"Next in line!" the bank teller shouted from behind her desk. The short line I had been waiting in for ten minutes shifted forward. I was now second in line. In just a few short minutes, my wallet would be $300 richer. Making withdrawals from the bank wasn't my favorite pastime, but it had to be done. My wife and I needed more cash on hand. We couldn't use our credit cards for everything.

I glanced around the bank's lobby for the umpteenth time. A pair of security guards were standing against a wall, engaged in idle conversation. The guard on the left received a message on his pager. He issued a quick reply to his radio, bid goodbye to his partner, and strode down a side hallway. With nobody left to speak to, the remaining guard wandered over to the other side of the bank.

My gaze followed the first guard. He was simply walking down the hallway when he suddenly collapsed. A man in a black suit and a grinning clown mask was crouched over the guard's motionless body. That was suspicious. The man seemed to be speaking to the guard's pager. That was extremely suspicious.

The man suddenly looked right at me. He must have realized I was watching him, as he quickly stuffed the body into a duffel bag and carried it out of sight. Now that he was gone, I began to wonder if he had even been real at all. I became increasingly doubtful of his existence with each passing second. After careful deliberation, I decided that he must have been a mirage.

I returned my attention to the front desk, where the man in front of me had just finished his business. The teller beckoned to me. "Good morning, sir, and how may I help you?" she asked with a genuine smile.

"Hi," I replied, "I would like to make a withdrawal."

She nodded. "All right. First of all, we'll have to-"

"Get down!" someone shouted from the left. The teller squeaked and immediately dropped to the ground. The man in the clown mask appeared behind the desk. So he wasn't a mirage! He ignored me and pointed a pistol at the other teller, demanding that he drop to the ground as well.

I released a yelp of surprise. My scream seemed to ripple through the bank's lobby, alerting the other patrons to the trouble. Soon enough, everybody in the bank was just as frightened as I was. They all seemed to know exactly what was going on despite the fact that half of them hadn't seen anything.

Three other men in suits and clown masks came crashing through one of the bank's large windows. They pointed massive guns at us and shouted "Get down on the ground!" Most of the people suddenly lay down on the floor for some reason. I was too scared to move.

One of the men walked right up to me and stuck his gun in my face. "Down!" he screamed. I was more frightened than I had ever been in my life. He clearly wanted something from me, but I had no idea what. He shouted at me again. "Get down!" I covered my face with my hands in fear. This was terrifying. Maybe if I ignored him, he would just go away.

Two of the others ran over to me. "On the floor!" they shouted. At long last, their demands made sense. They should have said that in the beginning. I dropped to the floor without a second thought and curled into the fetal position.

The men quickly split up and began to bind my fellow hostages' hands with cable ties. "We're all out," one of them announced after a few moments.

"What about this guy?" another one asked as he nudged me with his foot. "He's the only one left."

"Just leave him," the first one said. He pointed his gun at me and reminded me to "Stay down!" He then led the other three men to the back of the bank, presumably to the massive vault that waited there.

I smiled to myself. Those robbers made a terrible mistake. I withdrew my cell phone from my pocket and dialed 911. It was time to be a hero. The operator picked up immediately. "911, what is your emergency?" he asked.

"There are four guys here," I said in a hushed voice. "They-"

One of the men sprinted back into the lobby and thrust his gun into my face. I dropped my phone and whimpered in fear. The man ended the call and gruffly repeated, "Stay down!" I obediently returned to the fetal position, quivering uncontrollably.

Every passing moment seemed like an hour. After what felt like ages, I started to hear a whirring sound. It sounded like the robbers were using some sort of giant drill. Whatever it was, it made me even more afraid. The only logical course of action was for me to hop to my feet. I made sure to cover my head with my hands for protection in case anything bad or scary happened.

One of the robbers strode back into the lobby. He dashed over to me the instant he saw me standing up. "Eat the dirt, deuce!" he demanded. That was when I realized that all I could do was run. If I could just make it through the front door, someone might see me and call for help.

I let loose a terrified shriek and made my way toward the entrance. The robber was close behind me. He again shouted at me to lay down on the ground. For some reason, his shout was much more intimidating this time. All of my resolve instantly drained from my body. I stopped short and curled up on the ground again, inches from the front door.

A tall shadow loomed over me. I peered up into the empty eyes of the robber's grinning clown mask. He drew a pistol and pointed it at me. "I've had enough," he said.

Before he could pull the trigger, a loud alarm began to blare throughout the bank. The robber looked around in confusion. One of his accomplices dashed up to him. "Some civilian saw the tip of my gun from across the street. He called the cops before we could stop him."

I could hear the wail of police sirens rapidly growing closer. The man who had been ready to shoot me swore and pulled a shotgun from who-knows-where. "Time to go hot, huh?"

"You know it," the other thief replied.

Fantastic! The police were going to apprehend the thieves and set all of us free! It was a dream come true. It only took a few more seconds for the first SWAT units arrived on the scene. The robbers were forced to take a few steps back as the helmeted cops advanced on the bank. It was now or never. I stood up and was about to make a run for it when four bullets smacked into my back.

I screamed in agony and collapsed. All of my internal systems began to shut down almost immediately. Those monsters! I didn't do anything to deserve this! After complying with their every demand, they just decided to shoot me for no good reason!

One of the robbers shouted, "Oh, come on! $17,000 in cleaning costs?" The last thing I heard before blacking out for eternity was, "You can't be serious, Bain!"

Authors Note: It's best if you don't question how the civilian is narrating this story if he's dead.