He looked at her from behind the mask, his eyes filled with tears, and nodded.  “And I told you,” he muttered as he regained his feet.  “Call me Master.  Christ is just a little too formal.”

Karen tried to keep from laughing by attempting to sound offended.  “You’re impossible!” she sputtered, and then waddled off to sit again. “Care to tell me what just happened to you over there?” she asked after a small silence.

Colton shook his head.  “Nope, I don’t care to.  That would be like me asking what position you were doing when you got knocked up.  None of my business, right?”  Karen’s face was the reddest he had ever seen a woman’s get.  She watched as he looked around the room.  “You have a computer with a word processing program on it in here?”

“Of course we do,” she replied.  “Every computer in here has that capability.  Why?”

He ignored her question and pointed at the nearest one with the shotgun.  “Get one started for me.”

“A please would be helpful,” she huffed as she waddled to the closest machine.

“So would no more fucking back talk,” he retorted.

Once the program was running, Colton took another chair and put it right next to the desk he would be at.  After instructing Karen to sit in it, he retrieved a roll of duct tape and a paper bag from one of the bags and taped her to it around her mid-section.

“While I’m doing what I’m doing, you are going to count this for me.”  He then dumped the contents of the paper bag in front of her.  When she saw all the money that spilled out, her eyes went wide.

“What’s all this from, your last bank job?”  Her voice had a venomous edge to it.  Colton simply chuckled.

“Uh, no.  If you must now, it’s my own personal savings.”  Karen shook her head and said nothing.

“You do realize that there is more here than what we just took out of the teller’s drawers, right?”  Colton nodded as he typed, although not looking at her.  “So why the hell do you need to rob a bank?”  The exasperation in her voice was very clear.  Before he could answer, however, Colton once again screamed and sank down to the floor.

She watched him writhe around, clutching his head and crying like a baby.  This attack, or whatever it was, lasted a lot longer than the last.

When he was able, Colton shakily got to his feet and made it back into the chair.  His breathing was labored, but after a few minutes, he began to calm down once more.

“Are you married, Karen?” he asked, after a long pause to type.  Karen looked up from her counting and shook her head.  When she realized he wasn’t looking at her, she replied, “No.”

Colton shook his head.  “You are a gorgeous woman!  Why aren’t you married?  Are you engaged?” he asked, finally looking at her.  Sadly, she again shook her head.  “So suffice it to say, the man who got you pregnant is not taking responsibility for the kid, right?”

“It’s a long story,” Karen replied, the hurt and shame she felt was obvious in her voice.  Colton chuckled a little.

“Tell you what.  When we are done here, I’ll give you a little Christmas present.  Give me the asshole’s name and address, and I’ll make sure he never gets another woman pregnant again, ok?”

Karen sighed and went back to counting.  “I appreciate the offer, but no thanks.  I’m hoping he will change his mind.”  Colton stopped typing and looked at her.

“What the hell for?  If he’s not man enough to take responsibility now, what makes you think you can talk him into it?  Besides,” he continued, not giving her a chance to reply.  “If he’s afraid to commit now, what makes you think he’d make a good father and husband?”

Karen threw down the stack of bills she was counting.  “Not that it’s any of your fucking business,” she replied hotly, “but for your information, before I got this way, we were very much in love!”

Colton snorted, the sound very unpleasant.  “Yeah,” he chuckled. “’I love you!  I love you! I’m pregnant! I gotta go!’  That’s true love right there.”  He looked as if he were about to say something else, but once again screamed and collapsed to the floor.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” Karen asked her voice betraying that she was on the verge of tears.

“Nothing,” he panted as he got back into the chair.  Then he smiled wickedly.  “Let’s just say the voices in my head are telling me to strip you naked, lick your pussy and fuck you in the ass, and I’m resisting them, ok?”

His reply started Karen crying, which made him feel bad in return.  “Hey…Hey I’m sorry, ok?  I have no control over what these voices say, or what they make me do.”  When he received no reply, he went back to typing.  When he was finished, he sent what he had written to the printer, and looked at Karen. “You done counting?”  She nodded sullenly, not saying a word.  “How much is there?”

Karen gave him a small shrug.  “Around seventy-eight thousand dollars,” she replied, still not believing it herself.

“Good.  It’s yours.  Well, it’s more for your baby than you.”

“Mine?”

Colton nodded.  “Yes.  As a matter of fact, I want you to set up a personal account for yourself right now.”

She looked at him as if her were crazy, so he pointed to his head.  “The voices.  That’s what they are telling me to do.  If I don’t listen, they make me hurt.”

He then stood, not giving her time to argue, and wheeled her over in front of the computer he was just using.  He watched her to make sure she was doing what she was told.  As soon as he was reasonably sure she was, he took the papers that he had printed out and folded them neatly.  “I need two envelopes,” he said flatly.

When the phone rang, it made them both jump out of their skins.  They both comically looked at the phone and then at each other.

“You’re gonna answer it, he instructed, his voice amazingly calm.  “Just like you would on any other business day, understand?”  Karen nodded dumbly, though tears were once again rolling down her pretty face.  “Put it on speaker phone, so I can hear it too.”  He was whispering right in her ear, his body pressed to hers.  She almost asked him why he was whispering, but thought better of it.

“Merry Christmas,” she managed, trying to sound as cheerful as possible. “Main Street National Bank, this is Karen speaking, how may I help you?”

“Merry Christmas, Darling!” came the cheerful reply on the other end.  Karen sighed, although if it was from relief or frustration, Colton never knew.

“Hi mom!  Merry Christmas to you and dad.”  Hearing her mother’s voice suddenly made her want to cry.  She had no idea if she would ever see her or the rest of her family again,

“What’s wrong, dear?  You sound upset?”  Karen looked at Colton who was shaking his head and holding a finger to his mouth.

“Oh, it’s nothing, mom.  You know how your hormones rage when you’re pregnant.”

The voice on the other end chuckled softly.  “God, don’t I know it!  I went through five kids, you know.”

“I know, ma.  I was one of them, remember?”  The woman on the other end chuckled. 

“I know you’re busy with your party and all.  I just called to make sure you were still coming over tonight after work?”

This time Karen did cry.  She honestly didn’t know!  “I think so ma, but I’m really tired, you know?  If I do come by, I might have to leave soon after.”

The woman on the other end made an indelicate sound.  “Oh hogwash! You know you can stay the night here!  We all understand!”

Colton made a motion with his hand that told her to finish the call, to which Karen nodded.

“Ok ma, thank you.  I don’t want to be a burden.”

Think nothing of it, sweetie!  And be careful!  It’s snowing like crazy out there!”

“I will ma.  I love you!”

“We love you too, honey!”

“Bye.  See you tonight.”

“Ok, buhbye.”

As soon as she hung up, Colton breathed a sigh of relief.  “That was close,” he muttered, then started to rub Karen’s shoulders.

“You did real good.  That hormone thing was a stroke of genius.”  Karen simply shook her head. 

“More truth than I’d like to admit,” she answered.  Just as Colton looked like he was going to reply, he once again crumpled to the floor. Even though he still wore the ski mask, she could tell his face was contorted with agony.  When it seemed the attack was over and he was regaining his feet, Karen looked at him rather thoughtfully.  “Can I ask you something?”

Colton looked at her, the tears still in his eyes, and nodded.  “I have to warn you though.” he replied,  “I have an old saying I live by.”  Karen cocked an eyebrow expectantly, but said nothing.  “Never ask a question you are afraid to hear the answer to.”

Karen thought about it a moment, then nodded.  “Good motto,” she replied, and then stated, “I have to pee.”

Colton smirked.  “That’s not a question, that’s a statement.  Or is that your way of asking me if you can go to the bathroom?”

Karen sighed and shook her head.  “I’ll ask you the question while we are on the way to the bathroom.” She stated simply.

Colton quickly cut the tape from her and helped her to her feet.  Once he realized what he had done, he seemed to mentally chastise himself for it.  

“Thank you,” she said, sounding a bit uneasy.

“What’s the question?” he asked, trying to change the subject.  And the truth was, his actions just then had surprised her to the point of forgetting to ask.

“Oh, right!  The question.”  She looked as though she was trying to figure out the proper way to word it.

“You have all the money you can possibly get from here.  The vault can’t be opened, so what are you waiting for?”  Colton stopped dead in his tracks, as if it just dawned on him that he could have been far away from there by now.  Before he could reply, Karen gave him a slight smirk as she walked into the small bathroom.  She didn’t even try to attempt to close the door for privacy.  “You know, the longer you hang around, the less your chances of survival.”

“Actually,” he retorted as he leaned against the doorjamb.  “I was hanging around to see if any of your co-workers would have called the cops.”

The toilet flushed, and a moment later Karen emerged looking very relieved.

“What you fail to realize,” she began as she washed her hands.  “is that the men on the police force are all war veterans and top marksman.”