Heaven Gilded Zarcroft Hybrid

Twenty Three

Suddenly, Jamie sped over to us, holding two empty shopping bags. His hair was frazzled, and his smile wide.

He kicked his foot against the floor. "Hey, guys! I found my old skateboard! And my old clothes! Well, they look like them."

I squinted. "W-what skateboard?"

"Right here!"

He pointed to the ground.

"O-Okay, well, I found my old baby shoes," I said. "But we have to buy them now."

"Wait... I just bought these, though." Jamie held up one of the bags. "Wouldn't an alarm go off if I didn't?"

"How much did you pay for an empty bag?"

"Like, sixty bucks."

A piercing siren went off at the front doors, blinking red. Dorothy screamed!

Shoppers walked all around us, flooding the store. Bags covered the ground. Their chatter piled on the siren.

Cynaline covered his ears and dropped to his knees.

People shoved each other, pouring into the department stores. Kids shouted at each other, with adults grabbing them and pulling them to safety.

All shoppers must purchase their items before closing time.

"Where do we buy it?" I shouted.

"Let's just get out of here!" Dorothy hollered, and bolted towards the front doors. But they didn't slide open.

She pounded on the glass, and searched for any locks.

The sky outside was pitch black, dotted with stars.

"Go back to the stores and buy everything again!" Cynaline's voice drowned. He clicked something on his teleporter and vanished.

I thought about doing the same thing, but the map was incomprehensible to me. But I soon wouldn't have a choice.

A sudden shock went through my body and I shut my eyes.

⚝⚝⚝

The floor vanished beneath my feet. People looked like crawling ants. And the stacked balconies resembled an abyss to the epicenter.

My breathing skipped.

I hung from the mall ceiling, half a mile from the ground.

My hand gripped onto a rail that separated the panes of glass forming the dome. I didn't remember grabbing it.

The floor... the hard, tiled floor. The balconies were too far away to jump on.

I still held the teleporter in my trembling hand.

"Cynaline!" I shouted. "Dorothy! Hey!"

I stared down at the teleporter screen. What if it happened again? It didn't matter. I moved around the map with the scroll ball and mashed the button again, But it didn't work. My heart sank.

I looked down at the floor again. Another beanstalk situation, except there was nowhere to climb.

My head felt heavy. I closed my eyes.

For a split second, everything silenced. I opened them again. The mall was empty; nothing but white walls. The dome ceiling became a flat, white floor. Because it was a floor.

My head pounded again. Not because I feared for my life.

But because I was upside-down.

My feet hovered in the air, like I was doing a handstand. I planted them on the new floor, but I didn't let go of the...

The rail. It turned into a long handle of a steel trap door. I pulled on it, until I realized it had to be slid open, though it was stuck. Or locked.

I looked up at the floor—or ceiling.

The balconies were plain, white platforms with no railing or any detail. The fountain was just a tall, metal box. Everything that wasn't a person was a metal box. I could still see Jamie and Dorothy, talking to each other. And no one else. All of those people were figments of our imagination.

I wrestled the handle, but it didn't budge.

Despite that, I had an idea.

Something shocked my chest again.

The polluted, ringing mall shot back to life. I still hung from the ceiling. But my heart mellowed back to normal. Except for one thing...