All These Years

Chapter 1

I wasn't always unhappy. I wasn't always mundane and dry. But after I met Jason, I was. I wasn't sure why we dated for the past two years but at the time i felt it was harder to do everything alone than stay with someone who I didn't love.

After two years of fights and disagreements, I woke up one day in the hospital and finally knew being alone was better than where this relationship had ended up.

(Three days later)

I stared at myself in the steamy bathroom mirror, proud. Even though I had a blue yellow bruise down the side of my face, I was alone. I wasn't going back to an abusive relationship ever again. I got dressed and headed to my job at First National Bank. It wasn't the best job but it paid my bills and right now that's all that mattered. Halfway there I had been called to a different location to fill in for someone who'd called in. I quickly pulled a u-turn and went to our branch across town .

At noon I went to get another cup of coffee, I closed my eyes and let the steam travel over my face and the heat roll down my throat. I was too into my coffee to notice the errie silence while walking back. It wasn't until I reached the main hallway that I heard men yelling. My bank was being robbed. I stepped into the main hall with my coffee mug at my lips and one arm raised in the air.

"HEY! Where did you come from? Get over here with the rest of your friends" a husky guy dressed in all black yelled across the tiled room.

He stalked over towards me and grabbed my arm in the air, dragging me behind him

"Careful you're spilling my coffee!" I yelled to him with my other arm stretched out to steady my mug.

"Are you kidding me?" He laughs turning to me.

This guy isn't gonna scare me, I've been through worse than this. I stand as tall as I can for a girl barely over five foot and shake my long straight hair out of my face to stare him down. His smiling face drops as soon as his eyes see my unobscured face. His hand instantly drops my arm like it's an electric wire. He takes a step back, his eyes widen and he puts his hands in the air.

"I didn't touch her, I swear, you have to tell him that I didn't touch her. Her face already looked like that!" He yelled to the others

I look around and furrow my eyebrows in confusion as four men dressed exactly the same stare at me in amazement.

"We have to leave, he's not gonna be happy. We have to scrap the job you know the rule" one of the masked men scrambling to back towards the door yells.

"Whose he? What rule? What are you talking about?" I stammer trying to figure out what is going on

"We can't touch you, you're on our no harm list. We're so sorry to ruin your day. We didn't know you worked here" the man closet to me whispers before running out the door with the rest.

Sitting in the interrogation room was only barable because of the large cup of coffee they gave me. I answered question after question trying to help the cops get to the reason the thugs aborted their mission at the sight of me, but I was no help.

"Does the name Dillenger ring a bell?" A middle aged cop calmly asked me.

My heart rate spead up while I tried to keep my face from telling the truth.

"No. It sure doesn't. Why, should it?" I lied through my teeth, and well. Years of a horrible relationship had taught me how to do that.

"That's the name of the gang that tried to rob the bank earlier, their leader, Shane Dillenger, stays behind the scenes but he's the one who gives the orders."

"The name doesn't ring a bell, I'm sorry. Am I free to go?"

"Of course, you're the victim, we cannot detain you. However if we have more questions miss Klein,we will contact you again" he told me in a challenging tone.