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They Live in the Mall (chapter 3)
By SeanArcher
Two more days passed. The water from the hurricane receded and things were getting back to normal. I had had a hard day bringing my stuff back up to the roof and cleaning the lobby from stuff that had blown in over the past few days. Now it was nighttime and I was brushing my teeth in the restroom preparing to go to bed. The water was off so I had to use a cup filled with bottled water. When I finished, I walked down to my theater and closed myself in the tent.
I didn't want to drain the batteries on my laptop so I just sat there in the darkness, thinking. Thinking about what it was going to be like when this was all over, whether I would tell anyone about it in college. I had really come to enjoy staying in the mall, I didn't have any responsibilities or anything, I could just chill out all day. I also thought about the lights I had seen a week earlier, like I did every night. I accepted they were probably spirits. But up until then they were friendly, so I wasn't afraid. It was weird they didn't come back. I hoped I would see them again before I had to pack up and leave.
Pretty soon I was fast asleep. That night I dreamt of something I'll never forget. I dreamt of something dark over-powering me and I couldn't breathe. It was like I was smothering in a blanket. I couldn't see. There was no concept of time, I was just moving around. I also heard a deep, evil laugh. I promise I'm not joking about this. I wouldn't joke about it. I kept hearing it. I still remember it so clearly. It scares me to think about it.
Then I woke up, thinking about the dream for a second. For some reason though, I couldn't feel my mattress under me or my sheets on me. When I put my hand down I felt carpet. I couldn't see anything but darkness, but I knew I was in a wide open area. 'Where the hell am I?' I thought. I know I went to bed in my tent, now I wasn't there. I started getting really, really freeked out and scared. I thought I might have been kidnapped and was locked up in a closet or something. I stood up and walked around. I felt a wall with my hands and walked along it, trying to find out where I was. The whole time my heart was beating and I was panting. When I came around a corner I saw a spec of light and headed for it. I quickly started running towards it, wanting to get the hell out of wherever I was as quickly as possible.
When I got towards it I saw it led out into the mall. I was in JC Penney's somehow. What the hell? I kept running away from it towards the nearest exit. I felt panic run through my body and I just wanted to get out of the mall right away. I ran like hell through the corridors, feeling the world around me spin. I ran around the corner and headed for the nearest door but it was locked with chains. Fuck! I turned and kept running back through the foodcourt and out the theater entrance into the parking lot.
I didn't stop until I reached the end of the parking lot, still wearing only the boxers I went to bed in. I was terrified. How the hell could I go to bed in my tent like always and wake up against a wall in JC Penney's, half a mile away??? I have never sleepwalked in my life. I don't remember anything about being moved. I was asleep the whole time. Someone had to have moved me without me waking up. I remembered the dream I had. The thought of a ghost or something carrying my body is still fucking terrifying.
For a long time I just stood out in the parking lot, afraid of being even that close to the mall. The days of me staying in the mall were definately over. I didn't want to spend another second in that damn place. I knew there was something in there. Whatever it was, it wanted me gone.
All the fun times and plans I had for the next few weeks suddenly came to an end. The adventure was over. I was going to have to rent an apartment afterall. Luckily I found a good apartment in Toronto, Canada over the internet and I had kept all the info on it with me in my wallet, in case I had to leave suddenly.
My heart was still beating. I had a big decision to make. In the end I decided to go to Toronto. It was a dissapointment, but I was just too freeked out to stay in the mall another minute, much less another month. Every time something happened it got worse. At first it was a feeling, then a noise, then my stuff disappearing, then I actually saw it. Then, it physically moved me in the middle of the night. What would happen next?
I decided that that day I would leave... leave the mall and all the memories behind and head for Toronto. But I still had to find the courage to go into the mall one last time...
8/7/2003 4:29:27 PM
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