Silence.
“Mr. Alloway are you…” Katie’s words stopped cold as theyboth watched a very stiff Mr. Alloway carefully step out of an office into thedark hall.
With every step forward, Katie’s and Everly’s eyes focusedon the dark figure behind him. Slowly, they saw the petrified mask of fearfrozen on Mr. Alloway’s face as he was forced to step into the light by thelarge man wearing a black plastic mask.
Katie’s deafening scream was like a gunshot that signaled arace, immediately all the participants began to move.
Materializing out of the corner of her eye another man dressedin the same black pants, gloves, and long sleeve shirt grabbed Katie in a bearhug, intensifying her manic screams.
Willing her body to unfreeze from the spot, Everly began tostumble backward. She needed to run, to make it to the second exit door behindher. Turning halfway, her body collided with another. Looking up to anotherdark empty-eyed mask Everly let out a strangled cry as the man’s hands lockedaround her upper arms capturing her.
How long had he been standing behind her? Terrified she lookedat him and noticed the shift of light in the darkness over his shoulder,another man stepped out of the murky shadows and stood behind him, both lookingat her with their expressionless masks.
Looking over her shoulder at Katie’s now muffled screams, Everlywatched as the other man in black forcefully subdued her to the ground. Shakingin fear Everly cowered in the tall man’s arms, looking up with tearful eyes shepleaded. “Please don’t hurt me.” She wanted to say she was pregnant, but herthroat tightened painfully from the cry she tried to suppress.
Pulling her closer, she heard his voice for the first time.A low rumbling whisper vibrated next to her ear, letting her feel just a hintof his warm breath through the mouth hole of his mask against her neck, givingher chills. “We would never hurt you.”
Turning her slightly, the other man behind him gentlygrabbed her wrist and silently indicated for her to hold them out. Obediently,she followed his command as he tied her wrists together with a plastic strap.Nudging her to sit in a nearby office chair, she sat stiffly as they both boundher feet together to the rolling legs of the chair. Kneeling directly in frontof her, the second man wrapped the longer plastic strap around her knees. Theintimate touch of his hand against her knee made her jump in fear. Pausing hisactions, the dark mask raised up to look at her with its expressionless darkgaze. Silently he just stared at her. What was he thinking? Was he going to dosomething to her? With each agonizing second that dragged by, her heart ratesteadily increased until she began to visibly tremble in front of the maskedman.
Bowing his head again he finished securing her wrist to theplastic tie holding her knees together. Standing up, he stepped behind her andpushed her chair forward until she was next to Katie and Mr. Alloway, both ofwhom were tied up on the ground next to a desk. Unlike herself, Katie and themanager had large pieces of silver tape placed over their mouths. With scaredtear-stricken faces all three hostages watched as the three men in blacksilently stood near the offices in front of them. Everly couldn’t tell if theywere looking at them or if they were looking above them, the black eye-holes oftheir mask just made them look like soulless demons.
Turning their heads in unison, everyone watched as thefourth masked man dragged the tied and thrashing body of Taylor from a darkhallway. Dragging Taylor behind him, the man dropped Taylor’s prone figure infront of them. Everly felt herself want to cry even more when she saw poorTaylor’s angry face and swollen eye. Placing Taylor on the ground in betweenKatie and herself, the man walked back to the other men.
In hushed tones, they talked amongst themselves before walkingtowards the large metal vault that contained the bank’s safety deposit boxes.The last man stopped and turned around, looking in their direction. Separatingfrom the men at the vault, the lone man walked over to her and stopped in frontof her.
Katie whimpered beside Everly, increasing her own fear asshe focused on the carpet at his feet. Everly didn’t dare make any move, shecould hardly breathe much less make a sound. The touch of smooth leatheragainst her chin made her jump, using his gloved hand the man tilted her headup forcing her to look into the dark empty eyes of his mask.
Slowly, silently, and very gently he placed a silver pieceof tape over her mouth.
Tears fell from her eyes and rolled down her cheeks.
Cupping her face with both of his hands, Everly sat frozenin her chair as he used his thumbs to swipe away the tears on each cheek.Stepping back, he left them alone to join the other three men.
Grunts from her side captured her attention, looking downshe saw Taylor rolling to his knees. The desperate panic in his eyes worriedher as she watched him unsteadily stand on his bound feet. With his hands tiedto the tie around his knees, just like hers, Taylor was forced to crouch in anawkward stoop. Shuffling towards the wall he fell against it with an out ofbreath grunt, pulling his arms into a curl Taylor strained against the plasticstrap until his face turned red. Finally, with a snap the plastic band aroundhis thigh holding his bound wrists in place broke free. With a frenzied look,Taylor eyed the desk next to her and began hopping towards it until he landedagainst it with a thump. Grabbing at the duct tape covering his mouth, hepeeled it off with a jerk before grabbing the phone on the desk. Holding thephone to his ear, he frantically hit the switch at the base searching for adial tone. Cursing he put the phone down, looking around the office desperatelybefore meeting her gaze again.
“Where is your cell phone?” he whispered.
Blinking she thought about it for a second and then jerkedher head to the direction of her pocket. Shuffling awkwardly to her Taylorquickly began to search her pockets with his bound hands until he found thephone in her pocket.
Their eyes met briefly in excitement as he pulled out thedevice. Katie’s muffled cry was their only warning before a black-gloved handenclosed painfully over Taylor’s shoulder yanking him viciously away from her.Everly cried out through the tape covering her mouth as she watched Taylor’sbody fly backwards hitting the ground in a hard rolling thud.
Wordlessly the man in black snatched away the cell phonefrom Taylor’s hand and grabbed Taylor’s thrashing arms as he tried to fight offthe man. Taylor’s yells and curses were stopped again this time with even moretape wrapping around his head twice. Tying his bound hands to his ankles,Taylor was left in the middle of the floor in an awkward toe touching bentposition.
The masked man stood back up to his full height and turnedhis black empty eyes towards her. Crying harder now Everly closed her eyes shutjust as he stepped towards her. Katie’s and Mr. Alloway’s cries of protestincreased as he grabbed her chair and began pushing her away from the group.Paralyzed by fear, Everly kept her eyes shut tightly as she felt herself beingrolled away from the others and into a much cooler area. Sniffling Everlyrealized they had stopped. Even with her eyes shut and her head lowered shecould sense the room was darker than the previous room. Fearfully she slowlyopened her eyes.
She was back in the manager’s office, and she wasn’t alone.Sensing the man’s presence behind her, Everly sat perfectly still, too afraidto move, too afraid to make any sort of sound. The office was dark and the doorwas shut, the only light was from the yellow streetlight outside filtering throughthe large window behind the desk. The rustling movement behind her stilled herthrashing heart. What was he… The warm jacket draped around her shouldersinterrupted her panicked thoughts. Turning she looked up at the man who onlystared back in tense silence.
Without a word he turned and left, leaving her alone in theempty office.
Time passed excruciatingly slow, alone in a room with noconcept of time or events. Everly had no clue what was happening beyond theoffice door. There was hardly any noise coming from the other side, shecouldn’t tell if the masked men were still there or if everyone else wasalright. The chill of the office was starting to seep in past the thick jacketwhen the door burst open.
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It was nearly three in the morning when the police and FBIfinally let them go. For hours she answered endless rounds of questions,forcing her to repeat every little detail to what happened that night. The realsurprise was what the FBI agents told them after their questioning. Nothing wastaken from the bank. Video surveillance showed the four unarmed men walkinginto the vault and simply standing. Nothing was taken or tampered with. Oneagent suggested it may have been an elaborate prank or practice for the realthing. Everly didn’t care either way, the whole thing was horrifying. Fearingfor her safety and her colleagues, being bound and at the mercy of masked men,she was sure she would have nightmares for a long time.
Dragging herself through her front door, Everly tiredlydropped her keys and purse onto the coffee table. Not even bothering with ashower she threw off her boots and coat and snuggled underneath her coversshutting off her light. Hopefully sleep would help her forget about thatnight’s horrible events.
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