He was trying to wrestle the man to the ground, choking him. A second seemed to last a lifetime but suddenly he felt his nose give way under the man’s elbow and with a loud crunch he dropped to the floor, blood dripping through his hands.

“BANG! BANG!”

Shots fired in the air. He couldn’t see! The cashier! Is he still alive? He started crawling away and made it to the candy aisle when someone else came running in.

“Where’s the money?!”

“I don’t know! Probably by the cashier I just shot!”

They were panicked, their voices high and words hurried.

“Who is that?”

“I don’t know!”

“Well, did he call the cops?!”

“I told you, moron! I don’t know!”

He felt a hand on his shoulder as one of the masked men flipped him over on his back. He was still wearing the ski mask but his shirt… it’s him. It’s the same one he was wearing this morning, curled up on the couch in the apartment that he didn’t chip a dime in for.

“Sorry, Adam… I don’t have a choice…”

A strangled noise came from his throat, choking on the coppery blood that stained his face. The sleaze of a roommate straightened and pointed the gun at his head.

“BANG! BANG!”

Blood splattered his grey hoodie even more. It patterned the reflective laminate floor like ink blots. The cashier…

“Are you okay?”

The sound was thin, pained, followed by the clatter of the pistol as it fell to the ground.

“I’m dialing 9-…”

His voice faded away with his consciousness and and he was shaken out of his stupor, galvanized into action. He stepped over the two bodies of the intruders, working his hardest to ignore it and stumbled on trembling legs to the cellphone by the cashier.

He’s just asleep… he’s just asleep. He dying… but he’s just asleep…

“9-1-1, what’s your emergency?”

“There’s been a robbery… the… oh god… the cashier was shot…”

He fumbled to put it on speaker phone and set it down beside him. He took off his hoodie, reasoning the light grey material was already stained beyond salvation, and pressed it to the wound in the man’s stomach. Blood welled up between his fingers, it’s smell sweet but nauseating. He knew it was essential to keep pressure and minimize the bleeding. He hoped he was right… he saw it on TV…

“He’s lost… a lot of blood… please!”

The last word broke off into near hysterical sobbing.

“I need an ambulance!”

The operator was professional and enunciated very clearly, her voice ringing like a bell in the deadly silent store… no just silent… please just silent…

“Okay, Help is on the way. Was anybody else injured?”

“Yeah… the robbers… there were two of em…”

“Can you tell me their condition? Are they still alive?”

“No… I… I don’t know… they don’t look good.”

He glanced over, forced himself to work through the fear of what he would see. Blood splattered the back of ones head and the other had a chunk of… he was halfway across the room.

“No… I think their dead… their dead…”

“Alright… take a deep breath. Everything is going to be okay. Your going to be alright…”

Inspired by ‘Story’ by NF