The room consisted of three cashiers and a table with chairs nearing its time to go. The carpet was a moulding green colour and even the tatty furniture appeared saddened by these shabby rugs. However, this bank wasn’t as bad as it is described to be; there was something special about this bank. The City Bank possessed the only gold plated vault in the world. This gold was impossibly silky and polished, achieving the same light blinding effect as flashing a torch into eyes.
John, cautiously turning the combination code, unlocked the vault to add a black leather suitcase to the collection of mysterious valuables contained within this great vault. Nick, not doing his job (as usual) caught a glimpse of John opening the door from the corner of his eye as he was on his way to fish for documents in the basement. He didn’t see anything but heard clanks of metal being handled. The door was slightly open; it had a heavenly light coming out of it. John walked out empty handed with a calm stride. He climbed back up to the spiralled stairs that would take him back to the ground floor, ready for the business day to commence.
The doors opened sharp at nine am. Countless customers swarmed through and created the endless queue to sort their financial issues, rather like in the military fashion with its consecutive pattern of an orderly step forward in the line. John stood overlooking this daily public panic, gleaming at the customers with a patronising smile. Nick went back to his desk at his desk shortly after, to make sure John was naive to his presence near the vault.
An eccentric man with a clean cut beard, wearing a casual white and black polo entered the bank carrying a huge gym bag. His shoes were pointy as a jester’s, his heels clicked around the bank observing its lifeless walls. The male skipped the queue and approached the cashier and reached into his pocket, with a trail of angry customers waiting in the queue behind him with annoyance.
The Bank was reaching peak time already by 9.15am. Customers rushed and pushed towards all directions. All you could hear was the nattering of the cashiers and the sighing from the customers, with an occasional blare of babies crying. The cashiers unhurriedly counted the money, ignorant to the fact the queue stretched out to the next building. An elderly woman dropped her handbag, staring in disbelief. Yes, this would be another draining day, nothing out of the norm.
The man fired out a gun from his pocket in the air without a single echo of speech. The immediate wave of screaming commenced as he turned ninety degrees and shot the security guard by the door. The security man collapsed as he grasped for his phone. Blood splattered onto the shattering glass: a red mosaic was bleeding into a full design on the door. He then fired once again, and a sudden silence followed. The only noise was the gunman’s boots squeaking as he moved toward John. “Open it now” he demanded in a husky, uncompromising tone. John sprinted to the vault, his breath pounding in motion with his heart beat. He unveiled a gold key from his neck chain, unlocking the first lock with great hesitation: you could hear the key rattling against the vault across the room. He then turned the large wheel gradually. Everyone in the room breathed in, holding their breaths as if not to dare make a single noise.
Thousands of diamonds were scattered amongst a dozen gold bars, wrapped in a purple velvet sheet. It was a beautiful spectacle; almost fantasy like. It glistened just like the Thames that John had woken up to. The armed man demanded for the valuables. He scurried to the treasures, staring at it for a few satisfying seconds. He snarled as he stuffed his bag with the goods and complacently walked towards the exit. The trail of stunned and shocked eyes followed each step he made. John ran up and launched himself to the man attempting stop him. The decision backfired as the thief reacted and grabbed John and slinged him across the room.
Just before the man made the security door, Nick sprinted and pulled out a gun. The thief turned around at the noise of the trigger. ‘I’ll take it from here you thief’ Nick said heroically.
BANG.
The man jolted, hands clutching his stomach. Blood dripped from his hand like a tap of streaming water. He collapsed to floor, dropped the bag, his eyes hauntingly wide open. Nick, stunned in disbelief at what he had just done stood over the body and saw the bullet must have penetrated deep through the thief’s back. A growing red pool surrounded the dead body. He grabbed the bag as everyone cheered like it was a football match going on.
The newspapers next morning were full of Nick on its headlines. Finally, he was famous.
