I am writing this as an attempt to reconcile the insane events that took place over the last 48 hours and to help ensure that I am indeed still within my right mind and have not completely lost my grip on reality.
My name is Anthony and at the very least it still feels like I am still alive. I survived what could be described as an attack, though most who I tell this tale to will never believe me, for the thing that attacked me, assuming I am even remembering it correctly was not a person or an animal but an inanimate object and it nearly killed me.
It sounds crazy but I know it was real, it had to have been, how else did I get these injuries and this coat?
I will try my best to summarize the events as I can still remember them since I blacked out during portions of the last few nights and cannot recall with full certainty, all of the events that might have happened.
It was winter and during the height of the holiday shopping season and I was at my local mall browsing around for whatever caught my interest. I was just kind of wandering from store to store, it was fairly late and the mall was getting ready to close and many stores were already preparing to shut their doors.
I remember seeing an odd-looking store I had not seen before. A large sign above in Gothic style font indicated that this was “The Proud Tailor” and it caught my attention so I decided to see what was in there.
I remember walking in and seeing it was predominantly a clothes store. It was a strange little shop with a lot of unique almost old Victorian-style clothing and other accessories that would seem more at home a century earlier.
I wondered if people shopped here for costumes or actually wore these antique-style clothes, I was unable to get an idea of the genuine intent since I seemed to be the only person still in the store. Besides the clothes, there were also old accessories and other items like canes, umbrellas, and in one case even an old cavalry saber on the wall.
I found it strange they seemed to sell all these antique relics and old clothes in a generic mall next to standard outlet stores and other chain clothes stores, but I thought maybe there was some new market for Victorian-style clothes making a comeback and continued on further into the store.
The back of the store had something that arrested my interest even further. It was a row of very odd-looking mannequins. I always found mannequins sort of uncanny, so many depictions of them in horror stories coming to life made me uneasy around normal ones, and these particular specimens seemed to be repellent and off-putting enough to be even worse.
Something about how they were designed, the poses and expressions seemed almost life-like, and even more disturbingly they wore what appeared to be pained expressions like they suffered some anguish in silence, rather than the normal expressionless faces others tended to be molded after.
The clothes they wore were of apparently very high quality and they did indeed look very impressive. As I was staring and half- gawking at a creepy mannequin with the worst look on its face wearing an impressive large fur-lined overcoat, I felt the strange compulsion to reach out and touch the coat.
I was startled out of my trance and embarrassingly I let out a cry of surprise and checked myself when I realized I had been approached by a member of the staff.
A young-looking woman had reached out her own hand and had intercepted mine blocking it and indicating to a sign by the mannequins that read that “Mannequins and their display clothes must not be touched!”
Apparently, these particular specimens must not be touched at any time.
The store worker indicated these were very valuable antiques and were oddly not for sale despite the normal intention of mannequins functioning as a way to help sell the clothes they are meant to show off. The store worker offered an apology and asked if I needed help finding anything. I said I was ok, but my curiosity got the best of me and I asked her why they had them at all, if the clothes they wore were not for sale.
She paused briefly as if considering her answer carefully and said something sort of strange, she said “We just don’t like to be touched” She paused awkwardly and corrected herself “They I mean they don’t like to be touched, just admired, the clothes they wear and very rare and valuable and are more for decoration, please respect our rules and do not touch or we will have to ask you to leave”.
She kept saying we when it seemed like she was the only person here that was working, the way she stared at me when talking was kind of creeping me out and I noticed that in a minute or so I had been talking to her I did not notice her blink a single time.
I was taken aback and was kind of stammering for a response when she interrupted me and said “Oh look at the time we will be closing up soon, please let me know if there’s anything we or rather I can help you with, but do hurry, thank you” She smiled and turned around rearranging and fussing over a rack of dusty dresses.
I politely acknowledged and thanked her for letting me know as she walked away; though I am not sure if she heard me or almost seemed to be ignoring me now. I was about to turn around and walk out of the store, but I looked at the back wall and regarded the creepy mannequins one last time.
Then as I turned to leave, I heard the strangest thing that stopped me from departing. I heard what sounded like someone saying my name, it sounded like someone was calling me from the backroom of the store near where the line of mannequins was. I thought maybe someone else might have my same name on the staff, but no other staff seemed to be here.
I looked back towards the front of the store near the exit and then at the row of dresses I had seen the store employee, but she was nowhere to be seen. I almost wrote it off and chalked it up to paranoia due to the creepy vibes this place was giving me. I turned once more to leave but then I heard it again, louder than before.
Against my better judgment I slowly approached the back door again and this time I leaned in trying to hear if my name was spoken again. I crept in so close to the door that I accidently pressed against it when I stumbled over a cord on the floor I hadn’t seen and the door gave way and opened with a creak into the backroom.
I caught myself before falling on my face but I had stumbled fully into the backroom and as I stood up and tried to regain my balance and composure I was assailed by a strong mixture of something rotting and a rank mildew-like smell. I was surprised I hadn’t been able to smell it in the store with how strong it was. I instinctively covered my mouth with my hand and held back nausea at the pungent smell.
I suppressed a shiver that I first attributed to the deathly smell but then felt around me in the air and realized they must have an air conditioner cranked on back here because it felt freezing a full 20 or 30 degrees cooler than the main store. It was dark as well I could scarcely see anything beyond what the light of the main store carried into the entryway of the back room.
I wanted to leave there and then with how disturbing the backroom seemed to be but just as a last check and to give in to some voice in the back of my mind I called faintly into the room, quietly stammering and then eventually committing to it and letting out a wavering “Hello?”
I held my breath both in fearful anticipation and as a means to keep from breathing in more of the reeking miasma. I exhaled after a long pause and turned around to leave then I heard a slamming sound as if heavy iron bars crashing to the ground and whipped around to see what had happened.
I walked out toward the front and saw that an abnormally heavy iron gate had fallen down over the entrance and only apparent exit as if they had started to close already. I spoke up and shouted “Hold on I am still in here, hello? Anyone I am still here you locked me in”
I searched frantically for the young woman who worked here but I could not find her, I walked back again to the disturbing back room and thought maybe she had gone back there without me seeing her somehow, the back wall of mannequins had caught the corner of my eye and I thought I counted one too many compared to how many where there.
I cried again apparently in vain to anyone who might be here to listen that I was stuck in here and they needed to open the gate when I heard a voice from the back screaming “Save us!” I ran back to see who was calling for help and as I stumbled into the darkness of the back room shouting out to see where the voices had come from I felt my legs wrenched out from under me and I was thrown a good 5 or 6 feet away from the door and slammed hard into the wall landing bad on my head and that was the first time that night I had blacked out.
I woke up with a gasp for air that was immediately greeted with an intake of rank Icey air. I realized I was still in the backroom it was almost completely pitch black where I fell and I rose shakily to my feet clutching my head, my vision still blurry, and worried I might have a concussion.
I did not know what the hell happened, I remember hearing cries for help and running in only to be launched and slammed into what is apparently an old ornate curio cabinet that was built surprisingly solidly, since there was no damage on it despite the damage it had inflicted on me crashing into it.
My mind was racing now as lucidity ebbed back into my scattered and hopefully not damaged mind. I remembered the gate and the cries for help and knew that I must be locked in still, I didn’t know how long it had been and I looked at my phone and saw it was 1:45 am. Definitely still closed I thought.
My phone was close to dead but it was the only light source I had back here so I turned on the flashlight and hoped it would at least get me out of here to the front where hopefully even closed, the store would have some small lights remaining on.
It was deathly silent in the store, no more voices no buzzing lights no sounds at all, I stumbled my way back out to the main floor and was happy to see that some dim lights did remain on in the store, I switched off my flashlight to save power and immediately tried to see if there was an area in the store where I could get reception on my phone to call for help, since upon checking the time I noticed I did not have a single bar previously.
To my dismay, there was not a single spot that had any reception, so I gave up and headed for the entryway and the heavy gate. I thought maybe a night security guard might be in the mall and I figured maybe if I made enough noise I could attract their attention and they could get me out.
I grasped the bars and was disappointed it was not one of the lighter shutters that I could shake to make more noise, as it was they were shockingly sturdy and did not move at all when shaken. So I decided to strike the bars with my hands to hope that it would ring out but the sound was fairly dull and muffled.
I kicked at them with similar results, no good I would need something sturdier or louder. I shouted for help to anyone who could hear but the darkness beyond the gate seemed to swallow the sound. I looked around to see if there was something that would make more noise on it and that’s when I remembered the old saber on the wall.
I began walking again toward the back wall when I felt a gust of chill air that made the hairs on my neck stand up, it was getting very cold in the main store all the sudden. I thought maybe they just shut off the heat and since it was winter it would naturally get cold at night, but the onset when it had been warm before was a rather strange contrast.
I reached the back wall and the air around the backroom was positively frigid, there was no way this was ambient temperature it had to be some sort of AC that was running, it was too cold. I saw the saber on the wall and as I approached it and began to reach up to try and remove it from the wall I caught a sight of something in the corner of my eye that almost made me lose an involuntary scream of surprise.
All the mannequins on the back wall close to the saber were looking at me, not just in my direction but their heads were actually tilted at a specific angle to be looking directly at me where I was trying to take the sword from the wall. The pained expressions were gone and they all appeared to have stony serious looks now.
The change freaked me out and I thought someone was here with me playing a cruel trick or something. I was emboldened by my frustration at the thought and mostly to not give in to the mounting fear the situation had caused I called out “Is someone there? Please if this is a trick it’s not funny you are holding me here against my will and that is a crime, if you let me out now I won’t press charges but I mean it stop with the gag and let me go” Silence was all that responded.
Suppressing my feeling of dread I remembered what I was doing before and reached up and with not some minor amount of difficulty removed the sword from the wall it pulled off with a crash as the whole mounting plaque came off as well and I stumbled again to the ground. I had pulled too hard and landed on my shoulder this time. It was painful but better than landing on my head and passing out again.
I took removed the hooks attaching it to the mounting plaque and felt a renewed sense of confidence holding a weapon now. I didn’t think I would actually use it as stabbing someone playing a prank was overkill but maybe it could leverage some intimidation if someone was not taking my pleas for release seriously enough. At least I could use it to make more noise as planned.
So I returned to the gate and began striking the sides of the saber on the metal bars and hearing a satisfyingly loud metallic clanging reverberating and echoing for yards in all directions from the gate. Someone has got to hear this I thought.
After striking at the bars for over half an hour I began to lose hope, how could no one be hearing this, what was security doing? As I stopped swinging the sword and paused I once again felt the creeping chill, how had it gotten so cold? It is freezing near the gate as well now. As I was considering what to do next I heard a rattling and clicking sound coming from the back room and then another gust of freezing air struck me.
Over the next few minutes of sitting there shivering, I started to worry I might get hypothermia. It kept getting colder somehow and felt colder in here than it ever did outside at night in winter. I looked around for something to cover myself in I was only wearing jeans and a t-shirt and left my coat in my car, since I had suspected I might buy a new one today.
I kept searching around and only found dusty old dresses made of thin materials almost falling apart, for some reason now at night they looked much older and worse than they had before.
I was starting to get worried again and I had a desperate idea come to mind, I remembered the large overcoat the central mannequin was wearing and considered that it might be the only thing that fits me and is warm enough to combat this bizarre chill.
I didn’t like the idea but I would rather not freeze to death, so I had to find something. I approached the wall of mannequins again cautiously walking up and not breaking eye contact; they still appeared to be staring where the saber was on the wall so that was good I thought.
I paused for a moment when looking at the ugly thing, it looked worse in the dim light than before, its face still a distorted rictus while it looked to have seams at all the angled joints that were fraying and displaying what appeared to be strange metal gears underneath and something on top that looked disturbingly like a type on synthetic skin instead of the standard plaster or plastic they were traditionally made out of.
I suppressed a shudder of both anxiety as I eyed the weird sign again and recalled what the woman had said and of the lowering temperature. I pushed past it and reached out to grab the collar of the coat and slipped it off the arms of the creepy mannequin trying to do it with as little contact as possible with the disturbing thing.
I managed to slip the coat off of the mannequin with no issue stepped down off off the step and quickly put the fine coat on. It was a very fine quality a little musty but very nice and it was warm thank God, very warm, in fact, it felt like it was not just the material keeping the cold out but it felt warm like an actual warm-blooded person had been wearing it.
As my mind raced and my skin started to crawl I looked back up and fell back onto the floor, staring up at the face now looking down directly at me. The mannequin’s former serious face had changed into a grimace of anger and its eyes were staring down directly at me.
“What the fuck?!” I gasped as I instinctively crawled back a few more feet from the hideous thing. My heart was racing and I stood up and clutched the sword I had dropped until my knuckles turned white.
“Hey, who the hell is doing this?” I screamed “It’s not funny, I don’t want to hurt you but I am getting freaked out, so congratulations you got me, now kindly cut this shit out and come out where I can see you.” I shouted my frustration giving vent to a stronger and emboldened voice free of some of the fear from the previous moment. Another long pause and nothing happened.
I continued “Alright if that’s how it’s going to be, then you asked for it” I held fast to the saber and reached it out to put the blade at the mannequin’s face. “One last chance to show yourself or the fancy, creepy ass mannequins are getting cut to pieces, starting with this one, and the fancy clothes for good measure if someone does not get out here and let me out”.
Still no response, I looked around trying to focus and see if I heard anything or saw any subtle movement around the store. As I looked back the other mannequin heads were staring at me now with looks of what could best be described as fear on their faces.
“Alright enough of this shit” I shouted one final time and reached back my arm and swung the saber in a long arc right across the mannequin’s face and neck where a fine cravat was covering a portion of its disturbing human-like neck. I was not prepared for what happened next.
An anguished cry of pain and a deep cutting sound of skin being sliced were immediately followed by a jet of blackish blood spurting from the now open neck wound on the terrifying mannequin.
“Oh my God” I thought to myself was someone in that one? Is that a person, did I just kill someone!?” I backed away from the macabre scene the blood pooling on the floor near the mannequin and as I backed away I saw it fall down onto the floor in a crash, limbs contorting in morbid tangle of which I thought due to the static nature of mannequin poses should be impossible.
“Holy shit, holy shit I killed someone” I kept repeating over and over in my head. In retrospect, it may have been better if I had, for I was truly not prepared for what happened next.
I backed away until I was almost to the front again, not taking eyes off the horrifying spectacle, when the back door flung open, and standing there in the dim light was a slender figure wearing what appeared to be a mannequin head-like mask, with many long nails and thread seams protruding out of its skin. It carried a hacksaw and some sort of odd scissors or shears and was caked in that same disturbing blackish fluid which may or may not be old blood.
It walked forward with an otherworldly, alien motion and stopped and stuttered as it tried to move, jerking all the while like some nightmare marionette puppet.
I was speechless and stunned by the absolute nightmare image of the scene. The thing got closer and turned its head to regard me and then looked down at the sight of the now apparently slain, mannequin? Puppet? Person? Still bleeding on the ground in front of me. There was a terrible moment of protracted silence as I held my breath not knowing what to do when the monster spoke.
“Thief, Murderer!” The thing shouted in a grating and hissing whisper and it began to lurch forward after me its arms upraised with its tools and its bizarre half-static facial expression shifting to one of pure malice.
My fight or flight kicked me out of my dazed horror as the imminent threat was staring me in the face, whoever this psycho was; they had upped the game from creepy pranks to attempted murder.
Despite the weapon I held I panicked and ran to the front gate vainly shouting and striking the sword on the bars screaming for help. The thing kept on, lumbering toward me its arm holding the hacksaw razed over its head and its murderous gaze never leaving me.
When I realized again no help was coming I gripped the sword with renewed vigor and turned to face the nightmare person or thing that was attacking me. I faced it again just in time to see it had moved with disturbing speed and was leveling a blow at my head. I had just enough time to raise the blade on instinct and almost accidentally parry the blade with my own. The thing hissed and lunged forward trying to stab me with the wicked scissors it held.
I tried to back away but the gate was to my back and I stumbled awkwardly into it and couldn’t fully disengage myself due to the locked saber and hacksaw blades and I felt the terrible stabbing pain bellow as I saw the scissors sinking into my side.
I screamed in pain and pulled back, very stupidly twisting to try and fall away to the side and I had successfully moved to the side and away but made the puncture wound even worse as I almost passed out due to the unbelievable pain. Only adrenaline and fear kept me conscious.
I gasped and fell back away from the oncoming thing. It paused awkwardly when it could have moved in and delivered a killing blow. “Can’t let you go now, can’t let you go now, can’t” It began mumbling “No don’t want to kill it leave us alone!” the thing seemed to be arguing with itself or some imperceptible other entity I could not see.
I cautiously backed up and used the bizarre reprieve of the thing arguing with itself to crouch down and fall behind some rows of clothes in an effort to hide. I heard the mumbling get louder and then it was punctuated by a tortured shriek and frantic footsteps back in my direction.
I held my breath and gripped the saber with one hand and my bleeding side with the other to stem the flow.
I had to think fast but before I could decide on a course of action another horrifying thing caught my attention.
The back row of mannequins had begun to scream! And as they screamed they slowly and methodically began to outstretch their arms, a metallic screech like grinding gears on rusty hinges let out as they did so and, eventually they were somehow pointing their fingers directly at me and where I was hiding.
In another moment a saw blade came slamming down next to where I was hiding and I heard the monster thing its gears grinding its ligaments straining and tearing to move faster in its murderous pursuit of me. I screamed but managed to rise to my feet in time to avoid another stab directed at my heart.
I knew I couldn’t escape so I had one last chance. Summoning what little remained of my nerve and knowing if I didn’t fight back I would die to whatever this thing was, I held the saber out in a blocking posture as I rose fully to my feet and frantically looked around to see if something could be turned to my advantage.
The thing swung again for my head with its saw and I was ready I backed away and sidestepped it while catching the back of the hacksaw and redirecting it into a nearby fixture that caught the blade and momentarily trapped it.
The thing tried to capitalize and attempted another lunging stab but I was ready I shifted hard to the side and brought my own sword arm down onto the wrist and handle of the scissors and cut the monstrous forms hand clean off.
Emboldened by a surge of adrenaline and not wanting to miss the opportunity I had created I leaped forward almost stumbling, but catching myself by grabbing the creature’s other arm and leading in with the tip of the sword stabbing it into and fully through the monster’s chest, impaling it and sticking it into the ground by a full several inches of sword now sticking into the ground beneath it.
Breathing hard I stood up, my own leaking blood now mingling on the floor with the horrible creature’s bleeding chest and severed hand. It was indeed pinned and struggled uselessly but did in fact seem to be slowing down and hopefully dying I thought to myself.
It began a raspy wheeze and I thought I heard it mumble “Please” Against my own better judgment I bent down and heard it trying to speak, my own morbid curiosity got the better of me and I felt a strange compulsion that I acted on almost unconsciously. I reached out and began pulling the disturbing mannequin mask/head off of the thing.
There was a nausea-inducing peeling sound and a disgusting smell pervaded the air as I pulled but eventually it came free and I cast the awful mask aside once removed. I don’t know what I was expecting but the fantastical expectation did not match the reality I beheld.
What I saw in fact was the face of the store clerk I had met earlier. Her face was covered in blood but it was definitely her. The reality of the situation I saw horrified me again and the gravity of the situation kicked in and I realized I had likely killed another person tonight.
“Oh my God lady why?” I began to shout “What the fuck lady what did you come after me what the hell were you doing, why did you do all this!?” I was shouting and almost crying I can’t believe this had all happened as I was pacing and bleeding and freaking out I heard her begin to mumble something.
It was shaky and sounded different than before, she spoke softly, almost inaudibly and I had to bend down to hear her. “Thank” She started and coughed up a spurt of blood “Thank you, I can finally be free.
You need” She tried to finish and then her eyes bulged and she began in a panicked tone “You need to leave now! The key, the key in the back r—–“ she was unable to finish and she died eyes wide mouth agape, not looking at me but past me to something behind.
I turned around and heard a nightmare clattering and clanking and twisting and shambling of many disjointed limbs shuffling toward me and saw that all of the remaining mannequins had gotten off the wall stands and were moving toward me in a nightmare procession of gangly limbs and grasping hands, all the faces now had shifted to wide full grins, with blazing eyes hungry with intent and the effect was so terrifying I nearly went mad.
Then the horde of bodies spoke in a stuttering buzzing sound that began quietly and got louder as they moved in closer and closer.
“Join……Ussss” “Joinnnn…..Usssss”
My momentary sanity regained from before when I thought my danger was a human source, had fully snapped now. I remember pausing briefly and rubbing my eyes as if to check that I was truly seeing what I was seeing and even now I doubt I truly did. Then my stupor broke and I screamed and turned and ran as fast as I could, my tired body struggling to respond and still losing blood fast.
I willed myself faster than I ever moved before and rushed into the back room and slammed the door closed and grouped around for the cabinet I slammed into before and pushed it slowly and painfully into the door blocking it and praying the things would not be strong enough to dislodge it.
There was a brief quiet and then the door and cabinet began heaving as a crashing pounding sound resounded outside. I knew I didn’t have much time so I brought my cell phone back out and turned on the flashlight, it struggled to cut through the gloom but I had to look fast.
I went further into the backroom than before and the awful smell intensified until I saw what looked like another door leading to some sort of office or vestibule.
I pushed on and almost wretched at the foul smell that seeped out when I threw the door open and then I saw it. Human skin, viscera, and other body parts splayed out on tables and shelves, along with fine gears sewing thread, and plaster mold of arms faces, legs, and torsos. Savage rusty tools of the surgical variety and also of the blacksmith and tailor lay around the canopy of human and mechanical detritus.
Blood and a strange oily black substance stained the walls, tables and in some cases even the low ceiling in the place.
The horror and revulsion of the site almost made me pass out again, there were bodies in various states of transfiguration, as if this place had to be some sort of hellish flesh tailor that was creating these abominations. The same creatures that were even now trying to break the door in the other room down and likely do the same to me.
I frantically looked around the nightmare operating room and saw the glint of something that I hoped might be the key to the gate. It was on a small corkboard near where a gruesome sight lay splayed out on the table nearest to it.
The table had what appeared to have a head lying on it, with closer inspection I saw it had a human spinal column protruding out of a blank expressionless mannequin head. I suppressed a shudder and moved faster as the bashing of the backroom door intensified.
I reached past the table and up on the wall and did indeed find a strange-looking ornate key which I hoped to God was the key to the gate out of here. But then I felt a horrible realization. I had the key but how would I get back to the front of the store when those things were out there attacking it from that side and trying to get in here? I would have to go through them to get out, I thought hopelessly.
Then I heard a thunderous crash and knew they had toppled the large cabinet, then a splintering sound followed and I knew the door was breeched. I panicked, there was no way out I thought. I heard the droning voices again and the shambling clattering sound of metal and bone and sinew grinding together in a nightmare parody of human movement and sound.
In my blind desperation, I shut the inner door but nothing was available to barricade it. I knew I was going to die, but then I saw something and almost laughed in my panicked hysteria, something I wished I had seen before.
What I saw was a small red handle that indeed upon closer inspection appeared to be a fire alarm.
I remember laughing to myself madly even as the things threw themselves at the inner office door. I reached out and grasped the handle just as they began breaking the door apart and the shrill fire alarm blared into life peeling its thunderous warning. “Someone had to come now” I said out loud to myself and looking down at the deep red stain of blood on my undershirt.
I took one step to try and move and I fell forward on my face, my comfortable new coat falling around me like a blanket as I passed out of consciousness again.
I woke up about 12 hours later in the hospital and I was told I was raving and screaming about mannequins and lashing out to the point I had to be sedated while my stab wound was treated. Apparently, I had been found by a mall security guard in the morning, on the ground near the technical corridors leading to the store’s back rooms. The man was shocked I had not bled to death with how bad my wound was but he called an ambulance and I made it to the ER where I was stabilized.
When I did regain consciousness I was questioned by the police about what actually happened and I told them the more believable portion of the story. I told them about the women the worker at “The Proud Tailor” and how she had stabbed me and I was forced to defend myself and then I blacked out after losing too much blood and had pulled the fire alarm just before to try and get help since I was stuck in the store.
The two officers looked confused and traded a few words with each other in a whisper and then asked again if I was sure that was what had happened. I was worried they might think I had murdered someone or that I was lying, but that was not what they took issue with.
The sergeant in charge of this investigation was puzzled because as he said “There is no store called the Proud Tailor in the mall you were been found in” He continued saying “There does not appear to be any record of any business licensed under that name in this state”
I was reeling and I stammered out “That can’t, that can’t be true, I know that’s where I was, I was stuck there all night!” I almost started screaming about the mannequins the body parts the possible mass murderer who operated that shop but checked myself and felt that they already probably thought I was some drug addict or madman who they found covered in blood alone in the mall after doing God knows what.
I thought if I continued on about this I might be arrested, so I fell back into my bed and told them I felt like I was going to throw up. They left after taking my statement but I knew they would likely be contacting me again.
I would have to stay here for a few days recovering but I asked for a small journal so I could write down some of what I remembered, but in truth to help examine some of my confused thoughts and record this message I am writing now.
I feel like it’s the only safe to write down the full record of what happened and as I write I began wondering if it was all just a terrible dream, but when I asked for my cell phone and personal effects I was told my phone and wallet were missing all that I was found with was the clothes on my back, which apparently also included a long elaborate overcoat with fur trim.
My stomach dropped when I saw the coat and I thought I might pass out again. I knew then, that I hadn’t been dreaming.
As the reality of the situation struck me like another blow to the head, I had an idea. I looked down at the collar on the coat to see if maybe there was some store name on the tag to indicate the real existence of this phantom store I had been trapped.
I thought maybe then with the tag as proof it existed, someone might believe my story. Instead, I saw a message that will haunt me forever, one which will ensure I never sleep soundly again, even if I were to burn that coat and never go outside again.
The tag had no store name, no price point or barcode, hell no washing instructions. No all it had was a small message written crudely in black ink or was it something else? All that was written on it was simply the phrase “We will see you soon”