Just Another Day…

Connor  felt the cold metal in the pocket of his jacket and readjusted the strap of his duffel bag on his shoulder.  Across the room, he made eye contact with Jesse and Paul, both in their prearranged positions. Paul on the far side of the room, Jesse by the door, and Connor by the teller’s window.On a signal from Connor, the trio pulled bandannas up to their noses. Jesse drew a handgun from his waistband and swung the butt round to the security guard’s cheekbone. On instinct, he seized the nearest patron, and put his gun to her head. Connor and Paul then withdrew their guns from their pockets. Connor fired a round at the glass of a teller’s window and nimbly vaulted over the counter. Paul trained his on the crowd, who had all sunk to their knees.

Connor, with the business end of his gun jammed against the back of the teller’s head and his  duffel bag on the counter, said in a gruff voice, “ I want all the money, try anything heroic and we start wasting them.”

Moments later, the teller said in a defeated voice that he emptied the cash from his register into the duffel bag. Connor then tossed it to Jesse, who had darted forward to catch it and  released the woman. As he opened the bag and pulled out a stack of bills, he raised them to his face, breathing in the smell of what would later buy them all mansions, yachts, and every fine car clothe and woman they had all wanted. His vision quickly subsided as the stack of money discharged a jet of dark blue ink directly into his eyes. “Gah”, he cried as he fell awkwardly to his side, dropping his gun and clawing at his eyes. A look of horror washed over Paul and Connor as Jesse’s head slammed against the edge of the counter. Blood was already beginning to stream freely down the side of his head, mixing with the blueish black ink and creating a sickly purple color. Paul slid to his accomplice’s side, shaking Jesse’s shoulder, begging him to be alright. He put two fingers to Jesse’s neck, and feeling a faint drumming, relaxed a little , knowing that he was okay. He took off his windbreaker and tore a sleeve off. With his makeshift bandage in hand, he went to work stemming the flow of blood from the gash on Jesse’s head.
Across the room, Connor was infuriated. “ What the hell did you do to my friend???” Connor planted his boot against the back of the teller’s knee and forced him to kneel. Pressing the muzzle to the teller’s temple, he squeezed the trigger. The teller’s limp body dropped to the cool tile with a wet thunk.

By the door, the security guard that Jesse had earlier disabled was beginning to stir. He slowly rose to his feet, assessing the situation. Remembrance dawned on him as he noticed the lanky man, Jesse, who had attacked him before. Then, he was aware of two men with guns. One of them, a tall blond man, Connor, had his gun pointed at the patrons on the floor, And another, a medium sized man with brown spiked up hair and beard stubble, Paul, was kneeling beside the lanky man. He checked his belt, making sure his sidearm was still secure, and carefully made his way over to the opposite wall, careful not to attract the attention of Connor, and pulled the silent alarm. Paul, hearing the faint click of the switch being pulled, shot to his feet and drew his pistol. The security guard was quicker. In one smooth motion, he drew his gun, raised it, sighted, and shot Paul in the shoulder.

Connor, hearing the shot go off, quickly spun on his heel and, seeing the guard with his pistol drawn and aimed at his chest, raised his arms above his head and sank to his knees. His eyes then found Paul, kneeling slouched over and bleeding. Their eyes met, and Connor, seeing pain and true fear in Paul, threw himself at the guard. The guard squeezed the trigger one last time, his bullet going through Connor’s forehead. As Connor crumpled to the ground, a look of surprise still plastered over his lifeless eyes,the guard walked over to Paul and cuffed his hands behind his back. Doing the same to Jesse, he shook his head at the thought of three young men, all lost, never to be found.