Auras – Signs – Sweet – Spelt – Smelt
Sometimes, being psychic was more work than it seemed to be worth to Mackenzie, who sat handcuffed on the floor like the rest of the hostages. The auras of the bank robbers ranged from bright cherry red to a dark persimmon orange. The one who seemed to be in charge glowed crimson, desperation, agitation, and impatience as two accomplices filled bags with cash from the safe. A well executed plan, so far at least.
Mack tuned into the thoughts of the hostages. None of them were the hero type, even the security guard, who had planned to resign later today. A few other people were more-so jealous of the robbers than anything, their auras were sea-foam green mostly. The accomplices were employees. Subduing the bank manager wasn’t difficult for them, he was now the only one unconscious. No aura.
This was the situation all signs pointed to happening as Mack walked into the bank on a Monday morning. All they had to do was turn around, forget about the assignment, but their powers were part of the job whether they liked it or not.
“Hey, maybe toss a few bundles to us, we don’t want any trouble!” shouted Mack, trying to suppress a laugh. The other hostages glared in embarrassment.
Standing up, unlocking the handcuffs, and walking up to the red one, Mackenzie carefully adjusted the ambience of time and spoke mind to mind.
“Impressive inside job, but you wouldn’t have pulled it off without my help, filling their heads with sweet little lies.”
“Who are you?”
“I’m not important, what’s important is that my boss is impressed, your 14th inside job. Not sure how you did the first 13…”
“Your boss? And who is that?” yelled the leader, who was calmed slightly by this new information.
“One does not speak the Master’s name. It’s enough that you have their interest. Take the cash, our car is waiting for you outside.”
The three bank robbers exchanged looks of shock and curiosity. If Mack wanted, their minds could be altered, but the choice was to be given freely as ordered. The stretch limousine had sugar-free banana bread with spelt flour and walnuts waiting for them that they ate as the car drove away from the city into the deep woods. The leader of the gang was named Lucky. The other two’s names didn’t matter, they got their cut and dropped off by the side of the road.
The destination for Mackenzie and Lucky was an abandoned mineral research facility. In the basement, where a massive blast furnace was prepared to smelt the gold collected from all the robberies, they met the Master.
“You have brought me the lucky one, well done, his powers will be useful, your job is complete.”
This meant one thing as far as Mack was concerned, the end of a story that was worth 473 words not including the numbers.
This is part of a collection of short stories inspired by my guesses on Wordle.
