Stolen

Part 24: Robbers

Marilynn was home alone, again. Her father had left her with a fat list of chores to do so she wouldn't 'get into trouble'. Like she ever did! Yet he still didn't trust her to behave while he was out, busy with his job as a real estate agent. Funny how he was paid to make sure other peoples' homes were intact while his own was falling into disrepair.

Marilynn sighed and looked around the filthy kitchen. That was what she was here for.

The late afternoon light filtering in through the clouded windows was already by far enough to see by, so all the lights were off. She checked the first thing on the list - "wash dishes" - and immediately began. She wanted to get this over with as soon as possible.

Turns out that that was the toughest chore of all. Their dishwasher was busted (another fault of Father's) and the chore of washing dishes, like all the others, fell to Marilynn to do. She scrubbed the greasy pot furiously, trying to get the dried sauce stains from last night's butter chicken off.

Her arms were covered to the elbow with soapy water and already exhausted from scrubbing. The remaining pile of dishes made her groan. How was she supposed to finish those, let alone the rest of the tasks, before Father came home? Half an hour later and barely any progress was made but for another pan. The prospect seemed hopeless.

Marilynn sat down heavily. From the living room, the sound of a door opening rung. Mr. Kobalt, her father's manager, often intruded, uninvited, into the house, oftentimes when he had ingested an excess of alcohol. So she dried her hands and tentatively stepped into the open, saying, "My father isn't h - " Except it wasn't Mr. Kobalt at all. Two figures stood in the entrance, holding canvas sacks and coils of ropes.

Robbers.

Then they spotted her, and Marilynn quickly backed off. One of them grabbed her and clamped his hand over her mouth, which she bit down on, and he released her. She turned and ran but the unpadded side of the coffee table stabbed into her thigh. She pulled herself upright again, and by then, they were upon her.

The second robber, who looked to be a woman, held Marilynn's struggling torso and shut her mouth, sitting her down on the floor. She kicked the first, and when he sat down on her legs, taking a coil of rope out, she cried a muffled "Mmph!" into the woman's hand.
He cinched her ankles together under him, then tied her legs at the thighs. When the robber got off, it didn't make a difference; she couldn't move her legs to any extent. She looked up in terror at the man, who held more rope to tie her hands with.

The woman flipped her onto her front, and while the man bound Marilynn's wrists, she ripped a strip of canvas from one of their sacks. "What are you d - " she began, but she was cut off and her question answered when the woman tied it around her mouth. Marilynn groaned through the gag, and the man straddling her chuckled as he additionally coiled rope around her elbows.

He tied it off and joined the woman in stuffing her father's silverware into the sacks, as well as any other valuables they could lay their hands on.