A Long Walk Home

Chapter 2

"How's the new home, dear?" Her Grandmother poured the steaming tea into the cups.

"It's okay, I guess. I just didn't expect it to be this cold."

"Didn't I give you a quilt when you moved in?"

Jane shook her head, "The furnace broke last week. I called some guys in to fix it but they never came." The hot tea burned her throat in a burst of flames. 

A loud crash sounded nearby. From the room next, a pot fell. Followed by the sound of glass breaking, light and musical as if it were the strings of a wet violin being plucked, but brash like a block of concrete being thrown down a set of wooden stairs.

"George? George are you all right?" Virginia made her way up from her chair, a bewildered expression crossing her face.

Jane followed her Grandmother, over a fallen lamp, towards where the sound was coming from.

"Put your hands in the air!" A gruff but familiar voice called out, "Now step back."

That wasn't a pot. It was a man dressed in black head-to-toe. His hood pulled over as to obscure his face. The man's dark eyes glinted in the light as she fumbled for her phone.

"Now. We are going to do this my way. And nobody will get hurt." He waved his gun at Jane's grandfather, his quivering hands held high above his head.

"Get in the corner. All of you. Now you," The hooded man pointed at Jane. "Count to 200. Don't turn back until you finish counting. And don't say a damn word about this to anyone. Got it?" To emphasize his point, he shot once at her Grandma's antique painting on the wall and watched as it slid in smoothly, like butter on bread. The glass splintered but stayed in place. 

Jane and her grandparents slowly stepped over to the corner behind the couch, their every move followed by his gun. 

"Jane."  Virginia frantically whispered.

"Shhh."

"Jane."

" What Grandma?"  Jane snapped.

"Call the cops. Use the landline."

"I don't hear counting!" The hooded man shouted, objects crashed as he shoved them to the floor. 

"One, Two.." Jane counted, each number getting painstakingly harder as she heard him taking her grandmother's jewelry, family heirlooms, and grandpa's golden watch.

As it drew silent, Jane slowly turned around.

"...Two hundred."