It was going to be a great night. Seth's parents had gone to a fancy hotel for their anniversary, and he and Ryan had planned a marathon of Grand Theft Auto and that shark movie they'd been wanting to see. Seth bounded down the stairs with the game disc and headed for the living room. As he approached, he saw Ryan kneeling with his hands behind his head. He yelled, "Hey, pal, no need for that. I haven't kicked your ass in the game yet, and --".

When he rounded the corner, he saw the men with the guns.

The biggest one barked to the others, "Find something to tie these dudes up with! No one was supposed to be here!" Seth replied, "Well, we were gonna hit a movie, but we decided...", before Ryan motioned to him to keep quiet. One of the others, rummaging around the kitchen, said "All I can find is this stuff", producing a roll of roasting twine.

Ordered to lay on his stomach, Ryan braced himself as his wrists were yanked behind his back and quickly bound together. He looked over to see the same thing being done to Seth. The robbers also tied the boys' feet with the twine, and resumed ransacking the Cohen house.

Seth asked how this had happened. "I don't know," said Ryan. "I was flipping around on the TV and these dudes all burst in the door."

"You see? I'm always telling you we should keep the door locked, but you never listen."

"I'm beginning to see your point."

When the robbers had gone upstairs, Ryan asked Seth to turn around so they could attempt to untie each other. They wriggled on the floor until they were back-to-back and each began to pick at the knots around the other's wrists.

"You know, if you didn't have such scrawny wrists you'd have an easier time getting out of this," said Ryan.

"Well, I don't see you getting loose either, Captain Muscles," Seth whispered, adding "Why does Mom have roasting twine, anyway? She's never roasted anything in her life."

Ryan realized their struggles weren't getting them anywhere. He'd been tied up a few times by his big brother when he was a kid, usually when Trey was supposed to babysit him and didn't want to, and he'd been arrested before, but he'd never been as worried as he was now. He was pulled out of his reverie by a voice saying "What the hell's going on here?" It was Sandy - why was he home? He was supposed to be with Kirsten. "Get out and get help," Ryan began to say, but not before one of the gunmen came back down the stairs and saw Sandy.

The robber dragged him to the pillar between the kitchen and living room, holding the gun on him. Grabbing more roasting twine, the robber tied Sandy's hands securely behind the pillar. "Hey, another one just came home!" the robber yelled up the stairs. "We gotta wrap this up!"

The gunman began removing the family's valuables from the living room. As he left the room, Seth hollered, "Wait! That's my Playstation! It has my high score in Grand Theft Auto on it. I'll never get that score again!"

"Shut up, Seth," said Sandy.

"Shut up, Seth," said Ryan.

The boys asked Sandy why he'd returned home, and he explained that Kirsten had gotten a call from Julie about a problem with a client of their matchmaking service and they'd decided to cut the date short while Kirsten went to help out.

About an hour later the robbers had left, but not before gagging the three with a roll of duct tape they'd found. Seth had gotten the worst of it, as his protests caused the robbers to wrap the tape around his head six or seven times. The Cohen men - one of them adopted - continued to struggle against the ropes for a while, but eventually gave up and relaxed, as the twine was thin and too difficult to work loose. It was clear that this ordeal wouldn't be over until Kirsten came home.

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