everywhere. Stunned and almost broken down by this sight, he took a few steps back in disbelief before tripping over something on the ground. The 14 year old boy fell violently. He slowly rose up halfway, curious to see what he had tripped over. Through the gallons of hot tears that flooded his eyes and what was left of this Tipton lobby, Zack vaguely observed a blond head of hair that lied on the ground near his own original resting place. He approached the figure, desperately hoping it was not who it first appeared to be. The closer he got to the now apparent person on the ground, the more evident the identity of the blond on the ground became. Zack took one big dive towards Cody when he realized his twin was lying injured on the ground. He put his middle and pointer fingers on Cody's forearm, just above the hand. Nothing. He put his hand on his brother's chest, checking and hoping more than ever for a beat. Nothing. A pathetic attempt at CPR didn't help anything either. Zack's brother was dead. And so was his mother. After all this, after this day, this nightmare, this is how all it ends. He stared blankly at Cody's cold face, which was not nearly as bloodied and destructed as his mother's. He did not know what to do. Breathing heavily and feeling totally lifeless, his world began to spin again. He dropped his head once again on his brother, sobbing more than he ever had in his entire life, not knowing what would happen next.

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I ultimately decided to change it for three main reasons:

I do not think everyone dying is a very fulfilling ending.

There was not enough insight given to the fate of other main characters (Moseby, Maddie, etc.).

I would have needed to provide a plausible explanation for how only Zack survived the explosion…something that I didn't have.

I would not be able to write a sequel if all the main characters died.

So that now brings us to the sequel decision. This story was not popular, to say the least. With Moseby taking over the kids because of the mother's death and most of the villains getting away, there are so many different paths I could take with the sequel.

Thoughts? What do you guys think? Should I start over with a completely new plot, hopefully pick up new readers (something that I really want and I will probably not do much of in a continuation of this plot), or should I go for the sequel?