Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ One of Those Days ❯ pt. 4: The Bank ( Chapter 4 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Disclaimer: This time, I'm adding a few people I know, having asked them their permission. Ikiri is teh_ikiri, Jeff is StrangerCoug, Pat is A_Wolf, Dakota is ARM, Moses is hanksamson, and John is lordcanti493.

Now that the rest of his day was free, he had no idea of what to do. He didn't feel like dropping by home. No, today was too special for that. Wandering the streets of town? Most likely. Besides, if he was stuck at home, it'd only be his mother, and maybe a few neighbors, in harm's way. Cruising through town would present more possibilities. As the crisp autumn wind blew through his hair, he headed for the bustling traffic of the main city.

So many options, so many places to go. So many people to die.
The feeling had not let up, even after leaving the school grounds. After thinking of all the possible places for something to go wrong, he figured, "Why bother picking? I'll just go wherever the hell I go, and that'll be that." So, a mindless amble it was.

The first place that he came across was the bank. He didn't feel like going in, but then he looked at his wallet. Nothing. If he was going to be wandering around town, he was sure to buy something, but he'd need money first. Needs come first, so he entered the bank anyway. Of course, there was a crowd of people. More unwanted attention. He got behind the last person of the shortest line, hoping to get in and out. When he did get to the counter, the teller looked at him funny as he filled out the withdrawal slip. Finally working up a nerve, she asked, "Aren't you supposed to be in school?" He didn't answer until he finished the withdrawal slip. "No, they just let out. Something about some 'accidents'..." She didn't want to pursue it any further.

As he received his money, right as he was taking it from her, the feeling spiked again. Perhaps it wasn't such a bad idea after all to have gone to the bank. He almost chuckled, expecting the cliched man-in-mask bank robbery. Although, he didn't see anyone that would have posed that kind of threat. "Hm... maybe it's over-reacting?" Shrugging, he left for the door. As the inner automatic door opened, the floor began to rumble. The people in the bank looked around, left, right, left again, trying to figure out what was going on. The door began to shut, and then it happened. An explosion came from back behind the tellers, engulfing them, and then out to the people in que to get the money they'd never receive. He flinched, because of the force of the explosion, but the glass door was the only thing protecting him.

As soon as it had happened, it was over. Every teller either on the floor, or keeled over the counter, singed black. Some of them still had hair on fire, what was left of it. Those closest to the counters were burned like the tellers. Those behind them were thrown into the wall. One was thrown against the door. He couldn't tell a gender, for the face had been blackened and hair was gone. Their face crushed against the glass, eyes wide, staring at nothing, and slowly, the body was sliding down, crumpling to the floor. Through the door, he also saw one or two survivors, bloody, twisted body parts, they wouldn't make it for the ambulance, they were done for. Without any hesitation, he casually exited the outer automatic door. The emergency power kill had activated, so he had to push it himself.

A group of some kids, about his age, were outside when it happened. They were like him, joyless, brooding, and excited by the dramatic deaths within the bank. Not only were they impressed that he walked out alive, but they were jealous that he got to see all that happened. There were six of them, five guys and one girl. The girl seemed to be the ring-leader for the group. They all wore different shades of dark clothing. One of them carried a fox plushie like it was a pet of some sort, and the girl had tattoos drawn on her arm with what looked like Sharpie.

After the dazzle of the explosion let go of their attention, they each turned to him. The leader, the girl, said, "Let's ditch to the mall before the pigs get here, asking a bunch of questions." He had nothing better to do, so he decided he might as well.

The police arrived to the school, knowing about some situations that had happened today, but wanting to know more and to talk to the Dean. Two squad cars had pulled up in the main drive of the school, and four officers quickly got out. After being let in, they went straight for the office.

When they met with the Dean, they began their talk. First the Dean reported on all of the deaths of that day, being the reason for closing school. Then he got to the subject of his real intention to talk to them. "There's a student here, and he was present, mostly, at the deaths. The only one was third hour. He left for the office just before the teacher cut off his hand and died of blood loss." The police listened intently, but then there was an interruption by their walkie-talkies. Each of them reported, "All officers, we have an explosion, at the All-town Century Bank, on 82nd. I repeat, an explosion at All-town Century Bank, 82nd street." The two police from the second squad agreed to go, leaving the first squad to talk to the Dean.

The Dean held up his picture, the student present at the deaths. "Perhaps, you should check at that bank to see if he's on any of the cameras. I have a good feeling he was." One of the policeman asked, "Just what are you implying about this kid? He just seems like one of the average do-nothing teens these days. How can he be related to this?" The Dean couldn't answer right away. He had to plan his words out perfectly. "I think he's behind all of it. All of these deaths, he's been present at. Maybe he's tampering with the things that go wrong. First hour, the gas nozzle in the Chemistry lab shouldn't have been able to be a flamethrower. Second hour, the projector screen was jammed and fell off the wall. He's DOING something. I can feel it."

The cops looked between each other, communicating with their eyes. "We'll keep an eye out for this kid," said one, doubtfully, "but maybe the stress of today is getting to you. You should take it easy, go home, just relax. Ok?" The Dean knew he was being called crazy, but he didn't want to lash out and pretty much prove it. "Ok, I'll do that." He lied. He then gave them the student's picture. "Thank you for calling us, sir. We're sorry for the losses." said the policeman before they left the office, and the school, to investigate the bank explosion.

The group of seven sat at two of the tables of the food court, at the mall. No one had seen them leave the bank, so no one followed them. He sat amidst the other six, the five guys asking a myriad of questions like "What was it like?" "Were you scared? Of course not.... Were you?" "Did you do it?" "Why'd you go to the bank?" and other questions like that. The only ones silent were him and the girl. She merely sat there staring at him, surveying him, seeing if he really was worth their time.

Finally, the girl held up a hand, silencing the guys. Then in a swift motion, she brought her hand down to shake his hand. "I'm Ikiri. I've been deciding whether or not to let you hang with us. It's not like we just let anyone in." "That's right!" piped up one of the guys, but it was met with a swift smack from Ikiri. "Ikiri, huh?" he asked, "Why Ikiri? Is that your real name?" She replied, "No, I thought it sounded cool."

She went around the group introducing the others: Dakota, Pat, Moses, John, and Jeff. After they were all introduced, Moses asked, "So, what's your name, now that you know all of ours?" He closed his eyes and laid back, saying, "It doesn't matter." Moses quickly protested, "But, wh...." His eyes flashed wide open, "IT.... DOESN'T.... MATTER." Moses almost fell backward in his seat, but Pat, cradling the fox plushie in one arm, held his chair.

"Mysterious and aggressive, I like." said Ikiri. "But I am curious, how did that happen with the bank? Did you know it was going to happen?" He sat back in his chair for awhile, thinking. He figured that they were the least likely people to think him crazy, so he felt it was no harm in telling them. "Well, there's this feeling, that's all I can explain it as, and every time someone's about to die, I feel it. The more people, the stronger. When I was in the bank, getting my money, I felt it surge. I figured it was gonna be some robber hold-up deal, but I like what resulted more." He laughed, but so did Moses. He shot a glance at him, and he stopped right away. The cease-laughter was followed by another slap from Ikiri.

Rubbing his head, Moses said, "Why do you do that?" She replied, "Because I can. And you're annoying." Moses seemed not to notice the insult, taking it more like a compliment as well as encouragement. The conversation went back to him. Jeff spoke up this time, "How long have you had this feeling?" He considered which aspect of 'How long' Jeff meant, so he told him both, "Well, it's been going all day. Even now, it's still going, it's just ebbed a bit. And I first felt it when I was about 6... some drunk guy crashed into my house and died. He almost hit me in the process." This made the group feel a bit awed.

Then Dakota wanted to ask something, "So, when you feel it, people around you die? Does this mean that we're probably gonna die?" He had to think about this one too, "Yeah, probably." At this point, he figured a dark gloom would have settled over them, and they'd all run away, but they didn't. The first to speak up was Pat, "I'm with ya all the way, dude. I don't care if I die. At least I'll be able to see some epic deaths before I do. They all agreed.

As they all started to get up out of their seats, he asked, "Where to now?" Ikiri answered, "The arcade."

By the time the two officers that had been at the school got to the bank, it was swarming with activity. There were at least ten ambulances. A video system had been set up by a van close by, viewing the security tape, which had been collected and unscathed. The officer with the picture headed for it without thinking.

As the security tape rolled, it showed the few minutes before the explosion. To the officer's surprise, there was the kid in the picture the Dean had given him. What he saw next, he wasn't expecting. As he watched the kid leaving, right as the door finished closing, the explosion came, throwing bodies against the walls, as well as incinerating them. Many of the police flinched. There was only one or two seconds of film before a whip-lash of fire destroyed the camera, showing static for the rest of the tape.