The Bank

Chapter 1

It was a cold January morning.

Will rubbed his hands together to keep warm.

“Are you ready?” he asked.

“As ready as I'll ever be,” Guy replied, making sure that he had the object in his jacket pocket. “Let's do this.”

Will casually opened the door and held it open for Guy.

Guy bowed his head and walked in.

It looked just like a normal bank should look.

There were people sitting in chairs.

There were people standing behind desks.

They all looked bored.

“I hope this works,” Guy whispered to Will.

“Of course, it's going to work,” Will quietly replied. “You trust me, right?”

“Yeah,” Guy said, though he sounded unsure.

One of the tellers was free, so Guy and Will walked over to him.

“Hello,” the man said, smiling wide and displaying his rather large teeth. “How may I help you today?”

“Uh, yeah, I'd like to make a withdrawal, please,” Will replied.

The man hit something on his computer, then went to ask something.

But before he could ask, he heard a click.

He looked up at the two men in front of him.

One of them was holding a gun, pointed right at him.

The people all crowded in the corner.

There were a young couple, a grandmother and her grandson, a man who seemed to be in his thirties, and two bank tellers.

They were all quiet, but they were panicking on the inside.

Guy was watching over them, holding a gun, while a third teller was assisting Will.

The little boy sneezed, and Guy quickly jerked his armed hand over to him.

The little boy cried and held onto his grandmother as Guy eased back.

He felt kinda bad, watching the little boy look so scared and helpless.

But he knew he couldn't feel bad for long.

Guy looked over his shoulder at Will.

“What is taking you so long?” Guy shouted.

The teller with Will looked up with frightened eyes.

She looked rather young, with long, dark hair that waved neatly around her shoulders.

Anyone who worked with her could say that she was usually one of the happiest people ever.

Right now she was frowning.

She turned to Will, and went to apologize for something.

Will stared at her, his intention to listen to whatever she was going to say.

But something went wrong.

His hand jerked, or something, and suddenly a loud noise filled the room.

Then the girl was on the ground.

Will's eyes bulged as he realized what had just happened.

He turned to Guy.

Guy was also looking, wide-eyed and mouth completely open.

“Oops,” Will said.

Chapter 2

“This is completely ridiculous,” the man in his thirties said.

He was watching Guy and Will talk over by the dead body.

Guy's gun was still pointed at all of them.

“Oh, does being taken hostage cut into your busy schedule?” the man next to him snidely remarked.

He was the teller who'd spoken to Will and Guy first, and as the man in his thirties looked at him, he noticed the teller's bright green eyes.

“Maybe you could ask them to do it at a time that better suits your lifestyle.”

“I assume you work here,” the man sneered. “What's your name?”

“I do work here. My name is Jonny,” the green-eyed man replied.

“Well, Jonny, I'm Chris Martin, and I don't think my bosses would appreciate if I report that their employees are not so friendly.”

Jonny stared at Chris funny, so he continued.

“You see, I work for this bank chain. I go around and inspect the banks, namely for the quality of customer service. Right now, you're not doing so hot.”

Jonny continued to give him a funny look, and scoffed to say that he was being unfair.

He turned to look at Will and Guy, too annoyed by Chris to want to continue their conversation.

But he kept thinking about Chris's blatant rudeness.

“Guy, will you calm down?” Will said.

“No,” Guy replied, his anger ever-increasing. “Will, how hard is it not to kill someone?”

“Well, obviously, it's tougher than it looks!!” Will exclaimed.

Guy looked down at the poor girl laying on the floor.

She couldn't have been a day over twenty-five.

Guy ran his gun-free hand through his hair.

“You know, I knew I should have just stayed home,” he said.

“There's a Golden Girls marathon on... I should have just watched that instead of coming with you.”

“Guy, Golden Girls, really? Don't you think you're being a tad over-dramatic?” Will laughed.

“Over-dramatic???” Guy shrieked. “Will, there is a dead girl laying right in front of us.”

Will looked down at the girl.

“Yeah... we're going to have to do something about that,” he said.

“The cops will probably show up soon. Someone must have heard the shot,” Guy said.

He began to pace around, trying to think of a plan.

“Will, what are we going to do? I can't go to jail. With a face this handsome,” Guy stopped and looked directly at Will, “do you know what they'll do to me in there?”

Will thought for a moment, then winced.

“I guess it won't be pretty... luckily, I've got nothing to worry about.”

Will rubbed his hand along his beard, distracted by thoughts of his appearance.

Guy just shook his head and tried again to think of a plan.

“Isn't that a little immature?” Chris asked.

Jonny looked at him.

“What do you mean?”

“Your full name is Jonathan,” Chris stated in almost question form.

“Yes,” Jonny replied.

“Isn't going by Jonny a bit... childish?” Chris asked. “You could at least go by Jon.”

Jonny blink at Chris a few times.

“I could,” he slowly said. “But I don't want to.”

Chris looked up at Jonny and just stared.

“Everyone's always called me Jonny. That's the way I like it.”

Chris paused, then took a deep breath.

“Fine,” he said, defeated.

Chapter 3

“OK, everyone, listen up,” Guy shouted.

The hostages had been moved a bit, so that they were all standing, rather close to each other, in front of a blank wall.

Guy paced in front of them, waving his gun about threateningly every now and then.

Will was sitting in a chair not too far behind Guy.

“The cops are bound to show up soon, as my stupid friend over there has gone and killed your... friend, or whatever.”

“Killed?” Jonny repeated in a shrill voice.

“She was my girlfriend,” the third teller quietly said.

He raised a hand to his face, which was pale and gaunt.

Guy stopped his walking about, leaving his presence directly opposite the third teller.

“Seriously?” he said, looking back and forth between the man and Jonny.

“What-” Jonny began.

“You didn't realize when the gun went off that she, you know?” Guy slashed his finger across his neck.

The teller stared at Guy, then burst into tears.

'I guess not...” Guy said.

Chris cleared his throat.

“So, would you say, then, that you feel the workers here are not as quick as they could be?” Chris asked.

Guy shot him a 'you're ridiculous' look, then turned back to the teller.

“Get a hold of yourself, or you're next,” Guy snapped.

He raised the gun level with the man's neck.

“Fine, kill me,” the man blubbered. “I've not got much to live for now.”

Guy twitched his mouth displeasedly.

“Eh, maybe later,” Guy said, lowering the gun.

“In the meantime, you can help Will.”

Will stood up and grabbed the teller's arm.

They began to walk away and over by where the female teller had been shot.

“The rest of you stay here, and there better not be any loud noises or sudden movements,” Guy said, shoving the gun in all of their faces.

He stopped in front of Chris.

Chris was texting someone.

“And no cell phones!” Guy exclaimed, slapping the phone to the ground, where it shattered into several pieces.

Chris looked from the phone to Guy.

“Are you gonna buy me another one?” he scoffed.

Jonny started to laugh.

Both Guy and Chris focused their attention on Jonny.

“Why would he buy you another one?” Jonny asked Chris.

“Oh, I'm sorry,” Chris sarcastically replied. “Is it not OK to ask someone to replace the phone they just blatantly broke? I needed that, you know.”

“And why would you even try to use it in a situation like this?” Jonny continued. “Especially with him waving that gun around all over the place.”

“It was a very important message that I needed to send,” Chris said.

“We're hostages,” Jonny said, nearly raising his voice. “You can't make an attempt to contact the outside world and not expect there to be any consequences.”

Jonny sighed and turned away.

He tried to wrap his head around Chris's odd and careless behavior, but he just couldn't understand.

He couldn't understand why Chris would be so rude to someone who, at the present, controlled his life.

He couldn't understand why Chris acted like he was a thousand times smarter than Jonny.

And he couldn't understand why the image of Chris's piercingly blue eyes was permanently etched into his mind.

Chapter 4

“Excuse me, sir,” the little boy said, partially hidden behind his grandmother.

Guy looked up from where he was sitting.

“Yeah?” he tiredly said.
“What if... what if one of us has to go to the bathroom?” the little boy asked. “Really, really bad.”

“You.....” Guy sighed.

It had been far too long since Will went with the teller in search of the safe.

Guy still would much rather have been at home, watching Golden Girls.

But no, he had to sit there and babysit hostages.

And now one of them had to go to the bathroom.

He had no idea what to do.

He couldn't take him and leave the rest of them there unguarded.

But he also couldn't send the kid off by himself without supervision.

Finally, he decided to take the kid himself.

The bathroom was fairly close, and was actually almost right near the entrance.

There wasn't much of a hostage situation going on, anyway.

While he was gone, none of the people tried to escape.

They were all too afraid.

The young couple held each other and whispered calming things in their ears.

The grandmother just patiently waited for her grandson to return.

Jonny was mindlessly humming.

Chris looked over at him.

Jonny looked almost out of it.

“Hey, man, are you OK?” Chris asked.

Jonny turned and replied, “Hmm?”

“Are you OK?” Chris repeated.

“Oh... No, I don't think so,” Jonny slurred.

“Yeah, you look like you're gonna pass out,” Chris said.

He examined Jonny for a while.

Jonny was not nearly as lucid as he'd been half an hour ago.

Chris was struck with an idea after a while.

“Jonny, are you diabetic?” he asked.

Jonny nodded. “Last I remember, I was, yeah.”

“Shit,” Chris said under his breath.

He spun around and loudly asked, “Does anyone have any form of sugar? Drinks, candy, anything.”

The young couple just looked at him with blank stares.

The grandmother reached into her purse.

“How are these?” she asked, holding out a dozen hard candies.

“Perfect,” Chris said, grabbing half of them out of her hand. “Thank you so much.”

He turned back to Jonny and unwrapped one of the candies.

“Here, take this,” he said, forcing the candy into Jonny's mouth. “And sit down.”

Chris eased Jonny to the floor and sat with him.

After the first candy was dissolved, Chris gave Jonny a second one.

“Do I have to take all of those?” Jonny asked, a tiny bit more lucidly, pointing at Chris's hand.

“Yeah,” Chris replied. “It'll make you feel better, though.”

“How do you know?” Jonny asked.

“My mother has diabetes. This isn't the first time I've dealt with something like this.”

“Oh. Well, thank you, Chris,” Jonny said, halfheartedly patting Chris's arm.

Then he smiled, and Chris thought he saw a wink.

But he convinced himself that Jonny was just blinking, and it merely looked like a wink from his angle.

Then Chris smiled back.

Chapter 5

Guy was starting to nod off.

Which was very dangerous, as he still had his gun ready in his hand.

The young man stepped away from his girlfriend and closer to Guy.

Guy jerked himself to full awareness, but he didn't move the gun.

“Hey,” the man said, “How long do you guys plan on being? Because we've got dinner reservations.”

Guy stared unblinkingly at the man.

“None of you take this seriously, do you?” he asked.

His eyes scanned the people and stopped at Jonny.

“Well, maybe you do,” he added.

“Um, not to be rude or anything,” the man apprehensively said, “but you are kinda falling asleep. Hardly seems professional.”

Guy pointedly looked around for a bit.

Then he sighed.

“Will should have been back forever ago. It doesn't take that long, does it?

Suddenly, there was a loud noise coming from somewhere close.

Then there was a crash, and a huge flash of light shone on Guy and the hostages.

Guy lifted his hand to shield his eyes and try to see what was happening.

The light was coming from the door of the bank, and was creating a glow around several shadowy figures.

As they walked closer, Guy noticed that they weren't human.

They were extraterrestrial.

“What the hell?” he exclaimed.

He turned around to the others.

They were split off into pairs, all trying to protect each other, and all staring at the doorway, dumbfounded.

“Excuuuuuse usssss,” one of the aliens drawled. “You arrrrre Guy, rightttt?”

Guy apprehensively stood up and stepped a bit closer.

“Uh, yeah,” he said, nervously swallowing. “C-Can I help you?

“Youuuuu need to commmmme with ussss,” the alien said.
“Where?” Guy asked.

The alien shook its head. “We cannnnn not telllll you.”

Guy started to refuse, but he found himself being pulled towards the aliens by some invisible force.

He struggled to remain in his spot, and eventually gave up and let the aliens take him.

There was nothing else he could do.

He wondered what Will would think when he returned and Guy was gone.

Maybe he'd think the hostages had taken over and killed him or something.

Will would probably not be too surprised by that.

He never gave Guy enough credit, even though Guy was usually the brains behind their schemes.

Then again, brains doesn't mean that he would be able to fend off five other adults and a small child.

But he did have a gun.

Guy's mind was all over the place with these thoughts.

But he didn't have much time to wonder, because as soon as he was in the aliens' spaceship, everything went black.

 Chapter 6

“Where am I?”

The voice was Guy's own, but he was only faintly aware of this.

Actually, he wasn't really aware of anything.

Except for a throbbing pain in his chest.

“You're in an ambulance, OK?” another voice responded. “I'm going to ask you a few questions, but I need you to take it easy.”

“OK,” Guy breathed through the pain.

“All right, what's the last thing you remember?” the voice asked.

Guy thought strenuously for a while.

“I brought that boy back from the bathroom, then I started to fall asleep...” Guy began, “... and then there were these aliens.”

“Aliens?” the voice repeated, obviously stifling laughter. “So, you don't remember being shot?”

“I was shot?” Guy shrieked.

Some machine started beeping rather quickly.

“Easy, easy,” the voice told him. “You were shot very close to the heart. You're on the way to the ER now, and we're going to patch you up, but... well, then you're going to have to face trial.”

“Who shot me?” Guy asked as calmly as he could.

“You were shot by an officer, apparently after shooting several rounds at one of the other officers.”

“I don't remember that,” Guy quietly said.

He also didn't remember falling unconscious once more, but he did.

He opened his eyes to see the sky just before the ceiling of the hospital showed itself.

He still wasn't sure of what had happened.

Bits of memory were coming back to him every now and then, but it was hardly enough.

If any of the hostages had been there, they certainly could have told him.

It was fresh in all of their minds, and would definitely be such a way for a long time.

Jonny was starting to feel much better, and he was listening to Chris talk about one of the other banks he had visited just the day before.

The young couple was still in their own world.

The grandmother was still worried about her grandson.

He and Guy returned safely, though, only a few minutes later.

Then the cops showed up.

For some reason, neither Will or Guy had thought to get someone to lock the front doors, so the cops walked in with ease.

Without thinking, Guy spun around and started to shoot.

Even then, he didn't feel as though he was the one doing it.

Then one of the officers shot back, and Guy fell to the ground.

The hostages were all stunned at what was happening.

Soon they were ushered out of the building, as the cops went in to find Will and the other teller.

When they came out, Will was in handcuffs, and the teller was crying frantically.

He seemed unharmed otherwise, though.

A few of the officers stuck around to interrogate the hostages.

It only took a few minutes, then they were all released for the time being.

Chris walked up to Jonny as everyone started to leave.

“Hey,” he called.

“Yeah?” Jonny answered.

“Um, you don't... you don't have any plans or anything, right?” Chris asked. “I mean, you would be working now if it wasn't for... this... right?”

“Well, actually, my shift would be over by now,” Jonny replied. “But I don't have any plans, no.”

“Oh, well, then, maybe... you'd like to come with me and grab something to eat?” Chris asked, and bit his lip in anticipation.

Jonny shrugged his shoulders. “Eh.”

“Oh... uh...” Chris quickly scanned the air in front of him, then spun around.

He started to leave, walking as fast as he could, it seemed.

Jonny watched him walk for a few seconds.

“Wait!” Jonny suddenly shouted.

Chris stopped and turned, patiently awaiting a follow-up.

“I'll come with you,” Jonny said.

Chris smiled at him, and they both began to walk together at a much slower pace.

“You know,” Jonny said, “you're not as much of a jerk as I thought you were.”

“Really? You're everything I thought you were,” Chris replied.

He looked at Jonny with his big, blue eyes.

“But that's a good thing.”