𝐃𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐂𝐫𝐨𝐰𝐬

II (Part 1)

Charlie’s pov.
12:08 p.m

    Salem had left around 8:30 this morning after dropping me off at work. He’s probably halfway to his parent’s house; I don’t know why he goes there after all they’ve done. Regardless, I won’t pry; I decided to go to one of the many cafes in the mall. Though this particular one is my favorite. Salem actually introduced me to it when I first started working on a hot topic. And I guess I fell in love with two things that day…
I finished eating, grabbed my drink, and walked back to the shop; the person covering my shift left as I went on with the rest of my day.

[Time Skip]

    It was 9:00pm and I was finishing cleaning up the store. I grabbed my stuff and headed out. Locking up the store as I walked through the mall. Suddenly a feeling in my stomach started to grow as if I were being watched. Thinking it was probably a security guard I pushed my fear aside. I pulled out my phone, rechecking the time, 9:20pm. I went to unlock my phone when it began to grow staticy, heating up so much that I dropped my phone.

“Shit…” I mumbled, bending down to pick it up as I then turned it over. The screen was flickering black and red I decided to leave it as I sighed. 'I guess I have to get a new phone now..'. I began to speed walk, I grew determined to get out. ‘Was this mall always so big?!’.

    That’s when I heard a screeching sound echo throughout the mall. I couldn’t pinpoint where it came from; it didn’t sound far nor close, but definitely in-human. I then heard the sounds of running. Like something or someone was running full speed towards me. This time I could figure out where the sound was coming from…..it was behind me. I began sprinting; I was on the second floor too…great. I heard the screeching grow louder as I tried to find the escalators. There was no easy way in hell I was going to take the elevators. I saw an escalator called ‘Out of Order’. ‘Fucking great. Oh well,' the lighting in the mall began to flicker rapidly. I ran down the escalators and I skipped a few steps along the way. I continued to sprint across the bottom floor of the mall. Leaping and swerving through all the stands where candy, toys, and t-shirts are sold.

    I began to hear more than one pair of footsteps after me, it felt like dozens of them. So I ran faster, my lungs and throat burned, and my heart was beating so fast I thought I would pass out. My legs grew tired but I kept running. No matter how much it hurt I didn’t stop, I couldn’t stop, I won’t stop. The entrance was in view as I ran full speed out the door, making it maybe 20-30 feet outside before collapsing on the floor. Turning back to gaze at the entrance…nothing, Not a single damn soul. Was I growing even more crazy? Not only do I have morbid dreams and that one consistent ‘nightmare’...but they were giving me hallucinations. I sighed as I gathered what strength I had left and pulled myself up, stumbling a bit. I made my way to the bus stop as quickly as my legs and body would allow. The bus arrived shortly after he got there.

    Still on edge from that weird hallucination. I paid the driver as I sat all the way in the back near the window. The backlights of the bus were dim as the lights in the front flickered. I took my headphones out of my bag, connecting them to my iPod as I clicked on my rock playlist and looked up through the window. I sighed, this is gonna be a hell of a ride.

3rd pov.

[Timeskip]

    The further the bus drove from the city, the more and more woods he saw. He boredly stared out the window until something caught his eye. A red slightly covered light from within the thick trees. He squinted his eyes as he realized the light was moving at the same speed as the bus. A gigantic wave of anxiety washed over his already worsening nerves. He turned on his phone, only now realizing it was back to normal. Though the whole ‘people chasing him’ might’ve been a hallucination. The phone burning him was in fact 100% real, leaving surface burns on his right hand. He checked the time..10:03 p.m. He’s still twenty minutes away from his apartment; at least he wasn’t on the bus alone. There was the bus driver, an old woman and 4 teenagers on him to keep him company. He slowly closed his eyes as he tried to drift off to sleep. As he then shot up to the horn of the bus, beeping loudly as jolted up. He looked to the front of the bus as the driver was screaming, swerving the bus right as he fell off my seat and onto the floor, hitting his head on the pole.