The Mall
I wrote this story a year ago and wanted to incorporate pictures of the mall I was thinking of in question but was discouraged by the pictures I got, which were livelier than I anticipated. I'll include a few at the end. In the meantime, here's
THE MALL
It's in a town you can't remember the name of. Not a crowded town, it's more of a nook in comparison to a city. You're unsure of what the name of it is; you know that it has a one-story mall strip that was once bigger than it is today, full of a vibrant energy you can almost see dying within the walls that failed it. Today, the mall...if you can call it that... consists of a driver's license center, an adjacent arcade with three or four games and a gumball machine, a small candle store and an independently owned Ross's next to an unfinished cigarette store. The mall still sees business from Monday 'til Saturday, 10 in the morning 'til 8 in the evening, although the license center-- the reason the mall still sees business-- closes at 5 every day the way the mall would on Sunday.
Today is the first time you've been to this mall, however. You were supposed to take another permit test after having failed the first time. It happens. You arrive five minutes too late, however, thanks to a highway construction site and are unable to take the test as originally planned. No matter. Tomorrow's another weekday and the license center isn't just gonna get up and leave overnight.
You've time to kill now, so you walk down the once-bustling corridors filled with memories and food and sales that are no more. You start at Ross's. Normal store, though this is a knickknack store you have to bring your own bag into. You're not keen on buying anything today and you don't need anymore knickknacks or clothes, so you walk on along the corridor of faded prosperity.
You note a water fountain in the corner near the closed and locked bathrooms. You step up to it, noting the foul stench coming from the untended bathrooms. You see a large wad of chewing tobacco in both the drain and spigot of the fountain. You try to press the button but nothing happens. You shrug and walk on. You note that half the lights inside this mall are in need of a repair you don't see anyone doing in the near future, if at all.
First store you see on your left is that candle store, owned by two conservatively dressed women in their 50s. You imagine they must be selling enough candles to keep afloat. You imagine how cheap it is to lease a place here, then assure yourself that it'd be a waste of money no matter how big your ambition. You walk still.
The first of at least twenty abandoned stores altogether comes up on your right, almost adjacent to the candle store. Judging by the marks left behind atop the entrance, you surmise that it was once a KB Toys. A faint feeling of nostalgia moves past you as you eye the former toy store. It wasn't big nor was it small. It was appropriate, to say the least. As you turn to walk forward, you swear you could see a small child near the store counter out of the corner of your eye.
Second abandoned store, this time a former pretzel shop on your left. Small, but served its purpose at the time, you're sure. Was this a pretzel shop or a deli, though? Was this something else? You don't know. What you do surmise is that it sold food. You can almost smell it now.... the dough being kneaded and twisted into a pretzel shape, salt added and delivered right into your mouth. You can almost taste it. It's almost as though this store still existed. The moment you notice, though, is the second the aroma and taste vanish. Nothing but air.
Third store coming up. Whoever had once owned this left desks behind, presumably empty. Mortgage company, maybe. Probably moved to something wider. When you turn to look away, you hear an echo down the hall.
"FIRST RATE!!," yells a voice sounding like it came from within this place...? You check around...you see a group of nerd teenagers near the arcade. You assure yourself that it was one of them you heard. They certainly knew how to throw their voice, you remark to yourself.
The fourth place, the one of two on each side of the driver's license place & arcade adjacent, is walled up. Whatever it was, no one seemed to want. You walk past the dweebs in the arcade, the license center and the sixth abandoned store, which was walled up like the fourth. No Man's Land number seven comes up on your left. Get ready for more nothing, you think aloud to yourself. This one has a lone sneaker within its gated entrance. Odd. This store is one of few you see a "For Lease" sign upon its gates with a number to call. Stranger yet. This is the last store the sun outside illuminates; the rest of the mall, which eerily looks longer than you first noticed, is lit by malfunctioning lights, growing darker and darker the longer the corridor stretches. You're sure that there's an entrance on the other side, you tell yourself. You try telling yourself that you're just not feeling up to par today, that these...strange...observations are just fever-induced paranoia or something. "Maybe I just need a little sleep," you tell yourself.
The apparent need for sleep is exacerbated once you look up for a moment and see the corridor ahead covered in blood and bodies for a fleeting moment. You rub your eyes and look again, only to see a barren hall with nothing there. The hall of abandoned stores you saw before and nothing else. You contemplate leaving so you can get some sleep, but your curiosity calls out to you, begging you to just give the rest of the place a quick glance over just for memory's sake. You yawn and silently comply, unable to let things be. You walk towards abandoned store number 8.
You feel relieved when you see a security guard sitting on a bench adjacent this once bustling....Foot Locker, you assume. He was old, but he seemed calm and of sound mind, safe enough to approach.
"You shouldn't be here," he says once he notices you, "All the stores are that-a-way, the way you came. Ain't nothin' this-a-ways."
You explain to him that you're just killing time and that you wanted to see the rest of the mall out of sheer curiosity. "I don't know why you'd wanna see a big ol' empty space of nothin' for, but if it ain't gated, it ain't my concern," he said, "Don't be doin' no drugs back there!"
You chuckle and assure him that you don't do drugs. He doesn't answer. He turns his attention to the nerds in the arcade instead. Shrugging, you head towards the 9th abandoned store, a corner lot wherein this hallway ends and another begins to the west.
It's not hard to fathom that, given the golden-colored walls and well-furnished wooden counter with glass displays, this particular store was once a jewelry place. Like one other store in the mall, this also had a "For Lease" sign. You wonder who the hell would want to lease a place like this. Your curiosity about this place leads you back to the security guard, asking why certain stores had "For Lease" signs where others didn't.
"Well, they're the lots for sale. I dunno what to tell ya," he answers, "The ones with the signs are for sale and the others ain't. That's all there is to it."
You ask why the lots not for sale are so. "That ain't my department, young'n," he says, "But best you leave things be." He then turns his attention back to the nerds at the arcade. You shake your head and head back over to the former jewelry store.
Before you turn the corner, you hear what sounds like nearby gunshots. You dart your head every which way but see nothing, no indication of anyone or anything outside of what you've already seen. What the hell was that? Are you going insane? You start to visibly worry but still your curiosity gets the best of you and keeps you from simply walking away as the guard suggested. You move onward.
You never return.
THE MALL
It's in a town you can't remember the name of. Not a crowded town, it's more of a nook in comparison to a city. You're unsure of what the name of it is; you know that it has a one-story mall strip that was once bigger than it is today, full of a vibrant energy you can almost see dying within the walls that failed it. Today, the mall...if you can call it that... consists of a driver's license center, an adjacent arcade with three or four games and a gumball machine, a small candle store and an independently owned Ross's next to an unfinished cigarette store. The mall still sees business from Monday 'til Saturday, 10 in the morning 'til 8 in the evening, although the license center-- the reason the mall still sees business-- closes at 5 every day the way the mall would on Sunday.
Today is the first time you've been to this mall, however. You were supposed to take another permit test after having failed the first time. It happens. You arrive five minutes too late, however, thanks to a highway construction site and are unable to take the test as originally planned. No matter. Tomorrow's another weekday and the license center isn't just gonna get up and leave overnight.
You've time to kill now, so you walk down the once-bustling corridors filled with memories and food and sales that are no more. You start at Ross's. Normal store, though this is a knickknack store you have to bring your own bag into. You're not keen on buying anything today and you don't need anymore knickknacks or clothes, so you walk on along the corridor of faded prosperity.
You note a water fountain in the corner near the closed and locked bathrooms. You step up to it, noting the foul stench coming from the untended bathrooms. You see a large wad of chewing tobacco in both the drain and spigot of the fountain. You try to press the button but nothing happens. You shrug and walk on. You note that half the lights inside this mall are in need of a repair you don't see anyone doing in the near future, if at all.
First store you see on your left is that candle store, owned by two conservatively dressed women in their 50s. You imagine they must be selling enough candles to keep afloat. You imagine how cheap it is to lease a place here, then assure yourself that it'd be a waste of money no matter how big your ambition. You walk still.
The first of at least twenty abandoned stores altogether comes up on your right, almost adjacent to the candle store. Judging by the marks left behind atop the entrance, you surmise that it was once a KB Toys. A faint feeling of nostalgia moves past you as you eye the former toy store. It wasn't big nor was it small. It was appropriate, to say the least. As you turn to walk forward, you swear you could see a small child near the store counter out of the corner of your eye.
Second abandoned store, this time a former pretzel shop on your left. Small, but served its purpose at the time, you're sure. Was this a pretzel shop or a deli, though? Was this something else? You don't know. What you do surmise is that it sold food. You can almost smell it now.... the dough being kneaded and twisted into a pretzel shape, salt added and delivered right into your mouth. You can almost taste it. It's almost as though this store still existed. The moment you notice, though, is the second the aroma and taste vanish. Nothing but air.
Third store coming up. Whoever had once owned this left desks behind, presumably empty. Mortgage company, maybe. Probably moved to something wider. When you turn to look away, you hear an echo down the hall.
"FIRST RATE!!," yells a voice sounding like it came from within this place...? You check around...you see a group of nerd teenagers near the arcade. You assure yourself that it was one of them you heard. They certainly knew how to throw their voice, you remark to yourself.
The fourth place, the one of two on each side of the driver's license place & arcade adjacent, is walled up. Whatever it was, no one seemed to want. You walk past the dweebs in the arcade, the license center and the sixth abandoned store, which was walled up like the fourth. No Man's Land number seven comes up on your left. Get ready for more nothing, you think aloud to yourself. This one has a lone sneaker within its gated entrance. Odd. This store is one of few you see a "For Lease" sign upon its gates with a number to call. Stranger yet. This is the last store the sun outside illuminates; the rest of the mall, which eerily looks longer than you first noticed, is lit by malfunctioning lights, growing darker and darker the longer the corridor stretches. You're sure that there's an entrance on the other side, you tell yourself. You try telling yourself that you're just not feeling up to par today, that these...strange...observations are just fever-induced paranoia or something. "Maybe I just need a little sleep," you tell yourself.
The apparent need for sleep is exacerbated once you look up for a moment and see the corridor ahead covered in blood and bodies for a fleeting moment. You rub your eyes and look again, only to see a barren hall with nothing there. The hall of abandoned stores you saw before and nothing else. You contemplate leaving so you can get some sleep, but your curiosity calls out to you, begging you to just give the rest of the place a quick glance over just for memory's sake. You yawn and silently comply, unable to let things be. You walk towards abandoned store number 8.
You feel relieved when you see a security guard sitting on a bench adjacent this once bustling....Foot Locker, you assume. He was old, but he seemed calm and of sound mind, safe enough to approach.
"You shouldn't be here," he says once he notices you, "All the stores are that-a-way, the way you came. Ain't nothin' this-a-ways."
You explain to him that you're just killing time and that you wanted to see the rest of the mall out of sheer curiosity. "I don't know why you'd wanna see a big ol' empty space of nothin' for, but if it ain't gated, it ain't my concern," he said, "Don't be doin' no drugs back there!"
You chuckle and assure him that you don't do drugs. He doesn't answer. He turns his attention to the nerds in the arcade instead. Shrugging, you head towards the 9th abandoned store, a corner lot wherein this hallway ends and another begins to the west.
It's not hard to fathom that, given the golden-colored walls and well-furnished wooden counter with glass displays, this particular store was once a jewelry place. Like one other store in the mall, this also had a "For Lease" sign. You wonder who the hell would want to lease a place like this. Your curiosity about this place leads you back to the security guard, asking why certain stores had "For Lease" signs where others didn't.
"Well, they're the lots for sale. I dunno what to tell ya," he answers, "The ones with the signs are for sale and the others ain't. That's all there is to it."
You ask why the lots not for sale are so. "That ain't my department, young'n," he says, "But best you leave things be." He then turns his attention back to the nerds at the arcade. You shake your head and head back over to the former jewelry store.
Before you turn the corner, you hear what sounds like nearby gunshots. You dart your head every which way but see nothing, no indication of anyone or anything outside of what you've already seen. What the hell was that? Are you going insane? You start to visibly worry but still your curiosity gets the best of you and keeps you from simply walking away as the guard suggested. You move onward.
You never return.
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