[ WP ] Since childhood you have been able to make your nose bleed at will . Today , your weird ability comes into much needed use .

It started as a normal day at the bank. I was dropping off a check from my accounting job and I was in line behind a big guy who I'd struck up a conversation about the wildly fluctuating weather with. I'd just mentioned the crazy wind and how things had taken a turn for the worse when a couple people in balaclavas and big winter coats came in. `` See, case in point. In a couple days, they'll be putting those away and wearing t-shirts again.'' 
 
 In terms of last words before the shit hit the fan, those are pretty stupid-sounding. 
 
 The guns came out then, shiny metal with murderous intent. Suddenly I felt naked and afraid. Right after that, I realized I probably was n't going to get to the library for a while. My mind handles crises in strange ways, apparently. 
 
 They overpowered the old portly security guard in moments as I stood and watched in shock. Unfortunately, the guard seemed to be years past the time when he was in good enough condition to provide security. So that left the rest of us. The big guy I was talking to had ducked behind a desk. The drive through teller still did n't know what was going on but the other tellers had dropped down below their desks and the other customers were shrinking away from the sudden outbreak of violence. 
 
 Damn. That made me the closest person to them, and probably the next one they would approach. Fortunately for me, ever since elementary school, I had a way of dealing with people who seemed likely to hurt me. I stared at up into one corner of the ceiling and nudged my awareness into my nose, willing the blood vessels to open. I felt the pressure build in my nose and then release. 
 
 I cringed, collapsed to the ground, holding my head in both hands. `` Damn tumor,'' I stage-grumbled. `` Sorry, give me a minute,'' I said, taking one hand off my head and holding the palm towards them, fingers up. The other hand slid around from the side of my head to my forehead. I appeared to struggle through a spike of pain before regaining composure, and I felt the warm damp stickiness of blood tracing down my lip, the coppery taste as it ran into my mouth. `` Right. I guess I'm...'' I winced again. `` I'll talk. I do n't have all that long to live anyway.'' 
 
 The bank robbers, because that's what my brain realized they were, seemed to soften slightly. `` Hey, no worries, man, we just want the money. Do n't get me wrong, we will totally kill anybody that tries anything, but we do n't wan na have to kill anybody,'' one of them said. 
 
 `` Thanks,'' I said weakly. `` Just take the money and do n't shoot anybody.'' I hoped that had given the top bank person enough time to get the police involved and get done. 
 
 After a few minutes of the robbers moving things around, I saw the police cars with the lights on coming up the street. I waved the rest of the people in the building to get out. They bolted and I stayed. It would n't have been consistent with the character I'd developed. Besides, usually with these sorts of things the negotiators wanted to get a hostage for the bank robbers' demands. 
 
 With my ability to bleed at will, I played it off as being stressed and the stress aggravating the tumor. They softened up and sent me out and that broke the impasse. I even made it to the library. 
 
 All in all, not a bad afternoon.
