"Here's your change.”

I handed the money from the cash register to the man in front of me.

“Took you long enough.”

The man grumbled as he snatched the money out of my hands. Why was he so angry? I secretly crossed my fingers and hoped that he would trip and spill his coffee. After he left a teen with a bag ran in and pointed a gun at me.

“Put all the money in the bag!”

How exciting! How should I make this play out? I never thought I would ever have to deal with this situation- although to be fair, I was working at a fucking gas station. Let's see... she was trembling- probably her first time doing something like this and if I aggravated her too much, she might actually shoot me. Let's try this then- I raised my hands up and flashed a smile with the bonus of a wink.

“What the fuck are you doing? Hurry up and put the money in the bag!”

“Wait, just wait a second!”

I gestured to a camera before continuing to speak.

“You don’t have a mask. Here, put this on.”

I slowly pulled a beanie out of my sweater and handed it to her. She stared at me with a puzzled look before slowly reaching out and grabbing the beanie and trying to use one hand to put it on. She struggled for a while before using both her hands to put the beanie on. She then realized that it was a beanie and she couldn’t see so she pulled off it off and tossed it to the floor.

“Stop fucking with me! I will shoot you!”

“Oh sorry, I didn’t know there weren’t holes. I can open this but if I give you the cash I’ll get fired, my sister is waiting for me at home and if I lose this job we will starve. Could you please come over to this side and take the cash yourself. I’m begging.”

I opened the cash register and stepped aside. She walked to the employee entrance and welcomed herself inside. She kept the gun pointed at me the whole time. I shimmied myself halfway between the entrance and register and she quickly walked past me and to the register before dropping the bag on the ground and using her now free hand to grab money and shove it in the bag. A few moments later she had grabbed all the money and started running towards the employee entrance. As she ran past me I hooked my foot around her foot and pulled, I didn’t forget to add a gentle push to her back as well.

Thud!

She slammed face forward into the ground and before she could stand back up I sat on her back and grabbed the hand holding the gun then dug my nails in. Nearly simultaneously I grabbed a handful of hair with my other hand and yanked hard. She let out a yelp before dropping the gun. I released my grip on her hand and grabbed the gun. After checking it out for a moment I realized it was a fake. I tossed it away and pulled out my pocket knife.

“I can’t believe you had the guts to try to rob me with a BB gun.”

“Let go of me you asshole!”

“Mmm, maybe later.”

She started making noises of frustration after I said that. I could kill her right now, but would that count as legitimate defense? I would definitely get in trouble if I stabbed her after pinning her down. Plus, there were more interesting ways this could play out. I was willing to bet my life that she had her phone on her right now, as for which pocket it would be in I wasn’t sure. That being the case I was left with no choice but to grope around in her pockets, I could skip the front pockets because those were practically useless. Wow, she had quite a nice build, very squishy. Maybe this could be one of those cop catches burglar type scenarios?

“Let go of me you fucker!”

“Can you relax a little? My knife might slip.”

“…”

Ah, found it. I held it up to my ear and pretended to talk to someone.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m calling the police.”

“NO! Please! Don’t!”

“I was just messing with you, what’s your phone number?"

“Fuck off!”

“I’ll just call the police then.”

"Two-one-three-three-four-eight-one-zero-six-nine!"

I called her phone and got back to the interrogation.

"your name?”

“Alisa”

“Are you lying to me?”

“No”

Didn’t matter anyways, I already had what I needed to find her.

“Hello Alisa, would you be willing to tell me why you wanted to rob this store?”

“… My mom kicked me out.”

Interesting, that meant no one would be concerned even if she was reported missing.

“Wanna come home with me?”

“What? No! let go of me you psycho!”

She then resumed her struggling. Should I just bonk her on the head and take her home? I could just go into the back and erase the footage as well; it was basically the perfect crime- aside from the fact that my family would definitely call the cops on me. Before I could come to a decision I heard police sirens approaching, a few moments later I heard the door open and someone walked in.

“This is the police! Come out with your hands up!”

I don’t recall ever calling the police, must’ve been that angry man. From behind the counter I shouted.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

“I’m over here!”

The officer walked over to the employee entrance and upon seeing me he pulled out his gun and shouted.

“Put the weapon down now!”

I slowly lowered the blade and dropped it on the floor.

“Place your hands behind your head!”

I moved my hands behind my head.

“Now turn your back to me!”

I turned my back to him and moments later I felt him grab my hands and slap handcuffs on them.

“Don’t forget the girl.”

“You worry about yourself pal.”

What an absolute ooga booga, I did all of the work of capturing a criminal and he really had the nerve to arrest me first. What was his name anyways? I glanced at his badge and quickly memorized the name. Officer Richards huh? After handcuffing me he went over to Alisa and handcuffed her before pulling her up and taking both of us to his squad car. The drive to the station was long and boring. Alisa refused to look at or speak to me. After arriving at the station we were both taken to holding cells.

“Hey, you okay over there?”

“…”

Silent treatment. I should have expected that.

“Don’t be like that, I saved you from ruining your life. Now if your parents get you a good lawyer you won't suffer too much.”

“My mom doesn’t care about me.”

She really took the bait, if you were going to give someone silent treatment at least do it properly.

“Sure, your mom hates you. She hates the child that she raised for… Sixteen? Seventeen years?”

“Don’t act like you know my life.”

“I don’t need to know. What I do know is that you still have a mom to kick you out.”

“Are- are your parents dead?”

“What made it obvious?”

“Well, I’m sorry I guess.”

I knew it. Messing with her would be easier than stealing a child with candy.

“They’re already dead. Being sad won’t make them come back, so now all I can do is be happy I still have my sister. Speaking of siblings, do you have any?”

“… I have a big sister at home.”

“And did she get kicked out too?”

“No, she’s a good daughter.”

“Oh really? What makes you such a terrible child?”

“What are you a cop?”

“Yes, I’m actually an undercover cop, that’s why I was working at the gas station for minimum wage.”

“Oh shut up.”

“Come on, tell me more. What could you have possibly done that would be so bad your mom would kick you out?”

“Well, she didn’t exactly kick me out.”

“I’m guessing your stupid ass just ran away from home?”

“…Yes.”

“And for what reason?”

“Well I slept over at a friends house without telling her and then things escalated.”

“Makes sense, Asian parents can be really strict. Mines were too before they died. But I'm also guessing there’s a little more to the story, were you falling behind in school perhaps?”

“It wasn’t that. I guess I was just a little too rebellious.”

“You dumbass. You really tried to ruin your life over a one night stand?”

Just as expected her face blushed and I could see panic sprinting across her face.

“We didn’t even do anything, I was just too lazy to go back home.”

“Why are you blushing then?”

“I’m not!”

“I know, I was just teasing you.”

“Oh… ok.”

“Hey, I’ll try to get the charges dropped. You come up with a sob story. I don’t feel like ruining a kid’s future. My only condition is that you go back to your family and make up with them. Deal?”

“… Deal… Why are you being so nice?”

“Well, it’s actually because I plan to kidnap you and getting you out of jail is the only way I can do it. Is that the kind of answer you want? No, my real reason is that it would be a shame if I never got the chance to make a girl like you mine.”

“Are you seriously trying to flirt right now?”

“Sorry, sorry, force of habit. It only happens when I see girls I like, you know?”

“…”

Ha, I played that perfectly. Now she was blushing even more. Could I seriously get all the way to home base though? We both sat in silence, me in satisfaction and her in chaos. Before long an officer came in to get our statements, me and Alisa locked eyes and I sent her a wink. As I walked away I heard an officer saying something to Alisa.

“Are you Alisa Chang?”

“Yes.”

“Your mother reported you as missing since a few days ago, as we speak she is on the way to pick you up”

“Really?”

“Yes -”

Before I could hear more I was pulled into another room and sat down for questioning. Oh perfect, the questioner was female. Before questioning me she scribbled something onto a piece of paper, glancing from my chair I read ‘Oct. 27th, 2022’… today's date. After writing she began her questioning.

“Hello, my name is Vanessa, what is your name and age?”

“I’m Vaun Lee, eighteen. Hey can we just skip to the important part?”

“Uh… Sure.”

“Well first of all, I want to drop all charges. No one was harmed, no money was taken and the gun wasn’t real. Plus she’s still a child, furthermore a lost child. I don’t want her life to be ruined because of one harmless mistake. As the only victim in this case I don’t want her to be punished.”

I immediately dropped down and started groveling, before I could kiss her shoes she grabbed me and lifted me back into the seat.

“Please, don’t do that. As long as you want to drop charges we can handle the rest.”

“Thank you for your kindness.”

I was quickly released and had my belongings returned. Now I just had to get home. What a wonderful night, I had not only gotten a little enjoyment out of it. I might have also gotten a new toy. When I got home it was almost morning. As I walked past the living room I noticed my whole family hanging from the ceiling. My father hung there with disappointment splattered over his entire being, but simultaneously he looked like he wanted to come back from the dead to slap me in the forehead. My mother and sister were naked and covered with some kind of crusty white material. Their eyes were completely empty and it looked as if their minds had died before their bodies did. They truly were dedicated to the bit.

“Ok guys you can come down now.”

They really had the gall to not respond to me. I walked up to my father and started to wind up. Then I released the most disrespectful slap I could muster on his face. He didn’t respond. Oh shit, they were really dead. Maybe lying about my parents dying had jinxed them. On a serious note, who could’ve done this? It would take almost a whole gang to do this… oh, it could’ve been a gang. Now that I thought about it I took a glance around the room and found a purple shirt. Yeah, it made sense now. I vividly recall seeing gang members wearing purple in our neighborhood. So they chose the time when I was absent to attack, what a lucky coincidence for them. It was a bit annoying that I didn’t get the chance to protect my family but too bad I guess.

No no, I was a little bit more than annoyed, maybe even a little angry. I had trained with a ridiculous amount of effort in a ridiculous amount of ways just for a moment like this. For all the action to happen while I was away kind of made me feel blue balled. It was like preparing and training your entire life for a chance to have sex only to die a virgin.

There was something that irked me though, I didn’t really care what atrocities people felt like committing. But for some reason in particular I had a great disgust towards rape, just a natural unhappiness towards it. Maybe it was because it was my weakness, I couldn’t stand the idea of being raped. It simply disturbed me, I would rather be burned to death than suffer the feeling of weakness. On the upside now that my family wasn’t alive I didn’t have much of a reason to continue working and trying to make our lives better.

Oh well, I went to the kitchen and grabbed a knife then walked back into the living room and cut my family down. I dragged them one by one into the basement and shoved them into metal barrels. Then I grabbed lime powder from the storeroom and slowly dumped it on the bodies, after feeding white powder to the corpses I transferred them all into the coldest room we had. This would slow down the decaying process, now I had to figure out what to do, both with the bodies and my life.