Mall Ghosts

eighteen

Even though the mall had trapped us inside, I couldn't deny that the view was beautiful. Everywhere you walked, you could see a clear, starlit sky through the atrium glass.

But then reality shook me.

Because a woman just died inside of this glass pyramid of stars. After that, I remembered nothing but pandemonium. There was screaming, shoving, curses left and right. Meanwhile the security guards were doing their best to calm everyone down and absolutely failing at it.

As for me, I was frozen to the spot, staring at London Graham's crumpled body and severed head. Until someone a lot heavier than me told me to get out of their way and pushed me to the side. Mercedes must have been caught up in it too, because she screamed and fell against me. The only thing that kept us from hitting the floor was Sean moving just in time to buffer our fall.

"Watch it!" he shouted heatedly at the stranger, but it was pointless. Everyone was shoving everyone. There was no order whatsoever.

It was situations like this when freak accidents happened. People died getting trampled or something similar. I could tell by the looks on everyone's faces that no one was thinking about helping their neighbor get to safety. It was every man, woman and child for themselves.

"Stay close to me, Aqua. Bring your friend. Come on."

I didn't ask questions. I simply grabbed Mercedes' hand and tugged her along with us. As Sean confidently guided us through the frenzy of people, I was surprised by how much of Mercedes' breathing I could hear over my own. On the other hand, my breathing was normal. So was my heart rate.

How the hell was I so calm?

In the background, security guards were screaming instructions at everyone. I glanced back to see that many were hesitating. It was clear that they wanted to listen. People wanted someone to tell them what to do.

And maybe that was why I wasn't losing my shit at the moment. I had Sean. As cryptic as he was, I knew enough about him to be sure that he knew the ways – or should I say, the whims – of this mall better than most.

"W-where is he taking us, Aqua?" Mercedes wheezed once we had put some distance between ourselves and the crowds. "The security guards said–"

"Look." Sean came to a stop. "Do you want to be up all night? Or do you want a safe space to wait this out? Because if it's the latter, then you should keep up and save your questions for later."

Mercedes clamped up. She shot me a desperate, confused look. There was no way she trusted Sean. Not after seeing her boss's head fly off when she had tried to vacate the scene.

I let go of Sean's hand and asked if he could give us a minute. All I got was a hard look from him before he turned his back and crossed his arms. I knew I didn't have long.

I pulled Mercedes to the wall where a pillar blocked our view of Sean.

"Tell me why we're following him again?" Mercedes said, sounding more like her normal self, but still very shaken up.

"I think he's taking us to the arcade where he works," I said, realizing that we were on the path to the Final Dungeon.

"And you trust him?"

I nodded.

"Ok. I get that. I respect that, but," Mercedes hooked her thumb over her shoulder, "all my stuff is back there. And what about London's other models? They don't know where I am. London and her assistants promised our parents that we would stay together and–"

"Are you girls all right over here?"

We turned to see a middle aged woman carrying two pillows under her arm. I vaguely recognized her, but I couldn't remember from where.