Run, Melos!

The opening line has already set the story running. Melos, a shepherd, loses his temper with a king who has stopped believing anyone, and is given three days on the condition that his closest friend stands as hostage. Miss the deadline and the friend dies. That is the whole plot.

It is short, and most of it is spoken aloud by people whose identity is never in doubt. Read in speech bubbles, the panic of Melos and the silence of the friend waiting for him sit side by side in a way that plain prose tends to smooth over. With voices it is sharper still.