Trouble in Tiltown

The thing in the mall

After we ate and caught up with Elouise, Kat and Jerrick left us in my bedroom.
"You can stay the night if you want, I'll let you sleep on my bed and I'll take the floor." I offer her.
She smiles softly, "Thank you." She thanks me as I hand her a knitted blanket. She hovers the blanket over her body until it caresses her curves. She smiles as the comfort sets in.
"Are you doing okay?" I questioned her for the fifth time or so. Her eyes darted down to me as she her lips shrugged.
"I'll be good, for now anyway." She stated. I wondered what she had meant until my eyes were to heavy to be opened anymore and soon was met with the sleep that I so desperately needed.

"Come on, get up!" Elouise yelled at me as I felt her hand wrap itself around my wrist, pulling me upwards.
"What's the big idea?" I croaked, fluttering my eyes open.
"I wanna explore some places in Tiltown." She explains as she sits on the edge of my bed, attempting to calm herself down as I attempt to wake myself up.
"There's nothing in Tiltown," I scoffed at the naive idea.
"Liar. You and Jerrick explored everything here, so, take me." She insists. My eyes widened at the confidence she held against me.
"Well, can I get dressed first? I'm not exploring in my pajamas." I asked as she rolled her eyes, leaving my room. Dragging my feet to my messy closet, I change into whatever I spotted first and left out of my home with Elouise.

As my hands rub against the leather steering wheel that already started warming up, I eye Elouise looking out the window towards the woods.
"What're you thinking about?" I inquired her.
"How long I was stuck in the woods. Not being able to tell anyone that I was okay until I knew it was safe to do so." She admitted to me, not losing sight of the woods.
"I'm sorry." I responded.
Feeling her gaze land on me suddenly, she began a new topic with me.
"So, what's the exploration location?" She asked with a widening grin.
"Uh, a mall. It's right outside of the town and it's been abandoned for some time now." I answered.
"Oooh, spooky." She singsong before giggling.
"Why is it that you want to suddenly explore? Shouldn't we be focusing on helping this town?" I asked.
"Why help a town that has never helped us?" She paused as she studied my face, noticing the seriousness in it before speaking again.
"Besides, we're wasting our younger years doing what our older years should be doing. Let's act like we are young, because we are." She sighs gently. Every time she spoke, she always had to say something that caused me to think about for hours on end.

As we pulled up by the front doors, we studied the state of the old mall. Broken windows, doors busted, and items broken across the ground. We leave the car and walk across shards of glass as they crack underneath our feet. As she wanders up the second floor of the mall, I make my way into the shops on the first floor. My eyes wander all around, spotting red dripping graffiti on the wall, it read, "Trouble in Tiltown will get the best of us. Don't ask, don't wonder." I chuckle at the writing, seems to me that everyone here has lost their mind. However, my amusement stopped abruptly by a high pitched scream. I make my way out of the shop and sprint up to Elouise who stood as still as could be.
"What is it?" I questioned as I walked up behind her. Instead, she buried her face into my chest to hide her eyes from the unfortunate sight in front of us. A small, deceased dog. It appeared it might've been lost and gotten attacked by something violent.
"Come on, let's go down." I say as we walk together to the first floor. As we head towards the front doors to the mall, A loud scurrying is heard from the second floor.
"What was that?" Elouise whispered. Her eyes slowly met with my eyes that were too focused on the absurd noise coming from the top floor.
"We need to leave, but quietly and slowly." I whisper back. We hold onto each other firmly as we backed up into the doors, not breaking sight of the mall in front of us. While we continued taking cautious steps back into the doors, Elouise stepped on a shard of glass in which made a crack sound. Her head darted up to me, as a plea of help.
"Don't move." I whisper to her. Her eyes became glassy with fear, however I couldn't be there to comfort her at the moment as I was too busy keeping ourselves safe from whatever was lurking. Suddenly, something scampered across the second floor once again, except this time, we saw it. For just a second, I saw it. Whatever it was. It's skin appeared grey and the ribs revealed themselves. The legs were long and skinny with claws, which is what we kept hearing.
"Please, let's go." She whispers. We continue backing up as as our backs were met with the warm breeze, we began running into the car. I sped out of the parking lot, not caring what is heard by us now.
"What was that?" She yells as she lands her hand flat on the dashboard, her body turned toward me.
"How am I suppose to know?" My shoulders shrugged.
"That thing was not human. Did it kill that poor dog?" She whimpered. The dog.
"That looked-that looked like West's dog that he lost!" I stuttered with surprise.
"Oh no." She said weakly. My eyes glanced back to her, her eyes down and her eyebrows furrowed with sadness.
"We shouldn't have gone-
"No, it was my idea." Elouise interrupted. She sits back in her seat with a heavy sigh as she places a hand on her forehead while she looks out the window. As silence settled in the vehicle, I decide to turn on the radio.
"Hello listeners of Tiltown. It's been a while." West's voice comes over the radio. What was he doing?