the faint of heart

the bank manager came out from the back of the office
when s/he heard a loud noise & screaming coming from
the front of the bank &
s/he found her/himself walking straight into a robbery that was already in
progress---
looking down at her/his feet, while stopped in her/his tracks (deer in headlights),
s/he saw the body of a teller that s/he’d known for some years
twitching in those last throes of life &
as it left her wide open eyes, flickering away,
the bank manager’s heart seemed to stop right in her/his chest
as the robbers continued to pull triggers on others who wouldn’t seem to be
quiet
(as they had been instructed to be).

while the button to alert the authorities was only a few steps away
the whole scenario made the journey impossible for the bank manager who only moments ago sprung from their chair in the back office,
to see what all the commotion was about &
when they looked up from the body of the teller
who’d just been freshly killed,
a robber bearing a fully automatic of some kind
made eye contact with this terrified creature---
“get on the fucking floor like the rest of them!”
he yelled at her/him,
wanting her/him to lay down on the floor face down,
as the rest of those still alive in the bank had done,
but it was like yelling at a brick wall, for the words just didn’t seem to make any
connection &
in the heat of the moment,
rather than spend any time thinking it over,
the robber turned to fully face the frozen person &
unloaded a few rounds in their neck, head & chest.