SCRILLA

GOOD ROBBERY GONE BAD

Chapter 4:Good Robbery Gone Bad

Imani sat with her arms folded across her chest. She ignored Shife's demand for her to hand over the cash out of the restaurant's safe. She glanced over at Ox and the tears swelling in her eyes turned to a burning rage. Helplessly bound by duct tape with an aura of defeat written on his swollen face, his attempt to free himself proved futile. Ox squirmed in the chair and fought feverishly to loosen the grip of the contraption to no avail.

"I'm not giving y'all weak ass cowards shit! Some kind of gangsters y'all are hiding behind those masks robbing folks in your own community." Imani did her best to maintain her composure. She did not want to give the robbers the satisfaction of watching her unravel under pressure.

"Bitch, who the fuck you think you're talking to? This ain't no fucking democracy! You best take your uppity Black ass in there and open up that damn safe!" yelled Ant. He grabbed a handful of her hair. Ant manhandled the beauty rough as if she were a man.

He dragged Imani towards the back of the restaurant near the inventory room where the safe was hidden.

"Take your filthy, hands off me!" Imani demanded. She jerked her hair away from Ant's grip. With blind rage, she began scratching and clawing at his face, chest and arms. Ant backed away in surprise. His black t¬shirt was ripped completely off his slender, well¬built frame.

"Punk ass, Bitch! I'm about to murk your uppity ass!" Ant cocked his weapon and nailed Imani straight on her chin with a fierce right punch. The impact from the blow dazed her. Her knees buckled as she fell to the floor.

"Ant...no!" Shife cautioned. Before Shife had a chance to stop him, Ant leveled his arm and pulled the trigger.

BOOM!

Shife watched in utter disbelief as the scene unfolded. "What the fuck man? We said no bodies" Shife shouted.

The blast from the gunshot startled Blue. Unbeknownst to Ox or Imani, he had fallen asleep in the back office after smoking a spliff of ganja. Frightened yet curious, Blue crept to the door and cracked it open hoping to get a clearer picture of what was unfolding outside of the cramped office space. He noticed a masked man standing over Imani with a smoking gun as she lay motionless on the floor. Wide eye in fear, he ease the door shut and hemmed himself inside the office.

Blue was a certified coward. He was the type of person you did not even take to a water balloon fight. Blue would talk a good game up until it was time to show and prove. He possessed not a single ounce of gangster in his entire body. Rather than compose a game plan to help Imani in her time of weakness, he simply closed the office door and stuffed his slight body into the space under the small desk. The fear of death engulfed his entire being. He dared not contact the police. There was an active warrant for his arrest for failure to pay child support. Blue pulled out his cell phone and dialed Papa Lou's number instead.

The phone rang twice before Papa Lou answered. "Yeah man, what you want now, Blue?" Papa Lou asked in a sleepy tone.

"The restaurant is being robbed," Blue whispered not wanting to alert the gunmen of his presence.

"Speak up Blue, man. Me can't hear anything you say," Papa Lou was now sitting on side of the bed trying to understand the reason for Blue's phone call and weird behavior.

"There are masked robbers in the restaurant and they got Imani!" Blue whimpered as he was overcome with fear.

"What you tell me now, man?" Papa Lou asked as he dropped the phone. He lurched from the bed and rushed to the closet. Mama Bee was now on high alert. Her motherly intuition told her that something was gravely wrong.