Yesterday, I went to the movie theatre with my girlfriend. It was a nice day, sunny, the temperature was around 18C and the weather forecast said the skies would remain clear for the rest of the week.
We had dinner in the mall and we watched the movie later. Right after we left the theatre, we walked through the mall, it was around 11PM. My girlfriend told me she wanted to buy a purse and asked me to wait somewhere nearby. I agreed told her I’d go to the washroom then wait for her in a nearby bench.
Right after she walked into the store, I went to the washroom that was located in the hallway in front of a bookstore. There was no one in the washroom, however. Right after entering in a stall, I placed my phone on a little shelf and sat on the toilet.
1 minute later, the power went off and I was left in the dark for a few seconds before the power went back on. I left the stall right after the power came back and, I don’t know if I can describe, but there was something wrong with the washroom. Starting with the lights that were yellowish, even thought they were white when I first walked into the washroom. A thick green line of paint crossed the wall and the mirrors were smaller. There was still no one there except for me.
I washed my hands and thought I was going mad. For me, the water was cold, dirty and really, really thick. Gross, honestly. I looked for paper towels but I couldn’t find, so I shook my hands to dry them out.
The moment I walked outside the washroom was when I realized something was terribly wrong. I thought I left through another door, well, at least I was trying to believe that.
The mall was looking like a roofed plaza. It was still a mall, conceptually, but it looked much older and decayed. The lights were very yellowish and the stores were disorganized. Everything looked ugly, honestly. I was sure I wasn’t in any familiar place at that point. Nothing looked like anything I’ve seen in that mall, my town or even in television, starting with a few details that terrified me. There were some fish tanks the size of trash cans everywhere in the hallways, although there were no fish in them, but some sort of purple fabric that was moving. I saw people would walk to those fish tanks, put their hands over it and laugh. And their laughs weren’t pretty, they sounded more like they were coughing with their lungs full of phlegm. I stood still, staring at those fish tanks. People usually came in groups of 2 or 3, touched those fish tanks and laughed. I quickly moved my head side to side, looking for my girlfriend. All I wanted was to understand what was going on and see someone I know.
People walked through me and ignored me. They looked normal, but they weren’t totally normal. They looked similar among themselves also. Not identical, like twins. They had similar features like a thick unibrow and huge bags under their eyes, but they also had their own personal facial features.
Somewhere in that place, a man was selling what appeared to be iron tools. He was behind a large counter that had several tools of common shapes: hooks, spoons, wrenches. I walked towards the counter out of curiosity and he asked me if I was going to buy or trade. I didn’t answer him.
A young girl that I assumed she was his daughter grabbed a spoon from the counter and showed it to his father. The father took another look at me and said
The father looked at me with a disgusted look on his face, took the spoon from his daughter and placed it back on the counter, then he told me to go away. I was trying to make sense of all that, so I sat on a small bench that looked like an ordinary bench from any mall, although this one was much smaller and appeared to be made for one person only.
A loud noise started to echo through the mall and everyone looked up. It was loud but low like a ship honking. After the noise stopped, everyone normally returned their paths.
I started to think about my girlfriend. That could only be a dream. I stood up and decided to leave the mall. It took me a few minutes to find the exit and when I stepped outside, I got even more frightened. The temperature was almost below freezing and it was raining heavily. There was a thick fog limiting my visibility, but I still could clearly see the city outside. The mall was located in the downtown, so most of the neighbourhood were modern skyscrapers, busy commercial stores and some nice apartment buildings. But when I looked outside, however, I saw an old, decayed neighbourhood. There was garbage all over the street, the buildings looked like they were from the Victorian era and the street lamps were emitting yellow light, rather than white.
I considered circling the block to find the part of the mall I was supposed to be in, but I decided not to, because deep inside, I knew I wasn’t anywhere in my city, perhaps not even on Earth.
I walked back inside, not knowing what to do, so I decided to call my girlfriend. My phone, however, couldn’t find signal. I wandered through the hallways not knowing how to return, so I sat on a bench once again to think what to do.
I then considered going back to the washroom to find my way back. While I was walking to the washroom, I saw a store that was selling pigeons… that made me scream, and my scream caught the attention of everyone around.
The people around started to stare at me, point fingers at me and talk among themselves, supposedly about me. I entered in the washroom and this time there were people there.
Three men were sitting on the floor. One of them was under the sink. They were talking about something but I didn’t want to know. I jumped over them and got in the stall.
I locked the door, sat on the toilet and decided to try to call my girlfriend again but there was still no signal. I stayed there for a few minutes, until the power went off again. I was left there in the dark for almost an entire hour, I considered turning the lantern of my phone and going outside, but I decided to remain there.
The power went back on, this time the lights were white again. I opened the door and the washroom was normal again. No thick green line on the wall and the mirrors were normal. The entire mall was like it used to be.
I left the washroom and saw my girlfriend with her phone in her hand. She yelled at me and asked where I was. I told her what happened, but she didn’t believe me.
It’s 2am here and I’m still trying to understand what happened, but aí get a bad feeling every time I think about that place. I’m terrified of going back there by accident.