NaNoWriMo - Chapter Ten

Chapter Six

I headed south along the now completely dark street.  There wasn't much traffic now; only one or two cars came along to illuminate me as they drove past.  Neither car slowed down whilst passing me.  Soon enough, I came across the convenience store that I had passed on my way to the hotel.  I stood on the darkened side of the road for a few minutes while I studied the store to see if there were any customers.  It wasn't a large supermarket, but it was bigger than a standard milk bar, so should have all of the things I was after.

When I was satisfied that there was no-one there, I crossed the street and headed in.  I knew that I was going to need to be quick in my purchases to ensure that the fewest amount of people was going to see or notice me.  I also felt sure that the store was going to have at least one security camera – what convenience store didn't these days? – which was likely to be right behind the register.  That was going to be unavoidable; but necessary.

I heard the buzzer go off when I entered the store.  The store clerk looked up briefly from the magazine she was reading, decided I wasn't a threat and looked back down before flipping to the next page.  Whatever she was reading must have been interesting.

I headed to the back of the store; following the refrigerators that lined most of the two of the stores walls.  I found a sealed roast chicken sandwich amongst other assorted ready-to-heat-and-eat meals and popped it in the microwave that was available for such a purchase.  After punching in the time required, I turned around to look for hair products.  I found what I needed and grabbed a pair of scissors and a box of hair colouring.  I grabbed a loaf of bread as well – who knew when I was going to be able to shop for food again?

I went back to check on my food, but it still had some minutes left before it was ready.  I placed the bread and hair colouring next to the microwave and headed for the toilet that was in the back of the store with the pair of scissors.  When there, I locked myself in to the small room and I ripped open the package and took off my top.  I stared at myself in the mirror for a couple of seconds, before grabbing a chunk of my hair and snipping.  Again and again, I grabbed a chunk of hair, cutting it and placing it in the toilet.  The resulting hairstyle was messy, but much shorter than what I had walked into the store with.  I now had a very untidy bob instead of my usual waist length blonde locks.  I flushed the toilet, grabbed the scissors and the packaging that the scissors had come in and unlocked the door.

Taking two steps out of the toilet, I instantly felt anxious.  Something wasn't right.  Slowing, I glanced around the store but couldn't see anyone.  I looked up towards the register, but the store clerk was nowhere to be seen.  I slowly headed to the microwave that had since finished what it was doing, manoeuvring the scissors in my hand so the closed blades headed up my arm, whilst I was still firmly holding the handle.  Still seeing no-one in the store, I apprehensively turned my back to the store to get my sandwich out of the microwave.  I opened the door, grabbed the now steaming package, closed the door and turned around.

To find that a gun was pointing in my face.

I gripped the sandwich bag as I froze.  Blinking several times, I realised that it wasn't a police officer holding a gun in my face; it was a young male with a stocking over his head.

"On the ground! Now!" He shouted at me, motioning to the floor with the double barrel shotgun.

Frozen, I stood there blinking.  This day was getting crazier by the minute.

He grabbed me roughly around the neck and pushed me to the ground, still yelling at me.

"Okay, okay," I said, taking the hint.  I knelt down on the linoleum, still with the scissors hidden in my right hand and the sandwich in my left, before laying on the floor face down.

Apparently satisfied, I heard the armed robber take a few steps away from me, stepping into the next aisle and heading up towards the register.  I raised my head slightly, before turning it to the side to try and see what he was doing.  I heard a commotion coming from the direction of the register, but didn't raise my head any further.

Absent-mindedly, I brought the warm sandwich to my mouth and took a bite.  A little shocked, I looked down at the sandwich and gave a little giggle.  I must have been really starving if I was eating at a time like this.

I may have laughed a little too loudly though, as the robber came storming back down the aisle and stood right at my head, again pointing the gun at me.

"What the hell do you think you're laughing at?" he demanded.

"Nothing!" I snickered.  I sat up, drawing my legs up and crossing them in front of me.  I brought the sandwich to my lips again. "Nothing at all!" I began to laugh a little harder.

He jabbed the gun at me, making me flinch a little, but the extreme case of giggles still wouldn't leave me.

"You crazy bitch!" he snarled.  "Let's see you laugh at this…"  He grabbed me by the hair (what hair I had left) and dragged me along the floor to the front of the store near the registers.  I dropped my sandwich as I grabbed his hand that had latched onto my hair to try to take up some of the force.  I noticed that the store clerk was curled up in the corner of the register area, too petrified to move.  She whimpered as she saw how I was being handled.

He dropped me about a metre from the register.  I massaged my head with my one free hand, still hiding the scissors in my other hand.  He strode across to the store clerk, where she started to climb the wall trying to get away from him.  He pointed the gun at her, demanding that she open the safe.

"I told you, I don't have access!" she pleaded.

"Make access, bitch!" he growled.

"I can't!" she begged, tears streaming down her face.

"Maybe you just need the right encouragement…" he leered at her, before he slowly turned his head towards me.

Her eyes bugged out a little, as he jumped across to me and put his gun to my head again.

"Open the safe or this crazy bitch gets it," he declared.

The tears wouldn't stop falling from her eyes as she begged him again.  "Please… I can't… I don't have the key…"

I looked at her, before taking a deep breath.  I looked up, past the barrel of the gun into the stockinged face of this armed robber.  I clenched my jaw, before slowly saying "Sweetie, if you could do what the guy says, I'd really appreciate it."  I stared into his eyes as I kept talking to the young girl.  "Is there any way that your boss could have left you an emergency key in case you had some troubles with the cash register?"

She hiccupped, before responding to me "No, he takes the key with him every time he leaves the store.  The only access point to the safe is through a hole in the ground…"

"Okay, sweetie.  That's okay.  Is there any way that we can see the hole in the ground?" I asked, with my eyes still trained on the robbers face, almost daring him to move.  I clenched my right hand a little harder, feeling the handles of the scissors dig into my fingers.  If I could keep his eyes trained on mine, he wouldn't see what I had in my hand.

"Maybe…" she trailed off, still hiccupping.

He flinched.  He knew that he was getting somewhere now, but he didn't want to break eye contact with me first.  He wanted to remain the top dog, and as long as he didn't break eye contact first, then he would have his wish.  I was determined not to let that happen.  I kept my eyes on his.

"Awesome, sweetie.  Can you tell us where the safe is?" I quietly enquired.  'Look away, damn you! Look away…!' I thought to myself.

"Yeah, it's just under this here rug," she went scrambling around behind the cash register.  It sounded like she was pulling up the mat, but as she had ducked out of our fields of vision, neither the robber or I could be sure what she was doing.  His nerve finally broke first – he glanced away from me, dropping the gun slightly as he took a step towards the cash register.  His attention on the store clerk now, I was free to very quietly manoeuvre further out of his field of vision, bringing the scissors slightly around in my fist as I did so.

This was going to have to be timed as perfectly as I could possibly get it.  I only had one shot at this and if I missed, then that would be the end of not only my existence but the store clerks as well.  She was far too terrified to do anything but the task that I had somehow given her to do, so it was all up to me.  I waited until his attention was absolutely on what the store clerk was doing behind the register, before I leapt.  I had turned the scissors around in my hand to a ninety degree angle, so they now acted like a knife that I could use to inflict damage with.

Only one shot…