I’ve always had a deep fascination with abandoned malls. And not because I saw a video about them on YouTube, or because of the liminal space trends. I had a love for them because I saw my own local mall become abandoned as I grew up. Some of my oldest memories were walking the decreasingly populated walkways, or fooling around on the playground that nobody bothered to clean. When that got tiring, my grandfather and I would go to the fishing store and watch the fish swim around in the giant tank that they had in the center of the store. Every once in a while, I’d go and see a movie or two at the cheap theater it had.
But even as a kid, I could tell that the mall was on a rapid decline. I was barely old enough to remember some of the stores that went out of business. Most of them I only have a single memory of. I was there to observe the very end of that mall. I watched it crumble and fall into disrepair. Even the last anchors had all fled. It had only been a month ago that the mall was declared unsafe, and that it’d have to be demolished. I was devastated. Though there were no stores left, I’d still make my way there once a week to get some exercise by walking around inside. A beacon in my and many others’ lives was about to be demolished, only to be replaced with more suburban sprawl.
Despite all of that, I wasn’t going to be deterred from making one last visit. To be frank, I had never done anything like this before. I wasn’t a lawbreaker, in fact I’m actually quite scared of the police. But I couldn’t let my fear control me, I needed to see inside of the mall one last time. I drove over to the mall and parked my car across the street. I doubted that anyone would care nor notice a car driving into an abandoned parking garage, but I wasn’t taking chances. I marched across the street and entered the parking garage. I was mindful to not step in any of the sitting puddles of water as I made my way across the lot. I had made it to the door, and gave it a light tug. I knew it was going to be locked, but I still tried.
To no surprise, the door moved barely an inch before refusing to budge. I took a step back and felt the distinct feeling of glass breaking under my shoe. Someone had shattered one of the glass panes of the mall’s windowed entrance, one big enough to easily climb through. I cringed in that moment, the thought of dragging myself through that opening’s jagged glass was almost sickening, the remains of the window surrounded the inside of the frame like teeth. I took a deep breath and tried to bury my fear as I carefully leveraged my right leg over the opening. My right hand braced the cold metal window frame, and I lifted my left leg gently over the glass shards. It was only when I had both feet in the mall when it clicked; the glass had been broken outwards.
As I walked up the side entrance’s curvy ramp, I went over various rationalizations in my head for why the glass had been shattered from the inside of the building. My best guess was that whatever way someone came in, they couldn’t get out from. Still, someone must’ve hit the glass with quite a bit of force to send the shards splintering out as far as they had. I again brushed my fears aside as I pushed open the set of doors that lead into the mall proper. The outside was dark and cloudy, even for the middle of the day, making the skylights give the place an almost ominous feel.
I passed some shuttered stores and blacked out windows before spotting three different buckets splayed across the floor. I had remembered this detail before the closing. Whoever was doing the bare minimum upkeep of the place had opted to place buckets all over the mall instead of fixing the leaks. Doing this had done nothing to combat an almost oppressive smell of mold and mildew.
The first thing that I cared to take notice of was a window display for a toy store that had long since gone out of business. I almost wanted to find a way in there and take one of the toys home with me as a souvenir. I turned my attention away from the display and back to the wing of the mall ahead. I knew what my first stop would be; the movie theater. My mall had two of them. Both at the opposing ends of the building. I started my way towards the closest one as rain began to crash down so loudly that I could hear it splatter like hail against the roof. Unable to shake the fear of the skylight above giving out from the rain, I moved myself under the walkway and continued my trek towards the theater.
Unsurprisingly, the mall was about as bleak looking as it was the last time I had been. The same amount of life stripped out of it, all of the store names covered up and painted over. The late eighties architectural style of the building clashing with the dated and lazy attempts to revise the mall in its later years. I was too young to see the mall in its prime, but just old enough to be here for its end.
I got as far as I could before I had to ascend the deactivated escalator. I was pretty grossed out as I climbed. The steps looked like a magnet for every bit of dirt and grime that you could possibly imagine. At least there wasn’t any glass, none that I could see at least. Now that I was at the top, I could see the glint of a large metal gate that covered the entrance to the theater. The rest of the mall still had its lights on, but not the corner I wanted to see. I sighed before pulling my backpack off of my shoulder, I pulled out one of the two flashlights I had brought and headed into the darkness. It was something so trivial, yet so frightening to me. I was easily scared by horror games, and it felt now like I was in one. It was a ridiculous thought, but I kept thinking that something would come flying through the approaching metal gate of the theater, screaming right into my face.
I was at the slats of the gate now, and the only thing I had left to do was peek in. With my heart about to beat out of my chest, I leaned forward with the flashlight and saw nothing. All I could make out was the blue decorative carpet of the theater, and the reflection of concession stands at the back. There wasn’t any scary face, or sudden loud noise, I was in the clear. I turned to my left side and towards the board with the theater’s showings. According to the sign, it was still playing The Blind Side, Aliens In The Attic, and other movies from the last year that it was in business. It was both ironic and depressing that the last film I remember seeing here was Paul Blart: Mall Cop. Not wanting to linger, I pulled myself back from the signage and looked to the left. I saw nothing but utter darkness. I knew what was in that direction, it was a hallway to the bathrooms that was strangely wide.
Wanting to spook myself now that my fear had died down, I drew my phone out and pointed it at the darkness. I activated my flash and took the photo. About thirty feet in front of me had been illuminated with the brief flicker, not nearly enough to cover the needlessly extensive hallway. I tapped on the photo, ready to see a perfect shot to send to my friends. Instead, what I saw made me want to puke.
Right at where the light of my flash fizzled out, I had caught what was unmistakably a person’s legs. No sooner than it registered, I turned on my flashlight again and shone it down the hallway. There was nothing there now, and I hadn’t heard anything move. Not that I could, the rain almost drowned out my own footsteps. Without a second thought, I made one of the dumbest decisions anyone could possibly make, and headed down the hallway. My heart had a leap as it caught the reflection of a payphone, which then turned to panic as I saw the ajar double doors next to it. If the figure in the shadows went anywhere, it was through them.
I drew my pocket knife and held it up alongside my flashlight. As stupid as it was, I was absolutely pursuant in at least finding who had been watching me from the darkness. I crept through the door and could hear my heart racing over the rain, now that I was away from the skylights. I was in what had to be the mall’s office space now, a dark beige carpet muffled my footsteps as I snapped to every turn and corner with haste. When the narrower path branched into a bigger room, I wanted to cry. There were rows of cubicles, too many for me to check through. I made a second bad decision, and spoke out to the room. “Hello?”
I was loud enough so that whoever was there could hear me, but quiet enough to not alert the whole damn mall, should anyone else be inside. Almost expectantly, I got no response back. And now that the rain was quieting down, I would’ve been able to hear any noise that they made. I took a few more steps forward, and stopped to listen again. That’s when I heard it, a door close at the other end of the dark room. It wasn’t the sound of a door being slammed in a hurry, but rather a gentle close, like someone who was trying to politely exit a wrong room that they’ve walked into.
I rushed forward like I didn’t have any fear. Better them afraid of me, than me afraid of them. The rows of office space flash by before I was at a wall again. I saw only a single door on the right. It had to have been some sort of manager’s office, a blank nameplate was beside it. I shouted out again, this time with more bark than before. “Mall security, please step out of the room.”
As smart as claiming to be security seemed to be at the time, I was dismayed to receive the same silence I was met with the first time I had spoken up. I approached the door and tapped my flashlight against it. Again, nothing. I reached down, grabbed the doorknob and flung the door in, the knob hit the wall so hard I swore that I had left a dent in it. When that did nothing, I stepped fully into the doorway and peeked inside of the office.
The scene in front of me was almost baffling. In spite of the disarray in the rest of the mall, this room was nothing less than spotless. A large, finely crafted wooden desk sat one chair behind it and two in front. Office supplies and a desk lamp were neatly arranged upon it. In the left corner of the room was an empty wooden cabinet, similarly ornate as the desk. The corner to my right was a similar story, a neatly kept filing cabinet labeled neatly from A to Z. And in the back corner was another door. Another goddamn door for them to be hiding behind. I walked around the desk and over to it. I flung it open too and stepped inside.
I was greeted with a similar-looking office. And to my surprise, the lights were on. I shut off my flashlight and tucked it into my backpack. The first thing I noticed was that the office had an identical desk, though this one looked like work was actually being done at it. The cabinet was the same, too. Though this one had binders and other odds and ends that you’d see in an average joe’s office space. The filing cabinets also looked in use, some of them were partially pulled out and stuffed with files, I was more surprised with this room than the last. I walked over to the similarly placed front door to the office and opened it. Outside was another big room, with the same amount of cubicles. I turned behind me again, and felt a terrible sense of déjà vu. It was the same office, and the door I came through was gone.
I wanted to panic, I felt sick, worse than I had felt when I saw that damn shadow. Was the abundance of mold in this place getting to me so bad that I had imagined this whole room being dark? I pulled out my phone and looked at the picture, wanting to reassure myself that I wasn’t going crazy. To my relief, it was exactly as I took it, creepy person in the darkness and all. I tried calming myself down, when I saw the nameplate again.
“Mhaales Bho’zarr” it read, written in an elegant font with golden letters. I had to blink and read it back again, and then again to see if it wasn’t my mind just melting together a real name into whatever this was. I was struggling hard to rationalize, and all I could think up for this was that the name had been something one of the later teen hires had put up as a joke. There was nobody around to pull something like that down, so who knew how long it had been there. I was so ill and terrified that I blitzed through the office again and out into the large hallway.
What was now in front of me made my stomach drop. The ugly refurbishment of the strangely large hall had been gutted and replaced with something far more refined and retro. There were benches outside the bathrooms now, planters with beautiful foliage leaking out from them, and the payphone still had its handset. In some sudden change of emotions, I felt at peace with what I was seeing. And my burning curiosity was overriding all of the fear I should’ve felt in that moment.
I ran over and saw that the theater’s entrance had completely changed. Gone was the indistinguishable metal gate that barred the entrance. Instead there was now a rounded ticket booth, and two sets of red double doors on each side of it. I peeked through one of their rounded windows and saw a theater lobby full of life. The snack bar was fully stocked, the small arcade was still working, the sounds of games in their demo mode loud enough for me to hear them from the outside. There was even a broom and dustpan leant against one of the carpeted pillars. The place didn’t appear abandoned at all, it looked like the place was getting ready to open up again tomorrow.
I gave the door to the theater a pull, and was disappointed to see that even this bizarro mall had some sense of security. I turned to walk away from the door, but the showings display caught my eye. Instead of featuring a lot of bad late two thousand films, the theater had what I could only describe as someone’s nostalgia list that consisted of random popular flicks from different years. Friday The 13th Part III, Terminator 2, Labyrinth? all of them had no rhyme or reason to be here together otherwise. What confused me further was that none of the small poster clippings featured the actors from their respective films. Granted, the space each film had on the sign was small. But I still found it odd.
I stepped away from the theater’s entrance, and took my first real look at the rest of the mall. Those buzzing neon lights, that tasteful splash of bright shades against a mostly white and black color scheme, the skylights looking as if they were right amongst the cosmos. I was in awe, the mall was back alive, and I was there to witness it. I strode forward across the recently polished floor tiles and stared down onto the lower sect of the mall. Below me was the food court, now fully lit and cleaned up. I could see a few recognizable chains in the mix of equally unhealthy eateries. My stomach growled, and I knew I wasn’t going to walk the whole damn building on an empty stomach. I decided to try and ignore all of the alarm bells going off in my head, before heading to the escalator. What better way to start a day at the mall than with a hot pretzel?
The food court was spotless, to the point that I felt bad for even walking across the floor that had been so carefully maintained. It made me feel unwelcome, even more than when I broke into the mall in the first place. I reached the counter of Auntie Anne’s and saw that there was a sign placed near the cash register.
“15 minute break. Please be patient night customers, I’ll be back to the stands shortly :)”
Next to the sign; a bell. I tapped it twice gently with my finger, before taking a step back and reading the menu. Seeing it actually be a normal looking menu and not some gibberish made me relax a bit, at least wherever I was probably wasn’t on some foreign planet. Those pastries in the display case though, they appeared abnormally delicious. It was like the presentationally perfect food you’d see shown in the commercials, and not the sad and pathetic versions you’d get if you actually bought the thing. A few minutes had passed, and I turned around to see if there was a snack machine to grab something from instead. Nothing. I also thought about crawling behind the counter, getting my own pretzel and tossing the cash onto the counter. I didn’t try it, I didn’t want to piss off whatever ran this mall.
In frustration, I stormed away from the mouthwatering pretzels. I felt like an idiot standing there at the counter for minutes, just waiting for someone to come bring me a pretzel in an abandoned mall. Just when I was almost out of the food court, I heard a distinct sound behind me. It carried faintly over the echoing Muzak; the sound of a door being swung against its hinges. I turned and ran back to the counter, just desperate to get any sort of interaction. Whoever was there was gone, my eyes gazed upon the sign again.
“We’re closed, sorry! :( Please come back in the morning!”
I wanted to throw my fists onto the counter in rage, to ring that damn bell until someone would come and take my order. If I didn’t feel like I was treading dangerous waters already, I would’ve maybe thrown myself over the counter and gotten my own food. I groaned loudly in a last hurrah to try and get the employee’s attention, I then stomped away from the counter when I realized nobody was coming.
To no surprise, this version of the mall was still at full occupancy. Every single outlet had something to offer that the previous didn’t. There were some that I recognized, and some that just seemed downright bizarre. The clothes shops all sold out of date fashion, but with a strange twist. About half of the clothes had an extra head hole, hell, even some of them had four sleeves instead of two. Like an oasis appearing in a long stretch of desert, I saw the faint glow from a row of snack and soda machines down a side hall. I sprinted down it and was happy to see that at least most of the snacks in the machine were names I knew. I popped a quarter into the machine and selected some packaged cheese crackers. After grabbing the package and scarfing down in under a minute, I threw the wrapper away and walked back towards the direction of the exit.
I power walked the rest of my way to the exit, thankful that the layout itself didn’t change too. I dove down the hall to the exit, and pulled out my keys. If I had even the slightest bit of luck, only the mall changed. I tore down the exit ramp and burst through the door, I almost tripped because I didn’t expect the door to actually be unlocked. I looked out to the parking lot, but to my disappointment, my car was gone. There were a couple of security vehicles, and a parked car or two, neither of them were mine. In one final bid to escape whatever the hell was happening to me, I ran to the edge of the parking lot and saw the last bit of hope I had give way to nothingness. Aside from a diner, and a gas station, I could see nothing but dry brown grass for miles. A far cry from the development that sprouted up around the real mall in its later years. I squinted real hard, and saw what looked to be a suburb in the far distance, past the orange-leaved treeline. I didn’t have the car, nor the energy to walk for miles in the chilly air. It was still the beginning of summer back in our world, why was it a cold autumn night here? I didn’t know what else to do, so I just sat down and watched the sun vanish beyond the trees.
When it got too dark to see more than three feet in front of me, I stood up and headed back under the cover of the parking garage. The first thing I did when I got back into the mall was to just try and call someone. I’m surprised I hadn’t tried that sooner. What wasn’t a shock was that I had no signal. If my phone wasn’t going to work, maybe the ones in the mall would. I walked up to one of the payphones and pondered for a moment who I should try reaching out to. It didn’t take me long to rule out all but one number to call. My mother still had a landline, at least she did when I called her a couple weeks ago. I dialed the number and held the receiver to my ear.
It rang once, and then twice, then… someone picked up.
“Hey, uh… who is this?” asked an adult male on the other end. His voice had a slight draw, and he sounded a little bit buzzed.
My voice was caught in my throat. Before he spoke up,I actually expected to hear someone familiar on the other end. “Doesn’t matter, can you do me a huge favor and come pick me up? I’m at Blue Woods Mall! I need help badly!”
“Dude, is this some kind of prank call?” the man replied.
I took a second to speak again, my finger was nervously winding around the phone’s cord. “No! Can you tell me where I am? Where is everybody?”
He chuckled. “Sorry lady, can’t. The game’s about to come back on.”
Before I could say another word to him, the line went dead. I only had a few dollars and a couple of pennies left on me, so trying to make another call was out of the question. With all of my options exhausted, the reality of the situation hit me like a truck. I felt like the wind was knocked out of me as I fell to my knees in a cold sweat. My tears hit the reflective tiles, I could see my sobbing complexion in perfect detail. Everything I knew about how reality functioned was just shattered, and only now did it decide to punch me in the gut. I had tried every possible way I could think of to escape, and yet this world still held me like its prisoner. My efforts to choke back the tears were fruitless. The crushing weight of my scenario worsened when I realized I had but one option left, and that was going back into the mall.
To say that I felt trapped like a rat would be an understatement. While most people in my situation would have already tried to tear the place apart, I was too afraid to do much of anything. It was as if the mall was judging me for breaking in, like I had violated something sacred. And because I broke some unspoken rule, it had constructed this idealized facade of itself to tempt me into further misdeeds. I walked back towards the center of the mall to see if there was some other way to do something, anything to get myself out of this strange hell I was trapped in.
My rush to escape the mall had given me tunnel vision, to a point where I completely passed over just how different the central hub of the mall looked. The once empty plaza occupied by a few empty water fountains had been replaced with what I could only describe as an indoor park. The Lamp posts and real trees made the place feel a bit disconnected from the rest of the mall. If it wasn’t for the skylight above, I’d feel totally immersed. In the center of this forest was a large, elegant carousel. Like everything else in the mall, it was eerily pristine. I was almost mesmerized watching the horses race around on their circular track. Surrounding the ride was an entire miniature golf course that weaved neatly between the walking paths, though I couldn’t discern where the first hole was. My attention was pulled back to the carousel as it came to a sudden halt, like it stopped just for me to get on. I filed through the empty queue and stepped onto the ride.
I walked around the platform a couple times before settling on a gray and white horse with a golden mane. No sooner than I got myself comfortable on the wooden saddle, I felt the ride buckle and start spinning again. The carousel went around once or twice before I decided to try my hand at another photo. I slipped my phone out from my pocket, navigated to the camera app and waited to spot the right shot. It took another two trips around, when I spotted the perfect angle. There was an artificial stream with a small wooden bridge connecting two holes of the golf course, a lamp post nearby and the faint reach of neon lights made the gentle ripples of the water dance with a rainbow of colors. I held my phone up, the shot approached, I pressed the camera’s button, and felt a zap shoot through my body.
The shock bucked me off of the horse, slamming me down hard against the floor of the ride. My backpack had saved my spine, but my head was spinning as I stared up helplessly. It was at that moment that I realized the ride was coming to a stop, the music was slowing down to a screeching halt, too. Everything went dark, but I hadn’t passed out. I could still see past the roof of the carousel to the skylight; it looked cloudy, but the moonlight shone through. The moment I stopped seeing triple, I carefully raised myself up and used one of the other horses to pull me to my feet. I rubbed the back of my head to see if I was bleeding, but thankfully my hand was dry. I tossed my backpack off of my shoulder and grabbed my flashlight. The once enchanting forest that was the mall’s center had taken on a more sinister appearance. Now that the lights were off, it felt like I was lost in the middle of the woods at night. And I was horrified. The only thing that I could see past all of the trees was a singular, glowing red exit sign. Being out of options, I figured that following it was worth a shot.
The small golf course felt like a winding maze with each passing hole. Tall ledges had been put in place to make sure you couldn’t just run across it. You had to either commit to going down the course in numerical order, or dip down one of the branching paths. I watched the trees closely with my light, they swayed almost as if there was a breeze coming through, one that I could not feel. Hell, all I could feel was my head splitting and my body reeling from getting thrown off that damn horse. I managed to dip out from the golf maze, before turning right to follow the exit sign, praying at the time that it’d lead to an escape. As I was walking down the strip, a white flash came across the skylight, followed by a torrential downpour. Seeing how I wasn’t in too huge of a hurry to get out, I decided to windowshop more of the outlets as I passed them by. I saw more shops selling odd clothes, a boutique selling what I could only guess was various colors of drinkable perfume, and an arcade with not a single game that I recognized. I was staring at a three-necked sweater in one of the windows when I heard it. An unmistakable sound that could be wretched out by neither man, nor animal. An unholy mockery of a strained bird’s call turned to a shrieking wail as something in the darkness scraped across the tile at me. I didn’t think, I just ran as quickly as I could.
I burst through a door into some back hallway and threw myself down it as fast as my feet would carry me. My heart raced so loudly that I could barely hear if the creature was still on my trail. Each exit sign that pointed me forward made me feel like I was on a fast track to my own demise. I made it to the end of the hall and crashed through another door, this one leading me into a cramped kitchen. I put my arm against the wall, barely able to hold myself up as I panted loudly. Thankfully, I didn’t hear the thing that was chasing me anymore, and only had the rain to console me. When the air returned to my lungs, I slid the door open and pushed out of the kitchen. The area outside appeared to be a small snack bar. A few tables and booths walled the small segment of the larger room in, with everything around pertaining to some sort of wilderness theme. Even the walls had been hand-painted to look like some dense forest. I crouched my way past the tables and chairs and out into the main area. There was a front desk blocking the rest of the large room, along with turnstiles on each side for going in and out. I shone my flashlight up at the board to see some simple pricing for admission, as well as a warning about wearing socks on the play equipment. I had a feeling that I knew what was ahead, and crawled underneath the turnstiles. When I got to my feet, my suspicions would be confirmed.
Before my eyes was the largest play structure I had ever seen. The whole thing towered up to the ceiling, and I felt like an ant by comparison. Its fake trees and caves were not helping with that fact. Rope bridges, covered slides and rock climbing walls connected the maze like a complex game of chutes and ladders. At the very top of it was a large slide that traveled down to a ball pit that snaked around the bottom of the playplace. Also up there was the exit door; its gleaming red sign mocking me from its mountain-themed ivory tower. I was still aching all over from the incident earlier, and wanted to break down crying when I saw just how far away potential freedom was. I took a deep breath, and marched over to the bright yellow entrance sign. The inside of the entrance tree stump consisted of different platforms that looked like tree rings, with oddly shaped holes to fit through. To a younger me, this would’ve been the start of a fun day. But I wasn’t in peak shape, and I wasn’t short either. Getting up to the exit was about to be a living hell.
I ducked down to fit through the passageway into the stump, turned around and sat down on the first layer. I moved my light up again as I pulled my upper half up through and onto the next platform. When I tried pulling myself the rest of the way up, I only ended up slamming my side into the hard plastic of the ledge. I twisted myself around the small passage between the first and second platforms, to grasp onto the third. I pulled my weight up again, this time able to sit down on the second layer. There were still two platforms that I could see after the third layer, so I tried to repeat the method I had just done to get up safely onto it. I nearly twisted my leg in doing so, as the gaps between the paths up weren’t placed with any rhyme or reason. I shone my light again to see that the only way up from the forth to the fifth layer, was on the other side of the stump. I pulled tightly against the fourth ledge, and kicked myself into the cramped space. I felt my shirt rub up against the layer above as I wiggled towards the small gap. Grabbing onto the lip of the fifth platform, I managed to pull the rest of my body through and into the play structure.
The ceiling was just high enough to where I could crawl through the playplace with comfort, but just short enough to where I couldn’t stand. It was no easy task doing this and holding the flashlight, so I ended up just scooting myself with my right arm while I held the light with my left. To my shock, not even this part of the mall was dirty. Even if that wasn’t a concern, the pain I was feeling still was. It had worn off a bit, but my whole body felt strange. Worming my way up that fake tree made my skin feel stretched like rubber across my muscle, to a point where I was starting to feel uncomfortable. I chalked it up to exhaustion, and pushed on.
Winding through the plastic tunnels and brushing between swinging pillars was starting to get to me, so much so that I didn’t notice until it was too late that I went down a slide instead of another tube. I slid down face first into a small ball pit, which did not break my fall. I smacked hard against the floor of the thing, and so did my flashlight. It wasn’t broken, but now the bulb wouldn’t stop flickering. I crawled up to the edge of the pit, and pointed it out through the netting to see that I was not far from the exit. My heart sank as I saw that I’d have to cross a rope bridge to get across to it. It would be an understatement to say it looked unsafe. Ropes stretched across the gap in a circular pattern, with smaller pieces tied inbetween to act as steps. If I was any smaller, I’d be terrified of one of my legs falling through the gaps. I was about to consider just climbing my way back up the slide and looking for another way up, when I saw it shake with a loud clatter, something was crawling down it.
My choice was made, and I began to climb through the rope bridge as quickly as I could. I shot back my light quickly to see what the hell was following me, and my light only barely caught it. Two eyes that looked human, but were set far too apart to be on any person’s face. Shining the light in its face seemed to anger it, as it began that blood-curdling call again, before pulling itself out of the tube and towards me. My foot caught for a moment, and my light flew from my hands and down onto the ground below. It shattered loudly, which seemed to enrage the creature behind me further. The moonlight was just faint enough to where I could still see where I was going, so I pulled forward. I was about halfway across when I felt the bridge sag. I turned around to see that the round-faced monster was climbing its way across the ropes, and was moving faster than me. I crawled faster, my lungs were burning now and I was coughing as I grabbed each new rope with every last bit of energy I had. I didn’t have time to turn around, but I could feel the sagging of the bridge getting closer to me, as well as that awful wail. I got my torso onto the other side when I could feel something slash at my leg, I threw a kick up and heard a shrill squawk as it collided with the beast. I turned left and crawled into an opening, the passage felt cold, and I realized that I had gone into one of the faux caves.
I was flying blind now as I writhed through the pitch-black tunnel. With my arms outstretched I could feel barely enough space to fit. I sucked in my stomach and pressed through the first narrow spot I felt, a sharp part of the rock dug through my shirt and into my back. I wanted to scream, but I knew that’d trap me. I continued to press my way in, as I heard the monster screech out again. There was loud scraping behind me, it was following me in. I had to contort onto my side as the ascent got tight again, the creature took another swing at my leg and I almost yelled out. I bit down on my tongue and kicked back at it. I felt my boot hit hard against its face. I made it to a wider opening and crawled out, I could see the red light in the distance, and my vision was blurry.
I limped over to the door as I heard the monster making all sorts of sounds behind me. The adrenaline was the only thing that kept me going. I pushed through the exit door and scurried my way down the hall. I couldn’t see anything other than the glow of the red exit signs illuminating small parts of the path ahead. Each time I passed between the darkness made me feel like that thing was going to emerge and drag me away to my death, my heart was about to beat out of my chest, I barely felt alive. I slammed unsuspectingly against a wooden door and pushed it open with what little strength I had. I didn’t question it at the time, but I was somehow back in that office. The place that brought me to this hell. I crawled up to the wall where the door to leave was and begged for it to appear again for me, so I could go home. I turned back to the doorway I came from, and I could sense that someone was there, and I could smell them too.
The burnt tobacco stench was met with a small ring of smoke that came from where the thing in the shadows stood. When the smog dissipated, I heard it speak up.
“Would you like to leave?” It asked, followed by a deep, rumbling chuckle. Its voice was gruff, but wasn’t one of a chainsmoker. It almost sounded like it was its first time trying to speak in a softer voice, and failing.
“Y-yes!” I shouted with every bit of oxygen left in me, tears streaking down my face.
It laughed again, “Very well, but please… come back when we open in the morning. I think you’ll love it.”
Instinctively, I turned around, and there was the door, back where it was before. I turned the knob and crawled through, this time onto carpet that smelled and felt awful. I got up to my feet as quickly as I could, and saw that the office was a total wreck, a stark difference to the one I entered through. I bolted out of that office, and out of that mall as fast as I possibly could. It was night outside now, not even my own mall felt welcoming anymore. I got out to the parking garage and sprinted across the street, a truck nearly plowing me as I did so. I got into my car and sped off, not even thinking about looking back.
* * *
It’s been two weeks since I went to that mall, I never told anyone I even went. When I got home I just patched up the few cuts and scrapes I had and went about things as normally as I could. Nothing’s been the same since. I went out a few times, once even with friends. And everything just wasn’t right. It felt like my world, the one I was born in, was now the wrong one. Places look off, people look off, and I think they feel the same about me. I’ve been getting strange looks, weird comments from strangers asking if I’m okay. I’d just brush them off as coincidence, if I didn’t feel so odd myself, like my own skin is no longer mine. As foolish as it sounds, I’m thinking about going back. This world I’m in now, no longer feels like it’s the one I’m meant to be in. All I can think about now is going back there, to see what it’s like when it’s like when the mall opens. The question is, should I stay here, or should I go to the mall?