"Let’s do it." Jon ordered his brother Dan.
"Alright!" Dan barked back.
Jon jumped out of the car. The brothers were both tall, lean, clean, young, white men wearing blond beards and wigs as disguises and nice suits. Jon guided his gorgeous girlfriend, Kathy, into the store around the corner. The gargantuan guard inside gazed lustfully at Kathy as she shook out her long dark haired wig and batted her big brown eyes while revealing a lot of leg and cleavage in her thigh high dress that plunged low between her big, beautiful breasts. The guard buzzed them in. Only a few folks were scattered inside.
Jon was a thug and he slugged the guard's mug with a club of his gun butt. That sledge to the head bowled the big man over dazed. Jon leaned over to lay another lick, nailing the guard's noggin. That conk to the cranium cuffed the guard unconscious. Jon grabbed the guard's gun.
"Everyone face down on the floor!" Jon yelled pointing both pistols at people. The panicked patrons went prone under his bristling barrels. "You!" Jon gestured his gun at the elderly owner." Open the safe!”
The tall, white-haired, thin, elderly owner nodded agreeably and went to the back wall safe.
“No!” Jon yelled. “Not that fake safe! I want what’s in the back vault!”
The owner looked surprised.
“That’s right! We know about the back vault! We want what’s in there! “Jon demanded.
“Are you sure that’s what you want, young man?” the owner asked almost casually.
“Yes! Now!” Jon stepped closer ready to hurt the elderly owner.
“Okay,” the owner agreed and shuffled toward the back wall with Jon near him.
The owner moved around some books on a shelf there and abruptly part of the wall slid aside to reveal a big vault door. The owner entered a combination and the vault door swung open.
Jon boldly stepped into the vault. The small room had dark shelves jammed with stacks of cash. Jon laughed in sudden joy as he realized the tips he’d gotten were correct. He was about to become filthy rich.
“It’s all here Dan!” Jon called out to his brother. “Keep everyone covered while I pack it up!”
Jon pulled out a stack of rolled up long nylon stacks to start stuffing the money in.
Abruptly everything around Jon changed.
The vault full of money phased into another dimension. He was standing in a place that glowed with hellish orange light and the store owner had transformed from a mild mannered old man into a towering dark scaled demon with huge horns and massive claws and maw full of titanic teeth that were now grinning at Jon. The demon flapped its dark wings and stepped towards him.
Jon’s pistol fulminated and flamed, firing a fusillade that drilled the demon, battering its body and hammering its head. The demon laughed in an otherworldly rumbling tone and grabbed the gun effortlessly from Jon. Jon backed off in terrified disbelief.
Dan screamed in anguish.
Jon looked over and saw that the vault had expanded into the other room and the people were no longer people. They had also transformed into demons and Dan was now being held by two demons that were laughing at his pitiful struggles.
“You wanted what’s in the vault,” the owner demon reminded him in its guttural voice. “What’s in the vault is eternal damnation. We’re going to take our time pulling you and your brother and girlfriend apart. Then once your bodies die, your souls will remain trapped here for our eternal entertainment. Just like countless evil people before you that came here thinking to rob an old man.” The demon gestured pointing behind Jon.
Jon turned and saw that the vault had expanded further and there were dozens of glowing human souls that were being held by some kind of glimmering astral chains. The shimmering human souls looked dully at Jon.
“When a soul is fresh its best,” the demon growled. “After a while of torture the soul loses its luster. Thank you for becoming our new treasures in our vault.”
Jon screamed as the demon seized him.
The End
Bio:
Tom Kropp’s work has appeared in The Horror Zine, Chiron Review, Churches, Children and Daddies, Down in the Dirt, Freedom Fiction Journal, Short-Story Me, Dark Harbor, Blood Moon Rising, Flash Phantoms, Wicked Shadow Press, You Phantomaniacs Anthology, The Listening Eye, J Journal, Evening Street Review, Conceit, Spotlight on Recovery, Muscle and Fitness, Outdoor Life and many other magazines. His play Jailhouse Confessions was performed at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC in 2019. You can find more of his writings at https://tomkropp.wordpress.com.