Lily felt faint. The man was staggering, someone had hit him with something.
Lily stood up, wincing as she felt her stomach pull apart, collapsing back onto the floor into a small pool of her own blood. She clutched her wound tightly but dared not look, in fear that she would pass out.
The other customers and staff began to scream, Lily could vaguely make out a woman pulling a cell phone out of her pencil, pin-striped skirt. The man surged forward and slapped the phone out of the womans perfectly manicured hand and shoved her hard against the wall, digging the gun into her neck. He hissed something into her ear. And used the ugly black pistol to hit her in the jaw. She whimpered at his mercy, shielding her bleeding lip and disjointed jaw bone with her frail, shaking hands.
A tall, good-looking man in a smart blue suit, pulled himself from under his desk which stood opposite to the whimpering woman. He grabbed a tall metal rubbish bin tightly in his hands, wiping his brow which was tightly knitted together in concentration. He swung the bin up and charged at the black-covered man. Lily watched. The thug hit the floor hard, knocking the gun out of his hand. She could have sworn he was out for good.
Thank god. Its over. The police will come, everything will be fine! Calm down Lily. Everything is OK.
"Carl!" The woman screamed. "Carl! Get out of the way! He has the gun!"
She was right. The thug lunged forward and grabbed the weapon. He rolled onto his back and shot one lousy bullet which hit the metal bin and pushed Carl backwards.
"Get in here! NOW! They're fighting- I'm running out of bullets!" The robber yelled into his walkie-talkie.
A second tall, black figure was runnning into the bank, kicking the security man as he passed. His voice was muffled by the balaclava so Lily couldn't understand him. But after finishing his sentence, Tracey and another bank teller locked the sliding doors and rolled down the security bars. Lily realised, this was it. No one was going to leave and no one could come and save them. They were trapped. They were hostages.
I'm going to die here. Even if we were saved- I've been shot, I will die in hospital.
Lily scanned around the bank. A father, cradling a crying toddler. An elderly man, rocking back and forth in a ball, quietly muttering prayers.
There is no point in them dying too. Be brave Lily- just do it. Nothing worse can happen now.
She could barely feel the aching, splitting pain in her stomach.
Take a deep breath, I have to do it.
Holding her shirt tighly around the bloody mess of my wound, Lily pushed, leaning against anything she could. Lily was moving so slowly no one was taking any notice. The first man who'd shot her was still on the ground, struggling to sit up. The second thug however, he was hearding a group of hostages into a corner, pointing and signaling with his own... gun.
Lily edged closer, she could see the sweat trickling down the back of his neck. Lily grabbed a hunk of glass which was the remainder of a shattered window. Nearly there...
Lily, you have one chance. If it goes wrong- nothing worse can happen to you. Just try. GO!
Lily gritted her teeth and clenched her jaw. This was it. She clenched the glass tighter in her hand, too tight, her hand was bleeding now. She ignored the deep cut she had just inflicted upon herself and hobbled up shakily, leaning against a chair about a foot behind the man.
Lily pressed her weight on the chair and half pushed, half jumped forward onto his back. She scraped the glass into his skull as hard as she could. He whipped around and elbowed Lily. Right in her wound. She screamed in pain and fell onto the carpet. He held a hand to his head and took a wild shot at her with the other, missing by metres. He roared in anger and ripped the balaclava off his head to nurture his cut.
Lily felther face contort with pain and anger as she screamed and gripped her stomach with her bloody hands.
Lily couldn't see properly through her stream of tears and blood but she knew he was coming closer. Lily wiped her face clean. She was staring into the barrel of his gun.
Lily attempted to suck in her last taste of oxygen through many fast, stifled breaths. Lily raised her head. She would look him in the eye before he murdered her.
"Paul?..." Lily stuttered. "PAUL!" She screamed!
Lily was looking into the eyes of her fiancée. Her husband-to-be. No. She was looking at a thug, a robber, a killler.
