💰 Short Story
Billy, a charming but desperate man, walks into a downtown bank wearing sunglasses, a pressed suit, and carrying nothing but a briefcase. Without firing a shot, he robs the place with a polite smile and a handwritten note. But instead of running, Billy disappears into the seedy walls of a crumbling hotel across the street—a place full of lonely souls and whispered deals.
Inside Room 412, he hides the stolen cash beneath floorboards, posing as a reclusive businessman. But secrets don’t stay hidden long in a hotel that runs on gossip and greed. The maid, the bellboy, even the manager—everyone starts suspecting something. And as they circle him like vultures, Billy begins paying them off one by one, not with bullets, but with bribes.
But every dollar bought silence only deepens the danger. Tensions escalate, romances spark, and paranoia grows. In the end, it isn’t the cops that bring Billy down—it’s the people he tried to trust.
The real robbery wasn’t at the bank. It was the slow, quiet theft of peace, freedom, and trust—stolen by everyone around him.
