Broken Bands

   The man with the grinning comedy mask confronted Francisco. He lowered his posture. "You carry yourself pretty well. You have to know who's in charge, or you must be in charge yourself. Let's skip to the chase. We know there's a vault key or code, how about you give that to us, and we can just do this as simple as possible?"

   Francisco kept staring at his brother before glancing at the comedy-mask robber. "Did you really do this without knowing if there's a code or a key? That's bad preparation." The comedy masked robber quickly smacked Francisco across his face. Richard tensed up in his clown mask as Francisco could feel his face warming up.

   "Alright, we're going to have to stop the smart alec routine immediately," the comedy mask robber corrected. He checked the nametag on Francisco's suit jacket. "Franky..." he tilted his head. "Your name was shouted earlier. Looks like he's pretty heated up about you." The comedy mask robber held Franky by his hair, standing up and shouting at the rude Max. "Hey, is this guy in charge?"

   "Yeah! He's in charge! Franky doesn't know what he's doing! He's a dumb chea-" The comedy mask robber shook his head and waved his hand at his own neck. One of the criminal men went over to Max and struck him on the back of his neck, shutting the rude co-worker up. The comedy mask let go of Francisco's hair, letting him fall back to his knees.

   "Okay, so that was easy. You're in charge. Next question, what's the key or the vault code?" The comedic robber asked, squatting down to meet Francisco face to face. He immediately noticed Francisco hesitate with his answer. Clapping his hands, the bank robber swayed his head cordially. "C'mon, Franky. I'm a friend that just wants to make this as easy as possible. Look at my mask. Call me Happy. I'm all smiles, and I'm just not pleasant to be around if you make me unhappy."

   Francisco sighed, "I don't know it."

   Happy clapped his hands. "Okay, I knew that was the answer I was going to get." He stood up to his feet and began speaking loudly. "Alright, we're going to take your co-workers one by one to one of these offices and-"

   "I don't care," Francisco interrupted.

   "What was that?"

   "I don't care what happens to them. I'm not giving you the code. These jerks have been ridiculing me for years. If anything, they deserve this," Francisco groaned. He gulped heavily, staring the bank robber down with seriousness. He tried not to shift his eyesight or body. Franky didn't feel this way genuinely; he needed to prevent as much harm as possible. The financial advisor needed the robbers to focus on him instead of anyone else.

   "You're a coward!" Jessica yelled out, tears beginning to stream down her face. Some other co-workers started to join in the insults. Francisco calmly breathed through his nose, trying his best not to deflect his previous outburst. He didn't feel great how his co-workers started to berate him.

   "I don't believe anyone's that heartless," Happy retorted. "Alright, we're going with the plan. Grab her and take her-"

   One of the bank robbers wearing an old lady mask stepped forward. "I don't think that's a good idea. We don't know how much time we have, and it seems like these guys really hate him. We could end up beating up every one of them, and this guy doesn't squeal."

   "Well, what do you suggest then?" Happy questioned.

   "I don't know. People that work at banks are kind of assholes," the old lady masked robber shrugged. Francisco could overhear the conversation and quickly changed his glance to his brother. He blinked a few times at Richard and nudged his head toward one of the offices.

   Nodding his head quickly, Richard walked over to the two robbers arguing. "Umm, we could beat him up first? Instead?"

   Happy snapped his fingers. "That's a great idea!" He started to point at the angry dinosaur-masked man. "You-"

   "Don't make it the clown. I have coulrophobia, that's fear of clowns. Make it the dinosaur guy," Francisco abruptly spoke, noticing the bank robber point. He bit the inside of his cheeks, unsure if he said it too late for the robber to change his mind.

   The comedy masked robber stood dumbfounded. "I don't think this guy realizes he's getting robbed. He can't be making demands like that. You, beat the crap out of him. Don't come out until you get some kind of code," Happy nudged Richard on his chest. Richard simply stood still, confused about what to do. "Well, what are you standing around for?"

   Richard quickly grabbed his younger brother by the armpit and began dragging him to a nearby office. Happy's phone then started to ring. "As he's trying to do that, make sure everyone's acting right. Get as much information as you can. I'm gonna answer this real quick."

   "You're answering your phone during a bank robbery?" The old lady masked man asked with a judgmental tone.

   "Lay off, it's my kid."

   "You didn't get a babysitter or something?"

   "If I had babysitting money, I wouldn't be robbing a bank!"

   Richard dragged Francisco into a nearby office. He quickly pulled down the blinds before putting his head on the door. "What the hell are you doing!? Is this really how bad it is? You have to resort to this?!" Francisco started to shout. Richard quickly picked up his head and raised his hands.

   "Shush, why are you yelling? I'm supposed to be beating you up," Richard said in a panic.

   "These rooms are soundproof. They can't hear us. Now tell me what you are doing!?"

   "I'm... robbing a bank," Richard calmly said. "Look, this bank was picked at random, I-"

   "Random!?" Francisco shouted.

   "I don't think this room is soundproof; can you please stop yelling?"

   "Did you think this through at all? Why at my bank specifically?"

   "I didn't know you worked at this bank specifically... I'm just surprised that you knew it was me behind the mask," Richard muttered.

   Francisco stared blankly. "Dumbass! You are wearing the same crappy hoodie!"

   "I only have the one hoodie!" Richard yelled back. He put his hands up, trying to physically lower the tension in the room. "Listen, just please give me that vault code-key, whatever."

   "There is no vault code! None of us knows it. The bank supervisor who oversees the vault went on vacation. Why did you do something so stupid?"

   "No, that can't be," Richard muttered. It got quiet as both brothers caught their breath. Richard leaned back against the wall; his heavy breathing could be heard from underneath his mask. He rubbed the back of his head while pacing back and forth. His younger brother noticed how out of his depth he was in this bank robbery. Francisco could overhear his older brother rambling quietly.

   Francisco struggled to get off his feet, leveraging his body against the desk in the office. He slowly picked his body up with his hands tied behind his back. He sighed heavily while watching his older brother nervously move. "Richard, why are you doing this? Can you please take off that stupid mask and be honest with me for once?" Francisco begged.

   The clown-masked brother stopped in his tracks. He put the firearm down on the ground. Looking at his brother, he slowly took off his mask and revealed his face. Francisco hadn't seen Richard in over three weeks.

   Francisco frowned. "Did it really get that bad, Richie?" Francisco stared at a face that barely looked like it belonged to his brother's. Richard's face appeared beaten and bruised. The colors of blue and purple were mixed around his eyes. His face was swollen, his cheeks had grown larger. As a big brother, he tried to show a comforting smile, but some teeth were missing. Was Richard breathing heavily because this bank robbery was too much or because of the pain in his face? Francisco understood that this robbery was a last resort...