Penté/Chap1

 THE DOORBELL  "Come on you big old chicken!" hollered a fair-haired boy, standing in front of the Varrock East Bank's back entrance.

"I'm not going in with you, James," said another boy, slightly taller and with brown hair.

"Awww... little Matty's too chicken! Bwuk bwuk bwuk!" replied the first boy, apparently named James, "And besides, it's dead midnight! There are only two bankers in there; we can take them, Matty." James smirked evilly. He knew the other boy hated that nickname.

"My name is Matthias Whitmell, and I am not chicken!" the second boy, Matthias, grabbed James and threw him on the ground. Brandishing a menacing-looking knife at James he said, "At any moment I could kill you."

"Be my guest."

"Never," Matthias picked up James by the collar, "now stand up, and let's continue with your plan."

"I knew you'd see it my way eventually, Matty," there was fear in his voice, and Matthias could sense it.

Following James to smoke vent just above the fence, Matthias barred his teeth as he clutched his mother's kitchen knife in his hand. "Lift me up. You're taller." Matthias cupped his hands so that James would have a foothold. He climbed into the smoke vent, and then pulled Matthias up. "Here, wear this. You'l suffocate if you don't," James said as he handed a piece of silk over to him.

"Thanks."

"I couldn't do this without you, Matt," said James, noticeably dropping the -y. That was a certain turn of the cheek; two minutes ago he had bullied Matthias like a lower schooler! The sharp smell of smoke was all around, and Matthias went into a milky-eyed trance.

I, Matthias, woke in a black-and-white wonderworld, like in one of those old movies. It wasn't anything like that though. I was being dragged off into the distance with blood on my hands, and James running, chased by guards in those funny looking suits. "You're going to Greater Halin, my friend," chuckled the guard directly behind me. Then everything went fuzzy, and tunnel vision occurred. I was thrust back into the real world.

"Matt? Matt? Can you hear me?" I heard James shouting as I slowly awoke.

"Yeah..."

"I think you suffocated on all of the smoke."

"Where are we?"

"The bank back entrance."

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go and rob that bank!"

"Yes, let's." The duo held their breath as they quickly went though the vent system again, and came to the heating furnace. "Now what? Those flames are burning hot!" exclaimed Matthias, holding his nose to resist the smell.

"Indeed."

"What do you mean 'indeed'? If we don't get out of this vent system soon, I'll get affixiated again and we'll have to start all over!"

"Hmm. If only I had a bellows..."

"ARE YOU INSANE? If you bellowed that fire, it would only burn hotter!"

Two bankers, one with red hair and being 41 years old, were behind the teller windows. The one with red hair raised his brow when he heard muffled voices.

-- are you -- if -- bellowed -- burn -- hot --

"Hey, Theo, you hear voices?" asked the banker to his fellow banker.

"Nope, Dancus, it's probably just the rats."

"Ok..."

"No no, I was thinking we could bellow the coals from the middle to make a safe way out," said James, as we return to their conversation. He pointed to the heaters open flue and gate. Not that safe. Then again, they're in a smoke vent.

"That might work..."

"But we don't have a bellows," they said in unison.

"Look, let's just jump, and hope for the best!" said Matthias, "I'll help you out once I am down."

"Ok..."

"Fandango!" hollered Matthias as he jumped into the furnace. He slid down a region of relatively cool cinders and landed on the floor of the bank basement. There was one problem; his pants were on fire. Running like a drunk lemming, he smashed into walls and screamed.

"Noisy rats," said the red haired banker.