My breath was wrapped..my nerves freaked. I checked my watch again. It was almost 1 AM...that seemed right? But what had happened earlier? Why had the time changed like that? I sat down trying to steady my shaking hand. I need it to keep my head straight. I wasn't going to let this place get to me. I pulled out the list again reading through the remaining rules.
Rule no. 8: Lock the security office door between 4 AM to 4:30 AM and do not open it for anyone. If they knock, they might not be the person you think they are. Check the cameras to confirm.
Rule no. 9: If you hear someone crying from the dressing room...Do not open the door.
Rule no. 10: If you hear an escalator running, do not investigate, watch the area on the security cameras.
Rule no. 11: Under no circumstances you should leave before your shifts ends; if you leave before, If you do... you risk something following you outside the mall.
I let out a nervous laugh "what kind of job had I taken... who had written these rules?" I couldn't make sense of any of it, but as I sat, they're the weight of everything that had happened, pressed down on me. The mannequin, the time-shifting the figure in the mirror that wasn't normal, whatever was going on, I needed to survive the night.
It was past 1 AM and I needed to go for another round as much as I wanted to stay.. locked in the security office. I knew I had to follow the security protocols also, the cameras showed nothing unusual so I gathered my courage and stepped back out into the mall. As I walked cautiously through the main hallway, I started hearing something...a faint mumbling, coming from an abandoned store, my blood ran cold as I remembered Rule no. 5...stopped in my tracks, heart pounding in my chest. The mumbling sound coming from the abandoned store was quite audible over the faint hum of the mall's air conditioning, but it was unmistakable, there was someone or something talking inside, forced myself to move my feeling like lead. Rule no. 5 echoed in my head... if you hear someone talking inside an abandoned store, do not listen I tried to block out the sound telling myself it was just my imagination, but the soft and comprehensible persisted growing louder, the closer I got to the store. A glance at the glass door front, the windows were covered with paper; blocking any view of the inside my breath hitched, as I quickened my pace, refusing to even glance in its direction, I didn't want to know what was behind those paper or what was causing that sound? The voice was rising now clearly, but still distorted like someone talking underwater, I had to get away, I made it past the store, refusing to look back, the voice began to fade, and I felt the tension in my body is slightly weighed. But as I turned the corner and entered the next corridor I heard it again... footsteps, but not normal footsteps. They were rough uneven, like the dragging sound of something solid scrapping against the floor almost like wood or plastic.
My stomach twisted, I knew what it was before I even turned around. It was the mannequins my instincts screamed at me not to look back, remembering Rule no. 3. If a mannequin look like it's following you don't look back. If you ignore them, they will stop. If you look, they'll know you are aware, and they will get closer. I walked faster, keeping my eyes straight ahead, trying to ignore the growing sound of the mannequins.... movement behind me each step it took seemed heavier more deliberate. My heart raced as the footsteps grew closer, but I didn't dare turn around, just keep walking, just walking, I told myself the sound of the mannequin movement crew fainter, and eventually I could no longer hear it.
I let out a breath I hadn't realised I was holding and slowed my pace. My hands were shaking but at least I had followed the rule whatever was following me had stopped for now. Then I heard something else.
The distant hum of machinery. An escalator running, I froze the blood started draining from my face Rule no. 10. If you hear an escalator running, do not investigate. Watch the area on the security cameras. I turned on my heel and bolted for the security office. I wasn't going to risk breaking another rule, especially after what I had just been through, my mind raced as I rushed back down the hallway past the now, quiet abandoned store and towards the safety of the security office. I could hear the escalator in the distance that unmistakable mechanical wire, but I didn't stop I burst into the office, slammed the door behind me and looked at my breath came in short, reached gasps. I immediately turned my attention to the security monitors flipping through the camera feeds. The escalators camera came into view and it was a figure. It wasn't a person, not exactly, it was something else. The figure was tall unnaturally tall, its legs long and spindly its face covered with shadows. It was standing on the escalator.. it's body stiff and choky, moving in slow unnatural movements as the steps carried its upwards.
I stared at the screen frozen in place, my mind raised blank to process what I was seeing. The figures had turned slowly as if sensing something and then instantly it looked straight at the camera.. straight at me. The monitor started flickering static filling the screens, loud buzzing sound filling the room, I snapped my eyes away from the camera. I remember the Rule no. 1, don't stare at the footage for too long. The buzzing sound stopped almost immediately. And when I glanced back at the monitors, the escalator was empty, the figure was gone I sat back in my chair, my body trembling, I couldn't do this anymore. My head were spinning and the rules.... those damned rules were starting to feel like a Cruel game designed to break me. I just had to make it through the night.. just a few more hours I told myself. The next hours passed in silence. I stayed in the security office I kept glancing at the monitors, watching the empty hallways. The still stores, the escalator that reminder remained motionless now. Everything seemed calm, but the air in the office was thick with tension, when I heard something that send a cold wave off breakdown of peace, a knock at the door I jumped my heart leaping into my throat. I froze my eyes darting towards the security monitors to check the hallway outside the office. There was no one there, but the knock came again a sharp creek against the door as if someone was standing just outside And then I heard a voice, "Hey, how's the night going... still think the rules are funny".
It was the janitor or at least it sounded like him. I swallowed...my heart remembering Rule no. 8: Be in the security office store between 4 AM at 4:30 AM. Do not open it for anyone. If they knock, they might not be the person you think they are. Check the cameras to confirm. I glanced at the clock. It was 4:03AM, heart pounded in my chest as I checked the camera feed again. The hallway outside the office was completely empty. But the knocking continued more insistent. This time, janitor's voice echoed through the door sounding friendly. But somehow off.
"Come on, open up. I will tell you what's really going on here". I stood frozen my hand hovering near the doornob. My mind raised it sounded like the janitor but I knew better than to trust my instincts. At this point I check the camera again. Still nothing the hallway was empty. I couldn't open the door I wouldn't.
The knocking stopped suddenly. Silence filled the office again and I let how to shake keep breath. I kept watching the camera not daring to move until finally, the janitor appeared on the screen. He was standing right outside the door now. Staring straight, into the camera, he knocked again. His face twisted into an eerie grin. And, my stomach drop the way he was seeing into the camera. It didn't seem human. His body started to waver, like he was made of smoke, and then slowly he dissipated into the air, leaving nothing. Cut an empty hall. I check the clock 4:30 AM. Whatever it had been, it was gone now for the first time and hours, the air felt still. The oppressive weight that had been hanging over me seemed to left. If only a little I could feel the tension easing from my shoulders though my body still felt like a coiled spring. Ready to snap at any moment. I stood up my muscles aching from being hushed over the monitors for too long. I need it to stretch my legs. Move around if only to shake off the lingering trade clung to me like a shadow after, everything that had happened. I wasn't keen on doing another full patrol, but staying in the office felt stifling. Maybe a short walk just around the immediate area of the office word help clear my head.
The mall was still deadly. Quite the faint hum of electricity only sound that echoed through the corridors. The florescent lights flickered radically, casting long distorted shadows that seemed to shift as I walked, I kept my eyes down, trying not to focus on the mannequins. The stores are eerie silence that had settled over everything. As I moved towards the corner near the security office, I nearly jumped back. The janitor was standing there, leaning casually against the wall with that same friendly grin he had the first time we met. It was the real janitor. This time, at least I hoped it was he seemed more human, more tangible than the strange apparition, I had seen earlier the night.
"Rough night?" He asked his voice light almost teasing. I don't know how to respond. I stood there, my mind racing as I tried to reconcile what I had seen earlier and the figure dissolving into mist, with the man standing in front of me now, "you could say" that I muttered, trying to keep my voice ready. He tilted his head his grin fading slightly, "you followed the rules, didn't you?" "I tried", I said, my throat dry.
"What is this place? Why are these rules even a thing?" The janitor let out a low chuckle, but it wasn't the friendly warm sound. It had been earlier in the night. This laugh was hollow taste is something darker. "I told you the rules are there to keep you safe". He said his eyes narrowing. "There is more going on here. Can you understand much more?"
I took a step back... my unease growing with every word he spoke. "What do you mean? What's going on in this mall?" He shut the grin returning to his face.
"You'll figure it out, or maybe you won't either way. There is no escaping it". He started to walk away, turning down the dimly light corridor without another word, his movements were slow deliberate, like he wasn't in any rush to leave. I couldn't let it go I needed to know what he was talking about. I needed answers.
"Wait...." I called after him, my voice echoing down the empty hallway, "what do you mean no escaping it? What are you trying to say?" The janitor didn't stop. He kept walking his footsteps early quiet against the tiled floor desperation and frustration bubbled up inside me, and before I knew it, I was following him determined to get some kind of explanations....around the corner after him. But when I got there, the hallway was empty. He was gone again, my heart pounded in my chest, as I stood there, staring down the empty corridor there was no way he could have disappeared so quickly.