RAID

The question had rendered me speechless. Words and thoughts were now alien to me. A gun was being pointed directly at my head and my brain couldn't function. An overload of emotion running amok in my head and my body didn't know how to react.

'OPEN THE FUCKING TILL!' the man screamed at me again. His words snapping me out of my stupor.

All I could see of the person stood in front of me were his eyes. For all the authority in his words, there was fear in them and the gun shook slightly in his hand, adrenaline clearly pumping through his body. He was tall and slender and despite the balaclava covering his face I could tell from his voice that he was young.

I looked down at the till in front of me. All I had to do was hit a button and the drawer would have sprung open in front of me. I knew there wasn't a huge amount in there. Most of the days takings had already been banked but there was still a few hundred in there.

Instead of hitting the button I looked back up at the intruder in front of me. 'Why?' I asked.

'Doesn't matter why. Just open the drawer!' he shouted back. The confidence in his voice had ebbed slightly. 'I'll use it' he said, waving the gun in my direction. He glanced over towards the door, his actions now getting more sketchy.

I could feel his nervousness and my confidence starting to grow. This didn't seem like a seasoned criminal, this was someone acting in desperation 'You don't need to do this'.

'What do you know about it. Just open it and I'll be gone.' He retorted 'Don't make me use it' he pleaded. Again he looked over his shoulder towards the door. His plans for a quick raid clearly not going as expected.

'Whatever you've got going on, this won't help' I tried to reason with him.

'I've got nothing else.' he replied, his voice now trembling significantly.

His arm was now shaking violently and my own heart felt like it was pumping out of my chest. Intuition kicked in and I reached out my hand towards the gun. My eyes remained fixed on his. I could see tears beginning to well in his eyes and as my hand reached the gun I pushed it aside with ease, all strength in his arm gone. His grip on the pistol loosened and it fell from his hand. He turned and ran for the door.

Time seemed to stand still until lactic overloaded my body I retched over the counter.

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This is my first entry into week 11 of @goodguygreg's Story Cubes contest. The images I have used from the cubes are - thief, question, shout, alien, and speech.